HOMBRE

This post is regarding a little gelding I had when I was a young girl. My grandfather left a field drag in the horse pasture with the tines pointing up. Well we all know where this is going. Needless to say my 1 1/2 year old 1/2 Arab 1/2 POA gelding got his leg in the thing and severed all the tendons in his hind left leg. My parents discovered it and brought him to the barn. My Dad put a piece of rope around his fetlock and worked the foot back and forth while my mom led him. They then called all the vets they could find, most of them wanted to know if he was a high dollar horse and if not my dad should just put him down. Well my little English grandmother finally found a Vet in Onekama after she gave him a good scolding he said he would come over. He drove 2 hours to help my horse. He and my father performed surgery on my gelding. The vet tied together all of the tendons that were severed and then placed a cast on my horses leg. My dad made a steel reinforcement for the cast out of an old steel step in fence post one of those short nasty ones. They are hard to explain they look like those little step in temporary fiberglass ones but they were steel. I doubt they make them anymore they were pretty dangerous. Anyway the wing part at the bottom was molded around the hoof and the rod went up the front of the leg it was sandwiched between the layers of Cast material. The surgery took a long time, then the recovery time was the crucial time because often times a horse will panic when they come out of the anesthetic with a cast on. My dad and the vet spent 14 hours with my horse. He never panicked he woke up and just proceeded to eat laying down. Then got up on his own without a fuss. I was away for the week when this happened. When I came home my parents told me and I did not think I would ever be able to stop crying. I am crying right now writing this. I was told by the vet that I had to begin an exercise routine after a week walking him and brushing him. I did this daily for 9 weeks. After the 9 weeks we were to go to the vet to get the cast removed but there was no way in this world my dad could get that horse in a trailer. So my dad talked to the vet and he told him what to do. My dad removed the cast then he had to remove stitches. The stitches kept surfacing for several weeks after the cast was off and my dad would pull them out. I had to continue my walking and massage the leg daily. I did this without fail. When my gelding was healed and moving around in the pasture by himself for a while my dad said I could begin to ride him. We knew he had a limp and he might forever, there was not way to know if I would be able to continue to ride him or he would be a pasture pet his whole life. As I rode a little bit at a time every couple of days (I only weighed 40 # or so). Miraculously the limp disappeared. I actually cant remember when it stopped. Eventually this little gelding was my 4-H show horse and we did speed events. He was unbelievable we were actually the fastest in kalkaska at the time. We won every barrel race we entered. Looking back I wish I had known more about things like i do now.What brought all of this up is, I was wondering the other day what happened to that Vet my parents cant seem to remember his name and I would love to tell him how it all turned out. I never got to meet him or find out who he was. Then today while I was doing some cleaning I found the picture of my little gelding with his cast on. I thought it was lost for life and the amazing thing was I found it in a desk calender that was from 2005 but I never made a single entry in that calender. Because we recycle I ripped the paper part out to put in the recycle bin and there was the picture. If I had just thrown it in the trash that goes to the garbage pickup I would have lost it forever. These things often make me wonder when they happen. That little horse still speaks to me from over the rainbow bridge, in that I mean what I learned is invaluable and sometimes I even have dreams that I am riding him.

I will be posting the pics

Thankfulness

Thank-ful-ness.
Sometimes things have a way of showing them self to you. They create a feeling and your so comfortable with it that you barely pay it any mind then one day suddenly there it is. Its been there all along but you were too busy or not in the right frame of mind to notice it.
Yesterday I realized one of those things. I am tremendously grateful and thankful for.....you wont believe it........ a clothes line. I love laundry on the line. I kinda hate putting it up there but the reward of seeing up on the line is what pulls me through the part I dislike. It is satisfying and fulfilling to see it and to smell it after it has dried in our warm Michigan air. We have this beautiful smell in our yard in the evening, kinda sweet and comfortable. I am not even sure what plants or trees make that smell but if you leave your clothes up after dark or even overnight they smell just like that the next day. And ooohhhh if you put blankets or sheets up and leave them over night, they smell like the sweet summer air for several nights after you put them on the bed.

I think my love affair with the clothes line goes back to summer days at my grandparents house. Gram always had laundry on her clothes line. She had a beautiful sturdy clothes line that I often tied my Pony Pebbles to. Much to my Grams despair I would do this even when there was laundry on the line. I can remember thinking that I shouldn't do it, Gram will not approve, but justifying it was easy, I would say to myself Pebbles was the most wonderful pony on earth she couldn't possible harm Grams sheets. In my eyes that pony was perfect. Actually I still see her as perfect. Looking back it amazes me how wise she was. She wasn't much older than 5 or 6 when I started riding her. My Grandpa had saved her from a Kill pen. She was very petite but had perfect horse confirmation in a little package. She was a Sorrel with Flaxen mane and Tail. That pony was smart she knew how to handle children. She had a load limit. If you were of a certain age or certain size you were too big for her. She would figure out how to get you off her back, most of the time a small half hearted buck would do the trick, nothing hard enough to hurt anyone just enough to announce her protest. If that didn't work she would trot you to death with short choppy steps that no one could stand.
I have heard such horror stories about Ponies but I often think to myself" if I were a pony I would not want some of those brats on my back either". Maybe ponies are justified in their behavior, I don't know? I do know that my pony was the best on earth and the wisest. After all she even taught me to be thankful for clothes lines.

Control is in the Training, Not the other way around.
(Training gives you control of your horse. Control does not make a horse trained.)
If I have learned nothing more in my life with horses its that it take time to make a great horse and there is no sence rushing. God made horses live a long time so you might as well slow down.
When I was young I could get my horse to do anything no trouble no hesitation. I asked myself why? Then I realized it was because I spent time with my horse. I spent hours riding and grooming and just grazing him. We need to slow down with our horses and take the time. Native Americans lived with their horses, they spent time with them. They were unbelievable riders and thier horses were steady and trustworthy even in fierce battle.
So spend some time just being in the moment with your horse. Live in horse time for a day. See what happens to your relationship with your horse.

Setting Myself Up for Success

Just finished a book by Jane Savoie, Its Not Just About the Ribbons.
Wow what a book. Here is the link to purchase it from http://www.amazon.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Its-Not-Just-About-Ribbons/dp/1570762554/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246990162&sr=1-5

This book has really helped me in my work life not just my riding life.
If you have fear when you ride, if you don't know how to set goals for your riding, if you want to improve your riding or just want to move forward in your horse related life, you will find this book priceless.
It seems that Jane also believes as I do that horses can read your mind and keeping the right picture in your mind helps your horse.
The techniques in the book help me to implement an idea we have had in our family for some time. My other half always says" things get spoken into reality, good and bad". After reading Jane's book I realize this is very true. It shows you how to use that notion to your advantage and how to think in positive terms so your sub conscious mind can use the information you give it to help you improve.
So as part of my statement to the Universe.

I will ride with confidence.
I will feed my body with healthy amounts of the correct foods.
My goal is to horse camp with my horses and trail ride regularly with happy confident horses.
I will live my best life with my horses by riding regularly and setting goals for my equestrian pursuits and achieving them.

There anyone care to join the statement posts.
Add your self proclaiming statements. Then we will check back to see every ones progress.