Super Moonrise...

I almost missed the Super Moonrise. Luckily Rudy went outside just as the moon was coming over the horizon. I don’t know about where you are, but here the Super Moonrise was, well super. I missed the deepest color by the time I got outside, but still got some spectacular shots. My good camera wouldn’t come up with anything but the moon itself, so I ran, and got my other camera while Rudy fiddled with the settings. My old camera, which is on its deathbed, caught the moon, and the surrounding landscape. It is real hard at night to get photos of the moon without moving. I hold my breath to steady my hand. Then this morning we had just as spectacular a sunrise. We have beautiful sunrises here, but by the time I let everyone out, make my coffee etc., it’s too late, and the sun is already up. Rudy got up first, and let the dogs out, so we were able to watch the sunrise as we talked, and drank coffee. It was a wonderful morning, save for a bit of wind. I figured it would be an indoor day after the forecast last night, but by the time I finished feeding the wind had stilled, and the sun was shining bright.

We took advantage of our time together by both riding. It was interesting to say the least. All things considered both Ibn, and Marina did well. Marina only threatened Ibn twice. Both of them were excited. First of all Rudy hadn’t ridden Marina for a long time. She loves him to death, and whenever he gets on her back she gets overexcited. In addition to that she was out with Ibn. She kept an eagle eye on him making sure that he didn’t get too close. She hates boys, except when she’s in full bloom. She’d just as soon kill them as look at them. Ibn on the other hand is both terrified by her, and totally in love with her. He loves all his girls, but Sadie, and Marina are his favorites. Being a complete alpha mare, Marina barely tolerates anyone. She and Sadie are buds, but that’s because they were our first two mares, and both had our first babies the same year. Everyone else she lets know, that she’s the boss, end of story.

We only did about half my normal ride, Rudy fighting Marina, and me trying to keep a goodly distance between them, and us. Rudy hasn’t ridden for quite a while, and no doubt will be sore tomorrow. Hopefully between now, and July he’ll be able to get a few more rides in. I will have had 4 months to work up to the 35 miles, but he won’t have that luxury. If this were ten years ago it would be no problem, but as he keeps reminding me, and I him, the body just doesn’t work the same anymore. We both keep looking, but can’t seem to find replacement parts, which is the pits.

Both horses were sweated up from excitement ten minutes into the ride. Marina wanted to go, go, go. Ibn only cared about the fact that she was there. I’m certain he looked gorgeous with as much prancing as he did. Marina always looks gorgeous, even though now she is still showing the effects of Cushing’s syndrome. I can’t wait until she completely sheds out as it really makes her look dumpy. She is already loosing her swayback, hay belly look, and the little fatty deposits characteristic of Cushing’s have disappeared.

For those of you who don’t know, Cushing’s syndrome is caused by a benign tumor on the pituitary gland. The pituitary gland in turn controls which hormones will be released when. The classic symptoms are long, sometimes curly fur, which does not shed out, a swayed back, and a big hay belly. If not treated, horses are prone to founder as well. Some Cushing’s horses become IR (insulin resistance) as well as having a host of other complications. As with some horses, Marina does better when she is pregnant. I plan to breed her this year, so she should be in great form for the ride. All this exercise is doing her wonders. There are two standard medications, Thyroid medication (Thyro-L), and Pergaloid, which was designed for human Parkinson patients.  We have her on both until she has about three months left in her pregnancy. The Pergaloid inhibits a mare’s ability to produce milk, so she is off of it until after the foal is weaned. We left her off it for too long this year so her symptoms came back. It will take a little while for her to get back to normal, but once she does she will have regular cycles, and we can then breed her. If I breed no one else I will breed Marina.

When we got back to the house, I let Rudy unsaddle Marina while I played with Ibn in an area we want to eventually turn into a dressage arena. We worked on side passing since he seems to have forgotten everything he knows with me. I also worked on spins, albeit very slow spins. Rudy put Marina in her stall, I unsaddled Ibn, and rinsed him off much to his dismay. Marina was much better behaved than Ibn, but he was out of sight by then, and when he was there, he just knew Marina was right there in the first stall. Poor thing it was all too much excitement for him. If I can get it in before the winds start tomorrow I will take Marina out for her 10 miles. She’ll be much calmer with just me. I do have to change up my routine though. Part of the reason she was acting up with Rudy is that I pretty much do the same thing in each place even though I change up the route we take. She wanted to canter where I usually let her canter etc. I can’t let her memorize the routine completely because then she won’t be listening to me, or responding to my cues, but doing her own thing. There can only be one boss, and it’s not her. If I let her think that she can just do whatever she wants, then when it’s important, she won’t do what I want her to do, and I can’t have that. We’ll see how she does tomorrow.