MIA, but having fun!

Sorry, I have not posted much! I am around, just been busy! I went to Atlanta GA for my 41st Birthday (sucks getting older) to visit family and had soooooooooooooo much fun! I went to a Wild Safari Park, Zoo Atlanta, and GA Aqarium. Talk about animals for the long weekend!!! There were 2 giraffes we could feed at the Safari Park. I LOVED THEM and could have fed them all day!! Here is just a few of the 300+ pictures we took! (Click on pictures to enlarge).

Even the slobbber didn't keep me away!

Loved them!!!

Zoo Atlanta!!!!

 A gorilla that passed away(his statue).

My cousin and I at Zoo Atlanta!

I'v gone to the birds, LOL!

 Cupcake that was awesome at GA aqaruim!

 GA aqarium.

 Petting park at Zoo Atlanta. Goats are fun too!! 

 What a fun picture!!

My cousin(left), her mother(middle) and me:)

Blowing out candle on my birthday cupcakes!! 

The boys Enzo and Kaspin are doing fine and didn't mind their vacation, while I was away. I did have my NEW saddle pad and girth come in and I got to try them last Sunday and JUST LOVE THEM!!! I am so glad I purchased them!! Unfortunately, after seeing the boys. That evening I got a MAJOR stomach flu! YUCK! I have been recovering all this week! Soo hopefully the horse posts will start again soon! 

What fun things did you do this week? Janine~Enzo~Kaspin!

Amazing Equine Connections!

If  I could only have a 1/4 of what these guys understand and know! Truly inspirational and totally amazing to me! Enjoy! Janine

Boob award, and Kaspin was a good boy:)

Tuesday, I flew out to the barn after work!! Why?? Because, it was 70 some degrees and awesome in MI! I decided I would ride Kaspin in the outdoor arena, since the weather was so super. So I tacked Kaspin up and headed out. But I forgot my brain when I left the barn door. I was sooo excited and zellus to ride in the great weather. First we played on the ground on line. I made sure Kaspin was in a good frame of mind and seemed ok for the ride. Eventually, I got on Kaspin with my helmet on of course, thank god. Since I had decided, I would be super woman and just get to the very first canter of the day, after I just warmed up a bit with walk and trotting. Mind you, I am still teaching Kaspin to canter. He doesn't have a normal canter as of yet. He prefers to get into a gallop/run instead! Well here is where I win the boob award!!! Since it was so warm out, and Kaspin has 4 inch winter hair!!! And Kaspin had already worked a while. He got pretty sweaty! As I asked for the canter, kaspin picked it up at his crazy pace. But right after that, my saddle started to slide(I hadn't checked if I needed to tighten girth again)!!! I was trying to get a 1 rein emergency stop, but the saddle was sliding way too fast and I eventually fell off and ate the dirt, LOL!! Literally! Lesson learned...... on the first super warm day! Check your girth before you decide to try to be super woman on a horse, LOL!! And don't forget your brain at the barn door becasue it's so warm out, LOL! But I do have to say, the best part was!!!!! That immediately after I fell off. kaspin turned right around and came straight back to me! Now keep in mind, this is a 200 by 100 foot arena in MI, filled with new green grass!!! Also, at this point the saddle was under Kaspin's belly! So for 1. I was thrilled Kaspin never left me!!! What a super boy!!!! And Kaspin was at a run! And 2. that Kaspin didn't continue to run around the arena freaking out that the saddle was under his belly and get himself maybe really hurt. So good boy for both!! Either way, I turned out to be just fine. I have a few scrapes and of course Kaspin is just fine, LOL. But I now realized my girth could have gone tighter, LOL. I am also in the process of finally ordering a new girth! I have been using cheap girths, while I was waiting for Enzo to grow up. But after falling off(granted girth was too loose). But I decided I really do need a good girth again and I think the current size I am using will continue to work with Kaspin and Enzo as Enzo fills out more over time. And if it doesn't fit Enzo later?? I'll cross that bridge when I get there. This is the girth I ordered for my sensation treeless saddle now. http://www.smartpakequine.com/prestige-anatomic-dressage-girth-8616p.aspx?cm_vc=Search  Yes, I realize it's super expensive! But good equipment for my horses and me are definitely worth the money. I had this girth before on my old horse with a treeless saddle and when the saddle is tightened correctly and used with this girth. The saddle will not slide. So very worth the money. What did you do with your equine partner on these warm days so far??? 

