Pictures

I think I promised these several months ago, at least, but about two-three weekends ago my husband finally came out so I got some pictures. No real riding update right now... The ring footing is holding up so far and I rode tonight, hopefully I'll get rides in tomorrow and Friday as well.

My favorite part about the pictures is in all of them she's got this super soft eye and just just looks happy. My position is improving, but we've still got a ways to go, obviously.

Trying to fix 20 years of bad habits

Hey everyone. Hope stuff is going well for everyone as the holidays rapidly approach.

I took a couple weeks off riding (not on purpose) between a bad cold and then once that was over, the weather was crap. But Phoebe and I are still plugging away at stuff.

Lately I've been working on trying to fix the bad/ineffective habits I know of in my position. Phoebe's owner's saddle actually works pretty well for me, so I'm trying to take advantage of that. I am terrible about doing the "hunter perch". I think it's a combination of my hip structure and bad instruction when I was first starting to ride. So now I'm really focusing on pushing my hips forward to get rid of my hollow back and stretching my legs down long while also keeping my knees pointed straight forward instead of letting them roll open somewhat. It's hard to know if I'm getting it right or not without an instructor, but it looks ok in the mirror and Phoebe seems to go better that way, so we'll see.

Our routine now is to spend the first 10-15 minutes getting her to actually move forward off my leg with lots of walk/extended walk or walk/trot transitions. She has a motor on her but she likes to make you do the work if she can get away with it. Once a gentle bump produces a result I focus more on me. Last night we had some problems with our trot/canter transitions. She usually has issues with them which I can't figure out. What seemed to help somewhat was if I kept the aids on longer. I've never had a horse who I had to HOLD the canter aids on though. Most of them I can just bring my outside leg back, hold the inside leg steady, and give a bump with the outside leg and they pick it right up.

I don't suppose any of you out there have any additional suggestions? I'm not letting her run into the transition, so maybe she just doesn't have the hind-end strength right now to step into them in frame? I could just hold off on cantering for a month or two and see if that helps, but I like having the canter as a tool to help her think "forward". I find it hard to believe that she's not strong enough to step into the canter from a trot. I hate having to use the whip to make her go forward, but for the first couple of transitions it's usually the only option I've found that works.

Hunter Pace

First, thanks everyone for the nice comments about my videos in my last post!

Sunday Jay and I went on our first hunter pace together! We rode with a couple of friends from the barn where I take lessons, and had a great time. I have really been having a good time with Jay since he has been back in work. He and I have really connected. It is just so wonderful to go out to the barn and have your horse nicker and come to you from across the pasture! Some of you have seen them already, but here is a link to the photos so that I don't have to re-upload them here!

Early on in the ride we came into a field along the road. The professional photographer was set up there, and got a couple of shots of me conquering my cantering issues...the ones I realized I had the day I drove nearly 6 hours to look at Jay! You can tell by the look on my face how I am feeling about it now!

We placed fourth...out of four teams in our division, LOL! We don't do it to win anyway, but to have fun, which we did! I guess that makes us winners after all!?!

This Saturday I am taking Jay to ride at the Biltmore House in Asheville, NC. I am going with the Yadkin Valley Hounds Pony Club, which I joined as a Horsemaster, their program for adults. I finally get to participate in Pony Club! Hopefully I will get some nice pictures to share.

Finally Riding Again!

I am so excited to be riding Jay again! I guess I wanted to make sure it was really real before I posted this, LOL. I got back in the saddle for a lesson on Sept. 5th. It was an easy one for Jay, his job was just to walk around with someone on him...while I was standing, posting at the walk without stirrups, etc. It was good! We also trotted for about 5 minutes, and it was a lovely trot, probably one of the best Jay has ever given me. I think he is really liking his chiro adjustment, new saddle, thinline pad, and my weight loss!

My rides since then have been really good, too. Jay has been happy and willing. I have been trying to ride him long and low. I still need to get some ground poles to work him over as the vet suggested, but in the meantime I have just been trying to work him correctly without them. We have still been doing mostly walk with some trot.

The farrier was out again September 12th, this is his third time shoeing Jay, and he is also very pleased with Jay's overall progress, and with how Jay's feet are doing.

