which_chick (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
which_chick) wrote2007-09-03 10:32 pm
which_chick) wrote2007-09-03 10:32 pm
(no subject)
I know you're all totally anxious to hear about the horse updates and there are horse updates. Before we get to the horse updates, I have two unrelated bits of not-horsey items to share.
I'm not lying.
Item 1: If your sink trap leaks, you cannot fix it with two plastic grocery store bags and a shoe string. You need to go to the hardware and buy some new plastic sink trap pieces and put them on. It'll cost less than ten dollars. There is no plumbing on this planet where the sink trap can be fixed with two plastic grocery store bags and a shoe string. You are not the MacGyver of plumbing. Please use the appropriate parts or give up without trying and just call the fucking landlord.
Item 2: If you are making a show about the post apocalyptic survival of a little town in Kansas and someone is typing in an IP address, it's nice to be sure that the IP address is actually a real one. They don't go up past 255 for any of the dotted quads. Most everyone knows this. Also, please do not show horses trampling someone as they are "stampeded" past. Horses will work pretty damned hard to NOT walk on squishy-moving-footing. They don't LIKE to walk on people if at all possible -- not because they're some kind of Man's Best Friend but because prone humans ARE NOT SAFE, SOLID FOOTING.
Okay. On to the horse outings.
Sunday: La and I went up to Bark and out to Pittman and down to Roaring Run and to the creek there and then back. We walked a lot. Interestingly, we saw an ATV-mounted State Forest Person patrolling for errant ATV riders. He asked if we'd seen any. We said no. (We've never, ever seen ATV riders on the west slope of Sideling Hill where we condition the horses.) He seemed kind of pleased to see us there, using the state forest in an acceptable and non-destructive manner.
We also saw an old pickup truck (very polite, pulled over and shut off b/c my horse was acting stupid) and a nice older couple out chasing mushrooms (for eating, I guess) with a quiet SUV that didn't appear to bother my horse.
Nick liked the Roaring Run creek the second time around and she drank lots. Phantom's feet hurt, so we walked a lot more than usual on Bark Road.
Monday: Theron put shoes on Casper and Phantom (who desperately needed 'em) and we (Me, La, Cass) hauled down to Ede's to ride with Erin and Gillian and Katherine. (Erin and Gillian are La's cousins. Katie is Erin's 4-H sized daughter. Ede is the mother of Erin and Gillian and it's her house where the horses are.) It was a really good learning ride.
Previously, in the last two weeks, Nick had twice hit her right hind fetlock in an interfering injury (the other back foot was running into it, we think). This is new, mostly because her shod feet are growing out and she's not got a whole lot of clearance on the back feet to start with. Longer feet means heavier feet that fly slightly differently... and when there's no clearance to start with, a wee bit different is all it takes for an injury. Today, I put Cass's horrible purple bell boots on Nick's back feet to see if that would make her pay more attention to them and keep her from marking 'em up. The bell boots didn't cover the injury area but they did make her lift her back feet higher than normal. She came up clean at the end of the ride, so maybe they did some good. We'll be trying them again on Wed. I'm having Nick's feet done the Monday before the ride, so all I really need here is two weeks, maybe six or eight rides, and we're golden.
We also worked on our rating skills. Gillian's folks canter more and more quickly than we're used to. (One of the benefits of riding with other people is that it stretches your horse's skills out of the area you, personally, are comfortable with.) As a result, they kind of went flying down the road, pulling away from us. Nick was a bit worried but she rated and DID NOT fight and pleasantly cantered along, only a little worried that They Were Leaving Us Behind. (This is a tough skill for horses, the getting-left-behind skill.) I was fairly impressed that she rated... but more so that she handled rating at the canter with The Group some 200 yards ahead of us, everybody trucking along on a gravel secondary road RIGHT NEXT TO I-70 (exactly on the outside of the fence) where she could see/here the oncoming traffic including semi trucks. I-70 at 6 PM or so on Monday evening of Labor Day Weekend is a busy road. There was plenty of traffic and she did, yes, look at it kind of worriedly... but she rated and she didn't lose her mind at the canter even though They Were Leaving Us Behind. Yay! (We did have Phantom staying with us, but he was twenty feet behind Nick and she didn't feel particularly reassured by his presence.)
