Run in Joy my beautiful Honey

Monastery Honey Almond Creme (Honey)

2005-2011

Never going to be another as good and I'd trade every horse in the barn to have you back healthy and sound.

The Best Horse

Monastery Honey Almond Creme is one of our "good little Catholic horses".  A friend of mine lives near the Texas Monastery that raises miniature horses and when I decided to move from large horses to small ones, she convinced me that I had to have one raised by nuns. After receiving photos of the horse I was interested in there, I sent my friend to check him out. While there, the Sister showed her this little mare who was the half sister of the horse I was interested in. She offered a real deal on both and I grabbed it. Honey and Suede were about 18 months old when I went to pick them up in 2006. 


Suede has a mind of his own, but Honey and I became real pals immediately. She is patient, kind, calm, smart, playful, brave, willing and sweet natured.  Lucy was a little older when we got the three horses, so she was the first horse we cart trained. A year later we began the groundwork with Honey. She loved every minute of her training and learned so rapidly that her mind was ready before we felt her body was mature enough to actually pull people. When she was three we hitched her up, climbed into the cart and drove like she'd been pulling folks around for ten years. 


Since that time, we have trained and driven 4 of our horses, but Honey is the one I love most to drive. She's never spooky, responds to the slightest touch of my little fingers on the reins, and is always happy to go for a spin. She's the horse I hitch up when we have guests. I can put any total novice in the cart and let them take her up the road and around the vacant land next door without worry.  When my husband was diagnosed with Hodgkin Lymphoma and we spent all our time and energy getting him through treatment, all I could do was go out and feed and sit with the horses for a little while each day. After over a year of not being driven, we hitched Honey up one day and went for a perfect drive. Every day I hug her neck and remind her she's the best horse.


Three weeks ago I raced out to feed the horses a little early because a news crew was coming out and I needed time to get myself ready for them. I fed Honey first, moved toward the next stall and realized she had not walked to her feed bin. She was standing with her butt against the stall panel nickering like a hungry horse, but not moving. I quickly finished feeding and went to her. She was totally unable to move. She could not bear weight on her left hind leg. I checked her hoof to be sure there was nothing  wrong there. I checked for heat, swelling or cuts. She was terribly tender around her stifle and hip. I checked the stall to see if she'd gotten caught anywhere and there were no signs of any struggle, rolling or damage to the fencing. She was alert, hungry and talkative, she just could not move. 


I had the vet out the next day and he could not pick the injured horse out when he walked through the barn. Honey was standing, alert and nickering for a treat when she heard me. The vet was surprised when I pointed her out as the patient. After running through the check list I had done the day before and manipulating her leg, the best he could do was make an educated guess that the injury was either in the stifle or the hip.


Now, I don't talk badly about Vets. My Aunt was a vet, my cousin is a vet and I've received excellent help and advice from all but one or two large animal vets in my life. But I have to say, that as far as the Phoenix Metro area equine vets go, they're really letting down miniature equine owners. The money is apparently in large horses simply due to the fact that there are so many more of them than their smaller cousins. We have fabulous vets, but they apparently do not have the small sized equipment necessary to ultrasound pregnant mini mares or do pelvic x-rays on minis. 


I have read about, seen and have heard friends talk about having the vet "come out" to take x-rays of their horses or ultrasound their horses. Can I get that here?? Hell no. "Bring her in." Well, since she can't really WALK, and since we don't know what is wrong that might be made worse by travel, that's a little difficult. Miniature horse owners are at the bottom of the heap in the large animal medicine world. 


Most equine vets have little or no experience with minis and some refuse to gain any experience with them. "I don't do miniatures sorry." was one local vets response when I brought home Lucy, Honey and Suede.  Only ONE vet in our area even knew to look out for fatty liver in miniatures that go off their feed.  The rest I've had to teach. I'm totally on my own here if a mare develops problems during labor because my only recourse would be to load her up and drive her 50 miles to the clinic that every vet sends all horses with reproductive issues. Now this. We have a world class equine orthopaedic surgeon about 30 miles away but he doesn't have the equipment that would be needed to diagnose miniatures. 


