2010 Speckle Update

It's that time of year again!!!!

Remember 2009:

And now, the 2010 version:

Not a whole lot of change. I guess now that the legs are pretty much white, that's it for anything dramatic until one day those speckles on the shoulders fill into a nice bloody shoulder.


The right side, 2009:


And the right side in 2010:
The right side seems more speckly overall. And his Redneck Trail Horse bridle path is growing out so nice, I think by Christmas it'll be as long as the rest of his mane (1" a month seems to be his hair growth rate)

Until next year!

Bucked Off Back Into Love

It's been 11 days or so since I got bucked off, and I can ALMOST walk without pain, the bruises and scabs are fading, the rope burn on my finger is scabbed over nicely, why, there's almost no limp, almost!

Managed to get out to check on the horse only a couple of times because, well, it hurt like bloody hell to walk or bend over to pick up a curry comb or brush, and let's just say Quzqo hasn't been my most favorite horse in the world recently.

Yesterday I stopped by after work, and enjoyed a 3/4 mile hike out into the pasture to catch him and bring him back to the barn, my sciatica was singing "Ave Maria" in a not-nice way by the time we returned, but I was able to ignore the pain by fixating on the amazing 3-4" long bloody scrape/cut Quzqo now sports on his left fore knee!!

Can't say when that happened, probably that morning, judging from the cleanliness of the wound, and the amount of dried blood encrusted on the front of his cannon. But it didn't look deep, it was dry, no swelling, no limp (lucky horse), so I washed off the dried stuff while he bent down and mashed his goobery wet horse lips into the top of my head.

Today I stopped out, feeling much better sciatica-wise, and happily he was close in by the gate, so no hike up and down the hilltops. The leg was pretty much unchanged, and while I bent down to poke and prod, I felt those big, warm, goobery wet horse lips nibbling on my good work shirt on my back..

He's been acting like a sad puppy these past two days, maybe he is in pain (welcome to the club, buddy), but he's back to being that Quzqo I fell in love with on Day One. Mr. Pocket Pony, all sweet and cute and nibbly (I know, nibbling is bad horse manners), arching his neck and peering at me through his forelock with those big chocolate brown eyes...I melted like a starlite mint on a hot summer day.

He's back to being my Big Ole' Guy, my Cutey-kins, my Mr. Cute-iful. He didn't mean to throw me into the hard packed gravel driveway from a height of 6 feet, causing me 11 days of constant pain, no, and I gave him a big hug, careful to keep my feet away from his hooves, and making sure nothing was around to make him spook and throw me into the wall. He's my horse, and though others may think I'm insane for not selling him and taking up a safer pasttime, like hang gliding, I don't care. He's my boy!

I Kill You!!!

Haven't ridden Quzqo very much these past few weeks, it's been too frickin' HOT, and one thing I've found as I get older; discomfort isn't all that it's cracked up to be. Sweating to death in blue jeans and leather boots while sitting astride some 102 degree furry beast in 90 degree weather no longer appeals to me, neither does the resulting blisters in tender bits of my anatomy, and other accompanying rashes and discomforts.

So we've pretty much just pottered around the barn property, but only on cooler days (say, low 80's), riding the property line, which is a nice 20 minute ride or so, with opportunity to canter, trot, spook at sparrows, and confront scary Belgians.

I've driven Quzqo a few times, but that's not the same as riding.

So this weekend the weather was perfect, I actually had time, and even rested all morning so I'd have the energy to actually take Himself for a real life bona-fide Trail Ride off the property for the first time in a month or more!!

Quz was unusually mellow, temps were in the mid-70's, I thought he'd be more energetic with the cooler weather, but no, he was happy to just plod along as I led him in from the pasture. Since we were going off the property, I pulled out all the stops: trail saddle, breast collar, bear bells, and since they'd mown the hay next door, I used his bitless bridle (otherwise he'd be diving for the grass and I couldn't do a thing about it with that bridle).

Our ride started out slowly, he was just dragging along, doing all he could to avoid leaving. I tried to tell him that the longer he took to walk away from the barn, the longer he'd BE away from the barn, so it'd be to his benefit to actually walk FASTER!

The neighbor behind the property now has an antique hay mower parked right by the edge where we ride, I don't know if that was deliberate, or just a coincidence. Of course Quz wanted no part of it, but we took a 20 yard detour around the thing and once past he was back to dragging along like he was 21 instead of 12.

