Moving back to GA!

We've been in NC for close to a year now, and not a single person came to see our farm in GA. Paying a mortgage, apartment rent, and horse board has stretched us pretty thin, so I found a couple jobs in GA to apply to. Earlier this week I got an offer at the UGA Vet School, and I accepted! We'll be moving back to GA at the end of the month.

So now I get to move all 6 horses back to our farm in Lexington, move all of our 2 BR apartment, Kelly has to find a new job in GA, and I'm supposed to go on a business trip the week before I start my new job. All of a sudden, the month got super busy!

I'm sad about leaving my new friends here in NC, but I'm super excited about going back to our farm! After living on my own horse farm for 10 years, living in a 2 BR apartment with no porch or patio has been a harsh change. It will also be nice to be able to see my family without having to drive 6 hours.

Wish us luck on the move!

Red Mountain Hounds Hunter Pace

I convinced a friend at work to ride with me in the Red Mountain Hounds hunter pace last weekend. She loves horses and took lessons for 5 years, but hasn't ridden in about 10 years. I met her out at our new boarding barn on Saturday to let her meet Tucker and ride for a bit. She did great and wasn't discouraged at all about going to the hunter pace the next day. We loaded up the next morning and upon arrival, Maggie decided she didn't want to get OFF the trailer! We tried everything, and finally we ended up folding the rear tack so she could go off front-ways! (Thanks TJ!) We met up with a friend I had made at the Horsemasters meeting the previous week, and the three of us came in fourth in our division! Of course it was the slowest division, the "strollers", but we had a ton of fun, and Maggie did great on her first hunter pace. We have big plans to ride in the next one on November 1. It's great to be meeting so many people in the NC horse community, and I love the Horsemasters club!

moving to North Carolina

OK, I've been horrible about updating the blog, but a lot has happened since I did! I've taken a new job in Durham, NC and already moved to an apartment in Hillsborough, NC and been at work for a month. I brought Tucker, Maggie, and Sandy up Labor Day weekend. I will be moving them from a boarding farm in Stem, NC to one closer to Hillsborough this Saturday. We are planning on going to our first NC show on Saturday as well. I am considering bringing Nick, Gem, and Rosie up to NC the weekend of October 24.

Katie and I looked at two houses (potential farms) yesterday, but I think they both will require too much land-clearing to be worth it. I'm hoping to find something with established pasture, but we'll see. Our Lexington, GA farm is on the market, and as far as I know, there hasn't been any interest yet. Wish us luck on finding a new farm, and if you know of anyone looking for one in the Athens area, tell them about mine!

Rosie update 3.5 months old

Rosie is so inquisitive and smart. I've adopted the habit of sitting on a bucket in the paddock while she and Gem eat, and as soon as she's done, she's snuffling my hair, my shirt, and asking for rubs. She's an amazing filly.

Haltering was an interesting show. I had tried a few times to no avail before the shoer came last month. He and I ended up getting a halter on her after a "rodeo" in the stall. She's quite agile and definitely has a mind of her own. She stood relatively quietly for her first trimming; I like to say it's because I'd been handling her legs a lot, but maybe I give myself too much credit

It seems that Rosie will be bigger than her mom. Gem is less than 15 hands, but Rosie's dad Pepper is 15.2 or 15.3. Everyone makes a comment about how big she is.

Tonight I'm working on registration papers for her and Gem. I'm going to register Gem with ICAAP and Colorado Ranger Horse Association, and hopefully I can get Rosie's ApHC Foundation Pedigree Designation.

