~Spring Up~

Spring is finally here! I am very happy the weather is getting nicer and warmer and the mud is drying up! Chester has loads of energy and is super happy to start working again. We both are super excited for this summer.

I got him a big salt block the other day. I have gotten him a mineral rock in the past which he loved, but I have been wanting to try one of these big blocks for a while. I got this one with Selenium in it. The guy at the co-op said we lack that in our area. Thankfully Chester loves it!  

{Fail of a nice picture.}

I have worked him three times this spring. This was the second time. The first time was a bit of a challenge as we are both rusty and he had so much energy. Though, his second time out he was much more calm. So we were able to snap a few photos.  

I will forever love his fuzzy perked ears. 

We did ground work. After a little bit I was able to take off his lead rope and do join up. I just LOVE join up!! It does wonders for the both of us! It's simple, easy, effective and so natural. Maybe I'll do a post just on join up sometime. 

Giving him a reward (rubbing him) for doing good.

{Shedding!}

Back up at the barn- he saw something and as always had to make sure it wasn't anything scary. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Then I took Chester out on a sunny day to work and play. I was able to get some fun pictures of him.

{Happy pony!}

He was about to throw his head and jump up a little. :)

He joined up. I love my pony. 

"Uhh, are they doing somethin' up by my barn? I think I should go check it out."

We had a grand time in the fresh spring air!

Winter Sum Up!

Hi long lost blog! (That has been in the back of my mind for months!) I haven't forgotten about you. Life just decided to pick up speed and roll in a little different direction. 

Chester, yes, that is what this blog is about. My adventures with my sweet horse. (He will be turning 23 next week!) It's been winter for the past few months so there hasn't been anything real exciting to blog about. Recently it occurred to me, that I used to blog about everything horse. Not just when something exciting happened. Since then a few weeks have slipped by and now it's spring! I have worked Chester three times now and the good old days of horse sweat and dirt smudged cheeks are coming back. (awwww, I love summer.) 

 So here I am to give you a quick update on the past few months. 

January 

.......................

We did a lot of chilling out...didn't do much at all. 

Standing and looking majestic. 

I took him out this particular day to stretch his legs and graze on the lead. Well, he did fine for the first 15 minutes. Then he flipped and wanted back to his barn as fast as possible. I wasn't ready to go back up and I wasn't about to let him get away with telling me what to do. I put him to work by sending him in circles and backing up. He tolerated that for a couple minutes then decided he would have none of that. He freaked out-ran around me like a crazy horse bucking, kicking and tossing his head, sliding here and there in the wet soggy ground and making huge hoof holes in the ground. For about 30 seconds all I did was make sure I didn't get kicked in the head or run over. I'll tell you, dealing with horses isn't easy. And even the sweetest horse in the world can spook, be rusty at ground manners, or just have have a bad day. Since I hadn't worked him in a few months he had tons of energy and I was rusty at knowing how to deal with the situation. Once I got him under control we headed back to the barn as safely as possible. 

You know how people say certain things take blood, sweat and tears? Well that day brought forth the tears. 

Thus in this picture, Chester may look majestic, but he is probably thinking about what just happened. 

           

We took some selfies...or tried. In the first one he was eating my coat. :P

He started losing fur on his face-from rubbing his head on his feeder and from my not keeping him clean enough. I put bag balm on it and some Eden salve. Both helped and he healed quickly. You can see the balm on his face in this picture. 

We had some nice grooming sessions. This day (Same day day as above picture) I tied him to a tree but he ended up just standing there on his own. I just wanted him to work on tying in case I ever need to tie him up. Then when I went to take pictures of him he followed me around and wanted to smell my phone so I clipped on the lead rope again. 

"Are there any treats in there?"

~ Chester ~

 A winter morning- where sunlight shines down on my fuzzy horse and his mud filled yard. 

 Looking in the other direction into the barn. He's enjoying some crunchy hay on a cold crisp morning.

"What are you doing?" 

"Taking a picture." 

"Okay I'll go back to eating my breakfast."

"Okay, sounds good."

  A quick carrot and a selfie between cleaning jobs. 

February

...............................

We sold our trailer. We weren't using it and it was going to need a couple touch ups in the future so we decided it would be best to sell it now. And now I will be able to go to collage in the fall. (Baking Art) Hopefully we will also be able to use some of the profit to get sand for our round pen. :) 

We're goofy and it's okay.

Starting him on fresh grass once again. 

I love this picture. You can see a small part of our little farm. 

One day we hung out on the hill out back. The only dry/firm ground on our property at the time. It was a really nice and warm (54) Saturday. 

One of the things I noticed right away when I first saw Chester, was how big his eyes were. I still love his big soft eyes. 