Boob Award Winner , Janine

Fog isn't just for Halloween, LOL

I have so much fun with my equine kids. Now, I exposed them to a fog machine! Neither Enzo, or Kaspin have seen this before. Both were not thrilled, but both really didn't FREAK out. Just worried about it. So all in all, I thought they did great! It would be nice if I had a 2nd person with me to work the fog machine. While I could walk around with the boys. But for doing it myself, I think I exposed them as nice as I could, to leave them with confidence to do it again someday. What do you think of my fog machine day?

Janine~Enzo~Kaspin!

Snakes, ducks, and more, oh my!

What are snakes and ducks?? Snakes are cut up garden hose and ducks are rubber ducks that squeak from the dollars store! Just another thing for my horses to walk through and build confidence with! Sometimes they step on the pieces of garden hose a certain way and it can flig up and touch the back of their legs, and the ducks can squeak when they're stepped on. Really helps with horses who are funny with their feet as well. I had the barrels on the wall to play Parelli squeeze game. Lots of horses are claustrophobic and don't like to squeeze through things. Kaspin hates the squeeze game and as you can see he is mastering it pretty well with the barrels now.

Next, was the red turtle. Inside the turtle there is a weasels that rolls around. But unfortunately before I taped, my batterise went dead in the weasel. I'll try to show it better on next post. But horses usually don't like furry things rolling around! Kaspin today thought things looked pretty safe and he had to check the furry weasel out. If you want your own rolling weasel go to ebay(about 8 dollars). And you can use a garbage can top for it to roll in. Or a child's round sled to roll in. I just happened to garbage pick this child's old turtle sand box and used that. 

Lastly, was the scary black bag of returnables(plastic milk jugs and pop cans) that made lots of noise. I always walk away from Kaspin when I show him NEW scary items. It builds a horses confidence to follow something at first. Later, I will progress to touching Kaspin with the returnables on his body.

All three of these obstacles were totally brand new to Kaspin and this was the very first time he had seen them. I went really slow and I think Kaspin did awesome!

Here is a video of Enzo playing with the snakes and ducks. Enzo has seen this obstacle 2 other times in his life. So this time I asked him to trot through the snakes and ducks. You can actually hear one of the ducks squeak! How funny! What creative things to you expose your horses to?

Keep it fun! Janine~Enzo~Kaspin!

Enzo all cleaned up:)

Ok, this is a weird video. But with Enzo butt issue I just had to clean it up more. Otherwise, if I don't keep the rear end clean, Enzo gets butt soars. Now, that it is all cleaned up. I have been putting diaper cream on and it's been working wonders! And if you missed last blog updates. Enzo also is on NEW Advanced Neigh Lox to also help control this butt issue. That poor Enzo has been having lately. I'll keep you posted!

Keep it natural, Janine and Enzo!

BUCKET LIST

Sooooo, one of my things on my bucket list is to see a show like Cavalia in person! So here is my chance! Apassionata is coming to USA in July to MI! Here is their trailer http://www.apassionata.com/uk/together-forever/gallery/videos/apassionata-trailer/ The tickets are kind of pricey. But I have to make it work! I'll ever make it to Europe to see one of these show and this just looks amazing!!!! Plus, that's 1 thing off of my bucket list! Have any of you see one of these amazing equine shows in person??? 

Keep it savvy, Janine

POOR ENZO! POOR ME!

