Hello to all again. Sorry that it has taken me so long to write another entry. It seems that all day every day I am thinking about things to write and share, there's so much! Florida is really amazing and different even just with the terrain and natural wildlife. Not to mention the weather! It was overcast, windy and rainy but 80 degrees today! It was so hot and humid but looked cold and chilly, so strange. I wanted to write about the system of how the barn runs and my daily routine.
We start at 7:00am (sorry misprint on the last post). Reynaldo feeds the horses at 6:00am and starts cleaning the stalls (except on his day off then we feed and clean the stalls). One of the first things that Tayna does is to feed all of the horses grain. There is a big wheel barrel used specifically to dispense the grain to all of the horses. Then our job is to scrub all of the water buckets, remove night wraps from the horses and start tacking horses up. There is a schedule on a huge white board that has all of the horses names on it. (Their names are in order of the stalls that they are in. The stalls are all numbered, thank goodness or it would have taken me even longer to memorize all of the horses names and which stalls they go in.) There are three colums, one for AM, one for lunch and one for PM. Everyday there are initials next to the horses name that tells you what that horse is doing for that day. For example, if Lars is riding a horse in the morning there will be an LP next to the horses name under AM. All of the horses get out atleast two times per day. Lars and Melissa have their five top horses that get out three to four times a day. They get ridden, hand walked (a lot) and go on a treadmill. That's right, a treadmill! It's pretty cool. It has different speeds that you can set it to and you can also adjust it so that there is an incline to build up the horses muscles. If a horse is weak they will also sometimes put weights on their legs (like 2 lbs) to help strengthen them. Lars doesn't really turn the horses out. He says that "it's to expensive" which I am assuming means that if a really expensive sales horse hurts themselves and has to be layed up or even worse can't train then it's to much of a financial risk. We do turn the three year olds out in the afternoon so that they can run and play. Vioen gets to go out with them to baby sit but usually she is the one that gets them riled up and running around :)
Ok, so we do lots of hand walking! If a horse isn't going on the treadmill (some can't go on because they are to unpredictable) or being ridden then they get hand walked. We walk them down the road to a specific cluster of trees and back which works out to be about a 15 minute walk. We walk along a huge parcel of land that has a bunch of retired polo ponies in it. The just graze off the land and drink or cool off in the irrigation canals. I have seen heron (or a bird that looked a lot like a heron and white mackaws (sp?-again guessing on the names here). The other day I saw a pair of gray doves pirched in the white fence hanging out and enjoying the sun. Max goes on the walks with me and like to lead the way and sniff everything out. The horses are getting used to his company but can't quite figure out what the herd of horses are all about. I did get a new pair of running shoes that are amazing! They are cushy and supportive which you really need when you do a lot of hand walking on pavement. My feet hurt so bad the first few days that I felt like I was running a marathon. They would hurt so much that I thought I couldn't walk but I would just keep walking and eventually the pain would numb and it wouldn't hurt so much until I stopped moving. Ouch! Anyhow, have the new shoes and now I'm all good!
The mornings are pretty busy with getting all of the horses ridden and getting them out. After each horse is worked they typically get a shower and their face sponged off because they sweat a lot in this climate. We have to towel off their legs to dry them in order to prevent rain rot. It's very prevelant down here with the humidity. Every horse gets iced after each work. There's a lot of putting ice packs in the ice boots, putting the ice boots on then taking them off and putting the ice packs back in the freezer. There is a large stand up freezer located right next to the cross ties which is full of ice packs. Once the horse has dried then they go back in their stalls.
