A New Foal At The Stable!

Last week on the night of June 1, one the mares, names "Brownie", at the stable gave birth. It's a healthy female whose been named "Abby" and even though she's only a week old, she's moving around pretty well and mom has taken to the maternal thing in a big way- thousands of years of survival mechanisms have kicked in! Actually, Mom's been pretty good about the whole thing and she'll let people approach Abby (although she's understandably a bit more defensive with other horses).

Abby is getting used to people and hopefully this will make for a well-adjusted horse. She's even been turned out into the big arena where she's been running around with Mom. Mom is just glad to have gotten rid of the extra baggage so she's definately in a happy mood. It's pretty neat to watch them run around, especially as the foal is starting to learn how to use her legs (she's occassionally wobbly but hey, give the kid a chance, it's only been a week!).

Here's some pictures of the little one:

Hylasport - Good Stuff

This is the joint supplement I use for Max:

I've had excellent results with it and no, I'm not associated with the company nor do I get a kick-back from referrals! A friend of mine put me onto it and I bought my first batch at Equine Affair that was held at the Pomona Fairplex last February. I can definately tell the difference.

More information can be had from the manufacturer by clicking here.

Ticonderoga Class Cruiser

And now for your pleasure...another cool shot, this time of the USS Lake Champlain, a Ticonderoga Class Cruiser (CG 47). These are designed to deliver quite a bit of firepower and later versions have a Vertical Launch System (VLS) that can accommodate up to 127 missles- either Standard Surface-to-Air Missle, Tomahawk, and ASROC in any combination- ready for instant launch. These ships are typically part of carrier battle groups.

At The Stables & On the Trail

Last night I went out the stables to ride Max- I love these long summer days because I can get off work and still have plenty of light to ride by. It was a pretty warm day although things were beginning to cool down a bit by the time I got there.

After saddling up Max, I decided to do a light trail ride so I headed out on my usual route down the wash, accross the river and loop back. Max had no issues except he was his usual lazy self in moving out- talk about the SLOW walk! Fortunately, that's what spurs are for...

The only problem was after crossing the river, Max didn't want to go into a canter. I gave him a sharp whack with the crop and then the spur- it was one of those horse BS things- "Let's see what sort of shit I can get away with!" Not.

I got him into a relatively slow canter (I didn't press the issue, I'm just focusing on keeping his attention and moving out in an orderly manner) and cantered him all the way over to where the jogging path begins to go onto the top of Hansen Dam.

When I then turned him to make our way in a homeward direction, Max naturally picked up his pace- what an SOB, he really makes it look like he's sooo tired and then...total energy.

On the way home, I stopped off at one of the public round pens by Orcas Park to work him at the canter/walk transitions. Also, throughout the ride, I also made Max do a number of yielding to the bit exercises, which for the most part he did well on.

Overall, everything went well. Perhaps this weekend I might ride him up to the bathtub on the Doc Larsen Trail. We shall see...

Picture- Alvaro de Bazán Class Destroyer

This was made available with no restriction on Wikipedia and it looked cool so I thought I'd post it here. This is the Spanish Destroyer Alvaro de Bazán (F-102) which is based on the Arleigh Burke Class and employes many of the same weapons and electronics systems. Enjoy!

Max Again...

After much study and having endured the trials of civil service testing, I managed to make it out to the stables late last Saturday and get a little riding in. Since I'd started Max back on his glucousimine supplement (I use Hylasport), he seems to have gotten better and he didn't give me any problems about trotting or cantering.

We didn't really do a lot and the ride went well. We practiced some release exercises which are intended as a means of getting and holding the horse's attention. I also practiced some walk/canter transitions. We still have a ways to go on those but it's a start.

Sunday saw us taking a group lesson instead of the usual one-on-one lesson and it was an interesting change due to a scheduling snafu. I was with four other horses in the arena and it was a good test of Max's ability to pay attention, in spite of all the other horses and potential distractions. Although Max was a but more keyed up (to be expected around other horses), he actually settled down and got down to business. He even cantered with the rest of the horses (there were a couple of Friesians and boy, does the earth MOVE when they canter! Talk about your thundering hooves!).

I had to check him periodically in order to keep a horse length interval betweeen myself and the horse in front of me but overall, it was a good experience for Max.

Max Again...(sigh)

After studying for a civil service exam for the past three days (and giving Max some time off), I finally had enough and decided to get out to the stables last night.

Everything seemed to go well until a went to get Max into a trot- he completely refused and then tried to turn around. I quickly whacked him on the hindquarters with a crop and turned him around. He then tried it a second time and I whacked him again and he then complied.

He also tried to pull the same stunt going into the canter. What is up?

I figure that perhaps it's the arthritis again. I just got the new joint supplement but I haven't been able to feed it to him yet so perhaps we need to build up the levels there. Also, if this doesn't work, I'll have to call the vet out again and have her give him an injection of Adequan.

In the meantime, I need to work with Max so he doesn't get in the habit of thinking he can refuse to work. There's no obvious signs of lameness at this point so it's a bit of a mystery.

Once I get the joint supplement (I'm giving him Hylasport), going, we'll see. That seemed to work the last time.

Once I got Max going, he was pretty good and did everything I wanted. I'll have to monitor the situation...