In Memory of MW Jack Daniels, 3/29/1980-8/4/2010

Above: A photo of Jack in his retirement years.

Jack was my first horse, a 15 year old gelding. He’d won many halter championships as a young horse and then showed Western Pleasure for many years before my family found him. My dad built a very nice 4 stall barn and a nice 3 rail wooden oak board paddock and the previous owner delivered him after school on Friday, the day before St. Patrick’s Day. I was ecstatic. I was eleven years old and had my first horse. I’d paid half with my own money; both my name and my mom’s name are on his registration papers.

So Jack got the privilege (burden?) of teaching me how to own a horse. He was so patient when he needed to be, and ornery enough to keep me on my toes when I learned enough that he didn’t have to babysit me anymore. He did nearly all the classes offered at the county 4-H fair, and did me proud when I took him to the Arabian shows. If I asked him to do it, he gave me his all.



Left: showing at the county fair.
Center: the day he arrived, he would’ve walked right in had I let him.
Right: Mom holding Jack after my sister and I helped him play “dress-up” – what a patient horse he was.

He had a beautiful rocking horse canter, and he loved to be ridden. He was willing to go any way you asked him to. Jack and I got to the point in our partnership where if I simply looked, he would go – no need for rein or leg to guide him.

Eventually, at 14.2 hands high, I outgrew my little Jack and began riding Arabee, and we tried to loan him out as a lesson horse. The little stinker wouldn’t do it, I had reports of him bucking all the way around the arena whenever they tried to ride him. This I couldn’t believe so I had to see for myself, and when I got there they had me ride him. My horse was as good as pie for me, not a single buck or even a tail shake. Looks like as much as I had claimed Jack, he had claimed me, and so we gladly brought him back home.

I rode him occasionally on pleasure rides, and he was always so eager to go, but a perfect gentleman, ears pricked forward happily but after only a short time he would start short-stepping and show discomfort, even at the walk, so I kept his rides short and infrequent since he clearly enjoyed going. Eventually when he was stiff from the very beginning of the ride it was clear that he needed to be retired as a riding horse. So Jack became a pasture pal for my mare Arabee and we maintained his health and hoof care, and decided that as long as he was still comfortable, he would live out his days with me.

Above: one of my senior pictures taken with Jack.


So both Jack and Arabee moved to my new life as a married woman in 2005, and he never was ridden once in the last 5 years. He loved having acres of pasture to roam and graze on the farm, and his existence was about as good as it could be if you were a horse, I think. He didn’t have much left in the way of teeth, and was on senior horse feed as much as he would eat. He always was a hard-keeper and a thin horse, and every winter in the last few years, I’d think he would look awful once his thick winter hair shedded out, but he’d put on weight again in the spring and keep on going. My husband and I were somewhat surprised he’d made it through this last winter; it had been very cold this year. But, he did, and a part of me was almost beginning to believe he was going to live on forever.

But, as he was checking the animals on the afternoon of August 4th my husband called my cell phone to tell me that I needed to come out and check on Jack, he just wasn’t right. So I turned off the burners on the stove (supper could wait) and jogged up to the paddock, and what I saw was not good. My sweet gelding was in obvious pain laying flat on his side, looking back at his belly and drenched in sweat. He had rubbed his sides raw from rolling, and right away I called the vet. I had just never seen Jack be so distressed, in pain, and miserable, and as a retired 30 year old horse I owed it to Jack to as best I could make his last hours as comfortable as possible.

The vet arrived within 30 minutes, and gave him Banamine and said that if we could get him back up to keep him walking. He said if the Banamine helped then he’d have a strong chance of pulling through the colic. Unfortunately, the Banamine never seemed to make a difference in Jack’s comfort level. We felt that the humane thing to do was to have the vet put him down so he wouldn’t have to suffer any longer. I don’t want to describe too clearly what the poor horse was going through, but I’ll just say it was clear that we made the right decision.

It was a hard night, and a hard morning as I explained to my nearly three year old daughter what had happened. I kept his forelock and tail hair as a memento, but I’ll always have many happy memories of my 15 years spent with a very special horse. I will miss him very much :'(

Above: Jack pausing from his frolic around his new surroundings the first day we moved him to where we live now.

Bloodlines in Endurance - Just Curiosity

So I was re-reading the December 2008 copy of Endurance News which showed the 2008 award standings for horses and riders in the AERC, both endurance and LD.

I was surprised at the absolute absence of any Varian bred Arabians. I don't believe I saw a single horse listed with a "V" after its name. I could have missed them, but I looked pretty carefully.

