Boots, Bruises And Snow

Barn tales, Life with Jezebel, OTTB
[caption id="attachment_326" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="But that blade of grass tastes better!"][/caption] My girl got a stone bruise its taken a couple weeks to heal. Granted i am giving her extra time off because because i'm a little paranoid about it manifesting into a abscess (dodged a bullet on that one) while this resting of the bruised foot was occurring a semi private pasture became available. One of the barns long time boarders was leaving and his paddock mate being moved in with a couple other guys so he wouldn't be lonely. A friend and I lobbied for the new paddock and were lucky enough to get it so now Jez is in semi private turn out with Lilly. The two girls are like peas in a pd and get along…
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Winter is a bitter mistress

Barn tales, Life with Jezebel, OTTB
[caption id="attachment_320" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Its cold mom!"][/caption] It's been a long time since I've written and not because nothing is happening. With work, and the bitter terrible winter cold (Yes, I'm being dramatic) I've been unmotivated to write. So an update is in order. Jezebel is wonderful and just as pretty as ever.  Over the fall we had a really bad case of thrush with took her out for a while. It was the cause of her mystery lameness (after much searching) I found the best stuff to battle her persistent thrush was "Tomorrow" my vet wanted me to go the bleach route but that didn't seem to be doing the trick but the Tomorrow worked and eventually she got better and I was able to start riding her again.…
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Let The Games Begin

Barn tales, Life with Jezebel, OTTB
[caption id="attachment_303" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Red=Kicker Pink=Awesome"][/caption] The horse farm where my pretty pony lives is a boarders only barn. This means that there are no school horses, lessons don't have the right away and every one has equal access to the facilities. Most people are pleasure riders, with a few eventers, a few judge trail riders and a couple of show jumpers thrown in for good measure. It's a pretty good group of laid back friendly people. My farm puts on a games day once in a while. Which is basically a judged obstacle course. It was open to the whole barn and about 15 of us decided to participate. It was to take place in the our door arena (weather permitting) and there were to be 20 obstacles to…
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Tag-A-Long

Life with Jezebel, Off Farm, OTTB
[caption id="attachment_295" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="Yum, Grass"][/caption] The opportunity came up to take my girl off farm. A new girl at my barn is a show rider. By girl I mean shes 12. She;s my new buddy at the barn, we hang out, compare our taste in bright pink tack and talk horses and school. She reminds me of my sister who I miss as they are almost exactly the same age. She's a talented hunter/jumper with an adorable 14.2 black pony named Beauty. She goes to shows about once a month and her mother who is at the barn with her every afternoon offered to let us tag along to a show so Jezebel could gain some experience going off farm. My girl being an ex racer trailered I'm sure…
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Big Boned

Life with Jezebel, OTTB
[caption id="attachment_290" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="looking for food, no doubt"][/caption] My horse is fat! First my barn manager mentions she thinks shes getting fat, then another boarder who is also a vet said and I quote "wow she sure lost her race horse physique" so yeah shes off the hay stretcher now, cuz yanno... fat. Fat and happy though... she's a very happy horse.
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Man Down!

Life with Jezebel, OTTB
[caption id="attachment_278" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="My little pony"][/caption] It started out like any other day, my pony was a little more excitable then normal. In fact she was a lot more excitable then normal. One of the guys that works on my farm told me that my girl was acting "different" I asked him what did he mean different? He responded "well that's better then saying weird" Okay so my girl was acting more weird then normal. She was more agitated,  she was talking a whole lot and i was told that on turn out two days in a row my normally calm girl tried to break away from her handler and run to the field. Yikes. I thought i would just keep my eye on her see if i could…
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Body Snatcher

Life with Jezebel, OTTB, Saddles and tack, Training
[caption id="attachment_269" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Who replaced my horse!"][/caption] I swear my horse has been replaced by aliens. Shes a body snatcher horse. Ive been riding her every day for 45 minutes plus and she been awesome. Shes being thinking and trying real hard to do everything I ask of her. Also after our first training session with my new trainer shes been very good about going in the wash stall and even letting me  rinse her down with out complaint. Now I don't cross tie her in there but so far I don't have to. We go in, I have her stand and rinse her down after our ride. Huge step forward. When riding her, shes been very good at the walk and trot. Her halts well they still need…
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Rise and fall with the outside wall

Life with Jezebel, OTTB, Training
[caption id="attachment_266" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="Work you say "][/caption] It's been 2 days now of serious ridding for me and Jezebel. Lots of rising trot and many, many circles. The Barn has been very quiet in the afternoons and I've been taking advantage of it and getting down to actual work. Jezebel is doing amazingly well for a horse that has had limited time under saddle. She's listening to me, trying to understand what I'm asking of her and keeping her cool though she is not foot sure all the time and trips a little more then I would like. I couldn't really ask for more then that from her. She wants to work and shes a much happier horse right now im sure because were working. As for me? I…
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Whos horse is this?

Life with Jezebel, OTTB, Training
[caption id="attachment_256" align="alignleft" width="180" caption="The girls"][/caption] The rain rot is getting better and it doesn't hurt to touch her in her ichy spots so I started to work her again. It's Africa hot these days so "working" my horse consists of 20 minutes of lunging and yet another attempt to get my girl comfortable in the was stall (which is super scary it appears) I get my girl all ready with her cavason and lunge line, gloves on and we go into the indoor ring for some up down transitions. To my utter delight she does everything I ask. Walk, trot, halt, trot, walk, trot, halt, walk. I try to mix it up and she gets it. Shes always been shaky on  "walk" confusing it with "halt" but on this…
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Hissy Fit

Life with Jezebel, OTTB
[caption id="attachment_250" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Hanging out in my box "][/caption] She's got rain rot, or rain scald or whatever you want to call it. I'm going with rain rot because its rotten to deal with. She's not the only one in my barn with it there are several. This weather isn't making it easy to deal with. The patches on her back and hips are clearing up with my betadine and MTG 1 hour long every single day with out waver treatment. The rain rot on her legs is slow going. My girl hates and I mean hates it when you have to fuss with her back legs, its always a struggle between scraping off the rain rot scabs as quickly and efficiently as i can before she gets too…
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