Dolly AKA Pig Pen

When we got Dolly we decided that we would wait and see what name suited her before we made a final decision. Dolly was definitely in the running, and sure enough, that first day she was such a perfect little doll!  

Shiny coat, dainty little feet, that cute little head.  She was our perfect little Dolly horse and I had visions of keeping her perfectly groomed, just like Sadie.  They would both have that bright white tail, white stockings...you get the idea.

Little did I know, we should have named her Pig Pen!! She's an absolute mess and there is no keeping this one clean.  I know all horses like to roll and are hard to keep clean, but Pig Pen, er, Dolly, takes it to a whole other level!  

We decided this weekend we would attempt her first bath.  

Getting her ready for her first bath!

It was a big day, her first time in cross ties, her first purple shampoo treatment to finally get that tail white.  We couldn't wait to see our Dolly girl all cleaned up!

This was clearly her first time in cross ties, but a squirming 350 pound mini horse is still much easier to manage and clean than an 1100 pound full-size horse! Besides she looked GREAT so it was well worth it.

Since I know how fond this one is of rolling I decided to walk her around until she dried. 

We made it about 3 steps from the wash bay and as I leaned down to pick up that magical purple shampoo, Dolly threw herself on the ground right there in the barn aisle and, you guessed it, rolled!

After the first roll I accepted there was no going back.  Here's how the next 20 minutes went...

Before bath picture

After bath picture

Ok, Dolly, you win!  We'll save the purple shampoo for Sadie :)

Schumi vs The Dog Bed

Every once in a while Schumi decides he should sleep in a dog bed.   It's actually Mauzzy's, but on these nights, like tonight, Schumi will rush in and beat her to it at bedtime.  

Mauzzy LOVES her dog bed, but she never gets upset when Schumi steals it because she knows it always ends the same way...


Round 1:

Round 2:

Round 3:

Dog bed: 1 Schumi: 0

Schumi ended up where he ends up every night, stretched out taking up as much room as possible on my bed!  

Our Little Construction Workers

We got Oscar and Chloe when they were just a few weeks old, we wanted our bunnies to be trusting and friendly so we have always handled them a ton and exposed them to different environments.  As a result they are extremely comfortable around people, dogs, chickens (even though the hens peck them!), horses, you name it!  

We love that our bunnies aren't afraid of anything and are so bonded to us, but that confidence can also be a bit scary since rabbits are pretty much at the bottom of the food chain!  

Dolly loves Chloe and Oscar

We've always let them run and play in controlled areas, and they absolutely love it, but as they've gotten older and faster it's a bit harder to keep them from dashing off into hiding places that rabbits are so drawn to!   Oscar disappeared under a hay pile for about 20 minutes one day and I thought he was a goner!  After moving every single bail of hay I finally found him stretched out taking a little nap under the very back pallet the hay was sitting on.  From that day forward I decided Oscar and Chloe's freedom would have to be a bit limited.

Our solution?  Bunny harnesses!

And now you understand the title of the post :)

Walking on a leash is definitely not a natural thing for rabbits.  Rabbits run in fast bursts and then stop, the bursts are also rarely in a straight line! We took some time today to get them used to the harnesses and give them a little play time.

It was a tangled mess, but the leash made it much easier to get Chloe out of her hiding place

There he goes!

Overall it was a success, poor Chloe did get her leg tangled in the leash and I think it scared me worse than it scared her.  If you've never heard a bunny cry and yipe, it's a HORRIBLE noise!  I had no idea these quiet little critters could make that much noise.  

Chloe decided maybe she should just stick close to me after the evil leash got her :)

Oscar also needed a rest after all of the excitement

It doesn't take much to wear them out so we called it a day!  

Keeping these guys controlled on a harness is definitely going to take some practice and lots of time easing them into life on a leash, but for now we are happy that we can keep track of them easier and keep them safe without having to take away their favorite pastime.

Most of us are trying to lose weight, Penny needed to gain weight!

Keeping your horse at a healthy weight can be challenging, each horse is different and many factors contribute to a horse losing or gaining weight.  It can be health related, weather, behavioral (like cribbing), change in environment...the list goes on.

