First off, Happy New Year to everyone! Here is a list of my new year’s resolutions (effective immediately)

1.)                Ride as many horses as I can, including my own, as much as possible. (I am going to be ponying on a ½ arab,1/2 saddlebred NSH horse at the TB Farm I work at, and will start to help the trainer, who also trains paints on the side, ride her 8 horses she has in training!)

2.)                Cut out Fast Food Completely!

3.)                Drink more water, less pop and coffee. I will stick to my caffeine need in the mornings, but after that, it will have to be healthier.

4.)                Start bike riding and exercising after I am done at work….lol which is its own little work out…. But this depends on how much I start riding, which will be daily at work here soon with ponying. This is a temp. resolu… as it is winter for crying out loud…lol

5.)                Loose weight, shouldn’t be a problem if I cut out the pop and fast food, and have already started to gain muscle weight from working at the farm.

6.)                Become a pony rider at Beulah, River Downs, Turfway, and eventually Churchill or even Keenland! I might be dreaming, but with the training I will have at the farm with the 2 – 3 yr olds we have in racing, I should atleast be able to get to ride for one race someday! I guess everyone should have a goal…. That might not be obtainable. (Kelsey or Anne L, or someone maybe can point me into the direction of how to become a pony rider at the track????)

So that is it of course. Now the update on the home front!

Meeso has managed to again…. hurt herself… Same knee, that has been swollen for a year. Found her with Blood all down her leg the day after Christmas! Vet came out because she had 2 puncture wounds on either side of that knee, Deep wounds and a slash on the back of her cannon, and a slash to her forehead! They all looked as if they needed stitches, but when I found them it was too late. He thinks that because of the calcification she has in that knee, from the bone chip and arthritis setting in, that it’s itchy and so she probably tried to itch it on something and got caught, fence, tree, Brush row of thorns? Could have been anything….  Again mysterious Meeso, So she is on a packet of antibiotics once a day for 10 days, turned out during the day, and in at night so I can do a wrap on her knee with little poultice pads and a standing wrap on her cannon to hold the wrap on. I opted not to do x-rays this time, new vet who is a pro about legs and hooves said he wouldn’t at this time. She is sound on that leg. So, I am very happy with this vet, being honest and he is well known and recommended in my area! So my other vet, will probably hit the road.

Clayton and Blue have been staying fat and happy. Blue is craving attention and now that all the carriage work I was doing is over with, I will be able to give him the attention he so wants. I found an indoor on my street, ½ a mile away that will allow me to bring him in to ride for $15.00 for an hour and a half. J So, Blue won’t know what he got himself into. I also have the option to haul him to my co-workers, other job, the paint barn. I would get free board, for helping with general chores, and riding the other horses. I might do that when it gets closer to show season, so I can get a lot more work on him, but they also hardly have no turnout as this is a show barn, and Blue won’t enjoy being stalled up.

Clayton has stayed sound, fat and happy! Since Meeso had been stall bound, he has been staying by her door, in the mud! Now its frozen…. So even better! Poor guy. Atleast now, she is out during the day, and he has his Meeso fix.

So besides Mud and wind, constantly up and down temperatures, Blankets on, Blankets off, Cleaning mud off the kids for it to be put back on when turned back out!, Rain Rot comes and goes, Life in Ohio has been alright. The new shelter has stood, unmoving to the high winds we have had and being used! Today its snowing, blustery, cold in the Teens!!! Meeso has a blanket on, she was shivering this morning.

Now the work front!

I get to go to the backside of Beulah for the first time tomorrow (Wednesday). We are taking “Punky’s Ghost” a 3 yr old chestnut filly to Woodbine Vet Hosp. for an x-ray to clear her to go back to the track. She was off for a saucer fracture, and has been rested in a pasture for 8 months. She is a funny girl and very ready to go back! She runs and runs and runs, and loves to race us in the diesel ford as we go down a lane to feed. She inspects the tractor and tries to chew on the tires when we are mucking out her run-out. She is a sweetie though, and Loves grooming. I will miss her, and hope she stays sound. If she clears the vet check, we hop on over to the track and drop her off. Then we pick up, Bri’s Bad Boy, a 9 yr old Gelding who is retiring. I know not much about him, so I get to meet him and have a new buddy at the farm. We will now have 2 retirees that will be up for adoption probably late summer, when we get the track out of them and do some retraining, which I am excited about!!!! Devil’s Rising Son (Sonny), is a 3 yr old gelding, well might be 4 today! Lol, but he had a hairline fracture in his cannon that took him off the track, and he was never really doing anything, so he is done racing. If these 2 can’t find homes, its ok, they will live in the 50 acre rolling hill pasture on the farm. The farm owners just worked with New Vocations on finding 3 of their horses new homes, they had been turned out off the track on the farm for up to 6 years! I love working for these people. They care deeply for their horses, and do whatever they can for them. When they are done at the track, they come home, when they need a rest, they come home. It is a hobby for them, not so much a business. They trust me and Laura to update them on the 14 horses on the property, and to care for them best we know how. They trust our judgment and if we say something needs to be done, they do it! I couldn’t believe that only being there 2 months, that they gave me a $150.00 Christmas Bonus! That is the most I had ever gotten from any job I have had!!! It is a lot of work, and I can say it is the nicest herd of 14 horses to work with! They all have their own personalities, none of them out to get us, all very loving, and love attention!

