A Bad Day

Wed Sep 29, 2004

Haven't shared any Quzqo tales lately, mostly because I haven't been doing anything with him the past week or so. The shoe on his forehoof was getting looser and looser, so I didn't want to ride him. The farrier is coming out Friday, so I figured just let well enough alone, he'll last 'til then.

Tonight I go to the barn after work, get to walk out to the pasture to get Himself...happily he was heading in towards the barn, so we met half way, he gave me a nice welcoming whinny (!!). Automatically I glanced down at his forehoof...the shoe is gone! Oh, great...BUT...all the nails were still in his hoof! When Tez pulled his shoe off, the nails tore right through the hoof (taking chunks with it)...surprised me that the nails were still in the hoof like that, with the nasty sharp clinches sticking up, grrrgh!

I automatically give the horse the once-over when I catch him, taking advantage of the good light outside...just a habit I picked up with Tezlu...was NOT pleased to find **8** fresh, bleeding wounds on my boy!!! A big abrasion on his left shoulder, and the other 7 wounds on his right side, starting at the shoulder, elbow, armpit, and three in a row on his flank. They're like 4-6" long stripes, nothing that needs stitches, but had been bleeding...but they were definitely done this afternoon! GRRGH! Can't imagine what caused them, they reminded me of like wire cuts or something, but the pattern made no sense. Tez had a similar injury on his hip years ago, it never did heal back right, so he had a ridge there for the rest of his life (a "brush stroke", lol!). C'mon, it's a 30 acre pasture, I couldn't imagine Quzqo got in a tussel with another horse with all that room. But none of the wounds looked like toothmarks (owning Tezlu, I got REAL familiar with what horse bite marks look like) (i.e. he got bit, not me, LOL).

All I figure he was doing SOMEthing, stepped on the back of the loose shoe, tripped himself, ripping the shoe off and taking a tumble. He was limping slightly, but that could also be due to his left leg being shorter than the right one (with the shoe gone). Boy, was he obnoxious as hell though...you can't ignore that horse, he just gets SUCH a 'tude!!! Bob, the barn owner, was nice enough to remove the nail clinches for me when I brought the horse inside, so those sharp metal bits are gone...just hope Quzqo doesn't do any more damage to himself 'til Friday.

So he got well-doused in Betadine. I've got some Blu-Kote, but didn't think big blue spots on a white horse would look that great, LOL! Luckily none of the injuries are where the saddle or cinch would go, so once he gets retreaded he's gonna get WORKED!

Why are there so many effing stupid people in the world!

Sat Oct 16, 2004

I left Quzqo tied in the aisle for 30 seconds while I went into the tack room to look for the Show Sheen...I hear a BIG loud commotion thundering down the stairs to the arena part of the barn...I come out of the tack room into a crowd of about 8 teenage girls, who HELPfully informed me my horse had just gotten himself tangled up in the arena railing...had gotten a foreleg up over the 2nd rail! If he did that, it was probably because you FARKING MORONS came tromping and hollering down the farking stairs!!

So, now Quzqo is lame...rode him a little bit, his hobbling on the forehand gave me SO many memories of riding Tezlu...*sigh*. He probably (hopefully) pulled a muscle or something, rearing back and up and flinging his leg over the rail. Will give him a couple days' rest I guess.

Farking Morons.

Quzqo's Big Adventure

Mon Sep 13, 2004

Yesterday (Sunday), Quzqo had his First REAL Trail Ride! Some past trail riding acquaintances trailered their horses over to the barn (amusingly, I could not get any of the boarders interested in a nice, organized group trail ride!!! Go figure!!)(losers!!!), and thus in the company of three huge QHs, Cusco got his first taste of the Michigan Shore-To-Shore Riding & Hiking Trail (y'know, in all my years, I have NEVER met anyone actually HIKING that thing?).

Two of the QHs were 4 yrs old, so he wasn't the baby at this time. He did ***SOOOOOOOO*** good (as I suspected he would), tagging along 2nd-to-the-end...no problems on the dirt road, no problems in the woods, no problems on the flooded two-track (he walked right through the big puddles without any problem, the QH baby behind us danced and pranced and finally took his rider for an adventurous trip up on the high banks of the road, LOL). He went down the steep hills, across the wooden foot bridge (okay, he did JUMP up on it and JUMP off...it was a whole 8" tall after all). After the bridge, the trail goes up a rather steep hill, which had become VERY erroded since I last rode up it (which probably was back in early 2003 I think)...Quzqo just dug his feet into the soft dirt and chugged up the hill, eventually trotting up after the other two QHs in front of us!

