My Non-Horsey Post

Who, me?

It’s raining today, so I thought it would be a good time to do a non-horsey photo dump post. Except for the photo above where Leah is acting as “bait” for Tweed’s training as I rode her bareback around the park. 

The 2021 babies: Pilot, Epona, and Lucy 

We’ve had a schedule change around here and after next week, when Pilot’s dad will be gone all week for work, I will have most Mondays-Saturdays free to ride Tweed during the day. At least until Pilot gets out of school for summer break. But even then, it will be much better than my old schedule of no days off. 

Phlox growing wild on our property. 

My husband is scheduled to have knee replacement surgery May 1st. It will certainly slow him down for awhile, and probably me, too, but hopefully not for too long. 

Killdeer mating and nesting in our pastures. 

The general rule of thumb is not to plant before Mother’s Day, or near that time. We are excited to get the overwintered plants that survived out of the garage, but it’s too early. 

In the meantime, some of the perennials, like this blue vinca, have taken off. 

Daffodils. 

Our flowering plums. 

Flowers for the tea, store bought

We hosted a tea for special guest last Sunday. My mom brought up her Royal Albert tea set for me to use, and then she gave it to me to keep forever. 

She also shared her recipes for scones and cucumber sandwiches. 

Scone, clotted cream, and strawberry preserves 

They were yummy. We had lots of leftovers. I’ve really got to stop eating those leftovers!

Oops, another horse photo. A little mutual grooming. 

Time to talk chasteberry. Or chaste tree. Or monk’s pepper. 

Apparently, it comes from this tree that is native to the Mediterranean and western/Central Asia. It helps regulate menstrual cycles, pms, and the sexual desires of monks. 

In horses, it balances hormones, calms geldings / mares, and even helps manage symptoms of Pituitary Pars Intermedia Dysfunction (PPID or Cushing’s). It helps regulate the pituitary gland, aiding in shedding, reducing cresty necks, and improving overall metabolic function. 

Everyone I know who has used it, and that list is growing, says it worked. But, so far, all those people used it for mares and not geldings. At any rate, they say it takes at least 3 weeks before you can see a change and we are at about 10 days. 

I purchased two different types of chasteberry, one for humans and one specifically pelleted for equines. (Photos above) I don’t think there’s any difference, except in price. Tumbleweed has tolerated eating both, but I started him slowly to make sure he didn’t have an adverse reaction.  

It will be interesting to see if it changes him at all. We are doing so much training work on buddy issues that it might be hard to decipher what helped and how much. 

One of my friends said her horse built up a tolerance to it, so she would discontinue it for awhile and then start again. 

Looks like I’ve worked this post right back to horses, so I lied about it being non-horsey. 

I started this post out with Leah, and she is my old trail horse that I raised from a 2 year old and trained myself. She is from Quincy Dan lines and a super sweetie. She’s 21 this year. We put her on Equioxx a few weeks ago and it has made a huge difference and improvement in her arthritis. 

I’m taking her with Tweed to the park most days and working on her walk and whoa, besides being bait for his buddy issues. I have really enjoyed riding her again. 

I will usually work Tweed around her and rest him away. But Katie was working him away as I worked with her elsewhere. That made Tweed get upset when I’d leave the area and he couldn’t see her anymore. It also seemed to be setting Katie and Tweed against each other—in his mind. 

Sooooo, I’m going to help them out next time she rides by keeping her in the arena during his warmup. She’s going to let him make the choice to go to her, then do all his warmup work around her, and rest him way far away, like I do. He needs to see that as the undesirable place. 

He rode out on the trail alone very well Monday with Katie. They went on a great adventure along the river. Turns out, he’s more of “it’s okay to leave them, but not be left” kind of guy.