I’ve got many blog posts lined up that will take me a long time to do. (Interviews, mainly.) I’ll get there, but in the meantime I thought I’d give a quick update on what’s going on with my horses. Nothing too exciting (sadly). Nothing too terrible (fortunately), but I do wish I had a horse to take to the fall’s offering of endurance rides. One more fall that I find myself without a horse ready for competition!
Jump to:
The good news: Fantazia is pregnant!
River is in the middle of her six-month lay-up
The bad news: Dillon lost a fight with his fly sheet
What’s next?
The good news: Fantazia is pregnant!
Fantazia was bred to WT Bezarif (“Taser”) in May. (I was very excited to hear that Taser’s son Bezooka finished Tevis in 9th place this year! (2024 Tevis Cup top ten.) I plan to interview Taser’s owner Kassandra DiMaggio in the near future, so be on the lookout for more information about Taser!
Above: Fantazia at Pacific Crest Equine at a bit more than 90 days pregnant. And an image from the ultrsound which apparently contains a fetus. (I just see shades of grey!)
In the meantime, Fantazia is fat and happy. Well, she is generally happy. She’s intensely jealous of Dillon and was a monster when I rode her while he was on the place! I’ve started riding her lightly again, to keep her more fit and less jealous. (Ride with me as Fantazia and I lope the clover leaf pattern a few weeks ago in this video.)
Above: Fantazia doesn’t like other horses to get too much attention! Luckily, I’ve been able to ride her some now. In the last picture, my son Rodrigo pets Fantazia first, then River!
The old news: River is in the middle of her six-month lay-up
(Read about our experience at the Cache Creek Ridge ride, where River injured herself, and our last ride, at Montana de Oro, when I realized she was most definitely not ok.)
River spent a month in a 16’x16′ stall. Then I slowly expanded her paddock size until she was in a two acre pasture with Fantazia. It has only a few small hilly bits and is to all inspection, imminently safe. Right. The night before I got back from Spain, River found a way to scrape up her knee, chest, and side. (See her injuries in this video.) The knee looked ugly for a few days, but she wasn’t lame. It seems fine now.
Above: River after her bath Sunday. I had to tie her and lead Fantazia back to their pasture alone because River was getting uncontrollably naughty when I tried to lead both mares at once. That’s a horse FULL of energy.
River no longer has the slightest hint of lameness. In fact, she is getting very naughty with pent-up energy. She’s going to be a handful when I get on her in December! I finally turned her out with Fantazia on the 30-acre parcel with tons of hills for a few days last week.
Above: Fantazia and River heading off to their favorite part of the pasture… and then resting in the shadiest part of it. River likes to stand on a rock, maybe because she’s so short;-)
River also bosses Fantazia around all the time. What they both agree on is the Dillon is not a happy addition to the family!
Above: On the left, Dillon. On the right, the mares staying as far away from Dillon as possible. If Dillon dares get closer to them, squealing and tail-lashing ensues.
The bad news: Dillon lost a fight with his fly sheet
When I got Dillon in July, he’d never had a rider on his back,. (Read about Dillon’s first six days.) With some ups and downs, he has made tremendous progress. One of the best things about Dillon is that I am sharing him with his owner. When I can’t ride, I take him back to his first home, and Anne rides him. She does a lot of the arena stuff I find a bit boring. This was really great when I went to Spain for two weeks! Between the two of us, he’s coming along splendidly.
Above: Dillon tackling his first steep hill. He walked steadily up without complaint.
Last Saturday, I took Dillon on his second trail/conditioning ride. We did 4.4 miles (including about a mile of arena work) in 1 hour, 37 minutes. He completed a loop with some seriously steep hills (total elevation gain = 870 feet in 1.1 miles). He rode by scary farm equipment and a crazy yapping dog with NO SPOOKS! Not even a snort or whistle! (Watch a short video of his ride.)
That afternoon, in the space of ten minutes that I took to go up to the house, he got in a fight with his fly sheet. (The ten minutes I was absent only serve to tell me exactly when it happened. It could have happened any time!) He had been wearing the same fly sheet ever since I got him, with zero issues. I figure maybe he got the front caught on something, pulled back until it broke, and then the entire sheet worked backwards until it freaked him out.
Above: Dillon’s wounds and the ripped up sly sheet. It was the first time Dillon has ever been hurt, so he believed he was dying. I had to drag him to the washrack to clean it, then hand feed him to get some bute down him. Once that took effect, he was capable of moving and eating again.
So where’s Dillon now?
He’s back at home recovering! (Another advantage of sharing him with Anne–she can take care of him when I have to be out of town for work.) It’ll probably only be a few weeks, but we were on a tight timeline to be able to do 25 miles this fall.
Above: Slideshow of Dillon’s experiences, starting with learning how to open and shut gates. He’s a smart horse! (Except when it comes to getting into stuff–in the last picture he had to have stuck his head under the fence to drag stuff back–and getting out of stuff–his fly sheet most recently!)
What’s next?
I’m going to try out a horse this week to see if we like each other. His owner wants him to get exposure and wet saddle blankets. Apparently he’s fit enough to be able to do a few LDs later this fall. If he works out, I’ll be sharing more details soon!
If he doesn’t I’ll keep working with Dillon. Originally I just wanted a horse to ride till River is ready to bring back into work in December, but I love Dillon. He’s fun to ride and has potential as a distance horse. One way or another, I’ll bring him along for endurance over the next few years. There’s no hurry though, so I wouldn’t mind taking on another horse for a few months.