To Be Continued on LaughingMare.blogspot

This blog is continued as http://www.LaughingMare.blogspot.com

Double Potluck Weekend.

The proliferation of potlucks is another thing about the holiday season that I dont like. This weekend...two.

Today is the Rabbit Haven shelter rabbit gift bag party. That one is OK. I guess. We are putting together gift bags for the rabbits in the local animal shelters. The different kinds of hay, a toy, a Mrs. Pastures cookie, get packaged into paper bags ties with non toxic raffia. The rabbits get to tear open the bag themselves. The hardest part of this is that it is in Soquel and will take me maybe two hours to get to, maybe only an hour and a half. Its the weekend in winter, during Christmas shopping season, and my route takes me through San Jose, Campbell, Los Gatos, then on 17 through the Santa Cruz mountains.

Yesterday, I didn't get home until after dark because after the Milpitas potluck, I had to drive to San Martin to get hay. I didnt get the ponies out, and I wont today either. The day before that, it rained. and the day before that. I gave them some sweetwater and they liked it. (1C rice bran in 1 gal water, good for keeping hydrated when the water is cold and they may not drink enough)

I also gave them some applesauce in an old supplement tube. Yndi had been a terrible patient, and getting any oral med, dewormer, Dermosedan, etc, into her is a 15 minute rodeo and kind of dangerous. So I began giving her applesauce in a tube. She is changing her mind about tubes. The first time was a surprise. She looked like this:

Welcome December, Maybe

Here it is, December already. The whole summer/fall has been a flurry of activity, building the barn and fence for the ponies, moving into the new house, and now Christmas coming.

In general, I like living far away and the solitude. But the short winter days always get to me, and the the holidays mess up my routine. Parties are really hard. I'm OK with one or two people, but parties, no thanks.

Having the mares cohabit changes my relati ok nship considerably. Yndi became very herd bound and dangerous to drive, and Pepper became less predictable. I finally just sis a bunch of short circle work sessions with Yndi and she got better. When Yndi got better, Pepper got better.

• I want to go to Merrie''s for lessons, but between all the other crap, it won't fit in. So I'm not driving at all.

I have taken some pictures though

Ground Driving the Princess and the Pea

After the visit to Marrie Morgan's training facility last month, I came home with the homework of ground driving my ponies until I could correct the bend in the rib cage in either direction and leg yield in both directions.

I worked on this mostly with Yndi. She was tricky because if she didn't know what I was asking, she didn't do anything. I had to get after her a little, then she became hyper-tuned. After more than a few sessions, I could I could leg yield her other way, but couldn't steer because she no longer followed her head. Then I had to figure out how to use my outside rein to turn.

Fortunately, now, I could start Pepper back to work. Pepper is different from Yndi, she does exactly what you ask, regardless of what you actually mean. "Garbage in, garbage out." I had to figure out how to turn Pepper as well as leg yield. Its that tricky outside rein. So I thought I had it and went back to Yndi.

Poor Ynid was stressed a little. That's Yndi. Its as if she runs everything through Google Translate to figure out what you want. It make her hard to correct, because if he is going wrong, anything you do to fix it makes her go wronger in the same direction. So we started out with problems and I had to straighten her and walk on and try again Then....She got it! I praised her and went to her head and rubbed her and scratched her and took the reins off and led her back to the trailer to take of the rest of the equipment. AND IT WORKED! The next day, she understood and it was totally better.

Pepper, I think, is ready for the cart again. My Pepperoni Pony had a hard time, coming down with some kind of bug and getting a fever and not eating Dr. Novick came out and treated her. She recovered slowly, better each day than the previous one. She and Yndi both got shoes, and a couple days after, Pepper became lame. I didn't know it it was a nail that was not quite hot, or an abscess. It didn't act like a hot nail would, so I soaked her foot in Epsom salts to draw the abscess out. It got better, so it was either resorbed or not an abscess. Possibly her stomach was bothering her.
Lauren gave me some ground fennel seed to try, and I put her on probiotics for a while and doubled up on her ulcer supplement. She gets 5-10 minutes of round pen each day.

I ordered a years supply of a supplement for Kentucky Performance Products after I heard about it on The Stable Scoop Podcast. Its for easy keepers on limited feed and horses that are one dried forage. It makes up to the fat soluble vitamins that may be lacking. It only comes in this size, so it will have good trial at least. This may be a solution to Pepper's lack of resiliency. I'll say it again, Pepper is The Princess And The Pea.

Bunnyfest 2016

Bunnyfest is today in San Jose. I'm there all day at the bunny park, helping people and bunnies who come to play.