This is something I have never done before, but I have some video of us from last Saturday to share. Feed back and constructive criticism are welcome and appreciated!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H21NBTd0gTk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRD_-i9RgNk&feature=channel

Decisions to be made

Hey guys,

So Phoebe is still doing well. She's actually been almost completely sound for most of our rides, though she got her feet done yesterday and was definitely back to being ouchy. Gayle says another trim, maybe two, and she should be in the clear with her feet. She probably still needs another chiropractic adjustment or two, but I think she's going to be completely fine.

Riding-wise I think we're doing pretty well. She's the first horse I've really felt an instant connection with since I sold my mare in college. I enjoy her and her personality. She's very much a "push" horse and lately I've been spending the first part of the ride trying to sharpen up her responses at the walk and trot. If I don't get her sharp at the walk and trot, I have a lot of trouble getting a good canter transition. At least all the walk/trot transitions should also be helping her build muscle! I haven't really had a "bad" ride where I feel like we're not on the same page. Some days I never get her as sharp as I want, but it's not hard to find a good note to end on. I've ridden her bareback a couple times and she's the same horse as under saddle, maybe even a bit more forward since we don't have a not-great fitting saddle to worry about.

Which brings me to the decision-to-be-made part of the post. Her owner is buying a house with some land and planning to move her other horse to her house. However, there aren't any riding facilities so she's going to leave Phoebe at the barn, at least for now. To offset the cost somewhat, she's offered to let me formally half-lease Phoebe, probably for the cost of half-board. That'd come out to about $100 more than I was paying when I was riding Pro since I was paying for 2 lessons a month on him. It's still a pretty awesome deal to ride a pretty well trained, talented mare, but I got spoiled by not paying to ride for most of the last 18 months. On the bright side, I wouldn't have to do any chores, so that cuts 30-45 min off each barn trip.

So, I've got to think about it for a bit. Luckily I don't think anything is going to happen in the next month so I've got some time. This would be my first official, paid leasing arrangement. I almost set up one with a horse before Pro, but the owner and I had a disagreement about training strategies during the first 30 days and I bailed on it. Do any of you have leasing experiences or opinions to weigh-in with?

Jay Update

It has been a rough summer for Jay and me, but hopefully things are on the upswing now! The farrier was out to shoe Jay August 17th. Jay had still been lame on the right front, but had been working out of it until just a few days before the farrier came...at that point he wasn't working out of it any more. I had talked to the vet and he said that Jay was right where he expected, and that it could take 3 more months before he is really over all of this.

Anyway, the farrier came, and Jay started getting fussy when he was working on the right front. About that time the farrier said the he was opening up an abscess! That explains why Jay was no longer working out of the lameness! I was just surprised because he was never "abscess lame."

Jay is currently looking the best that he has in a LONG time. He still takes a bad step now and then, but is really looking SO much better. His back is sore, though. So Jay went to the vet yesterday for a chiropractic adjustment. He of course was out of adjustment, and was sore in several places. He even raised his LH as a warning when she was working on his left hindquarters!

The vet agreed that his back soreness is probably from standing around out of balance and guarding himself in pain from his foot ordeal this summer. He of course has no topline whatsoever at this point. He has really been out of work since April, as I was only able to ride 4 times after the saddle fitting in April in the saddle I was trying at the time.

He also has quite a bit more atrophy in his left hindquarters than his right. His LH is the weaker leg, and has that "twist" to it when he moves. The vet suggested that I use a series of 10 to 12 trot poles to try to get him to use both hindquarters evenly. Part of our task now is to see how he responds to work in order to figure out if the atrophy is from 1) being out of adjustment, 2) EPM related, or 3) lameness in the left hind. She has recommended that I only do walk/trot until he is re-checked in 4 to 6 weeks.

I have a lesson scheduled for Saturday morning. We will be taking it easy, and probably do groundwork...and hopefully some riding!

Tai Chi worked for me!

Yep - Tai Chi for riders. I had a lesson on Saturday after being back on Skate since his shoe pulling incident. My instructor thinks he hurt his shoulder...which may or may not be related to the shoe pulling. He was still a smidge stiff and not striding out with the left front when we started (I couldn't see or feel it, but she could).

