Oh my!

As I got a late start to the morning, I thought I'd have time to do a quick lunge with Kramer and then a decent ride.  Kramer had other thoughts:

What can I say?  The boy enjoys his mud!

He even had some leaves plastered with mud on his rump; nice touch!
I cleaned him up & gave him a nice lunge, did his hooves and gave him his snack before going back outside to graze a bit.

Making his buddy,"Armani"jealous:

INCOMING! 

As I was getting into my truck, I looked out to Kramer's paddock & he's standing on his hind legs reaching up for some leaves!  He didn't do that again (of course, I had my camera ready this time!), but as I was driving by, he was grabbing some leaves within "neck-level".  Geez....

The other part of Thursday...afternoon with Kramer

I really didn't feel like fooling with Kramer, but knew I should and I needed to get away from the experience of this morning in dealing with our sweet Roxanne.
I lunged Kramer & wasn't sure I'd get on him but I did.
I tried out the other bit that's a tad stronger than a snaffle.  It seems to have gotten respect from Kramer in that he's not pushing through the bit and gaining momentum as he moves forward.  Instead he was really staying off the bit and coming back to me.
I'd forgotten how that felt!   The canter was so nice & slow yet correct that I didn't feel I needed a racetrack to safely get around!

During his rinse-off after our ride.
I like the results of the new bit and will show in that as well. I think I'll have much better results.

A sad day...Thursday morning

It's always hard to say goodbye, but Roxanne's passing was made easier by the way she left us.
It was very peaceful to her very last breath drawn.  She was comfortable, she was in her home and Grandma was watching over her giving her reassurance the whole time.
Little Roxanne's big heart just couldn't handle the stress of the previous day of continuous vomitting(still not sure what brought it one as it was only mucous being expelled)and the trip to the vet.  She had her anti-nausea shot & was watched by the staff for the afternoon and we picked her up around 4pm.

Once back at G'mas, Roxanne only wanted to sleep. 

She went outside after over an hour to go "potty" but then basically collapsed after coming back in.  She was so weak.  She only moved a couple of times during the night.
She and Grandma spent the morning hours together and before 8am, Roxanne slipped away.
Thanks girl, for all you've done for us.  We know you're romping & playing;
 chasing sticks & tennis balls and eating all the treats you want with all the other good dogs in Heaven!

Miss you, sweet girl!

Wednesday's update on Roxanne

This was poor little Roxanne coming home from the vet's.  She just wanted to sleep 7 seemed to enjoy Frank's comfortable car seat.  I took this picture after parking at Grandma's before coaxing her out.  The only problem was, she wouldn't budge!  So Frank & I used the sheet to fashion a sling and carry her in that way.  We carefully put her on her bed where she stayed for a while.

Gare was offering her a bit of comfort once he arrived for dinner.

She stayed happily on her bed until she felt "the urge" and slowly, with wobbly legs she made her way outside (with coaxing from the guys) where she did both potties and walked back in to the house.  She stood for a while while I was wiping her nose & then she literally just plopped down on the carpet.  She was so exhausted & drugged from the vet's anti-nausea shot that she couldn't stand for any length of time.  Dr.Hughes said that she's suffering from a very upset stomach.  Nothing viral, but "mechanical" as he called it.  No food or drink until the morning.  Not that she acts like she can do either right now.
Hopefully, she and Grandma will get some good sleep tonight & feel much better in the morning!

All about Roxanne

Today was going to be a "do chores inside and out around the house" today.  However upon arriving home from our morning workout, I saw where I had a cell phone message from G'ma.  Turns out that Roxanne had been vomitting all night.  I called the vet and made an appt. for her and then drove over to Gee's.  Roxanne seemed very tired but moving around like normal.  She didn't throw-up while I was there, but she did drink some water.  I put Roxy in the car and G'ma got in the backseat and off to Dr.Hughes we went.  They took Rox right away and while in the room, she threw up the water she drunk at the house.  Upon weighing her, we saw that she weighed 42.8 lbs.  That's around 10 lbs that she's lost.  My immediate thought was:  I noticed a few months ago that she drinks a lot of water & throw in the weight loss...diabeties??  The doc kept her to be sure to get the vomitting under control and wanted to do a blood test.  He's got to consider kidney problems with a dog her age.  We shall see.......

