Pictures of Nic

I had a really great session with him today, and then a stressful day. Session was awesome, he wasn't jumpy at the carrot stick, starting to understand driving and yo-yo more, also did some circling and squeeze game. I can't really teach sideways in the arena because theres no fence around it yet.

And then I turned him out and he laid down.. ok, whatever. Then went and got hay, he got up, ate some hay, then laid down in the hay. I went out a little later and made him get up so I could listen to gut sounds and they were fine. Basically he's spent the whole day off and on laying down. Its weird and freaking me out because he hasn't ate much of anything today. ARG!! horses..

Tractors, Dogs and Strange Horses, Oh My!

I have officially survived two more RIDES on Nic. Me and gma loaded him up on Saturday morning and took him down to Angies for the "open ride" before the actual practice, but I didn't want to go to performance practice. When he loaded up he was pawing, but settled down once we got on the road. Off the trailer like a gentleman, then it was like OMG! New place! Strange horses everywhere!!!!! lol, He wasn't that bad, just a little excited. When I got into the arena he was all starey eyed and snortey and whinnying, and then Bonnie came through the door with a horse and the HERD of dogs. He was looky, and he's not a huge fan of dogs, but he got over it. I put on the Parelli Halter and went to playing, just lots of getting him to move his feet, driving, and some moving circles, investigating the corners of the arena. He started to calm down, and then in the meantime, the farrier comes and is making all kinds noise, the dogs are barking up a storm, but Nic is getting over it.

After a little while he calmed right down to where he was just standing by me while I was talking, and standing calmly with a foot cocked and his head down. So I saddled up, moved him around a little more and got on. I need to work on getting him to stand still while mounting. For the most part the ride was good. I didn't canter him because I was working on getting him to stay an even tempo to the trot and not do the wavery, slow/fast thing all the time.

2nd ride- I took him to gaming practice yesterday and he did even better. Was whinnying when we got there, but it was feeding time for all the other horses and they were making noise, so he thought he had to. Mary had to work up the arena, so I took him into their amazing covered round pen and played with him for awhile in there. He is starting to get the principle games, and he seems to be a nice mix of LBI/LBE, not extremely overreactive, maybe a little lazy, but not so much that its hard to deal with . After that, saddled and went up the arena. Played a little bit more in there, then put the bridle on and had a good ride. He was doing pretty good with the gaming stuff, though I need to not let him stand in line with all the other horses because he really gets to where he doesn't want to leave. Thats not a big issue though.

List of what needs to be done with Nic:
-Work over Cavelletti to learn where his hooves are
-Start asking/teaching for vertical flexion
-Braid his tail
-Pull his mane
-Play more with porcupine game
-Get him to accept the bit/bridling (has a bit of a mouth issue...)

Nicolai's First E-team Practice

Well, the first practice for Mr. Nic was tonight. I didn't ride him, but rode okie and bought Nic along. One good thing about that horse is that he is absolutely amazing in the trailer, load/unloads nice and travels awesome. Nic was OK tonight.. pretty nervous when we got there, but eventually started to calm down. Gma played with him while I was practicing, and he definitly started to get better, although I wish gma would do things "correctly" lol. We need to rewatch the levels together.

His race horse side definitly comes out when I'm ponying him around. Acts just like a racehorse, on TOP of me and Okie. Okie got pissed at him a couple times, but Nic didn't care. My leg got squished ALOT. But, it wasn't horrid, and he could have been worse. We just have to remember that he is only 5 years old, and has been sitting in a pasture since June.

Good news:
He loves the berrygoods.. of COURSE, he has to love the most expensive brand of treat. ARG. Oh well... lol

Picky Eater

I think me and this horse are made for each other....
"Hi, my name is Carissa and I'm a picky eater."
-Hi, Carissa
"Hi, my name is Nic and I'm a picky eater"
-Hi, Nic.

I noticed that he didn't want to eat an apple I gave him when he was sickly, and then yesterday he wouldn't eat the carrots. Then today he wouldn't eat the horse treats that all of our other horses LOVE. He would lip at them, pick them up, not chew and spit them out. ARG. So I asked Dad to pick me up some BerryGoods, because I know he likes those, the owner was giving him them when we bought him.

Today's session- good. Played with the principle games more. He's good with yielding HQ, but not FQ, telling me he's a bit more of a dominate horse. Still not horrible though, not rearing or anything, and he does move, just not willingly, and I think a lot of it is that he doesn't understand. Played a lot more friendly because he's kinda jumpy about the stick and string. I walked backwards with him at the end of the rope, swinging the stick and string over the rope, like Pat does all the time with the demo horses. Played with porky as well, that was OK. Once again, better with the HQ. I also worked with desensitizing him to a cell phone, lol. I had the music go off on my phone a couple times while holding where I would be while riding, he was a little iffy about that, but when it was by his face, he wanted to eat my cell phone. Also was lipping the CS when I let him investigate it. Seems to be a curious horse. He got distracted when JJ came up to the water tank because he really bonded with her, but just got his attention back when some driving and yo-yo. Shows tongue when he licks and chews.