We worked on getting him to stretch, which was difficult as he was crankier than usual and really NOT into the lesson! Lots of falling in around corners and jigging during walking. Argh. Nothing frustrates me more than jigging. Once we moved on to cantering I was shocked to find Skate totally sucked back. He's rarely (can't even remember the last time) sucked back...he definitely tends towards rushy. I mean he was so far behind me and my legs I nearly topped over his head. I had to give him a good whack w/ the whip to convince him forward was best.

Anyhoo, as usual, our transitions were just plain awful. Lurching into the upwards and falling into the downwards. Frustration all around. So, my instructor decided to try Tai Chi. Basically deep breathing to the footfall of the horse to raise my awareness of where Skate is and to really help my feel. At first I was a nonbeliever...I thought my feel was just fine, thank you. After doing an upward transition with my seat into the sitting trot and then watching Skate stretch into the contact willingly while snuffling softly, I was changed. I am now a believer! And I realize I had no feel at all like I do w/ this technique. The old saying of sitting 'into' the horse's back came true...I could easily feel Skate's hips and my sitting trot was exponentially improved. For the piece de resistance, we did a few downwards using only my seat and Skate obliged while keeping his back up! It wasn't a miracle worker in the canter...but hey, two out of three gaits is enough to make me happy.

Amazing. I haven't had a ride that changed so significantly from start to finish in a while. I'm psyched to ride again...but alas, Skate pulled his other shoe off yesterday. I'm stuck with a lame horse again, damnit. So much for another good ride anytime soon. Time for a chat w/ the farrier, too.

Oh, if anyone is interested in Tai Chi for riders: www.horsehero.com/5201/13908/24930

Absentee blogger

Hi folks -- no, I've not fallen off the map! It seems life has just gotten in the way of riding.

Lori, Tango's owner, moved to another state last month, so we ended the lease in July and I sent my handsome buddy on his way down south. I miss him, but I know Lori and her family are thrilled with their move, and I'm sure Tango's got great new digs.

So I had to reevaluate my options... and rather than search for another "hitchhiking" arrangement or half lease, I decided to put a temporary hold on horseback riding for the remaining year or so of grad school. This was such a hard decision to make. But the home stretch of this PhD will be incredibly demanding on my time. To boot, my wonderful boyfriend will soon begin work on a prestigious postdoctoral fellowship out of state, and long-distance relationships are financially demanding as well. I hated to admit it to myself, but the reality is that this upcoming segment of my life just does not have room for horses.

So needless to say, I won't have posts of my own to contribute any time in the near future -- but I'll keep reading and commenting, and hopefully in a couple years I'll be back in the saddle again.

Getting Acquainted

Hey guys. Phoebe continued to get ouchier and ouchier for a couple rides so she got about a week off and I've started back riding her. The last two rides have been probably 95-99% sound. She'll step a bit short around turns every now and then, but for the most part she seems good to go.

Since our first ride we've gotten a lot more used to each other. She's an interesting ride in that she's not really off your leg when you start, she doesn't go forward, but then again she also stays at a steady tempo/speed. So I've started letting her stay in her comfort zone until we walk/trot/canter in each direction. Once she canters a bit her motor gets going and she'll go forward when you ask. Our turning has improved, we can actually stay in the ring now. ;) She tends to lean in on turns and prop on her inside shoulder, so now I'm working on that with her. She's also a good education in canter departs. If I drop her front end as I ask for the transition she runs through it, but if I keep contact she'll usually step into it nicely.

One thing I'm rapidly falling in love with are her gaits. Her trot and canter are both ZOMG-amazing ;). Super easy to sit, even once she gets rolling. I have no idea how they'd score in the dressage ring, but for riding they're a lot of fun. This evening once she got rolling I could see why she'd been at an event trainer. Cantering her around made me want to go take her XC and jump around and I'm a giant wuss :). She's just a lot of fun to mess around with. If I can keep her in consistent work for another week I'll start pushing her for more stuff. Right now I'm trying to just keep her mostly correct and let her build up some muscle. Hope everyone else is having fun.

