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Lacey, Fabio and Me: The Neverending Story

165K views 2K replies 70 participants last post by  gunslinger 
#1 ·
This will probably predominantly focus on Lady because she basically knows zero things but Lacey will probably be mentioned so I figured she needed to be part of the title... :D


So, Lady is my foster horse from an organization called Sound Equine Options.
She's a ten year old (approximately, no one's checked her teeth yet) Arabian mare who was rescued about a month ago from pretty serious neglect (she's put on probably 100-150+lbs so far). She was literally living in someone's suburban backyard with her year old filly, a donkey, and a mini.
Her filly was signed over to the rescue as well and I think she's already found a new home, or at least she's being fostered by some people who want to adopt her eventually.

Lady was a bottle baby (orphaned at some point) but so far she's not showing any of the really bad orphan "traits". She doesn't have much of an idea about one's personal space but she's not terrible about it.
She's supposedly broke to ride but the owner she was removed from said that she (the owner) was the only one who could ride her... We're thinking that maybe a couple rides were snuck on to Miss Lady but that she isn't truly "broke".


I just got her yesterday so I figured that now would be a good time to start writing about her, start from the beginning, right? :D


So, basically my "job" is to get her trained up to actually being ridden. If I wanted to, I'm "allowed" to actually get on her eventually myself but I don't have to. Depending on how she progresses, I may start riding her myself but that really really depends.

Right now, our goals are: getting to know each other, leading well (she's under the impression that leading probably means she takes humans somewhere...), desensitizing to everything, being touched all over - she does not want her belly touched right now, saddling, blanketing, fly mask, I want to teach her to pony so she can come on trail rides with Lacey and I, etc.
Basically, I need to get her up to normal handled horse level.

So far I'm loving her attitude. She's very looky and not spooky - very curious about things that scare her. I've seen her get scared a few times but I have not seen her actually spook. She's also pretty spoiled - what she wants is apparently what she's used to getting. However, oh darn for her, I definitely have lots of experience with horses like that *peers accusingly at Lacey*.
She also loves to be touched so it's super easy to reward her for the right things (Lacey hates touching which always makes rewarding her more difficult).


Summary of today:

Day 1:
The goal was working on leading, I also tried a few sending exercises - turned out to be a terrible idea to try with a horse that doesn't know what "whoa" means. :lol:
It got a little scary when she decided to trot super fast around me, on the lead rope, while turning her head and shoulders in towards me -trying to intimidate me. I dumbly ended up backing away from her the first time she did that so she tried it a couple more times. Thankfully I was using my 14ft lead rope so I just started smacking in her the shoulder whenever she turned towards me. She decided that would be a good time to bolt but oh, guess what? I was prepared for that so it totally did not work. After that, she basically stopped and was like "oh, I'm dumb" so we went back to walking 2 steps, backing up one, etc etc.
Then, we finally got down to the shed - thank Jesus for Lacey, she was basically glued to my shoulder the whole time (except for when Lady was playing up) all like "Hey guys! I'm so kewl! Does not need lead rope=CHAMPION!" so she was being a great role model.
I tied Lacey up to one post and clipped Lady to a leadrope I had "installed" on the wall of the shed in such a way that if she pulled back, the lead would get looser (no one knew if she tied solid) but not set her free. She stood pretty well there and I groomed her shoulder (I haven't touched her all over yet so I wasn't sure how she'd be with more than that).

After both girls were groomed, I took Lady 15 feet away to work on some more leading. She was a little easier this time but still really didn't understand what I was getting at.
Then I "tied" her back up and took Lacey 15 ft away to work with her. And well, Lady decided that she was done being "stuck" so she started testing out how well she was tied. To make a long story short, Lacey was a gem and Lady ended up being tied solid which she still didn't like but she didn't pull back or anything so yay! She even got the lead rope over and behind her ears but didn't panic, just untangled herself. Smart!
After that, I took Lady off for another 5 minutes and touched her all over with the lunge whip. She was scared of the whip at first but then realized that it wasn't hurting her so she settled right down. Then, as we walked back to the shed, I practiced leading correctly with her some more and she showed that she was really catching on. She even backed herself up a step, before I even asked, right before we got to the shed!

