Rosso Story

A couple of clinics ago, I was talking with the barn owner about this woman riding in the clinic.  She is a tall woman and she is always on these teeny, tiny client horses.  We were talking about how she needs a BIG horse to really fill out her legs, stature etc.  Not in a mean way - and the woman riding has also said this.  The barn owner said this woman had a couple of larger horses of her own but they each ended up with severe lameness issues and she gave them away to good homes.

I was like ???wha???  how did she give lame horses away?  I have a perfectly sound horse at home that is ready to go for someone and I can't find him a home to save my life!

We started talking about Rosso... he moves well, athletic...however, he is very much a reactive/nervous horse and I don't appreciate that but know someone could have a lot of fun with him if they were a strong, assertive rider. 

This barn owner thought she might have a couple people interested in him... so the next clinic date I brought Sera and Rosso down.  And yes he screamed like a ninny the entire time from the stall/run we put him in.  Fun.  He hasn't been ridden since spring... and he hasn't been many places... his eyes were pretty much bugged out of his head...

When the girl interested in Rosso showed up... she got him out, tied him up... I saddled him for her... lunged him in the indoor... the barn owner got on him... and while MY heart was in my throat, he was fine.  He had an objection about something - she yelled at him, stayed on and resumed without another objection.  He rounded up beautifully, sweat between his back legs and flanks (horses sweat where they are working) and the barn owner kept exclaiming how sensitive he was to her seat and weight - how light in the hand he was - how big his movement was... I think he has better movement than Sera does and is more athletic and eye-catching.  I know everyone was surprised.  He is very pretty and uses himself well. 

You think "free" horse and you think puke horse.  Rosso isn't a puke... but I really don't appreciate his mind.  I know someone would have a lot of fun with him but it isn't me. 

Lemme put it this way. 

If he was a human, he would wear black turtlenecks, skinny jeans, eyeliner and read poetry on open mike night with a very effeminate voice and possibly a lisp.  If anyone looked sideways at him, he'd run dramatically sobbing, eyeliner streaming down his face, to the bathroom and he'd lock himself in there the rest of the night.

Not that there is anything wrong with someone like that.  God love 'em. 

I just don't happen to appreciate those qualities in a 1,000lb animal I'm sitting on.

Then the girl who was interested rode Rosso.  The whole time he is screeching to Sera and Sera is screeching right back... but dang, he was GOOD.  He didn't do anything horrible, he listened, he did his job... he was worked hard, in a new place, by two different people, with his one and only pasture mate screeching to him... and he hasn't been worked or had anyone on him since March or April of 2011.  It was the 2nd week in December of 2011.

I was hopeful. 

He stayed on a 30 day trial.

I got home with my lovely Sera Sue... unloaded her and then felt sad.  Which suprised me.  I suppose when you care for an animal for 5 years there are attachments formed, even if you don't love exactly everything about them.  And it didn't help that Sera kept calling for him and looking for him... and when the girl got him out to groom him he buried his fretful head into my chest like - omg! save me! 

I felt like the big, mean, carnivore. 

Not to mention I watched him go and he was pretty - I saw all the things that I loved about him and the reasons I brought him home in the first place.  It's hard to let it go and know you weren't good enough to get past it. 

My crazy neighbor Mrs. Kravitz asked me last week if I'd be mad if the girl showed up at a show and beat me and Sera? 

No!  I'd be really happy actually! 

Mrs. Kravitz said she'd be mad enough for both of us then if that were to happen.  chuckle.  She does love me and means well even if she is a little (or a lot) crazy.

I got an e-mail today from the barn owner.  He is still being a good boy, no shennanigans and yet the girl interested is also intimidated by his nervousness.  The barn owner reports that she'll warm Rosso up for the girl, walk, trot, canter - lots of transitions and the girl rides him but she won't ride him without the barn owner around.   That is what I thought might happen.  He needs a strong, assertive rider that he won't question.  The girl didn't seem to have that take charge personality when I watched her ride but I hoped I was wrong. 

It's ok... I want him to find a good fit.  I love the big goof and I don't want to see him (or another person) in a bad situation.  I have another clinic on the 28th and it's my guess that he'll be coming home with me to resume his status as a fully sound, capable horse that gets to be a pasture ornament/buddy to my wonderful mare.  

Dang. 

That's a pretty damn good job if you can get it when you are a horse!   Especially in this horse market....

Keenan Story...

