Golden Days - Adventures With Indy

Tuesday, December 31st
Golden Days

Indy The Snow Man

All that snow I wrote about on Christmas Day is now gone. Our temperatures have been in the 40’s and, incredibly, 55 yesterday afternoon. However, the snow stuck around long enough for Indy to demonstrate beyond the shadow of a doubt that he is indeed a “snower.”

Sunday afternoon I was just hanging with the guys when Indy decided it was time for a romp. He tried to aggravate Ami enough to get her going too - and she did run with him to the top of the hill with him, but that was it for her. She said, “Beat it, Kid. I’M gonna graze.” So he did.

He started trotting and then went to a full gallop. He tore around the entire west side of the pasture several times, came barreling into the barn for a few sips of water, then burned off again. Even Ami stopped her grazing on top of the hill to watch him. She looked like she was thinking he’d taken leave of his senses. More laps around the pasture - I really lost count. And this was in at LEAST 3-4 inches of snow, and drifts MUCH deeper. He didn’t care - he was FLYING.

By this time, I was getting a little concerned. It was starting to get dark, and while it wasn’t extremely cold, I still worried about his getting too sweaty. When he FINALLY stopped and I started checking him, he wasn’t even breathing hard. I mean, he wasn’t puffing AT ALL. His nostrils weren’t even flared. If I hadn’t seen that blow-out for myself, I’d never have known he’d been doing anything other than grazing - which is want he actually WAS doing now.

It was dinnertime by now, so I fed them and checked Indy over again. Nothing. I DID cut his grain for this meal. He never gets much, but I figured why take chances. Besides, I had apples for them, and Indy loves apples better than ANYTHING, so I don’t think he noticed the small amount of Omolene.

Oh Geez! I can’t WAIT to ride this Dude in the snow!!!
suzym on 12.31.02 @ 09:17 AM CST [link] [2 Comments]

Thursday, December 26th
Golden Days

A VERY White Christmas

So, Christmas came and went, and it wasn’t as hard as I had expected it to be. For one thing, it was WHITE! After having virtually NO snow so far, that big storm that has wreaked so much havoc over the country grazed us overnight on Christmas Eve. We got up on Christmas Morning to 5 or 6 inches of snow, with drifts much deeper. It DID cause poor Mike to fire up the snow blower and make us a path to the barn to feed breakfast. The barn is close behind the house, but some of those drifts were knee high on me. It was BEAUTIFUL, and we weren’t going anywhere anyway!

Brenda had told me that Indy loved snow, and she was right. As I was fixing their breakfast alfalfa mash, I could see him out the kitchen window just frolicking up a storm. Ami was in the barn watching Indy like she thought he was crazy. There was some old hay in the outside feeder, and he was eating that instead of the fresh hay inside the barn. Guess he just wanted to be out in all that wonderful snow.

After giving them their breakfasts -and their Christmas apples -, we put more hay in the outside feeder. The next time we looked out, they both were eating there. In fact, they managed to demolish it so well that I had to put more out at lunch. This in spite of the full hay feeders IN the barn. Ami doesn’t love plowing around in the snow quite like Indy does, but she didn’t want to appear to be a TOTAL wimp!

I mostly just hung out with Indy and Ami Christmas afternoon - did a bit of grooming and gave them a couple more apples apiece. This being Indy’s first Christmas with us, I wanted to spend time with him. Of course, I thought a lot about DJ and Nicky, but being around Indy and Ami helped.

As I mentioned before, Indy made it quite clear that a girth for the saddle was NOT an acceptable Christmas present for him. Somehow, I didn’t think it would be, so I got a bushel of apples for him and Ami to split. I THINK he likes those a LOT better than the new girth.
suzym on 12.26.02 @ 09:32 PM CST [link] [2 Comments]

Friday, December 20th
Golden Days

Progress

As the year winds down, we seem to be making progress on several fronts. I’m not feeling quite as emotionally fragile as I was a few weeks ago. Not to say things are back to normal - whatever THAT is - but I am feeling better.

Probably part of the reason I’m feeling better is that I’m getting closer and closer to actually getting on Indy. It’s incredible to me when I think about how long I’ve had Indy and we still haven’t had that first little ride - heck, I haven’t even mounted him at all. So many things seemed to happen…

Of course, Indy’s problem with post castration infections was the biggie, delaying us for over a month. Then there were my own emotional problems about riding another horse. It took weeks before I could seriously consider such a thing. Sounds silly perhaps, but DJ was my partner for 20 years, and that’s too long to just shrug off - at least for me. I was telling Matt the other day that, when I DO get on Indy’s back for the first time, I’ll probably sit and cry for a while just because he’s not DJ. It WILL be a major emotional hurdle for me, no doubt about that.

Then there is the problem about DJ’s girth being too long for Indy. One would think that would be an easy fix - just buy a shorter girth, right? Wrong. The way my saddle is rigged, it needs a relatively shorter girth - sorta like a dressage saddle. It has turned out to be almost impossible to find a neoprene girth shorter than 24”, which is the length I already have.

After searching the Web for days, I finally found a Pony place that had ONE, and it was 22” - just barely short enough. After ordering it however, the owner sent me an email to the effect that this girth was no longer available in 22”. She did have another in a 20” length, and she asked if that would be acceptable. Would it ever!

While I was replacing the girth, I decided to replace the billets as well. The old ones were beginning to show their age (1984) and usage. Not only that, the ONE problem I’ve always had with this saddle was getting the girth tight enough with the short billets that came with it. So, I’m replacing them with traditional western ones - with the long tie strap on the near side. This will enable me to tighten the girth without all that struggling, tugging and jerking. Even DJ didn’t really like all that, and he was a seasoned horse with no girthing “issues.”