My previous experience with horses was geared towards the show ring. It didn't matter western, hunt, country, english, halter - if it was Arabian showing, I was interested. I've mentioned before that one of my childhood (and teenage) goals/dreams was to be an Arabian breeder/trainer and make it big in the show ring. (I'm glad I've come to my senses!!) Anyway, it is my understanding that Arabians with Varian breeding are the ones that are winning, and have been consistently winning in the show ring. I thought it was something like 40-60% of all winners were Varian bred (obviously I'm too lazy to look up the actual statistic, but they do a lot of winning). I had a chance to go to Varian Arabians out in California sometime in high school for the Summer Spectacular, where we saw the breeding stallions, went on a mare walk, saw the performance horses and prospects for sale, and I was very impressed. I have had the opportunity to ride and work with a few Varian bred horses and liked them very much.

So, I was surprised that none of the horses high in the award standings in endurance riding were Varian bred. Does anyone have any insight as to why?? It's not pressing - I am NOT in the market for a horse AT ALL right now, nor will be in the near future, but I am curious.

1st Saturday in May

Well, my two horses apparantly know what day it is today.

Usually when I open the gate to the pasture, they gallop out to the middle then give me a few strides of that big floating, tail over the back Arab trot, then stop to quite calmly eat grass after the initial burst of speed.

Not this morning!

They made not one, not two, but Three big, all-out galloping laps around the pasture, plus some of that pretty trotting, and plenty of snorting. Jack somehow managed to get out of the gate before Arabee, and I have never seen her run so fast, but she caught up with him, then lapped him.

I love getting to watch them move at liberty so freely like that! Such natural-born athletes, so talented and graceful!

Monday Night's Ride

Rode for an hour yesterday - it was BEAUTIFUL weather outside for a nice quiet walk in the woods. :-) Unfortunately for Arabee, we needed to have a conditioning ride, so that one hour really worked up a big sweat on her! I'm not sure the exact temperature, somewhere between 60 and 70. I was comfortable, though! She'll really be shedding out the winter coat rapidly after working up that kind of sweat.

She was kind of a stinker yesterday. It must have been one of those self-fulfilling prophecies. You know, "if you think you can, or if you think you can't - you are right." Well, I guessed that after having a big workout on Saturday, and Sunday off, that she would be feeling froggy, so either I was right....or I was anticipating a bit of a fight so I got one.

She wasn't really that bad... but didn't really want to stand still when got her out of the paddock, was giving me trouble with the rump rug (I always "remind" her what the rump rug looks like when it catches in the wind, and remind her that the crupper is there before each ride). She was well-behaved at first, bending well, walking out nicely, so we headed down to the ditch/creek to walk around there, then followed it along to where the little tractor path is. For some reason she just hates climbing that particular hill. She wants to rush up and get out of that valley *right now*. My guess is that it's really the only place in that woodsy pasture that is actually out of sight of the barn.

So each time she headed up that hill and wanted to trot instead of walk, I gave her a single-rein-stop, turned back around down to the bottom, then tried it again. It took a lot longer than I wanted it to, but finally she did walk (although quickly) up the hill.

After I won that one we did some trotting, and she kept wanting to break into a canter at the muddy parts. It was a nice, easy canter, but still disrespectful for her to try to decide what gait. So I'd bring her down and we'd trot, and next time we'd get to that spot I asked her for a canter. (first time I'd intentionally cantered out of the arena...I am such a chicken!!!) I took her by surprise since I hadn't asked her to canter in a long time, and she took the opposite lead of the bend we were on, and it was ROUGH. So we trotted, and tried it again next time around. Much better.

She was pretty excited after we did some cantering (that was FUN!) and kept giving me huge trots that I could feel were going to turn into canters any second. She did break gait a couple times, but I was eventually able to keep her trotting when I asked for the trot.

I'm using more rein pressure than I want to have to to keep her at the speed I want to go. I wish I had a video of parts of yesterday's ride - since she was really giving me a lot of energy in her trot (and canter) and I was reining her in, and she was rounded up and arching her neck and breathtakingly beautiful from astride, so I really wish I could've seen it! But, I don't want to use that kind of rein pressure all the time, I'd like her to rate better w/out rein. Really, I screwed up at the trail ride at Clark on Saturday - she was trotting out really fast to keep up with Toby and Phebes when they would canter, and rather than slow her down w/ my seat, I used rein, rather ineffectively, and essentially taught her that it's okay to ignore me pulling on the reins. It's amazing how you really do have to be on top of your game all the time when in the saddle, since it doesn't take long w/ these super intelligent arabians for them to learn a bad habit.

