Holidays

Happy Holidays from Calvin and family! 

He got some good gifts which I'll talk about in another post, stay tuned for the New Year

and yes his hat scared the horses behind him ;)

Goofy Baby Pictures

These last few weeks I've been busy with finals and work, so my limited free time was spent doing barn chores (read: cleaning up horse poop!) or doing groundwork with this troublemaker. Now that I have more time, I'll post more frequently!

Walking the muddy trails after rain

Isn't the way this mud broke artsy? In all seriousness though, it was slick out there after rain! He was sliding all over the place, but it's good for him to learn not to panic if he slides a bit. Another nice thing is that I don't have to worry about horse shoes getting suctioned off since he's barefoot! My shoes however, different story!

Silly boy pictures:

Hanging with his pasture buddies, all best friends now

"Give me a treat!"

"No seriously, I deserve a treat"

Sleepy boy! Oh and you may notice that I cut his mane! Now he's a civilized English horse. Also notice the difference in coat length between Calvin and Quest('s hindquarters). Seriously his fur is out of control. 

Laugh it up now Calvin, because we're about to get serious with our training ;) 

As you can see, Calvin is doing really well in this home! He's actually gained weight and definitely the "fattest" I've seen him yet. In fact, I fed him beet pulp the other day and he didn't finish it! For those of you who know Calvin, he always finishes his beet pulp. Just goes to show that he was actually full (briefly, he did finish it after our ride ;). I'd say he's a happy mustang! 

Thanksgiving 2014

This year on Thanksgiving I have so much to be thankful for in this privileged life I've been afforded. This post, though, will be dedicated to my boyfriend, friends, and my family who have all been so supportive of my journey. As some of you know, I was in a very dark place these last few years not being able to ride. Every time I would discuss my past riding experience I would begin to cry and had to push it out of my mind. It got to the point that I had to hide fellow riders on my Facebook because if I saw pictures of them and their horses I would break down crying. I was able to ride a friend's horse here and there and my mood would improve tremendously, but it was always temporary. I took a few lessons and while those were fun, it wasn't the same as having my own horse and that is what I really missed. With the mounting stress of graduate school, things were looking pretty bleak for me now that my passion was gone. Thankfully we are required to be in therapy and I was able to tell all of this to my therapist who suggested that I seriously consider getting a horse again. In her words, "if people can have kids in grad school, you could easily handle a horse."

I had never considered the option of getting back into riding, it always seemed too expensive and that I would have to return to riding as an "amateur," or in my 30s and 40s. The more I thought about the horses, the more I realized I could do things inexpensively. If I were to find a less expensive horse, less expensive boarding, no competing, and less expensive equipment I might actually be able to swing this. I had researched getting a mustang ever since freshman year of undergrad because the desire to have a horse again never left me. Fast forward to 5 years later and the rest is history. However, the support I received from my boyfriend, friends and family has been tremendous. I was hesitant to share my horse purchase with others because I figured they wouldn't understand, that they'd think it was just a poor financial decision. Yet the response I received could not have been more opposite! Everyone understood how my mental health was more important to me and offered to help in whatever way they could.

So thank you boyfriend, friends and family for understanding how important horses are to me and continuing to support my choices. You all have put up with my stress and been very accommodating in so many ways, so thank you! While I still struggle with stress due to grad school, I'm in a much better place and it's in no small part because of all of you :)

 My boy Lordanus "Donny" and I (about 12) cleaning up at the championship horse show

My last horse Carjo (prounounced Kai-o) "Kai" in our first show together, I'm about 14

Back home at the fairgrounds in a schooling show

Riding my friend's horse a couple of years ago, he was super fancy

The day I picked up Calvin with a mile-wide smile :D

Happy Thanksgiving from me, my boyfriend, Calvin, Heidi, Charbon, and Gracie!

Training Refocus

I mentioned before how I was deciding between Western and Dressage. Well, the decision has been made and the winner is.... dressage! Now most of you may be wondering what happened to Endurance? The simple answer is: nothing! I still very much want to do endurance. However, to even enter an endurance competition a horse has to be 5 years old to do "limited distance" or 25 miles and 6 or 7 years old to do endurance rides of 50, 75, or 100 miles. They have this rule because horses joints and spine haven't fully developed until 6 or 7, so they want to maintain healthy horses. Not to mention that to even get to endurance rides you have to have a truck and horse trailer, of which I have neither! Therefore, those dreams will have to be put on hold for now. While waiting for him to grow up, I'll just focus on dressage and some light trail riding. I want to focus him on a specific discipline so Calvin would learn different skills that of course transfer to the trails.