Hopefully I will be able to have some more exciting posts coming up! So stay tuned! 

~Happy trails~ 

Lets Just Be Who We Really Are

A couple weeks ago my sister had a friend over for a photo shoot. The girl had made a costume and wanted pictures with her costume and a horse. And...I have a horse. :) So my sister got to practice her photography and I got to hang out and watch them take pictures. Then when it was time I got Chester ready and worked with them as they took pictures with him. Afterwards, my sister snapped a few pictures of Chester and I just being ourselves. I think we got some really fun ones.

Chester being his sweet gentle self.

I'm giving him a treat. He's so fuzzy!

(Nummm, I love peppermint treats!)

He was sooo good!

This is one of the best. I love it!

Then he thought (as he does every once in awhile, silly boy) that one of the chains on the hackamore bridle was supposed to go inside his mouth, like a bit. It doesn't, of course. There are two chains that go under his chin. 

                                           Uhhh...do you have any more treats?

 Uhh, Malory I think this chain is supposed to go in my mouth. No, Chester, I have told you before that does not go in your mouth. Smarty pants...

Me loves my pony! 

There is nothing new and exciting on the horse front here. It rained really hard here for about two  weeks straight so the ground is super soft and my round pen is a lake. Chester's exercise consists of walks in the front yard and hand grazing on the hill. I did get on him before the rain came and trotted around in the front yard a little bit. I do love that about Chester. That I can let him "sit" for a little while and still get on him and he's fine. He can get excited to be out and have energy to use, but he's not totally crazy. 

Our farrier moved to another State, so we are getting a new one. He's scheduled to come out on the 24th. I'm not nervous about Chester, (I know he will do great) I am excited to see how it goes and wondering how it will all be though.

 The Lord provided our first (and only so far) farrier at the perfect time. Before we had a horse, he and his family visited our church and we had them over for lunch. Come to find out he was a farrier. We mentioned that we had goats that needed their hooves trimmed and that we weren't the best at it. He was like, "I do goats too!" So we all marched out to the goats and he showed us how he did it while trimming up one of our goats that had hooves that grew about an inch a day. He actually flips the goats and then "sits" on them to trim their hooves. (His wife assured me that doing it that way doesn't hurt the goat. That was nice to hear.) :) 

He gave us his business card and we kept him in mind. Well, four to five months later we got Chester and we called him up and he has been our farrier ever since. One visit shy of three years. He was a great farrier and will be missed. 

In the meantime, Chester and I have high expectations for this new farrier. ;) We like quality work and a good friendly attitude.  

 

 It has been super cold lately so Chester is a HUGE fuzz ball. Like a fuzzy teddy bear. Haha, I will have to take a picture of him with all his fur sticking straight up. 

I hope you all have a great week! Blessings to all!

                          This is me enjoying the cold weather and a hot drink. ;)

A Deeper Love

A Deeper love...the trials that you go through in life can make love be deeper then it already was.

One particular day at the very beginning of this summer, when the sun was making it's daily visits longer and more intense, Chester and I were rather enjoying ourselves until we hit a trial head on. And that is the tale I am going to tell you today.
    As the sun was sinking behind the hills and evening was already upon us, I walked down to the round pen to fetch my pony. I had left him out there from an afternoon ride and work out. He was very alert and definitely ready to come up to his yard. I walked my prancing pony up to his yard and proceeded to put his halter away and began to get him fresh water. While I was getting him water he laid down in the cool wet sand. The odd things was, after he did, he proceeded to lay completely down. He spread out his legs and rested his head on the sand. That isn't normal for him and as I continued to get him water I thought he was just plain exhausted from walking around all afternoon.
Well he continued to lay down, get up and go over to his feeder then back to the sand and do the same thing again.
   So I went and told my mom that I thought something might be wrong and she came up to look at him. He was laying completely down. My mom said, "That's not good. See if he gets up when you feed him." I got him grain and he got up and nickered and ate his grain. We were like, ok...hmmm. I proceeded to feed him and gave him his hay. He started to eat it but then all of a suddenly he laid completely down in his stall, head and all. His breathing became really heavy and slow and it seemed hard or painful for him to breath. Besides him looking quite horrible, one of the other things that was abnormal was that he laid down when I was standing right there. He usually doesn't let me get too close to him when he lays down. (Though the more I get to know him and the more he trusts me, he has allowed me to get closer. Making special moments.) :)
Once he laid down my mom went to call the vet to see what we should do. I went around him and up by his head and as tears where running down my face I asked him what was wrong. (Because as any horse girl does, I talk to my horse.) He would lift his head up and then lay it down with big sighs and heavy breathing. Something was not right. He kept this up a little bit and then I ran inside to see what the vet said. They said we needed to check his temperature.  I went back out there to find him laying out in his yard and doing the same things; sighing, laying his head down and then picking it up and breathing heavily. He didn't look good. He was getting worse really fast. He looked like he was in pain and was so uncomfortable. I went in to tell my mom that he was progressing really fast. I headed inside right as my Dad got home and I tearfully told him what was happening. We headed back up there and Chester was doing really bad. My Mom came up and then we decided we needed to call the vet and have them come out. My sweet Mom went in and called them once again telling them that we needed a vet out.
Me and my Dad watched and talked to Chester as he lay there in pain. We were crying and praising God that he provided this wonderful horse for us. And for the time the Lord had given us with him. Then my Mom came up and said the vet would be there in 20 to 30 minutes. That gave us some comfort, but we were thinking that this was it for Chester.
About 15 to 20 minutes later the vet showed up. Amazingly fast...I wonder how that happened? ;) (We have an Awesome God.)

{Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. Matthew 10:29}

She came up to his yard and evaluated the situation and looked him over.
She said, "we need to get him to his feet." So she clucked and waved her arms and I pulled a little bit oh his halter. He got up and stood there miserably.
She checked for capillary refill and took his temperature. She said that he had a small fever and was dehydrated. 
She said she was going to give him a small sedative, a pain reliever and one other thing to help keep his system open and clear. We gave the sedative a couple minutes to kick in and then she put bags on her arms and proceeded to check him out. Chester did just fine standing there drowsily.
After a while, she said that he had a big gas bubble in his system and that he had two piles of manure to pass. She wanted to see him pass three piles within 24 hours and then he would be basically out of the woods.
Then, she said that we needed to get water into him because he was dehydrated. She got a long clear tube, a small hand pump and filled a metal bucket with water. She explained to me what she was going to do. She then proceeded to put the tube up his nose and down his throat. You could see it in the side of his neck/ throat; very strange but interesting.
She pumped water into him and then let it run out to see if there was anything in his stomach. After a few times of doing that, there was nothing concerning. So she pumped a bucket of water into him and wouldn't allow it to come back out.
When she was done, she pulled the tube completely out. It gave him a bloody nose, poor guy.
   After all that was done, she said that he should be feeling better real soon with the pain meds and water in his system. But we needed to walk him every two to three hours and let him graze a little bit while taking him out to walk. The motion of grazing, moister from the grass and fresh grass itself would help his system a lot.
As he was still a little drugged he went over to his feeder and started eating. The vet pulled him away and said he shouldn't eat. She didn't want him to eat for awhile and didn't want the dry hay in his system.
   Well, we walked him three times that night and let him graze. As the night went on he looked better and better. Slowly but surely he was pulling out of it. In the morning he passed one of the piles of manure. That made me happy. I continued to watch him all that day and take him for walks. Later on in the day he passed another pile of manure and by that night he passed the third. He was doing much better and was almost out of the woods!
 Why did he colic? Well, the last couple days had been really warm. That day I took him out and worked and rode him. He didn't drink any water while we were playing and then I left him out in his pen until that evening. (I don't think he drank any then either.) At that time he was really barn sour so all of his meals where hay. Not much water that day plus dry hay in his system makes for not a good situation. Thus, colic.
  The vet said he couldn't eat any hay or grain for twenty-four hours. She said we should get some pelleted feed and soak one pound in water and he could have that. Thankfully we already had some so I soaked some and gave it to him the next morning. He wasn't too thrilled about that. ;)

The vet left and said that we could call her anytime. We went inside and breathed a sigh of relief that we didn't have to put down our sweet pony.

Thus, I now have a deeper for love for my sweet boy Chester. And I am SO thankful for the horse God provided and gave me; allowing me to have him for this long and every day I have with him.
May we never take for granted those things that we so earnestly prayed for, God provided, and we now have as a privilege to take care of while we and they are alive on earth.

                                         Medical papers and a pain reliever.

                                Keeping the colic away with grazing and walking.

                                                         Lots of water!

                                                This was a few days before.

Times Ticking.....I know.

I think I need a new header. You agree? I am working on that right now so hopefully real soon I'll have a new summer one for ya'll!
Quick note, I put my instagram up on the side bar. You can look through those if you like. I do post pictures of Chester. But I also post other random pictures as well. It's an all around account.
I hope you are all doing well and are enjoying spring! Yesterday was the hottest day yet and it was about 82. That was a special treat for us! That's usually a really nice summer day. So to get that in April was a blessing!
I have been working on ground work with Chester, when the weather allows. He is doing great! I am going to be getting a post up real soon with some pictures of him. =)