So, tonight's goal is to work on rating, and responsiveness.

I'm also considering breaking out of my comfort zone and heading for the farm lanes. I can so tell that Arabee is sick of riding in the same pasture over and over and over.....but I like the comfort of having the fence. It's a little ridiculous because this is like a 10 acre pasture, she's got plenty of room to get away - but for me the difference is knowing she can't dump me and then gallop back across the ROAD because the gate is shut, so she'd be safe. Maybe I'll see if I can get my "riding parter" to come along, for extra confidence on the first lap, then I can do some trotting laps with just me and Arabee.

Arabee's Line

I have tracked down Arabee's registration papers. Some showed interest in her ancestry - and while the format is terrible, I typed up the names, since I don't have a scanner. Each line is a column, and reading left to right, the names go from top to bottom (LE BARON and SUNN MAIDE produced FA SUNN BARONE....for an example). She's pretty heavy in *BASK up top! And, while I'm not a fan of writing in all caps, that is how they showed it on the certificate, so that's how I wrote it.

RM ARABEE (M)

FA SUNN BARONE, RM INDIAN SUMMER (S, M)

LE BARONE, SUNN MAIDE, STORM WARNING, BROWN-R JANNA (S, M, S, M)

LA BASQUE, LUMINESQUE, SUNN BASK, HO GULIANKA, *ELECTRIC STORM, MODEL, SILVER-SP JANEYN, TAHNA (S, M, S, M, S, M, S, M)

*BASK, HABINA, *BASK, LASMA STAR, *BASK, SOLAY, JERABY JAVAN, MUNA AL HAL, INDIAN MAGIC, SILFINA, MRAFF, MIRABA, DAAREYN, SO NERIS, TAHJAM, RAQANA (S, M, S, M, S, M, S, M, S, M, S, M, S, M, S, M)


Anybody experienced in distance riding see any familiars in there? I'm guessing not - she came from a breeder who leaned more toward showing. But then, Arabee's not built at all like a halter horse - her topline is not flat enough - her hindquarters have plenty of power built in - quite the athlete :-) not just a dainty doll who can pose pretty. (although I think she's pretty, too!)

Can you find the white (grey) horse?

Jack and Arabee were treated to pasture turnout last Thursday. It was a pretty snowy morning, and the ground was frozen, so they weren't near as likely to tear up the ground.

Normally in the winter "mud soup" season they stay in the paddock nearby their stalls and shed that is added on to the back of the corn crib. They get hay am and pm, and Jack gets Equine Senior pelleted feed, Arabee gets a teeny handful of corn since she gets fat LOOKING at feed!

In the summertime instead of hay they get turnout all day long, of course added gradually in the spring when the grass is so lush and green.

It will be interesting to see how this must change in 2009 (or IF it will have to change) to accomodate Arabee's changing workload. I will keep a close eye on her. Right now she could stand to lose a lot of weight, but I want to be sensible about it.

History

The day before St. Patricks Day, in 1995, I anxiously awaited for the truck and trailer to pull up the drive. The stalls had just been finished, we hadn’t yet hung the gate to the paddock. I was in fifth grade, MW Jack Daniels (b1980), called by Jack, mostly, was fifteen. He’s a gray Arabian, experienced in the show arena, and he was my First horse. I paid half for him; on his papers is both my name and my mother’s name. He and I enjoyed several 4-H shows, starting in western, going on to English and western, and even versatility! We had a hard time getting ribbons at first, both due to my inexperience and being and Arabian in a QH world. Then we started qualifying to go to the state fair, and did okay. Then it was time to try the Arabian class A shows. We did allright, and I also showed my mom’s Arabian, Midas, sometimes. I really loved showing, worked all summer long through high school driving horsedrawn carriage tours through downtown (the best job I could have EVER had!) to afford it, but it was so much fun. I never got nervous, just went out there and showed my horses.

My dream was to have an Arabian horse farm, a boarding and training facility, and I was coached by someone I really look up to in the industry that it was time for me to get a horse that was younger that could compete at a higher level. By then, Jack was getting quite old, and at 14-2 hands, isn’t a big horse. I’m 5’8”. His arthritis was also beginning to bother him, and he’s been retired from riding for several years now.