The main focus of our dressage training, therefore, is to build a "topline." When we refer to a topline, we're talking about the line of the back:

Most horses have some curve to their back and when you work them properly, they'll build up back and hindquarter muscle. As the picture above shows you, when a horse's head is up their back arches (top example). When the head is down (example 3), the back muscles engage and you see what is referred to as "roundness" all the way through the hindquarters. With enough work, the horse's back will look the same as the third example down no matter the head position.

The topline is important because only when a horse's topline is developed can we bring our horses into the beautiful head carriage or "frame." A strong topline also is the foundation for more advanced dressage work as well.

Notice the horse's curved neck and head position, this is the classical dressage headset. Horse is able to keep this frame because he has strong abs and a strong back.

Anyway, in order to build up a topline we have to work on stretching down like these two examples:

I've been reinforcing this training by using side reins and lunging. The side reins don't set his head into any position, but rather they act as the riders hands by guiding him to find balance. When he raises his head too high, he can feel them and when he lowers his head, they release. There's quite a bit of controversy over using side reins, but it's a tool that when used correctly and for short periods of time is beneficial. Some people use side reins so tightly that the force the horses' head in, which is not how I'm using them:

I've adjust the side reins loosely so that he can find his own balance but still have the reins as a guide so he doesn't run around with his head straight up. 

Still lots of room to move his head and slack reins.

Calvin took to the training very well. These last few days I've been lunging him in these at the walk/trot and I can tell a huge difference in the saddle. He's much more willing to stay in this lower headset and he responds to the rein aids more effectively. I don't work him too long because he's still young and learning, but I'd say he has good potential to be a dressage horse once he fills out!

Trail Update

I forgot to post this a few weeks ago. This was our most recent trail ride as I've been mainly focusing on arena work lately. I'm focusing on arena work because it's more of a workout for Calvin in terms of mental stimulation. He has to focus on his feet and the rider's cues which he has a tendency to blow-off on the trail. Once I can get more than 2 days off a week again we'll hit the trails.

Anyway, on our last trail ride Calvin was kind of antsy the whole time and off in la-la-land. I had to pick up some speed to get him to focus again. I could tell he was holding back a serious amount of energy, like making a ADHD kid sit in a chair for an extended period of time. Since he was behaving, I decided to let him gallop a bit. Man, I forgot how fast the horse was! The minute I asked for more canter speed he was off at a dead run, it was exhilarating!  I let him go for about 200 yards before pulling him up and walking him back home.

After his run, he settled down and was pretty tired. Hence I got to get some pictures.

Sweaty Calvin after his run. You'd think with a winter coat he would be calmer in the 95º heat.

Calvin likes to make his mom worry by getting scratches just centimeters from his eyeball. And if you're wondering how he does that, your guess is as good as mine.

Half asleep in sunflowers

Killing three birds with one stone by working out the dogs: Heidi my German Shepherd on the left and my parent's standard poodle Reese on the right.. They were only ever a few seconds behind Calvin. 

We're supposed to go on a trail this weekend with a friend. If so, I'll take pictures and write another update.

Baby Horse Problems

Sometimes Calvin likes to remind me that he is a 3 year old horse. This can manifest itself in many ways: Whether it be spooking at objects that aren't really scary (tarps over hay!). Or neighing for his pasture buddies because he's been separated from them for an hour, despite the fact that he always returns to them at some point. Or just his overall gangly-ness and awkward growth.

He's all legs! Still growing as you can tell because he's "butt-high" meaning that the top of his rump is higher than his withers, that reminds me, I should measure him soon. This was after his bath, as you can see he isn't tied to anything because he loves baths. This picture shows him licking the water off the metal. 

Other times his baby-ness comes out in more shocking ways, like realizing that he is loosing more teeth! 

This is a normal process thankfully. As most of you probably know, you can predict a horse's age by their teeth. Here is a good chart that shows the typical progression. Anyway, Calvin is loosing his deciduous teeth and getting his permanent ones. 

However, he had a difficult time when I gave him a whole apple. Usually horses can just chomp an apple in half with ease. Yet Calvin only has his two front teeth and bottoms, so he had to scrape off parts of the apple using the ground for leverage. Poor baby!

