Tic Tac Toe, 3 Cobs in a Row

My Mom came home from FL yesterday and today was her last day before returning to work. So after our farrier visit, we went for a trail ride. By process of elimination (DaVinci worked yesterday, Dottie does not work after the farrier and Winston is a bit unpredictable) the 3 Cobs were chosen. This ride was going to be on near by trails, not Peggy's, and meant going on the roads. A first for Roscoe in addition to riding with a mare.
Just in case, I made sure I was on Roscoe before Mom brought Rosemary into the arena. He was aware of her right away, but he listened when I told him to focus on me. Then it was time to head out. We tried putting Rosemary first, Comrade next and Roscoe at the end. I was able to get a picture :)

1, 2, 3 Cobs YAY!

Soon we realized that Roscoe was out walking Comrade. Time for a switch, Mom circled Rosemary to move behind Comrade while I let Roscoe pass on the other side. He took the lead with only a little hesitation. When we reached the trail head he spooked a little at the shadows I think, but he kept going. Further along there was some roots sticking out of an edge and leaves fluttering with some eroded ground. He stopped, looked around, thought about it, realized it was not going to eat him and he walked on. Then he was off with a huge walk stride. I waved bye to Mom and Peggy.
His next challenge was a narrow crossing with more eroded ground. Roscoe stopped dead. I asked him to move forward, but he was not ready yet. This took more looking and assessing. Mom asked if Comrade should go first, but I felt Roscoe was nearly there. I asked again and he carefully walked across.
Occasionally he would startle at who knows what. The best thing was that he did not hold on to it, did not snowball. Nothing ate him so he let it go. Sometimes he got distracted by Rosemary getting close when he turned around. He never pulled toward her though, just slowed down. He handled lots of brush and stepped over branchy logs. Then at one point we got off trail and were finding our way when an ATV starts coming up behind us. Peggy yelled at the guys to slow down. All the horses did not care one bit about the intrusion. We continued the trail, finally finding our way back to the trail head. The ATV still rumbled around near by as we walked the road back to Peggy's. I decided to try Roscoe up the drive way and face the flag. That was no problem. Nor was her seasonal decor or Sonny trotting up to the fence.
What a great ride overall. Rosemary was her typical drama queen self and Comrade was steady. Both helped give Roscoe experience. Rosemary must have warned him not to walk on dark road patches because he avoided them all. These Cobs are so great!

Rides by Color

I am nearing the end of my vacation. Probably half of it was rainy, but the other half was super fall weather. Peggy and I would say "who are we riding?" For some reason, the horses have been paired by color when we think about riding and even for turnout.
So first up, the Dark Girls:

Their first ride was just doing intervals, stretching the muscles shortened by mincing through mud slicked grounds.
Their second ride was a fun trot around the woods. We went over logs and up hills. Nothing out there got a jump out of Dottie, but Rosemary gave me one jump. It also showed me Rosemary will need a trace cut soon.

Then came the Red Boys:

Their first ride was Roscoe's time to ride with another horse in the ring. He had to deal with Comrade trotting around him and coming at him. I could not get Roscoe to trot by Comrade trotting the opposite direction, but he at least kept walking. Both of us are figuring things out slowly.
Their second ride actually was separate. Roscoe and I went out on trail with Larry walking with us. I wanted to take him down what essentially is 3 hills in a row. The first two are short in length, but steep. The last is long and winding, but gradual. I questioned whether it was the day to attempt it when Roscoe about fell over as I reached down to get my stirrup. Then he proceeded to walk calmly around the arena while Larry through the frisbee for Shadow. Ok, the boy was ready. He was so excited to go out on trail, he forgot to apply the brakes. After a reminder he started to contain himself. On the way to the hills, he walked over a baby coop and log piles. At the first hill, he got quick. I circled him and went down again. I kept my hands level, applying half halts. Finally he sat down and got off his forehand. Just in time too. The big hill presented a new distraction. Peggy had this hill graded out of the side of a steep down hill to make it usable. This left a ledge of dirt and roots on one side and a drop off on the other. Roscoe decided he was not walking near those weird roots. I had fun keeping him away from the drop off. Once down he had to come back up. I could feel Roscoe start out pulling up the hill. Then he figured out that engaging his butt and pushing was easier. I love seeing all his learning moments and breakthroughs.
Comrade and I went for a bareback ride at dusk. He was feeling a bit tight and wound up. I think he had a sore hind end from slipping in the mud. So I started moving his parts, shoulder in, haunches in, correct bend, counter bend. It was a battle since he felt he should be eating with everyone else and the boogie monsters in the woods might eat him. Gradually he started loosening up. I was so glad we ended with him trotting on a circle keeping contact on a longer rein. Plus his neck had that great floppy crest.

