Liz Howell

  This past weekend was a great horse show weekend.  CN Big Time aka CiCi competed in her first breed show.  Liza from KC Training Center fit and worked with her for a few months prior to the show. Liza then showed her in the halter and lungline futurity classes and I showed her in the amateur mares classes.  CiCi took grands, reserves, first, seconds and one third all weekend. She was a pretty good girl and I feel it was a good weekend. I was so nervous Saturday that I shook through most of my classes but by Sunday I was just tired and couldn't keep track of what was what.  I dunno about this having to be up at 5am to be at a show stuff especially since I would have had to get up even earlier if I had been the one that had to get a horse ready to show. I guess thats why people have trailers they can sleep in and haul in the night before a show. Go to CiCi's page to see more pics of the show.

  Daisy is Home!  Daisy aka Lakotas Twist N Spin has gone back and forth between me and a lady named Tammy since she was first purchased from the breeder. Tammy bought her as a weanling and then sold her to me as a coming two year old. I then sold her back to Tammy as a four year old and now I have her back as an eight year old.  She is just as pretty as I remember and still just as sweet. Unfortunately Tammy is having severe health issues and is no longer able to care for her, she felt she would rather have her come home to me than sell her to someone she does not know.  Jim usually gives me a fit when I talk about getting horses but he did not even blink when he found out Daisy needed to come home.  We went to get her yesterday and she loaded like a champ in the trailer even though she hadn't been in one for four years. Supposedly she hasn't been ridden for a couple of years and she bears some old saddle sore scars but other than that she looks great.  Sudden is happy to have a new bud around and she is settling in like she never left.

I decided that Sudden should have a boyfriend this year and then she could give me a beautiful little baby next year.  Well I found the perfect Stallion although late in the season and drove her over to the east coast to meet him.  She has been there two weeks already and is not showing any signs of wanting a boyfriend.  The owner of the stallion said she even tried to bite him in the face.  They had to give her a shot to flush out the multiple follicles she produced and now we have to wait another 7 days to see if a normal follicle will develop.  The Stallion owner and I both agreed that if she doesn't take next time I will bring her home and take her back earlier next year.  Its really a bummer cause I think this Stallion and Sudden would produce an awesome baby. All I can do is cross my fingers and hope she takes this week.

This weekend was very stressful. I had been advertising Maricita and Zee Zee for sale for the past month as one of them needed to go. I liked them both equally so it was hard for me to decide which one to sell. I hadn't had much interest in either one and then "Boom" I was getting calls and emails galore. Continue reading →

The horses really had a workout this past weekend. Kelsey and Jessica came Friday after school and stayed until Sunday evening. They stayed on the horses as much as possible and I think they had a pretty good time even though I made them do chores and did not let them go to the barn at 11:00 at night.  They wanted to sleep in the horse trailer one night but all I could think of was some crazy or some animal coming to get them so I had to say no to that idea. Continue reading →

Well the Equine Dentist came out on the 6th of Jan 2010 to do Zee Zee's teeth. She had two extremely large wolf teeth, lots and lots of sharp points and uneven rowing had started. I had never used this dentist before but I was so pleased with him. He never got the horse upset, was gentle with her and extremely professional. He took the time to tell me what he was doing and to show me the areas that needed work.  Zee Zee was an easy drunk and took her tranquilizer without a hitch.

Its now been a few weeks and I have seen an enormous improvement in the way she eats and how much she is eating. I am so glad this was the ticket as I have been a nervous wreck trying to keep weight on her. The other day the girl that rides Sudden came to ride and out of the blue informed me that Zee Zee was getting fat.  I hadn't even told her that the dentist had came out and done her teeth so I was quite thrilled to hear this comment. Crap now I will probably have to put her on a diet.................

Zee Zee my little paso fino is doing so great under saddle. We have actually started gaiting around the pasture now.  She is so funny, she will get going along at a good clip and then scare herself and come to a dead stop. I pet her and tell her to "come on keep going" and off we go again. Please forgive my poor riding posture and flip flops I don't get fancy when riding at home, plus the nerves are little high when riding a green horse.

Zee Zee has lost a bit of weight since she came here and I am at a loss of what to do. Sometimes her appetite is really good (she always eats her grain) but a lot of the time she snubbs her hay. I give her the best quality coastal and alfalfa hay that I can find yet she still just picks at it. I have an equine dentist coming Wednesday so hopefully that will fix her hay issues.

Today was my new Paso Fino Zee Zee's 6th ride. She was so much better today than she has been, today we only had a couple of balks and temper tantrums which is a remarkable improvement over the way she has been working. Her previous owners did such a good job with her that I haven't had to do much ground work with her at all and have been able to just get on with the riding portion.  We are still in a walk but thats ok I want her to be comfortable with being ridden before I ask for anything else.

Zee Zee is such a sweet girl but I feel so bad for her.  All her life she lived at one place and had the best life kept on pasture 24 hours a day being brought in a stall just for feed and treats.  Here, she is in a stall with an attached paddock and turned out to a sparse pasture for only a couple of hours a day. She eats twice as much feed as Sudden does, won't eat the alfalfa and picks at the coastal.  She lost a little bit of weight because of this but seems to be putting it back on now. I have never had a horse not like alfalfa and I hope she eventually decides its good as I would rather over feed hay than over feed horse feed.