I'm mad. I'm mad that vet schools do not teach enough about small equines. I'm mad that none of the veterinarians here take the time to learn about small equines on their own. I'm mad that our horses are not seen as equals to quarter horses and thoroughbreds. I'm mad that not even the long time established clinics have seen fit to buy the diagnostic tools necessary to help small equines. I'm mad that in this day and age of superb diagnostic technology that ANYONE has to load up a seriously injured horse, spend an hour on bad roads, to "bring them in" to a clinic rather than having a vet with a well fitted out van come out to the farm to at least assess whether or not surgery is needed or that it is safe to move the animal. I'm mad that my horse and countless others are paying the price.


I want to scream. I want to throw things. But all I can do is hope that she manages to recover enough to be happy and pain free with the treatment method known as a tincture of time. So, I take her treats. I hug her neck, breathe her scent and tell her "You know you're the best horse don't you? You are the best horse."

NEW FILLY!!!

(Trust me, more to follow, for years, with video lol)

A little about today's training session

(First, Lucy is still holding her own. About 3/4 bagged up now.)


I've been working on getting used to training the horses from my new off road wheelchair, and working on getting the horses used to being trained this way. It's been a learning experience for all of us, but we're doing really well with it. 


Because Handsome is already used to my cues, it's been easier for me to work with him as I'm a little more free to figure out my own short comings. Today, I asked him to move in half circles around me, do some coming up and backing off, and asked him to circle me while I moved the chair about the playpen. He has done half circles, he's done circles, he's done coming in and backing off, but he's never been asked to circle me as I move around because I've never been able to move around with him. He had to figure that out, but he did very well. I even had him walking in front of me in a driving exercise to get us both accustomed to teaching ground driving from the tank chair.


Here are some photos from today:

Mare Watch

Yup, I'm up. It's late. Lucy is fine. She just had a nice nap and is up scrounging for molecules of hay leftover from dinner. Her udder is about 50% full now. She is lying down more often, the muscles around her tail head are beginning to relax and soon she'll have flat flabby old lady butt... much like me. She's pretty much build like a lollypop, round belly atop legs which look like sticks. Her body condition (remember the body condition chart in a previous post?) is excellent. All in all she's doing really well, she's just obviously tired of being pregnant, and, I confess, I'm a little weary of watching her be pregnant.


She's alternately grouchy and overly friendly, pushy then distant, spooky then so calm she'll stand in one spot for an hour or two just dozing. If I walk her to a different turnout she prances, nickers and hoots at the other mares as if she were a randy stallion. Let a randy stallion so much as walk to an adjoining fence and she becomes Godzilla mare. 


I have read that all of these behaviors are normal. I have stared at the mothers of 6 babies and they've all behaved differently. This is the third Lucy pregnancy on the farm and she is behaving differently this time than the other two. Therefore, it is apparent that one can never count on mares to behave in any certain manner in late pregnancy. 


What we can count on are body changes. When a mare begins showing her pregnancy her belly will appear somewhat lopsided when viewed from behind. A few weeks to a month prior to giving birth this lopsided look will change and from behind, her belly will take on the general shape of a bell or pear.  As the muscles across her hips and rump prepare for impending birth, they will relax so that the baby is able to pass through the birth canal more easily. Even the feet of the late term mare may change as the calcium from her food goes more to the baby and not as much to her hooves. Her feet may widen and spread a bit. She will waddle. If you're a mother or have seen women in the final stage of pregnancy, these signs should sound familiar!


Remember trying to sit in a low chair at 8 1/2 months pregnant? Lucy gets almost down and then basically does a controlled fall the last 8 inches or so. Remember the struggle to get up out of that low chair? Lucy has the same issues getting up. If she made the mistake of laying down next to the ocean, ten people would show up and attempt to roll her back into the water.


I suppose I have the easy part. All I have to do is stay awake and watch her on the wireless barn cam. Really, that's quite enough for me.