Indy doesn’t have any girthing issues either - now - and I certainly don’t want to cause him to develop any. Besides, struggling to get enough leverage to tighten the girth with that short billet was always extremely hard on my hands and arms. The new one will make life easier for both of us LOL!

Meanwhile, Indy has made it quite clear that he would NOT consider a new girth and billets for the saddle an acceptable Christmas present. Hmmmmm… Now, why am I not surprised?
suzym on 12.20.02 @ 10:57 AM CST [link] [No Comments]

Saturday, December 7th
Golden Days

Indy Weather

Finally, cold weather and some SNOW sez Indy! He obviously loves the weather we’ve been having lately. He and Ami were sunning themselves in front of the barn the other day, and the next thing I knew, Indy had flopped down and was dozing on the ground! Needless to say, Ami didn’t join him down on the hard, frozen ground LOL!

Actually, although it’s been fairly cold, there has been so little snow that neither Indy nor Ami have been eating their hay in earnest. Indy is eating more than Ami, and he’s just nibbling. Mostly, they still rely on the grass for most of their nourishment. And here we were worrying that we didn’t have enough hay to get us through the winter and still have some for Ami next spring when we’ll have to start restricting her grazing again.

Speaking of next spring - I’m going to HAVE to exercise some Tough Love on that girl and get some of that BLUBBER off her body! I realize I say that every year, but I think she’s fatter that ever, and, although she’s sound, all that extra weight is NOT good for her compromised feet. Oh, Horse Gods, let me be strong!

We had a bit of excitement last Saturday. There was an estate auction a couple of miles east of us, and we could plainly hear the auctioneer’s chant. It DID sound strange indeed, and you can be SURE both Indy and Ami were alert to such strange goings on! In fact, Indy was so intent on his role as Protector that he didn’t want to come inside the barn and eat his lunch!!! Normally, missing one meal wouldn’t be a big deal - Indy’s not fat, but he’s not thin either - but lunch is the meal in which I hide their daily vitamin supplement. So, I really did want Indy to put his Duty aside long enough to scarf this down. I mean, it only takes a couple of minutes. But no, so I ended up putting on his halter and lead and bringing him in to his feed tub - several times. He would grab a few bites and REALLY want to go back outside. We went back and forth. BUT - we went back and forth because I allowed it, NOT because Indy forced the issue.

Even though he was really quite “worked up,” he quietly allowed me to halter him, and he was always VERY soft in my hands - even the times when he could have been pulling on me to get back outside, he was soft and responsive to pressure on the lead. I was IMPRESSED. I truly believe I could ride him in his halter and be in complete control.

Yesterday afternoon, during our grooming session, he did another “advanced leading” maneuver. Often during a grooming session, especially a long one, Indy will let me know that he needs to do something and wants me to untie him. Usually, he wants to relieve himself and wants to go outside to do so. Far be it from me to discourage his desire to go outside to do his Whatever. So, I untie him and let him show me what he wants to do. Sometimes, however, he just wants to recheck his feed tub for a morsel he might have missed the first several go-rounds. This was one of those times.

After checking his tub, instead of turning back toward me, he turned the opposite direction. I let him keep going until he had completed his “outside” turn and the lead rope was wrapped around his body to its full length. THEN I put pressure on the lead. After a moment of figuring, he reversed and turned completely BACK around to face me. WONDERFUL BOY! Is he good or what! And he keeps his stall clean to boot. What more could I possibly ask :o)
suzym on 12.07.02 @ 09:08 AM CST [link] [No Comments]

Monday, December 2nd
Golden Days

Indy Strikes Again!

We had the traditional Thanksgiving family “get-together” yesterday. We didn’t have it on Thanksgiving Day due to schedule conflicts, etc. This was Mike’s family of course. My family - what’s left of it - is in Dallas and surrounding areas.

Needless to say, I was not in the mood for this and didn’t WANT to go. But there are some things one has to do whether they want to or not. It’s not that I don’t enjoy being with Mike’s family. Just the opposite - I LOVE Mike’s family and feel very close to them. I just don’t feel up for ANY holiday stuff this year. It was okay, as these things go, but I would MUCH rather have spent the afternoon with Indy and Ami.

Besides, I had a real cool Indy Story from the day before that I didn’t have time to post! On said day - Saturday - Mike and I were watching out the kitchen window as Indy and Ami put on a SHOW. I was TRYING to get their lunches ready, but I had to stop and watch. We had some fresh snow, it was cold and breezy, and they were running and ripping. I don’t mean cantering around - I mean getting DOWN and cutting in the after-burners. Even Ami was FLYING. I was wondering what Indy did to get Ami to rip like that with him. I also wondered how he’d managed to get snow on his face up to his eyes…

A little background: I keep their halters hanging outside the stalls. Indy can reach his, but Ami’s is easier. He’d flung it to the ground before when meals/treats/attention didn’t come as promptly as he thought it should. DJ did the same thing. This time however, I found Ami’s halter OUTSIDE in the snow. Indy HAD to have taken it off its hook deliberately with the intention of doing more than just tossing it down. He must have been swinging it around - maybe even chasing Ami like he did with the muck bucket. Whatever he did, we only caught the finale, with both of them tearing around the field like, like - well, like HORSES LOL!! It was GREAT.

I hung Ami’s halter in a different place.
suzym on 12.02.02 @ 09:00 AM CST [link] [4 Comments]

December 2002
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