We have spent the last 5 months trying to get our senior mare, Penny, back up to a healthy weight.  We still haven't been able to pinpoint what caused the sudden drop in weight, it started to happen shortly after we got her so it could have been the adjustment to the new environment (especially for a senior horse), we initially expected it was due to her stall mate, Rowdy, eating all of her food, but we separated them while eating and that still did not result in any weight gain.  

The biggest mystery was the fact that she and Rowdy were on virtually the same diet of feed in the morning along with a flake of hay, they would graze all day with more feed and hay at night.  Penny just kept getting skinnier and Rowdy just kept getting fatter!  This was our first lesson learned, each horse has different dietary needs.

We immediately began to do our homework, our first change was increasing her senior feed and getting her teeth floated.   The vet thought we were taking all the right steps and recommended we wait a bit before testing for possible health issues.

Penny getting her teeth floated

Our second lesson learned was "eyeballing" our feed, it's very easy to underestimate how much your horse needs to eat and we were way underestimating the amount of feed we were giving her.   We attended a Purina feed clinic which was extremely helpful!  Although you may spend a bit more, we are big believers in Purina feed for special needs horses.   We also purchased a feed scale the very next day!

Even with the increased senior feed we were extremely discouraged that we still weren't seeing any major change in weight.  We talked to our farrier who recommended we try Beet Pulp.  Penny is also a challenge to feed because she colics so easily, we had read that Beet Pulp was easy for horses to digest so we gave it a try. Unfortunately, she had signs of colic shortly after eating it.

Poor Penny, at her skinniest her flanks were completely sunk in and you could see every rib.  She had also put herself in quite the predicament this day! :)

We continued a slow increase of her feed and each day would stare at her for any sign of weight gain.  We had increased her senior feed to 5 pounds per day, she was receiving approximately 5 pounds of Timothy pellets and was still grazing all day.   We still just weren't seeing the results.

We had another vet out to float Sadie's teeth and she finally gave us a suggestion that would lead to the perfect combination.   She recommended we try Purina's high-fat feed, Amplify.  We started her out slow and eventually got her up to 2lbs of Amplify per day.  

About 1 week after increasing her Amplify we also increased her Timothy pellets.

SUCCESS!!   We immediately started to see the weight gain and the change in her behavior.  You can tell she feels better and has more energy.  

We are so thrilled that Penny is finally putting on weight and looking healthy.  She truly looks like a different horse, we credit this both to the change in her diet and the Missing Link supplement that has transformed her coat.  

Picture taken tonight!

Her current diet consists of the following:

5 pounds of Purina Equine Senior 

2 pounds Amplify

Approximately 10 pounds of Timothy pellets

Plus she still grazes all day

We had no idea it would take this much feed to gain her weight back, but we are so relieved to have found the right combination.   At $50+ per bag, we are hoping we can slowly reduce the Amplify and maintain her weight going forward with Senior Feed and Timothy.

Although most girls would be thrilled to lose weight as easily as Penny does, we intend to keep this girl fat and sassy from now on!

Our Circus Mini

It's been a stressful couple of weeks dealing with construction, contractors, work, etc.  Thank goodness for the barn and the animals, it's the best place to get away and take your mind off of things.

After an especially busy Monday, my Mom and I both needed a break so I suggested we go take a horsey break and teach Dolly a new trick.  You can't be around this little girl and not be smiling!

Like Sadie, Dolly is extremely willing to learn.  She is so treat motivated (like most horses!) that if you can get her to understand what you're asking, and she knows the end result is a treat, she'll do it!

We decided we wanted to teach her how to step up on something.  Even though she's a mini, it still had to be something fairly substantial.  We decided our large mounting block may do the trick.  

We started out with one of us standing behind the mounting block with a treat (of course!) while the other person tried to lead her up to the first step.  She didn't totally grasp it at first, she just kept going around it and then begging for the treat. She has the begging trick down!

She loves to beg!

I finally decided to lift her foot onto the first step, so she could see that she could stand up on it.  That did the trick!   With  just a bit more coaxing she was being led right up the steps.  

She got a little aggressive on this one stepping all the way up!

It only took a few times leading her up before she was able to do it all on her own! We then had to teach her how to safely back down the block.  We've been working on backing up, so she did this with no problem at all!

We had to take the mounting block out of her stall when we were done because she was climbing on it without any prompting.  Such a cutie, we are proud of our little "circus mini".  

Our break did the "trick" for us too, we had so much fun and it totally took our minds off of any lingering Monday stress :)

My 3 Trick Pony!