An enjoyable afternoon

Today was very laid back.  I'm not sure about Kramer, but I needed the extra time off.  I did pick up a few things out of the trailer & put a few things away, but not much else.  I then pulled Krame from his run and let him graze his way to the barn where I put conditioner on his hooves (they dry out so much at shows!), brushed & fly sprayed him and then let him eat grass again while I visited with the ladies out for a lesson.

My plan will be to go out on Thursday and spend a few hours working with a new bit in his mouth and maybe doing more showmanship.  Time to start asking "Kramer" to step it up a level!

In summation.....

All in all, the show was a great success.  I found out what I need to do with Kramer for warm ups and I learned more about his mysterious past.  I'm pretty sure Cheryl knew nothing about him & cared even less.  The still mysterious part of the picture is:  why did she buy him??
Bottom line is that I've come into possession of a very talented animal that I can push more than I thought I could.  I can be more assertive (in a gentle way)with Kramer as he's not the inexperienced horse I thought he was.  I'll be trying out the Kimberwick bit for a better head-set and control.
I've gotten several compliments on Kramer's way of going and I know that with time, he will be an awesome HUS horse.
Now I'm looking forward to Jackson, MS in a couple of weeks.  I'll be showing with my trainer, Allie.  It doesn't get any better than that....unless she makes me cry!  Love ya, girl!

Saturday: Show day

Ugh!  Alarm went off way too early as I didn't sleep well at all.  Didn't feel like getting up let alone lunging so after I fed K, I fooled around until about 7am, then took him out for his morning lunge.  He quickly showed his wild side when a "monster" in the form of motorized farm equipment passed by on the other side of the wall next to the arena.  He did the galloping/whinneying thing for a bit.  After lungeing, tied him outside his stall while I cleaned it and he chilled nicely.  I cleaned two whole mucket buckets full of poo & wet shavings!  I gave him alfalfa as a sncak.  I took the truck and drove to 3 different places looking for grass hay as I ran short.  No one had any.  Luckily, Karen Oberlander & Jackie Collins gave me enough to get us through (I was short by 4 pads).
Put west. saddle on K and rode in outside warm-up pen.  He did pretty well, he was lowering his head more often than before on his own.  Untacked saddle out at the trailer, put on the english saddle and walked back to stall where I tied K up with hay & water. 

I checked with show office who said my class wouldn't start until closer to 5pm, so I headed back to the trailer ate half my 6" Subway and got dressed.  Conferring with Allie via cell phone, we decided to go ahead and give K his omeprazole to keep him on schedule and that I should get back on him around 4pm when shwmnshp was going on to warm-up & take my jacket with me. 

As it turned out the shwmnshp classes were huge, so I had plenty of time.  I lunged K a bit and then combed out his tail, did his feet, etc.  Got on and rode around in the warm-up pen.  Kramer "wasn't feelin' it"; he didn't co-op very much with my requests.  I finally got him to canter & to soften up a bit.  I put him up with hay & water while I chilled at the trailer.  I went ahead and untacked him and  fed him most of his grain as it was 5pm & shwmnship was no where near ending! 
Took him out around 7:30 for a small warm-up, then put him back up w/hay & water.
They announced eng. warm up in main arena around 8:30pm.   We rode in it and then Mark asked if I'd ride in the Green HUS to make 3, so I did.  During our trot, Mark's Corgie slips through the arena gate right in front of us and runs to Mark across the arena!  K didn't blink an eye!  Everyone got a kick out of that, helped me to relax.  K was like riding a freight train but he acted fine.
In the Select class, Kathy Mowatt, Kramer's former owner rode in it as well.  There were 3 of us.  Mark asked if I wanted to enter as a Region 9 entry since I would be guaranteed a prize and I said I would.  K was going pretty well in the class but at the end of it going the second way at the canter, I guess I was enjoying the ride too much and relaxed just enough that I took my leg off of him to where he broke to the trot.  Darn!!  Overall, not bad and we got a cool Weatha Beeta turnout sheet!  LOL!  Class was over around 9:30pm.  Put up my tired horse for the night and put myself up for the night around 11:30pm.  Long, but good day!