In 2000 I bought RM Arabee (b1997), at three years old, and mostly halter broken. She has perfect ground manners, and once we achieved that I started working towards getting in the saddle – by the time she was 5 years old, this filly was broke to ride by me! We showed both 4-H and class A Arabian shows and I was (am) very proud of this mare. Then I graduated high school in 2002 and went off to college. Came home one weekend and mom and I went trail riding on a beautiful September day. This was Arabee’s first trail ride, and she did very well! She was calm, crossed the water and logs very well. We stopped and got out the map to see how far we’d come, and the wind caught it. Before I know it, I’m on the ground and trying to figure out how I got there. Turns out I had received a compression fracture in my spine, which still bothers my from time to time, but not regularly. After that I’m told to stay off the horses or any compression activity (running, etc) for several weeks, and the pretty mare sits in the paddock waiting.

In 2005 we moved Jack and Arabee to their new home after my husband and I were married. Where we live now is the ideal place to keep horses, plenty of pasture, shelter, access to beautiful places to ride. All I needed was someone to ride with me, which I didn’t have, since Arabee was really very green still, and I am a great big chicken. I rode a little, but since we live on a farm, EVERYTHING scared her, and at the time she was the kind of horse that needed to be ridden close to daily for a couple of weeks before she was fun to work with. So, Jack and Arabee enjoyed their pasturing, and got fat.

The fall/winter of 2006 I got the itch to try pleasure driving. I am always more confident on the ground (or, not in the saddle!) and Arabee was great at ground driving. I worked with her close to 5 days a week all through that winter ground driving all around our farm, and was getting close to being ready to find harness and hitch her. I wanted to “traffic-proof” her before I bought a harness, because if I couldn’t get her used to motor vehicles, she’d never make a driving horse and why waste the money. About the time I was ready to start that process in early May 2007, we found out I was pregnant! I considered trying to sell Arabee, since I knew it would be tough to have a green horse with our growing family. Well, the horse market has dropped awfully, and since we knew what we have with Arabee, and she’s a very easy keeper, she stayed. And sat in the pasture some more.

Our daughter was born in December, 2007, and I got the itch to try driving again. My husband was talking to a neighbor about this, and he said it’s a good idea to have a trustworthy, safe saddle horse before you try to hitch that horse. Well….we had some work to do. So in September I swung a leg over my little mare’s back, and rode again! This was the first time in over 2 years! It felt wonderful to be riding again. Of course, I was terribly sore, and I had only ridden for probably 10 minutes at a walk! My body was not the same after having given birth! I’ve now gotten 17 rides in on Arabee since getting “Back in the Saddle” again, and I feel much more balanced, both riding and walking. I am so glad I’ve started riding again!

Now I am hoping to complete some endurance rides on Arabee in 2009. I’d like to complete two 25 mile Limited Distance rides with her, which means I’ll need to spend a LOT of hours and miles and wet saddle blankets. I figure the more time I spend riding, the closer Arabee will get towards being that safe, trustworthy driving horse I’d love to have. If nothing else, I’ll have a great time making her a safe, trustworthy riding horse, and I think we’re very close to getting there. Still need to do the traffic proofing thing.

Beyond the fact that I get a great deal of enjoyment out of riding, I'm still trying to really look deep and decide whether this is a God-thing or a Nicole-thing. The idea of endurance is so exciting, but the amount of time it will take to do right is tough to reason around. Both my husband and my daughter need my time, it can't be spent two places at once! I guess we'll see what happens - I'll keep riding as often as I get the chance. I’ve decided that as long as my house is clean enough that I won’t be embarrassed if someone drops by, and I have a plan for supper, and my family is happy and healthy, then I’ll have some free time I can spend, and why not spend it in the saddle?

So, there’s the basic equine-related history! Of course, I left a bunch of gory details out, but I figured for a basic history basic is good enough.

First Post

Hello!

Thanks for stopping by my horse blog. I'm pretty new to blogging, in fact I have another blog, you can view it here: http://adayinthelifeofnicoleblog.blogspot.com/ I realized that if I want to write about daily homelife, great, and if I want to write about horselife, great - but it's unlikely that those interested in homelife would be wanting to read about horselife, and vice verse. Hence, the new blog.

I hope you enjoy! Some topics to be covered may include, but not limited to:

• Arabian horses (possibly other breeds)
• Bitless riding
• pleasure driving (breaking and training to do so)
• feeding
• horsekeeping
• spookproofing
• barefoot trimming
• endurance (training and competition)
• tack and equipment
• rider apparel
• sewing equine stuff
• and more!