Keenan... our "problem" child dog.  She's made a lot of progress and is still a work in progress with her issues. 

She goes to doggie daycare 2x a week.  It's an extravagance for sure, however, it helps with her energy levels.  High energy = more devotion to her issues and escalating issues.  Daycare keeps her socializing with dogs (even tho' in the real world she wants to kill all strange dogs).  We figure it's good for her right now while she's young and we are working through these things.

Furry Husband came home the other day, "Honey, guess what Keenan did at daycare today?"

Oh, I would have no idea...

"She figured out how to open the door and led ALL the daycare dogs outside!" 

Nice.  The outside is a fenced area so no dogs were exactly in danger...but I know the daycare groups certain dogs together and lets Group A outside during certain times and Group B at other times etc.  Not a good thing to have different groups - segmented for size, temperaments etc - milling around all at once. 

It's like the West Side Story - Sharks vs. Jets meeting all at once....

Guess the employees corrected her from then on each time she tried the door and she just kept trying.. the owner told me she must've tried at least 30 times.   Yup.  Sounds like our Keenan.  

The little angel.

After that day, when we drop Keenan off, the employees shout to each other - "Keenan's here!" and bungee cords go on the lever handled doors.

A couple weeks later Furry Husband walks in the door after picking up our deviant canine... "Honey... guess what Keenan did today in daycare..."

Hoo boy... I'm afraid to ask.

Guess Keenan figured out how to open the slick, metal knob door to the lobby/retail area of daycare.  She stood on her hind legs and worked the knob with her 2 front paws til it opened.  (Did I mention when we let her out into our yard, or we are out doing chores, we have to lock our doors or she lets herself inside - our front door gaping wide open and she is lounging happily on the couch or bed....having a wicked smaht dog is super fun.) 

She happily opened it and led all the dogs merrily into the lobby to peruse the retail shelves....

Christmas shopping would be my guess.

Inpiring and TRUE

I found this blog post from a woman by the name of Rachel Cosgrove and wanted to share it with you:

http://www.rachelcosgrove.com/2011/07/the-zero-scale/

and this one

http://www.rachelcosgrove.com/2011/11/making-weight/

Now that I feel good from eating primally, I want to try and become stronger...

I've started some sprint workouts once a week.  I run as fast as I can for 30 seconds, rest til I can breathe and repeat... 8 times.  Not so hard.  Tho' they seem like the longest 30 seconds ever.  I take our troublesome Keenan dog with me and she is loving it.  You could also bike, swim or whatever floats your boat for 30 seconds really hard... rest... repeat.

I started some of the primal essential movement workouts 2x a week (plank, squats, pushups, pullups).  I really like the idea of body wieght movements and not needing a lot of fancy equipment, space or gym membership to get strong. 

I'm pretty sadly weak and puny but you gotta start somewhere. 

I can't do one pullup.  I just hang there... suffering, muscles quivering while I grunt.  Furry Husband watches in amusement.  I have to do chair assisted ones to really get my chin anywhere near the "up" part of a chinup.  And I do the girlie knee pushups...   I can plank and I can squat and I attribute those to riding.

Already tho, when I get out of the shower, I can see little muscles moving in my pec area, my biceps seem more firm - not so flabby and reminicent of my 1970's kindergarten teacher and I think my butt has gotten a wee bit firmer or lifted... just a wee bit anyway and heck, any little bit helps.   

My workouts - sprints and the essential movement ones - last no longer than 30 min.  Sometimes not even that long.  It's not overwhelming or 2 hrs long or hugely involved.  I just have to remember to give the dogs something good to chew on so they don't try and play with me while I'm doing this stuff on the living room floor.  And of course Furry and I walk most mornings 2 miles with the doggers.  It's such a nice way to start the day... for all of us.

We'll see where it goes. 

I dunno where the time goes...

My new job is great... I absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my office, the co-workers, my boss... and I'm busy most of the time and it's really cut down on my internets...  

Not like I hated, my last job and I liked my boss... and this job just "clicks" with me for some reason.  Hopefully this feeling stays.  It's been almost a year since beginning and I'm still having fun so that is a good sign me thinks.

My last story was about cats in the closet.

Well, this is a cat story too.  Our giant 25lb male black cat, Mojo, went missing.  This was Furry Husband's cat...HIS cat.  Mojo liked to jump out at me and play but he LOVED and PURRED and CUDDLED with Furry Husband while having nothing to do with me.  He was a very, very cool cat.  We let him out in the day and brought him in at night.  A couple times he didn't want to come in at night... and played the stay away game.  He was always on the porch in the morning.