Rosie at one month

Below are links to some pictures and video I took today. I was able to capture a few seconds of Indian Shuffle! Rosie is doing great, she's so cute and friendly. She loves scratches and walks right up to get them. I'm trying to handle her head more and more to make haltering easier. I ordered a foal-size fly mask because of the pink skin around her eyes. We'll see how long she'll keep that on...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20c4tSEcEvI&feature=player_embedded

http://picasaweb.google.com/phatappy/04may09RosieOneMonth?authkey=Gv1sRgCKHK5a-suouzlwE&feat=directlink

Rosie update

Rosie's front teeth started coming in right on time last week. She is trying harder at grazing and sharing her mom's grain. And I've had to discourage mutual grooming when I'm scratching her to avoid any biting habits because she's starting to catch my shirt in her teeth! I've been allowing them to graze in the back yard most evenings, but it's a challenge since they have to share the yard with the dogs. TJ the old lab mix doesn't even notice, Lucy the Dachshund watches and follows with interest, but Alex the greyhound with the broken leg thinks it's a great game when Rosie runs around. It's the craziest sight seeing the greyhound running on 3 legs chasing the filly around the yard with me bellowing at Alex trying to make him stop. It's not easy to make a chasing greyhound stop, even one on 3 legs. So far I don't think he has scared Rosie, but I'm trying to avoid that completely. There's few things worse than a horse who's scared of dogs. Alex just thinks it's a great game, and Rosie is not much bigger than him, so apparently it's even more fun with someone just your size. Hopefully this weekend the new pasture's fence will be complete, and I can move Tucker and Spartan over there with the other horses to give Gem and Rosie some grazing space besides the back yard.

I think I've produced an Indian Shuffler! I thought I saw it right after Rosie was born, but I wrote it off as learning to walk. When she figured out cantering, it seemed to be all she did. But I've seen it a few more times now, a funny amble between a walk and a trot. Her dad is Ulrich bred, but I didn't think shuffled. I've never ridden her mom, but I don't think I've ever seen her shuffle either. I'm so excited, I can't wait until she's old enough to ride! Now I'm wondering what I'd get if I bred Gem to a known shuffler. I just have to figure out how to encourage the shuffle in Rosie. I don't want to lose it.

Animals can be a pain in the...

After work yesterday, I picked up Katie from school and took her to soccer practice. It was ridiculously cold and windy for April, and I forgot my coat. Luckily I had an extra sweatshirt in the truck. Anyway, practice ended a little early, and we headed home only to find a pile of dog poo from TJ, our 15 year old lab mix. Not his fault, I always have to remind myself as I clean up the mess. He just can't hold it anymore. I got the dogs' dinner ready while they were outside. Soon after they thundered in and began scoffing down kibble, I noticed some blood drips on the floor. Looking around, it was easy to identify the source: the tip of TJ's tail. He must have caught it on something in his rush into the kitchen and tore a chunk open. There was a quickly-growing puddle of blood forming under his tail as he ate. I grabbed some vetwrap and gauze (which of course was handy thanks to the frequent bandage changes of the greyhound's broken leg) and did a quick wrap of the tail until I could shuttle him outside. When they finished their dinner, I ran them all out and went to work cleaning. When I was satisfied with the disapperance of the blood spots, I went to check on the dogs outside. TJ had slipped off the quick wrap and wagged all over the back porch spewing blood all over the side of the light gray house. UGH. I fetched more vetwrap and gauze and wedged him between my already blood stained knees to bandage his tail all the way up the the top. I knew it needed elasticon to stay on, but my next priority was washing off the house and deck. So I proceeded to hose off the side of the house on the terribly blustery day. Upon completion, the dogs and I went back inside. I had missed a call from my daughter's riding instructor, so I sat down for a minute to call her back. She had come by earlier in the day to pick up my Katie's pony Sandy to borrow her for a riding lesson, and she had called to give me an update. Kelly got home while I was on the phone, and in TJ's excitement, the tail wrap came flying off again. Blood all over the kitchen AGAIN. This time, with Kelly's help, I got the elasticon over the third wrap, and we cleaned the kitchen AGAIN and treated the blood stains on our clothes so I could do an unexpected load of laundry.

I went out to feed the horses later and Rosie has decided to play the I-wonder-what-kind-of-game-she'll-play-with-me-if-I'm-on-my-hind-legs game. She soon learned that I play the I-don't-let-horses-get-up-on-their-hind-legs-around-me game. She gave up pretty quickly and settled for scratches and pets. But she started anew this morning. This time bigger and stronger. So I got bigger and stronger. I never scared her, but I think she got the idea by the second or third time. We'll see what's next...