Massage Miracles

Bonnie and Sky both had massages this past Friday. It has been several years since I've had one of my horses massaged. They are regulars for the chiropractor a few times a year but I felt like something more was needed. My biggest issue with Sky has been head lifting/tossing. We've made huge strides in that department but it is an ongoing issue in our work. We've worked away at the problem through dressage work but especially during canter to trot transitions or while jumping it is still a habit. Often during the trot or canter, even when she has good swing in her back, good push from behind and she generally would have looked the part of a horse on the bit, it still didn't always feel right, like she couldn't get to a comfortable place and then stay there.

I didn't say much at first to the message therapist, I wanted to see what he found. I am working with Richard Valdez, an amazing message therapist in our area who has travelled to the World Equestrian Games in the past with our equestrian team as their official message therapist. As it turns out poor Sky had major issues throughout her neck, although her back and hindquarters all felt pretty good. At one point when Richard was working on one of the very troubling spots on her neck Sky actually turned around with ears flat back, mouth open and teeth bared, it hurt that much. I was shocked, she has never even thought about pinning her ears at a person, much less gone after someone with teeth bared!

Richard spent the better part of an hour working on Sky's neck and shoulders. Sky never got to the point of enjoyment although she did stop trying to take a chunk out of him. Richard will be back on Thursday to work on Sky again. He said he made good progress but he did not get "good resolution" as he put it. He said what he was feeling and working on felt old and set and that if I was up for it Sky definitely needed at least one more session, maybe more.

I can't wait to see what she feels like after Richard feels he has really worked through some of the issues. My last three rides on her, including my lesson today, have been truly amazing. She is SO much softer throughout the entire ride. No head tossing at all since the massage. She still lifts her head for a half stride in a canter-trot transition but softly accepts a half halt now and we go back to our happy place.

My trainer was very impressed with our flat work today. When we started jumping she was actually whistling, whooping and clapping for some of our jumps. We could usually get a few good, soft, round jumps scattered in with a lot of tense jumps. Today Sky was so soft to the jumps, and then she would rock back and fire off the ground into this gorgeous bascule with high, tight knees, but land and canter away softly. She did this over every jump, every time. It was amazing and I hope we keep it up!!

It also made me feel guilty and made me regret not doing this sooner. It is one of those things where I kept meaning to call and schedule the appointment but for one reason or another never got around to doing it. Bonnie did not have the acute problems like Sky did but she definitely had some sore spots in her shoulders, more on the left than the right, and a spot on her hindquarters. The left is definitely her stiffer direction, and she definitely felt looser through her shoulders and her entire front end after the massage. It was easy to see Bonnie progress from "that doesn't feel good" to "wow, would you do that again??" All in all the Friday massages were a great success and hopefully more good things will come when we see Richard again on Thursday. The only thing missing in all of this is MY massage . . .

Lily and Thomas grooming over the fence

Cuff Links, Missy and Lily

Teddy

MyLight

Clay

Snappy and Chili

Lucky and Lightening

Baby

Leo and Apollo

Sebastian

Gifts

As we began our daily chores in the relative cool of the first morning light, I thought again (as I often do) about what a gift it is to work with one's spouse in the same place that one lives. I understand that for many people this might be more of a curse than a gift, but for truly getting to know someone (and at times truly testing the strength of your marriage) there is no equal in my opinion and I wouldn't change a thing about it !




I spent most of my adult life, including most of my first marriage, working away from home in addition to working and farming at home. I can tell you from experience that this can quickly turn into a nightmare if you and your spouse don't share the same end goals, but it sure works a treat when you DO share the same end goals ! It is only recently that I have transitioned from two full time jobs down to being here on the farm full time (which I count as one full time job!). It's very nice to be able to take the time to stop and smell the roses occasionally instead of rushing past them in an endlessly futile quest to try and get it all done. If you have noticed more of my posts on this blog of late, I don't mind sharing that this is one of my attempts at allowing Melissa an opportunity to take a little time for herself. After writing nearly 300 posts and keeping up with our many clients every day along with shouldering the lion's share of the daily farm work for a very long time, I'd say she deserves it.