"Mom, why didn't you cut this up for me?!"

 Here's a video for reference showing how easily horses can eat apples when they have all their teeth.

Dressage or Western?

I'm not sure what I should focus on with Calvin and his training. While I want to ride endurance on the trails, I want to put a solid training foundation on him before we reach that stage. This will make him a more well-rounded horse both on the trail and in the arena. However, I need to choose a focus and I'm debating between Vaquero and Classical Dressage. The reason I have to decide is that the equipment is vastly different and since I'm on limited funds, I can't buy both getups as any horse gear is expensive.

 The vaquero tradition typically uses their "finished" horses as extremely skilled companions for ranch living: sorting cows, working long hours, etc. The classical dressage movement stems from the cavalry and training a skilled horse for the battlefield. To be honest, there aren't a whole lot of differences between the two despite a vastly different turnout in appearance. They both focus on natural horsemanship and both stem from traditions that have been around for centuries. 

Buck Brannaman riding his finished Vaquero horse at the canter

I also love classical dressage, not to be confused with competition dressage (too short reins, constant pulling on the horse's mouth, etc.). Classical dressage is similar to the vaquero tradition actually, focusing on harmony but from an "English" riding perspective.

Anja Beran riding an advanced level dressage horse in the "piaffe"

Luckily Calvin is still young so we're working on basics which underlie each of these foundations, but something to think about for which direction we take within the next year or so. 

Pasture, Take 3!

The new stable is working out really well for Calvin. Today we transitioned him out of the stall and into the pasture. We first introduced Calvin to one of the current pasture horses (there are two of them) in the large arena. Calvin ran and ran, but the other horse, "Dude," just wouldn't run with him! Dude is 19, so perhaps he didn't see any reason to run with such a youngster. That didn't slow Calvin down though, he ran until he was tired.

"This fence is in the way of food"

I then walked him around, rinsed him off, then stuck him in the pasture. He gets along really well with "Quest" the other horse in the pasture, a mellow Thoroughbred, and they were eating together. The other horse, "Dude," is a National Show Horse which means he's 3/4 Arabian and 1/4 Saddlebred. He was making sure Calvin knew that his place was on the bottom of the pack, so he chased Calvin around a little bit, but not near as much as Graf chased him. Still it was painful to watch as Dude would bite Calvin on the butt hard, but Calvin would barely move away, almost as if someone just tapped his shoulder. We were like "Calvin run away stupid horse!" but apparently he is thick skinned.

They aren't best friends yet, that usually takes a few weeks. In the meantime, Calvin is enjoying the space and ability to run around. He also is adjacent to a larger pasture with more horses that he can socialize with on the other side of the fence as well. I think he's happy to live the more natural lifestyle. 

When I went to leave, he cantered up to me in the corner here. Is he not the most precious thing?

On the far left you can see Quest. 

New Home, Take 3!

Today was my final day at crazy people's house. The day started early with trying to load Calvin into the horse trailer around 9am. He was having none-of-it. He would rear and run backwards, refusing to stay in the trailer. He even ignored my carrots I was trying to coax him in with! We finally got him in the trailer and he calmed down, for some reason that threshold was more scary than being in the actual trailer. My hunch is that it's because it's a small trailer, he loaded into the 6 horse without issue. Ah well, horses will be horses.

We unloaded Calvin onto the premises and he was very well behaved. He let out a few neighs, just to make sure that everyone heard who he was! He's currently in a 24x24 stall because I need help treating his cuts still. Once his cuts are fully healed, he will go into the free-feeding pasture with the two other horses. I told the crazy people at the last place to feed him 3 flakes/day, but who knows what they were actually doing. He seemed to have lost some weight this month so I'm free feeding him in nets in his stall. Meanwhile he'll have turn-outs (being turned loose) in the large arena for some exercise.

He settled in really nicely and met his friendly horsey-neighbors. Hopefully this place is a match, already the staff have been more professional.

Happy to be eating his fill again! Although he's eyeing that larger bale.

I moved the purple net to the back of his stall, so if he want hay he'll have to switch between the white net (above) and the purple one.

Priceless

The daughter of the current boarding location offered to buy Calvin. Um...what? 

Your mom just complained that he was eating too much and now you want to buy him and keep him in the same place where he sliced his face open? Yeah, I don't think so. Not to mention that their personal horses are way too skinny and hooves look terrible. They also don't get ridden.