The last time he played the stay away game... we tried to get him in before bed... shortly after getting into bed... even got up in the middle of the night to call for him.  We could see him but he wouldn't come and would run away if we tried to nab him.  The next morning he was gone. 

We talked to all our neighbors and looked for him for months. 

Furry Husband wanted another cat he could call his own and he was looking around on Petfinder.... he found a female tortoiseshell kitten in a shelter in Greeley.  One day I came home and there was a new addition to our house.  He named her Katona (cat + anniversary) since he brought her home on our wedding anniversary.

We set up our big wire dog crate so she and the residing ani-mules could all meet and greet with minimal safety issues and Furry Husband would take her out to cuddle every day.  After a couple weeks we started letting her out for short periods of time.

She started pooping on our couch.  Pooping behind the t.v. stand.  Pooping in the bedroom.   And not just cat turds but runny, liquid diarrhea....nasty, gooey, stanky, stanky poo.   Disgusting.

We called the vet and ran a fecal... even tho' the shelter said she was wormed.  Our vet found her infested with round worms.  Nice since the dogs helped clean up her errant stanky magma poo and we didn't know if she had used the litter boxes some of the time so our existing cats may have stepped in, cleaned their paws and ingested round worms...

And so we started EVERYONE in the house on round worm rotation.  Fun!

We've always "found" kittens or cats in rural areas and they weren't in high confinement cages full of other animals coming and going, passing parasites back and forth.  Good to remember next time there is a shelter animal....

The next fecal showed the round worms dying and gone... however, there was still this horrible diarrhea.  Fountains of it.

Vet ran coccidia and giardia... nope.  Nothing. 

We began changing foods... nothing worked.  We were having discussions about putting her down because she obviously didn't feel good... and living her life in a cage was no life.... people told us we should let her loose outside to be a "barn cat" however we didn't like that idea given what happened with Mojo and she was so little...

And so I turned to the internet.  I Googled kitten with diarrhea or kitten not using litter box... found a website discussing IBS in cats.  How they are true carnivores and some cats have severe reactions to dry foods.  This is the link if you are interested,  http://catinfo.org/?link=makingcatfood 

Surprisingly, some of the grocery store brand cat foods are healthier than "fancy" foods like Science Diet or Nutro etc.... I went to the grocery store and found 2 types of Fancy Feast cat food where the first 4 ingredients were meat, broth and organs, no grains listed. 

It didn't work.

The article went on to discuss feeding "raw".  Cats exist on birds, mice - other live critters....the organs and bones of their catches meet all their nutritional needs.   The article had recipes for how to make your own cat food... including buying a grinder and where to get whole, skinned, rabbit carcasses with all the organs....how much a cat typically should eat of the "raw" food etc. etc. etc.

Right.

Then I saw that damn show on Animal Planet called, "My Cat from Hell".  And these people were living with HORRIBLE cats!  One couple had this cat they adopted from the shelter and in the night the cat attacked the husband... serious, deep, bites and lacerations up and down the guy's spine... he had to go to the emergency room and needed stitches.   And these people were working with a guy to help solve their problem with their cat.

Here, we had this sweet, loving, kitten that purred all day long and there was obviously something wrong with her.  So if the people in the above show could work with and overcome the violent tendencies in their  beasties... it seemed like the least we could do, was try some other food options.

I stopped at the feed store and picked up some RadCat raw cat food.  There were no sweet potatoes or peas or brown rice in it to dilute the pure carnivore feast... it was meat and organs with some added vitamins/minerals.  Yum.

And it worked.

Katona had turds for the first time in probably 8 weeks since all this went down.  We let her system adjust and settle down and we tried another grain free kibble.  Instant diarrhea.

Alrighty then.  Raw it is.  Raw bought from the feed store is expensive tho'.  Making our own would be cheaper.  Grinding our own cheaper still but I'm not ready to go there....

Pricing out whole rabbit was sorta spendy when you factored in all of our cats.  I was considering getting them all on a raw diet since research shows feeding raw dramatically reduces kidney problems and other health problems.  Maybe if we feed this way, we'll spend less in vet bills as they age?  That was my line of thinking anyway.  I put raw out for our other cats and all but one LOVED it.  They cleaned it UP.

