Something to remember her by

Today I went to the Vets.  I couldn't let Lily go without something to remember her by.  When I saw her, she looked peaceful.  Amanda and I had brought some clay, and we got an imprint of her hoof.  I also cut her forelock, and a few peices of hair from her mane.

I have an amazing wife.  She came with me, and we both had our hearts leak together.  Lily has left an enormous hole that will not be filled anytime soon.

As I drove away, I held the locks of her hair in my hand, and in a way, I felt peace.  I'm still a wreck, but for a small moment, I knew that she was okay when she left me.  She knew that I'd done all I could and stayed with her.  It's heart breaking to think of losing her and her baby, but I think time will heal this wound.

Today I brought Pam up and brushed her all out.  I think Pam knows what happened.  She has not called at all for Lily, and she has been very peaceful today.  I think she knows that Lily is gone, and she has accepted it.  In a way, I feel a bond with her now, because when I got home from church, she came running over to me (something odd) and making lots of noise.  When I didn't see Lily, I got concerned, and Pam walked with me right to where she was.  Maybe this is the start of something.

Lily's Last Stand

My wife took pictures as the events of yesterday unfolded. They will be burned in my mind forever, but I'm posting them here for y'all to see what happened.

This is how I found her.  We have had an abnormal amount of rain this fall and winter.  4 months ago, this was not here.  I think underneath the root s of the trees, the dirt was washing out.  Lily stepped on it, and it collapsed under her.  She kept moving and moving till she couldn't more anymore.

She had moved forward until she hit a bunch of roots. 

I took a saw, and had to cut away all the roots in front of her, and behind her so that we could have room to work.

She was very very tired.  For a while she was resting her head high like this, but soon she didn't even have strength for that.

Lily was weak, and started putting her nose down into the cold water and mud.  I spent most of my time at her head, calming her, and keeping her nose above the water.  She was groaning with each exhale.

My friends (who are the best friends anyone could ask for) soon arrived with all the tools necessary to remove her from this wash. 

We began feeding straps under her belly to get ready to lift her out.

Knots were tied, as we prepared for the lift.

Almost ready.

The tractor did the work, and I can say that we would not have gotten her out of the hole without it.  We had to cut 2 fence lines and cut down 3 trees to get the tractor to where we needed it, but it had to be done.

The straps held, and slowly, we got her out of the hole.

Almost there.  I was keeping her head steady with the lead rope and handed that off to someone on higher ground.

Once above the hole, we drug her to the side, and let her rest out of the icy water and mud.

She was in shock.  We began covering her in blankets (more than shown here).  She tried to stand 3 times on her own, but her rear legs just would not work for her.

The vet showed up, gave her some banamine, and some sugar water for energy (in her veins).  We tried to get her to stand on her own, but she couldn't.

This was the hole she was in.  We counted 3 different spots where she was stuck at one time.  It's no wonder she was worn out.

We decided that we needed to get her on her feet.  Since she wouldn't do it on her own, we had to help.  Once again we put straps around her belly, and used the tractor.

Another view of getting ready to lift her for the first time to her feet.

We got her to her feet.  We had to place her rear legs under her, but she was able to stand.  She walked a little bit, but I tried to keep her still for a minute like the vet said.

I was very happy to see her on her feet, however, her legs were all trembling very bad.  After 5 minutes on her feet, she collapsed again.  We let her rest some more.

At this point the vet told me that she was done.  He tried to tube her but couldn't do it.  He told me I just needed to let her go.  She was so alert, that I couldn't.  I determined to lift her again, and try to get her walking so we could get out of the brush, and up by the house.

We got her up again, and quickly took the straps off from her so I could start walking her.

With friends on either side of her back end, we started the long walk to the house (around 100 yards).  Lily did it.  She was in real bad pain on her right rear leg, but she followed my lead.  I believe this was one of her final few acts that she did just for me.

Once up at the house, she stood for a few more minutes, and acted like she had some interest in food.  I went to get her a handfull of food, and she decided to lay down again.  She laid and breathed very heavy.  Both Duncan, and Pam came to her sides to see if she was okay.