We're coming down to the wire on Lucy's pregnancy, at least SHE seems to have decided we're coming down to the wire. Lucy has produced 3 healthy foals with no foaling issues out of 3 pregnancies. Two of her foals were born here on the farm and were totally uneventful, well other than mild panic on my part.


Mares can show many signs of impending labor. They often go off their feed, they may press their butts against the fence railing so hard that you think they're going to push it down, they may roll, they may rake their sides against the fencing, they may switch their tails constantly, they may sweat, kick or bite at their bellies. Or, they may do none of the above.


Lucy's first foal, Desi, was the result of a breeding in Texas before we bought her. She'd been with the stallion most of the spring and, therefore, we did not know when she was "due". We watched her closely for 3 months, checking for the usual physiological changes. A. Belly size and shape changes, B. udder development. Once her belly drooped and her udder began to develop we watched her 24 hours a day. My son and I watched in shifts. He took the night shift and would watch from about 11pm to 6 am. Then he'd wake me up and I would stare at the mare for the remainder of the day until he got home from work and took the night shift. 


I have read that 80 percent of all mares foal between 10 pm and 6 am. I vividly recall the morning that we discovered Lucy was in the 20 percent of all mares who deliver in broad daylight. John had awakened me at about 6 am. I'd stumbled to the coffee pot, got my cup and went to my observation post by the back door to stare at the mare who was staring expectantly back at me. She knew we were there, even if she couldn't see us well through the glare on the glass door. She was not behaving abnormally at all, she just wanted her breakfast and she was sending me "I'm HUNGRY" vibes.


More or less awake, I went out to feed the horses, checked Lucy's udder, it was very warm and very full, just as it had been the night before.  I came inside, got my husband off to work, glancing out each window I passed to check the horse. She was, as usual, vacuuming up hay like some kind of hooved, hairy shop vac.


Because it was April, all of our minis were raking themselves on their fencing trying to scrape off their itchy winter coats. As I sat at the back door, watching Lucy and the others, they were all finished breakfast and were now itching their bodies against their fencing. After about an hour, my forehead pressed against the glass of the door, my eyes glazing over, Lucy's tail suddenly shot straight up over her back and she laid down. I sat bolt upright. She half rolled once, got up, her tail wringing in a wild circle and she laid down again. I pounded on my son's door "NOW OUTSIDE LUCY!" I yelled as I wheeled to the garage door and down the path to the barn, my brain churning with all the horrible possibilities like breach birth, sitting dog position birth, knotted umbilical cord, torn uterine artery, red bag birth, and only 100 or so other things that could go wrong. I was fighting panic. Was I up to this?!


It took less than 60 seconds to get from my watch post to her stall. In that brief length of time she laid down the 3rd time and I arrived as her water broke. Desi was born within 3 minutes. Lucy had flopped to the ground without caring where the birth would take place. She had not chosen the center of her large 12 x 12 stall, oh no, she'd chosen to lie down and give birth a mere 2 feet from the corner. As Desi was being born I was constantly having to reposition him to keep him from being jammed into the corner. But there he was, bright eyed, curious from his first breath, blond like his momma and a total heart stealer. Lucy, got up and immediately went back to policing up hay molecules left over from breakfast, nickering lovingly and nuzzling her baby from time to time as he learned to stand and nurse. Just another great morning for her, but a few more grey hairs for me.


Lucy has begun to bag up. This concerns me as she is not due for 3 more weeks.  She is also larger this time around, which concerns me also. Add these two concerns to my terror of the many birth problems that can occur in miniature horses and you have a prescription for a serious hair dye addiction. Loreal loves me every foaling season.

Desensitizing to something scary

A few days ago, the maker of an off-road wheelchair came out to the farm to let me try out what is likely the most powerful all terrain wheelchair on the market. I generally have to sit in one spot and teach my horses from that one spot, or I hobble painfully around them for a few steps or try to manage a bit of training without tangling lead ropes in my crutches. This can only get us so far in our partnership. Their brains need more stimulation and so does mine.


