Nutmeg got her third ride today. First she stood at the trailer with a saddle on for a while, DD made the comment that she makes a good saddle stand and he even polished up his saddle while she stood there haha. Then it was off to the roundpen for some more hobbling lessons. Again she did very well and was very accepting of the hobbles. After that they practiced standing for mounting, he said she is already very good at standing still for it. Then he got on and had someone send her around the round pen at a walk, trot and lope in each direction with little problem. DD said, "She needs to gain balance and learn to carry the load and that will happen as we go along. The 3rd ride went without a hitch and I told her she was a very good girl."
Afterwards she got a nice bath and was put next to Snowberry and given a snack.
Nutmeg is moving along nicely. She had her second ride today and also got her feet trimmed up a bit. He said she needs some work on her feet so he is keeping an eye on them. I know her white front hoof has been having some problems ever since she decided to chip most of it off while going through a "must paw at everything that doesn't move" stage. She was very quiet for DD to saddle up. She was also ponied for the first time ever. She took to being lead by another horse very well and DD exposed her to a lot of different terrain and she handled it in style he told me. Lets just say I am a proud horse mom, haha!
Ev got to meet her too! Pretty cool, she even took a few pictures for us. Thank you Ev! You rock!
Getting saddled up. Lead ropes are very interesting? ^ haha! She is a little bit sunburnt, she got that at my place. She is very good at hiding her fly mask in the pasture! I gave DD some SPF 50 baby sunscreen for her nose because I know she will play hide the fly mask with him too. Off we go! First time being ponied. Getting her looky loo on I am sure. And we go down the hill... And up another! Hey is it me or does she look clean?? DD gave her a bath! I love the lighting in this shot, what a good girl!
It's adventure time for our little Nutmeg. We have watched her grow up, get big and strong, and now comes that special time in a horse's life where they begin to learn in a new place, with new things and lots of good new experiences.
This morning I posted that she was going somewhere. The shipper arrived and Nutmeg remembered exactly what to do, and in the blink of an eye she was on the trailer and on her way to her destination.
Where was she going? Certainly it was quite the mystery to some!
Well she was going to meet DDranch! She arrived at around 1pm and hopped off the trailer at the ranch. DD worked with her a bit in the round pen and then let her settle down in her pen. No bumps or scrapes except with the one she gave herself before she came down. The ride there was good.
Having settled in for a few hours and resting during the hottest part of the day, DD took her into the round pen and worked with her again. He commented that she was in a good frame of mind for riding. He round penned her a bit then he saddled her up and put the hobbles on her, and she accepted them. He took the hobbles off and got on her, what a good girl! I am so proud and very happy. What a good girl! Licking and chewing!
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Today we remembered how to load onto a trailer after not getting into one since being a yearling.
How long has it been? Quite a while, in fact I had forgotten about this little blog completely! Well, I think I will start updating this again.
Nutmeg is well into her third year of life, and she has grown big and strong. She is still as loving and sweet as she was the day I met her.
I'll catch everyone up so you are all up to speed. Life has been a blur lately, things have gone so fast and a lot has happened. I'll post a little about me after I review what has gone on with the subject of this little blog.
Last summer Nutmeg colicked, and we had to have the vet out to give her banamine and mineral oils. Poor thing, I knew something was wrong the moment I called her out in the pasture and she didn't come thundering up to me. She just wasn't right. Thankfully we got her bowels moving again. The vet seemed to think that it may have been WNV causing it, but because we vaccinate she only felt sick and didn't get any of the neruological side effects, and no long term problems came from it. Poor thing. Picture below is during her colic episode. She dropped a lot of weight and lost a lot of muscle. You can see how sucked up she is.
I had plans to get Nutmeg ground driving this year after just letting her be a horse for a while. I wanted to keep her busy since I had to sell her buddies due to some unforseen circumstances. She's by herself in the pasture now, and I'm sure she would have loved to have a job. Very willing to learn, but she does have a stubborn streak. I've learned to work around this by asking her to do things, and convincing her that it is a good idea to do them. We learned to wear a sleazy! I got as far as getting her used to having a bareback pad, and introduced her to the saddle. She took to it very well and although at first the gave the saddle pad the stink eye, she soon relaxed and allowed me to place it on her back. The second saddling was great, I have a video of it that I will share. I put the saddle a bit further back than normal because it wasn't a good fit, but it is very light and weighs next to nothing so it was easy for me to lift onto her. She stood like a good girl and gave me no problems. After the filming stopped I sent her around the round pen and she had no bucks or squeals.
So much for plans. Shortly after this I had decided to buy a surcingle to use with her, but she managed to injure herself. She cut herself pretty well, thankfully it was clean and the vet sutured it back together. Though she had to wear a moon boot for a month and she got very crabby about having her feet handled. I can't blame her, she was sore. She blew a gravel out of the same hoof but the entire time she never took a lame step. Sorry if you find any below picture graphic. She also learned not to be afraid of plastic bags, best way to learn? Good grass and about 6 layers of plastic bags over your moon boot so it doesn't get wet. Pulling stitches, boy was that fun. She tried very hard to be good but I'm pretty sure she didn't appreciate the sensation of having me take her stitches out. She needs some work on holding her feet now, this experience has made her a bit touchy about them, but she isn't bad.
Now she is well, seemingly happy and being a horse. However, it is about that time when a young horse needs to learn a thing or two. Seeing as I am 5,000 miles away in England. I can't do it myself. We will see what happens, I think something exciting may be ahead of us.
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She blows my mind! With how sweet and calm she is.
Nutmeg got her first teat cleaning experience a few days ago. She used to kick at my hand when I tried to stick my fingers in there but when I tried the other day she let me pick out all the sand and crusties. It must have been bothering her because she felt good enough to run around like a crazy horse the next day.
Silly goose, her buddies decided to race her. We all know this little halter bred horse is destined to be a timed event champion, you can just tell. She digs in, and goes like the wind. Sharp turns? No problem. Hard stops? No problem. Rollbacks? She does them for fun.
So I've been pretty busy with Finals, and they're FINALLY done. First year of college down, about 5-6 more to go..
Nutmeg has shed out completely since its almost June. She also had her birthday which was on April 29th. Not much has gone on since then, just a bit of growing. Shes got a lot more to do!