At this point, the options were to put her down, or take her to a equine specialist.  After all Lily has done for me, I couldn't give up on her, not yet.  We used the tractor one final time to lift her, and she walked and actually loaded in the trailer for me.  She was a pro, just like she always was.  We then took off for the Vet.

Once there, the vet did all they could.  The pumped her full of calcium, and gave her pain meds.  As her electrolytes and calcium began to get better, she acted much more alert, and like herself.  I stayed at her head most of the time, talking to her, and letting her know I was there.

We were in a minute by minute situation.  The vet said she was in bad shape.  She was severly dehydrated, her rear legs would not work well, and she kept going into complete body cramps.  The vet looked and determined that she was trying to abort her baby.

We got her on her side, and the vet began pumping IV fluid into her.  I sat with her, for over an hour.  It was nearly 11PM, and we needed to get to Riley so he could get home and in his own bed.  I brushed her one more time to get some of the mud off her, rubbed her face, and then I held her head in a big hug.  She sat up for me, alert, and calm.  She was groaning with each breathe, but she seemed okay.  I kissed her and whispered a few things into her ear, and then we had to leave.

These were the last moments I had with her.  Within an hour, the vet called, and I had to make the toughest decision ever.

Good bye sweet girl.  Thank you for teaching me everything I know about horses.  Thank you for guiding me every step of the way as I began working hitches.  Thank you for your un-wavering love, and willingness to follow my every command.  Thank you for your patience, as I learned how to do things.  Thank you for your love of my son, and for carrying the both of us on your back many times.  You will never be replaced, and will never be forgotten.  Please wait for me at the rainbow bridge.  I love you!

Lily is gone

I'm sitting here still in shock.  I'm unable to sleep, and I just hurt.  Last night I had to make the hardest decision of my life.  I had to put Lily down.  I did a write up on what happened here:  https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/NADraftHorse/conversations/messages/10157

She had too much to overcome and lost the battle.  In the end, she was in pain, and the vet thinks her stomach was twisted.  I can't fault her for not trying.  She always did everything in her power to do what I wanted, even till the end.

Tonight I lost one of my best friends.

A Poke in the butt!

Today I hooked the girls up and did some more ground driving. Getting the harnesses on went without a problem, and this time I actually hooked up a real yoke between the girls. I also hooked up a double tree to get them pulling something.

Lesson #1: WHEN YOU HAVE A HORSE THAT DOES NOT UNDERSTAND BASIC COMMANDS, DON'T DRAG SOMETHING BEHIND THEM. As soon as I started the girls moving, the problems began. Just as last time, Pam didn't walk forward, and until Lily was pulling on her, she didn't move. This meant that the double tree was under her back feet with almost every step. I tried and tried to coax Pam up, but she just didn't understand. I tried and tried, until finally Pam stepped on the double tree, pinning Lily's evener to the ground. This made Lily jump and she broke her top hame strap. Luckily I just bought spares, so I had the wife hold the girls, while I replaced it. Once again, Lily was amazing. Broken harness, not a problem. She just stops moving when I tell her to woah. What a good girl!

Lesson #2: A CARROT STICK IS A GREAT MOTIVATOR!! As I unhooked the double tree, I realized that the root of my problem was that Pam would not walk even with Lily. I needed to confront that, instead of trying to work around it. I decided that maybe using the carrot stick would work best as a motivator.

For those who don't know, a carrot stick, is not an actual carrot. A carrot stick is a training stick about 3-4 feet long. It will usually have a removable rope on the end of it. This is a MUST for training a horse. For working with it on Pam, I took the rope off it, and since Pam is on the left as I drive, I carried it in my left hand with the line (rein).

So, I started the girls to walking, and Pam didn't move. So I smacked her on the butt with the carrot stick. That got her attention, but it also got Lily's attention too. Lily broke into a trot, and so, once again, my goal was not met. So I stopped the girls. It was getting a bit difficult to hold the lines, keep the ends out from under my feet, and use the carrot stick, so I made some adjustments. I tied the lines in a knot at the end, and placed them over my shoulders. This way the knot was right between my shoulder blades. The great thing about this, is that it keeps the lines out of the way, and if something were to happen, the lines would come up over my head and keep me free of injury. Doing this was great, and let me focus on keeping tension on the lines, and keep me motivating Pam to move.

