If you’ve been around horse shows much, or even if you haven’t, there’s a good chance you’ve heard the term “Push Button Horse.” It usually goes something like this. Two girls watch a nice horse and rider win many classes at a horse show. Girl 1 says to girl 2, “She’s just winning because she has that expensive push button,” and Girl 2 agrees. The term means that the (usually expensive) horse is like a robot, and all the rider…
It’s official – I have a new pony to lease, and I love him! When I bought Teaspoon in Nov 2010, I had a definite type in mind for the kind of horse I wanted. Either a big bodied QH, Warmblood, or Draft Cross. A slow minded gelding. Not reactive, and a definite “push” ride. Of course, sometimes our horses get hurt and then we don’t have thousands of dollars to replace them with fat fancy Warmbloods. I started riding…
This is the post I didn’t want to have to write, but knew it was coming so therefore avoided my blog for a few weeks. In case you’re not down with all things equine (you lucky, lucky person you) let me be up front and say that the picture of the hoof shown in this post is not normal. It’s so not normal, that the term diseased is the best way to describe it. To continue the bad news, that’s…
So I got Teaspoon’s biopsy results back at the end of last week. I originally thought he had a rare auto-immune disease called coronary band disorder, but it turns out that it’s an even more rare disease – how lucky am I? The new diagnosis has a long title (and I’m waiting for the vet to email me the abstract), but is essentially a form of Vasculitis. The tissue around his coronary band and his chestnuts have too many white blood…
Unless you know a LOT about horses, the title of this blog post is going to be confusing. Four days ago, I wouldn’t have a clue what that was. Why do I know now? Because I think my horse has this rare disease. I won’t bore you with details, unless you found this page looking for information. Then I’ll give you a summary: Coronary Band Dystrophy is a rare auto-immune disorder that attacks the horse’s coronary band, chestnuts and ergots….
I’ve been riding horses pretty much all my life. I started when I was 10 with a once a week lesson, and was lucky enough to get my first horse when I was 14. Since then, I’ve only taken a two year break (when we lived in MA mostly) from riding consistently and since Austin boasts lovely things like good jobs and a low cost of living – I feel extremely lucky to own a horse again. Even when I…
I rode the spoon in the dark and scary round pit of death tonight. Yes, I’m being slightly dramatic but I’ve decided to dub it the D&SRPoD for the following reasons: At night, it’s really dark (see yesterday’s video, but the video camera picks up much less light than your eyes do so…) One of the reasons I chose my current barn is because they have lights for night riding, and the round pen is well lit except for one…