Rodeo Louvin

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.1

Friskies

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.1

Today

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.1

My my, Louvin, that ratty brown halter that showed up on your head the other day sure does make you look handsome. (Pretty sure it's Bobbi's, she turns him out for me sometimes).

Fuuuunky angles. I swear he didn't gain 200 lbs on his neck since I last posted.

And finally, he's gotten a bit of a winter coat.  And, come to find out, he's not a TB at all, he's an Appy. lol.

Has these white roany patches on both sides. The other side is actually quite a bit bigger but the pic didn't come out.

This is how classy we are. Making my poor horse eat out of a kitty litter bucket and drink out of old pickle buckets (well, he has one normal water bucket). He hasn't complained, but he's gettin' all matching buckets for christmas because honestly, as many times as I tell myself it doesn't matter... it drives me nuts!

What Louvin is currently eating

I get asked this fairly often, so here's what I'm currently feeding him.

40-50# timothy hay
4 liters of beet pulp shreds, measured dry. Yes, I know, I should weigh that.
7.5# Strategy
1 oz Dynamite
2 oz DAC Bloom
1 oz DAC Oil

New Pics-

Riding update

The other night I was riding Louvin around- he was being great- forward but not dumb and was listening very well. I was cantering him in circles and impulsively decided to try for a flying lead change. I don't know why, it was pretty silly- a lot to ask.

First time, got it halfway. Promising. So I went and set it up less impulsively and holy cow- there it was.

Wonder what else he knows? I really didn't think he had a lot of training on him, but heck, maybe he does.

Love the sand!

Update

The Blogger app I've been using decided to stop allowing me to post pictures with it- pain in the rear.

Louvin's been very good lately. He ran into a tree last week when he was tearing around the paddock like an idiot- got a few scratches but escaped without any real injuries. Knucklehead.

I've got some pictures of my gorgeous beast for ya-

Gratuitous ass pic- they're so dang cute.

lovely weather

For a lovely ride. He was very good, getting much lighter- when he started dragging ass at the trot I gave him a shoulder tap that he would have ignored or flipped his head at last week and he stepped right into a really really really smooth canter. Rode it once around then pulled him up but maaaaan- I could ride that for days. His trot isn't bad either- huge when I get him going, but that canter...

This horse is gonna be a heck of a nice ride when he's in shape!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.1

having pic upload issues

from breakfast

Eye... maybe ok, and an awesome ride.

I'm still gonna keep a crazy close watch on it, but no tears this am and when I dyed it, it was clear (no abrasions). No squinting or any other symptoms, so I think I'm just being mawmaw worried about it (sure hope so).

So I decided to hop on him tonight. We've had some issues I don't think I've really gone into here- fussing at any contact was one, and being resistant was the other- a normal walk even was hard to come by, and when I escalated aids he'd just get more fussy and less forward. Have been working on both, but he'd just not wanted to move out. Made some solid progress the other night when I got my friend to work her horse and we paired up- he moved out more than he had been solo. Still got some head tossing fits that night though.

Tonight? I got 'go'. I got forward walking, a very up trot, and even a little canter (that I didn't ask for, but I'm not repremanding any forward movement right now). Totally different attitude, he finally got that it's ok to move out, that I really do want him to. Not a single head toss, he was 'up' but mindful. It was great!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.1

crap

A lone tear from the "good" eye.

:(

Please, let's not have this be bad....

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.1

October 5, 2010 2:58 PM

Two grumpy geldings and a baby.

October 5, 2010 3:53 PM

More pics from yesterday

Look at that butt!

Bath time in the weird wash rack thing-

Wet, looking skinny. Shows how far we still have to go pretty well. 

Bay TB ID quiz

I'm gonna go out on a limb here, but I think even though he still needs some more weight, he actually kinda looks better than the horse he was mistaken for yesterday (who's a 4 yo- I think- TB mare). But to be fair, she is wearing a lot more winter woolies than he is, and he'd just gotten a bath. 

today

Louvin got a bath, then i turned him out next to the barn for a bit. One of the other boarders saw him and mistook him for the other bay TB out there- who's a bit of a a chunky gal. That was awesome!

A bit later, the other TB's owner came out and asked if she could go out with Louvin. Course I said yes... and the two of 'em next to each other- yeah. He's lookin' good!

And crud, pics are being weird. Lemmee try to figure this out...

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.1

Dinner pics

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.3.1

Cuteness

Also from yesterday, Louvin not being amused at all by Clover's goofy baby faces.