I found another place referenced in the article and was introduced into a whole 'nother world of animal feeding.  I guess I figured that people with reptiles got mice from the pet store... never gave "live" or "raw" feeding any more thought.

Wow - there is a whole culture out there of raw and live feeding for pets.   You can get a sack of 25 frozen white mice... and there was a testimonial on the site about how this person warms a mouse a day for her cat and throws it in the bathtub for him to demolish.  

Interesting!

You can get whole, frozen guinea pigs... small, medium and jumbo.   (YOU could, I don't think I could....)
Rabbit... turkey... day old chicks... whole ground mouse goes for $6.99/lb.  MMMM.   Try that in your next taco salad!

Besides whole frozen critters, they also sell parts.  I guess frozen, skinned rabbit heads are great fun for your dog!  Or maybe for a small dog, just the rabbit feet....

I ended up ordering whole, ground chicken.  The whole chicken.... minus the feathers....in a giant tube-like package like you might see at Sam's Club for ground beef...only it's whole ground chicken.  We added B and E vitamins... taurine... fish oil... egg yolks.... whatever the recipe listed, mixed it up and portioned it in 6oz tupperware containers.   A 5lb tube of chix with the vitamins/minerals lasts about 3 weeks for this kitten.

It's easy to make - takes literally 15 or 20 min. for a 3 week supply

Yeah.  It's weird.  I know.  I guess I just think when you bring an animal home, YOU are responsible for that life.  And yes, we did discuss putting her down and came very close before I found this relatively easy solution.  Others may have chosen to kill her - and that is fine as long as it's done humanely.  However, I guess it wasn't something we wanted to do until we tried other options.  Giving her back to the shelter wasn't an option to me as we'd just be unloading this problem on someone else... not a responsible way of dealing with it. 

Now the kitten runs happily around the house, hasn't had any accidents... is happy and purring and friendly.  She goes into her cage to eat her raw diet.  I put the grain free kibble and some Fancy Feast out at the same time for the other cats (decided it was too spendy to feed all of our cats raw)... Katona stays in her cage for 30 min while everyone eats... I pick up all food and the kitten is released to resume living "normal" life in our house.

The only bad thing?

She's friggin' picked ME.   She isn't Furry Husband's cat.  She seeks ME out.... I didn't need another cat....

Sigh.

Furry is trying to win her over... but ... you know cats....

Fingers crossed!

Solution

We've been living with a problem that drives us both insane.

Our cats climb up in our closet.

They pull themselves up with the clothes on hangers which results in claw snags in clothes or clothes all on the floor in a crumpled mess.

They like to sleep in the folded clothes on a shelf above the hanging clothes... that equals more clothes pulled down and layers upon layers of cat hair all over everything. 

It's been this way for years.  We try to keep the closet doors closed and the cats dig and dig and dig until they open the sliding door enough to wedge themselves back in.

And then one night channel surfing, I saw this show on Animal Planet called My Cat From Hell.... the solution to many of the cat issues was to build them high spots.  And so I did.  Furry Husband was skeptical when I told him about my grand plan since he didn't see the show and wasn't sure just what in the hell I was talking about...

One night when he was at a wine tasting event I built this:

He got home and he helped me finish it... I bought a 1x12 at Home Depot and had them cut a 4' length for above our window and two 1' lengths to use as stepping stones....I covered them with soft, on sale, fleece material from a fabric store.

We ended up only using one step.  A dog kennel is next to the dresser... step 1.

The shadow box on the dresser is screwed into the wall for stability... cat step 2.

There is a step mounted to the wall... cat step 3.

From there, they have their choice of the box filled with the left over fleece material or the fleece covered ledge with a kitty cup.

I sprinkled a little catnip on the ledge and the cat step number 3.

They are using it vs. our closet! 

Score 1 for the hoo-mans.

Tied Up...

Well... I took Sera to Rex's for a ride last Saturday. 

I went out to get her and she was hot, sweaty and blowing.  The horses have been kept in their pens because of the huge amount of snow we got in 2 different storms.  Pretty much everything is, or was, muddy, slick and icy.  We didn't need the horses out running like wild jungle animals, slipping and injuring themselves or tearing up the pasture.

She and Rosso had been fruiting around because they are bored and pent up and it's cold and they feel good.

I unloaded her at Rex's and she was tying up pretty good.  Sigh.  Called the vet and she was there in 30 min... steroid and non-steroid anti-inflammatories given.  A dose of ace to relax and get blood flowing to the muscles... some laser treatment.  Still took at least an hour before Sera could walk again and she was still sticky on the left hind.