We didn't go anywhere too exciting, just our usual route down Fewins Road, up Reynolds, across Bronson Lake into the State Forest where they'd done logging last year. There were still massive piles of logs along the two-track, but it was nice to see the green shoots emerging from the stumps. Nature will find a way!

We did a fair bit of cantering, trotting, met a couple of dirt bikers puttering up the trail, made it to the little stream I love, turned around, cantered and trotted back, Quzqo was near golden perfection, such a wonderful sweet lope, why he couldn't ever manage that in a show ring, I'll never know. We cut through the woods that had been logged this Spring, and thankfully the local rednecks had cleared the cutting debris for their ATVs, so we could ride that trail once again.

Saw a deer skull picked clean by Nature, made a mental note to come back for it another day when I have saddlebags.

Contentedly we made our way back towards the barn, stopping to feast on some alfalfa, or for the horse to take a pee, just admiring the scenery and fresh air and lovely day, and congratulating myself on having such a wonderful time, despite my earlier reservations.

We were walking up the hard dirt and gravel driveway to the barn, I was thinking about where to stop to dismount.

Quzqo EXPLODED into a spectacular BUCK and I flew out of the saddle like a jack-in-the box!

I had time to think "this is going to hurt!" and SLAMMED into the concrete-hard dirt of the driveway, knocking every bit of wind from my lungs. The pain was indescribable, not that I could have described it, as I was trying very very hard to breathe, but couldn't. It might have been 15 seconds before I was able to inhale at last, and was too busy concentrating on how freaking much PAIN I was in to more than glance up at the horse, and saw him standing by the open barn door, looking at me.

I managed to roll over onto my stomach, as my left hip was aflame with pain, and tried to breathe. Within seconds I heard gravel crunching behind me and an SUV pulled up. An older couple got out and came to my assitance, apparently grandparents of one of the boarders (this day was Fair day, and everyone was at the fairgrounds with the horses, and that girl had forgotten her western bridle). They helped me up once I determined nothing was broken (believe me, I know what THAT feels like), and we watched Quzqo wander into the barn, down the aisleway, and into his stall, where the man reported he was eating his grain.

Gee, thanks Quz.

I managed to shake off the shock I was in, found I could walk as long as there was a wall to lean against, we got the horse untacked and the tack put away, I shuffled slowly to my car, and as I drove home could feel my butt swelling by the minute.

Let's just say I now have a deep purple bruise the size of a Medium Pizza on my left butt cheek, and very sore everything else from hip to neck. Nice deep abrasians on my left elbow where I landed, and a huge rein-burn on my right hand. Oh yes, and new and exquisite forms of pain whenever I move.

Don't know WHY he exploded like that, my guess is maybe a fly bit him someplace ultra-tender. I've owned that horse for over 6 years now, and NEVER EVER had he done that. Needless to say MY confidence is shaken to the core, it'll be a while before I can physically ride, never mind the mental obstacle now in front of me.

And why do I keep falling off onto hard painful surfaces. Just once I'd like to fall in a deep fluffy snowbank!

I'll see if I can't hobble out to the barn tonight to check on Quz, he was a filthy sweaty mess when I left him, but I didn't really care, he could rot in his own filth as far as I was concerned at that point.

It's important to trust your horse, and him trust you. Let's hope I can overcome this.

p.s. And yes, I was wearing my helmet. This is the PERFECT example of why you should ALWAYS wear a helmet when you ride, because, well, you never know what will happen!!!

Take That, You Maggot!

Back when I first got Quzqo (back in 2004!), I was delighted to find out he was easier than anything to paste worm. Ole Tezlu, my previous horse, was nigh impossible, he'd literally hide his head in the corner of the stall (I can't see you, you don't exist), I'd have to haul his head around, then he'd clamp his lips tight, so I'd have to force the end of the worming syringe in between his iron lips and get it towards the back of his tongue. Then once I squirted the worming paste in, he'd refuse to swallow it, and stand there, lips clamped together, melting wormer oozing from the corners, giving me the stink-eye and sulking.

But with Quzqo, who was young and ignorant, he took the syringe like a dream, swallowed the paste, then had an attitude of "well, now what shall we do?"

But then the barn owner decided they'd take over worming all the boarders' horses, so the horses would be on the same schedule, and that would eliminate the possibility of one irresponsible boarder neglecting their horse, and then spreading worms throughout the pasture. Well, okay, I guess, it's not my barn after all. A couple of times a year an extra $9 or $10 charge would show up on my board bill, which meant Quz got wormed. Okay.