Friday-our day off

Friday, I woke up @ 5:45am.  What's up with that?  Lunged in the 2nd warm-up pen outside the main arena.  After feeding Kramer, I went to the trailer & enjoyed my hb egg, cheese & crackers, bannana b'fast.  After giving K an hour after his b'fast, I tacked him up and as it happened the show pen was just opening up for a warm-up.  We were the first in and it quickly got crowded.  I had to work to keep us out of trouble and make K feel safe.  I was only able to walk & trot and got some nice trots out of him.  As I was riding by one time, this young woman called out to me:  "Excuse me, Ma'am?"  I stopped and she asked if my horse was for sale.  I told her "Maybe".  She wanted her trainer Nikki Riddle to look at him.  I told her Nikki knew who I was so I left it up to them to ask me more if they were interested for real.  She told me she loved the way the horse moves and she's always on the look-out for a new horse to work with.  Okay.......
Then as I was riding again, Karen Mondini is waving to me fromthe gate and I rode over.  She found Kramer's owner before Cheryl.  Kathy Mowatt was so happy to see him. She told me she thought he may have died at Cheryl's.  She told me a lot about him.  He as the prima dona at Nancy Sue Ryans' place and he was such a wuse(sp?)that they called him "City" for City Slicker!  She also said that he wasn't edgy or shy about things (thanks, Cheryl!).  She was going to show him at the Reichart, but he cut his chest and because he thought he was going to die & couldn't move right for 3 weeks, she missed it.  It was at the Katy show where Cherl gave her a check for $15,000 and Kathy couldn't refuse it so Cheryl took him home with her-poor Kramer/City....The reason Kathy sold him was her friends at the time and her husband all were "into" roping and only wanted to go to those events and that left her with no one to haul with.
Kathy also told me that while at Nancy's, one of the "flunky" traimer's rode Kramer and did so with a big bit in his mouth and kept him drawn back a lot.  Thanks, Nancy.  Obviously, he wasn't worth her time.

Thought I'd better break up this long passage with some pictures!
Friday evening around 5:45, I rode K again in the warm-up pen-it was crowded and I really had to watch out for the other horses.  K shied 2x's and he copped an attitude.  I reprimanded him with small circles and trotting out more.  I rode him for over an hour.  He was going great by the end of it and the arena cleared out enough that I could canter and he did that nicely (head kept level more).  Took him to the stall and untacked cooled him down a bit & on the way to the wash rack, ran into Kathy who apparantly had been watching (she & her trainer Lisa L? from Gainsville0she only does HUS horses).  She said K was moving so nice and that she could never get him to keep his head as level as I had it (she said she didn't have strong legs).  She said that Lisa LOVED HIM!  That was really nice!
This is Kramer after his rinse off and linament treatment:

Puppies!!!

These little sweeties were next door to my trailer; they hardly made any noise at all.  My kind of dogs!

Thursday's notes

Thursday went like this:  Up at 6am, pull Krame out of his stall and give him a good lunge.  Then he was fed his b'fast and I went back to my trailer and had my hard-boiled egg, crackers and bannana & COFFEE!  I'd chill for a bit(which means, refill K's water bucket, clean his stall, check the "numbers" at the show office and then around 9am, lunge K again.  After his lunging, I took him out to the trailer to put the western saddle on him and then took him to the warm up pen outside the main arena to lunge a bit with the saddle on.  Kramer acted quite fiesty(galloping on the line & whinneying) & I didn't want to be on his back at that moment so I took him back to the stall, put his bridle on him, tied the reins to the saddle rigging to keep his head level & his mind focused on his job and lunged him again.  That's three lunges before 10am.  He settled down at some point & I rode him until close to lunch time.  When I was hosing off his legs after our ride, I heard the 45 minute call for a warm up in the main arena before the english classes started, yikes!  I hurried and changed to the English saddle and put K back in his stall, I went to the trailer and got dressed (& put my hair up)and by the time I rode into the arena, we had 10 minutes of warm-up time left.  After that, we rode back to the warm-up pen and I was using the 3' dressage whip because I forgot to put my spurs on & K was being hesitant at moving forward when asked.   I rode in Open HUS for Mark to make 5.  Our ride was not consistent as far as his headset and he broke twice in his canter the second time picking up the wrong lead (GEEZ!)so I had to trot him to p/u the correct lead.  At the end of the class, he was going great at the trot.
Afterwards, K was put up with hay & water and I was invited to the Collin's trailer for some spaghetti & meatballs, yummy!  Around 9pm, did some shwmnship to get K out of his stall for a bit and then put him up for the night.