Finally came the Grey Boys:

So far they only had one ride. It was a ride to remember for me. Peggy rode DaVinci and I rode Winston. We started in the arena to make sure Winston was ready for a trail ride. He really wanted to trot and trot big. I had to breath and let him be. There were no scary vibes and I had to trust him. Peggy led the way onto the trail. She went on a lesser used one with a lot of brush. Winston was a star. He followed right behind DaVinci and had no problems with the footing or brush. We even walked over logs. He was happy and I was not nervous. That was amazing. These rides will go so far helping him gain back the muscle he has lost over the last year.

And that is our Rides by Color. I love our herd. It has it's own balance. 2 greys, 2 bays, 2 chestnuts and 1 lone black. Even the breeds are balanced 2 arab crosses, 2 TB crosses and 3 Cobs.

Welsh Show and Tourists

So our last show was chilly, but had wonderful fall foliage.

It started an hour later, woo hoo, letting us have time in the morning to get some chores done. The normal five Cobs came with somewhat normal results. Roscoe was Reserve Grand Champion under one judge and Comrade, the lone D gelding took his class.

Halloween theme ribbon

The best part was that the breeder's daughter showed the boys for us. She was able to run enough to get them moving great. Both boys tried cantering which is a no no for the show. Surprisingly, Roscoe did not try anything funny with her, even though this is the first time she has seen him since he was 6 weeks old.

During the time between classes, the boys stayed on the trailer and we eventually hunkered down in the truck. While we sat there, Peggy and I saw one handler lay down on the ground and wiggle about to get his pony to be expressive. That was priceless. We did walk around and chat with the other welsh owners which is always fun. When we finally unloaded the boys for the last class, a couple walked up and asked to take pictures of Roscoe. They were just enjoying the show and all the ponies.
Then when we moved down to the arena, a little girl was fascinated by Roscoe. Peggy let her come and pet his head. I got him to prick his ears when they took some pictures. I love seeing kids meet horses. I moved to take pictures of Comrade's class, but was soon distracted by Roscoe relaxing with the little girls.

Peggy said the family was going to Skyline drive, a scenic foliage stretch, but it was too crowded. They saw the sign for the 4H Educational Center and thought that would be interesting. That is how they came to be at a Welsh Show.

When Roscoe went in the arena, I looked over to see Comrade giving the kids pony rides one time. Then the next time he was parked out nibbling hay from their hands. Peggy and the ponies made those kids' day and brightened up the typical show day.
If two sets of tourists were not enough, one more came up to the trailer asking for directions. I guess that is what happens when you have a show during the changing of the leaves.

Over Vaccination

So much of horse care has changed over the years as more information becomes known. One example is worming. Instead of doing one program for all horses, a lot of owners run fecals and personalize worming for each horse's needs. On the other hand, vaccinations have not changed and have even increased.
Years ago when we were dealing with Sherman's sarcoid, Joyce Harman told us not to give him vaccinations. Since he was not healthy, he should not get shots. We ran titers ( a serological test for antibodies) on both Barry and Sherman to see where they were for protection. When we found they were protected, we did not repeat vaccines for a few years. This is a practice we have continued with the horses we own now.

Rosemary was vaccinated during her pregnancy so that she could pass the necessary antibodies onto Roscoe. Though the vaccines were needed, they did have a negative effect. Her "scar" turned into a growing sarcoid. You all know the battle that followed. When we vaccinated last year, she did not get any shots. Unfortunately Winston did just before his laminitis diagnosis. He also has a history of carcinomas and a few of those appeared during the last year.
One thing we do not give to any of our animals is the flu vaccine. They have found it is not effective and can be more stressful to the animal. I know most people are stuck with boarding barn requirements, but if more people question over vaccination there is more chance for change. Changing barns caused us to change vets which means we have to explain all over again. That combined with seeing a recent article Joyce wrote brought the issue to the forefront for me. I think it is something we all need to read about and process. Think about the last time you got vaccines. Did you get all the types every year and maybe even twice a year? Probably not. Have you noticed that even though you live on one coast your horse still gets the other coasts encephalomyelitis

vaccine too?

We monitor our horses' food, shoes, turnout, blanketing and worming, but we blindly follow a generic vaccination plan.  Take an hour and read Joyce's article here. It will help explain the side of vaccines we don't see and will show alternatives to the traditional methods.

HGBH What's in a Name?

What's in a Name? I love this blog hop. Let's start the list

 DaVinci: He is not registered and was originally bought at auction. I think his previous owners just showed him as DaVinci. When we got him we wanted to honor his former rider, so we added "HJ's" in front of DaVinci. As for his barn name, it is just DaVinci, though sometimes we call him "D."

Winston: He is registered half Arab as Winston Spring Trophy. His dam was Spring Bouquet and his sire is Buds Trophy?, something like that.  When we got him they called him Bandit which did not fit him at all, so we just call him Winston. Peggy and Larry have taken to calling him Winny, but we don't really have a pet name for him. His show name is Omnis Cor, "all heart" in Latin. I picked that because that is exactly what he is.

