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Stalking Stryder

20K views 226 replies 24 participants last post by  EarthSnakeGemini 
#1 ·



For various reasons (bored at work), I’ve decided that Stryder needs his own journal. A place where I can post his shenanigans in one place.

For those who don’t know him, here are his stats
Registered name: Rolling River Blue Appaloosa (ApHC)
Foaled: March/2012
I got him as a little baby weanling August 2012.






Wasn’t he adorable? I don’t know how something so cute has grown into this gawky looking thing.



Stryder string tests to 16.1 and is currently 15h. As a 3 year old, he’s still growing (if you couldn’t tell by his gangly self above.) He is the poster child for 'late bloomer.'


Stryder’s favorite things to do include putting everything in his mouth, taking off fly masks, pestering his field mates, and being an overall clown. As a younger horse he was very (very) accident prone. I can count about 4 emergency vet visits in 3 years, one including a trip to stay at the Vet’s for a week when he de-gloved his leg. We are now on 8 months of non-emergency calls – Knock on wood!


I sent Stryder off to training in the spring for about 75 days. He picked everything right up, though still fights backing up. He's been back since mid-april and I've ridden him once. I'd love to ride him more but I'd also like him to finish growing first. He is very very .. very.. narrow.



Stryder is pretty fearless. Umbrella's and Bike's are non-issues. In fact he loves everything with wheels and enjoys chasing the tractor when we're mowing, or stands and watches the guy next door play with his big truck.








Empty beer can's in a plastic bag? Hung on his ear? No problem.






I'll note that I don't 'desensitizing' training with him. I just expect him to suffer through it and he hasn't failed me yet.

Last year he was a Christmas Tree.





The only thing he can't stand is water crossings. I'm hoping to work on it a little with him after heavy rain storms when we get the nice deep dark puddles.


He looks forward to sharing his antics.
 
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#2 ·
Hey, what a handsome horse, and with a great personality by the sounds of it! I did this when I saw the Christmas tree thing: :rofl: Never seen that before, was it battery operated or was he plugged in? :D

How I train for water crossings:



Veeeeery old photo from 1983 when I was working with a shaggy yearling. I put on my wellies and waded in and let the horse watch from the shore until she was comfortable, then encouraged her to come in. She never batted an eyelid about crossing water in her subsequent ridden life, but some horses really hate water...

Does Stryder get sunburnt on his nose in summer?

I look forward to reading about his antics! :)
 
#3 ·
Hey, what a handsome horse, and with a great personality by the sounds of it! I did this when I saw the Christmas tree thing: :rofl: Never seen that before, was it battery operated or was he plugged in? :D



Does Stryder get sunburnt on his nose in summer?

I look forward to reading about his antics! :)
The lights were plugged in. We didn't wrap them around his body, just a few loops on the neck and draped them over him. He was more interested in seeing if we had treats than caring about the 'vines' all over.

You know when they say a horse is 'in your pocket?' He's a very 'in your face' kind of guy. Has to know what you're doing, usually is right behind you 'helping.'

His nose does sunburn. I have a long nose fly mask for him but he just shredded it, waiting for another to be delivered. He got downgraded from the nice Cashel one's to the cheap $10 Jefferspet ones since he likes to destroy them.

Apparently the hose is his new favorite toy. He pulled 100 feet of it into his field.



I wish I had a pond like that to do water crossing training with! I usually wait till after a good rain storm, we get some nice sized puddles in places.
 
#5 ·
If he was a circus horse, he would be the one driving the clown car. :D


I got him when he was 5 months old, I put a deposit on him when he was 3 days old. I wanted a colorful appaloosa, and found his breeder. I was a little color blind at the time, his conformation is really awful. If he was a solid color he'd not be a pretty horse. I think some of it he'll grow into, but some things - like his long pasterns, he's stuck with.

I haven't tried beach balls yet. I want to get one of those giant jolly ball's they use for soccer and try it out with him.