It didn't take me long to realize what a smart horse Sadie is.  She definitely has her stubborn streak (just like her mother!), but she's a horse that definitely wants to please.  The willingness combined with her intelligence makes her a very quick learner.  

During our time working with our trainer (we love you, Jess!), I tried to give Sadie plenty of fun days where we would either have an easy day doing some light exercise in the arena or just do some groundwork followed by play time.  

These days were a really fun bonding time, even when we had the whole arena to ourselves Sadie would often opt to hang right with me.  Often as close as she could possibly get!  :)

During one of these fun days when Sadie was basically in my back pocket, I decided to grab a small bucket of feed and see if I could teach her some tricks.  

The first trick I taught Sadie was how to give a kiss.  This is a bit of a dangerous one to teach because their enthusiasm often puts your nose, mouth, entire face at risk!  I was shocked at how quickly she learned it.  The hardest part was training her that not everyone wants a kiss all of the time!  She finally learned that constantly trying to give kisses did not result in treats and she had to wait for someone to ask for one.  

After she had perfected the kiss I decided to teach her how to give hugs.  Once again she learned this trick incredibly fast.  The hardest part about teaching a horse to give a hug is that horses are always trained to move away from pressure. When you go to stand and put pressure at their side it is natural for them to move away. Once she caught on and realized the difference, she loved to give hugs!

With the move and the chaos of getting settled in it had been a while since Sadie and I had tried out a new trick.   I decided today would be a good day to attempt one. In honor of one of our favorite horses, Stormin' Norman, I decided to teach Sadie how to beg.  In less than an hour this was our result...

Here is Sadie doing all three tricks, as you can see, she's especially enthusiastic about her newest trick :)

Now we just have to decide what trick to work on next...

The Missing Link?

Every little girl has their dream horse, and pretty much every dream horse has one thing in common.   

You got it, an amazing mane and tail...the longer the better.

Just look at these My Little Pony toys.

My sister and I had countless horse toys growing up and most of them came with a brush and comb to keep your ponies groomed to perfection!

Some horses are lucky enough to grow long, healthy manes and tails naturally, but for most owners it's a constant effort to keep them growing out and looking nice.   

Many factors work against this effort...horses rubbing their manes out (ahem, Rowdy!), rolling (Sadie ALWAYS rolls on her mane side!), other horses chewing on their mane and tail, weather causing dryness, mud etc. which leads to breakage. The list goes on!  

There are countless hair products for horses, seriously, Sadie has more hair products than I do!  From shampoos, conditioners, detangling products, miracle products meant to grow faster and thicker hair.   One Google search for "growing out your horses mane" brings thousands and thousands of results...forums, videos, home remedies.  

I was one of those searchers, Sadie has a long gorgeous tail, but I couldn't resist the urge to try and get a long and flowing mane to match that tail!  

Horse lovers just love spending time with their horses, whether it's grooming them, riding them, just hanging out in the barn, and when you're not with them you are probably online researching something to do with them.  This is a perfect example of that!

Sadie shortly after I bought her

I did my homework and it seemed that Shapley's MTG product was a crowd favorite. It was reported to be a bit greasy with a weird smell, but the results were well worth it.  

Now, I'm sure this product is fantastic for horses with a dark mane, I've used it on Rowdy since he rubbed his mane out, but for Sadie this is what we ended up with...

It was terrible, her greasy mane was dirt brown within a day of using it.  

After ruling out MTG I decided to just keep Sadie's mane braided regularly and always use a conditioner and detangler to eliminate as much breakage as possible.

Sadie will probably never have the long flowing mane, but we definitely seemed to be making progress!

When we moved to Colorado I now had a partner in crime to obsess over details such as these, my Mom :)

As Penny was shedding out her winter coat, we expected to see the nice shiny coat emerge that comes with summer and the loss of that shaggy winter coat.   With Penny that didn't happen, so my Mom went to work researching skin and coat products.   

Penny in January 2014

We ended up trying Ultimate Equine Skin & Coat by Missing Link.  This product not only promotes healthy skin and coat, but also lists the following benefits:

- Omega fatty acids help the absorption of fat soluble vitamins which nutritionally        support: intercellular health, energy levels, the immune system, and muscle,            tendon and ligament function.

- Nutrients work together to grow strong, tough hooves.