Remember me telling you all about the 2 yr old Stud colt! Well, we got a saddle on him! Hehe…. Haven’t tried to mount yet, but that colt is not afraid of anything! We have to have him under saddle and accepting a rider in 4 weeks. He is going to be shipped to Florida, to be “prepped for the track”. Where he can get more speed! We have a ¼ mile track at the farm, but you can’t get any speed out there, safely. So, he took the saddle, without even blinking at it, he is so ready to go and needs something to do! He is the funniest kid at the farm right now, but so bored! I have grown to love the big bugger!

Now a note to Anne Landers….

Jockey, Jenny Schmidt said she will be back to OK in a couple weeks, to a month. So no worries, she is coming back! She has bought a $44K NICE live in horse trailer here in Ohio and is currently shopping for a truck to pull it with.. hehe She has a QH she bought off the track that she is going to retrain to do barrels and she wants to rodeo it up out in OK. So she figured that she might as well save money on rent, etc by just buying herself a home that can travel with her. So that is the good news for her, bad news is, 4 days after coming home, her and her parents were out in the barn feeding. Jenny was getting cold and decided to go back to the house, She noticed smoke coming out of the back of the house, so she ran, and it was on fire. She tried to get her dogs out of the house, but one ran back in. The house was fully engulfed in a ½ hour and they lost everything. She was able to get her dad’s briefcase out, their 3 vehicles out of the garage, and her mom’s purse and one of her exercise saddles. Jenny had everything with her, that she owns, in that house at the time of the fire. She lost her Min Pin, and a 6 month old puppy, all her racing exercise saddles, boots, equipment, clothing, Her lap top, she lost everything! Her parents, mostly her mother, is claiming they don’t need to give her any money from the insurance for what she lost, which was EVERYTHING, that is another LONG Story, but if you know of any used equipment that anyone would like to donate for her to use when she gets back. She might buy all new, but I doubt it, and I am sure she will need it soon. She could use riding attire as well….  She lost it all.  So I thought I would let you know….

Now.. someone asked about Purina Ultium….

I feed it to my 3. In the summer, when they have a lot of grass, 24/7 turnout, they only get ½ a coffee can, 2x a day and stay at a good weight with that! This would also be with only 1-2 flakes of hay per horse 1x a day. So you feed a lot less than you would if you are feeding sweet feeds and if your horse has turnout… Blue gets a full can 2x a day when he was working…. But then he falls into the “performance horse” column and needs more than the other 2. With my 3, I go thru 2, 50lb bags every 2 weeks. So my average feed cost is $35.00 every other week.

In the winter…. This is my feeding regimen. Now, keep in mind, I am on a tight budget, hay is hard to get here in Ohio this year and if you do get it, you pay over $5 a bale. I feed ½ a bale in the AM, a full bale in the PM, for all 3 horses. They all still get ½ a coffee can of Ultium, but I also add 2 cups (cup being a drinking cup) Wheat Bran, 1 cup Oats, and 2 cups Beat Pulp Soaked. They also get their own bucket filled ½ full in the afternoon of Alfalfa Cubes soaked. I am supplementing for hay, so I added more to their feed and I am still not feeding as much as we feed at the TB farm I work at. We do sweet feeds there of various percentages. My horses are fat, but so are the horses at the farm. All in all, I am probably paying more for feed…. However, not as often. So I like the Ultium, their coats are shiny, I have seen improvement in hooves, and my horses have never coliced, or choked, and I don’t worry about sugars, and founder, etc…. Of course, I knock on wood, but I like to think that I am doing everything right to prevent all the bad things!

So that is it for now. Time to rest up, big day tomorrow with getting to go to the track, etc. I have to be at work at 6:00am…. Hehe I better get used to it, cause once summer is here, I have to be at work at 5:30…..  so we can work the babies in the cool mornings… I will feel a bit of track life, on the farm!

No Time is lost that is spent in the saddle.