What he really likes though is making noise. When he's in a stall he'll pick up a toy and drag it over the stall grates. And if there is no toy, he uses his lips to strum against the metal. Out in the field he plays with the auto waterer.

Thank god for cell phone camera's and their quick video skills.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yy-WL7Eo4mE


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVdbY-UL4Y4


He has a strong upper lip and knows how to use it.

 
#6 ·
^Haha, what a dork!

I just love seeing Stryder on the forum, and I'm excited to keep up with his personal journal.
I'm impressed with how laid back he is--maybe he can give Gator some lessons on what should and what shouldn't be scary ;)
 
#7 ·
That auto waterer clip is so funny! :) A friend had a horse who used to removed the floats out of these, with the result that the water overflowed until somebody noticed it, usually the next day when a pond had formed around the trough! They ended up having to put metal mesh over the trough, dipped below the water surface at the edge, so the horses could still drink...

PS: If he likes noise, maybe you could offer him a castanet to play. I'm sure he'd get the idea of taking the handle in his mouth and shaking! :rofl:
 
#8 ·
Stryder has some weird funky fungus going on. I saw it Sunday, and by Monday it had rubbed off the hair on his hips.




I brought him down and gave him a bath with some microtek. Here he is doing his best TWH impression. Or Giraffe impression.




And my friend got some shopping carts to store things in at the barn. I saw it as a great opportunity to see what he'd do with them.

He was fine following, but when they initially came towards him he wasn't so sure. Metal things with wheels on gravel = noisy.

Excuse us while we take a shopping trip.

 
#10 ·
I hate stalling Stryder, but we started his 'in during the day out at night' thing to save him from getting too sunburned. His fungus stuff is going away but leaving a lot of bald spots. I started him on Vit A/D as well. Hopefully that helps!



The vet has looked at it.

We also pulled him away from his girlfriend and gave him a Gelding to play with. His friend is easily a full hand taller, and nearly twice as wide. They met Sunday and had a LOT of fun biting and chest-thumping and running. They're best buds.




I took a short, and hilarious video today of them. Sometimes I don't even know what to say.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d17E6I42YYc
 
#15 ·
Ergogan, Thank you! I have some torn up spares to use for now. I don't think a cob/arab would really fit. :) His new pasture mate has a party trick anyway - his fly mask hasn't stayed on Stryder for more than a few hours. I'll just lather his nose up with sunblock before evening turn out.
 
#17 ·
Week two of Vitamin A and the Fungus Saga.

His back is looking better. One side has almost all the hair regrown in.. This side is just starting to grow back in. Keeping him in during the day is helping with his pink skin not getting burned. It looks much less 'angry.'




I will be interested to see if this vitamin a stuff helps. Because now he's developing what my BO calls 'grapes.' He has them on 3 of the 4 legs, this is the worst of it though.




I'm giving him the liquid Vit A&D (Cattle injectable) once a week, he just got his second dose on Wednesday. From what I've read from Cheri and Desert here on the HF is once a week for about a month to catch their systems up, then once a month (or switch to a supplement like mare plus).

So we'll see! My BO is skeptical.


No other Stryder news. He enjoys being in even but he was always the attention hog.
 
#19 ·
Thanks' Sue, I just know it's a fungus! Some of it's rain rot, some of it's 'grapes' and some of it is just who knows what.

Half the horses on the farm are having some form of skin related issue. We've just been so WET here in Maryland, and humid. 4" of rain more than average in June and we're going for more in July. Ugh. It's not helping.

In good news, he grew a 1/2 inch in the last week. He's just shy of 15.1 now. I think he realized if he wants to boss his 15.3 pasture mate around, he needs to be a bit bigger. I was looking at him today and was like " You've.. really grown some." So I measured and yup, he sure did. This is part of the reason I'm staying off his back, he's taking his time maturing. Also I'm fat.