I started the girls moving again, and this time, instead of slapping pam on the butt, I poked her with the end of the carrot stick. This worked really well. It got Pams attention and put a spring in her step. Next thing I knew, the girls were walking side by side, and the yoke was actually even between them. WOO HOO. I had to stop one more time, because my lines were adjusted to compensate for Pam walking behind. I readjusted them, and we were off again.

We walked around for about 20 minutes. Whenever Pam would start to fall behind, I would poke her in the butt with the carrot stick and she would then get even with Lily. Since she was walking even with Lily, she was actually feeling the tension on the bit. This was great. I got to watch her grow accustomed to it, and what it meant. It was a great feeling to give a bit of pull on the left line and watch both girls turn their heads to the left.

This ended up being a good session. I did lots of stopping and just letting them stand. They do much better than I thought at it. No anxiousness or wanting to get moving. They stayed stopped till I told them to get up. Pam required pokes every time to get moving, but she's learning! :) No pictures today, but it was fun and a great training session.

Driving 3 horses!

Today was a great day!!!  My friend Pat and I had made plans to try and drive his 3 horses in the 3 abreast formation.  He had never done this, and I felt honored that he asked me to come over and help him out.  He has 3 gorgeous Belgian mares.  They are all over 17 hands tall.  They all knew how to work, and just needed to be tried in this new formation.

I got there, and first we went about harnessing up 3 horses.  Talk about time consuming.  I'm used to doing one.  It took us at least an hour to brush them all, and get them harnessed up.  It went smooth though, and having 2 people sure helped.  Things go much faster with more hands.

The first thing we decided to do, was wear out his greenest horse.  Dolly, who is 4, is the least well trained, so she and Ruthie (a seasoned pro) got hitched up as a team on the sled.  Pat did a few laps around his pasture with them, and it succeeded in wearing that hyper edge off them.

I was very impressed with how well trained Pat's horses are.  They are very responsive to voice.  Dolly had a few moments where she would try to act out, but a harsh tone in the voice would put her back in line.

Riley and I got to ride along, and Riley was really impressed with those big horses in front of us.

After we wore that initial edge off Dolly and Ruthie, we parked them, and decided it was time to try ground driving the 3 girls together.

How we had determined to do this, was to use keep Dolly and Ruthie hooked together as a team with a yoke.  We would then use a jockey stick to hold the 3rd horse (Cathy) in line.

Pat had 2 different triple tree's we could use.  We chose to use the oldest one for the ground driving.

The oldest triple tree had all 3 single tree's even together.  All these tied to eveners that kept them all hooked together.

This ended up not working well.  First, we had Cathy's jockey stick adjusted too long (see the pictures), then the triple tree was so old, that it just had some j style hooks.  We found that the tugs had a hard time staying on these.

We also drug a chain on the single tree, just so we had a little weight on it.  The chain also worked well when getting the girls off the fence.  I would pull back on it while we got the girls all turned in the right direction.  This worked well in keeping the rig from getting under their feet.

Pat's newer triple tree had an evener between two horses, then a third evener that went over to the 3rd horse.  This had much better o-ring type connectors that kept the chains from coming off.

After hooking this one up, things went much better.

We also adjusted Cathy's jockey stick to go from her outside bit, to the opposite side bottom hame ring on the center horse.  This worked well and kept the girls a nice distance apart.

With the girls performing well on the ground, we determined to try out the sled.

We took the tongue off the sled, and hooked the evener up.  The girls did VERY good here!!  They really worked too!

Things ended up awesome!

I think my favorite part was when Pat let me have a turn at the reigns.  This was awesome!

I took the reigns and got to feel what it was like to be driving 3 horses.  It was great.  Pat's horses are very light on the rein, and they immediately respond to voice commands.  I was very impressed with the immediate right and left turns when they heard Gee or Haw.

It was definitely a treat.

We drove the girls till they were VERY tired.

As we headed up the pasture the last time, they were REALLY dragging.  We determined that they had had enough, and that we would be done.