Enzo still has a runny butt(no diarrhea, or cow pies). Vet and dentist still think it's because of his teeth and he still is having a hard time eating/chewing his hay. Fecal is negative and clear from sand.  We also tried pain meds for 7 days to help with jaw pain in mouth to help Enzo eat. That didn't change the butt situation at all either. The vet also had me purchase bio sponge from platnium performance. But so far on day 3 of this supplement, I don't see much difference:( The company said give it 7 to 10 days but results should be fast, hmmmm. Next I can try, SUCCEED. It's really expensive and I pray that might help? Only other thing I could try is separate Enzo from the herd in his own pasture and feed him green, soft, non stemmy hay and see if Enzo can digest this better? But I am at a boarding faculty and I am not sure if my barn owner will go for this? This weekend I will walk the fence line and see if I can see if Enzo is eating any weird tree limbs, or something? Plus I am bummed. Enzo ass looks like shit litterally. It's pointless for me to clean, since it's dirty again in no time. And it's winter we don't have a wash rack, or warm water, sighhh. I am making calls daily to vets. Yes, I am sure they are sick of me by now also.  Yes, even though his ass looks like shit. The rest of Enzo is fine. Enzo eats, he is goofy as normal, and goofing around outside. That is why Enzo has not had to make any trips to the horsey hospital. It's just driving me crazy. Is there something more going on than the teeth? Or am I trying to find something else wrong?

I'll keep you posted:( Janine and runny butt Enzo

EVIL word verification! How to remove it:)

How to Turn Off Word Verification on Blogger

Welcome to another happy Wednesday! Today I want to talk about something

plaguing the blogging society, and that is word verification. It's time consuming

and unnecessary! Blogger has an awesome spam folder that WILL catch

anything before it's published on your blog. I think I get 1 spam a year!

Blogger's new format doesn't allow you to turn it off, you need to go to the

old interface first. So in the interest of other bloggers ridding themselves

of word verification I thought I would give everyone a little how-to on

fixing the problem below.

Start on you blogger dashboard and click on the little cog -

This will give you a drop down menu. Select 'Old blogger interface'

You will return to your old dashboard. Find your blog and
 click on the 'Settings' button.

Once there, click on the comments sub-button.

Then scroll down until you see 'Show Word Verification
for Comments' and Check the 'no' box

You can go back to the top and change your settings
back to the new interface.

Everyone should check to see if they are using
word verification. It will never ask for verification from
the author of the blog so you might not know you have it.

Anyone else have blogger pet peeves? Janine

Kaspin playing with mattress.

Kaspin has been getting more and more confident! Today I took Kaspin for a walk down the driveway. I had kaspin lead. Since Kaspin prefers to only follow and not think for himself. Letting him lead gets him thinking and I just love it!!! Kaspin blew out once on our way back from our walk, yeahh. Then we went into the arena to Parelli play. Kaspin blew out once in the arena. Then when we were done. We left the arena and took the walk back to his pasture and again 2 more blows out. How exciting to me!!!! Here is a video below of some of the Parelli fun we have in the arena. I love the way Kaspin sniffed all the small leaves on the arena ground! He is starting to be sooo curious of everything. It's like he is seeing the world for the first time! Soooo cool! 

Here is Enzo and I working on ground driving again. As you see I have progressed to being more behind Enzo now. Instead of along side of him. You can still see Enzo is still confused with trot, and turns. But hey we are doing just fine, I think!! P.S This is my treeless sensation saddle on both my boys:)

Keep it fun!! Janine~Enzo, and Kaspin!!!

Enzo says horses should have tooth fairies also!

