How to make a mini unicorn

So this is Ollie, my younger mini. He is very sweet and into kids and loves everybody. Excepting maybe me currently since I dressed him up as a unicorn last weekend! Oh well he will get over it! So this is him all fussy, as usual. I didn't want to have him be a fussy unicorn so I insisted on clipping him. Big mistake! I ended up spending almost $90 on a pair of clippers (which is cheap!) and used some clipper guides from a pair of people clippers on them. They worked wonderfully!

See how much hair came off? It went very quick!

The end product! Although he has clipper lines I still think he looks better now!

Everything that came off of him.

Ah yes, so this was the saddle (which I didnt' end up using) I used two pieces of foam, one I left normal and the other I cut the ends off of to make a pommel and cantle. I used foam and fabric adhisive to glue them together.

His halter, I spray painted with fabric paint and his horn.

His horn started out as a cone that I used a knife to get the main bulk off then sanded so it was smooth (ish). You can see where I broke the tip sanding it and had to glue it back together.

The saddle almost done. I spent a lot of time on this, its too bad I didn't like it in the end. Oh and I got some help at this point. Can't see who?

Yep! That is John Tom, my horse/dog/cat. He runs around to the mission impossible theme song!

Right, actaul horse pictures now, almost unicorn. We have now sufficently glittered him, and he is starting to look pathetic. I think he knows that everyone thinks he looks like a girl, and so the glitter doesn't help.

All ready and on our way (we walked from my sisters house to the party at the church). I am suppost to be a fairy, but in the end I just threw some stuff together that looked warm. My sister wanted to be a princess so she worn an old prom dress.

I look more like a peasent then a fairy. Maybe I am a peasent fairy. Whatever I was it worked with Ollie.

Loren got some great shots of the kids, but I wasn't sure it would do to put them here, so I will just put this picture of my and Ollie on (ok and barely one kid).

We did a photo shoot back at the house.

Yep, twinkly toes works!

Please someone save me!!!

Being a great little mower and enjoying his after torture treat!

This was him later that day at home. We didn't get any good shots of the stars, but he had two pink glitter stars on his butt. The kids all wanted to touch it and kept showing us that they had glitter on them, like they didn't know where it had come from! But apperently even if all the glitter is gone the glue is still there!

And that is how to make a unicorn! (and torture your horse in the meantime!)

The great unicorn post!

Yes, we really did dress Ollie up as a unicorn! Although the day did not go as smoothly as I would have liked.
1. It was overcast! So the glitter that I spent $60 on wasn't as pretty as it could have been, and the gold dust sparkle didn't show up at all.
2. I didn't put the saddle on. The saddle I worked several hours on and stressed over quite a bit. Emily talked me into the gold faberic and I thought it ended up looking tacky.
3. Ollie it turns out does not like to have children on his back bareback. The birthday girl barely got a ride in before he bucked (luckly mini bucks are not much of anything and my sister was there holding on) It was embarassing because Ollie is usually so good with children and I didnt' want everyone to think I had brough an unsafe horse.

But other then that things went well, Ollie did look very cute, and the kids were very excited and the parents were pretty into it too. Espeshally since I cliped him, after spending $80 on clippers. Really for how much money I spent on the whole thing it would have been nicer if there hadn't been so many problems.

So I am going to post pictures on the next post of the whole process. Start to finish.

Some pictures of Kezi!

Classic muddy Kezi, she got caked with mud over the winter and I was unable to get her clean, I had to wait for her to shed out to get the mud all off!

Kinda pudgy here!!

Very pretty in the morning!

This is from the week I brought her home.

So my one year post for Kezi, a week late!

So I have had Keziah a year now. Feels wierd since I have only riden her a handful of times. And only bareback and not very far, so it almost doesn't count. She has been a source of great vexation and stress over the last year, but somehow she feels worth it.

So for this anniversery post I am going to talk about why I got her, give a brief (I promise!) overview of the past year and my future plans for her, at least for this summer.


So last May, ah just coming off the whole horrible ordeal with Lucy (which was hard not only because she is my baby but because she got sick almost exactly a year after my mom did) I was desperate to ride. We had finished the chelation therapy with her and it was oviouse that she was going to recover most if not all of what was compromised. At that time I wasn't sure if she would recover completly or not but felt confident that she would never be the endurance horse I would want, so what better time to get an endurance mount, right?
Even though I wanted to spend the year training an endurance mount I didn't entend on buying another horse, but after talking with my endurance friend, who didn't think I would be able to find someone who would lease me a horse for the year (I believe that was bad advice) I tenatively looked on BayEquest. I didn't really mean to find Kezi, I was planning on just browseing to see what was on the market. But fate intervined and brought me Kezi. As soon as I saw the picture of her I knew she was mine. I had one of those "this horse was ment to come to me" kind of moments. After talking with the owner I almost didn't get her since my boyfriend didn't think it was a good idea. But again, fate intervined and I decided that I wanted to do what would make me happiest.
I went to see Kezi before I brought her home, but it didn't really matter, I knew I wanted her.

