More trailer-loading

Yes, I know, I'm spending tons of time talking about the trailer.  But he's just doing so fabulously I can't wait to share it!  I got home from work SUPER late tonight, so I thought I wouldnt do anything with the trailer, just spend some undemanding time grazing.  Well then my mom and sister showed up, and I wanted to show them some of his cool stuff.  So.. I went to scratch him, and asked him to back up using just a few strands of tail hair, and he backed up 5 whole steps!  I saw their jaws just drop, which was pretty cool.  The last time they saw him, he was still half-feral, not really "tame" from sitting out at pasture without any human attention.  Then we went to show off with the trailer, because my mom has a friend that works with horses traditionally, so she knows a bit about the traditional method of trailer loading(and has tried to offer me tips!).  I stood at the tire, and sent Pistol into the trailer, and he walked right in.  He stopped before his back feet got in, but I'm ok with that, because he offered a really fabulous try.  Up until this point, he has been a little reluctant to get in right away, its taken some time to get him to decide to go in.  But this time he just marched right in.  My grandpa even went up and opened up the tack storage doors, and the side access door, and he didnt budge.  This is also huge, because he used to go RB very quickly, but has started spending more and more time on the LB side.  As I stood there with him, he looked out the windows, sniffed the roof vent, cocked a leg, and blew a big sigh out, so I got him out and gave him a treat, and got some licking and chewing.  It was getting pretty dark(another big deal!!!) so I ended the session right then and there.  I love my horse!!  He was definitely the right horse for me. 

Ooohhh... the farrier...

I forgot to mention the farrier in my earlier post.  I have a wonderful farrier that has come out twice now, and she puts up with so much from my horse.  I thought she would be pleasantly surprised, because he has been doing so much better for me with his hooves.  I've been picking them up, cleaning them, tapping on them, pulling them forward, etc all at liberty.  But... apparently that didn't translate to the farrier.  He was still a pain for her, he tried to kick, rear, walk away, lay on her... :(  I'm not sure if he just doesnt like her or what.  Like I said, I can do it at Liberty with him, but I am in no way confident enough to trim him myself.  This woman doesnt do Parelli, she does Clinton Anderson instead, but I honestly have not seen her do anything I wouldnt do.  For sure, if she pulled some real CA stuff, I would stop it immediately, but... everything she's been doing has been right in line with what I think she should do.  Pistol just seems to think that his hooves never need to be trimmed.  Sorry pal, but they were looking bad.  Plus we discovered thrush in TWO hooves!  :( So now I have yet another medication to put on him.  Ugh... that poor horse.  This has been a bad week for him veterinary-wise. 

Woo-hoo! 2 feet plus zone 3 in the trailer!

That's right, we worked on the trailer today, since I would like to trailer Pistol to Colorado in a month.  He put both front feet in and had his back feet right up to the step.  He started licking and chewing and did a big yawn and sigh, so I ended the session.  Go us!  I'm really hoping I can get him to Colorado, because otherwise, I would probably have a really hard time continuing with the working student opportunity.  I'm confident we will get it though.  Also, its been a really bad week for him medically, between the scratches on his sides, and then developing thrush in 2 hooves, and then whacking his head on the trailer door... Its been a rough week for him.  He's getting so sick of his medicines, every time I walk out with it he gives me the saddest hang-dog look like "do I have to...?" But he's been pretty good about it.  I can't wait for the scratches to heal up so I can spend lots of time brushing him again.  That was one of his favorite things before he got scratched up, and he's just dying for a really good top-to-bottom brushing.  Every time I even brush a little bit, he stretches out and looks at me with his parrot lips going "PLEASE????"  Poor guy.  At least things are looking up still.  :)

EXCITEMENT!

I just got word today that I am accepted as a working student at the Parelli Center!  I almost fell off the couch reading the email, because I was NOT expecting to get an email about it on Sunday!  So now, I have to run around and make sure I get everything together to go down there in about a month, and get my horse ready for it as well.  It means I have to find someone to do my job while I'm down there, and I probably will be down there for about 6 months, because I want to work off all my tuition, not just part of it.  I'm so excited about this, I'm practically bouncing off the walls.  I worked with Pistol using the new trailer, and things went fabulously.  It took a lot of exploring, but I finally got some licking and chewing, plus a big sigh, so we moved on to walking down the driveway to play with new things, and circling on a slope.  Of course, he did fabulous.  And I got a response from the owner of the stable where he used to be boarded, apparently he was foaled in Spring of 2006, so he is just barely 4 years old.  Plus, he's a purebred Appy, which fooled my vet, who thought he was an Appy/Quarter horse cross.  He has appaloosa characteristics like the striped hooves and mottled skin, but not the spots, and he is built like a foundation quarter horse.  Confusing!

Things are much better today!!

The vet came out and looked at Pistol, and turns out everything will be ok.  Go figure, right???  He was a little concerned about the swelling, but thinks the bute will take it down in a couple days.  Plus, I'm so proud of Pistol for how he handled this whole thing today.  I hadn't worried too much about preparing him to stand inside my garage, because it was supposed to be sunny today.  Well, not 10 minutes before the vet was supposed to arrive, it started POURING.  So we emptied the garage and stood in there with him.  Our pole barn doesn't have lights in the horse side, just a large door to open, and the natural light wasn't enough.  The vet got there, and started poking Pistol, and he just stood there the whole time.  He handled it so well, he didn't even offer to kick or rear or anything.  It turns out too that Pistol is even younger than we realized.  I was told he is 4 years old, but he hasnt lost his 4 year old teeth yet... So the vet thinks he's just barely 4 years old.  Also, I managed to sell my old trailer yesterday, and buy a new one today!  The old one was all open, with a ramp, and it just wasnt safe for me to try and load Pistol in it.  So the new one I bought today was cheaper, newer, and better.  Its 15 years newer, all the lights work, it has inside lights as well as outside, a water tank and hay rack, and 2 closing doors, plus tack storage.  It was almost dark by the time I got it home, but Pistol got super excited about it so I grabbed him and let him investigate it anyways.  He was a little skeptical, one of those "You expect ME to go in THERE?" kinda looks, but I said "nope, just sniff it", which rocked his world, and I got instant release of tension, so we headed back to the pen.  I bet tomorrow he will hop right in once he can see it in full light.  Hopefully I can sleep tonight through the excitment. :D

Oh no........