Then I fed them and let them both go. I'm really pleased with how far we got in just a couple little sessions.
I gave Lady some raspberry leaves with hers, likeI do with Lacey. Hopefully that'll calm her current heat down a bit (she's super in heat, all squealy and it's probably not helping her be not bratty, lol).


Tomorrow, I think we're going to work more on leading, obviously more on standing tied, I'll probably do a little more with the lunge whip - to get her thinking, and I'm going to hopefully get her brushed all over. I'm a little nervous about picking up her feet but she did just get them done so the trimmer must have survived...probably I will too... :lol: I'll probably also show her about flysheets, just so I can start doing that to her everyday since I figure that'll be CRAZY for her. :lol:



And here's a picture of the girl that I took yesterday. She's come a long way since she was rescued but still has a bit of a way to go.






Thanks for reading! :D
 
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#834 ·
Brrr! I can't get over those pictures! Everyone looks so frio!
It's been a minute (long minute...) since I've been to Oregon, but here in Colorado we've had temps reaching -30 with the windchill, so I know those feels!

That's pretty exciting about NG. Even if he does say silly church things ;D
 
#835 · (Edited)
Of course you were, Caroline. :wink: :lol:

Haha Allyson! It's all a matter of perspective. Pretty sure my life is suuuuper boring too..I just make it sound way more fun? haha
But really, basically my entire life is sleep, animals, train, school, train, animals, cook, maybe homework, sleep. I really like it for the most part but sometimes I feel so stuck. I mean, I can never just decide to stay out later or spend the night at a friend's house. I have to be home by a certain time due to the animals and I have to be there for the animals. And I love it. But sometimes it really stinks.
Sometimes I want to go nuts and act 23 [but not toooo nuts, nuts within reason]...but I can't.
Anyway, I try to be really optimistic about it because I could be really depressed about it otherwise...
I just have to remind myself that I am literally living my childhood dream with my childhood dream horse. What 23 year old can say that??
But you're welcome to come live with me! <3

Zexious, -30 sounds TERRIBLE. Brrr!! We got down to -1, due to windchill, the other day and Lacey and I thought we were dyinggg. haha


The "Snowpocalypse" continues!
I prefer "Snowventure"...but hey, Oregonians sure like their snow-drama and Snowventure is waaaayyyyy too optimistic. haha

In any case, we had a huge ice storm last night which dropped a solid 1/2 inch of ice on top of ll the snow=my fave.
Plus side: it's starting to melt!
I adore snow but I miss "real" ground. haha And all this ice...I could handle snow for a few more days, but the ice turned this morning's 5 minute walk up to Lacey+etc into an hour and a half slog. THE WORST.


And church was cancelled for tonight. I'm glad I don't even have to think about trying to get there...but after last week, I was kinda looking forward to seeing NG.... haha
And, of course, I like talking to Gman too since he "gets it" and I only see him at church. Oh well, next week.

In any case, here are some pictures!!

Yesterday:

Trudging out. There's no staying in for the day for this girl!



LOVE this one. I lovelovelove snowy horse pictures. I'm so happy to have gotten some of my own!!!!







"Hey sorry, no time to stop and talk!"



Their super cool ghetto-rigged windbreaks.
As you can see, Atticus has been SUPER disillusioned by the weather - he hasn't taken them down yet!! haha



This morning.
Ice. Ice evvvvvverywhere.



Lacey spotted me slowly picking my way down to the shed. She was THRILLED. :)

"HURRY UP."



Then I let her out.

It was a real dilemma, deciding to let her out or not. Things are so icy...but at the same time, she is 29, has weathered ice storms before, REALLY wanted to go out, and movement is good for her at her age.

I decided to let her out, then stick around for 15 minutes to watch her and make sure she was handling the ground well.

She really did well! I am so impressed with her. SO impressed.
She carefully picked her way up her "favorite" spot in the pasture...



