Thursday, August 27, 2020

🎶Happy 4th Month Birthday to My Sweet Lilly🎶

🎶Happy 4th Month Birthday Midnight Lilly Belle 🎶

4 months old 8/26/2020

Newborn 4/26/2020

1 Month 5/26/2020

2 Months 6/26/2020

3 Months 7/26/2020

4 Months 8/26/2020

Happy birthday to my wonderful Midnight Lilly Belle. She is one month closer to coming home. She has had a lot of big events in her life this month!

I will do a recap of her first 4 months and all the milestones she has accomplished.

Milestones:

4/26/2020 Lilly Born

5/7/2020 Lilly gets her full name - Midnight Lilly Belle

5/6/2020 Lilly gets us as her new family :-)

5/13/2020 Lilly has such long legs

5/13/2020 Lilly loves being a big "sister"

5/22/2020 Lilly is growing

5/26/2020 Lilly is 1 month old Happy Birthday

5/28/2020 Lilly's Best Friend

5/28/202 Lilly is gaining some independence

6/3/2020 Lilly grows into her long legs (at least for a little)

6/14/2020 Lilly learns how to wear a halter

6/26/2020 Lilly is 2 months old

7/13/2020 Lilly loses her best friend Dolly

7/13/2020 Lilly makes a new best friend Hugo

7/22/2020 Lilly starts learning to lead

7/26/2020 Lilly's Photo Shoot

7/26/2020 Lilly is 3 Months old

8/3/2020 Lilly Update

8/8/2020 Lilly's Next Big Step Weaning

8/13/2020 Lilly Eating Grain for the First Time

8/19/2020 Lilly's Mom Leaves
8/20/2020 Countdown Officially Begins

8/20/2020 Preparing for Lilly's Travel Across USA

8/26/2020 Learning to be Tied

Lilly's Training in Pennsylvania

I want to document Lilly's Training.

Horse training is really all interactions (or lack of interactions) horses have with the humans and other animals around them. It is important that horses have good interactions with humans their whole lives because they live every day in the present not in the past or in the future. I want to track all the skills that Lilly is learning. :-)

6/14/2020 Lilly Learning the Halter

7/22/2020 Lilly Learning to Lead

8/13/2020 Eating Grain for the first time

8/19/2020 Learning to Live without Mom

8/26/2020 Learning to Tie & Picking up Feet (Happy 4th Month Birthday Lilly)

9/1/2020 Lilly's First Bath - Not a Fan!

Lilly Learning How to Tie & Lift Feet 8/26/2020

Rebecca posted about the babies learning how to tie today! She is learning so much!

Look at how beautiful and black she is getting!

Tuesday, August 25, 2020

Learning About Horses - Different Types of Brushes

Lilly is coming home in 47 days and I need to be prepared for her. One of the things I will be doing every day with her is grooming. Grooming helps us bond as well as keep her skin and hair healthy. So I wanted to find the best brushes I could that would work the best. I found a company Eqclusive that makes grooming kits specific for different horse hair types. But they are in England so shipping would be expensive. The packs are made with HAAS brushes. BUT they do not reveal their secret brushes in the pack or the order to use them..... So I looked up who sells HAAS brushes in America and found Riding Warehouse where they talk about the specific HAAS brushes for each part of grooming. I also found another blog with a review of the Eqclusive pack for black horses - Brace Yourself. So with these three resources I am putting together my own HAAS grooming kit.

I am comparing them below:

Making My Brush Kit
Eqclusive Set	HAAS Brush	What the Brush Does
Eqclusive New Generation Curry Comb	1. Haas Striegel New Generation Soft Curry Comb Blue	Made of a flexible yet durable plastic, this curry comb's "teeth" maximize the massaging effect while grooming. The softer plastic is also great for removing caked on mud and dirt from your horse's coat without causing irritation
1st brush removes the dust and that matt effect that each of those horses has	2. Haas Parcour Horse Hair Bristles Body Brush	Used to remove dust from deep within the coat. This brush stands up to the toughest grooming jobs and effectively removes dust and dandruff to reveal a soft, shiny coat.
2nd brush removes sweat, sweat combined with oil and really clears the skin underneath the coat	3. Haas Lipizzaner Brush Haas Lipizzaner Brush (had to get from Amazon)	Removes sweat and oil to really clear the coat. The border is lined with longer bristles which work to remove dust while the shorter bristles in the center provide a more gentle cleaning and lasting shine.
3rd brush removes all the dirt that was brought up by the previous two brushes to the top coat	4. Haas Cavaliere Medium Horse Hair Bristles Body Brush	This brush removes the dirt brought up by the previous brushes. lift dirt, loose hairs, and dander from your horse's coat.
4th brush still removes residue in the top coat and gives a gloss	5. Haas Fellglanzburste(Coat Gloss) Grooming Body Brush	Removes any final bits of dirt whilst providing a shine to the coat. It is ideal for removing dust and dirt from the body and legs while enhancing the natural shine in the coat.
5th brush gives a final show ready polish look	6. Hass Diva Exclusive Horsehair and Lambswool Center Brush	The final brush makes the coat super glossy for a show finish! Combining the softest horsehair and lambswool, this luxurious brush leaves your horse's coat silky smooth with an incredible shine that is sure to be the talk around the stable. The black wood-look-alike back and exclusive silver writing add a touch of elegance
HAAS Mane and Tail brush	7. Haas Brenig Madoc Grooming Brush Purple	Gentle 5 cm bristles effectively lift mud, dirt, and dander from your horse's coat, mane, and tail to reveal soft and silky hair.
SleekEZ for Horses	8. SleekEZ Horse Grooming Shedding Blade 10"	Shed loose hair and dirt from the coat year round without irritating the horse. Provides the perfect massage and relief for animals, while giving them a beautiful, shiny coat in the process.

