Curly's first show...

E. and Curly participated in "Hot August Nights" yesterday. And yes, it was VERY hot! The thermometer was reading 102 in the shade - Uhg!

E. spent the afternoon washing and primping Curly for the show and he looked wonderful. After the kids got themselves cleaned up, we loaded up the horse trailers and set out for the fairgrounds. This was Curly's first trip out there so he was quite excited and wanted to look at everything.

E.'s first class was a walk, trot division. They both did well - no ribbons, but no obvious mistakes either. The next two classes were not quite so smooth. Curly did fine until E. asked him to lope (a.k.a. canter). I'm sure she was nervous because he had tried to buck her yesterday when she asked for a lope. And her nervousness was definitely communicated to the horse - so he tried to buck again. She immediately stopped him and then waited patiently in the middle of the arena until the judge asked everyone to slow to a trot. But Curly never really regained his composure after that. It didn't help that there were over 20 horses in a relatively small ring. All that nervous energy and activity was just too much for both E. and Curly.

This was a good practice, however. Now E. has a better sense of the specific things she needs to work on over the next few weeks before fair. And Curly will get another chance next week since "Hot August Nights" runs every Thursday until the fair.

I had a "first" last night as well. I drove the truck and trailer home from the show. Talk about being nervous! But we survived and the trailer is back in it's spot. Maybe not straight, but there nonetheless.

Massage Therapy...

So our new routine for Curly will now include a 10 to 20 minute massage session prior to saddling him up. The chiropractor came out and did indeed find some vertebra out of alignment. Curly was a little nervous at first but soon relaxed. We thought he was going to fall asleep as he walked back to his stall with E. when the session was all over!


It was unclear as to what exactly has caused this problem, but with dedicated care Curly should be back in top form soon.

M. has been joking (or at least I think it was a joke!) that Curly seems to be getting better care than our own children!

If your feet hurt....

....you're miserable! Or at least Curly was today. His tender feet finally got the best of him. He has been favoring one side to compensate for the pain in his feet and consequently threw his back out. E. was participating in a "horse camp" and all the gathered trainers and "experts" agreed that Curly was in too much pain to be ridden today. Poor guy! He really wanted to please E. and do what she asked, but just wasn't able.

So....he was given Bute (horsey equivalent to Ibuprofen), massaged by some expert hands (this turned into a "teachable moment" for the camp and all the girls learned a bit about horse anatomy and massage techniques), and then given the rest of the afternoon off. This evening we had a friend - who is also a farrier - come and shoe his two front feet to relieve some of the pain on the soles of his feet. She added rubber "wedgies" between the hooves and the shoes to bring his heels up and create a better angle to his feet too.

(This picture was taken a week after the shoes were put on - and he's still loving them!)

Curly was immediately happier. Tomorrow the chiropractor is coming to adjust his back. Who knew there was such a thing as a horse chiropractor!

E. should be able to ride again tomorrow and join in the camp fun.

Oh, and we discovered that Curly loves blackberries. He was disappointed that we had only a handful to share.

Busy days and nights....

The county fair is fast approaching and E. has been busy getting ready. She and Curly are together most days now, taking lessons and just generally bonding. Soon there will be two lessons per day (currently she does one every other day) to make sure they are in sync when it comes time to compete.


They will be participating in Western Pleasure, Western Equitation, Bareback, Showmanship, and Trail. This is all going to be quite a challenge for Curly as he has never been a 4-H project horse and has never competed in an arena. I'm sure E. will be quite frustrated by the end of fair since her last competition experience was on Pyro - a 27 year old Arabian who could compete in his sleep - and they took home a handful of blue ribbons!

We don't expect any blues this time around, but are preparing as much as possible to make the events come out as successfully as possible.

Having said all that, I must add that Curly and E. took yesterday and today off. He had his hooves trimmed on Wednesday and is pretty tender-footed at the moment. The farrier is very happy with the direction his feet are going, but it is still a somewhat painful process for the poor guy. And on top of that, E. has gotten some sort of stomach bug and was up all night vomiting. Poor girl!

We took one more step into the "horsey world" this week. Our family is now the proud owners of a truck. Never thought I would have one, to tell you the truth! Guess the city-girl in me is slowly fading away....

Cancelled rides...

E. rode for the first time in many weeks today - and said that it was her best ride yet! Having a professional work with Curly seems to have been money well spent.

We traveled far and wide during the last three weeks and towards the end I have to admit that I missed our guy. Our original plan was that E. would meet up with Curly at a Wilderness Summer Camp about 100 miles from home, but we received a phone call during our trip informing us that the camp had been canceled. Not enough participants. E. was quite disappointed but her trainer offered to take her on a trail ride today as a sort of consolation prize.

When the phone rang early this morning I had a feeling that something had gone awry. Unfortunately, I was right. Our trainer was thrown from a young horse and hurt her hip, making a trail ride impossible. She felt terrible about disappointing E. again. I was more worried about the trainer!

We went out to the barn anyway so that we could visit Curly and little sister R. could play in the stream. It was a very pleasant way to spend the morning.

Poor Curly is being plagued by mosquitoes. I am now searching for an effective way to treat current bites and repel the tiny bloodsuckers as well.

Hoof health and goodbyes...

The farrier came out yesterday to shoe the horses that will be going on the Wilderness Summer Camp trip in early July. When we pulled Curly out for his turn it was decided that we should hold off on shoeing him for a couple of more weeks. His feet just aren't the healthiest yet so the extra time barefoot would be beneficial. Rather than having a hollowed out, smooth section in the middle of the hoof, he has a fairly shallow, flat hoof - which all contributes to his tender-footedness. It'll be a long process to get them into top form. The farrier will make another trip to the horse barn in two weeks and we'll shoe Curly then. Sure wish this trip didn't require them!

We accidentally left the door to Curly's stall unlatched after lessons on Friday - and our trainer found him on Saturday morning in the main barn, happily helping himself to all the hay bales stored there! Needless to say, he did not get any breakfast that morning.

E. had to say goodbye to Curly since we leave for a long vacation today. She's going to miss her horse friend very much.

Sharing the fun...

E. led her best friend and her sister around on Curly this evening before her lesson. All three girls helped brush him down and then E. saddled him up. First to ride was best friend B:






Then E. led sister R. around the property:




And then it was lesson time:




E. is no longer using a snaffle bit with the German martingale. She has moved on to a Myler bit, which Curly seems to respond to better. He definitely tests her during their rides, though. Towards the end of the lesson her trainer decided that he was being a little too naughty so she took over for the last 10 minutes. But it gets better every day!

He was VERY sweaty by the time we left the arena. And immediately rolled in the dirt when he was free in his stall.

A good evening overall.