No lessons available until we get another horse, sorry. Horsemanship, riding lessons, learn and experience horse care, handling, riding and training. LOL
(2)
Also tack and facility education and care. If you catch Miss Barb there some day feeding and cleaning, watch out, she still teaches anyone who gets close enough!
Hello, and thanks for visiting!
I'm sorry, but we cannot offer riding lessons at this time.
My lesson mare has passed away, and I have not had the opportunity to add another horse since I got her -- over 20 years ago! This is my favorite picture of her, from many years ago.
Sugar's new food came today! So glad she's gonna be on that, and Equioxx (for pain and inflammation), and still can have Bute-Less (a natural joint pain remedy)! Hopefully we can get the extra weight off of her and she'll have even less joint pain!
Please pray that someone, somehow, can get back to "trail riding" both horses. It would be so good for them AND their humans (including the students and visitors who love them!) The vet said Doc's original problem can be prevented by exercise, too! Thanks.
The vet recommended this, so I just ordered 2 x 50 lb. bags of Tribute Equine Nutrition Essential K Low-NSC Horse Feed at an INSANE Discount from Chewy, for Sugar, to take the place of the low-quality, high-sugar (haha) sweet horse feed we've been giving both horses for years (we just give them a little to add vitamins & minerals to their hay and so-called pasture). It will be interesting to see whether her weight changes. I'm betting it's an insulin problem and this won't change it. But let's pray! This would be the easier, lower-cost remedy.
The vet said her feet, back and joints will feel better is she loses 200 lbs. Imagine! Just like a human...
Waiting for the vet. Not an emergency, but Doc has a need, so I'm hoping to get everything done while they're here.
Look what we found on heart.org :
https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-bond-for-life-pets/pet-owners/horses-have-heart/horse-riding-health-and-well-being
Harness the health benefits Horse riding for cardiovascular health and well-being.
Many thanks to Kyla B., who came over yesterday and cleaned! It will make this afternoon's lesson a lot easier on all of us! And Pastor Joe had a nice chat with her, and later raved about what a nice person she is -- again!
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Volunteers -- is anyone definitely going to clean today or tomorrow? So I know how much *I* need to do. Thanks in advance for the info! (picture of Doc and Sugar in the "goat pen" in 2020, just to get attention)
The latest -- Sugar and I are able to give a few individual, private lessons per week to lightweight riders, at the same price as the past many years. Lessons include horse all aspects of husbandry -- and even horse color genetics to those who may be interested.
In Other News:
Apparently we need more volunteers, or I need to start *hiring* people to clean... I was sick for a week or so, and Joe and Solomon fed and watered them, but there was very little cleaning going on. Yesterday about all I could do was clean out their stall so I could feed them, clean out the drainage ditches that had been allowed to fill with coarse hay, and make the manure pit more accessible. I hope to be able to do more today! -- the aging "Miss Barb" 🥲👩🎤🐴
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A big THANK YOU to whoever cleaned up behind the round pen!
We missed celebrating Sugar's 22nd birthday! It was May 17th. https://www.bluerockhorsepark.com/sugar.htm
Many thanks to whoever cleaned today, and to Joe for feeding. I seem to be sick.
NEWS FLASH! I just ordered a hoof trimming stand. Soon I'll be making money hand over fist. Yeah, I'm feeling a bit nutty today. Overexertion and probably post-covid (many months ago) are to blame. But I did order that. It's the kind with a "cradle" so you can scoop the inside of the hoof and frog out. I'm gonna TRY...
And I have a GREAT book that's gonna show me how.
Dinner time
It was about time I removed the snow pictures.
February 2023 was tied with five other years for the least amount of snow here -- a "trace"!
In other news, Sugar is now also lame in her front right leg. Please pray we're able to afford to get a vet to do a "wellness check" so that they'll refill her $70+ Equioxx pain meds. The "Bute-Less" doesn't seem to be doing enough.
It's not so severe that it stops her from running to get her sweet fed, though! 🙃
Well, another "nice" snowfall and still Sugar hasn't been trained to pull the sleigh, which is still just a cart (the wheels are still on it where the runners would go.) But "hope springs eternal"...!
Merry Christmas from Blue Rock Horse Park! Today, the property owner, Paul, threw the horses some hay, topped up their water, and opened their main stall door. For some reason, they elected to spend Christmas afternoon still inside, eating hay! lol Sugar at the left front, Doc behind to the right. In shaggy winter coats. The're much prettier in summer! ;-)
Barn visitors often ask me when I let the horses out, and when I close them in. I show them the various doors, and explain how I adjust them in case of rain, wind, snow and cold. And that I almost NEVER close them in. Well...
You should see what all I changed today at the barn. To make a wind-chill-free space for the horses for Thursday night, Friday and Friday night. I'm closing them in totally, in the back 3 spaces. Not yet; today was just "getting ready" and practice, experimenting. And an answered prayer -- the warming mat for my 2nd phone (the barn's wifi hotspot ) was over there, in the little green electric bucket! I set all of that up... sort of a trial run. There will be a lot of cleaning to do afterward, but they're worth it. No way do I want to subject them to that wind in those temps -- and starting with rain, tomorrow! (See details in the attachment. )
I should attach some pics... I'll get some from the barn cams in there with them!