So the day I brought her home started it all. After spending three hours trying to get her in the trailer (owners: oh yeah she loads great!! HA!) we went on our merry way. Not 200 feet down the road I saw what made my heart stop; the escape door on my trailer was open and a head was sticking out. Now I don't tie in trailers, well I do Kezi now, but my other horses are never tied, and since it was a long ride I didn't tie her so she could put her head down. Well that was a big mistake.
So I could see that she was ready to jump out, my heart stoped and all I could say was "oh shit" over and over again.
Loren couldn't see what was happening but figured it had to do with her, so at the same time I brought the truck to a stop he jumped out, but she ended up jumping out and running around the front of the truck. On a side note, this has also happened to Lucy, but Lucy plastered herself against the trailer partition until I came to save her (I think she thought she was going to fall out!) Oviously I have now put lockes on the escape doors, but at the time I didn't remember that that door did that because I never open it to load my horses.

Anyway, we cought Kezi and got her back into the trailer in about a half an hour and went home. Over the next several days I got the horses acquainted, Lucy tried to attack Kezi and therefore that is how Ollie came to live with Kezi, I didn't trust the mares together and I didnt' think Huck would get along with Kezi (which I was very right).
I got to spend a week playing with her and lunging her (oh boy is she a brat with a lot of energy!) then she went lame. Very lame, and thats sort of what its been like ever since.

The first vet I took her too thought for sure that she had a shoulder injury of some sort, so I took her to Davis to be x-rayed. They did not agree and blocked her leg and said it was her knee. Oh and she also choked while she was there, not a fun trip, unless you consider Lucy's lung x-rays comeing out fun.
So she came back to being sound in the initial weeks following and was sound for about 6 to 7 weeks (she had been lame for about 6). I rode her a couple times but never anything much, then after a trimming where I trailered her and she was rearing a lot, she went lame again.

This time I had my chiro out who couldn't figure out anything with the shoulder but did find something going on with the neck that she thought was entirely different (thanks Nancy what did me a world of good!!). So off to Stinebeck (it was recomend by my new vet) to get neck x-rays. They took the neck x-rays, thought they saw something that they later changed their minds about, and said that they too thought her lameness was in the knee and probably a ligament tear so lets scoped it! For only 2k!! Ha! yeah, not fun! But then they got the EPM results back (because apperntly if it isn't colic, then everything can be diagnosed as EPM) and were then convinced that she had EPM. They based this off some facts that were about viable as horse poo! Really they were just elaborting on things I had said that were just her personality so they could get me to believe them. I almost did the EPM treatment. But then got smart.
Over winter she had a hard time with the mud, it was horrible and I started considering putting her down. I took her to see Dr. Peterson at Pennisula Equine at my chiros recomendation. Really liked him a lot. He was a lot more practicle then any of the previous vets and he restored some of my faith in vets, not all, but some.
He thought that a bone scan would be the only way to see what was really going on but that costs about $1100 plus her overnight expenses. We decided for now to try putting her on a low dosage of anti-inflamitories to see if that would help. She has gotten lame twice while on it (once was a very intertaining day where she just up and decided to visit Lucy, by jumping over her fence, well you can imagin what that did to her leg!) but it went away very quickly.

So as to my plans for the summer. For now keep her on her meds, but I am getting tired of inaction, thats all I have been doing with her and it oviously doesn't work! So from now on we are going for more, longer walks. I may even start taking her for Lucy and I's moring runs (at a walk only) and let them get used to being out together and then pony her off Lucy. I will have to see what Kezi does, Lu I am not worried aout at all, she will behave herself, but Kezi is hard to tell.

I may try and get the money together this fall to do the bone scan, or turn her out up at carolyns. I don't really want her going through another winter at my house lame in a paddock. So either she has to be sound so she can be turned out with Lu or up at Carolyns.

Well I think that is it!


Next: Unicorns!!

Ah the farrier has spoken!

And now stressed out horsey princess is no longer over reacting! No I don't call myselt horsey princess, my dad does! He has blue tooth in his truck (the cool kind that works through the rear veiw mirror) and for whatever reason it cannot disinguish my name, so he put me in as horsey princess. For some reason that always makes me feel closer to him.

Anyway, Luke called this afternoon and made me feel a lot better about Lucy. He said that it sounded like a lot of little things. Mostly that her hooves haven't toughend up yet from the winter and her year off, and that she might have gotten a bad stone bruise as well.

He did say not to ride her on any hard trails with a lot of rocks for a while as that could make her worse. But that as the ground drys out her feet will harden up again, and if I wanted to speed the process up I could put iodine or terpentine on her hooves.

So I will go back to riding her just at home for a while and then see about walking her up Gazos to ride on Johannson as it is a fairly soft trail.