Then came the un-attaching, un-harnessing, and brushing.  That took a bit of time, but once again, went easy with 2.  The horses soon found themself back in their paddock with a fresh half bale of hay each.  They looked very excited to get it too!

What a great day!  I had a ball, and am so glad that Pat invited me over.  I think that driving horses is a blast, and like my friend Roger from Paris told me, it's even more fun when you have another person with you that likes it like you do.  I find this to be very true.  I have fun alone for sure, but I have an even better time when I'm working alongside Roger, or Pat.

Here are some video clips.  The resolution is very small (my first time using my cell phone for video.  Enjoy though!






Pat was also kind enough to sell me some hamestraps, and loan me a double tree and yoke that I can use when working Lily and Pam.  Very generous of him, and I appreciate it very much!

What a great day!  Thanks Pat!!

Driving my team!!!!

With everything set up properly, it was time to let the driving commence.  I started them off, and they did very well.  I guess I should say, as well as Lily pulling Pam around.  Pam was okay though, and she kept her head about a head's length behind Lily at first.  Lily was actually doing more steering of pam, then pulling.  I had a grin from ear to ear.  It was amazing to be ground driving a team.

I kept right around the house at first.  Since I'm doing this alone, I wanted to at least be in site of the house so maybe my mother-in-law could see me if something bad were to happen.  The girls did fine though.  After 15 minutes of this, I decided to venture out through the pasture.

This is when the difference in the horses came through.  Lily did what she does best.  She knew what her job was, so she broke into her slow trot that Belgians have that looks so beautiful.  She was in beautiful form.  Pam on the other hand, was a lazy butt and was taking as big a step as possible to keep up with Lily.  Lily was basically dragging Pam.  I kept after Pam to step it up, but it's hard since she's untrained.  I didn't want to slap her on the butt with reins, because that is very bad form in the teamster world.

If I had to describe what it looked like, I would have to say it looked like a small child dragging their tired mother around.  Lily was in her happy spot, trotting foreward, and Pam was reluctantly moving as fast as she could without being dragged.

We spent another 15 minutes out in the pasture.  There was one point where I crossed some water, and Pam really spooked.  She tried to run forward, but then the bit hit her, and she acted like she might want to rear up.  Queue Lily the wonderhorse.  She didn't even act phased.  She just kept at her pace, and Pam had to move with her.  Soooo awesome!

I'm still grinning about it.  It was amazing.  Now I'm really excited to get some farm equipment and use them both to work for me.  Pam will have to learn to step up though and do her job!!

I think the best part is, now that I know I can do this successfully, I can really do it more often.  Pam will come alone nicely if I can just keep doing this.  Having Lily train Pam will be great (and giving her some personnal training will help too!).

That's it for now.  WOO HOO!!!  I drove both my belgians!!  I'm happy as a clam.  Enjoy the pics!!

Setting up to drive my first team of horses!!!

Well today I got off of work at 1PM.  I got home and decided that I should work the horses.  I'm getting ready to help a friend drive his horses 3 abreast, and so I've really had hitching on my mind.  I determined that today I was going to hook up Lily and Pam together, and do some ground driving.  I actually didn't think I would get to it today, I figured I might spend my day just getting Pam to let me put the harness on her.  Little did I know.

I started off just tieing the girls together on my trailer.  I figured Pam might do better if Lily was close by (due to her herd anxieties).  I started brushing them both off well.  Both loved this attention, and they actually behaved like ladies and waited their turns.

Next came the collars.  I have 2 harnesses, my new one, and the old horse sized logging harness a friend leant me to start off.  The logging one barely fits Lily, so I decided to use that one on her, and my new one on Pam.  I put the collar on Lily, and Pam watched intently.  Then came the time for hers.  Since this was the first time, I decided that I would unfasten it, and just put it on that way (versus pushing the whole thing over her head).  I was totally surprised when this went without a hitch.  Pam did not care at all that I put the collar on her.  This got me a little excited.  I figured I would have to fight her on this new stuff, but the laid back draft attitude came through for sure.

