Moody Mares

Ugh. Went to the barn last night and it was a miracle. NO ONE was there. Unfortunately that included the barn owner so horses had not been fed yet :( I called him and he said he was still stuck on a job. So before we could start our ride, we had to feed everyone, which included giving ours time to at least eat their grain or they would have been totally miserable to deal with. Not usually a huge deal, but with hubby's newer job, he works sooo late and we basically get 2 1/2 hours to do anything between the time he gets home and bedtime for everyone. Not cool considering the barn is a good 1/2 hour from the house. But as I said, barn was empty, yay no ding dongs lunging, so we made ourselves enjoy it.

Moody mares you ask? Yes, that is indeed what we have. I know mares get a bad rep and hubby states he will never ever ever own another mare. I don't know though, I kind of like our girls. We had a gelding and he was so non-emotional. Like he didn't react to anything (except not wanting to be ridden and then it was rodeo time, which is why said gelding is no longer with us) and I can tell when the girls are happy, or pissy, or loving, or however they are feeling. They show it, no surprises. Lately my mare has been behaving, off, for lack of a better term. She will work good for about the first 1/2 hour of the ride. Then all of a sudden she starts shutting down. I don't know if it's because she's out somewhere and it's painful to her to ride. I've got a call in to the chiropractor and he's supposed to be out really soon. I have a call in to make sure he didn't forget about me. She's started kind of snapping at me when I'm grooming her and walk in front of her. She never did that before and has been doing it for maybe the last two weeks. Now while riding, like I said she'll ride good for the first 1/2 hour, but then once she starts balking, I might as well give up. I make sure to end on my terms, but last night, I could not get her to pick up her jog again once she stopped and started her little balk. She would turn and turn and turn, and she even started dropping her head way down and giving a little jerk forward, like she wanted to buck but really didn't want to because she knows better. I don't know what's going on. I want to wait until she sees the chiro because she was so good after her last adjustment, I really hope that's it. If it isn't, then it's time to get trainer back out and give her the whatfore I suppose. He always yelled at me for giving in to her too much, but it works for us, until it doesn't. Then I'm lost. So she might need a little attitude adjustment. I don't want to make her work if she's sore, but if she's not, then I have to grow a pair and make her do what I'm asking. I'm slowly losing more and more things that I could do on her. She used to lunge great. Then she would only lunge to the right and not the left. Now she will not lunge at all. She used to lope great to the right, but not great to the left. Then she would not lope at all to the left and was off on the right. Now she will not lope at all. She was jogging great, both directions. Now she's slowly refusing that as well. I don't know if it's me being a wuss or her being in pain, so we'll see once the chiro comes out I guess. I'm almost desperate at this point. She's been slowly losing these things for about a month and a half now.

Now the other mare is 23ish. I'm sure she'd benefit from an adjustment as well and we are going to start her on a joint supplement. I was given the advice to try a pure MSM cleansing of sorts first and then a joint lube to maintain. That may be her problem. Teeth are good. Weight is good. Saddle fits have been checked. We'll see. If anyone has any other suggestions that I'm sure we overlooked, let me know. We don't ride our horses to their death. We go out about 4-5 times a week (gas supply willing, lol) and ride for 1 - 1 1/2 hours at the most. Some in the summer we rode a tad more, but not usually since we're on such a tight schedule now.

That's all for now folks. I'm going to try to get a picture of both girls this weekend :) I might try to get someone to take pictures to send with Christmas cards too this year. It would be nice to have all 4 of us in it.