To Blanket or Not To Blanket

I choose NOT to blanket, even though it's a grand total of 8 degrees here today. Going outside is like stepping into a Winter Apocalypse. There are not enough layers in the world to keep you warm. Well, maybe there are, but I do not possess them.

So if I'm all bundled up like a retarded penguin, why is my horse naked? For starters, she has a lovely fur coat, while I have to protect my naked flesh with as much wool, down, and Carhartt as I can.

Whenever it gets really cold or nasty, I always worry about how Cherry is doing and if she's warm enough. And when I go to check on her, she's puffed up like a dandelion and looking at me like, "WTF if your problem?" as my teeth chatter and hands shake. A couple days ago she had icicles in her tail and looked like she was soaking wet. Upon closer inspection, I realized that only the top layer of hair was wet and the under layers were perfectly dry. I scraped the icicles off of her, stuffed her full of hay pellets, and put her back in her snowy paddock.

The first winter up here in the frozen north, she did need a blanket (two, in fact). Being the California baby that she is, she grew a California winter coat, which was only distinguishable from the summer coat by the slightly longer fetlock hair. The first time it snowed, I found her huddled in her shelter and shivering, looking like the equine equivalent of the Little Match Girl. She looked at me like, "What is this horrible place that you've brought me to and when can we leave?" Now she's like, "It's not that cold, you big weenie!"

In fact, the only times she does get a blanket are the fall and spring. It likes to rain here during those seasons, which also coincides with either growing in or shedding out the winter coat. When she's fully haired up, Cherry's fine. If she's not, she gets cold. Thus the blanket.

My blanketing strategy is pretty simple. Blanket as needed. That's it.

I feel sorry for the horses outside now in thin, lightweight blankets. Um, when you smash their hair down with a blanket you have to compensate for that with enough blanket to keep them warm! You try sitting outside all night in a windbreaker when it's below zero! Not too warm now, is it?

Winter is Here!

It's official. I woke up yesterday to find a blanket of snow upon the ground. It was absolutely lovely. The loveliness was enhanced by the fact that it wasn't cold enough to stick to the road, meaning my road (read: giant fucking hill) was clear. Hooray! I still have my highly worn all-season tires on, so this was indeed cause for joy. It all melted by the afternoon, but the morning sure was pretty.

On Monday night we had a massive storm. Thunder and lightning, rain and hail, and 49 mph winds with 67 mph wind gusts. It was almost straight out of a movie. It wasn't so bad at my place, I'm sheltered by the giant fucking hill that I live on, but at the barn apparently it was awful. They put Cherry and her pasture mate in stalls that night since their shelter got ripped apart by the wind and as such they refused to stand in it. Instead they stood out in the driving rain and hail, shivering their butts off. So they got stalls and lots of hay for the night.

The storm did a fair bit of damage around here. The next town over was without power for a few days, and a steel shed my boss has got its doors wrenched off and crumpled up in the yard. On campus the roof of the Beef Center was ripped off. Thankfully the roofs at the barn remained on!

Poor Cherry, she was wound up so tight on Tuesday. She made the very annoying decision of calling to (and answering) the new buddy she'd made the night before. It was still pretty windy and gross outside, and as soon as I got on her, it started hailing. Of course! So now I'm on a super stressed, super nervous horse in a metal-roofed indoor arena while hail comes pelting down. I couldn't even hear my own voice. I thought about getting off, but I decided to stay on and make her move around a bit to try and loosen up. If I turned her out, she'd just gallop around and work herself into a lather. And then be freezing and require blow drying. No thank you to that.

We did a lot of walk, a little trot, and lots of circles. Every little noise made her jump, but fiiiiinally at the end she relaxed. I got a little bit of work out of her once she focused and then we were done. I'm proud of myself too for sticking it out and staying on her, even though she was really high strung and jumpy. Hey, if I can ride her through that, I can ride her through anything.

Winter is Coming

And it looks like it might be another bad one. As long as it isn't as hellish as our first winter here, things will be all good. That winter the university was had a Snow Day, which it NEVER EVER does. That's how bad it was. We'll see.

The point is, I need to figure out what I'm going to do with myself and Cherry this winter. Last winter we kept riding, since for the most part it was just muddy and cold, not too much snow or ice. This winter may be different, but I do want to keep her in some sort of work.

We might be doing a lot of ground driving, since that doesn't involve enough work to actually sweat. The important thing, I believe, is to keep her moving. She doesn't do too much of that in her frozen paddock, understandably, so it's going to be up to me.

Arthritis doesn't take kindly to standing still or cold weather. She'll stay on the joint supplement through winter, but I may try to cut her back in the spring. It would be nice to only feed it half the year. Stuff's expensive.

One thing I am definitely going to devote myself to this winter is researching hoof care. Hopefully hoof growth will slow down and I won't have to keep trimming every other week. So I'm going to use the time to read up on technique and methods. What I do now is so unbelievably basic. Good thing Cherry doesn't have anything majorly wrong with her feet, just bad flares. I want to learn more "advanced" stuff, maybe something different to improve my trimming so that when everything thaws and hoof growth picks back up, I'll have a better approach.