The chair is HUGE. It's got these large tank-like tracks on either side which allows it to travel easily across the softest deepest sand, finest river silt, and loosest gravel. It goes through mud, water and up 45 degree slopes without blinking a battery light. Did I mention it's HUGE? The treads on the tracks are meant to dig in and crawl over rough terrain, on paved surfaces however, there's nothing to dig into so the treads thwap and rattle against hard surfaces. And, it's HUGE. 


When we find something that our horses are uneasy about, we work with them to help them overcome their fears. We don't avoid things that might be frightening to them unless we just simply don't have the time it takes to deal with the situation fully. We'll make a note to work on it and come back to that as soon as possible. As a result, I have a barn full of horses that really don't spook and bolt at much.


When I drove the Tank Chair (yup, that's what it's called), into the barn aisle that morning, most of the horses glanced up then went back to eating. A couple came over to their gates to check it out, but two of them totally freaked and wanted to climb out the back side of their stalls. Those two felt cornered by this evil sounding, obvious horse eating monster. They had no escape. They were trapped in their stalls and terrified.


A horse must be able to feel like it has the choice to leave and get away from something that makes it uneasy before you can begin to get it's brain in gear. Thus, the first thing I did, was take the Tank Chair out into the largest paddock and unlocked the first panic stricken horse's stall. He was so frightened of being stuck in the stall with that "monster" loose in the paddock that he raced out of the stall right in front of me and ran to the farthest fence line. As soon as he knew he had the option of escape he was able to gather the scattered chickens in his head and became more open to learning.


I drove the chair around in a few circles as far away from him as possible, then drove it toward him. When he moved away I'd move along with him while his butt was turned toward me, if he turned to face me, even if he was just trying to change directions in order to shake me off, I'd move away from him a bit.  Within less than 2 minutes he would follow me for a few seconds before he chickened out. If he stopped moving, I'd stop moving. 


In less than 3 minutes he understood that the monster stopped when he did, so it might not be so bad. Plus "Granny is riding the thing!" With a slightly worried expression, he approached me and I rubbed his forehead and then moved away from him. He followed for a few steps and we began "the dance" again, until he followed me for 5 or 6 steps, I stopped and he came right up to me for his head rub. I drove away again, he walked calmly over to the stalls and stood. This time, I approached him and he stood still and relaxed even as the monster approached. I was able to pull right up to him, stop and rub his head. His worried expression was gone and he was totally relaxed. 


Training session time was under 4 minutes and we progressed from absolute panic and trying to climb stall walls, to completely relaxed and accepting of the scary object. See YouTube video of the session below: 

We're going to have a baby!

Lucy, my palomino mare and Handsome, my smoky black stallion are going to be proud parents sometime around the middle of March.  Last April, in a burst of hopefulness at the seeming success of my husband's tandem bone marrow transplant treatments for his Hodgkin Lymphoma, I put the two horses together for two days when Lucy was in standing heat. After two days I started second guessing that decision and separated them. In that two days, however, Lucy the miracle mare who seems to get pregnant if she's downwind of a stallion, conceived. I love that mare. 


Lucy was the first mini to come to our property. We bought her here in Arizona. She, Suede and Honey were actually all bought at the same time, but the purchase of Suede and Honey was actually agreed to by my friend in Texas  while I was on the phone with her. At that same time, I was here on a mini-farm in Arizona buying Lucy.  Lucy came onto our property like she owned it and she has been the boss mare ever since. She's the first horse we cart trained and bless her she forgave us our mistakes and did her darnedest to figure out what we wanted and give it to us. She's gentle around people, very affectionate, a wonderful momma and she's one of my most special friends in the barn.

