16Mar 2012 by myexracer

No not the wash stall!

Life with Jezebel, OTTB
[caption id="attachment_97" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="I can haz hose pleze?"][/caption] Oh the wash stall. No anything but the wash stall! Its really not that bad but hey it ain't that good. At my barn the wash stall is the hub of activity. It's used for vet visits, farrier visits, tacking up and it kinda feels like the kitchen at a dinner party, the place where everyone ends up and congregates. It also has a strange echo to it. Horses cant tell where the nosies are coming from and there is no real eye line to any other horses while they are standing in the wash stall. Some do well in it, others... do not. My filly is none to fond of the wash stall. She will go in, but shes fidgety…
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14Mar 2012 by myexracer

First time farrier

Life with Jezebel, OTTB
[caption id="attachment_85" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="curouisty and the racehorse "][/caption] I was nervous as hell, it was time for the first farrier visit for my lovely filly. I was told she stood for the farrier but knowing how fidgety she is and how agitated she gets in the wash stall I was sure she was going to be a handful and as a result I was nervous. I had picked out a farrier I liked. I liked her website, her philosophy but most of all I liked how she worked. I had watched her work on another horse and she was skillful and happy enough to talk to me about he life as a farrier. Plus it's always a bonus for me when I can support women in non traditional roles…
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13Mar 2012 by myexracer

New Friends

Barn tales, Life with Jezebel, OTTB
[caption id="attachment_80" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Best Friends Forever "][/caption] Things are so different here then in California. For example, turn out. It's not something that's done in the heart of Los Angeles. There its pretty much stall boarding only. I did for some time have my previous mare in an "in and out". A stall with a little extra out door area attached but that's as close to turn out as it got. Here in Maryland turnout is the norm. Horses spend half to more then half of their time out in a filed with other horses. In the winter then come in at night, in the summer when its hot they come in during the day and when the weather permits ( spring and fall) they are out 24/7 at…
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10Mar 2012 by myexracer

Three days in

Life with Jezebel, OTTB
[caption id="attachment_67" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Just looking at this picture is costing me money"][/caption] Three days in and Miss Jezebel came up lame. Her hind left was causing her much discomfort and pain. She was walking broken legged. I took her digital pulse. I could feel it. Damn. I put her on stall rest, my barn manager gave her some butte and we hoped for a bruise. It wasn't to be, the next day she was still lame so the vet was called in. It was in fact an abscess. Less then a week with my ex racer and I was already calling in the vet. Welcome back to horse ownership to me! My vet was able to find the track, he poked the abscess and I started the process of…
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06Mar 2012 by myexracer

It happened so fast

Life with Jezebel, OTTB
[caption id="attachment_35" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="A real looker"][/caption] After the decision was made it happened so fast. I put in my applications for an OTTB with 3 rescue groups on a Sunday night by Monday morning I was on the phone with one and moving ahead with the process. One week later I was at a horse farm in PA looking at 5 OTTB mares. I was specifically going to look at a 6 year old recently off the track 16.2hh dark bay beauty but that's not what I came home with. Although a real beauty her and I didn't have a connection. She needed time to be let down, to remember to be a horse and to settle in. I knew right away she wasn't the horse for me so…
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