Next I brought the logging harness over and started to get Lily all harnessed up.  This harness has chain tugs, and I figured this would spook Pam a bit.  To my surprise, she was okay with it.  I was beginning to think that she was taking cues from Lily.  Since Lily didn't care, she decided it was okay.  Of course nothing bad happened with Lily, so next it was Pam's turn.  I walked over with the harness on my left arm and shoulder.  I let her sniff it, and I rubbed her shoulder with it.  She propped a foot up, and chewed a bit, showing she was completely relaxed, so I walked down her side and proceeded to slide it over her back.  She had no problem with this.  She stood there just fine and let me adjust it, and put it on properly.  I found that my new Harness barely fits Pam.  Looks like I'll be needing to get a new harness for her!  :)

Before I did anything else, I decided I'd better make sure Pam knows what the harness is going to sound like as she walks.  I lead her around a bit without a halter on.  She did awesome.  She seemed to be more concerned that Lily wasn't with her, than she was with the creaks and noises coming from the harness.

I don't have a yoke yet.  My mind got thinking, and I figured out a pretty sweet method for hooking the girls together.  I took a belly band that I had and used it.  I attached a billet around each of the girls harnesses (one for Pam, and one for Lily), then I just hooked the belly strap between the two billets.  This gave them about 40 inches of separation.  This looked about right to me.  After I did this, I put the halters on them.  Pam didn't know what to think about the Liverpool bit I had on her.  With the halters on, I unhooked both lead ropes, and lead both of them around.  I wanted them to get used to feeling connected at the collar.  The did very well, and neither of them freaked out or anything.  I think Pam was happy as a clam to have Lily right there with her.

So ... since things had gone so well, and I hadn't had any problems, I decided it was time.  I was going to try to drive them both at the same time.  I've never done this before, so I was a little cautious about it, however, I've been reading the Work Horse Handbook a lot lately, and I felt like I knew what I needed to know to make it happen.

I got out my team lines, and began assembling them and attaching them properly.  This was the hardest part of the whole ordeal.  I got them on right, but it was hard to know how much to adjust the inside check lines.  I did what I thought was best, said a prayer, and untied their lead ropes.  Once their lead ropes were secured to their hames, I got in place, and began issuing commands.

I can't say enough about what a wonderful horse Lily is.  She was AMAZING!  She must've been very annoyed having Pam attached to her, but she did just fine.  After doing a few large loops in my front yard, I had to stop and adjust the lines.  Pam was basically following Lily.  This made it so the lines were basically only tight on Lily, and Pam was just being pulled around by her collar.  I let the right check line all the way forward, and the left all the way back.  I figured this would help to keep as much tension on Pam as she trailed behind.  After this, I got my mother in law to get the camera ready, and then it was time to actually ground drive the girls.

pictures attached  ... to be continued ...

The girls are being punished.

So yesterday Lily and Pam decided that my mother-in-law was not scary, and they ran past her as she was opening the gate.  Wife got home, and got the feed bucket to get them back inside.  I guess the warm weather just made them feel like running.  She said that Pam would’ve come back, but Lily looked, decided she did not want to be confined to our pasture, and proceeded to run around 2 of my neighbors properties.  My wife just kept trying to walk so she would be in site, call them, and shake the bucket to remind them there was some yummy food.  Pam of course, just followed Lily around, both running and bucking.  Eventually the desire for food got the best of Lily and she came walking back through the gate following my wife.  Pam in tow of course.

So then I got home.  As I tried to open the gate, I saw them eyeing the gate, and inching close so they could make a dash for it.  Well ol’ Mr. Tim don’t play that.  I proceeded to walk towards them clapping my hands and making loud noises and drive them back quite a ways away from the gate.  A half hour later I called them for dinner.  Those dang MARES!!!  Since it is winter, they can see me from 300 feet away through a corner of the property.  Instead of coming, Lily just sat and looked at me.  Pam wanted to come, but was confused on why Lily wasn’t, so she stayed with Lily.  So, I just did some other jobs for a bit, calling from time to time, and sure enough, Lily’s curiosity made her come back.  So into the pens they went, and they are going to stay there!  Pasture is a privilege, and they need to be reminded of that.  Also, I have a bunch of hay on my wagon from hay rides I needed to feed anyway, so this gives me the chance to feed it where they will eat all of it.