He's tolerating her better though, when he first met her he wanted to eat her. I can't really blame him- I'm not much of a fan of children of my own species either. I've been making a point of tying him by her stall to teach him that it's not ok to try to eat foals when I'm around. He can be a grumpy old man on his own time.



I took my dog, Spider Stacy, out to the farm last night for the first time. He's never been around horses before- except the mules and buggies in the Quarter, he's never been very interested in them. He was a good dog and had a great time. Met Louvin- Spider thought Louvin was pretty cool, Louvin didn't care much one way or the other about Spider, and got to run around with some kids for a loooong time. He was one tired dog by the time we got home. He's a bit curious about the horses but was definitely way more interested in the people hanging around.

Longeing yesterday

Started him out in the arena on the line but he got a little opinionated about where he wanted to be, so we skipped on over to the round pen- I'm starting to see why folks like round pens so much. I coulda worked through it in the arena, but why not make it easy?

He went pretty darn well for the first time in side reins. Took him a little bit, but he was giving... until I got out my phone to catch him looking good- then he went back to ducking and tossing to avoid the contact. No biggie though, he was getting it well enough that I don't think it will take any time at all for him to do it consistently enough for me to be able to catch a good clip of it.



And a pic-

rode last night

The farm was kickin' last night, everyone came out of the woodwork to play with their horses. It'd been awhile since a lot of them had ridden- got to see some rodeo shit in the arena.

In spite of that, I saddled up and got on him (with some help, dang knee). First time I'd ridden him tacked up. It went ok. I did about 15 minutes at a walk when my knee told me this was a stupid thing to be doing and I listened to it and hopped off.

He wasn't diggin' contact with his face much, even pulled some head tossing crap. Think I'll swap out the gifted D ring for my full cheek french link and see how that goes, throw him on the line w/ some side reins too.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.3.1

Video!

Earth shattering footage of Louvin trotting in the pasture.

Seriously, it's a really boring video. But we all gotta start somewhere- at least now I know how to do it.

ETA: I love that all of youtube's clip suggestions after this clip are the Louvin Brothers. :)

Finally, some nice weather!

It's 73 and breezy, finally a break from the stagnant 90's!

Mr. Louvin is obviously enjoying it. He didn't particularly want to be caught this morning. I had to send him off twice (which he did with glee) before he stood for me. Sooo.. I guess he's no longer a perfect gentleman. heheh.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.3.1

Sept 23rd pics

My saddle arrived in town, so I tried it on him. Good to go, it's just right. Can't wait to ride in it- just gotta wait for my own knee to heal up and then I'll start riding him. Hopefully it won't be too long.

And a few more pics- from dinner time.

You can still see the unevenness here, but it definitely doesn't look as bad as it did when he was super skinny. 

Sept 17th pictures

My little gentleman

Louvin decided he didn't want to wear his flymask today, so he took it off and put it in his empty water bucket for me (don't worry, he has 2 other water buckets- he just drinks the red one dry before touching the others).

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.3.1

Treats!

My friend Mandy came out with me tonight to meet Louvin. She brought a bag of carrots and an apple for him. He wanted nothing to do with the apple but he went nuts for the carrots!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.3.1

Ride

These are from our second ride. Handed Bobbi the camera and walked him around for a little bit. Most of the pics didn't come out (dark/blurry) but a couple is better than none right?

He continued to be an angel. I took him in the regular arena the day after this for another walk. He was much more responsive in there.

Presents from Arkansas

Ozland from HC sent me/Louvin a box of goodies. Awesome!

Hooray for stuff. As we were taking these photos, Louvin decided to pee. Now, it's a pain to clean up after a horse who pees in the aisle all the time. I said something about that to Bobbi as he readied himself to let loose. She grabbed an empty bucket and... yeah. Of course I took a picture of that weirdness too.

Big update to follow

I have a few things to talk about but most of the related pictures are on my mac so you'll have to wait until I'm at work for me to post 'em.

In other news, my BFF of the past 20-ish years and her momma are coming down for a vacation in a few weeks. They decided to drive so she's going to stop by my parents and grab my tack for me.

This, of course, meant that I needed to tell my parents that my friend would be picking up tack for me. And why.

It is a bit insane that I, a 30 yo independent small buisness owner, was keeping a 'secret pet' from my parents who live a thousand miles away, but seriously- my mom is not an animal person and I just wasn't looking forward to the conversation. She doesn't get it.