Now For Something Different

Well, not that different. I've posted my musings before on the subject. And the subject is... tattoos!

Yes, again. I can't help it, I love them.

Though now I've decided what I want. There's two in the works, though one will probably (hopefully!) wait for some time. The one I that I want to wait for will be a memorial tattoo for Cherry when she dies. That is not something that I want to happen in the near future, thus I'm hoping to delay that tattoo for several years.

The one I want to get first is something else. I'm not 100% sure of the design yet, but I know where I want it. On my left forearm, halfway down, and on the underside. Not quite the back, but the side that is the least exposed.

Why there? For one thing, I want to see it. I can't see my other tattoos, and that bothers me. So I'm going to get one that I can see. But I don't want it to be immediately obvious and "lookit meeee!" either. So it's going to be small and on the "white underbelly" of my forearm. I'm also hoping to get it in gray ink instead of black, which won't contrast as much with my white skin. I thought about a white tattoo, but most of the ones I've seen look kind of gross. The white doesn't stay white. So gray it is. Gray will also be easier to cover with make-up than black, should I care to hide it for any reason (elderly relatives spring to mind).

The design I'm still toying with, though. That's okay, I've got plenty of time to think about it. No sense in rushing into tattoos, especially arm tattoos. If I do end up getting sick of my other ones, that's fine, I can't see 'em anyway! :)

The one design I keep coming back to for some inexplicable reason is an anchor. While amusing myself by looking at tattoo pics online, I came across a few of Kate Moss and her tiny anchor tattoo on her arm. At first I thought it was an arrow, but it's an anchor. I don't why, but I really liked it. So I drew one in Sharpie on my arm. And I liked it even more. Weird.

At first I was like, uh, it's kind of nautical and "sailor-y". Which of course does NOT apply to me in any way. The closest I've been to sailing is floating up the Delta on my friend's father's yacht when I was about 8. Then I started Googling "anchor tattoo" and found that they're very, very popular among people who are not in the Navy. Encouraging.

Kind of like the ubiquitous butterfly tattoo, but cooler. And not quite so "OMG, another one? You are, like, so original! *eyeroll*" More like, "Cool, an anchor! I like those." Not that social stigma or lack thereof really influences my preferences (I even like butterfly tattoos), but I'm not eager to leap into anything that's going to lead to endless eyerolls and mockery. It's not about fitting in or standing out, but I don't really want something that's been completely done to death.

I tried a horseshoe, and even an abstract circle design (that I ended up hating), but I liked the anchor the best. After 2 hours with the stupid circles (they sounded like a great idea in my head, all symbolic and stuff), I was like, "Damn, I can't wait to wash this shit off. Maybe I'll put my anchor back on." Wait, back up a minute. My anchor? It sounds an awful lot like I've made up my mind without me. Hmmmmm.

It kind of makes sense for me too, in a symbolic way. I've always been a very grounded person, firmly rooted in life and reality. A little too much so for my flightier friends, but whatever. I was also thinking that it would be a good, totally not obvious tribute to Cherry, who has indeed been quite an anchor in my life. But it doesn't have to be just her, it could be anyone and anything. I like that idea. And it's small enough to cover with another tattoo later if it gets ugly.

So my plan is to wear the anchor in Sharpie for the next couple months, definitely through the holidays, and see how I feel about it then. If I still like it, on it goes. In gray! If I don't, no harm no foul, I'll keep looking.

I'm Really Getting the Hang of This

I trimmed Cherry again today, and I'm proud to say that the whole thing took less than a hour! Including scrutinizing her feet and walking her out after, it only took about 50 minutes. This is less than half the time it took the first time! Progress!

One reason it's taking less time now is that I'm trimming every two weeks instead of four or five. It appears that two weeks or just under that is the right time to trim. I base it off of where the hoof wall is in relation to the sole, as I want to keep the wall off the ground until all the flares have grown out. As soon as I notice that the wall is longer than the sole, out comes the rasp.

So shorter trim intervals means there's less there to trim. Today I barely scraped at the seat of the corn, rasped a tiny bit off her heels and re-did the mustang roll. I think next trim it'll be time to back up her toes again, but we'll see.

The other reason things are going faster is that I'm much more comfortable with the tools now. At first, I was so afraid of taking too much hoof off that I barely scraped at it. Kind of like a timid child will barely brush the horse with their legs and whisper "walk" because they don't want to hurt the horse. Well, it's a horse, it takes a lot more than that to hurt them, just like it takes a lot more than one pass with the rasp to damage the hoof. Now I'm more confident and rasping goes much faster.

One thing I've noticed lately is that Cherry's stance has changed. She used to stand with her feet kind of tucked under her body, usually not squared up at all. Now she stands square more often than not, and her legs go straight down to the ground instead of being angled underneath her.

That was a big realization for me, and now I look for it. Sometimes she stands funny just for the heck of it, but most of the time she stands square now. I also note how some of the other horses stand, and one in particular never stands square. She doesn't look particularly comfortable, and usually has her front legs splayed out. It's interesting because I've never paid that much attention before, but now it just screams at me.

