# Adventures With Nova



## redbarron1010 (Mar 11, 2017)

She is a beauty! congrats and I cannot wait to hear about your adventures with her. I also would love to see pics of your costume, I bet it will look great.


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## BlindHorseEnthusiast4582 (Apr 11, 2016)

They're both stunning!


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## laffysapphy (Sep 25, 2017)

Thank you both! I will definitely post some @redbaron1010!

Today, we went on our fourth trail ride. We went out with six other horses, including all but one of the horses at our barn, her previous owner, and her previous owner's friend. It was quite eventful! I was on Nova, my Mom(who is Romeo's other owner) was on Romeo, and my younger sister was on one of our boarder's pony named Chaps. Chaps was being ponied off of of our boarders horse named Nickie, and both of them like to be in the lead. The whole ride they kept squealing and trying to cut each other off haha. Nova was extremely buddy sour at the beginning, so much so that she would get close enough she had to stick her head up over their butts. She fell behind a little bit at a water crossing and ended up trotting through a small pond to catch up!

Both of them kicked at her about halfway through, even after that she was still riding up on them! It was annoying having to constantly hold her back, but by the end of the ride, I did get her to stay back without catching up to them. We were leading the group for a bit, which she was happy about! I did have to pull her back at the bridge again, she started trotting as we got closer so I circled around and fell back behind Nickie and Chaps. She was much better about the bridge on the way back, no trotting, but she did try to turn towards it a couple times. 

I felt bad that we ended up going past the bridge, her previous owner had trailered her horse, Tuffy and her friends horse, Dakota out to our property to avoid it, but Nickie's owner wanted to go over towards the canal it crosses since it's shaded, which is understandable, it's still in the 80's down here! We did get rained on briefly, it was good to see how nicely Nova reacted. Romeo, on the other hand, was a butt. He was trotting and trying to push past the others. 

For the majority of the ride, Nickie and Chaps were in the lead, Nova and I were behind them, followed by Dakota, Romeo, Tuffy, and then our other boarder's horse Ivor at the end (Ivor is usually at the front, so this was odd for me to see). Whenever Mom would try to ride next to me, Dakota would act up "protecting" Nova, since they used to be pasturemates. 

We got back right before it started raining, and as Dakota and Tufffy were loading up Nova started freaking out and ended up knocking over a pile of wood next to her. I didn't like having her tied there, but I was elected to go get everyone water and by the time I got back it was the only spot left. When we got back I put her there again because her halter was there. 

My cousin is flying down on Tuesday, and she's a big horse person as well. I'm hoping to go out riding with her sometime this week!


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## laffysapphy (Sep 25, 2017)

We're really picking up on exercising Nova!

Ride #4- My first ride with my cousin! She was on Romeo and I was on Nova. 
This ride was doomed from the start, and it was my first "bad" ride on her. We were walking up the road to the park, when these three boys on motorbikes came flying past us, one started revving his engine as he passed! I was genuinely surprised, since the boy that lives there is generally very courteous, but he was the one revving the engine! Luckily Nova is used to these, her previous owner races them, but she still spooked a bit, Romeo did as well. 

We made it to the park with no other issues, and I decided to go on a path I had only gone once before, we even saw an alligator! I'll call this the "pond trail". We were doing great, until we got to the trailer parking area. I did have a slight issue with her here the last time I rode, she kept trying to trot on me, so I wasn't expecting any worse. I was wrong. She took off on me(doing her extremely fast trot), and I'll be the first to admit I'm not the most experienced rider, so I was having a tough time stopping her. I tried grabbing a rein and pulling her in a circle, but it didn't work. I tried pulling back on the reins, that didn't work. Finally I decided that my only option was to try and run her into a tree, since by then we were headed back home on a narrow trail. I slowed her down enough to pull her around and start heading back up the trail, and we even got back to the parking area where I met my cousin, who had been having difficulties with Romeo. He saw her take off and started cantering after her, and while my cousin was trying to slow him down he started bucking... She stayed on, and managed to stop him. Once we started to go back towards the pond across the field, she took off again and started bucking me! 