Horse Showin'

Since I was out of town & "out of touch" with blogging since last Wed., I'll post from the notes I kept while at the horse show.
Wed's notes went like this:
I felt lucky to be able to get to I-20 as there was flash flooding everywhere and a couple of trucks at some of the little bridges getting ready to close them as the water was just below. But get there I did and had a relatively uneventful check-in and hook-up at the horse show grounds at Ike Hamilton in WMonroe.
Kramer acted better than I thought he would.  There were few people/horses about when I lunged him & rode.  I rode in the western saddle.  I gave him his omeprazole around 3pm and that night around 9-10pm, gave him some Smart Calm to be sure he could relax as it was getting busier and busier with people hauling in and setting up.

The above pic is of Kramer after our afternoon workout.  He was looking for his dinner!
I was ready that night for my nice, hot shower and only had not nice very cold water!  Come to find out the next morning from a friend who asked if I turned the propane tank on and looking at the expression on my face (which looked like Ohhhh....s__t! )Jackie busted out laughing, she said, the water heater needs gas for the pilot light.  So, I called Longhorn Trailers and Jimmy talked me through the proper steps to take.  I'm such a newbie to the LQ life style, lol!

Wednesday...the beginning of our W.Monroe adventure...

Well, today's the day!  I'll be leaving Shreveport around noon to get to W.Monroe around 2pm.  Then I'll get us signed in and get Kramer's stall ready and get him settled while I unpack, hook up, plug in & fill up the trailer.  I wonder after all that if I'll have any energy to fool with Kramer!  I'm hoping the weather won't be too bad today, but I'll expect the worst & if it isn't bad, I'll be pleasantly surprised.  I'll be taking pics & keeping notes so that I can update my blog when I get back home on Sunday.
Have a great week!

Big storm a brewin'

As I write this in the shelter of our home and comfortably in front of my computer, just a while ago I was out at the barn gathering Kramer from his pen before the big storms hit.  I let Kramer eat as much grass as he could stuff in his mouth while keeping an eye (& camera)on the sky:

It kept getting darker and all of a sudden the warm winds turned cold!

I took Kramer in and by the time we started lunging, the rains came HARD.  Kramer ran hard a couple of circles but quickly decided the rain on the tin roof wasn't all that exciting and I had to push him to trot out.  When he was nicely exercised, I took him to the cross-ties where I cleaned/treated his hooves and played with his mane & did a little face trimming with the clippers.
After putting him in his stall to munch on some hay, I gathered up some odds & ends to put into the trailer.  I think we are finally ready to haul to W.Monroe tomorrow morning.  Today is the first day I'm actually looking forward to the trip & not feeling all the angst!

Monday's efforts

This is what I "played" with from 10:30 until 3:00pm yesterday.  I feel really good about all my efforts & can't wait to spend some quality time in my trailer this week!  After putting the trailer back in it's parking spot, I lunged & rode Kramer for about 40 mins.  After putting him up(he was thrilled as he was a starving little horse), I drug my tired rear-end into the truck & drove home.  That shower felt sooooo good!

Sunday's session

Again, needed to remind Kramer what bumping his sides means.....IT MEANS MOVE FORWARD!!!!!!  Why does he keep not wanting to move forward?  Do I not ask for it decisively enough?  And I don't mean "gigging" him with spurs, Lord knows that was too decisive!  At Allie's suggestion, I went ahead before our ride and administered 20cc's of omemprozole just in case it's his belly that hurts.  I waited for an hour before getting on (I lunged him for 15 mins before I rode)& I got his usual response to moving forward: throwing his head up & not moving forward but possibly thinking of going up instead.  So after much moving forward at the walk & asking for him to trot while keeping his head/neck turned toward an inside circle, he couldn't trot off that way (couldn't or wouldn't).  So that's when I went to the bat & smacked his rear, he got the message & moved right out. Again, he only needed an occasional tap with the bat & my heels (not even the spurs)to go from walk to trot. Ended our ride on a good note after doing walk/trot/canter transitions.
Pictures after his rinse off & grazing.  It was close to feeding time by this time & he was listening to Leonardo fill the feed buckets:

He's filled out nicely, don't you think?

