freyafjord's blog

Never give up on an old horse that has heart! We got home late yesterday afternoon and
found Lady lying on the ice looking almost dead. Some blood was spread out on the ice that
appeared to have come from somewhere in her rear. Things looked very grim for Lady. The property slopes a bit and she was facing
the wrong way to get up easily so we grabbed her legs and pulled her over. Then she tried to get up but couldn’t stay up
on the slippery ice. After doing this a

My Appaloosa, Honeybee, is a very smart and sensible horse. She is good on the trail and doesn’t spook at much. She has no problem walking over a tarp, through water or a number of other scary things, so why is she so terrified of being closed in a trailer???

My 4 year old fjord (Freya) made lots of progress this summer. We started out this spring with a bucking gallop on the trail. Then we had an encounter with a horse-eating sheep and in June she ducked under a pine tree (with me on her back). She thought the pine tree monster was getting her and a big buck seemed in order and I went flying. It took a few weeks before my shoulder was healed to ride much. But now that fall is here, she is much better. She loves to go out and doesn’t mind at all leaving the other horses behind. There is so much interesting stuff to see outside the gate.

I couldn't figure out how to upload this video, but it's beautiful and really worth checking out.

http://www.leechvideo.com/video/view1975599.html

I guess accidents are bound to happen when you ride for many years. I’ve never had a wreck where I had a lasting injury until about a month ago. Before it was just bruises. In this last wreck, I pulled something in my shoulder, probably in the rotator cuff. These types of injuries often take a very long time to heal but I am able to ride again now although the shoulder is still a bit sore. It makes me cringe to think of hard pulling or jerking.

My 4 year old horse still hasn't seen enough things. Last summer it was horse-eating pigs that were down corner from our house. They looked like the scariest things ever. They might have been bears. At first she was terrified of them but eventually she became curious and then finally they were alright. Goats replaced them after awhile and that was okay with her. Today we went farther and there were some sheep in a pen. She had been hearing them baa and was curious until she saw them. They were definitely horse-eating sheep.

Hooray, my Norwegian Fjord is finally refusing to go in the trailer at home. This may not sound like a good thing, but actually it is because now I can TRAIN her to go in when she doesn't want to, like when we are somewhere else and are hot and tired and really eager to get home. She still goes in easily at home when the trailer is in restaurant mode, but when I act determined to get her in, she refuses. So then I do as my trainer/instructor told me. I hold her with a halter so she faces the trailer and tap her behind until she steps forward. Every time she takes a step I stop tapping immediately, and then repeat.

My 4 year old fjord loves trailers. To her they are fine restaurants and fun places to go, at least if they aren't moving. When she was little, I trained her to go in a trailer by tapping her behind. Eventually she loved trailers so much I didn't worry about loading her. She just went in. There is often food there. But I didn't take her very many places and driving made her so nervous she ended up dripping sweat. I recently had to take her to a saddle fitting clinic about an hour and a half drive away. We did a short trial run with her a few days before and she ended up dripping wet. Then I decided to get her a mild tranquilizer from the vet.