I was at work today, just wrapping things up, and I got the kind of phone call that you never want to get about your horse.

"we dont know what he did, but there's a situation here, we need you to come home, your horse is out".
!!!!!

So I went flying home, and I live a half hour away from work, so I spent a half hour worrying, because I couldnt get ahold of my grandparents (I live with them and so does my horse). I got home, and found my poor horse has huge scratches down both sides of his rib cage, with a huge gouge on his left hip. His fence was sagging by his pasture gate(I have electric braid) so I went to investigate, and found that somehow he had snapped the gate post off 1 foot into the ground, and knocked the post the gate latches to sideways. There's chestnut hair all over the latch and I think that's where the gouge came from, but we cannot figure out what happened. Its a 6 foot gate, and he is the only horse on the property, so another horse didn't chase him into it or anything. And even if they did, that doesnt explain how both sides are scratched. So the poor baby is just miserable, and I had to put some Blu-kote on his scratches to keep the flies out while they heal.

THANK GOD for the Parelli program!!! This horse was a fruitcake when I got him(no fault of his own,btw!), and I've been working with him for 2 and a half months, and I was able to spray the Blu-kote on a cotton ball and wipe it on his cuts at Liberty. He is terrified of spray, which is why I couldnt directly spray it on him (yet!) but I've been working with him, so I can spray it near him in any zone, as long as I dont actually spray it on him. Now I've worked at traditional barns before I discovered Parelli, and they have done some horrible things while trying to medicate/treat horses. But because I've worked with him, he let me poke and rub and investigate him. He even picked up each hoof for me when I ran my hands down his legs, even though I was checking for cuts/punctures, not trying to pick up his hooves. I cannot imagine how awful this could have been without Parelli, because I would never have been able to treat him without a halter using traditional methods. He was definitely in pain, but because the trust was there, he knew I was going to try my hardest not to hurt him more. He even rested his chin on my shoulder at one point during the treatment!

I think he will be fine, but of course, I'm worried about him, who wouldnt be? I just wanted to share my story, and how wonderful it is that even when he's hurt, he can still trust me.
 
I did find out what happened the next day, when I was able to check everything out in the daylight. On closer inspection, the prong of the gate latch was bent, and had hair and skin flaps on it. Plus the actual latch had skin flaps on it too, so somehow he pulled the gate loose from the post it gets tied to during the day, and tried to squeeze through even though there wasnt room. My guess is something spooked him, and he knocked over the post holding the gate open, and tried to run around it even though there wasnt room for him, and he ended up tearing his sides up on the pieces of the latch. poor guy. So now he has purple spots all over his sides. My appaloosa finally has spots!
 
I don't even think he will need the vet out(fingers crossed), because there isnt even anything to stitch, and only a couple are bad enough to really need a protective covering. I'm hoping they will heal cleanly so a) he won't have scars, and b) the vet doesn't have to give him antibiotics.
Now though, he has developed a large lump right between his front legs. I'm concerned, because it definitely hurts him, but I can't figure out what it is. It wasn't there last night when he injured himself, it just appeared this morning. He will let me touch it lightly, but is really uncomfortable, and if I try and manipulate it or anything, you can tell it hurts him.
 
I'm still keeping an eye on him, this is kind of a post that has been ongoing since last night.  We are in the middle of fixing the gate posts, and the goofball is over checking all the tools out, and helping as much as he can.  He rolled the posts off the trailer for us, and is having a blast picking up all the tools, and trying to figure out the tractor.  I'm glad he's still curious, it makes me glad he's not in so much pain he can't be curious.  I'll keep posting with updates as it happens. 

Eventful weekend!

Well... I just got done teaching an advancing natural horsemanship camp for the past 3 days.  I've barely had time to play with Pistol, and have sacrificed some time with him to spend time with my boyfriend of almost 3 years, Ian.  But... that was a nightmare.  Luckily we talked things over and are good again.  We hung around and watched some tv and played with our puppy today, and once he left, I went out to spend some time with Pistol.  It was fabulous!  I played with him at liberty, because I feel like he is getting bored online.  He backed up with just a few tail hairs, which he has never done before!  He also backed up with me in Z5 "drawing" him.  I was able to play with the tarp on his back a bit, waving it around and crackling it, and got some licking and chewing, so I started scratching him.  He's been super itchy lately because of the flies.  :(  This big giant 2 inch long horse fly found him, and kept trying to land on him.  I shooed it away repeatedly with my carrot stick, and my silly horse started licking and chewing.  ^_^ I started scratching his right side while standing on his left side, and he stood perfectly still and started doing parrot lips.  So I thought "hmm, what if?" and put all my weight on his back while I was scratching.  He stayed perfectly still, still doing his happy parrot lips, and turned to look at me without moving his feet.  I rubbed his face, and he turned back and concentrated on how good the scratches felt.  I just barely had my toes on the ground, and we stayed like that while we watched the sunset.  The funniest thing is he actually watched it!  I saw him roll his eyes up and look at the moon a couple different times while I was hanging on his back.  I ended our session with that, since he was so happy and everything went so well.  Thank goodness everything went well in the end!