There's something else I've noticed too. Cherry seems much more relaxed lately and more, I don't know, "dopey" under saddle. It's actually been freaking me out slightly, because I'm used to her being very "get up and go!" In the past, being chill usually meant that something was wrong. But I can't find anything wrong. Perhaps it's age, perhaps it has to do with the changes in her hoof care.

Under saddle she's been different too. I'm not sure how to describe it, just very relaxed and not in a hurry to do anything. Well, besides get back to the barn at dinner time. Again, this worries me a little. Thinking logically, though, I feel better. She evades and communicates displeasure by going up. Head up, shoulders tense, back hollow, gaits very bouncy and uncomfortable. If she gets agitated enough she'll either rear or bolt. None of this is happening. Head is low, back is relaxed (not exactly engaged, but not tense and hollow), gaits are slow and smooth. I'm not used to this at all. It's rather nice.

Maybe some of this is due to age. She is 20 after all, it's not like her body isn't slowing down. I'm hoping that with consistent work she'll be ride-able for several more years. But I also think this is partly due to her "new feet" and the fact that she's much more comfortable now. Whatever it is, I like this new Cherry!

The Hoof Boot Saga Continues

A few weeks ago I decided to order the Easyboot Bares. Of course they arrived right in time for the fall rains, so I had to try them on Cherry's dirty hooves and pretty much decide to keep the damn things then and there. I made the wrong choice.

You know why they're called Bares? Because you can BARELY get them on! Ha ha! Wasn't that silly, kids?

If you can't tell, I'm a trifle upset. Mostly with myself. Once again, I ignored my gut reaction in the favor of faulty logic. As soon as I opened the box I was like, "Huh, these look tiny. Did I get the right size?" Not a good sign right there. But I soldiered ahead anyway.

"Using technique rather then strength, gently ease the boots onto the hoof toe first......" So says the instructions. I tried. I tried so hard to use technique. Instead, the only way I could get them on was to force them. Stupid fucking boots.

I did manage to get them on. I also managed to cut my finger and throw out my back in the process. Good times!

The first time she wore them, Cherry seemed quite happy. They weren't as tight as the company says they should be, but they didn't shift and they didn't rub. Despite the rough beginning, perhaps they were going to work after all.

So I used them again.

They went on a tad easier the second time, but both Cherry and I were getting pretty fed up with the installation production. And it was a production.

We went for a ride, no issues per say, but I noticed she still interfered with the boots. WTF?! I bought these stupid boots so she wouldn't interfere! Nope, no dice. They're heavy too. I dropped one and it went "clunk" on the ground. The Old Macs are way lighter. I prefer lighter hiking boots to lug soles, so I suppose my horse would feel the same.

The third time I used them was disaster. They went on okay, but they just didn't look right. I don't think the shape of the boot and the shape of Cherry's hoof are in harmony. The whole heel area was just not right. Once again, ignoring my better judgment, we went for a ride. Cherry started out fine, but soon started walking funny and moving in this strange clipped gait. Oh goody. Lame horse? Or was I right and the boots just did not fit?

I took her back to the barn and swapped boots. Old Macs secure, we went back out. Her stride didn't improve right away, but over the course of the ride she started moving much more normally. At the end she was back to a nice swinging walk. Still interfered with the boots a bit, but nothing major.

So I guess we're going to stick to the Old Macs. They fit reasonably well and they go on very easily. They do tend to rub occasionally, though. Either I do the pastern strap too tight (likely) or they just rub a bit. If they rub again, even if I'm vigilant about strap tightness, I'll bust out an old pair of my socks for Cherry to wear with her boots. Hey, I like socks with my boots, so why can't my horse wear some? Yes, she'll look ridiculous, but since when have I cared about that? Never, or would never have bought her spotted butt in the first place.

Oh well. Now I know. Knowledge is expensive.

Next spring, I'm trading those stupid boots in for a pair of either Gloves or Edges. I'm thinking Gloves, if I can manage not to set fire to the Bares before then.

New Stuffz

I just ordered a new pair of hoof boots. Unfortunately the Easyboot Edge was back ordered, so I got the Easyboot Bare. If they aren't good enough, I'll "upgrade" them for the Edges. They'll get us through the winter, which is all I need. I actually like the tread on the Bares better, less aggressive and more like an actual hoof. I mean, how many wild horses weak hiking boots?

For now Cherry's wearing the Old Macs. They're not miles to big, but enough too big that they interfere with her gait. For now though, I'll take a little interference and clipping over a lame pony. With her boots, she's sound on gravel, without them she's not. So she wears them.

I just hope the new boots get here quick, and that they fit.

On another "new tack" note, I made ground driving lines today. I went to the hardware store and bought some rope and a couple of scissor snaps. It's just poly rope, nothing special, but it feels nice in the hand. That's why I bought it. All the other rope was either too thick or too stiff. The only drawback is that the rope is quite luridly colored.

It's got black, bright blue, red, and teal. Teal? Did I say teal?! Oooooh! Yes, there is indeed teal in the rope. I guess the rope color isn't such a drawback after all! Ahem. Anyway, they really are quite bright. At least I won't lose them.