Alberta Equest

Megan posted an interesting Blog Hop recently, and it revolves around something that has always been really interesting to me; Equine Nutrition. I'm always curious to know what people feed their horses, and why.  As someone who seems to have tried nearly every feed available in my location(s), I have settled on some products I absolutely love, steered clear of ones I absolutely dislike, and continue to try new things because, like Megan, I seem to enjoy throwing money into the manure pile! So, Kidd and Nikki get fat on air (seriously, I wish I was kidding) so I will focus on Kai, my Bubble Wrap Problem Child. On top of being essentially free-fed Grass Mix hay, she also gets extruded feed morning and night.  This is a relatively 'new' feeding regime and I will likely continue to tweak it if i'm not satisfied after 3 months, but for now this is where we're at.. Buckeye Grow N' Win For the past 3 months I had Kai on 3.5 lbs of Grow N Win daily

It's been a few days since my bubble-wrap child decided to WWE the ground and slide under the fence, and things are proceeding as expected. Day 1, a few hours after My hope was to pick up some liquid bandaid the following day and try and 'glue' the skin back together to promote faster healing, but by the next morning the 'flap' was no longer present and it was apparent that wasn't going to happen.  I've been using a slew of products and it is helping.  She has quite a lot of swelling/pooling, but I think it's bound to happen.  Her Left Front, that she had scraped up, was slightly swollen the following day, and really swollen the next.. but by the third day, the swelling was completely gone. Day 2, localized Swelling and extremely sore/sensitive to touch The day after the injury I had to work out of town, so my hubby and friend doctored her up for me.  I left him poor directions, but he's a horsey-guy and I knew he would make the righ

I figured I have done plenty of complaining about Nikki lately, and a little complaining and praising of Kidd, but I haven't said much about Kai lately.  Truthfully, there isn't much to tell so this will be a short blog post, but she clearly felt the need to cause me more grief so I figured it was a good excuse to continue my rampage of general complaints. In May, Kai had her feet trimmed and the short and simple of it was, she became incredibly sensitive.  This carried on for over 3 weeks, and then she strained a suspensory branch, lengthening out her time off even more.  Her suspensory was nearly healed when a small abscess blew out of her frog.  It was assumed to be an abscess that was really high up in her foot from a bruise, that took a long time to blow out.  She continued to be off for a few more days, before Monsoon Part 518 of 2017 hit, causing me to consider building an ark and floating away.  As such, all the pens (including my arena) were essentially pure mud

As riders, we know first hand the roller coaster ride of emotions we experience on a regular basis.  We learn the meaning of sacrifice, selflessness, and appreciation... and if nothing else, we learn how quickly we can be humbled.  Without a solid wall of support to lean on when times get tough and we're down on our luck, it can feel like an incredibly lonely podium of success, or pool of failure.  Often the small successes may feel like you've moved mountains, and yet to others they seem easily overlooked, and it's fair to assume everyone is busy in their own lives and weren't put on this earth to reward me for my efforts, but we can all get lost in feeling sorry for ourselves at one time or another. Perhaps i'm being ridiculous, but I feel a little like that, because I had a *fantastic* ride and Kidd and I really redeemed ourselves after our sh!tty ride yesterday... but in hind sight, I realize the fact that we cantered to the right without any issues i

I really strive to remain positive when things feel truly sideways, and I always try to find a good moment to end my rides on.  To be honest, I had some really nice moments today, but i'm struggling not to get hung up on the crazy train. So far, my week has been trucking along relatively decently.  Kidd is still having some issues on the right lead, but not yet to the effect of last year - which is a bonus, but i'm still feeling torn and I would be lying if I didn't say I was worried that we will revert back to that... but alas, I keep trucking along and picking away at it. On July 9th (Sunday), C and I decided to go for a hack.  I was already in the arena and decided to lunge Kidd prior to getting on for sake of letting him warm up again without me hindering him.  I wasn't expecting C to come out, so it threw a bit of a wrench in things but I'm pretty flexible.  We were previously discussing hacking at least once a week to get out of the arena for th

I bought the Anky Technical Pad back in the winter and I have been holding off on doing a review until I really got a chance to use it.  I was hesitant initially, but I prefer a slightly thicker pad and wanted to give it a whirl.  I wasn't able to find many reviews online ( this was the only one I could find) but did speak to a few friends who have them or have seen them used, and they were really happy with them. Oh, by the way... If you don't know me.... Hi, I'm Alaina and i'm picky about saddle pads! Photo courtesy of some other poor sucker with a slight obsession First things first, this pad is different than any pad I have ever used before.  It has no billets or straps to hold it in place.  Instead, it features a silicone "ANKY" Logo across the back.  I was really concerned about slipping or bunching, but took my friends calm exclamation of "mine is great!" to heart and trusted her observations.  The under-side is adverti

I figured since we've got a lot of 7's going on right now (07/07/2017), why not do a blog hop of 7 Questions?  I always find these sorts of Bloghops really informative and a great way to build my reading list; plus I love seeing everyone's individualism shine! __________________________________________________________ Question 1, Where do your current riding horse(s) hail from? I purchased Kidd from a breeder in Westlock, Alberta who focused on Black Arabians.  She is no longer actively breeding, but in exchange for being a Working Student for them twice for short periods of time (about 6 months in total), she offered him to me at a discounted rate because he was a bit of an 'accident'.  Despite her Appaloosa loving neighbour wanting him, she sold him to me for $700 and I brought him home in May of 2011. Kai was born and raised in the Maple Ridge/Vancouver area of British Columbia and she was given to me in November 2016 by her breeder/owner/trainer.

After a long day at work, I was impatiently waiting to get home and ride Kidd.  He's had 2.5 weeks off and yesterday Coral brought Hershey out to the farm to board for the summer.  Coral is a close friend, client and supporter.  Both her and I have taken quite a hiatus from riding, and we are ready to motivate each other and get back at it and today was Day #1!  Realistically, that 2.5 weeks off is irrelevant considering before the 3 rides we shared 2.5 weeks ago, I hadn't ridden him since October '16, but that's beside the point. This spring, I decided this year was just for 'us'; to solidify our love affair and just have FUN. For the past 2 years we have been incredibly focused on competing, and it was driving a stake between Kidd and I.  I wanted to get back to the fun I remember having as a child, when I was carefree and more importantly, anxiety-free.  The break we've taken has been worth every moment and I have found the enjoyment in riding again.

I have temporarily crawled out of the dark abyss I currently call "my life" to do a blog post.  I started this blog with the intent of using it solely as a tracker for my own personal growth with my horses, but lately there has been very little worth writing home about. My roller coaster of a life has ebbed and flowed like most in the past few months. I have experienced hardship, incredible amounts of stress, and everything that goes along with it... Though, through the darkness there has been little glimmers of light that encourage me to keep pushing onward. Firstly, after jumping through what felt like an endless line of hoops, my husband and I take possession of our new farm on July 31st.  This entire ordeal has been a large contributing factor to my recent stress (and of course that lead to, weight gain - fack!), but it seems as though we are scratching the surface of a beautiful, exciting development in our lives.  I don't think we will be bringing Kidd and