It didn't go too badly. After I told her how much I paid for him and how much board is she chilled a little... and gave me helpful suggestions like "if you move, you can find your local equivalent to the Shipshewana auctions and sell him there by the pound and not be out much." Leave it to my momma to go there.

I should add- she's not really that evil, she just tends to say evil things. After Katrina when I was a homeless horse owner with very little money, she paid to have my horse hauled up to where they live in IN. Then she offered to keep him for the winter when I decided to move back to NOLA in Oct. and when it became apparent that there wasn't going to be anywhere for me to keep him down here for quite some time, she took care of getting him sold for me.

All that probably plays a big role in her attitude about me gettin a new critter. She doesn't wanna go through that again! Can't blame her.

So in spite of the rotten things that come out of her mouth, she's actually always been awesome to me and my critters.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.3.1

Aw, what the hell.

I worked him a bit in the round pen tonight. He was great even though it was a little soupy.

After 5 minutes or so, I said, as the title of the post implies "Aw, what the hell" and got on him. Sat on him, walked him a couple hundred yards, sat a little more, then hopped off.

Note to the general public: hopping on your rescue for the first time at night, in the dark, bareback, with just his halter and a lead, with no one around- that's really stupid. Especially if you've only ridden a handful of times in the past couple years.

I figured it'd be just fine with Louvin though, and it was. :)

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.3.1

This town is too hot

Louvin was fine today, I went out a little later than usual to see him in the heat of the day.

I think he was dehydrated yesterday. He drinks a lot of water, so that wasn't my first concern... But last night I pulled his salt/mineral block because he'd annihilated it. Only had it for a couple days, but it was in 3 pieces and probably half of it had been consumed. Hard too tell exactly, because there were lots of crushed up bits in the corners of his feeder, but I think it's safe to say he was over indulging.

Knucklehead.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.3.1

Heat

Pic of Louvin trying to sneak back into the barn- he was successful via this doorway once before (d'oh, my fault), so when I wouldn't bring him in at the back gate, this is where he went. He was tired of waitin' on dinner.

Bobbi fed Louvin for me this am (well, noonish I think) and she was pretty worried about him not taking the heat well. Said his resp rate was up and that he seemed hot. I'm not too freaked out about it- the humidity levels have maxed out in the 90% range the past couple days in addition to the high temps we've had (90's)- I've definitely been feeling it more than usual for this summer, so it's not surprising he is too.

I brought him out a fan and got it all set up for him. Hopefully the heat/humidty will let up soon.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.3.1

Pig piggity

I've been cleaning his stall twice a day, this is what happens when I don't. This is probably around 16 hours of confinement. And that 5 foot wide 'pee spot'- yeah. 5" deep of soaked bedding. 3 wheel barrows full of yuck.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.3.1

Sound 'nuff tonight

Turned Louvin out into the arena w/ his girlfriend for a bit tonight, they tore it up for awhile and he didn't take a bad step. I thought about taking him over to the round pen to see if maybe the circles are what makes him uncomfortable but decided he'd had enough exercise for the night.

Made the poor dear stay in tonight, but don't feel too bad for him. Left him with a good 50 some odd pounds of hay to keep him entertained.

Here's something Bobbi posted on HC on a thread about the differences in hay cuttings-

Nobody refuses the June hay....well...except for Louvin (3 Stars Corc's new horse). "Mr. Thang" went from "Oh my goodness....HAY!!!" to " "got anything else to eat around here?" He reminds me of the evacuess from Hurricane Katrina in Texas. After being taken care of and fed daily....they began to refuse the sandwiches and asked if "Yall got any red beans around this place...we are sick of the sandwiches!" ----

Yep, sums up my horse pretty well. heheh.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.3.1

Pic, update. Same ol, same ol.

Bobbi measured him at 910 with a weight tape yesterday. That's about 80-90 lbs up from when I got him, and that's probably a bit conservative considering how he's filling out (yes, I'm talking about his butt again, I can't believe how big it's getting).

He's getting the low end of the recommended amount of strategy, beet pulp (as much as I can get him to eat, he's not a fan), dac bloom and all the hay he can eat along with turn out in good pasture. Seems to be doing the trick.

He's still stepping short at the trot- his feet have gotten thrushy again- he was ouchie from that when I got him, thought I'd gotten it knocked out. I'm back on treating it, hopefully that's the cause. He was reactive when I was cleaning them tonight, so I know he's feeling it, just don't know if it's uncomfortable enough to make him off. I hope it is, I can fix that.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.3.1