Temple Grandin, this lady gets it!

When the topic of animals come up at work, my boss has often talked with me about Temple Grandin and her extraordinary work with cattle.  It didn't surprise me to realize she applies her talent of understanding to horses as well.  As I have mentioned before, Diamond has serious traumatic history of which I know little about..I only see the aftermath.  In this article I found on Horse&Rider, they delve into how horses think.  Grandin is spot on.  Once I brought Diamond up here, I have always been adamant on me being the only one to care for him.  That's why I am so set on self care.  He trusts me and yet sometimes I can barely keep, as Grandin calls them, the "bad files" closed.  The staff is very understanding but has offered to turn Diamond out on occasion when stalls need maintenance.  So they still don't fully understand, but in my passive aggressive way, I tell them, "I'll just be here at such and such a time when they need maintenance and take Diamond out for a walk."  I need to be the only one to handle Diamond.  I have often followed up conversations like this with, "I just don't want anyone to get hurt."  People assume because he is calm and trusting with me, that he is generally a calm horse.  But he is not.  And that article explains why..

"For a horse, a traumatic fear memory is like a bad computer file. A rider the horse trusts can train him to close the file and hold it closed, but it's still there, and can re-open under the right circumstances." She tells the story of a rope horse that had become phobic about anything touching his hind end (the result of a bad accident). With his regular rider to reassure him, the horse would keep the bad-memory file closed. Then that rider went on vacation, and another person rode the horse in a pen with cattle. "One of the cows brushed the horse's butt and the horse panicked, crashed through the fence, broke his leg, and had to be destroyed. The less-familiar rider didn't know how to help the horse keep the file closed." 

I seriously want to print it out and keep copies with me to hand out when people want to talk to me about Diamond.

Slow Feeder #s

Slow Feeder

2 flakes : 4 hours

I'd like to determine how long it takes to eat the Bermuda by weight once I get a hay net and scale but for now I have to use the measuring methods I have. 

Diamond got 2 flakes this morning at 8am.  I stopped by on my lunch at 12pm and he had almost finished.  I gave him another flake and a half.  So he should be done with that at 3pm.  Then tonight I will stop by after work and he will get 2 more flakes since tomorrow morning I won't be able to stop by until 12pm.  I have to work super early again.  Knowing Diamond, he will munch until it's all gone at 10pm.  So maybe I should put in 4 flakes...that will hold him over until noon I hope. 

etrailer is uber cool

Firstly, Diamond was doing well this morning  ^.^  We did some walking in the round pen and afterwards he rolled.  Tomorrow morning I hope to get there a bit earlier so we can work with the bareback pad.

Now...on to my quest to find, purchase, and install the correct hitch for my Focus.  I got some great customer service from etrailer.  They responded very quickly to the question I submitted and you can read it here as they posted it online.  Basically, the set up I want to order from them will work great for my situation.  Now before I bite the bullet and order from etrailer, I need to be sure I can find someone to install it.  So I called UHaul.  They think that hitch #24872 is for a Mazda and that hitch #24857 is for a Ford Focus.  Before I knew it I had scheduled an appt to install #24857 next week for $233 bucks out the door.  It all happened so fast, as Pam from The Office would say.  Fortunately, it was just an appt I could cancel at any time, no money had exchanged hands.  After getting off the phone, I re-examined everything on etrailer and searched the rest of the internet for people who had installed hitches on their focus's.  I found a forum that expressed what I was going through.  UHaul would not order part #24872, the hidden hitch recommended on etrailer.  A concern about how a hitch would void the Ford warranty was brought up.  And apparently, it would be void if any drilling takes place.  Now I was worried about how part #24857 would be installed.  #24872 is a no drill install.  So I am back to ordering from etrailer and calling UHaul to change my appt for just an installation which should be around $30.00-60.00 for labor.  Phew.

Exercise 11/05/14

Morning: 15 minutes of walking

U-Haul or etrailer

It was quite brisk at 55 degrees this morning when I arrived at the stables.  Diamond's natural fluffy coat is doing it's job as he seemed in good spirits.  I filled his slow feeder and let him snack while I cleaned out his stall.  After a good brushing and cleaning out his feet we went into the arena.  I took off his halter and asked him to walk for 15 minutes.  Then we both ran around the arena together (Diamond was trotting while I jogged) for 10 minutes.  We walked for 5 minutes to cool down and I did some light stretching with all of his legs before heading back to his breakfast.