Well, hate to say it, but it's been years since I saw that charge, and I can't imagine (the way things are in this economy) that he'd been being wormed for free. I know that these days people no longer worm every 8 weeks, instead maybe in the spring and the fall, or only after a fecal test. But Quz is getting ribby, and the top of his tail is all frazzled, like they get when they've been rubbing their butts on things to scratch an itch...a classic sign of worms!

So tonight I stopped at TSC and splurged on a tube of no-brand Ivermectin (hey, it was $5 cheaper than Zimecterin, and had the exact same stuff in it, just no ad campaign), and headed to the barn.

I don't know how they'd wormed him in the past. I know how they deal with horses for vaccinations or Coggins tests, and I know the barn owner's impatience with fussy little horses, so I could only imagine Quz being cornered in his stall, having his ear pulled to subdue him, having nasty wormer shoved in his mouth... so I expected a full blown Drama Queen performance this evening!

Surprise is a good technique, so I went into the pasture and brought him to the gate, with the wormer in my jacket pocket. Before we left the pasture, I brought out the syringe, he sniffed it curiously (it did smell good...apple flavored!), but as soon as I raised it towards him, UP went the head, high as he could go, and he started backing away. But hey, we had the entire pasture (maybe 20 acres or so), lots of room, and he's not that tall, so I was able to squidge the end of the syringe into his mouth, and squirt the goo onto the back of his tongue. He made faces and smacked his lips, and allowed me to rub his forehead and pat his neck and heap further praise upon his wonderful Self for being so good!!

I was surprised myself, I was expecting all sorts of theatrics! Maybe Bob hadn't misused him for previous wormings, or maybe it'd been so long he forgot, or maybe he trusted me. But I feel better now that he's full of poison, hopefully killing any uninvited interlopers.

He got a reward of grazing on the two-foot tall grass by the barn while I played with the barn corgis. I probably won't put him on an 8 week rotation of worming, but at least this should clean him out for now.

Law and Order

Looks like it's going to be quite a deal this weekend, the "West Shore Academy" for "Michigan Association of Mounted Police Patrols". All the empty stalls had been cleaned and bedded with fresh sawdust, with little name cards on the stall doors (at least 4 different Mounted Units from 4 different counties so far, I didn't go into the new section of the barn).

There were two gooseneck rigs parked in the side pasture when I drove up, and half a dozen horses running loose in the outdoor arena. I'd tacked up Quz and took him for a little trail ride around the property (his canter is sooooo sweet!) (he had a major spook-fit over two scary ROBINS in the grass). By the time we got back there were two smaller rigs parked in the pasture. I imagine by tomorrow afternoon it'll really be hoppin'!

I heard one of the folks mention "flares" as I rode by...uh-oh.

When I was getting Quz, I noted his pasture is pretty far away from them, with plenty of hills to muffle any noise/explosions/helicopters, so he should have a pretty okay time of it.

Fun to see what-all's going on by tomorrow!

I padlocked my tack cupboards just in case....barn full of strangers you know. Of course they're supposedly law enforcement, but still...

Punched The Core!!!

Dunno where the title of this entry came from, but it symbolizes obtaining the impossible, reaching the unreachable, punching through the crust of the earth to pierce the very core! Or, in my case, finally scraping up enough intestinal fortitude to do something I've been wanting to do for over ten years now!

Conditions were as perfect as they were going to get: Sunday afternoon. Clear weather. A large percentage of the population away on Spring Break. No tourists, no commuters, no big rig trucks. To quote the bar owner in "The Full Monty", "it's now or never!"

The barn was rather busy this fine sunny Sunday afternoon. The chalk board proclaimed it was "Clean The Barn Day", with free cake for the cleaners (dang, I didn't know about that!). There were people cleaning stalls, sweeping aisleways, brooming cobwebs from the walls, and in the indoor arena there appeared to be a group riding lesson going on. Making things more interesting, the door at the end of the aisle was blocked with a two-wheeled draft horse forecart, and the main arena door was blocked by a tractor.

I planned to drive today, and my normal M.O. is to harness Quz in the cross-ties, hitch him up, then lead him and the cart out the door that was blocked by the forecart. If I hitched him up in the arena, I would lead him out the door blocked by the tractor. A Third option would be to hitch him up in the cross-ties on the other side by his stall, but they were cleaning stalls, and tying the indoor horses up in the aisleways while the stalls were being cleaned.