Once all of the horses have been worked, usually around 12:00, we get a lunch break. It just depends on when things have settled down. After lunch we go back to handwalking all of the horses or putting them on the treadmill. Sometimes there is a horse or two that Lars still needs to ride so we have to get them ready. Then there's cleaning all of the bridles (I think I have cleaned more bridles in the short time that I have been here than ever before). After all of the horses have been out then we go to treatments. Lars' horses all get the magnetic blanket put on them at some point during the day. We do laser therapy on a couple of the hores that have the odd swelling or stiffness in the leg. There's also icing the sore ones a second time and we also use an ulta sound machine. I am not exaclty sure what that does but I know that it's used for horses that are coming back from a lameness or have had troubles with something in the past. If a horse seems like their legs are getting a bit puffy then we put a poultice wrap on them for the night. There is also the odd horse who has some rain rot or fungus on it's legs that we have to wash with anti-fungal soap or a horse that has a cut that nees to be washed and have cream put on it. These horses are pamered, as well they should because they earn it!!!
Then it's time to tidy the barn up by putting away all of the pads and boots (we lay them out to dry). Sweaping or washing out the cross ties or wash stalls. Feeding, etc.
The horses here get fed four times a day. At 6:00am, 12:00pm, 5:00pm and 9:00pm. They get grain with the first three feedings. It is a beetpulp based grain that looks like sweet feed. When feeding them their hay we put all of the hay in a big wheel barrel and wet it down with water before we feed it. It's Timothy but Lars and Melissa's five get a flake of Alfalfa at late feeding. Every Wednesday and Saturday the horses get a bran mash with their late feeding. Again we mix it all up in a wheel barrel and scoop it out into their feeders. It crazy to hear 20 horses eating and slopping it all up but you can tell that they thoroughly enjoy it. All of us girls alternate nights between us which is nice because by 9:00pm all you want to do is lay or sit down (at least I do!)
So that's basically it for the routine. It is amazing here and I'm seeing so much! I am having a blast and enjoying being at the barn all day every day (for the moment) ;) Lars is an incredible trainer. He can get so much out of the horses and to ride his horses is such a treat. They are all so soft and so through! (More on that later) Melissa is a beautiful rider and really has a star of a personality. She's up beat and positive. All of their horses love them you can really tell by the way they act when Melissa or Lars come into the barn or arena. I had my first lesson with Melissa last Monday and another one tomorrow. Vioen has been a super horse! She loves it here and fits right in. I will fill you in on all of that later. So so tired and really need to go zone out. Sorry if there are any mispellings and hope that it all makes sense. :) Feel free to ask me any questions if you have any. MISS you all SOOOOOOOOO much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We start at 7:00am (sorry misprint on the last post). Reynaldo feeds the horses at 6:00am and starts cleaning the stalls (except on his day off then we feed and clean the stalls). One of the first things that Tayna does is to feed all of the horses grain. There is a big wheel barrel used specifically to dispense the grain to all of the horses. Then our job is to scrub all of the water buckets, remove night wraps from the horses and start tacking horses up. There is a schedule on a huge white board that has all of the horses names on it. (Their names are in order of the stalls that they are in. The stalls are all numbered, thank goodness or it would have taken me even longer to memorize all of the horses names and which stalls they go in.) There are three colums, one for AM, one for lunch and one for PM. Everyday there are initials next to the horses name that tells you what that horse is doing for that day. For example, if Lars is riding a horse in the morning there will be an LP next to the horses name under AM. All of the horses get out atleast two times per day. Lars and Melissa have their five top horses that get out three to four times a day. They get ridden, hand walked (a lot) and go on a treadmill. That's right, a treadmill! It's pretty cool. It has different speeds that you can set it to and you can also adjust it so that there is an incline to build up the horses muscles. If a horse is weak they will also sometimes put weights on their legs (like 2 lbs) to help strengthen them. Lars doesn't really turn the horses out. He says that "it's to expensive" which I am assuming means that if a really expensive sales horse hurts themselves and has to be layed up or even worse can't train then it's to much of a financial risk. We do turn the three year olds out in the afternoon so that they can run and play. Vioen gets to go out with them to baby sit but usually she is the one that gets them riled up and running around :)
Ok, so we do lots of hand walking! If a horse isn't going on the treadmill (some can't go on because they are to unpredictable) or being ridden then they get hand walked. We walk them down the road to a specific cluster of trees and back which works out to be about a 15 minute walk. We walk along a huge parcel of land that has a bunch of retired polo ponies in it. The just graze off the land and drink or cool off in the irrigation canals. I have seen heron (or a bird that looked a lot like a heron and white mackaws (sp?-again guessing on the names here). The other day I saw a pair of gray doves pirched in the white fence hanging out and enjoying the sun. Max goes on the walks with me and like to lead the way and sniff everything out. The horses are getting used to his company but can't quite figure out what the herd of horses are all about. I did get a new pair of running shoes that are amazing! They are cushy and supportive which you really need when you do a lot of hand walking on pavement. My feet hurt so bad the first few days that I felt like I was running a marathon. They would hurt so much that I thought I couldn't walk but I would just keep walking and eventually the pain would numb and it wouldn't hurt so much until I stopped moving. Ouch! Anyhow, have the new shoes and now I'm all good!