Dottie: She is not registered as far as I know, but the name on her halter she came with was "Dottie DeCafe." Who the heck names a  horse that? Anyway, I have always wanted to use my initials (NV sounds like envy) for a horse's name and since she was my first horse bought with my own money, it was perfect. So, after some debate we came up with NV's Silhouette. Our dark girl finally has a name to suit her. Much better than DeCafe. In the barn I basically call her Dottie Dear.

Rosemary: She is registered Welsh Cob as North Star Rosemary. North Star is her breeder's prefix. They are Amish so the religious aspect is no surprise. Rosemary probably comes from her maternal side. Her dam was Rosie, grand and great were Rosemary and Rosina respectively. For obvious reasons we don't call her Rosie. I tend to call her "Drama Mama" or "Barn Monitor" but she does not have an established nick name.

Roscoe: He is also registered Welsh Cob. We were excited to get to name him right from birth. Lisa, his breeder told us he needed an "R" name since she matches the Mare's first letter. And because I wanted a Castleberry Cob, we asked Lisa to use her Prefix. Then we spent months deciding on a name. Mom finally hit on "Reflection." Orginally Castleberrys Rosie Reflection, was our choice for a filly and Castleberrys Roscoe was our choice for a colt. Then we decided we liked Reflection for both, so we tried Castleberrys Reflection of Ffame for a colt's name. This would be like his sire's name Castleberrys Ffame ap Culhwch. Unfortunately your only allowed a certain amount of characters and that was too long. So in the end, we went with Castleberrys ReFflection. The "Ff'" reflects Ffame's dam's line and the "R" name shows Rosemary's. Of course his barn name became Roscoe. I tend to call him "Baby Cakes" or "Minion" depending on the day.

And for fun

Sherman: He was registered Morgan. Now don't laugh, his name was Vinty Delfry Dare. I know seriously, a total nightmare. We never used that name. He was showed under Sherman's Way, because he was one of a kind.

Barry: He was registered Arab as Barry El Caballo. Yeah, total disappointment for me when we got his papers. I thought he would have a cool Arab name. His sire was Bard and his dam was Gayla El Caballo. My boy was a southern gentleman, born in Piciyune MS. His show name came after trial ones like Blueberry. Eventually I listened to a James Galway (plays flute) song called Penny Whistle Jig. The light, happy spirit reminded me of Barry so Penny Whistle became his show name.

CPEAP Trivia Answers and Results

Today is the day for answers and results. First up the answers:

1. When was the Caisson Platoon Equine Assisted Programs started? May 2006

2. What are at least 3 benefits of equine assisted therapy?

Improves center of balance

Improves efficiency in use and adaptation to prosthesis

Improves core muscle groups

Increases self-confidence

Provides a sense of accomplishment and well-being

Improves mental and emotional outlook

3. Students complete _____ ______ twice each lesson which helps record the therapeutic effects.
anxiety survey

4. This picture shows on important facet of the program. What is it?
soldiers helping soldiers

Bonus (answer not found on the website, must think about it)
Recently arena letters were purchased for the program. Why did fence letters work better than letters on cones?
Looking downwards could exacerbate the balance issues many of the Wounded Warriors battle so fence letters allow them to keep their eyes up.

Eventing In Color's bonus questions:

1. Who leads the horses during the sessions?

Soldiers

2. What kinds of horses are used in the program?

Percheron draft and draft-cross horses of the Caisson Platoon

I hope you all enjoyed looking at the CPEAP site to find the answers. If anyone is in the DC area, you can see a CPEAP exhibition Friday during the Washington International Horse Show.

Happy Birthday!!!

And in an interesting twist of fate, I learned that today is Larry's (co founder of CPEAP) birthday. He told me today that everyone entered could receive a shirt.
So instead of drawing for a winner, I drew for order of picking sizes.
Sizes available are: M (4), L(5), XL(5)

Size (U.S.) Size Bust
 M 8-10 34"- 36"
L 12-14 38"- 40"
XL 16-18 40"- 42"

Here is the order:
Sarah  Eventing in Color
Genny A Gift Horse
Carly  Poor Woman Showing
Alli     Pony'tude
Erika  An Optimist, a Pony, and a Pug

Please send me your shipping information and size choice to equinpilot@aol.com or send me a message on Facebook. Include a secondary size, just in case. Thank you all for participating.

TGIF and Contest Reminder

I am so glad it is Friday. Tomorrow officially starts my 2 weeks of vacation which will include our last Welsh show.
This is the last day for the CPEAP trivia contest, so get your entries in. I have been really happy with the posts that came with the entries. THANK YOU!!! Tomorrow evening I will post the question answers and the winner.
Till later

"Hey you know its Friday!!!"