Goodbye, Pookie-Head (Pepsi's Gone)

This is NOT the update post I want to be making, but it looks like it has to be made.

We had to take Pepsi to the vet school today because he wasn't eating his breakfast and was showing neurological symptoms. (He couldn't seem to figure out where his hind end was, what to do with his hind legs, etc.) They gave us a range of possible diagnoses, anywhere from a bone spur impinging on his nerve (from which he would probably heal completely) to EPM/EEE/West Nile Virus, which we couldn't have really done anything about.

When I left him ~2:30 this afternoon he was eating hay and seemed fairly content. Lindsay (who works at the vet school) called about 3:30 to say that she & Rachael went back to check on him before they went home and that he had a catheter in him to help him pee, but was otherwise still in good condition and was being an absolute gentleman about everything.

I basically thought we'd have to make some hard decisions Monday (which is when we were going to run all the diagnostics to avoid an emergency diagnostic fee on the weekend), but never got the chance. I got a call tonight about 8:30 that he had fallen down in the stall and couldn't get back up. The vet also said that he couldn't pee or poop on his own, so I decided to put him down.

My mom and I drove to the vet school, and I was there with him while they put him down. He was laying down in the stall, looking around and being his normal sweet & mouthy self when we got there. They gave him some hay and a giant bowl of cookies to eat, and he was quite happy with all of the food around him to munch on, and kept nosing me for more. I was there right beside him as they gave him the drugs, and he was enjoying his cookies up to the very end.

The ironic thing is that he'd been SO good lately, and we'd really started to work on some of our last remaining issues. I was SO looking forward to taking lessons on him, to taking him to different clinics, and to get him started on Adequan so that he could keep going strong.

The good news is that at least now he's able to run freely in green pastures, and he can have all the cookies he wants forever.

So everyone, go kiss your horses, tell them you love them, and then give them a carrot or a cookie from me.

~Mary

***Run free through green pastures sweetheart. I will always love you, and now you can go play with Bandit...until I see you both again over the rainbow.***

Jay gave Skate some new ideas....

for getting out of work! I think he's been reading this blog : )

Skate pulled his brand new shoe partly off early last week. The BO pulled it the rest of the way off for him. Somewhere in that process he went lame - either from stepping on the clip (first time ever in shoes w/ clips, dangit) or from bruising while waiting to have the shoe reset, or some sort of soft tissue injury from torquing that shoe off. Who knows, really.

Anyway, we soaked and buted for a few days and he came sound this past weekend. I even rode for a while and he was great. I went out yesterday to ride again and he was lame again! Maybe there's just an abscess brewing in there...so I soaked and buted him again. I'm still turning him out - he's sound enough to gallop away when I take his halter off - ha.

So, I guess we'll just take the wait and see approach.

Freebie Ride

Hey all! Finally a riding update. :)

I get to ride Phoebe for the week. She's a 16.2ish bay mare who evidently was doing some eventing previously and jumps up to 3'6" (not that there are really any jumps at the barn, but still, it's nice to know jumping is an option if I keep riding her after this. She's some sort of warmblood, I forget what though. I'll try to remember to snap a picture of her this evening.

Last night I didn't do too much, because she hadn't been ridden in over a week due to getting adjusted. She's also been slightly off for most of the 3-4 months she's been at the barn. Her feet are getting rehabbed so we're not sure if it's her feet, her body from being stiff and out of shape, or what. She works out of it and doesn't seem particularly uncomfortable so the plan for now is to just monitor it and see how things go.

She's a VERY different ride from Pro. She has no concept of power-steering, is pretty resistant to leg (she goes when you ask, but doesn't really power along), and after Pro's giraffe antics I feel like her head is at her knees ;). She was fun to mess with though and seems to have a pretty good attitude. I think I'll probably end up trying to do lots of bending exercises with her. We did some walk serpentines and then when we were trying to figure out what leg the lameness was in I did some square turns with her. She did very well with those and she apparently KNOWS dressage, so I think the lack of bending is probably just her being lazy.

I cantered her for a bit on a 20m circle and was really impressed. Her canter was much more put-together feeling and I got her to rock back some at the canter and use her butt some. I'm thinking I might be able to do lots of canter-trot transitions to get her off her forehand some at the trot?