The BLM requires that you own the horse for a year before you can sell them anyway, so even if I wanted to sell Calvin (which I don't!), I can't sell him until his title comes in February. Luckily this was the perfect excuse to tell her as to why I can't sell him to some crazy people. I don't want to sell him anyway, he's such a sweet boy and really one-of-a-kind. I've had to sell all my previous horses so this once I'd like to have a horse that I can keep forever, fingers crossed. 

How could anyone sell this sweet face? 

House-Hunters: Equine Edition

What a crazy adventure this house-hunting-for-the-horse has been! Good news though, we found a place that we absolutely love. Some of the other places were nice, but had strange rules like "no coming at night"--well, I don't like not having access to my horse at certain times and some days I need to come late. Or they had more unsafe things like barbed wire fencing, which is just an accident waiting to happen with my accident-prone horse. However one place checked all the boxes and it's a full-service boarding facility. This means that many people board there and there are other "amenities" like arenas, washing facilities, all different types and sizes of stalls and pastures, and trails! Most importantly, they take amazing care of the horses. The waters were crystal clear, unlike my last boarding stable where they refused to scrub the waters nor let you touch them, and they feed a variety of hays. Overall, they're very accommodating and professional.

This stable has a free-feeding pasture that is likely the best option for Calvin. Currently, two other teenage horses are being allowed access to orchard grass hay 24/7. The owners of these horses rotate cleaning pasture and filling up the hay net, which I would also have to do. In a way cleaning the pasture again is annoying, but at least the other owners will contribute, with Calvin and Graf I was cleaning for two horses every time I was there! The only other option was a pasture with alfalfa feedings 2x/day, which I wasn't sure would be enough with winter approaching as horses eat more in the winter to stay warm.

I talked to the manager of the stable about wound care as Calvin would still need treatment on his sores. They said it would be easier to monitor and treat him in a stall, so I may have to house him in a stall temporarily (maybe a week or two) until his wounds are fully healed. The price is right with this facility and it was clear the other boarders were very pleased with the care and more importantly, all the horses looked happy.  Also, if anyone wants to ride with me they do horse rentals at $10/hour for a trail ride! This place was recommended to me by my vet as she frequents this place and even said "it's a place I'd keep my horse," truly a great find.

I'm moving him to this new location this Sat and I can hardly wait!

One of the many arenas available.

I gave calvin a rinse off yesterday, here he is standing in the 94° heat falling asleep.  He's looking a little scraggly, I'd trim his mane but he needs it for fly protection right now.

9/15/14

I had to go out to work today for orientation, but we finished very early so I decided to go over and see Calvin. His lacerations look very gnarly, unfortunately he popped all his staples under his jaw so he'll likely have some bigger scars than we were hoping. He's healing, but in the meantime it looks really gross, but the vet said it will heal fine. 

I told the boarders I was coming to see Calvin and they informed me that all 4 horses were together now. Um...okay? I would have liked to have known or heard how that went, but alright. I get there and see all 4 horses interacting very peacefully! Calvin only had one bite mark on his haunches and was tired, so I'm sure he ran this morning. Perhaps to get away or just running in unison. Anyway, I waited these 15 days for him to be turned out 24/7. Something I was told would happen immediately, but they were afraid to turn them all out in case a horse did something and wanted to introduce them slowly. Perhaps it worked, but I'd rather him just be thrown in and perhaps we could have avoided the vet bills from being stalled!

Anyway, the pictures below are of the 4 horses hanging out together. It was 104 but they enjoyed standing in the sun, crazy horses. Poor Calvin, his winter coat is coming in now but it is far from winter in terms of temperature! Hopefully it will cool off soon. I hosed Calvin off because I assumed that would be refreshing! 

"I'm coming mom!"

"Feed me!"

I went to look at a new boarding property today after visiting Calvin. Unfortunately, for what they charge and the distance, I don't think it will be a serious contender. Also, they don't have trails and most of these horses are boarding here because their owners can't see them very often and/or their horses are retired. Although, they took very good care of their horses and they had TONS of acreage. The good thing is that if I couldn't make it out to see Calvin often, I know he'd be safe at this place and plenty exercised! I'm checking out more properties this weekend.

Separate, multiple acre pastures

Moving Again...