Analyzed the situation.



And pawed right through the ice and began grazing like it's no big deal.

She is the greatest.
I'm so glad I have an old wise horse!!



Then she hung out there and grazed.
What a good girl!



Poor Atti, on the other hand, did not fare so well.
This was his first experience with ice so he went bopping right out of the shed, and immediately regretted that decision when he fell on his face. Then he had to figure out how to get back to the shed. POOR little man!




Hazel also didn't enjoy her experience. She walked in Lacey's steps up the hill a ways, then decided to come back...but chose not to use L's footsteps. She regretted that decision when she went FLYING down the hill, her little hooves acting like skates.
I had to go rescue her. Boy, was she glad to be rescued!
Poor baby. Anyway, I got her back to the shed and there was no convincing her to come out again=good. Poor goat girl.

Of course, I was busting a gut laughing at the goats...but it was just so hysterically funny. And they were all ok, so I figure laughing is alright as long as no one is getting hurt. haha

:happydance:


ETA: I tried to post this a few hours ago and the second I sent it, a tree fell down and took out the power. I WAS SO FRUSTRATED. Thank goodness the power came back on a few minutes ago and somehow internet-magic saved this!! Yay!
 
#840 ·
Thanks jcraig!! :D I love them too!!! That has genuinely been one of my dreams with her and it exceeded my highest hopes, completely unexpectedly. I'm still so thrilled. :D

We really do, Caroline! When we ice, we ice nasty. haha
:lol: I did! That is probably one of my all-time most favorite turns of phrase so I am 100% on board with your use of it. :)
[also, I love that Roperchick liked your comment twice. haha]

Just some pictures.

[I'm going nuts. I haven't been on my hill since Thursday. CABIN FEVERRRR. But my van doesn't have snow tires and my parents barely made it down today in their little, snow-tire-d, car=my van would die. Hopefully tomorrow will be ok and I'll be able to go to school!]



My road today.



This afternoon. The goats are venturing out!



A little Lacey video from this morning. It's so funny how can see her wanting to roll, but giving up because of the ice. Poor baby.



And Atti being Atti and being a pain in the neck. :lol:
[he's feeling better about the ice now that it's not as solid]




:happydance: :happydance:
 
#843 ·
Christy, I don't even knowwwwww. So funny:



I guess HoFo just lovessssss you?? :D




In other news, it must be spring: Lacey's eyes are freaking THE HECK OUT.

I'm pretty sure it's my fault too which is a huge bummer on top of an already stressful week.
I didn't even stop to consider that the bright snow might irritate her eyes and that maybe I should flymask that baby up. Apparently I should have.
BOO.

And her 29th birthday is on Saturday too=not my favorite that she's gonna be in eyeball pain on her birthday. Not like it really probably matters to her, but it matters to ME.

On the plus side, I caught it just a few hours after her eyes started freaking out so I got her buted up asap. They were still spasming by last night but they had snapped out of it by this morning, THANK GOODNESS.
She's still buted out of her ever loving mind but the worst is over...hopefully.

Poor baby. :hug:

Anyway, I hope you guys are all doing SUPER GREAT. :happydance:
 
#845 ·
haha truuuue story. :lol:



Guys, I'm kindaaaa freaking out. Just a little bit.
Tonight when I took Lacey's flymask off to put her to bed, I noticed a little, itty-bitty, dimple-ish thing on her bad eye.
My first thought "ULCER!!!! NOOOOOOOOO"
I'm dearly hoping that this is just me being overly dramatic but.........

In terms of the ERU episode, her eye is looking better..but then there's this.

Anyway, I immediately called the vet and left a message asking for advice [don't want to go into the weekend wondering, then have it actually be an ulcer - ulcers can get out of hand SO fast].

So I'm kind of freaking out a lot. I'm already SO stressed about school...then this.
Actually, interesting theory I developed today: all the recent times Lacey's had an episode have all been when I was really over the top stressed already. I wonder if my stress level, even though I "hide" it well, is effecting her in this sort of way?? Like making her more prone somehow to eyeball-based freak outs? We are so in-tune to each other...I guess it's not surprising.