I also watched videos (and read blogs) on how to groom horses with the brushes. Here is the video from Brace Yourself I like her technique that she used she had the curry comb in her other hand to clean the brush between brushing the horse (EXCEPT FOR THE DIVA BRUSH) it was a great way to keep the brush clean during brushing

Parcour - made out of a mixture of grey and black horse hair - creates an superlative cleaning effect
Lipizzaner - made of an exclusive horse hair mixture - removes dirt whilst giving a gloss to the coat
Cavaliere - made of robust main and tail horse hair - creates a shiny coat
Coat Gloss - made of light, soft, thickly woven horse hair - finishing brush good for sensitive horses
Diva Exklusiv - made from lambswool with a soft horsehair border - perfect for glossy finish

Horsin' Around

I absolutely LOVE how shiny he is!!! WOW! I can not wait!

It is also really important to keep them clean so watched a few video the best one is from Eqclusive. You should wash them monthly.

Things to Prepare:

Tub with warm/hot water
Tub with cold water
Soap or shampoo that you use for your horse (this helps them not be allergic to their brushes after they are cleaned as well as the brushes are made with horse hair so it makes sense to clean them with what you use on your horse's hair)
For best results - use the Haas Striegel New Generation Soft Curry Comb Blue
Get your brushes ready
Fill tub/sink with warm/hot water and a little of the soap to make sudsy water
Place brushes brush side down in to soak
Use curry comb rub the brushes as shown (about 1:15 in video)
DO NOT USE CURRY COMB ON DIVA BRUSH!!!!!!! Use ONLY your hands. The brush is too soft
Soak brushes again for a few more min in the warm sudsy water
Drain water
Remove any soap from the brushes using COLD running water and curry comb and your hands
Shake brushes to drain them

Special instructions for DIVA brush

squeegee out the water on the DIVA brush with your hands (about 2:58 min)
rinse again under cold running water
shake water out

Once washed and drained make sure there is NO soap left if there is go back to previous step and put them under the running cold water again
Once soapless and Drained place them on your radiator or in your stable to Drip Dry
Brushes usually dry within 12 hours so it is best to dry them overnight

Now I run into the problem of how to carry all these brushes with me every day. Since they are not cheap - I do not want to leave them at the boarding place - PLUS I have nowhere to leave them. So I need to have a way to carry them all as well as the other things she needs. So I am now looking for how to carry it all in an organized way.

I feel very confident in grooming Lilly and caring for the brushes! Looking forward to her first brushing session!

Sunday, August 23, 2020

Oh me! Oh My! Travel Paperwork is daunting

Finding what Lilly needs to successfully enter Wyoming was hard. Pennsylvania DOES not do brand inspections BUT Wyoming does. So moving your horse from state to state when they do not have the same requirements can make it challenging. It is also VERY hard to find the correct information. I scoured the internet searching high and low for the information. So hopefully other people find this helpful.

1. Call your Brand Inspector (Wyoming)

Phone call with Laramie's Brand Inspector Roger things he said I need

Coggins test
health inspection
person - write me a bill of sale
we use coggins and bill of sale to write the brand inspection
give him a call when the horse gets here - he will come out and do the inspection

He also gave me other tips

in Wyoming - you need to have a brand inspection done - any time you take and transport even to another county you need a brand inspection
lifetime brand inspection - good for the horse the whole time you own the horse - never have to have it inspected again

I used these websites to try to find information about Wyoming and Pennsylvania.

Wyoming Horse Transportation Rules

Brand Inspection A Forms and L Forms are the only forms that allow animals to cross a state line. o A health certificate from a licensed veterinarian is required to cross a state line.

Keep in mind that health inspection costs vary and they must be written and used within 30 days of travel.
A negative Coggins test performed by a licensed veterinarian is required to cross a state line as well.
Keep in mind that it takes 3-4 business days for a Coggins test to be completed and costs will vary.

Pennsylvania Rules

While waiting for Roger to return my call, I called the Wyoming Livestock Board they told me that I will need a

Health Certificate
Coggins Test
some kind of paperwork showing ownership. They recommended I call the brand inspector for my county as he will have all the information on what paperwork is required. So I already called him and I am waiting for his return call.

This is more information I found in my search before I talked to Roger

It is recommended to get a lifetime brand inspection (Form L) (which I will definitely be doing) so I do not need to contact the brand inspector every time I want to take my horse to another county within Wyoming.

Brand Inspector - proof of brand inspection lifetime brand inspector - need to have title paper come and go as you please what paper - notarized bill of sale

Brand inspection and brand recording fees

Saturday, August 22, 2020

Lilly's Travel From Pennsylvania to Wyoming

The process to finding the company I wanted to use to transport Lilly was nerve wracking - but thankfully one that I also started early. I started looking the moment I started buying Lilly as I knew I would need to transport her from Pennsylvania to Wyoming.

I first did internet searches and found so many companies that transport horses. I also found so many different prices.

Than I decided to ask Rebecca at All the King's Horses who she would recommend. She had never used a company that transported to my neck of the woods. But, she said that she was having some horses shipped from South Dakota and after their trip she would let me know if she liked the company.

After the horse's successful trip, she said that she would recommend the shipping company Ride the Line Equine Transport. She said they did a great job on getting her horses to her safe and healthy. She also said they sent pictures. I LOVE PICTURES!!! So I contacted them in June to find out more about them.