I hope to stop by Indian Hill before I go, to give Yndi and Pepper their ulcer snacks. Peppers cod liver oil is ready to go I'll give it a try. Its high in Vitamins D and K, and should help her if she eats it. Her Kentucky Performance Products supplement isn't here yet. I am hoping that I can help her lack of resiliency with fat soluble vitamins.

Loved on Pierre and Kasey, but they didn't get their play time out this morning.so it isn't the same.
Woke up af 230 getting a headache so I've been up since, but beat my headache. So...I'm wondering what will be for dinner tonight? Cooking will be beyond me.

Razor Blades in my Boots

I bought new boots at Western Saddlery in Livermore. I listen to The Stable Scoop Radio Show podcast on the road. It was a wonderful trade off between the non supportive worn out boots that fit like bedroom slippers and the super supportive not-broken-in new boots.

I walked about 5 miles, round penning two ponies and the ground driving them. It felt like I had razor blades in my boots.

I round penned Pepper, but only for five minutes. She seemed sound. I chose the roundpen with the firmest footing, and they had just watered it, so it was fantastic. She was SO HAPPY to get her bit. I love it when she opens her mouth and moves her head around trying to find it.

The ground driving was fantastic! I made is short, which was good for her, and the razor blades in my boots made me keep it short.

 Yesterday, I listened to Horses in the Morning podcast radio show and there was a segment on nutrient depletion. Because she was on antibiotics for 4 days, her flora is messed up. I learned that grazing green grass can help with that. I took her for a short graze on Tuesday, I guess she gets to do it again today! She will be happy to learn THAT!

It was a great episode for me to listen. Lucky too, because I don,t listen to many of them.  click here to listen

 Maybe AnJan will have a probiotic for her. Dr, Novick should mention it and possible carry it, but he doesn't.

Thinking Out Loud and Maybe Ranting a Bit(a Lot)

Pepper's foot soaking for the suspected abscess has stopped because the limping got better. Either it wasn't an abscess, of the abscess is resorbing. She gets some more time off  because it might help. It seems the real problem with Pepper is lack of resilience.

I have been ground driving Yndi and working on bending and leg yielding. Its hard. Yndi tries so hard and gets upset if she guesses wrong. She is so sensitive that I know  have to get better.

I want to make the time to go across the street and check on Adrienne and Twist. She learned some new things at Merrie's and I want t make sure she is clear about what she wants and where she is going.

Bunnyfest is Sunday. I volunteered all day and I have a sweatshirt and some collector plates to donate to the auction and bunny store. I can drop those off in Mountain View on my way to Woodside to watch Erika and Dom in the dressage show. I think its at the horse park, I have to make sure.

Dave called a halt to packing stuff up and taking it to the mountain. The empty spots in the Milpitas house were making him sad. Good reason. Right? I don't thing so. He packed up all my CDs under protest, in a fury to get stuff moved. Now, he doesn't wasn't to pack, so when we HAVE to, its going to be a huge job. So, I'm going to continue as I was. His fear of change is his fear, not mine. I will support him as we go through the change, but I'm not going to share his fear or cater to it too much. I know Dave, and the more I support his fear, the more he will be a victim of it. Jee. I have my own baggage.

I signed up for a free ten day Pinterest optimization course. Its a good thing it was free because, so far, it has been useless. The developer of the course is too specific in what you have to have first. Like a Wordpress blog instead of Blogger, and a website on WordPress not Wix or any other WYSIWYG.
For example, the first day was to pair your Pinterest account with your website. When I had difficulty, she sent me some 'more basic' instruction which was just a header: Pair your Pinterest with your Site, and the a paragraph listing the benefits. Jeez! Not HOW TO DO IT! There is a difference. So after three days and hours of failing on step two of day one. I decided to skip it and do the parts  could. Sadly, each day started off with something I could not do.

Heck.

I don't know if I should buy my domain names yet. I can do it if I sell my 4 remaining saddle pads and clearance price. then I can pay for the next install of RMU.

Crap, So much to do. But hay, my sewing machines have been covered with building crap and my sewing room reeking of cat poop for YEARS! Dave won the battle of Emotional Availability and I can't do any sewing or art uninterrupted and I cant do it with constant interruptions. "Hi. Aren't you going to say Hi?" and"I need to ask you something." which is stalling while you think of a question to ask. And his cheapness is keeping me from buying a good(good!) self cleaning litterbox.

Maybe Kentucky Performance Product Vit E supplement, as advertised on The Stable Scoop Horse Radio Show, will help Pepper. Lauren has her colic prone mare on Fennel seed and says it helps her chronic diarrhea. Maybe that will help Pepper.