- Dietary fiber to promote a healthy digestive system.

- Photo (plant) nutrients to support general health and nutrition.

After just a couple weeks we saw a big difference in Penny.  Her coat shined up and looked much healthier.  I also noticed her mane was growing like crazy.  

After seeing what a positive impact it had for Penny I decided to start giving it to Sadie as well.  

The girls have been on it for about 2 months and we have definitely been happy with the results! If their manes are any indicator, this product does it's job!  Not only are we seeing a lot of growth, but Sadie's mane is coming in much thicker and healthier.  

Penny this evening

Sadie this evening

Sadie may not have a mane down to her hooves, but even as a little girl I couldn't have envisioned a more perfect dream horse :)

Time away from my herd...

I've always had pets and I've always traveled a lot, so I'm used to the challenges of going out of town when you have animals.  That being said, I'm usually leaving just 2 dogs, not the menagerie of animals we now have.  4 horses, 2 rabbits, 4 chickens and 3 dogs to be exact.  

Thankfully my parents are here to take on the extra work and make sure that my animals are just as loved and well-cared for as they are when I'm home.  That certainly makes travel easier, but I still obsess about the details and stress about being away.  Not to mention, I miss them terribly!

This was the longest I had been away from all of the animals and it was a great weekend to realize that I not only need a vacation now and then, but my animals are in good hands and Sadie Acres can run just fine without me for a few days!

I left Friday afternoon and despite trying to wrap up work calls and deal with construction issues I made no less than 5 trips to the barn just to make sure everyone was good and make sure everyone got plenty of attention before I left.   Sadie has been known to give me the cold shoulder when I don't see her for a few days so I made sure to spend extra time with her :)  

The trip was incredible, we stayed at the Hilton Buffalo Thunder just outside of Santa Fe.  It has a great pool, beautiful rooms, incredible dining, casino, golf courses, spa.   We went to Old Town Santa Fe one afternoon, but you could definitely stay at this resort and have a full vacation without ever leaving!

The first time we visited this hotel we had dined at Red Sage, the meal was absolutely delicious and we couldn't wait to go back!  

Despite getting in close to 9pm, that was our first stop after checking in.  We were a bit worried when we saw the menu had changed, but this amazing restaurant did not disappoint!

The highlights of the meal included the "Cream of “elote” Soup"  (Chipotle, Corn, Avocado, Cotija, Vegetable Ash, Cilantro)  AMAZING!! 

The NY Strip was cooked perfectly and was huge, we actually split it and it was more than enough.

Our favorite side was the Mac n’ Cheese (Bechamel, Applewood Smoked Cheddar)...YUM!

Needless to say, the meal was incredible and a perfect way to wrap up the first day of vacation.

With taking care of the animals, working 40+ hours and dealing with construction chaos, I don't have a lot of time for myself.  Saturday reminded me that it's necessary to make time for yourself and for relaxing.  

The morning was spent at the spa getting a manicure, pedicure and haircut.  All things that have definitely been neglected recently!   

The afternoon was spent sipping cocktails at the pool under the cabana and reading a great book!   Soooo relaxing!

We wrapped up the day with another amazing meal, this time at Gabriel's.  They are known for their tableside guacamole and it did not disappoint!   As a matter of fact, we enjoyed it so much, especially on the lovely patio, we went back on Sunday night!  

Come to find out I wasn't the only one eating well over the weekend.  When I checked in on Sunday to find out how everyone was doing, I found out that Schumi had helped himself to an entire loaf of zucchini bread!   

Beagles are known for being "counter surfers" and while my parents were out feeding the horses Schumi surfed his way to the delicious zucchini bread my Aunt had baked for them!  Saran wrap and all!  I felt terrible, but probably not as bad as Schumi.  My Mom said he looked more like a Basset Hound than a Beagle his belly was so huge!  

The rest of the weekend was wonderful, we ate more great food, explored the Old Town Plaza in Santa Fe, had some luck in the casino and were ready to head back home to Sadie Acres!  

Schumi's belly had returned to normal size and Sadie greeted me as if I had seen her that morning, no cold shoulder :)  

Vacations are wonderful and I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful place that I'm always excited to come home to.

Thank you to my parents for holding down the fort and thank you to "Mum" Cathy for an amazing and much needed birthday trip!

We have Manners. We're Polite.