Rough day for Enzo and I on 2/10/12. My day started with a call from the barn owner that Enzo has colic! Right when I heard this I knew why! If you have followed my past posts. Enzo is teething and having a really hard time eating lately. He eats his hay and sometimes swallows large pieces at a time. I had called my friend who works as an Equine dentist. But he was booked for now and Enzo would have to wait a while till our appointment. Our appointment was scheduled for 4pm on 2/10/12. Common Enzo you couldn't hold on one more day! I guess not. I put a call into my Equine dentist who is also a regular vet and he was just as shocked and disappointed as I was. We decided to try banamine by mouth and go from there. Over the next 3 hours. Enzo got better and better. Thank god, as a snow storm in MI was moving in and  it was not the best day to trailer a horse to the equine hospital if Enzo needed to go. Later my equine dentist/regular vet showed up. He had decided Enzo was out of the woods and that we had to get his teeth done. So Enzo could chew his food correctly again. The Dr. was positive Enzo got colic due to his teeth. Since we already knew Enzo had an under bite and not the best teeth from previous dentist visit. The dentist suspected that Enzo is having a hard time loosing his caps(baby teeth). If they don't fall off like they should. Then, the teeth below the caps cause pain in the jaw since that tooth cannot erupt. Enzo had a total of 6 caps(baby teeth) removed. 3 teeth were up front and unfortunately Enzo already had infections in his gums. Since the roots broke off higher up in the gums. The dentist had to cut the gums and dig out the roots, yuck! With all the teeth pulling, all the blood, and the digging. Enzo's MOM/ME nearly passed out!!! I felt sooo bad for poor Enzo! I had to stop watching and take a break and wait for the dizzies to pass. Unfortunately, Enzo will be loosing 24 caps(baby teeth) until he is 5 years old! If the caps cannot come off by themselves. Enzo will have to see the dentist a lot in his young life. I of course, love natural as much as possible! But, I had to use drugs. It's safer for the horse and Enzo was in too much pain for him to handle all of this. Plus, I won't post the gory pictures, or the gory video. But let me tell you! I am sure you would want drugs too with all this teeth pulling, blood, and root pulling. The equine dentist is a friend of mine and has worked on all my horses for the last 23yrs in good and in bad times. I really trust him and he would never cause harm to my horses. If this was a routine little float. Then no big deal to go natural and use NO drugs. But Enzo is a difficult case and needed lots of care and a person really had to get into his mouth. After Enzo was all done. Enzo went back to his stall to rest and wake up 100% from his drugs. I asked my vet if Enzo will be able to eat later??? My vet said, he will be fine! Really! I cannot believe this! But Enzo got hay about 8pm and ate it with glee! Crazy, what horses can handle. I also asked if Enzo needed any more pain meds? The vet said no. Really! I also asked what about antibiotics? Now that Enzo had holes in his gums and cute gums on the front jaw? The vet again told me Enzo needed nothing and just from having the teeth pulled. Enzo will feel much better. Really! It was hard for me to believe, LOL. But Enzo ate all his dinner that night. All of his breakfast the next morning and got to go out with his equine buddies for the day! I visited Enzo in the afternoon Saturday, and Enzo acted like nothing had happend and ate anything I handed to him. Again, just amazes me what horses can handle. I posted pictures below of our rough day. Enzo got paid today by the tooth fairy in small carrots!!!! And Enzo loved them all!!! I love you Enzo!!! Now please do not scare me with anymore colic. I lost my other horse way too early. I couldn't handle losing you. 

Hugs your horses, Janine, Enzo and Kaspin! 

Enzo already loaded into stocks on mobile dentist office.

Assistant putting ears muffs in Enzo ears for the noise.

Assistant still getting Enzo ready.

Enzo wearing the dental speculum.

Close up of dentist working inside Enzo's mouth.

Close up of dentist working inside Enzo's mouth.

3 of the teeth that were pulled. Horse teeth are ugly, lol.

Enzo's front teeth. Infection under gums, middle 2 teeth, on top.  Blood running from the other teeth already pulled earlier in back of mouth.

Video below is Enzo getting his float done first. Don't worry it's not gory. Just noisy.

Emotional good weekend!! Many blows with pics!