As Melissa will readily share with anyone who will listen (and as she warns everyone who passes the threshold of our home), I am not much for maintaining order inside our house. She half jokingly says that after years of living with me, I have broken her. I'll admit there is a lot of truth in that statement. In spite of my quirky household habits, I don't run my farm that way at all. I was raised among good farmers and those of them who read this blog will be pleased to know some of their lessons actually did rub off on me ! As a general rule I'm not very much fun to be around and I don't have much time to stop and visit unless my animals are happy, my fences are fixed, my weeds are controlled (no more buttercups !), my pastures are fertilized and kept appropriately mowed, my buildings are trim and painted, and my equipment is maintained. Thankfully, most of the items on my list have been tended to over the past few weeks, and I am about to turn my full attention toward our new farm ! Hope everyone is having a great Sunday !

(post written by Jason - again!)

Mr. O'Reilly standing outside one of the sheds
Thomas
Trigger grazing in front of the pond
Tony and Hemi

Apollo and Ivan

Winston

Faune and Sebastian; Faune is a Selle Francais and just shy of 18 hands and Sebi is a Connemara/Irish Draught cross and is about 15.2 hands. They make a cute pair!

Lucky and Lightening

Hemi, Chance and Leo just hanging out

Lucky, Clay and Silky

Another Farrier Day and More Body Clipping

On Wednesday we had our weekly session with our wonderful farrier Gwen. Gwen does a fantastic job with all of our residents; many of our owners can’t believe the positive changes she is able to bring about in improved quality of life simply through improved hoof form and function.

Farrier days are extra busy around here and they start early. We like to get everyone fed and all the horses that are to be worked on brought to the barn before Gwen’s arrival at 9:30 am. Usually we use farrier days to give each of the horses on the schedule a bath as well. We don't like to over bathe the horses as it can dry out their coats, so a bath every six weeks works well for a bathing schedule. Of course we are doing some grooming between baths!

Bringing horses to the barn for the farrier really highlights the weakness in our current farm’s layout. The far pasture begins a long half mile from the barn and then stretches onward for another half mile. Because of this and because horses are seldom waiting at the gate to be caught, the trek to the rear of the farm often becomes a very inconvenient two mile hike in order to drop off one set of horses and bring another set up to the barn. Anyone wanting some aerobic exercise should forego the gym and show up here on a day when we’ve got 10 horses from the back of the farm that need to be brought into the barn and then taken back out. Think eight to ten miles additional walking on top of our regular daily dose of walking as we do chores, are for the horses and go about the business of running the farm.

Of course traipsing about the farm as we do is far from all bad. It’s excellent exercise and it affords us the opportunity to repeatedly check everyone over as well as enjoy the beauty of working outdoors in all the seasons of the year.

On Thursday Lily and Cuff Links were both given a bath and body clipped. This time Melissa remembered to take a few pictures. In addition to having the right tools for the job, which are the previously mentioned two sets of Andis clippers, a really clean horse is key as well. Dirty horses dull the blades quickly, while with a clean horse you can just buzz through the hair efficiently and quickly without living clip lines. The clippers are now tucked away in their cases and hopefully won't be needed again until next year.

Hope everyone is having a great Friday !

(this post was written by Jason)

The Big Boys are forever providing entertainment. Elfin and (a very dusty) Thomas having a grand time playing. Hemi and Chance put in a brief appearance at the end.

Lily getting the finishing touches on her body clip. Although hard to really see in this picture she looked amazing after she was done. She had a total beauty day with a bath, body clip and mane pulled.

Cuff Links in the middle of his clip session; it looks like Amy is working on one of his legs here

Cuff Links clipped and ready to rejoin his friends; he is so cute with his Kensington fly mask on!Another grey pony; Traveller having his hooves trimmed yet another grey horse, Asterik; I should re-name this post the grey horse post
Missy
O'Reilly
I could be wrong but I think Thomas and Elfin might have rolled. Send your horse here for retirement and this is the type of picture you get to see, I know their owners must be so proud.
Hemi and Chance napping

Clay and Lucky grazing. In the background we have Snappy, Hemi, Leo (who looks like he might possibly have rolled as well!), Homer and Levendi

Hemi and Trigger

Winston, Faune and Sebastian

Spring to Summer with Notes on Body Clipping

(written by Jason)

As most of you might surmise successful farming of any type means working slightly ahead of nature’s calendar to get everything and everyone prepared to handle the upcoming change in weather. Here in the mid-south, our seasons begin and end much more gently and much more slowly than anything I remember in Ontario which lends us some extra time to prepare ! This is especially true right now, as spring changes slowly into summer and the flush of spring grass growth begins to ease and the cool season grasses give way to summer species. Our mid-summer warm season grasses are much more drought and heat tolerant than our spring and fall grasses; a good thing given our somewhat sporadic summer rainfall.