I am researching all options to deliver bales to the stable: 

• I can purchase 10 bales and get delivery from the feed store     
• Rent a truck from U-Haul for $30.95 plus $0.59 per mile.  I did all the math = $36.85 + Tax
• Purchase a Draw-Tite Trailer Hitch from etrailer.com $134.95 free shipping and find out if U-Haul can install it.  Then purchase the Cargo Carrier for $148.95.
• Purchase a hitch from U-Haul and have it installed 11 days after purchase $188.37 (but this might be the wrong type of hitch..for towing instead of for carriers)

I emailed etrailer today explaining what I want to do with the cargo carrier to see if they had any advice.  I'll report what they say when they email me back.

Exercise Log
11/04/14
Morning:  15 minutes walking.  10 minutes trotting.  5 minute cool down.

Bareback again!

Diamond is very patiently allowing me to ride him bareback.  I say this because even though I am light, I am bony.  I think he would prefer if I had a bareback pad on him to give us each a little cushioning.  Friday morning was fun though!  We did a bit more trotting than Thursday.  However, Friday evening....I went to feed Diamond and in his slow feeder was a muskrat!  Do we have muskrats in Arizona?  I don't know but he was definitely a muskrat.  Poor lil guy must had crawled up the side and accidentally fell in.  Luckily, my dad made the feeder with a removable bottom so I simply had to lift one corner and out the bottom he slid.  Diamond seemed unfazed by the rodent so maybe they are friends lol

Today we just did a nice 2 mile walk and I got a few great photos.  I am hoping to get up early tomorrow so we can do some riding in the arena.

Researching senior horse care

Yesterday I did some more research on senior care.  There is always talk of how important regular exercise is and I couldn't agree more.  I really like the idea of timing our warm ups to be sure he is getting enough exercise per day.  This morning, I had him walk in the round pen for 15 minutes and then trot for 5 minutes.  I could tell he was feeling a bit stiff in the beginning but loosened up nicely after the 5 minutes of trotting began.  Without halter or lunge line, he was trotting in a tight circle around me, collected and calmly with his head down.  I hope tomorrow I can get out to the stables early enough to warm him up and do some riding in the arena.  The mosquitoes are absolutely taking over the trails so I think I'll stick closer to home.

Ropes and a noodle

The title pretty much says it all.  This morning I tied Diamond to the hitching post and cleaned his feet as he touched the rope, waiting for treats.  Afterwards we went to the round pen and warmed up his body walking and trotting.  He now only gets to come in to me once his head is lowered as he trots around.  I hope this will translate to when I'm in the saddle but we shall see.  Every day he seems calmer and more confident that the noodle will not hurt him.  Today he just wanted to touch it with his lips over and over until I ran out of treats.  He picks things up so quickly I just wish he would retain them better.  Perhaps it is his age..

Good karma

Last night, I saved a bird.  I arrived at the stables to give Diamond his dinner, as always, but this evening I thought I would let him walk around one of the turn outs while I get his stall ready.  So out we went to the back turn out.  Now each of these turn outs has a water bucket and I wanted to be sure that the water was clean and there was enough for him to drink while he was waiting.  As I began to peer into the water bucket, something began to peer back.  Lo and behold, a small black bird was sitting at the bottom with water up to his chest.  After regaining my composure, I proceeded to yell at the bird, "Get out! Shoo! Fly away!" but try as he might, he could not fly out of the bucket.  He even opened his wings a bit to say, "I'm trying! I can't!"  "No, Cassie," I thought to myself, "you are not going to pick up this bird with your hands."  But what else could I do?  I had to get him out and the bucket itself was secured to the fence.  In my hands I held Diamond's halter and lead rope.  Holding both ends of the rope, I created a makeshift swing.  As I lowered the "swing" down to the bird I thought, "Don't you dare fly up after you said you couldn't and scare the living crap out of me!"  As I lowered it down to his chest, I kid you not, he gently put his feet onto the swing.  I slowly lifted the swing up.  Once he could see over the bucket he hopped down, gave me a chirp, and ran away.  "You're welcome!" I called out after him. 

Diamond was, of course, oblivious to all of this.  All he cared about was rolling in the dirt. 

This morning we walked over the post again and Diamond touched the rope as much as possible to get as many treats as possible.  I am glad he is becoming less and less afraid.  We also did some work in the round pen with the noodle.  He decided he would lift up his right front leg and paw at the noodle causing it to roll into him.  Instead of freaking out, he was calm and looked to me for a treat for touching the noodle.  

Tomorrow I hope to do the same routine.