Today I received a message from my boarding people that starting in October, they will be increasing board as Calvin, "eats more than their horses, hay prices are going up, and their stall cleaner is increasing his prices." They're not just increasing it by $20-50 either, they spiked it up $100 more per month. Yeah...I don't think so. As I mentioned before, the mom is in the hospital and can't help out like she wanted, so boarding Calvin is apparently too much work for the father and daughter.

I thought this was a bit strange, they have three horses so I wouldn't think one more horse would be that much work, especially since I was a paying customer. I feel the need to justify to you readers that Calvin does not eat that much! This is outrageous and those who've followed my story know that his old roomie, Graf, ate much more than Calvin ever did. Calvin eats 3 flakes a day while their horses, and they have 3 horses, maybe eat 2 flakes.

Needless to say, I'm moving Calvin again! I have 3 very, very good potentials that I just need to go visit this month before he leaves the 1st of Oct. These are 2+ acre places that feed 2x/day and have been recommended by other people. The plus side to this whole ordeal is that Calvin is getting lots of trailer experience :) Stay tuned to hear more about our experience in moving toward the end of the month.

As for how Calvin is doing, he's healing up very slowly and is just the sweetest boy ever. Also, thanks to everyone who has been so supportive in this process as it's been stressful for both of us! 

Ah the good ol' days...

Hi, my name is Calvin and I like to hurt myself!

Calvin is pretty notorious for showing up with random scrapes on his body ever since I got him. I'd find random scrape marks on his head and wonder how he even got those in the first place since his pasture didn't have anything sharp. I chalked it up to him being dumb young and feeling the need to test his boundaries.

Yesterday I planned for a nice relaxing day (first mistake). I head out to the barn and it's already 88ºF at 10am, no problem though because I'll just brush him and maybe bareback on the property. I go to get him out of his stall and notice an inordinate amount of flies around his face. That's weird, I know it's fly season but this is kind of excessive. Oh I see, he scraped his neck! Ouch, that's kind of a deep scratch but will likely heal fine. Then I go to put on his halter and see it...

**Before I continue I'm giving a WARNING to anyone who is squeamish or doesn't like to see blood and gore. Please DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINKS TO THE PICTURES IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH GORE OR SEEING HORSE INJURIES. If you just want the text story and don't mind gory details then it's safe to keep reading, but if you don't even want to read about gore then I suggest stopping here.

Calvin managed to slice his chin open on both sides of his face. This didn't look like an ordinary scrape, oh no, it was an inch deep and I could see some lovely proud flesh. Well, now I have to call the vet! It's Sat though, so regular vets are closed and I'm trying to find an emergency on-call vet to come out and see him. Luckily I got ahold of one who was able to make it out fairly quickly. In the meantime, I rinsed his face and tried to find where on earth he would slice his face open. If you're wondering how he sliced both sides of his chin, it's because he's a horse.

L side initial injury after rinse            R Side after rinse           After vet prepped the area

The vet comes out to examine the wounds and says they are a bit older than she would like, probably 12-24 hours old. I hadn't been out since Monday due to starting school this week so I just saw this injury today. She was also able to identify where he hurt himself: on a piece of sheet metal in his stall. I feel bad that I didn't even notice this glaringly sharp object near his stall and mention it to the boarding lady. The boarding people felt awful and rightfully so. The main horse caretaker (the mother) was actually hospitalized last week for pneumonia deep in her lungs and is still in the hospital so the daughter and husband have been watching the horses. The daughter broke up with her fiance and just moved back in with her parents. The point is that the person who mainly cares for the horses was hospitalized and therefore the dad with MS was doing the horse feed and the daughter would only watch them sporadically. The daughter didn't know that her dad wasn't letting Calvin out to roam on the acre. I then made it very clear that he needs to roam and have "turnout time" because he's such a playful boy that when he's bored and confined, he'll get into trouble. Needless to say, they're turning him out more now.

See in the center how the wood has been chewed down and there's just enough room for a curious horse to stick his head through? That sheet metal siding is very sharp, poor Calvy! This area is now covered. 

The good news is that this injury was actually not that bad. The vet said that the lacerations were straight, which apparently is rare with horses and normally when they get lacerations it's in an L shape, making it more difficult to stitch up. Calvin was sedated with a "medium" dosage during this time, but he still had a bit of fight in him so the vet ended up having to give him more sedation. He doesn't like shots (who does?), so he'll shake his head when she goes to put the needle in, hence why he needed more sedation. This isn't the worst behavior (like say, a horse throwing their head up and running backwards), but it's the smart and annoying way to avoid shots. Finally she managed to get the needle in and drug him up. As the drugs were kicking in, I noticed he was stumbling and asked if he would fall down. The vet said that sedated horses do a good job of standing up and she's never had one lie down on her. Well, Calvin decided to break that trend and take a nap. He then very gently decides to lay down and let out a deep groan. We both stood there in shock for a few seconds before the vet exclaimed, "In the 4 years I've been doing this I've never had one lie down...until now" haha.