I went to all of that trouble to compensate for the earlier darkness, but I can't help the cold forecast we have this week. I don't think it will be good for children's lessons. Too distracting! Let's pray for more seasonable weather (the forecast calls for temps below our January average almost all week!) Or maybe an indoor arena... haha
Time to bring home the drinking water filter (again!) and start draining the hose after every use...
This picture is from a few years ago. The harness isn't completely fastened, obviously, but she has worn it correctly in the past with no problem, and can be driven from the ground with long reins. The "only thing" remaining is to hook her up to the cart. Or maybe I should try the old tire dragging step first...
Here's the result of my work at the barn in the EARLY EVENING of Nov. 7, 2022 under that full moon.
Now it doesn't matter HOW late children get home from school! 😁 (this was taken around 6:30 PM!)
4185 Blue Rock Road
Cincinnati, OH
45247
| Monday | 3pm - 7pm |
| Tuesday | 3pm - 7pm |
| Wednesday | 3pm - 7pm |
| Thursday | 3pm - 7pm |
| Friday | 3pm - 5:15pm |
| Saturday | 3pm - 7pm |
| Sunday | 3pm - 7pm |
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Dinner time
Here's the result of my work at the barn in the EARLY EVENING of Nov. 7, 2022 under that full moon. Now it doesn't matter HOW late children get home from school! 😁 (this was taken around 6:30 PM!)
We can still have wonderful, fun days!
This was late afternoon Sunday, August 8, 2021. This young lady has been helping out at the barn, and this time she was helping by exercising Sugar a little. Sugar had gotten the impression that her reason for living is to stand around and eat. We're reminding her that she has to "sing for her supper". lol
Brrrr. The horses know where to stand out of the west wind!
Now you can watch the horses walk into their stall and out, plus you can move the barn camera to see them over by the round pen, or to see other animal or human visitors, up by the big garage doors. And we still have an even better setup planned....just still can't find the mounting equipment that came with the camera! Message us with your request and we'll give you the user id and password for the barn cam (assuming we know and trust you!)
Some "side benefits" of having horses, especially horses that are kept more or less "naturally": i.e. 24/7 pasture freedom with stalls to run in if they choose. They mash the grass into mud, putting large divits in it with their hooves, and then when it rains you get a gazillion mud ponds. Add ruts from the bulldozer that emptied the manure pit and a heavy, all-afternoon rain, and this is the result! This was Saturday afternoon, March 9, 2019.
We can do intermediate lessons in "The Ball Field", even in the snow! This video is from October 2017, but it shows part of The Ball Field. In this part of the lesson, I'm shoing the young woman (on Sugar) where the boundaries are for riding independently in that area (it's like a large, fenceless, grassy arena). After that, I let go and she had some walking and trotting on her own.
This past week, our two fuzzy horses were enjoying a SHORT munch on some fresh spring grass in "The Goat Pen". Horses or ponies must not be turned out suddenly on new spring grass to eat as much as they want, or they may founder or colic due to its high sugar (and other nutrients) content. In a week or two, we'll use a "shedding rake" on them to remove as much of their fuzzy, winter coats as come loose - after the next cold spell - and soon enough, Sugar's "winter vacation" will be over, as she begins to work for her keep again! ;-) (Doc is still "on disablility". He should be beginning his "rehab" soon, though!) Two quick lessons: 1. Founder occurs when a sudden influx of sugar or protein causes the blood vessels just behind the outer wall of the hoof become engorged, causing it to separate from the inner foot structures. A very slight case can just cause a few horizontal wrinkles in the hoof wall; in very bad cases, the hoof more or less folds up! It's extremely painful. Its scientific name is laminitis, because the membrane with the blood vessels adjoining the hoof wall is the lamina. It can also be caused by other certain stressors (see below). 2. Colic occurs when a sudden change in diet causes the micro-organisms that help a horse to digest its food to die off, causing painful gas pockets to form. The pockets can cause portions of its digestive tract to move (rise), especially if the horse lies down and/or rolls on the ground from the oain, and if it gets twisted around enough it can even cause death. This is why people "keep the horse walking" when it has symptoms of colic. Walking is important to the horse's digestion, too... they are not built to eat a lot of food at once and then stand still. Bonus info: Our previous, best lesson horse, Amir Halam, had some symptoms of colic the week/night he died, but not all of them, and none of the vet's colic treatments helped, so he thought perhaps it was a tumor on a stalk, which he had run into in anoth
When I arrived at the barn to feed and clean up on Monday, April 16, 2018, this is what greeted me -- Miss Barb
This is an advanced beginner on her second-ever bareback ride. The exclamation by the videographer at the beginning is about the cell phone camera!
Learn horsemanship: learn and experience horse care, feeding, handling, riding and training. Also tack and facility education and care. Scholarships available!
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