Anyway. It was a pretty good outing with lots of useful practice. I was happy. Right now, though, I'm so tired I can barely see straight. It's time for bed.
.
I'm not lying.
Item 1: If your sink trap leaks, you cannot fix it with two plastic grocery store bags and a shoe string. You need to go to the hardware and buy some new plastic sink trap pieces and put them on. It'll cost less than ten dollars. There is no plumbing on this planet where the sink trap can be fixed with two plastic grocery store bags and a shoe string. You are not the MacGyver of plumbing. Please use the appropriate parts or give up without trying and just call the fucking landlord.
Item 2: If you are making a show about the post apocalyptic survival of a little town in Kansas and someone is typing in an IP address, it's nice to be sure that the IP address is actually a real one. They don't go up past 255 for any of the dotted quads. Most everyone knows this. Also, please do not show horses trampling someone as they are "stampeded" past. Horses will work pretty damned hard to NOT walk on squishy-moving-footing. They don't LIKE to walk on people if at all possible -- not because they're some kind of Man's Best Friend but because prone humans ARE NOT SAFE, SOLID FOOTING.
Okay. On to the horse outings.
Sunday: La and I went up to Bark and out to Pittman and down to Roaring Run and to the creek there and then back. We walked a lot. Interestingly, we saw an ATV-mounted State Forest Person patrolling for errant ATV riders. He asked if we'd seen any. We said no. (We've never, ever seen ATV riders on the west slope of Sideling Hill where we condition the horses.) He seemed kind of pleased to see us there, using the state forest in an acceptable and non-destructive manner.
We also saw an old pickup truck (very polite, pulled over and shut off b/c my horse was acting stupid) and a nice older couple out chasing mushrooms (for eating, I guess) with a quiet SUV that didn't appear to bother my horse.
Nick liked the Roaring Run creek the second time around and she drank lots. Phantom's feet hurt, so we walked a lot more than usual on Bark Road.
Monday: Theron put shoes on Casper and Phantom (who desperately needed 'em) and we (Me, La, Cass) hauled down to Ede's to ride with Erin and Gillian and Katherine. (Erin and Gillian are La's cousins. Katie is Erin's 4-H sized daughter. Ede is the mother of Erin and Gillian and it's her house where the horses are.) It was a really good learning ride.
Previously, in the last two weeks, Nick had twice hit her right hind fetlock in an interfering injury (the other back foot was running into it, we think). This is new, mostly because her shod feet are growing out and she's not got a whole lot of clearance on the back feet to start with. Longer feet means heavier feet that fly slightly differently... and when there's no clearance to start with, a wee bit different is all it takes for an injury. Today, I put Cass's horrible purple bell boots on Nick's back feet to see if that would make her pay more attention to them and keep her from marking 'em up. The bell boots didn't cover the injury area but they did make her lift her back feet higher than normal. She came up clean at the end of the ride, so maybe they did some good. We'll be trying them again on Wed. I'm having Nick's feet done the Monday before the ride, so all I really need here is two weeks, maybe six or eight rides, and we're golden.
We also worked on our rating skills. Gillian's folks canter more and more quickly than we're used to. (One of the benefits of riding with other people is that it stretches your horse's skills out of the area you, personally, are comfortable with.) As a result, they kind of went flying down the road, pulling away from us. Nick was a bit worried but she rated and DID NOT fight and pleasantly cantered along, only a little worried that They Were Leaving Us Behind. (This is a tough skill for horses, the getting-left-behind skill.) I was fairly impressed that she rated... but more so that she handled rating at the canter with The Group some 200 yards ahead of us, everybody trucking along on a gravel secondary road RIGHT NEXT TO I-70 (exactly on the outside of the fence) where she could see/here the oncoming traffic including semi trucks. I-70 at 6 PM or so on Monday evening of Labor Day Weekend is a busy road. There was plenty of traffic and she did, yes, look at it kind of worriedly... but she rated and she didn't lose her mind at the canter even though They Were Leaving Us Behind. Yay! (We did have Phantom staying with us, but he was twenty feet behind Nick and she didn't feel particularly reassured by his presence.)
Anyway. It was a pretty good outing with lots of useful practice. I was happy. Right now, though, I'm so tired I can barely see straight. It's time for bed.
.
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