A couple of weeks later...

Seamus in the rain

RAIN... We're all plenty sick of it! I have been rained on more than I care to think about at this point in pursuit of trying to spend time with the ponies- including being caught out in a nasty storm a couple of weeks ago on an ACTHA ride with Belle. Not an experience I'd like to try again LOL

Seamus has mostly been just hanging out in the pasture gaining that last bit of weight he needed. I bring him out for some grooming and some lunging, but I haven't ridden him much. Too busy trying to get Belle working back on obstacles and in shape for ACTHA and finally getting in the needed saddle time with Sugar. And all in between some massive storms that have been hammering much of the mideastern U.S. and spawning tons of tornadoes, including plenty of of them here in KY.

Today I spent quite some time at the barn, I had a small to-do list and also wanted to get Seamus cleaned up for some long overdue photos. During a lull in the rain in which is seemed like it was going to hold off for awhile, I started hosing him off- only to have it start raining again in the middle of it! I said "To heck with it!" and finished the job then took him inside to get scraped and toweled off. Then he got to sit in a nice, dry stall and eat some dinner and finish drying off while I worked on the mares.

I'm so happy to report that Seamus is pretty much up to weight, which was my goal when I took him on 17 weeks ago. Such a long time ago, it seems like! He is still a little ribby, but he is gaining muscle and fat and does not look anything like a refugee anymore :)

As I mentioned, Seamus has been turned out in a field since his feet hardened back up. He is out there with a couple of other TB's- gelding Uno (retired from the track over the winter) and mare Desi (on a break). He is low man on the totem pole, but Desi seems to like him and Uno has stopped asserting himself so much so they are all getting along fine. It is fun to watch them all get to running about the field on some occasions- I wonder if they are recalling their racing days?

It is bittersweet that I can now proclaim Seamus ADOPTABLE... surely someone out there has a need for a slightly goofy gelding with a good heart? Rolex is this weekend and if you're going to be down for it and want to come out and visit the boy, please give me a shout at spookhorse01 @ yahoo.com (remove the spaces). And spread the word about him, will ya?

Rolling with it...

Gotta love it when they are happy to see you!

What a gorgeous day today... other than the wind it was pretty much a perfect spring day :) Munchkin and I took the dogs to the dog park for awhile then headed to the barn for some pony time.

My green Paso Fino mare, Sugar, was first up while Seamus continued to enjoy the nice day whilst grazing. Sugar has a new saddle with a crupper so we worked with her on that. After Sugar's workout, Seamus came up for some grooming and his first official saddling since I got him. He stood pretty well on the wall tie, just the occasional racehorse grabbiness at the wall which I'm sure he'll get over soon. He already stands there so much better than when we started. I used my Australian Stock Saddle since it's a saddle that can take a beating and I am more comfortable in it than my old Stubben. I then put the rope halter and lunge line on Seamus and went outside for a little lunge lesson while saddled. As with just about everything Seamus does, it went smoothly, despite it having been about a month since he was last lunged.

As I am wont to do, I rolled with it and threw the bridle on, turned him around and mounted up! He stood perfectly fine, despite him being a bit taller than I have gotten used to- my two mares are in the 14hh range and he's a bit taller than that! It's also been quite some time since I have ridden a Thoroughbred, somewhere in the 6 1/2 year range LOL Again, Seamus could really not have done better for his lack of fitness and lack of training for anything but the racetrack. To be honest, I expected him to have a bit more *umph* under saddle, instead he just plodded along until I gave him leg. At first he didn't want to move off my leg, but he "got it" pretty quickly. I did get him into a bit of a trot, he gave me a couple of canter strides at first, but then settled into a trot. By the third time I did it, he trotted from the get-go.

Munchkin got some (poor) pics:

And a worse video- Munchkin is now being referred to as a "Drunken Monkey" because it looks like the video was shot by one! And please do pardon my horrible equitation, his departures were not smooth and I am not fit to ride a trotting horse anymore LOL

My favorite view of a horse!

And in other news, the colicy mare seems to be fine today... I was relived to see her up and moving about and acting normally :)

A milestone and Chuck strikes again.

Well, I can happily say that Seamus is so far good in a bridle- I hopped on him today for a quick ride around the barn area with him finally wearing a bridle. He listened well so I am happy with today's little lesson. Unfortunately I have no photos of the event!

In other news, trainer Chuck *almost* coliced another horse to death, but we caught her and called him and the vet. It turned out that he had seen the mare down in the stall at 1pm today and didn't check that she would get up and was ok. She was still down at 4:30pm when I got there and Chuck was called and he said he be there in 5 minutes (remember this). I got finished taking care of my horses and he still wasn't around, the mare was down but not rolling so really nothing I could do for her except wait for the vet. The vet had to come from Richmond and got there an hour after being called- Chuck *still* hadn't showed up. Vet gets there and I assist her, 10 minutes later another guy shows up to help, Chuck had finally called him to come out.

Chuck showed up 15 minutes AFTER the vet is done and gone! Turns out he was out of town in Mt. Sterling... and it took him at least an hour to call someone to come out and be with the horse *grr* I am glad I stuck around so I was able to assist the vet, but I thought for sure I was going to be saying goodbye to that poor mare before the vet could get there! She had a bad impaction colic going on so was Banamine'd and oiled and will hopefully be okay. I just can't believe that he left her there at 1pm and he wouldn't have been back until tomorrow! I know we've all met clueless horse owners that probably shouldn't have a horse, but this man is a LICENSED THOROUGHBRED TRAINER. You would think that he would have a clue what a skinny horse looks like, or a colicy horse, or that you shouldn't feed 1/2 starved weanlings 20 pounds of sweet feed a day, or know not to put a 2 year old colt in with a 2 year old filly, or what adequate fencing for said colt looks like (hint... it's not three strand vinyl fencing with mares in the other side!).

I'm just sorry that Chuck's antics today have to eclipse another milestone with Seamus :(