Quzqo Goes Solo

Mon Oct 25, 2004

I had tried to organize another trail ride yesterday afternoon, but apparently other people are pussies who didn't want to brave the overcast sky, light drizzle, and temps in the low 50's. Wah wah wah, we can only ride if it's blue sunny sky, wah wah. Phooey!

So, thankfully I'm at a stage now that I felt safe taking Quzqo out by myself (Yes, had my cell phone with me)... It had rained very heavily the day before, so I couldn't use the round pen to get the piss & vinegar off of him (flooded), couldn't lunge him in the indoor arena, as it too was flooded (no roof on the barn!!!), and the outdoor arena was also flooded. So...something I'd NEVER have done with Tezlu (in his younger days)...I just tacked Quzqo up and hit the trail!

He was in NO mood to go out by himself, and was lollygagging, dragging, swerving, balking, meandering, oozing backwards, just about everything BUT walk in a straight line away from the barn/other horses, but between my heels and Mr. Whip, we eventually made it up to the dirt road that leads to the State Forest trails. He was VERY tentative up there, as there's a large collie mix that runs loose..but she's as old as the hills and can barely bark...he wasn't too worried about her, just being Alone I think.

A car came by and passed us slowly, he was fine with that. Made it down the hill and into the woods...he crept along, looking at everything but where he was going...almost went into a couple of trees, he was so busy rubbernecking, LOL! We had one spook incident (I scarce would call it a "spook", more of a "startle"), over WHAT I don't know. We crossed the paved road all right, THAT was a worry spot for me, as when we rode with other horses, he would try to barge across the road to catch up, never mind if a car was coming. Nope, he stood patiently while traffic went by, waiting for my cue to proceed, good boy!

He did startle at some distant gunshots, and jumped when we saw a large dog up ahead on the trail...looked like a Blue Heeler to me, but it was moving away from us, and kept on going. Fine with me!

When we got to the long, flat open dirt road, we got some good trotting done...he was ready to expend some of that energy of his! That boy CAN move when he wants to...the rest is just downright laziness I'm sure! When we got to the end of the road, we did a little backing up (three steps!!!) (I had a noseband on him, that may have helped since he couldn't gape his mouth wide open to avoid backing), turned around, and headed back. You can bet his pace quickened. I even got him into a VERY nice canter (right lead...I'm trying to remember to cue him with either leg...Tez NEVER wanted to canter on his right lead, so I was used to automatically cueing for a left lead), and I can't hardly express how WONDERFUL it was to ride a soft, balanced, CONTROLLED canter...with loose reins even!!! (and a SNAFFLE!!). Tez was a wonderful soul, but by God he was hell on hooves when it came to that third gait!! It was SO nice to not fear for my life, and just enjoy (ENJOY) a lovely canter! Now he wasn't lopin' along like a WP Showhorse, he was doing a pretty good clip, but still, at no time did I feel like I lost control!! I was surprised that I had to ask him to slow down when we got near our turn-off...considering the last time it was a chore to keep him GOING (but I had run the P&V out of him before that trail ride...he had the energy this time!)

A very uneventful ride, gone maybe 4-5 miles round trip I think...and despite the clouds and the drizzle, the Fall colors were BEAUTIFUL (this past weekend was supposed to be "the peak" for this area)...those wussy saps who didn't go sure missed out on a treat!!

He was pretty sweaty when we got back, but his fur is about an inch long, ready for Winter. And yaaaawning, LOL, he was plumb tuckered out, poor boy! Good, he needs it!!

Wish I felt better today, it's a beautiful sunny WARM day out, perfect for a trail ride...but then, my luck my boss would be driving down the road and see me riding or something, LOL!

More Mindless Adorations of My Horse

Sun Oct 17, 2004

What WON'T that horse do???

All this talk about bitless bridles and riding with halters got me inspired, and since Quzqo was acting very "I don't wanna do anything" this afternoon (I think it's the weather...high of 40, constant rain & wind, the horses were inside all day), I snapped a pair of split reins to his halter, and rode him thus!

He did VERY good, but I didn't notice any additional "softness" or rounding compared to riding with the snaffle...his stops were just as nice, his steering was just as bad (lol)...but it did help remind me to use my legs and seat more than my hands...he's getting real good at responding to leg and seat bone pressure lately..thank goodness!

Tried backing him, and the first time he tucked his head and backed right up two steps!! Huzzah! But that was a fluke, because from then on he wasn't having anything to do with it and was acting a big a dork as if he had a bit in his mouth...raising his head, refusing to back, hollowing his back, resentfully stepping half a step MAYBE, LOL. Eh, we'll work on it.

BUT...the Big Thing...CANTERING! Yes, I got him cantering!!! A sharp jab with the outside heel, inside rein lain across the neck, shift the weight, and away he goes! He got so worked up with the repeated cues that he started taking off without me asking him to, LOL!! Not bad with no bit!

Now I'm wondering if I should buy a bitless bridle...Hmmm....

It got more interesting when we went outside (40 degrees, 20 mph winds, light drizzle) for a quickie trail ride. I use a 5 gallon bucket as a mounting block, got up on him, he started moving and knocked the bucket over, flipping it right-side up...and promptly (don't ask me HOW) stuck his right foreleg IN the bucket! We stood there, the horse with a leg in a bucket...calm, quiet, not the least bit concerned. I moved him forward, he stepped OUT of the bucket and away we went! LOL!

Wish someone had a camera, that woulda been a picture!

And yes, Quzqo is STILL an Arabian. Hard to believe some times!

I did get him cantering out along the fenceline for a couple hundred yards! Uphill...Okay, I did chicken out and put his bridle on for the trail ride, he was having a little trouble slowing down with the halter inside, call me timid, I won't deny (okay, how about "cautious", that's a better term)

My farrier was at the barn, working his horses, and complemented (in a left-handed fashion) about what a nice horse Quzqo is...this is the guy who called Tezlu "The Old Turd" mind you...guess Quzqo has been perfectly angelic with him as well, for trimming & shoeing...good to keep on the farrier's good side after all!

Oh, yes, his lameness of yesterday had disappeared...thank goodness!

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!!