SATURDAY FUN: I got super emotional with my boys Saturday. I Parelli played with Enzo for about 2 hours again. I wasn't working on getting Enzo to blow, just fun stuff, and kind of easy stuff. Since, Enzo's butt was a bit runny again yesterday and I didn't want to upset Enzo, or have him run around. By the way, the Equine Dentist is coming Friday at 4pm, double yeahhhh! Anyway, after I was done in the indoor arena and I was bringing Enzo back to his pasture. Enzo blew out 3 times. I was happy Enzo blew out!!! But again, bummed it happened after we were leaving the indoor arena. It just still shows me Enzo is not getting 100% relaxed in the indoor arena. Even though Enzo looks fine and calm. So I will keep working on this. Then we went and got Kaspin. I first worked on trailer loading with Kaspin. Kaspin is very claustrophobic and also does not like the Parelli squeeze games. After the trailer we went to the indoor arena. Last weekend, I worked a lots of Parelli confidence games with Kaspin. Since, Kaspin is such a chicken with everything, LOL. This weekend when I went and got Kaspin from the pasture, I noticed right of the bat, Kaspin was much more confident this weekend. But I didn't think it would last. I was wrong! I was in the indoor arena and we Parelli played, jumping barrels, sideways, circle game, and the pedestal again. This time Kaspin got on the pedestal all by himself for the first time, yeahhh. The whole time Kaspin stayed calm and kept licking, blinking, and chewing. This all tells me he still was ok. I finally got on Kaspin back and wanted to ride Kaspin. After I got on, I just walked around a bit talking to Chris, and all of a sudden Kaspin blew out 3 long times. Here is where the emotional part hit!! In all the time I have owned Kaspin he never has blown out ever. He has always been too scared!!! So this was the first weekend ever, that Kaspin was so confident and calm the whole time. After the 3 blows, I started cry a bit. It was a HAPPY cry!! I was just soooooooooooooooooooo happy that I must be treating Kaspin correct! It was such a great confirmation from Kaspin. I got off Kaspin right after, because I know he has had troubles with the past owners of riding him. So I got off Kaspin on a super great note. I went home feeling super!!! Warm weather, Chris (my boyfriend) came out for the day to watch, Enzo blew 3 times and Kaspin blew 3 times. Which I never even expected, or was trying!!! What a great day!!!   

SUNDAY FUN: Chris and I went back and Parelli played with both boys again! This time Enzo blew out 3 times in the indoor arena, no problem!!!!!!! Wooo hooo, I am really getting it now and getting great confirmation back from my horses. Feels so great!!! Then, I got Kaspin. I played Parelli games on line. Like Parelli circel game, jumping barrels, and driving game, etc. I then introduced Kaspin to my mattress for him to walk across on the ground! Kaspin was pretty curious about that one. But he eventually got all 4 feet across the mattress and for being an RBI horse Kaspin actually accomplished it pretty fast, yeah. After that, I decided to ride, but as I walked around I noticed Kaspin's face did not stay the same confident self this time. He did everything I asked. But I noticed Kaspin wasn't licking, chewing, or blinking as much. Showing me was worried of something? I walked around for a while to see if Kaspin could work things out. Kaspin maybe licked once, or twice. But Kaspin pretty much had a blank look to his face. That is why I was soooo surprised I got 3 blows on Saturday from Kaspin while I was riding. Since like I mentioned, Kaspin seems to have a block about riding. The breeder who sold me Kaspin gave me his background. They told me Kaspin bucked them off once. Especially Kaspin likes to buck at the canter. They had to ride Kaspin in a twisted wire, or a kimberwick to even get him to barely stop, etc.  And they rode Kaspin in tie downs and draw reins to make a fake frame! Poor Kaspin, I would be pissed also at people who wanted to ride me!!! It all just showed me a horse who didn't trust people, nor like them riding him. So I am basically re-starting Kaspin and building and friendly relationship with him first. I need Kaspin to understand I won't hurt him, or put him in harms way. Later we walked Kaspin back to his pasture and Kaspin blew out once really well. I was happy with that, as it ended another great weekend with my 2 boys!
Think natural, Janine, Enzo, and Kaspin:)

Chris with Kaspin.

Me walking Kaspin back to his pasture.

Kaspin and I .

Kaspin and I . Chris was nice to take a few shots!

Enzo all proud back in his pasture already.

Chris saying HI to Enzo after we fed them lunch hay!