And we tried working with water. A little pool was set up for a dog so I took Stryder to it. He was not amused. I got a foot in! It was too close to the shed and not big enough to really do more than that.
 

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#20 ·
I think it's fabulous that you are letting your horse mature before riding him - and there are so many useful groundwork and other things you can do with him until that time, and spending an extra year on that instead of riding will actually really pay off for you in your eventual riding life with him! :) A year or so into your riding you'll be further ahead than if you'd ridden sooner. Also, your mutual riding life is likely to be longer, and the little niggly injuries of advancing equine age will statistically be held off longer (and well over a year longer, for each year you don't make him work under saddle before maturity).

Very nice for Stryder, and you! :) I wish you all the very best for your upcoming riding life - and the many fun and useful things you two can get up to meanwhile. I will be watching your thread with interest!
 
#21 ·
That looks like photosensitivity to me. I had 2 pintos explode right in the middle of trying to move. It was particularly bad. They have had mild reactions like Stryder's in the past, but the one with the white nose looked like she bit a hand grenade.

I kept them inside totally until they healed, but my vet said I could turn them out at night....I was not taking a chance.
 
#22 ·
Photosensitivity is also a very common side-effect of many skin problems with other causes, but then becomes an important factor when treating. It's especially a problem with naturally pink-skinned body parts... and of course, with skin areas depigmented by disease. I think that's sage advice above about reducing UV exposure. You can do that by putting a light cotton blanket over your horse, if you prefer not to lock your horse in a building. (This would also give Stryder another object to eat/dismember! :rofl:)
 
#23 ·
Things have been pretty quiet with Prince Charming here. I had to go to Vermont for a week for a funeral, and was focusing on getting my Mare a new home. She's on her way to Nebraska, staying over in Michigan right now.

It's weird being down to just one horse, I've had 2 - Stryder and then one to Ride. Ah well, he'll get my focus when the better weather comes!

So week 4 of the Vit A experiment was last week, and by the end of the 3rd week his rain rot was all cleared up. The hair has grown back in and all he has left are the 'grapes' on the bottom of his legs. Even those are drying up, I sprayed them with Listerine this weekend so we'll see how that goes.

This is what he spends his hot, sunny days doing.



What a hard life, right? He hates that hay bag. Hates it.

We tried him with a stall guard to allow more air flow into his stall. The barn has ceiling fans but the air vent above his stall isn't' working.




He says, did you.. did you mean to leave this like this?



We do not trust him enough to leave the door open like that unsupervised.

This is a horse that has been known to crawl under the fence when the electric isn't working properly. So when we were done with chores the door got shut.


Looking forward to fall so when can do some ground work. May start here next month if the weather gives us a break. I'd pony him off another horse but I don't trust him not to be obnoxious.
 
#24 ·
I think I missed it- what did you do with your mare?

Isabel is so funny with her stall guard. She will occasionally push her chest on it to see how far out it will go, but I have never seen her try to go over or under it. Still, it only gets left open when people are in the aisle doing evening chores. Although if she got out, I know exactly which grassy spot I'd find her in :)
 
#25 ·
Welllllll it's a long story.

She was 'off' and we suspect beginning of arthritis. After a few months off and some supplements, she still wasn't quite sound above a walk when ridden. I made the last minute decision to breed her instead of in investigating further, and she came up open and ruined my plans.

So I had a choice of 1) investigating to see just how bad the leg was, and seeing how much it was going to cost to fix it, or 2) letting her do nothing in a pasture while I pay her board and try breeding again in the spring. Option two just ****** me off and I wasn't really interested in option 1. Spent enough money on horse injuries and maintenance the last two/three years to satisfy me.

My original plan with her was to ride her until Stryder was old enough, then retire her as a broodmare. I only have one butt and I knew Stryder would take up most of my time once he was in work. Since I board on a breeding facility, it was a good back up plan if it worked out alright. We have all the needed space, experience, and even a 3 time aphc world champ stallion on the property. Not a bad first breeding opportunity.