Oh and now it's about 105º at 12:30pm and I'm sweating profusely and haven't been drinking enough water. Not only that, but we're having to stand in the sun because Calvin decided he didn't want to stand in the shade. All of the sudden I start seeing stars and getting dizzy, I tell the vet "I feel like I'm going to faint!" She immediately helps me sit down in the shade and gives me a water while I suddenly can't hear, I'm seeing stars, and I feel tingling in my extremities. She said that lots of people get squeamish with blood, but this didn't make sense to me as I've seen lots of blood and been fine. I chalked it up to the heat and being dehydrated, I've had this almost happen before when I got overheated but this time it came on so suddenly, I didn't even realize I was dehydrated until it was too late. Perhaps I was locking my knees? I read online how standing in one place causes blood to pool in the feet and not return to the heart as easily which can also cause fainting, and I was doing a lot of standing, so that could have been it. Let this be a PSA to anyone else who's heat sensitive to not make this mistake!

Alright so let me set the scene for you now: we now have an 800lb horse laying down, a tiny female asian vet, and now dehydrated owner (myself) having to sit out and unable to help. The vet said normally she has her 6' male assistant with her to help, but since it's Sat he wasn't working. The vet tries getting Calvin up by pulling on the rope, yelling at him, and of course encouraging with a lead rope but he's very content to lay down. However, not content to have her stitch him while he's laying down, so we need to get him back up. She then sticks her finger in his wound which then irritates him enough to finally stand up. At this point, I'm a bit horrified yet also pretty impressed at how hard core this vet is! She definitely earned her $$ for that day. Calvin finally gets stitched, stapled, and cleaned up with lots of bute (Phenylbutazone-a strong painkiller) and antibiotics to give over the next 2 weeks, so he'll be absolutely fine folks! Now if you guys can just send positive vibes to Calvin that he won't itch his staples out and he'll heal nicely with no complications, that would be fantastic.

Needless to say, I've had better days. Here he is all stitched up: frankenhorse

Moving Day!

Calvin moved today out to his new boarding facility! I talked about my decision and why we had to move in my last post. I was a bit nervous because Calvin hasn't been in a slant load trailer ever, and his last trailer experience took at least an hour to load him. Despite his past, he was a very good boy this time. It's clear he trusts me more and even looked at me for help a few times like "why is this strange man tying me to a trailer? Are you sure this is okay?" He snorted at the trailer and was a bit nervous, but he walked right in with the help of some carrots. The hauler I hired used to do the hauling for my past horses too, so I knew he was a patient guy. He did not rush Calvin and didn't whip him to get inside like some haulers do. The only thing Calvin didn't like was being confined in the slant position and would paw at the trailer, but once we were on the road he calmed down and stopped.

He got a 6 horse trailer all to himself! He was in the 3rd window down (closed window), you can't see him because they close the windows for safety, but he got to keep the back windows open for airflow.

Once I got to his new home, we unloaded him pretty easily. The goal was to make this a positive experience for him, which I believe that it was! Once off the trailer, he was actually very calm and brave walking into his new surroundings! But oh my gosh was it hot out there, 97º! Luckily, his stalls have shade, but I'll have to ride early in the mornings. The owners were very friendly, they put fresh bedding down and filled his water tank right before he got there so it wouldn't be too hot. Quite the difference from my last place. They also have 3 labs so Heidi will have company when we come to visit Calvin, anyone who knows Heidi knows that labs are her favorite breed :)

The property goes all the way to the back house in the distance. They let the horses roam night & day and bring them into the stalls to eat 2x/day. From the stalls to the back house, Calvin will have an acre to roam with the other horses.

The facility owners decided it would be best for Calvin to stay in the large stalls for the evening and then turn them all loose tomorrow. He paced the stalls a bit and whinnied, I think he misses his friends and is nervous in the new place. However, I know he'll make friends with these horses as he's pretty easy going. I even told the owners that I don't mind if their horses chase him because he could use the exercise! Can't wait to head out on some new trails once he's more comfortable, and I'll be sure to keep everyone updated!