I have just put away the bush hog after completing our second pasture clipping of the year. We like to do a pasture clipping about now to facilitate the change from cool to warm season grasses as much as we can by removing semi-dormant and headed cool season grasses. This helps stimulate growth in two ways; by opening up the canopy allowing our warm season grass a chance at some sun and by intentionally stressing some of the cool season grasses by removing the seed head. In our part of the world right now is also an excellent time to do weed control if needed, as spring weeds give way to summer weeds and ANY weed is easiest to kill when it is small and actively growing.

In addition to warm and pleasant days this time of the year begins to bring consistently warm nights. We like to help a few of our residents who don't shed out quite as "naked" as we prefer to transition to warm weather by giving them a full body clip. Melissa and Amy were busy with the clippers today and should finish up on Thursday of this week. I’m sure you’ll be able to check out their handiwork in later photo sessions !

(Melissa chiming in for a moment here - actually Amy and I were so busy manning the clippers we didn't take any before or after pictures or even a picture of the big pile of hair we swept up after body clipping a couple of horses. I'll try to remember to get some pictures at our next clipping session. For anyone that cares I have two sets of Andis clippers that I use for body clipping. The Andis Progress clippers are my main body clippers. These are heavy duty clippers but are so light and have no vibration so my wrists and hands don't get tired at all, I love them. Anyone else have nightmares of using the old Oster Clipmasters for body clipping? Those things weighed a ton and I dreaded body clipping because of them! I also have Andis AGC 2 speed clippers with a T84 blade. This blade is still as wide as the blade on my bigger body clippers but the clippers themselves are much smaller and more maneuverable, thus excellent for legs and faces. End Melissa's hijack here.)

Warm nights also mean it’s sheet and blanket removal, storage and cleaning time. This might not be much of a job when it’s only a few sheets and blankets but brushing off, packing up and storing our big pile of blankets kept three of us occupied for the better part of a very warm and very dirty day last week !

Hope everyone is having a great Wednesday !

Elfin grazing in front of the pond

Levendi

Apollo kept his stress level low while waiting for his turn with the farrier!

Left side of the fence Elfin, Thomas, Hemi and Chance; on the right Silky, Snappy and Lucky

Baby

Snappy, Silky, Lucky and Chili

Leo and Hemi

Homer and Thomas

Winston

Faune, Winston and Sebastian

My Love/Hate relationship with trees !

(post written by Jason, picture captions by Melissa)

Today I spent several hours cutting up one of several trees that decided avail themselves of the opportunity to fall down during the few days we were away enjoying ourselves at the beach. I have no idea what caused any of these trees to decide to come down this week; they weren't obviously diseased and we've not had any wind beyond some breezy days. Nonetheless, down they are and at the very least, those that lie in the pastures need to be cleaned up, piled and burned.


I have often made the comment that for all the time I spend handling and disposing of fallen trees it is a royal shame that we don't heat with wood. But then I thought about it some and I realized that I don't live in Canada any more and even if we did heat with wood we'd only barely put a dent in the quantity of fallen wood generated around here. With rare exceptions, heating is only really required from December through March and not always even during those months. This led me to the thought that it is a royal shame we can't turn all this wood into a fuel source that would run an air conditioner ! :)


Melissa claims that the park like setting that trees provide make them worth the trouble and I guess she is right but I sure do seem to spend a lot of hours maintaining said park like setting ! I sure do like the shade they provide on warm summer afternoons though.



Hope everyone is having a good week !

Jason getting ready to start cutting up the tree

Trigger

Ivan and Apollo trotting through the pasture (Levendi partially hidden behind Ivan)

Clay, Teddy, O'Reilly, Snappy and Chili grazing

Cuff Links and Lily

Ogie and Alex

Winston, Faune and Asterik

Elfin, Leo and Chance

Missy

Hemi

Harmony trotting through the pasture (Cuff Links in the background)

Slinky