The mornings are pretty busy with getting all of the horses ridden and getting them out. After each horse is worked they typically get a shower and their face sponged off because they sweat a lot in this climate. We have to towel off their legs to dry them in order to prevent rain rot. It's very prevelant down here with the humidity. Every horse gets iced after each work. There's a lot of putting ice packs in the ice boots, putting the ice boots on then taking them off and putting the ice packs back in the freezer. There is a large stand up freezer located right next to the cross ties which is full of ice packs. Once the horse has dried then they go back in their stalls.
Once all of the horses have been worked, usually around 12:00, we get a lunch break. It just depends on when things have settled down. After lunch we go back to handwalking all of the horses or putting them on the treadmill. Sometimes there is a horse or two that Lars still needs to ride so we have to get them ready. Then there's cleaning all of the bridles (I think I have cleaned more bridles in the short time that I have been here than ever before). After all of the horses have been out then we go to treatments. Lars' horses all get the magnetic blanket put on them at some point during the day. We do laser therapy on a couple of the hores that have the odd swelling or stiffness in the leg. There's also icing the sore ones a second time and we also use an ulta sound machine. I am not exaclty sure what that does but I know that it's used for horses that are coming back from a lameness or have had troubles with something in the past. If a horse seems like their legs are getting a bit puffy then we put a poultice wrap on them for the night. There is also the odd horse who has some rain rot or fungus on it's legs that we have to wash with anti-fungal soap or a horse that has a cut that nees to be washed and have cream put on it. These horses are pamered, as well they should because they earn it!!!
Then it's time to tidy the barn up by putting away all of the pads and boots (we lay them out to dry). Sweaping or washing out the cross ties or wash stalls. Feeding, etc.
The horses here get fed four times a day. At 6:00am, 12:00pm, 5:00pm and 9:00pm. They get grain with the first three feedings. It is a beetpulp based grain that looks like sweet feed. When feeding them their hay we put all of the hay in a big wheel barrel and wet it down with water before we feed it. It's Timothy but Lars and Melissa's five get a flake of Alfalfa at late feeding. Every Wednesday and Saturday the horses get a bran mash with their late feeding. Again we mix it all up in a wheel barrel and scoop it out into their feeders. It crazy to hear 20 horses eating and slopping it all up but you can tell that they thoroughly enjoy it. All of us girls alternate nights between us which is nice because by 9:00pm all you want to do is lay or sit down (at least I do!)
So that's basically it for the routine. It is amazing here and I'm seeing so much! I am having a blast and enjoying being at the barn all day every day (for the moment) ;) Lars is an incredible trainer. He can get so much out of the horses and to ride his horses is such a treat. They are all so soft and so through! (More on that later) Melissa is a beautiful rider and really has a star of a personality. She's up beat and positive. All of their horses love them you can really tell by the way they act when Melissa or Lars come into the barn or arena. I had my first lesson with Melissa last Monday and another one tomorrow. Vioen has been a super horse! She loves it here and fits right in. I will fill you in on all of that later. So so tired and really need to go zone out. Sorry if there are any mispellings and hope that it all makes sense. :) Feel free to ask me any questions if you have any. MISS you all SOOOOOOOOO much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