After I got her under control we both got off the horses and calmed them(and us!) down. There was brief talk of heading back, but then the horses would be getting what they wanted, so we decided to walk them across the field(Luckily we were the only ones there) and get back on at the other side. I picked up a water bottle that had fallen out of my bags, and got on without a problem! Romeo, on the other hand, would not stand still. Once she finally got her foot in the stirrup, the saddle turned! I completely forgot to tell her that he holds air, so she tightened the girth and got back on after some brief circling. We didn't have any problems from then on, and we went past the pond and out to the main road. I suggested turning around, but we decided on going up the road on the sidewalk would be better. There was minimal spooking for being so close to cars, and we got back safe and sound.
Ride #5- 
I went out with my cousin, who was on Romeo, and one of our boarders about two weeks ago. He's very nice, but he gets on my nerves. He's always telling me how to ride my horse, and that I "need to cut her tail, pick her chestnuts off, use a crop more... etc.", he even took off right in front of us multiple times, it's really getting on my nerves! Anyways, we ended up going on what I will call the "golf course loop" since we overlook a golf course at one point. Once we reached the trailhead(I live about a 10 minute ride from the park) our boarder took off on both me and my cousin, to "try and get Nova to canter" without any heads up. I lost control of her speed and most of her direction, she is incredibly hard to pull back when she gets all worked up. His first "attempt" didn't work and we stopped right after she ran me through a palm frond(thank you, helmet!), and we didn't go any faster than a walk until we made it past a canal and onto the "loop" part of the trail. He took off again, with a warning this time, but it still wasn't enough for me to shorten the reins before she took off. We did get her to canter briefly! I was not able to control her speed or direction again, but at least I know she can canter. Once we were headed back, he did it again, and jeez, Nova likes to run! I got her to canter, with much less asking than before! It took me a little to get her to stop cantering once the others stopped, I'm used to a nice, smooth canter from Romeo, and hers is anything but that! I was flying out of the saddle, she was really using her hind end. My back still hurts when I bend to pick their feet, and I will not be cantering her again until we get the creeping indigo out of our arena so I have more control(we have checked all other pastures, and it is the only one affected.) 

My cousin did very well on Romeo, she has more horse experience than me actually. The only problem she had was losing control of Romeo. He was doing fine while Nova was trotting, but as soon as she started to canter he would take off and try to weave his way between us, making me even more nervous and causing Nova to freak out. 

I do suspect that Nova's previous owner let her run at whatever speed she wanted, because she took off on me at that field, and completely ignores any cues when cantering. She is also quite bad about sticking her nose right onto other horses butts, and eating weeds. She is improving with both of them, but I wish she had never been told that it was ok to do that. 

Ride #6- I went out with one of our other boarders Monday! We went along the pond trail, with no problems at all! She decided to show me a shortcut back to the barn, since it was getting dark out. We had no problems, and kept at a walk.

Ride #7- Tuesday, I went out with that same boarder and my sister, who rode our boarders other horse, since he is beginner safe. He was neglected before she rescued him, so we are working on building up his muscles and getting him to a decent weight. We again went out to the pond trail, but right before we go around the pond we went on a new path, on the perimeter of a new natural area that just opened up, since those are the only trails horses are allowed on.

The land was donated so trail riders would have more trails, and then the county turned all the inside into hiker/biker only, only allowing horses on the perimeter right next to a busy road! I don't know why people are so against horses using trails along with bikers/hikers, since they certainly have no problems on ours! Horses have the right of way on the few "horse" trails in both parks I ride in, and yet bikers/hikers take up the whole path and come up from the behind without warning and spooking the horses. It's crazy! I don't get why we aren't allowed onto the other trails, while the others are allowed to go on ours(actually, I do. It's because people think horse poo is nasty, but I prefer it over some of the other poo you find out there from the wild animals, and it breaks down quickly!) Sorry for the rant, it just isn't fair to us horse people. 

Chaps(The horse my sister was riding) spooked a few times near the road, but he was fine on the way back. We went back into the other park, to avoid the main road and got home without a problem. 

Ride #8- I went out on a very short ride with the same boarder(under three miles.) It was uneventful, and we turned around 3/4's of the way down what I will call the "upper river trail" onto the "lower river trail" and headed home(the trails are right next to a river.) We saw an opossum, what we think was an otter, and we heard an owl. The owl was kind of scary, since it was getting dark fast, and at first it sounded like a "helloooo" and then turned into an owl noise. At first I thought it was a homeless person(we think a few live in the park), then I thought it was a coyote, I was even joking it was a ghost(some battles took place on the land)! 

Ride #9-
Today I went out with that same boarder and my sister again, we went along the upper river trail out onto what I will call "canal trail". We saw three alligators and a falcon! It was uneventful, we trotted a little, and Nova spooked at a biker(once again, completely ignoring that we have the right of way and coming right up behind us without a warning). This was also our first ride without a halter under her bridle, since I haven't trusted her until now. It was still light out when we got out of the park, so we decided to take a little extra time and go along another canal, which I will call "canal trail two". We went just under 6 miles!

I'll post pictures tomorrow!


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## redbarron1010 (Mar 11, 2017)

I am surprised you are still alive! Alligators, motorbikes, and wanna-be cowboys! OH MY! I hope you are having more good rides than bad on Nova. It sounds like you are getting baptism by fire on her, so please be safe and ride with safe people. Remember, these areas are all new and scary to her. she has to feel you will keep her safe. Or she will panic 
and you will get hurt.


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## laffysapphy (Sep 25, 2017)

redbarron1010 said:


> I am surprised you are still alive! Alligators, motorbikes, and wanna-be cowboys! OH MY! I hope you are having more good rides than bad on Nova. It sounds like you are getting baptism by fire on her, so please be safe and ride with safe people. Remember, these areas are all new and scary to her. she has to feel you will keep her safe. Or she will panic
> and you will get hurt.


