Ridin' Remi

After loosing day after day last week with weather and Chad not being able to keep Kage for me, I found time to saddle up on Sunday!  I decided to take pictures as I rode...from start to finish!

Oh, joy....huh?  (0:

Remi ignoring me while waiting to get a drink. 

Now that Tari is with Mindy, Horse Girl is kinda the leader.  It's funny though, as she really doesn't want to be the leader...but no one else will do it.  So she does her best, as the least passive of the passives!

When I go out to catch my horse, I take the halter and lead rope.  And nothing else.  I HATE a horse that requires you to sneak up on it or bribe it with goodies.  I want them to know I'm there for them...  Occasionally one will run from me, but for they most part I have no problems.

Remi came to me hard to catch, and has gotten a lot better.  Except for Sunday.  When she decided that she wanted nothing to do with me.

She tried hiding behind trees.  Maybe she should get a lesson from the Hee-Haws on how to REALLY blend in so I will walk by and keep looking!

Fiona attacked me while I was walking after Remi.  Fiona will grab a hold of anything that dangles...  She is such a busy body...

  I never run after Remi and try to cut her off.  I just walk and talk.  Since she has been thumped on and miss treated in the past, I try to use little or no aggression in anything we do.  Being walked after is pretty annoying I figure.  And I really don't give her a chance to take a break....I just keep walking and talking until she stops and allows herself to be caught.

Sunday it took a while....like 20 minutes... 

She even got Fi to lope once or twice, but Fi always lopes to me and stops...

I am sure Remi sees this as less than helpful and less that encouraging.

Notice the height difference between these mares.  Fi is on a slight hill...but it's not that much of an incline.  Fi is sooo much taller than Remi....

After several laps around the place, she stopped faced up and was ready to be caught.

Note the flared nostrils....running is hard... And slightly annoying when you're trying to go for a ride.

In this "tacked up" head shot (below) you'll see our tie down...

Sigh.  It's just too big...and too white, and too black.  I really don't love it.  It works and she respects it, but I am going to start shopping for something a bit more subtle.  She is a small horse and needs tack that isn't built for a beast like say... Fiona!  (0:  I am quite sure on Fi this would look just fine and dandy.  But on Remi, I think its a bit much.

Some of my pictures are weird, but I blame it on the camera.  Its old...like 10 years old.  But under the right conditions it does a decent job.  And it's the only one Chad allows (just kidding there...but he'd probably pass out if I rode with my "good camera" but he wouldn't stop me...) me to ride with.  (0:

Up the drive way.  Dogs leading the way.

Down Rourke Road heading towards the trail that leads to the highway.

Trail that leads to Highway 41.  That tree directly in front you...as you look at the picture is where we stop.  I get off the horse and catch Seven.

This is where we cross the highway.  I HATE crossing the highway, but it's the only way to get the the trails. I carry some hay string in my back pocket and use it to lead Seven across the highway.  Abbi knows to heal up, Seven forgets.  

Once the coast is clear, we all walk across.

This is the spot where I let the dog go, check my saddle, boots, and other gear before riding off.

Remi waiting for me to do something interesting...actually the camera beeps constantly when you're using it.  So she kept listening, just in case it was some sort of cue.

Dogs watering hole a.k.a. the once large mud puddle...after the long trotting.

Turned around and heading home.  Unfortunately I have not found a single trail that makes a loop.  (So there is nothing really to show on the way back...it looks exactly the same as the way out.)  They ALL end in No Trespassing Signs or my favorite Keep Out!! 

This trail ride I went on Sunday was a 3 mile ride per my iPhone app.

I noticed this on the way back...who knows what I was doing when I passed these the first time Remi kept walking off every time I tried to take a picture of these.  (Guess she hates flowers like her Other Mother Mindy!)...but it's a lovely bouquet made out of wild flower/weeds and road tape.  It's (road tape) all over out here left over from when they logged last year.  I also think someone has some hunting/game trails marked.  

Grabbing a bite to eat at the top of the driveway.  I loosen her saddle, remove her boots, and take her bridle off and let her graze as we return to the horse trailer.

There we are back from our ride.

All though Remi was fine on the ride.  She wasn't good or bad, she just rode...  She wasn't chargey, didn't get behind the bit, and didn't really ask to run.  I guess you'd say she was compliant.  I really didn't think anything of it, just figured she got her extra energy out evading me in the pasture.  And really had a nice little ride.

After we got back home, I untacked her, groomed her, and turned her back out with her buddies...about an  hour later I fed and watered. 

Everything seemed fine.

Chad rolled in about 5:30 pm.  I walked out to talk to him as he messed around in the garage, and saw Remi laying down in a place that isn't really a normal spot for the horses to lay down.  So I asked Chad if she looked like she was asleep when he pulled up.  Of course he saw nothing...

Then she started to roll.  So off I went to get out the Banamine and halter.  She was up and swatting flies when I got to her.  She had a wee bit of sweat on her chest and was breathing a little bit heavy with some tail wringing...  Not too terrible, but she is a stoic little horse, so I decided not to trust that she wasn't writhing in pain.

I took her out of the pasture and administered the Banamine.  Then we started marching up and down the driveway.  We walked for about 20 minutes and she stopped and pooped.

We walked for another 10 minutes and then she passed some gas.  She still didn't look happy, but her breathing had started to return to normal.  

I had tried to listen to gut sounds, and they sounded OK much like the other horses.  I listened to everyone just to see what I could hear, for a base line...but I need work on this.  I also took her heart rate, and it really wasn't up as far as what is considered normal...just a little, but I need to do a new base line on the girls as I cannot find my old list and Remi wouldn't be on it anyways...  So thought about taking her temp, but my thermometer died last spring.  Guess its time to get a new one, huh?

Any whooo, she had stopped wringing her tail by this time as well and I didn't see any new sweat spots.  

I decided to return her to her pasture and just watch her...if she started rolling, out of the pasture she'd come and on the phone with the vet I'd be.

Once turned loose, she walked over and talked to Horse Girl and Fiona and then laid down.  She laid there in the upright resting position on her sternum itching her nose on her leg and looking around...

Then she laid flat out, groaned, got back up on her sternum and passed more gas...

Then she got up and walked around, found a better spot to lay down and went down again.

More gas...then up again.  Then down again, this time flat out.  A couple of groans, more gas, back on her sternum.  More gas...

At 7:30 pm I went in the house.  She was up and standing by Fiona.

7:45 pm, she was standing by the Hee-Haws.

8:00 pm, she was standing by herself.

8:45pm, she was eating.

9:30 pm, she was blinking madly at the flashlight wondering why I was blinding her while idling chewing her hay.

4:45 am, she was dozing under the tree standing over Horse Girl and Fiona.

5:30 am, she was resting by the other girls as the Hee-Haws stood watch.

Gas colic...ugh.  

Maybe she was hard to catch because she hadn't felt good all day.  Maybe next time it takes so long to catch her, I'll get her and toss her in a stall and ride Fiona.

Just in case!