But after paying the money for vet checks, ultra sounds, and who knows what else, and her coming up open, I've decided breeding just isn't for me. I will stick to my geldings and leave the reproduction to the pros. I do not have the patience for it.

Luna was free, and was going to be (and already had been) nothing but a money pit. Her legs are so scarred that it was inevitable she'd get some lameness issues as she aged. It is only going to get worse, even my Vet agreed on that one.

So she is going with one of my Friend's mares to Nebraska as a light riding/broody prospect. The new owner will do a lameness exam and x-rays but is planning to breed her. I hope she takes, if not the girl is very interested in getting her lead-line appropriate for her children. It was less than 24 hours between new-home found and trailer pick up last week. o_O it happened very fast. Helped that the new owner had just purchased a broodmare from my BO and had a trailer already on the way. It was a BoGo deal.

I'm sad, I was hoping for a colt out of her to keep as a rider but hopefully the new owners can get one and I'll buy him. They know her background and that we did try to cover her once in June.

So, that's my long story of a very quick decision that I made on her last week. I really needed to downsize to just one anyway, at least for a little while, finances are tight at the moment.

My BO and I have a running bet that my old horse, Drifter, will be back in 6-12 months. Sometime mid-winter his Owner will text me and say she can't keep him. I hope not, but that would be my luck. Maybe I shouldn't put it out in the universe.

Wow that's really long, and I hope it didn't come out sounding heartless. I'm very much a realist when it comes to horse ownership. v.v
 
#26 ·
Wish I had some fun stuff to report, but it's hot out and we haven't d one anything.

Stryder got a new fly mask and has only managed to get it off once, so that's a bonus. I was more worried about trying to protect his nose than I was the flies.

He's a nice bronzed black color, I can't wait till he sheds out into his fall coat. Hopefully once the weather cools down we'll be working on some ground work. He's a growthy looking boy right now.


Size difference between him and his 15.3 pasture buddy.











All his skin issues have cleared up, so yay.
 
#27 ·
Your Stryder reminds me of my App gelding Steve. AKA Naughty Steve - who can undo any latch, knot, velcro or other closure he meets. We love his antics - he has mellowed some as he grew older but until he was about 6 all bets were off! It took him quite awhile to grow and mature as well so we did not break him until the fall of his 3 yr old year. Gave him 30 days at a trainer and then the winter off - then riding again in the spring. He is a champ of a trail horse but still has his goofy moments. BTW- mine eventually matured into a 16.1H 1250lb toddler!
 
#29 · (Edited)
Okay it's been a little while!

Stryder says hi!





--

I decided to turn him loose in a headstall and his rhythm beads to take some pictures. That turned out to be a mistake.

First he wanted to show off for his girlfriends nearby, no big deal.




He thought he was hot stuff.








Then he started racing at break-neck speed around the ring, trying to race the 3 year old filly in the next field.


He wasn't watching where he was going, and slammed chest/head first into the 3 board fence.




Ooops?



I thought he was unscathed but then I noticed some blood spots and his legs are all scratched up. He stepped on his heel too and did a good number on that






So we will not be free lunging anytime in the near future.

I know he's due for a trim, he's about 6 weeks from his last one but his feet are already wicked long. May have to switch to every 4 weeks next summer if they're going to grow so fast. It's definitely causing him to over-reach. Gonna break out my bell boots.

As soon as he heals up from this little accident, we'll really be getting into doing some ground work. I have to tell you I"m a little afraid to ride him, when he's focused and working he's not bad.. when he loses his mind he's.. scary. Not aggressive, but like an agile cat, spinning and darting so fast I can't keep up. :O Hopefully he never does that under saddle. My vet thinks he'd make a good eventing horse (she events), but he definitely has the speed to do games.


BEHOLD...
The giraffe.

 
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