Winter Storm Atlanta 2014

A winter weather storm hit Atlanta and shut the city down.  The horses did not seem to mind very much though.

Spring Ride

Went for a ride today at Kennesaw Mountain. Khari was quite full of herself. I have not been paying as much attention to her as I should have. The weather, changing barns, and time have prevented me from riding as much as I have wanted too. So we loaded up and hit the trail today. We walked and trotted for about two hours. We also worked on crossing bridges as she has developed a dislike of them recently. Also noticed she was doing a funky trot today. Looking forward to our next ride.

New Year, New Barn

So this year started off with moving to a new barn.  We found a little barn not too far from us that we are going to lease for awhile.  It needed some work, but so far is turning out to be really nice.  There are a couple down sides to having your own barn:
1.) You are there by yourself
2.) This barn does not really have a place to ride
On the upside you can pretty much do what you want as long as owner is okay with it. :)  All in all really enjoying the new barn.
So with warm weather fast approaching I am beginning to start thinking about what rides I would like to do this year and getting together a training strategy to get Khari and myself in shape.
Here are some pictures of Khari at her new barn :)

Horse Training

I have continued to work with my horse over the last several months.  The summer, this year, was too hot to do much riding.  So with fall here, my horse and I have been putting in some quality time.  Being an Arabian she is always going to be a little temperamental.  But over the last few months I have seen her start to come out of her fear/flight instincts.  It has been a rewarding experience to see this kind of change in horse like her. 

Tarps have always been a hard thing for her, it moves, makes a noise, and they come in different shapes size and colors.  A true monster for this horse.  She is now starting to lip the tarp.  I was so excited.  Hopefully one day she will be able to confidently walk right under it and not blink and eye.
Until next time...Rebekah.

Horse with a Sore Back

My horse has been off the last half of November, December and January due to a sore back.  We started doing light ground work the first of February.  She had lost all of her muscle tone.  The vet was not sure as to why her back was sore because her saddle fit properly.  We have a new pad and are taking things at a much slower rate now.  Here are some pictures that were taken a few weeks ago.

You can see from the above pictures that she has very little hindquarter muscles and her forequarters are also under developed at this point in time.  Her coat, hair and hooves are very healthy.  She also has all of her energy back and is not sluggish now or resistant.

Week 4

This week we mainly focused on the same thing all week.  Riding, riding and more riding.  I rode 4 days this week and kept it to an hour and a half to 2 hours, 30 to 40 min of trotting with the same time spent walking and 5 to 10 min of canter somewhere in the middle. 

Khari's mouth seemed sore after 2 days this week of riding in a full cheek snaffle, so I rode in a rope halter one day, and then went back to her Myler comfort snaffle.  Her head quit bobbing up and down and she seemed more relaxed.  Her back, legs, and feet seem to be handling the work fine.  I did notice a little thrush in her feet so I started a bleach and water treatment to kill it.  All in all she seems to like it.

My goal is to slowly increase the distance, with shorter days of speed training.  I need to find a few longer trails and take her on them.

Week 3

I am just now getting a chance to write down my thoughts from last week's training.  The weather here last week was rainy so it put a bit of a hinderance on my plans, but I did get in some good riding.  We focused on trotting for about 30 to 40 min with about 10 min of cantering and then 30 to 40 min of walking with some small uphill terrain.  We did this 3 days last week.  We had an in between day where we walked for about 30 to 40 min inside because of the rain. She had been shut in all day. 
I have been mointering her wieght and so far she seems to be maitaining.  She appears to be putting on muscle, but not losing weight.  I have also started feeding her Vitamin E so lactic acid won't build up in her muscles and a flake of timothy mixed hay at night.  On nights when I work her and she sweats, she gets electroylites and extra beet pulp and alfala cubes with her feed.  On nights she is not worked she gets her normal ration.
As for myself I have also started trying to build muscle up in my own body esp. my upper body, abs, and core, so that I can support myself better when I ride and have a better fitness level for the both of us.  I have dropped below 120 lbs. which is not good.  I am getting back my "runner's body" which is not enough muscle.  Since I would already be "underweight" for endurance runs and would have to pack weight I am going to begin to work on adding extra muscle and not just losing fat.
Until next time...