The trail we took was pretty hilly, and believe me, it was SO nice to be able to have a horse I could just drop the reins, give him his head, and let him pick his way down the steep hills...Tezlu did the best he could, poor old guy, but with him I'd dismount and lead him down steep hills, to make it easier on him, and to avoid him tripping). Quzqo just scampered right down those hills with no problems at all (yeah, okay, he's also 21 years younger than Tez was at the time, LOL!). There was a HUGE soupy mud pit in the middle of the trail in one swampy area...deep sucking mud, fetlock deep...the QHs in front of us just hop-trotted through it. Not Quzqo , he JUMPED the damned thing, LOL! Note to self: when jumping in a sport saddle, it's better to lean forward, not backwards!

More hills to go up, in loose sand, winding trails, eroded cutouts...the QHs took off cantering, Quzqo took off cantering! LOL, yes, at long last, my horse is CANTERING!!! He did very well, we did more cantering on that trail ride than we've done in the past 3-1/2 months!! Heck, once he even cantered on the flat, trying to catch up to the QHs in front of us! Very comfy canter, I'm looking forward to it!

No great adventures, although the friend riding behind us on an obnoxious young QH enjoyed a nice bucking fit from her youngster who resented being held back...she was so proud that she was able to ride it out, considering last fall that horse bucked her off and broke her pelvis!! That horse also tended to annoy Quzqo, who was forever pinning his ears...until "Tres" got too close to his butt, and Quzqo let him have it with both barrels, er, hooves! Yep, kicked him right in the chest! Surprised ME, and Tres began kicking and bucking! Goofy thing! Looked like Quzqo hit him right in the big QH type leather breastcollar though, no harm done, but Tres sure gave Quzqo his "space" for the rest of the trail ride! Well, he IS "Emperor Kuzco" after all, and should be respected!!

3 hour ride, approx. 10 miles! Quzqo's fur is about 1/2" long, (winter's coming!) and you bet he was a disgusting sweaty MESS! For the first time, I think he enjoyed getting hosed off! Considering how much he was yawning that last mile home, I bet he slept good last night!

He only shied once (I'd barely even call it a "shy", more of a "veering"), at a sign. However the OLD QH in front of us did most the spooking (stumps, puddles, brightly-lit ferns), LOL! Sure was strange to NOT have at least one explosive display of spookiness. Nope, Quzqo just sort of took it all in stride, didn't mind the motorcycle (no dirt bikes, thank God!!!), the golf cart, the cars & trucks, the wild recliners in the bushes, the boat landing, the running water...just another day at the office!

I don't think I'm up to more than one marathon trail ride a month, but sure going to try to get together a shorter, "calmer" ride without so much jumping involved for this weekend! And kudos to the Bob Marshall Sport Saddle Company, even after 3 hours in the saddle, my butt was comfy, my knees were fine, my hips totally pain-free!! My riding companions could barely walk after dismounting from their Western saddles, heh heh. And 'twas a secure ride too, didn't even lose a stirrup during one of those wild rides up the steep hills, jumping the washouts and dodging trees!

And yes, I wore my helmet!

My legs are kinda sore today, but that's from spending 6 hours weeding the perennial beds on Saturday!

Gettin' There

Wed Sep 8, 2004

Gettin' There!

Mr. Q. got to go on a trail ride with BillyBob the Corgi tonight! He did great, didn't spook or try to kill the dog or anything, didn't even get upset when we started trotting, and Billy was running right on Quzqo's heels, yapping away! Oh, little Fats got a workout all right (er, the dog, not the horse), about a mile up and down hills on those fat little legs of his, LOL! Quzqo did quite well, in fact he was almost frisky, hard to believe; breaking into a trot all on his own more than once, surprised me for sure!!

Big achievement came when we returned to the barn, and before dismounting I tried some of those flexing exercises...he tucked his head immediately, and with a little more pressure, backed up a whole step without any dramatics!!! We did it two more times just to make sure! Hoorah! It'll just take time (I did take my draw reins to the barn, just in case)

Poor guy got wormed tonight, he didn't take it as well as the first time. In fact he spat out a good 1/4 of the dose (luckily there was more wormer left in the tube, heh heh), got it on the floor, the wall, the lead rope, and my arm! Well, the honeymoon is over as far as wormer is concerned!!

I can't find his blue ribbon from Sunday!!! I found his 5th place rosette on the floor of the barn aisle...I hope some kid didn't steal it off his stall, GRRR!

And the mare who impaled her butt on Sunday is doing well, took them 3 hrs to stop the bleeding, she's swollen up "back there" and on antibiotics, but saw her wandering around the pasture tonight, so hope she gets to feeling better soon!