Naughty Mares!!!

Using my new Liverpool bit

So yesterday it was actually above freezing, so I decided to work Lily a bit.  I got a new stainless Liverpool bit (non-jointed) and I wanted to see how Lily responded to it.  This was also going to give me the chance to harness Lily up with her new collar.

Lily sure tongued that bit.  She’s used to a plain snaffle bit.  She sat tonguing and tonguing the bit, however, her response was AWESOME!  She was sooo light on the reigns.  I put the bit on her with the grooves up (since I figured that was the mildest), and hooked the reigns to the actual rings so they were on the mildest position.  An awesome bit for sure!  Lily did great on it.  I’m sooo thankful to my friend Pat for turning me on to that bit.

The new collar was great to.  It fits Lily great and after a few good pulls in it, it will be perfect.  The day was great!

Cold Weather hits Texas!

We’re right in the middle of an “arctic blast”. Yesterday the temps stayed below freezing during the day. This morning I woke up to 15 degrees. Things will stay this way for tomorrow too. What gives?!?! This is Texas! I thought I left temps like that behind when I moved here from up North. J

Feeding the horses this morning sure made me feel bad for those horse owners who live North in even worse temps. My water barrels had completely frozen into big blocks of ice. I had to take fresh water out in new containers, and I’m sure they are already frozen again by now.

I feel bad for Lily and Pam. The ground in their pen was very mucked up due to them being in it while it was muddy. Well now that the ground is frozen, they can’t walk very well on it. It’s kind of entertaining to watch them slowly walk, carefully placing each foot. Hopefully this cold gets gone so once again they can use their weight to flatten those muddy peaks into smooth ground.

One of my goals for this year is to begin working on building a barn. I’ve drawn up my plans. It is going to take some effort, but it will be nice. Then on days like these, I can give the horses access to stalls so they can get out of the wind completely. I’m going to build a 4 stall barn. One or two of the stalls will be used for storing wagons. I’m also going to build them so that I can convert 2 stalls into a birthing stall. It’s exciting to be planning it. Hopefully I can put things together to make it come to pass.

Pam, Pam, what to do with Pam.

Well, last Saturday I found myself with semi-muddy ground (as opposed to the soupy mud the last 3 months has kept us with) and warmer temps. I took full advantage and worked with Pam.

Sadly, I found some things out that I did not anticipate. As before, I put the bridle on her, and she once again began tonguing the bit like crazy. Last time I did this, and she did the same thing. It was almost as if she did not know what it was, like it was new to her. I put the bridle on her with blinders to keep her focused on me (which actually worked awesome! No herd anxieties!). Well, I hooked up my driving lines to ground drive her, and she would not budge. I could not get her to move forward with kisses, clicks, hiyahs, and even smacking her on the rear. She just stood there. Same for backing up. I decided that maybe I could turn her to the side and get her walking with a turn. The minute I pulled on one side of the bit, she would flip 180 degrees and look at me.

We spent the next half hour to 45 minutes doing lots of leading, with me giving her commands. Lots of starting, stopping, and turning.

I have concluded that Pam has no formal training. I am under the impression now that she has always been a brood mare. She is people savy, and will stand great while you put a halter or bridle on, but she has no idea what I want her to do aside from leading.

This was quite a setback to me. The thought of working from scratch on an adult 17 hand tank of a Belgian really did not sound like a good idea for me.

I thought long and hard about what to do. I am in a situation where I can only have 2 drafts. Because of this, I need them both to be functional, and not just look pretty. I had thoughts of finding her a new home, however … I decided that she is a good enough mare that she deserves a chance. I talked to a friend of mine who is a wonderful trainer. I am going to send Pam to him for 30 days of training. He told me that after 2 weeks he will be able to tell if she is too set in her ways, or if she is learning well and worth the money to train her.

I hope things work out well. Once she gets 30 to 60 days, I will resume working her by ground driving, and then making sure she knows what a harness is and all that. Pam will not be a Lily (already trained, just needed to be used), but I’m going to put the money into her to see if she can become a great work horse. She’s built for the job, I just need to see if she can be taught the job as an adult.