One option remained....the aisleway "downstairs" where my cart is stored...it opens up into the front parking area, has cross-ties, and is relatively quiet. If it works out, it might be my new method, which would cut out the step of wheeling the cart up the ramp, across the arena, and into the aisleway. Less work for me!

Brought Himself in, the grass is just starting to emerge enough to make it worth a horse's while to actually graze. Quzqo got his 2010 shoes put on this past week, so he was ready to get down to business!

While he enjoyed his Sunday bran mash in his freshly-cleaned stall, I hauled his harness over to the stall, and brushed and partially tacked him up in his stall. Then I lead him out the door, down and around to the "downstairs" portion of the barn, and into the aisleway where the cart was waiting.

We were having MAJOR wind conditions that day, and with the aisle doors open at both ends, we were almost in a wind tunnel. Combine that with the creaks and groans of the building in the wind, being in a New and Special Cross-Ties, to say Quz was a little jumpy would be an understatement.

Got him harnessed up the rest of the way, and once the shafts of the cart settled down on his sides he calmed a bit (mostly because he was no longer able to wiggle side-to-side). Instead he pawed the concrete and tossed his head. "Come ON, let's GO!!"

We burst out of the barn and kept going, I managed to get him stopped before he went all the way to the front pasture to visit those horses. He stood still while I got into the cart, we waited maybe 15 seconds before moving on, and out onto the road!

He was so full of P&V, the day was bright, the wind at our back, after a quick visual check that all the harness parts were buckled to the proper cart parts, I said "Trot!" and off we went, heading south on Lake Ann Road!

Have to admit I was distracted by the neighbor's property across the road when suddenly I saw a commotion to the right, and instantly Quzqo bolted forward and began galloping up the road! While I tried to slow him, I saw the three young horses in the other front pasture (known as "Mexico") galloping along the fenceline, tails flagging, heads tossing, freaking themselves out at the scary Horse and Cart on the road!

Quz galloped maybe 50 yards before I got him slowed to a canter, he was not interested in slowing any further. I remembered John Lyons' advice that you can ride as fast as your horse can run. I can drive as fast as my horse can run, so I let him! He cantered on, a car or two passed us in the other lane, but our side of the road was clear, so why not! At the top of the hill he slowed to a trot on his own, and we continued trotting up to the stop sign at the highway.

Now for over a decade I've had this terror of crossing the highway. U.S. 31 is a major regional highway, still only two lanes, but this intersection has been the scene of many a car wreck, and even a fatality or two. Images of being T-boned by a tractor trailer or RV haunted me. But this day I figured it's the safest of the windows of opportunity. God was smiling on me, the only cars coming were easily 1/2 mile away to the east. But I trotted Quzqo right across the highway to the other side anyway.

He had no desire to slow down... So I let him trot! I was thinking I should have borrowed one of the racing sulkies at the barn, the way that horse was trotting! I was glad he had shoes on his front feet, I was glad the cart seemed to be holding together, I was glad there were no cars to be seen ahead or behind! And on we went!

About half a mile down there's a small hobby farm that is home to maybe a dozen Miniature Horses, a black horse, and sheep and bunnies. The Mini pasture runs right along the road. As we trotted past, the Minis started an adorable little stampede along the length of their fenceline, shocked at the horrific Horse and Cart passing their home! I burst out laughing, and I think that may have spooked Quzqo into a little faster trot! O, to have a video camera, there's nothing more adorable than stampeding Miniature Horses!

At the mile mark Quz petered out and slowed to a walk. That's a lot of energy to expend, glad we got it out of the way!

I didn't have a planned route, my main concern was crossing the highway. Sort of like the dog that chases the car; what does he do with one once he catches it? We came to an intersection of dirt roads... to the west, a long, tempting straightaway to parts unknown. To the east, a long tempting straightaway, with a relatively steep hill down into a swamp, and ultimately leading to my house!!

Another fantasy I've had is how fun it'd be to ride/drive my horse to my house....heck, I'm halfway there! So we headed east!

Down the hill, up a hill, down a hill, down another hill...I'm thinking "crap, he has to walk UP those hills going home!". We passed quite a few homes, most with barking dogs. Down into the wooded swamp, past the "Snow Plowing Ends" sign, past another home with barking dogs. Barking LOOSE dogs.

They came pounding down their driveway and out onto the road...three BIG dogs, barking, stopping, advancing, then they began running after us. One of them I swear was a pit bull or a pit bull cross! Quzqo was tensing up. The lead dog got maybe ten feet behind me when I turned and SMACKED the ground behind us with my whip. The loud POP made Quz jump, but the dogs leaped back like they were hit instead of the ground, and after some hesitation, they turned and ran back to their driveway. Whew!