Oops, forgot to post on Friday...

I totally forgot to post anything & yet I was so sure I did; go figure...
It was an ok session, pretty much like Sunday's ride.  Kramer will go forward only after artificial aids are applied.  Once he knows he doesn't have a choice, he cooperates and only occasionally needs a "reminder tap" with the dressage bat and/or spurs.
After our ride, I worked a few minutes on showmanship just for something different for Kramer to think about.  He actually did pretty well in that he didn't forget everything we'd worked on weeks ago.
These pictures are of Kramer grazing outside and in his outdoor pen:

Two tired puppies

It's not a good thing when your ride starts out in a shamble; but it IS a good thing when it ends up as a very good ride.
Kramer had an over-reaction to my spurs when I asked for the trot and I nearly came unseated, but sheer will power kept me on that horse.  Then once I composed myself, I began the real ride & trotted (posting trot so I'm working too!)for quite some time.  Eventually asking for the canter which could be ridden on a looser rein.
These pics are of Kramer right after our ride as he's trying to scratch his itches:

more scratching...

pausing for a moment to watch the welders.....

A little more scratching before he's untack & rinsed off.

He got a little "lathered up" under the saddle.

Tired boy....tired girl!

After his warm rinse and linament treatment

All is right with the world again:

I like this last picture (even tho' Kramer's head isn't in it)because it shows his body better than the other two:

Except for the fact that I didn't get his back half, geez!

Pic from Wednesday ride

Had a good ride on Kramer Wednesday.  We both worked up a sweat.  However, I only took pictures of a sweaty Kramer, not me!

He's so over me taking pictures of him, lol!

Altho', that's a cute expression on his face.

In Kramer's world, this is the best part of our time together....besides getting to eat grass.

Just a few pics of my Florida time; ok, more than a few!

This was taken as we were leaving:  Allie for Baton Rouge & Mom, Dad & I for Florida on Feb. 21st.

Just had to post this of little "J"!

Picking up Dan at the airport in Orlando during our short stay with Peg & Bipp in Ocala.

Dinner at "The Yearling" restaurant.  Named for Margaret_______'s book.  She had a summer place around the corner (it's still there as a historical site)that she would go to for seclusion when writing.

Lunch at the marina close to John & Melissa's home.

The next day after a "I'm sleeping on top of the sheets" stay at the Veranda Inn in Sarasota, we had dinner at Rob's.  He made a delicious meal for all of us!

Playing gin at the timeshare in Orlando.

Playing mini golf after a late breakfast.

Pictures from Lego Land at Dowtown Disney which is about 10 mins from the timeshare.

Where are my sunglasses??????

Timeshare Towers 1 & 2 in the background during our walk around the lake.  Towers 3 through 5 are in the works...no time soon thanks to the lousy economy...

Couldn't help but take this picture during our stroll.

Visiting a park that included the historical home,( now museum in the bkgrd ) a manmade floral/fauna area of plants not common to FL:

Ok, this one IS common....

This tree is not commone; I think it's common in India, growing it's roots from it's own branches.  The roots finally grow long enough to connect to the ground. Not very pretty.....but weirdly interesting.

Heading back "home" after the museum/park tour.  I-4 traffic at 3pm...yuck!

Next night: dinner with Richard, Julie & Elizabeth Boesch (Richard is Mom's cousin)at the club. We hit it at "happy hour" , yea!

Cutest picture ever of Dad protecting Mom from the strong wind blowing across this primitive fort.  Just behind the wall is one oif FL's large lakes.

Catching some rays while waiting to see the doctor after all the tests.  Great report once we saw Dr.Leventhol!

After Mayo, we headed out from Jacksonville and made it as far as Tallahasee.  An auto museum & a herd of cape buffalo(?) just down the road across from the gas station.  We had to get a closer look:

Car museum in bkgrd, not sure why the bull statue was there....

Driving home:  Pennsecola!!  Captured a very pretty sunset driving through Jackson, MS.

Traffic tie up gave the opportunity to get these pictures.  That's where we spent the night....so close to home yet so far......  Finally got to Shreveport the next afternoon!