I Finally Got My Grandson Up On a Horse!

During the decades that I owned horses, I had a fantasy of horses in my grandkids lives.  However real life interfered long before my grandson appeared on the scene.  Since I no longer have horses  my grandson did not get to meet horses, and I could not just pop him up on a trusted horse.

But now I have a big enough house to have a spare bedroom, so my son, Tally, and grandson, Will, can stay overnight, and since they live just a few…

I have always wanted to try my hand at training a horse so I can see if horse training is something I want to pursue as a secondary career. So when my instructor offered to let me try my hand at training a green Spanish Mustang gelding named Joe, I jumped at the opportunity.

Joe is a seventeen year old, bay Spanish Mustang. He’s had training and has even been ridden before, but it’s been quite a few years since any of that happened. His owner has no time for him and asked my…

Ever since I can remember a veterinarian is what I’ve wanted to be. When people ask why I chose veterinary medicine over human medicine I simply answer, “Veterinary medicine, because people are gross”. They laugh, I laugh, but it’s true. People are gross and animals aren’t. I find it difficult to watch people draw my blood but I find eating spaghetti while observing surgery on a horse to be easy.

When I was little I used to rescue injured animals and try to help heal them. Injured…

“There’s more to life than horses” is something that has been said to me my whole life. My response? “Yes, there’s ponies too.”

Horses have been an essential part of my life for as long as I can remember. I first fell in love with them when my Uncle put me on one twelve years ago. Since then, horses have been my escape from reality and therapy during hard times.

Three years ago my mother suffered from pre-eclampsia, a potentially dangerous pregnancy disease caused by high blood…

Okay, so your horse is losing weight quickly and you don’t know why? My suggestion would be for you to consult your local veterinarian on this and make sure there’s nothing serious going on. Horses lose weight for a variety of reasons. Maybe they have a high metabolism or their teeth need to be floated. Maybe they’re old and that’s just a part of nature, or maybe they have worms. Either way your vet needs to be consulted. We won’t discuss every reason for weight loss in horses as…

I Just Ride at a Walk Until I Get Heat Sick

The past three weeks I have been sick, again.  My digestive system has decided it does not like food and that it does not particularly want to digest food.  Between constant nausea and diarrhea that will not quit permanently, I have spent most of my time collapsed in my bed.  However, after one week in bed I ended up with horrible back spasms, so I have been trying to ride as much as possible, at a walk since I am so darn weak.  I am hoping…

The owner said his horse had trailer issues. He’d watched a video and used a whip and rope, with bad results. Then he hired a local trainer but after two hours of fighting with his hysterical horse, she gave up and left. Now the horse was even worse, the owner said, and…

Look, it’s a selfie of me mucking last week. I like to get an early start in the summer. Over six hundred blog posts about this horse/life, and no one ever asks me for fashion tips. I wonder why?

I wasn’t always this sophisticated. I remember when I was maybe fifteen; it was morning and I was standing out waiting for the school bus. I…

I have loved horses for as long as I can remember, but growing up in  a city, I never had access to them. Then I found out about Beekman Therapeutic Riding Center, a non-profit stable that teaches anyone and everyone how to ride. They have forty beautiful acres of land and ten horses located in Lansing, Michigan of all places. It was there I began volunteering and fell in love with what they…

I've been on vacation for three weeks now. Three. Whole. Weeks. My sister and I have been staying in Texas with my Aunt Normi and Uncle Herb. We don't know them too well and they don't know us too well either. It's been a journey of getting to know one another and I'm enjoying every minute of it. There are times where it's difficult, trying to figure out what's appropriate and what's not. We've…

Moving Is Exhausting

I apologize for not writing my blog this past month, we have been moving from our old singlewide trailer to our new doublewide trailer, luckily I own both of them outright and they both are on my acreage.  When I say we have been moving I mean that my husband, with some intermittent help from both my sons, has been doing the actual packing and moving, while I am collapsed with exhaustion from the tiny bit of help that I can give them. 

Ever since my now…

As a stereotypically reserved Canadian, judging a horse show last fall in Israel, it was culture shock.  Animated and passionate in communicating, what an initially rattled me (what’s the commotion??), became  endearing to me.

The big idea behind “horse whispering” is the use of subtle body language and keen observation to communicate with our horses.  And one…

It's been a good month. We started May off with a dressage competition and did very well. We took home a nice, red 1st place ribbon, although that almost doesn't count because the other  competitors in my class never showed, but what does count is our score, which is the highest he's ever got, and if we'd got that score at two previous competitions would have won then, and would have had at least 2nd or 3rd place…

Some people read people really well …picking up on subtle cues, interpreting body language -social cognition. You can actually take a quiz to rate “ your emotional intelligence”, if you’re at home with nothing better to do  (perhaps, in itself, a sign of a social introvert?)

    Horses have developed a sophisticated social cognition system to read group members…