Gators are just a fact of life down here, I saw three on my last ride!

We've definitely had a rocky start, but I wouldn't have signed the papers if she was a bad horse. She is relatively young(11) and I'm used to my lazy, 18 year old gelding, so it's been a somewhat welcome change. She doesn't have a mean bone in her body, she's just very testy. I also have to remember that she has been out of work for quite a few months, so she's not used to a lot of riding/handling yet. She was with her previous owner for 5 years, and before that she was left alone in a field with other horses at the breeders(I will have to ask if she was used as a broodmare.)

She does have her issues, but they are all minor. It's just been weird lately. 

I had planned on taking her out Sunday, giving her Friday and Saturday off, but the weather had other plans. It has been raining all week, and our pastures/arena are flooded, we also have creeping indigo in our arena, and we can't spray for it until it dries up... All the pastures are fine, luckily, the arena is the only area affected. 

This week, Nova decided she was going to squish both her water buckets. She kept pulling her tail out on them anyways, so we bought a brand new muck bucket and she is now drinking out of that, and eating her grain out of a pan on the floor. We wormed her, bought her a salt block for her stall, and one of those likits to try and keep her occupied. The lickit was quickly taken over by ants... but she has been using the salt block. 

Today was... Interesting. I left her in her stall the majority of the day due to the rain, which in hindsight was a big mistake. There is standing water in all the pastures, and I don't want her to stand in that all day and risk hoof problems. I went to put her out around 3:30-4, and she was a pain. She walked well up until we were out of the barn, and as soon as we hit grass she was trying to graze. I got her about 50 feet away when she decided to yank the rope out of my hands and start grazing. At this point, I would have normally circled her around me until she was behaving and walked on, but she pulled the rope out of my hands, and was obviously going to be a butt. 

I found a relatively dry spot near the side of the barn and started lunging her, shes not great at it(again, she hasn't been worked in months) but she knows how. We were doing great until she slipped and fell onto her knees, I stopped the lunging and brought her back into the barn to check her legs. They were fine, so I grabbed a lunge line with the intention to try again. I was only going to ask her to walk this time around, and I got her to go around me a few times, when all of a sudden she decided she would rip the rope out of my hands and trot back to her stall. After a bit of yelling I got her out and tried yet again, the same thing happened and once again I was yelling at her. I took her halter off and let her sit in there for 10 minutes while I found our stud chain. Once I had calmed down I switched to a stud chain and she walked out to her pasture with no problem, just a couple of light pulls when she tried to graze. 

I went to bring her in around 7, and she tried to run off on me _with_ the stud chain on, although she stopped once she felt it. I put her on crossties and rinsed her legs off, brought her into the barn and crosstied her again, and waited for her feet to dry so I could put sole paint on. It was so mucky out there she sunk to the top of her hoof. I had no problems with her right side, giving her a treat after each hoof so she associates hoof picking with good things(once she picks them up with no problems I will stop with the treats.) 

Her left side was... Not so good. I spent 10 minutes trying to get her front hoof up, it took a _lot_ to get her to, she's around 1,400 pounds, and I'm tiny, so it's hard to push her over, especially when she pushes back. Pinching her chestnut, pinching her tendon, trying to pull her hoof up, and even having someone pull her forward didn't work. She did eventually give in. She happily lifted her back foot up, but she has a bad habit of waving it around until I grab it and she ended up kicking my hand pretty hard, luckily it isn't broken, just bruised, and it was not intentional. 

It also looks as if she's gaining weight. We cut her back to 1lb of triple crown complete per the vets advice, and have started to cut her down to 1 flake of T&A in the morning, and another at night, since most days she is out grazing. I would like to be able to ride her 5 days a week, but without an arena I can't. I do not trust either of us to go out trail riding alone, and I don't have anyone to go with during weekdays, so I'm in a bit of a bind.

I attached some pictures of Nova below! You can see just how mucky the fields are in the picture of her hoof, it sunk all the way down. Does anyone know how to insert pictures between paragraphs?


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## redbarron1010 (Mar 11, 2017)

I think Ivan would faint if he saw an alligator! Then I would faint right after him. He has enough of a problem with the deer that pop up. She is beautiful, but it sounds like she is being a handful! We have both our draft crosses on no grain, only good hay (except Mr Darcy get a little for his supplement). I wonder if she would do better on hay only? Our horses only weigh a little over 1200 pounds, and they are both fat and healthy. My first horse was a 17hh belgian/saddlebred cross, and he was on sweetfeed and hay (I didnt know about sweetfeed back then) and he gained an extra 100 pounds and became an obnoxious monster! He tried to kick me, ran from me, ran me over, and generally became like a bull to lead. I had never had any issues like that with him before. So I cut his grain down and he got better and better to handle. So maybe that will help. Its hard to say. I do not have any exp with warmbloods or fresians. Maybe get help from a good trainer too.


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