First session with "Nic"

I took a few pictures before I caught him, but they're crappy, so none for now.

Nic wouldn't let me catch him the other night when I wanted to put a blanket on him, so I decided to go out today and make friends with him, lol, well he just walked right over. Apparently, he doesn't like carrots or apples.. but I think mostly he doesn't know what they are. He will not eat them, he eventually started to lip at the carrot piece, but never ate. All of this time JJ is chowing down on the carrots.

I took him into the little field and just did a little friendly with swinging the rope over his back. He was a little nervous about that, and then I did some lowering his head by combing the rope and he was great about that. However, lowering his head by pressing behind his ears he doesn't like and doesn't understand yet, probably will improve with more porky game. Also, put the rope around his front leg, he leads by a leg pretty good. Well, didn't do much leading, but he would lift it up and bring it forwards, I decided that was enough. Did a little driving and porky, both were better on the "on" side, no surprise there.

I honestly didn't do that much because I was soooooo exhausted. This whole week has been draining like no other. Want a run through? Okay.
Sunday- get up at 4 am to leave by 5am to get nic.
get there 5 hours later, buy horse, go home
get home at like 6-7ish, horse colics
In the barn until like midnight.
Monday- don't go to school, but stressing over nick all day, then had a tech rehearsal for the play
starting at 6.
Tuesday- relaxed mostly, and did lots of homework
Wednesday- school, dress rehearsal for play, got home LATE
Thursday- School, first night of play, once again, LATE
Friday- School, 2nd night of play, late.
Saturday- get up early for drill practice from 9-11
First show for play at 1
2nd show at 7
Then went to Jack in the Box afterwards for a long time to hang with Ash, Kevin and Cory. I'M TIRED!!!

Finally, new horse!!

Sorry, no photos yet..
But, I have a new horse. His name is "Were in the Red" aka Nic.. or as I've been calling him, Nicoli. He's a chestnut, star, one hind sock, 16 hand, 5 year old gelding. He had 7 starts on the track, and then went to another owner who started him on barrels, then was sold to the lady we bought him from who started to really work with him, and then had knee problems. Knee problems so bad that if she rode for 30 minutes she couldn't walk for 2 days, which led to a knee replacement, which means that he had been on pasture since late june.

We got there and he was standing quietly in their trailer (they hauled him to an arena so we could ride), guy tacked him up, then took him into the round pen and ran him around a couple laps, rode him a couple laps, then took him out into the huge arena. Nic did really well, especially for not being ridden or messed with since June. I got on and things went pretty smoothly. He spooked at some cows, but only went sideways a couple of steps. We decided to buy him.

Mind you, it was a 5 hour drive from our house to see Nic, so he has a long trailer ride. We stop at a rest stop and he's shaking and gaunt looking, so we give him a break for a bit, then go on our way. he got another break when we stopped to eat, and then gma noticed that he was really watching cars outside of the little vent thing, so we closed that and it seemed to help. He hadn't pooped and that was really worrying us, well finally he did poop.

Got him home, walked him out a bit, put him into the stall, eats some hay, and starts to want to lay down and roll, well that was NOT gonna happen. I immediatly took him out and walked him..forever, while gma made a late night run for banamine. All in all, it was LONG, TIRING, STRESSFUL day, especially for the horse. He had a mild case of colic. Was way better monday, and then today he pooped 3 times, which is better than Monday, and the poop was looser with no mucus on it. Been giving him equine senior in a mash, with some grazing, but no hay. He is much more relaxed, and not as gaunt looking. Not drinking much, but he is getting water from the mash, and he's peeing a lot, so I don't think he's dehydrated. Also been putting electrolytes in his mashes.

Nic seems to be pretty level headed. He's watchfull, notices when things happen. My gma and I were cleaning out the used-to-be spare stall, and we were bringing out the pool noodles and he was definitly interested. Not scared, but like "Whats that????" and gma put them on him and he didn't care. Then I brought out this mini-massager thing and he liked it, tried to eat it. Also tried to eat a bag of stall pellets I was carrying by.

So, I'm pretty hopeful about the whole thing, just the colic really scared me, because he's not on a trial, he's ours.
heres is his pedigree: http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/were+in+the+red he's got a really nice sire(won over 400k on the track).. and even though Nic didn't race much, or win anything, he has a race Register of Merit (ROM).

oh, and one good thing about the trailer ride was that he is a REALLY good hauler. Stands super quiet, loads very nice, is good to bring out of the trailer, just generally good.