Monday, Bloody Monday

Mon Sep 6, 2004

No rest for the wicked, or the Reserve Champion! I tried my darndest to get together a trail ride for today, even emailing people from the barn, and putting a sign up yesterday...but not 30 seconds after I brought Himself into the barn, the skies opened up and it RAINED and RAINED and RAINED...just stopped a little while ago, about 4+ hours later, GRRRRGH! Needless to say nobody showed up for any sort of trail ride...Fine, just one day I'll go so stir-crazy, I'll take him out on the Shore-To-Shore alone, he'll kill me and then won't they feel bad! Harrumph!! (JK!!)

I will try again for next weekend, probably all those teenagers were worn out from their horse show, but I'd think people who weren't into showing might have been interested. The barn owner said if he's around, he'll ride out with me during the week, probably dragging along plenty of potential horse buyers like he does, LOL, that'd be nice.

Instead we worked indoors, the arena is 2/3 its normal size due to all the temporary stalls still up from the weekend, but Quzqo and I worked on backing and flexing and some trotting. Got him to back 1-1/2 steps!

We did manage a quickie trail ride around the perimeter of the property between rain showers, and he did pretty good, even with the 30 mph wind gusts making the trees creak and rattle!

However, when we got back to the barn, we found one of the families there crowded around their elderly pony mare in the aisleway, which was puddled with blood!! Apparently the mare SOMEhow got a big (like 1" diameter) puncture wound just right of her vulva! It was deep, and it was bleeding...the Mom was having a devil of a time keeping pressure on it, because the towels kept getting soaked with blood....course being a holiday, they couldn't get ahold of any vets, just their Services. I found my vet book (I forgot I had it, dealing with a healthy young horse all summer), but all they recommended was keeping pressure on it and calling the vet. Duuuuh.

The mare seemed unaffected by the whole thing, patiently standing in the cross-ties while her people took turns pressing on her buttocks. They were at it for well over an hour, with the blood still dripping through the saturated rags...but we thought it was finally subsiding. (the dripping)...the stuff has to clot some time! It was dark, veinous blood, so that's good I guess, not the bright arterial stuff. There's SO many big vessels in that part of the horse, and so close to the surface...wouldn't take much to make 'em bleed. When Quzqo got his West Nile Virus booster in that area, he bled pretty profusely, shocking the vet, who blamed it on him being a "delicate Arabian", yeah, right. Well, true, he doesn't have a big fat ass like some of those QHs that jiggle when they walk, LOL!

That poor mare though, she's 29, barely has any teeth, but gamely toted tots in Lead Line this weekend. I know it'll ruin the vet's holiday, but I hope they heard back from one, I had to leave before I found out how it all came out. To top it off, that Mom has a Trakehner filly who also suffered a puncture wound THROUGH a leg tendon a couple weeks ago. If I were her, I'd be out walking that pasture & figure out just what's going on!!

I need the name of a good contractor....

Sun Sep 5, 2004

I need to hire someone to do some remodelling, mainly to make the top half of the door to Quzqo's stall bigger, to accommodate his SWELLED HEAD!

RESERVE CHAMPION PLEASURE TYPE HALTER!

Whoooooo!!!

Okay, okay...I'll admit...there was ONE entry in Pleasure Type Mares (a Walkaloosa filly about 8 months old), ONE entry in Pleasure Type Geldings (Quzqo), and then a fat pinto Hunter type Pony from the Pony class, that made up the Showback for Champion. The fat Pony took Champ, and Quzqo took Reserve, which at least means he can beat a weanling! LOL!!!

Done showing for the year (as far as I know) 'til next Spring/summer (good, maybe now I can find someone to go on a friggin' trail ride with me!!!)! We didn't do too horribly yesterday...placing 5th out of 5 in the Pleasure Type Gelding Halter (the show had been invaded by a DOZEN gorgeous "Class A" circuit TWHs, so there were 4 glowing palomino TWHs against one bony little grey Arabian, not fair!!). BUT it was also his first time (as far as I know) in a RIDDEN horse show class, i.e. Green Horse Pleasure! I didn't have time to practice much, got to ride him around the arena twice while everyone else was warming up...worse than driving in rush hour traffic, LOL (didn't help that there was the barn owner's granddaughter (4 yrs old, going on 40) careening around on her horse, not paying any attention to the traffic pattern).