Bad thing is, we'd have to come back past them!

It was really quite nice down in the swamp, at least this time of year. Probably not so much in July and mosquito season. We almost missed our turnoff onto another two-track that eventually turns into a wider dirt road, past another horse farm, and finally onto MY road!

So many times I've daydreamed how it'd be to ride/drive Quzqo down MY road to my house. Well, this was IT! Have to admit, it was pretty anti-climactic. Kind of dull actually. Quz was content to walk along slower than ever, he'd decided about half a mile back that the drive was OVER and it's time we should be going back (I can tell when this happens, because he starts to veer towards random driveways/side-roads, thinking they lead back to the barn).

And we made it!!


Unfortunately he took us stopping for me to take the photo as meaning we're turning around, and I had a devil of a time getting him moving forward. I figured we had to at least make it to the driveway to be officially "Home". I was attempting to hold him still and call my across-the-road neighbor on my cell phone so she could come out for a vist with the horse, when she appeared on her own, having seen us out her front window!

Quzqo was having NONE of this "stand still and behave" nonsense, and started backing up, rearing, head-tossing, backing us up into a pine tree, but still she managed to snap this portrait as further proof of our achievement!


After a few words, I pointed the horse west, and got him going at another roadster trot, we FLEW away from there, and I figured at that rate we'd be back to the barn in half an hour!

That lasted maybe 1/4 of a mile before Quz pooped out again, and was content to amble along at a human's pace. I wouldn't have minded, except this time we were heading INto the wind. A brisk, 20mph wind straight out of the NORTH. And baby, it was ice cold!!

Eventually we made it back to the swamp, and the trees cut the wind. It would have been enjoyable (I think I found a wild blueberry bog) except for the guy on a ATV blatting around the two-tracks behind us. I kept waiting for him to try to pass, but he kept finding side-trails to go down instead.

We came to where the dogs were, the dogs were off somewhere else, so there was another non-event. Fine with me!

Up up up the hills. Quz did better than I'd feared he would. I explained to him that it'd be dangerous for me to get out of the cart and walk beside him to make it easier, and it's probably just as well I don't understand Horse.

It was pretty much uneventful back to the paved road, other than the amazingly cuttingly bone-chilling blasted wind that would not let up. I had dressed for 50 degrees, but now that it was after 5 p.m., it was no longer 50 degrees, that was clearly evident.

I tried a little experiment as we came to the cross-roads, allowing the horse to choose which road to take to go home. He immediately started turning to the left...the absolute opposite direction of the barn! So much for that idea, LOL!

We made it past the Mini Ranch without another stampede (darn!), but one little Mini pranced and cantered along the fence, whinnying at us as we passed.

Quzqo was not impressed by the rumble strips on the road. We managed to go around them, no way would I want to go OVER them. Talk about a bouncy ride!

And again we were at the highway. Cars were whizzing past as we approached the stop sign. An SUV pulled up behind us. Again luck was with us, as the approaching car was maybe 1/4 mile away, and we trotted across the road and headed towards home!

That half a mile was the longest half a mile in my life! Frozen to the bone, having to pee, hungry, the horse probably tired and sore, the sunlight weakening, the wind never letting up. Heading into the arena (the tractor had been moved from the doorway) was heavenly, with the wind stopping, it felt almost balmy warm in there!

Poor Quzqo was traumatized. His winter fur had been rubbed away under the shafts and breeching, right down the short summer stuff. He was still jumpy and jittery, but not so much that he'd refuse a peppermint!

We arrived back at the barn at 6:10, exactly 1 hour, 20 minutes after we left my house. I'm sure we could have made better time if SOMEbody didn't insist on walking instead of trotting. Maybe in the Fall when we're both in better shape. Have to say, I'm in no real hurry to repeat that trip!!

But at least now I think I'm over my fear of U.S. 31, and look forward to doing it again, and this time, heading into the west to see what we can see!

Quzqo's European "Look"

Too cheap to get my clipper blades sharpened, I've decided that we're going to go for the "European Look" this season. Over in Europe the Arabians are shown without a bridle path, with their whiskers intact. These are known as showhorses. Over here in America, that "look" is known as "Redneck Trail Horse".

By my calculations, we will have a uniform mane length by March 2011!

Let's just hope I don't get bitten by the Horse Show Bug between now and then, because if I do, that will have to be trimmed! Judges just aren't that understanding.