She hadn't tied up since November 2008. 

Caught me by complete surprise.  Last time she tied up I was feeding 100% alfalfa from another hay supply source... we stopped and she hadn't tied up since.  I figured that was the cause.

Since Sera had been penned up from the storms, we cut the Purina Healthy Edge complete feed back by half.  (They only get 1lb in the AM and 1lb in the PM with loose mineral salt)  And we gave them some extra hay at night since it was our first true cold snap and they don't have woolly winter coats yet.  It's a grass hay with a tiny bit of alfalfa - whatever grows in the pasture when the hay is harvested.  We've gotten it consistently from the same hay supplier - same fields since 2008 - nothing different about the hay.

It's quite disappointing. 

I ordered some Platinum Hemo-Flo supplement which is supposed to have good results for horses that tie up... ??  I'm never really sure if supplements are truly helpful or if they are just good marketing?  Anyone have thoughts about that?

I think Theresa asked about the new lifestyle Furry Husband and I are working on...
The book is:  The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson - very good, easy read, and explains more the why of eating and living this way.  He just released a new book, that in my opinion is maybe a little more condensed, a little updated and more of a specific "how to" vs. "why to".  It's the 21-Day Challenge or something... both are good reads.

There is a website tho' that is free which offers lots of information for anyone looking... www.MarksDailyApple.com 

Pizza experiment....

We've been eating primal (no grains or legumes) for 30 days as of October 30.  Part of us trying the primal eating for 30 days, was to experiment once the 30 days were over with a grain based meal to see how it made us feel. 

We brought home a Cozzola's take and bake pizza, cooked it up after chores... consumed it..... felt fine.  The world did not crash around us.  We were not ill.  We felt perfectly fine.....

UNTIL 2:00AM rolled around.

We were both wide awake, tossing and turning, and could NOT for the life of us get any sleep.  We finally gave up the fight and got up at 5:00 to go walking with the dogs under the stars...

Doesn't really make me want to try grains again any time soon.  Since eating primally, I have slept soundly, all night, every night vs. waking up at 2 or 3 AM probably 4 nights out of 7.  And the nights I did sleep were Tylenol PM induced.  I very rarely slept a night without something to keep me knocked out.

I'd gone to the Dr. for some pretty severe depression this summer along with the sleep deprivation to have my hormone levels checked out.  My hormones were ok but my my adrenals were high (why I was waking up in the middle of the night unable to sleep) and my B vitamins super, super low (why I felt so terrible all summer).  

I go to a more wholistic Dr., and they offer the option of working with herbal supplements if you want to go that route via diving right into Western meds.  Tho they offer the Western meds if you want them. 

I started taking an herbal supplement to calm my adrenals... and I got a B vitamin shot once a week for a month to get my B levels back up.  After that, I took a sub-lingual B supplement.

I haven't taken either supplement for a couple weeks.  I stopped the adrenal supplement right around the time we started eating primal.... and I sleep.  Oh how I sleep! I sleep sound and it is THE most glorious feeling to get sleep all night, every night.

I'm really liking the variety of veggies, fruits and proteins from fish, meat, chicken, eggs.   Yum!  We've tried brussel sprouts, rutabagas, turnips, mashed cauliflower... all sorts of good things. 

I'm never hungry, I don't count calories, I don't watch my portions... I eat full fat dairy, cook in butter, use olive oil and coconut oil vs. man made or grain/legume oils like corn, canola, peanut or vegetable oils.   I have even energy all day long, no lulls or tired afternoons for me any more....

It's been a pretty interesting 30 days.  I feel GOOD.  I feel HAPPY.  I feel AWAKE. 

I'm going to start with some exercise body movements to give me functional strength... I don't have goals to be amazingly ripped like Linda Hamilton from the Terminator movie... however, I'd like to be able to do the stuff I want to do easily and handily without much of a struggle.

I started today with some squats, plank and girlie knee pushups.  I'm so weak it's a little sad.  But hey, we all gots to start somewhere. 

We'll see how things progress...

Besides it's been so muddy, mucky, snowy, icy with the 2 storms we've gotten, I've got some extra time for evaluating how weak I am and trying to fix it.  grin.

I go to the Dr. for another blood draw to evaluate B levels... I'm guessing they are gonna be pretty good based on how great I feel.