Lucy was pregnant when we bought her. Her son, Desi, is a permanent buddy here too. When it was time to wean Desi we knew it would be easier for him if he had a weanling companion. I contacted Lucy's original owner and she said she had a fabulous colt she was about to wean. She said he was the best looking colt she'd bred and she had even named him Strykingly Handsome. She needed to sell him but the bottom had fallen out of the mini-sales industry about that time and none of the show homes were buying like they used to. She gave me a superior deal on a superior colt just so he would have a good home. He sure was a good looking colt, but even then we had no idea how beautiful he would be when grown. We've had to take him to vet clinics for various minor issues and when we do the vets never fail to gasp and tell me "now THAT is what miniatures should look like" and "He is really outstanding" and "WOW he's Handsome, what's his name?"


Handsome is not only conformationally perfect, he is also very smart with a true desire to learn. Even though he's an unapologetic nipper he's one of the easiest horses to work with in our barn. When we are working with him all we have to do is give him a minute or two to think about what we might be asking him and he figures it out. We've been working with some professional large horse trainers and they're pure stoked about this little stallion. He will go all day long for you. They tell me he's got more heart in that little body than many horses they see. It makes me very happy when other people, who know more than I do, gain that understanding of our evil little black stud. 


So, this baby we're expecting is extremely special. His parents conformation is perfect, they are highly intelligent, and they have not just a willingness, but a deep desire to do what we ask of them. Finally on the list of reasons I am excited about this pairing is color. Palominos, buckskins, and smoky blacks don't just happen at random. They happen because of the genetics of horse color. 


Very simplistic equine color genetics lesson:


Horses, to be very basic here, come in two colors, red and black. All other colors you see, are caused by genes which modify those two base colors and may dilute, change the pattern of, or even wash out those two colors. A good friend of mine explains it this way. Picture one of those old flip charts of clear plastic pages with images on them. Picture a red horse on the bottom plastic page. The next page is the Creme gene. When you overlay the creme gene on your red horse you suddenly find yourself looking at a palomino. The creme gene only dilutes (lightens) red pigment. Lucy, therefore, is a red horse who inherited one creme gene. The combination of the red and creme genes made her palomino. 


The creme dilution gene doesn't just happen. It must be inherited. One of the parents must carry at least one creme dilute gene and the foal must inherit at least one of those from one of the parents. Both parents who carry a creme dilute gene can pass on that gene to a foal. If a foal inherits a creme gene from each parent, that foal is known as a double dilute. It is in this case that with a double whammy the creme finally can wash out even black coat color. Double dilute horses appear white or near white, perhaps with a slightly buttery color in their manes and tails, but with beautiful blue eyes. Now, don't go running around saying every white horse with blue eyes must be a double dilute. Pintos can have blue eyes too and the coat color can be solid white or grey which has washed out the coat colors to white. You can, however, say with authority that a double creme dilute horse will always have blue eyes. (You can also tell anyone who thinks that color is "albino" that no one has discovered the albino gene in equines.) A double creme dilute has no choice but to pass on one of those creme genes. 


Because the creme dilution gene only effects red, if a black foal inherits a creme gene it will not show on the outside, but he will be able to pass that gene on to his offspring. A black horse that carries a creme gene is called a smoky black. Even though the creme gene is invisible when you look at Handsome, it's there because his mother was a double dilute and she had no choice but to send one of her creme genes to Handsome. 


Since both Lucy and Handsome carry the creme dilution we are really hoping for a creme dilute baby. Here is a link to an equine genetics test lab color calculator that I use: Equine Coat Color Calculator When I plug in the color information I know about Lucy and Handsome I get these percentages (Cremello, Perlino, and Smoky Cream are the double dilutes):



Offspring Color Probability 


25.00% - Palomino
12.50% - Smoky Black
12.50% - Cremello
12.50% - Chestnut
12.50% - Buckskin
6.25% - Smoky Cream
6.25% - Perlino
6.25% - Black
6.25% - Bay


75% chance of dilute


25% chance of double dilute


18.75% chance of black or black appearance


If the above calculations are correct, there should be only a 12.50% chance of getting a chestnut baby, and only a 6.25% chance of a bay baby. With all those other color options can we please all keep our fingers crossed for anything other than chestnut or bay??