And, of course, if the vet does need to come out, I have $50 in my bank account currently. Luckily our vet is really cool about coming out even though she knows it'll take me a while to pay...but I just hate not being able to pay immediately. Makes me feel like such a slimy jerk. The vet is really chill about it and, I think, probably her thinking is that not many college kids are 'nursing' a "special" "really old" horse along while dong school...but still. I hate feeling like I'm making excuses for myself/others are making excuses for me.
Lacey really has the best vet, we are SO immensely blessed.
That's one of my life goals though: paying everything in my life immediately. Having the $$ available to pay for almost any eventuality. Or at least being able to pay for most any eventuality.



Anyway, hopefully whatever that is is gone by tomorrow and I can call the vet back and be all "JUST KIDDING, guys. We got this."


And on a more optimistic note, here's a video of Mr. Atti with the "zoomies".
[it was multiple videos and I joined them together with an app and it made it all weird....oh well]

 
#847 · (Edited)
1. Lacey's eyes are doing SO much better!!! :happydance: I'm so happy!!!
She was actually able to have a relatively pain-free 29th birthday yesterday too which was fabulous!!
No ulcer, the next day that eye looked completely normal. Not sure what was up with it that particular evening but I'm glad it wasn't anything serious!!

2. Atti is hilarious. He's all "get me out of this retirement home! These old ladies don't understand how stinking AWESOME I am!!!!"




3. I'm kind of freaking out a little about this whole thing with "New Guy"...and clearly overthinking so I'm going to write it all here and clear my head [and, of course, your opinions are always welcome].
We didn't have church last week due to the snow+ice [Portland actually put out a city-wide advisory requesting that everyone stay indoors if at all possible]. So the last time we conversed was two weeks ago, on SuperBowl Sunday, when we sat together and all that.

This week: he showed up 20 minutes earlier than he ever does, immediately came over to me and started chatting. We talked for 10 minutes or so, then we had to go to a little short 3 minute meeting. THEN, we had 15, or so, minutes before our "real" meeting...and he/we spent the whole time talking.
Actually though, talking to him is more like answering questions, receiving "oh" or "awesome", etc,-type answers, then answering more questions. It's kinda frustrating but I'm hoping that maybe that'll tone down once we're friends-friends.

THEN we had our meeting-meeting, and it was time to go host. It took a bit for people to show up in our sections...anyone want to guess WHO walked over to my section to talk while we waited? ....yeah.

Then people showed up and we actually had to "work." haha

THEN, once the teaching was about to start, I went to sit down...guess who just naturally came with me? He must have realized that he really hadn't asked if he could sit with me cuz, as he was about to sit down, he asked if he could sit there. :lol:

And we sat together again. This time he was wayyyyy more comfortable than last time. However, as our luck would have it, the teaching was on "Godly Sexual Identity". Talk about THE MOST awkward sermon to sit through, sitting in a packed pew next to a guy you kinda like but don't really know. It was hilariously horribly awkward. MY LIFE.

All evening he was asking me all about the classes I'm taking, what I'm doing this week, Lacey [someone was looking at my Facebook?? haha], etc.

I'm so confused. I'm just so thrown for a loop by all this attention!
The worst part, I think, is that I truly do not want to lead him on in any way...but I have no idea what MY feelings are, really. I'm enjoying the attention, but do I like him...or the idea that I could be "winning" someone's affection?


Then, on top of that, weird stuff: a random girl sent me a friend request on Facebook.
We had two friends in common - New Guy and another lady from church. This girl looked familiar-ish and I figured that maybe I knew her from church since we had mutual church friends. So I gave her the benefit of the doubt, and accepted her request.
2 hours later, she had deleted ME as her friend.
.......................um, what?
This whole thing. I don't even.


