Steen and the Bad Tummy

December 14, 2013

Novels for Horse-Lovers

The Tipped Z Ranch books feature fictional stories but real horsemanship.

We didn't get to the barn all week again. Much of the week was quite cold, and I was on a super productive roll with work for some reason. I launched multiple websites, got a logo design approved, and was pretty much just a rockstar on the professional front for like five days in a row. So at least if I wasn't getting to the barn I was doing something useful with my time. Today Brian and I headed out ready for a nice ride, but Steen was behaving strangely again. He came to me in the pasture but was a bit agitated as soon as we got inside. I turned him out in the arena and moved him around with the flag. He was moving fine, he just had this restless, edgy air about him. As I tacked him up I noticed he had some evidence of diarrhea on his hind legs, and a minute later he produced something that looked a good deal more like a cow patty than horse manure. But his temperature was normal...

Regarding the Changes Around Here

Robin

December 12, 2013

Novels for Horse-Lovers

The Tipped Z Ranch books feature fictional stories but real horsemanship.

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As much as I loved the photo of Steen's rump that was featured on this website for a good long while, it was time for a redesign. And this time it came with a larger project. I've redesigned my blog, Brian's blog, and built a little website to attach them together. The website is amatuervaquero.com. My new blog url is robin.amateurvaquero.com. Brian's is brian.amateurvaquero.com. Why the website? In truth, I blame Zoey. When Brian and I decided to get a 4th horse this spring, we did it because we like working with inexperienced horses. We find it very interesting and educational to work at reforming undesirable behavior. We learn a lot every time we get the opportunity work with an unfamiliar horse. Our plan was to keep Zoey for a few months, tea...

A Few Cold Rides

Robin

December 9, 2013

Novels for Horse-Lovers

The Tipped Z Ranch books feature fictional stories but real horsemanship.

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Cold came early this year, and I am still far enough away from hitting my goal of 200 hours in the saddle that I can't let weather derail me. Nevertheless, the weekends of spending hours at the barn and riding multiple horses is behind us for the season. I can deal with one bitterly cold ride, but after that I want to go home and get warm again. This week I've been recovering from our accident. Although the worst is behind me, it's still painful enough to do things like move and pick stuff up that I didn't make it to the barn all week. But Friday was Brian's birthday, and around here we don't let a birthday pass without a birthday ride if one is at all possible. So we bundled up and headed to the barn as the sun sank on an already cold day. We had a pretty fun ride i...

The Farrier and the Flag

Robin

December 2, 2013

Novels for Horse-Lovers

The Tipped Z Ranch books feature fictional stories but real horsemanship.

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I meant to post about this a while ago, but somehow never got around to it. A couple weeks ago, the farrier came out. We needed all four horses trimmed, and Brian had to be at work, which meant I had to handle them all alone. It was cool and had been wet the day before, and I suspected our steeds might be on the fresh side. Our farrier is absolutely fabulous, and I feel lucky to have him at our disposal, but he lives over an hour away and he tends to give a window for his arrival. So this time he said he'd arrive between 9:30 and 10:00. No big deal, except that means I feel like I need to have all our horses in and ready to be trimmed by 9:30, even though chances are better that he'll arrive on the later end of that window. So, I went out with a plan that was contingent on no one else being there, and was happy to see the barn parking lot empty. I brought all four horses in, ...

One Armed Ride

Robin

December 1, 2013

Novels for Horse-Lovers

The Tipped Z Ranch books feature fictional stories but real horsemanship.

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Today I woke up pretty stiff. I've been trying to piece together how exactly I hit the ground. Since I had no warning and didn't actually leave the saddle before impact, it's surprisingly difficult to piece together what happened and where my injuries are. I think I sprawled with one arm above my head. I don't have any visible bruising. All the damage seems to be pretty deep in the muscles of my thorax. All I know for sure is my right arm isn't good for much.

Fortunately, I have my husband. After lying around all morning, I was ready to get out of the house. We went to the barn and he put my saddle on Steen for me. I managed to get myself mounted with only minimal gasping and flailing, and got my right hand situated in my vest pocket. Then we poked around the outdoor arena for a while.

Steen was stiff too, though it was minor. Still, we warmed up slowly. I rode i...