But when our class came up, there were three other "green" horses in there (I know for a fact one is an 8 yr old Off-The-Track TB)(another one was wearing a Kimberwicke...Hmmm), which was perfect. Unlike Tezlu, Quzqo does his best when he's following another horse (Tez would always want to be in front, which is hard to do when you're riding in a circle!) (maybe he was a
NASCAR driver in his previous life, who knows!). Unfortunately the horse we followed, a small palomino QH, was violently spooking at EVERYthing, which got Quzqo worried, thankfully all he did was shy a little at the In-Gate as we came around. He trotted SO nice, lots of speed to him (wonder where THAT came from!), he stopped, changed directions, we had nice transitions between walk and trot, I remembered to post on the correct diagonals. Of course in the line-up, we had to back...LOL! All I managed was a good display of a resistant horse (he was a total snot yesterday, I think he was pissed I put baby oil on his face)...the judge just told me to "work on that", LOL! No shit, lady.

The TB wouldn't back either, but he didn't spook, so maybe that's why he got 3rd. We placed 4th, over the palomino that was spooking every time the announcer said anything on the loudspeakers! Not bad though, considering it was Quzqo's first time in a ridden class!!

Today I totally forgot to put the baby oil on his muzzle, maybe that's why he was in a better mood, or else he was tuckered out from yesterday! But he did better in the Halter, despite being the only entry. He set up for me, didn't doze off, and wasn't as wiggly and belligerant as yesterday (I swear, he kept cocking a hind leg just to annoy me!).

Unfortunately today I spent too much time doing his mane (a LOVELY Continental Braid ala "Palomar Elite", got complements on it too!), and trying to get ON him (don't use Show Sheen/other silicone coat polishes on the SADDLE area of the horse), and having the saddle slip off (I fell on my back once...so technically I've now fallen off the horse, LOL!), by the time I got down to the show arena, the lunch break was over and the arena closed for warm-ups! So I had to just go right into the class...oh goody! Only three entries today (the spooky palomino was not in attendance), and while Quzqo didn't spook, he did quite a bit of swerving and corner-cutting. But, when the judge (an amazingly brusque and Drill Sergeant-like judge lady!!) asked for us to stop and back 5 steps (no more, no less), I miraculously managed to get Quzqo to step back one whole step!! Good Boy!!!!

Apparently the TB wasn't able to back at all, or else the judge was so bedazzled by Quzqo's continental braided mane, but we ended up placing 2nd!! I had to pick my jaw up from the arena floor, LOL!

Quzqo was glad when I was done bugging him, first thing he did when I turned him loose was to drop right into the dirt and GRIND it into both sides of himself and the back, rolling and rolling and rolling, like "to hell with you and your show sheen!!", LOL! Then a big long drink, then GALLOP out to the pasture before sedately walking along out over the horizon. Goofy boy!

I might go back this evening to bring him in & watch the Western classes, if they're still going on. This judge today is really zipping through the classes, but then, there's also fewer horses than yesterday (thankfully those TWH's didn't come back! Else we sure wouldn't have a nice Res Ch
Rosette on our stall door!).

Nobody Said Beauty Was Easy

Fri Sep 3, 2004

Poor Quzqo, all in the unglamorous stage of being a beeeyooootiful show horse! I think my main problem taking him into Green Horse Pleasure will be keeping him MOVING! LOL!

Gravity is a Harsh Mistress

Wed Sep 1, 2004

I haven't ridden English since last Fall, I'd forgotten how comfy my huntseat saddle is! (just a synthetic jumping saddle, bought in Wisconsin in 1995 at a used tack sale for $135.00). Cusco didn't seem to mind it either (it was one of the saddles that Tez could tolerate with his achey withers/back too). I also put Tez's English Show Bridle on Quzqo (adjusted to the smallest it would go), and he looked good in it! We did some walking and circles, some softening and backing (okay, one step, but still...), then some trotting, and he did pretty good...kinda sluggish because he'd had his dinner and figured his day was over, so he did as little as possible, LOL! With the help of Mr. Whip he got movin' though (I just have to carry it, don't have to do anything else!).

Luckily riding and posting doesn't bother my knee, it's only when I get off that I hobble around, ha! Gravity is a harsh mistress (--"The Tick")

Anyway, we rode outside and into the outdoor arena, which has been harrowed in preparation for the show this weekend. He got a little spooky over some lawn chairs by the rail (outside), but other than that, did very well, and got him trotting a couple times all the way around! THAT is an achievement for Mr. Lazy-Butt! We might be able to actually do the class this weekend!

I have a black w/white trim saddle cloth, which looks very sharp with his grey coloring...think I'll do his mane up in a French braid too, didn't see anything that fancy done at the previous shows around this area. Considering how wacky the green horses acted the other weekend, I think we might do all right (hopefully he won't start bucking like that one green Arabian, LOL!)

Better stock up on Motrin!