Gah. This is all so out of character and new for me. Before Gman came into my life, I had had more guy friends than girl friends...but the girl friends were the close friends and no guys were ever interested in being "real" friends.
Then Gman came along and we became instant "real-real" friends. Realer than a lot of my girl friends and I. No questions asked, insta-mutual-soul connection.
Still no interest from guys other than Gman, but I was ok with that cuz Gman seemed like a real option [ha].
THEN, the poo hit the fan with Gman, discovered that he was never going to be an option, stayed super close friends but in a different way, and within 2 weeks, BOOM, there's New Guy.

I'm reallllly not that girl who all the guys like. I'm like one of those girls who gets described as "has a great personality" or "is THE FUNNIEST"...and if someone is going to describe my physical attributes, "cute" is always the term. I'm certainly ok with being the "funny girl." Making peope laugh is one of my most favorite things in life. It's just this is so...different from everything I've ever known.
I mean, I like this, I guess...but I just don't know what to do with it. And I wish I knew how I felt, for real.

I guess on the plus side, the insecure nerdy part of me can be relatively sure that New Guy isn't just messing with me cuz [no offense to him] he's not THAT good looking. He's not ugly at alllll, but not like intimidatingly good looking.



Anyway, that's my big novel of the day. But I do feel a whole lot better after getting that all out!! Thanks for listening. :hug:

:happydance:
 
#849 ·
I knew what you meant! <3
Meeee too.

On the plus side for New Guy, it turns out that one of our mutual friends has known him his whole life and says "he's one of the best guys around." [yes, yes. I went snooping. haha no shame]
A lot of my hesitation stems from the fact that I know nothing about him and he, so far, has not been real forthcoming with information about himself=don't want to become attached to a jerk!!
Anyway I'm glad to hear that he's a good person. Makes me feels better.


In other news, I'm not sure if I told you about how the back wall of the shed -in Lacey's stall- has been wanting to falling down/off. In any case, last night it finally fell off.
And this afternoon I "fixed" it by putting a tarp up. I tied up the top two corners, then staple-gunned the sides, bottom, and top to the shed. Hopefully it'll hold up.

1. Hilariously, I did all this while Lacey was eating her dinner. She could have cared less about a tarp swinging around. She's the best. :)

2. Atti's reaction was amusing:





Also, someoneeeee made their escape this afternoon. The grass IS greener on the other side. :wink:
Luckily he wasn't making any trouble, just happily grazing.





:happydance: :happydance:
 
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#850 ·
ok, so to be honest I didn't exactly read the past few posts because my eyeballs hurt. 8+ hours on the computer at work and then I come home and get on the computer some more. Great idea! hahaha not. I will get around to reading them though, maybe tomorrow.

BUT, I did however watch all videos. love.love.love. Atti is fracking hillarious. and poor Lacey in the vid where she wanted to roll. dawwww.

P.S. HAPPY *BELATED* BIRTHDAY LACEY! do I remember last year you gave her heart shaped carrots in her feed on her birthday? or was that Valentine's day? was that even you? also, i did read a blurb about her eyes...and then another blurb that they are better. YAY :)

and i was pretty much cracking up about Roperchick double liking Tiny's post. how does that even happen? And when you called it HoFo ...omg, dying. (ok maybe I read a little bit more than I thought) We have a gas station in MD/DE called Royal Farms and we call it RoFo. Not sure why its not RoFa but its not...its RoFo. So when you said HoFo I lost it.

ANYWHOOOOOOO ...I'm house/horse sitting for the week and am alone and bored...can you tell???????????!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL.
 
#852 ·
jcraig, Lacey says thank you for the birthday wishes! :lol:
Yep, the heart-shaped carrots was me! haha It might have been Valentines...it might have been her birthday. Her birthday is on the 15th so they're basically the same anyway. :lol: Her birthday this year was a little too crazy and I forgot. :( Boo. Oh well. Next year!!
Haha, I guess the "HoFo" thing is showing my forum "age." Back in the day, like in 2009, evvvveryone called it "HoFo"...now, not so much. haha Glad it gave you a chuckle! :D



Nothing super exciting is happening. Lacey and Atti are shedding like CRAZY. I'm so excited for spring!!
We did get a ridiculous huge amount of rain in the last few weeks, plus all that snow, and everything is SOAKING wet. It's so wet that you can feel the ground move -like it's mud- even when you step on grass. Everything feels muddy. And muddy areas. Oh my word. There is standing water everywhere where you'd expect mud.