The One Where I Fall Without Falling

Robin

December 1, 2013

Novels for Horse-Lovers

The Tipped Z Ranch books feature fictional stories but real horsemanship.

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I'm by no means to the point that I'm anywhere near running out of new experiences to have with horses. Nevertheless, it's not that often now that I encounter a scenario entirely beyond my experience. But today I had one, and I hope it's the only one of its kind I'll have for a good long while. Today, Steen fell over while I was riding him. And it wasn't a 'fall to the knees and get up again' kind of fall. I've experienced those a handful of times. This was a fully fledged tumble, and it happened at the lope. One minute we were cantering along, the next we were both on the ground. I'm not clear on what happened. We are both pretty ok. He has a sore rump, I have a sore rib-cage/shoulder girdle. Brian was off down the strip, so he didn't see. I know it was fast. I felt Steen's inside hind foot slip, and then we were down. Then Steen was up again and I could feel the get-down pulli...

Laredo and the Five Horse Arena

Robin

November 30, 2013

Novels for Horse-Lovers

The Tipped Z Ranch books feature fictional stories but real horsemanship.

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As I've mentioned before, the indoor arena at our barn is on the small side. I am not complaining about its size. I am grateful to have a place to ride in the winter, even if it's not ideal. Still, the fact that it is small comes into play to influence our rides sometimes. Today we headed out thinking we'd have the place to ourselves again. We were wrong about that. Brian and I (and Zoey and Laredo) were the first two into the arena, but within five minutes we were joined by the barn manager giving a girl a lesson on Sassy. A few minutes after that, the barn manager's daughter came in on her horse, Smokey, and a bit after that another boarder entered with her horse. That was five horses and riders in the arena, plus the barn manager with a whip who often had to help steer Sassy. Needless to say, things were a little crowded. I was on Laredo, and he's pretty chill about most k...

Thanksgiving Ride

Robin

November 28, 2013

Novels for Horse-Lovers

The Tipped Z Ranch books feature fictional stories but real horsemanship.

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For the first time ever, Brian and I stayed in Iowa City for Thanksgiving. The reasons we stayed home were numerous and not worth going into, but the upshot was we had nothing to do other than whatever we wanted. No family of the non-equine variety to hang out with, no obligatory traditions. So, of course, we went to the barn. We took Steen and Bear out and had another great jaunt around the fields. It was still medium cold -- around 30°, but the ground was not as hard as it was last time we were out. We walked, trotted, and loped around for well over an hour, checking out the frosted fields and drainages. Both the horses were great, but Bear seems to have really turned a corner. He was moving nicely, had good energy, and just seemed perky and resp...

Muffled

Robin

November 26, 2013

Novels for Horse-Lovers

The Tipped Z Ranch books feature fictional stories but real horsemanship.

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Winter has arrived in earnest, and a good deal earlier than usual, too. The good news is I don't find cold nearly as off-putting as I used to. My windproof insulated breeches plus my leather chinks provide a pretty impenetrable suit of armor for my lower body, and I have insulated boots and insulated gloves and a neck warmer and a helmet liner. I have a baselayer/down shirt/vest/sweatshirt combo for my upper body. The benefit of having all these clothes on is it's easier than one might expect to stay warm in sub-freezing temps. The downside is there's a sort of overall muffling effect on communication as a whole. This weekend, we rode both days but we did not ride twice each day. We thought we might, but in the end it's hard to finish one frigid ride and immediately start another. We've had an interesting little reminder on how diet impacts behavior these last couple of weeks...

The Birthday Rides (2013 edition)

Robin

November 16, 2013

Novels for Horse-Lovers

The Tipped Z Ranch books feature fictional stories but real horsemanship.

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Somehow it never occurred to me until my birthday last year that I could give myself the day off to celebrate. In theory, a perk of running your own business is you can occasionally decide to do things like this for purely self-indulgent reasons. Of course, I almost never do. But today, I did. I checked my email once in the morning, replied to one message while waiting for the day to warm up. Then I went to the barn.

Of course I had to take the obligatory selfie-with-Steen birthday photo. He was not so into the tradition this year. Look at that stinkeye.

First, I rode Steen. Steen has actually been somewhat low energy lately. I initially thought i...