Interesting weekend

So I put off posting about my weekend because it SUCKED! For the most part anyway. Lets start if the really sucky parts:

So on friday I determined that I was not going to find the charger to my trimmers and decided that I would have to buy some new ones when I went over the hill for my perscription. We went all over the place and finally determined that I was going to have to buy some new ones. We didn't end up doing it that day and when I got home I kept looking for the charger and came across my mom's old trimmers (ment for people) and my dad suggested that I try them. So on Sunday I did and found out that they don't really work on horses, perticulary fussy little mini's! I Tryed again on Moday night to no avail. So now I am either going to have to buy brand new ones (and be out $80 to $100) or find someone I can borrow some off of. I wish I had gotten around to clipping Ollie a while ago so I wouldn't be so pressed for time. The birthday is Saturday and I still have to put his saddle together and make the alterations to my dress! EEKK!

So sucky part of my weekend number 2:

Lucy is off. I wouldn't say lame exactly, but deffinatly off. I took up a trail we go on all the time and right away she was tripping over rocks and wanting to walk on the side of the trail. I pushed her a little bit at the trot to see if it was still there. Not only was it still there but way worse at the trot. We didn't go very far and I walked her back not wanting to take any chances. I notices coming back that she seemed kinda off on her right front more then her left front, espeshally on the pavement. When we got home I trotted her out on the road but she didn't show any signs of lameness there. If this were a stand alone thing I might not be so concerned about it, but since she was also having similar issues a couple weeks back before she was trimmed, but is not very much so worse, I feel it needs to be adressed right away. I would deffinatly like this to just be her hooves being imbalanced. Several people on HGS suggested laminitis, both from the way she is moving and from her diet change over the winter.

Sucky part of the weekend number 3:

IT WAS HOT!!!!!! Horribly hot! Like "don't even get out of beds its not worth it" hot! It was 103 in San Jose when we went to get the hay on Sunday. It was like steping out into a oven.

Ok now for the one good thing over the weekend:

I added two new additions to our animal kingdom! Two new parakeets. I think I am going to name them Africa and Fiji. I think they might both be boys, a welcome relife from Gisele and Yavain! I will post pictures of them as soon as my phone feels like behaving (its stuck on the favorits page and I can't get it back to the home page! grrr!) Africa is sort of teal (Loren picked him out) and Fiji is mostly white with some blue. I saw them on Friday when we were looking for clippers.

Also, Kezi is lame again. Quite lame too. Limping even at the walk. I am going to e-mail Russ nd see what he has to say. I'm not sure what to do at this point, I am still not ready to give up on her. I may turn her out for the summer and fall and just see what happens. I guess it also depends on Lucy. I may spend my summer hand walking two lame horses! Great just want I so wanting after doing that all last summmer!

Hey maybe I will have better news next post, one can only hope. Oh and as if to add injury to insult, the Santa Cruz Horsesmans association is having an endurance clinic in June. Julie Surh and other top riders will be there and they will go over what to expect at an endurance ride.

I never talk about business here, but sufice to say, my life sucks right now, both with the horses and at my job. And I have finals next week.

So now what?

This moring I took Lucy on her second ride after having two weeks off becuase of her hooves. She was again good, didn't trip, wasn't slow, seemed eager to be out on the ride. But both times she coughed. I haven't had her cough out on a ride in several months, now she does it on two rides in three days? On this morings ride I did some walk trot tranisions at first but then at the last downward tranisition she sort of stoped on her own with a groan. That coupled with the coughing is concerning me.


I think it is time to have her scoped again. But the questions is, where? Idealy I would like the origonal vet to do it, but I think she moved pretty far away. I know I can contact her through Davis but then they might expect me to bring Lu up there when I would perfer to take her to Peneq, for both easy of distance and because I really like Dr. Peterson. But in something like this I think having a vet who knows her history is really importaint and I know that there is at least one vet there that was involved before, but I am not sure if she was present for the scopings.

I think one way or another she needs to be scoped before I start asking her for very much trotting out on the trail, even if I were to give her another couple months off. Which I don't really feel is necissary. Probably what I will do is keep her on the same schedule of easy rides with increasing distance until after I have paid Alicia's care credit for Kezi's stuff, which I can really do as soon I can pay myself back from the money I transfered into my dads account. Then take her to Davis or Peneq. The other option would be to have Kaci come out and do my spring vaccinations and teeth floating and see if she can scope her, although I would vastly perfer it was done in stocks, Kaci may not have that capability anyway. In that case that would put off scoping her for another month or more.

I have to pay that money off on the care credit by June.
I should have Kaci out in June for yearly checkup.
So that would leave July, although scoping her probably won't cost that much, but Kaci's vist should.

Well, I guess I can only wait and see what happens as far as money goes. Oh and I will be having Luke out again in June as well so that is another expense!

I better go, I have a very mad ducky in my office who will not shut up!!