Plus side: it's supposed to dry up this weekend and maybe we'll really start seeing some grass growth! :D

Hazel's about 20 days out from being sheared. I'm so excited about shearing her!! Less excited about how terrifying she looks after being sheared...but so excited about shearing!
I bought new clippers to shear her with and I haven't gotten to use them yet=CANNOT WAIT. It's gonna be awesomeeee.

Also, in other Hazel news, I started her on Triple Crown Senior today. She's been doing "ok" with soaked alfalfa pellets/beet pulp/rice bran but I'm wondering if a senior feed would be "cheaper" - alfalfa pellets are $19 for a 40lb bag, beet pulp is $12 for 40lbs, rice bran is $22 for 50lbs. She eats half a pound of each per day...and it holds an "ok" amount of weight on her but she's still skinny.
Not to mention that she often doesn't eat all of it=wastage=$$ out the window.
I'm hoping that maybe something more complete, like senior feed, will be more palatable or something.

Man, it's so weird and sad to me: Hazel is only turning 11 in April [goat lifespan is like 16-20] but she seems ANCIENT. She's like 55 in goat years but she acts 100. While Lacey, on the other hand, just turned 90-ish in horse years...but she acts like she's 20.
I guess that's the product of living two different kinds of lives: Lacey's never had babies and has had a relatively easy life [pasture puff from age 10-23!]. The most neglect she's ever faced was being allowed to become horrifically overweight.
Hazel, on the other hand, pumped out babies from the time she was a year old until she was 10...sometimes twice a year, appears to have suffered severe longterm malnutrition [her horns]...
It blows my mind.
Dear ol' Haze.

In any case, this will be an experiment. If it works great, yay! If it doesn't, I'll go back to the pellet mixture.


Plus, yesterday's sunrise!!




I hope you guys are all doing well! :hug:

:happydance: :happydance:
 
#854 ·
Hazel reminds me of an wise old lady. Hope she likes her new feed :)
And I agree, not a fan of sheared Hazel lol
I can't wait for Spring time...I feel like it will bring out more Atti shenanigans for you to capture!

I feel your pain on the mud factor. Squishy ground, mud everyyyyywhere. Grey horse (has blanket on) is now grey horse with brown legs. Haha, I know you know all about that! The place that I am horse sitting has a gradual hill in the pasture and at the bottom there is basically a pond right now. I'm pretty sure the geese flying over last night were definitely thinking about landing there.
 
#855 ·
Poor, poor Hazel. She's so lucky to have found you though. She couldn't get a better retirement anywhere else.

I find it interesting what the differences in feed costs is for us! Triple Crown feeds are impossible to find here and when you do find them, they're $30ish a bag, but it balances out because while you pay $19 a bag for 40 lbs of alfalfa, I was paying $13 and complaining xD but then our rice bran is more expensive. $32-35 (the 35 is for pellets) for 40 lbs. BP is the same price though. I guess its just a difference is resources.

I really hope the triple crown works for her <3 she's my favorit-est (new word) goat ever.
 
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#857 ·
Of course, Hazel is already having opinions on her new food: she loves it...but only if I don't soak it. Clearly soaking turns it into devil-food. :wink:
She's such a dork. On the plus side, she DID eat nearly a pound of it today...once I gave it to her dry. So I'll try that again tomorrow. What a spoiled lady. <3
She's the best. I'm so blessed with her presence here! She fits in so well. She's super laid-back and low key, which fits perfectly with Atti's HIGH-HIGH-key-ness, and Lacey's sass+opinions.
And she's so sweet.
Too bad she hates having her face touched, otherwise I'd be smooshing her face all the time due to how darn cute she is! :lol:



Anyhoo, here's a video from today:




:happydance:
 
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