I just recently finished up Season 2 of "Orange is the New Black", the final episode is titled "We have Manners. We're Polite".  It seemed like a very fitting theme for tonight's blog post.

For the horses of Sadie Acres, life is pretty darn good.   They have a cozy brand new barn with large runs, jolly balls and treat balls to entertain them, 10 acres to graze on and enjoy turnout, their stalls are cleaned daily, they all have diets and supplements customized to their exact needs, treats at least twice daily (for my horse friends, we are such huge fans of Probios, the horses love them and they help keep a healthy digestive system), their "work" consists of trail rides in the shady woods and splashing through the river, and they receive a TON of attention each day with grooming and pampering.   So, to put it bluntly, our horses are quite spoiled!  

Now that being said, we have been extremely diligent with keeping a healthy amount of discipline as well.  At 1,000 lbs + you have to set certain guidelines to keep everyone involved safe.   Since we moved them into the barn, Sadie, Penny and Rowdy have been trained that when food comes into their stall they don't receive one bite until they politely take a least one step back and give us room to fill their feeders.  

Similar rules apply when being taken in and out of their stalls.  After some bad habits developed, Sadie, Penny and Rowdy all now know that when their stall doors open they don't make a move out the door until we have secured their halters and we lead them out quietly, same rules apply coming in.  It makes for a much safer and more pleasant experience for everyone involved.   

You'll notice there was one Sadie Acres resident that was left off that list...our mini, Dolly.  We've been guilty of being a bit lax with her, she has so much personality and is so darn cute that it's easy to forget that although she is a mini she still weighs about 350 pounds and it can be a handful keeping control of her!    
Taking her in and out of her stall and leading her anywhere was not quite the quiet, controlled experience we have demanded from the other horses.  Nope, Dolly typically pushes her way out the door, does her famous head toss, then makes a dash to the big pile of hay.   It's hard not to laugh, her big Tina Turner mane bouncing up and down as she trots her dainty little trot to get a HUGE bite of hay before we wrangle her back to where she's supposed to be.    

So, last night I decided it was time to get to work and teach Dolly some manners.  
She is definitely as smart as she is cute, last night we did about 3 laps in the barn focusing on stopping the head toss, the pulling and the fixation on the hay.   I was curious to try a bit more tonight and see how much she remembered.  

Our first attempt was not bad! She was very respectful with my pace and only struggled when she got near the hay.  It was just too tempting for her so we had some head tossing and she struggled a bit to get back focused.

Our second attempt: 

She did so much better this time, even when one of the other horses spooked!

So proud of Dolly and excited to keep working with her to have even better manners and be more polite :)

If Dolly was on OITNB, she would definitely be Crazy Eyes!

  

Did we pass the bunny test?

Since we had so much fun baking the horse treats we decided to try our skills at bunny and dog treats!  

We were especially excited about the treats for Chloe and Oscar, while the dogs are spoiled daily with various milk bones, chew sticks, bacon strips and bacon poppers (can you tell there are two Grandma's here in town? :)), the bunnies have never had a treat!   

Since Oscar and Chloe turn 5 months old tomorrow we decided they were old enough to branch out from their normal diet which consists of of Purina Complete pellets, timothy hay and oatmeal.  We started with a simple recipe to ease the bunnies into some new foods.  

  

Simple Cookie Ingredients:

1 mashed banana

1/2 of a large carrot shredded (we used a small carrot)

2-3 Tbs of Oats










This is a quick and easy recipe, our awesome bakers had these put together in no time!

We baked them for 15 minutes on 350 and our simple cookies were done!

Now the fun part, it was time to put our treats to the ultimate test...

We got some good cuddle time, but they had no interest in the treats!  As a matter of fact, they opted to chew on the blanket instead :)

We weren't ready to give up yet though, since even the most gentle bunnies can get nervous when being held, we decided to get out their favorite plate and just put the treats on the floor with them so they could explore on their own in the open hallway.

We waited patiently while they sniffed around the plate and checked out the mysterious treats.

Turns out they were still more interested in hanging with us!

I think the kids were just as happy with the outcome.

In a final effort to encourage them to try their cookies, we left the plate in their rabbit hutch overnight.  

It appears that Chloe and Oscar enjoyed a midnight snack, this morning the plate was licked clean!  We didn't witness it, but we are going to call this recipe a success!