Calvin in his stall, this is normally just where he will eat until he's finished and then he'll go back outside and roam the acre.

Last Group Trail at the Ranch

We signed up for the same ride that we did back in May. Since we're moving locations at the end of the month (see previous post), this would be our last time on this trail. Unlike last time, we were told to arrive at 8am and then we could do the trail twice since it's not that long. I could see some major improvements since the last time we did this trail. Calvin was calmer and trusted me more as the rider. He was also in better shape and took until the second time around to get tired!

It's a fun ride because you get all sorts of horseback riding levels and personalities. The scared amateurs who don't know how to control their horses and/or are afraid of their horses. The confident trail riders on dead broke horses who make riding look too easy. The advanced riders on younger/more difficult horses like myself, and the people on gaited horses who always ride in front because their horses walk so fast!

Calvin bonding with Mona Lisa. Never mind that she tried to kick him a week ago, he holds no hard feelings toward her ;)

This is Calvin's previous pasture mate Olive, he misses her and enjoyed sticking with her for most of the ride. We could actually see the ocean before the smog arrived.

Trail ride by ourselves. Sometimes he's a little too in touch with his wild heritage and will veer off the nicely paved path into the brush. Notice how it goes up to his shoulders, silly Mustang!

Overall, a nice ride to end our time at the Ranch.

When it Rains it Pours

Hey readers, sorry for the lack of posts lately! I have had some major life changes happening, including moving into a new apartment. Not only moving myself, but I had to find another boarding stable for Calvin.

As some of my family and friends have already heard, I put in my 30 days at my current boarding location. They sent us a letter at the beginning of August saying that they are shutting down the pastures where Calvin is located. They apparently got fined around $40,000 and given the option to either shut it down or to fix the problem & pay the money. The boarding place where Calvin is was fined by the city for not having permits for horses or the land, I'm not savvy about permits so I'm not entirely sure what permit they did not have. The stable owner does not own the land Calvin was on, he only leases it and he wants out of the horse boarding business. Therefore, we were given the option to either relocate to smaller pastures, relocate to stalls that he owns, or find somewhere else. I decided to move Calvin somewhere else. In a way I'm relieved, Calvin will have shelter from the rain and I won't have to shovel poop anymore. As my mom put it, "you're taking care of him like he's in your backyard" except that I was paying over $300 a month. Out where I'm looking board is less expensive, but it's a drive and I'll miss the beautiful oak trees from this location. The hardest part will be moving him away from Graf, they are such good friends now and really do love each other.

My friends I've made at this new barn are also leaving in the fall, which is a huge reason why I decided to look elsewhere. Also Graf, Calvin's new pasture buddy, is also leaving in the fall because his owner bought horse property. With no reason to stay, I decided to look in another area for horse boarding. I asked on facebook to see if anyone knew of pasture boarding and I actually got some offers from private boarders. I went to look at these properties a few weeks ago and found a place I really liked. The owner feeds the horses 2x/day in stalls and then turns them out on her 1 acre property to roam the rest of the day/night.

I was excited about the fact that Calvin could now have an entire acre to roam on with other horses. He would also get good orchard hay (grass hay) and not the alfalfa cubes which he's eating now. Side note, I'm not a fan of the alfalfa cubes because C. has found dead mouse bones and barbed wire in them before, plus long stem hay is healthier for them anyway. I am disappointed that he won't be free-fed anymore. He has gained weight and looks absolutely fabulous with a shiny coat! The thing is that free-feeding is so rare with boarding facilities, most think that free feeding will cause horses to gain weight. If we lived on the East Coast or somewhere with grass pasture, this would be a non issue because he could munch all day on grass and then get hay on top of that. Yet on the West Coast we have lovely "dry lots" with no grass, so most people only feed 2x/day and that's all the horses get. I had to decide between two less-than-ideal options: keep Calvin in a stall and free-feed OR keep Calvin in a pasture and get 2x/day feeding. Due to his young age, I opted to keep him in a pasture. They will feed him separately at the new boarding location so at least he will get his fill before being turned out again with the other horses. Since I already paid for Aug at the current boarding location, he won't move to his new boarding location until Aug. 31st. I'll make a new post of him in his new home after that.

Calvin and Graf getting into trouble knocking wheelbarrows over!