I don't know if I'll ride tonight, it's apparently going to be freakishly hot and I'm doing stalls for the barn manager since it's her birthday. Hope everyone else has been having some nice rides as well!

Jay's Still Lame...

I thought Jay was sound, because he has been looking good in the pasture. Specifically last Wednesday the BO put another mare and gelding pony in the pasture with Jay and Jay's gelding buddy, and the pony decided that Jay should not go anywhere NEAR "his" mare. The pony became a screaming whirling dervish, LOL, and didn't make much if any contact with Jay, but he got the message across. The BO's asked me that night if I picked Jay because of his beautiful movement at the trot, because he was just lovely, so I know he wasn't lame because they definitely would have noticed.

Friday night I tacked Jay up planning to lunge him just a bit to make sure he was listening to me, and then get on for a little bit and walk around. I started off trotting him to the right...and he was still lame on the RF, about a 3 out of 5! I was so discouraged. I didn't get a reaction to hoof testers.

Yesterday DH and I pulled up to find Jay playing in the pasture. He looked good and looked pretty sound at liberty. He was DEFINITELY feeling good! I put him in the round pen, and his lameness was a grade better than Friday.

After thinking it over and talking to the BO (who was at the farriers meeting and also saw how bruised Jay's RF foot was), I think he is just still sore from the extensive bruising. I hope that is all it is. Jingles for Jay will be much appreciated!

Jay's Farriers Meeting Update

A week ago today (July 14th) Jay went to the farriers meeting at my vet clinic. Unfortunately for us, they had FOUR cases that night (they usually only have three), and for whatever reason Jay was put last. So by the time Jay's turn came, another horse was still being worked on, people were more scattered, it was getting late, etc., and Jay didn't quite get the level of attention that I had hoped for, and that he would have gotten earlier in the meeting.

Jay was definitely more sound than he was when he went to the vet June 22nd, but was still a consistent 2 out of 5 lame on the right front, and at times he was definitely 3 out of 5 lame on it. His palmar angle is 0 degrees...flat...where it should be a positive angle of 2 to 5 degrees. His soles are also thin, approximately 8mm where they should be at least 10mm thick to be comfortable.

The farrier who has been helping Jay since June doesn't shoe with traditional shoes (she is an awesome trimmer but only uses Hoof-It composite shoes), so I spoke up early on and let the group know I would need a farrier. A farrier was there that night who just moved to North Carolina from Alberta Canada, so he stepped forward to do Jay.

A few ideas on how to best help Jay were floated about, such as using a natural balance shoe, or the quick "cure" of using wedges and pour in pads. I just want a sound and happy horse! Jay had been sound in regular shoes before this, and I was concerned that putting pads, etc. on him would just give him more to grab and pull off. Jay was trimmed (revealing BAD bruising on the right front...not surprising), and several shoe options (without using wedges and pads) were discussed. Thankfully enough hoof had grown out on that right front that there was something to nail to! Because Jay has thin walls, though, a St. Croix rim shoe was used, so that the nail holes are further to the outside. Jay was trimmed to move his breakover back, and the right front was fitted a little closer in the heel.

Jay left the meeting with two front shoes on! The vet told me not to change anything about his turnout routine for a week, so he was kept on stall rest with limited turnout. Well, on Thursday morning I went out to check Jay and found him with a swollen, hot right front fetlock with a wound on the back inner side, right where it would be most "convenient" to have been hit by the left rear. I was really not happy to find this, even though I realized that Jay could have even done this some other way.

I gave Jay a gram of Bute, and by mid-day the swelling and heat were down. That night Jay was sound and obviously feeling MUCH better than he had in a LONG time. It has been apparent each day since that he is really feeling a lot better and happier. Yesterday I walked the fence line in the pasture with Jay, and turned him out for the afternoon. Today he started on his new turnout schedule!

I hate it that Jay (and I!) had to go through this, but there have already been some very positive things to come from the whole ordeal. Jay is at a much nicer, better barn. Jay, DH, and I are so much happier there! Our new BO was even interested enough to go to the farrier meeting with us! Also, this past Saturday I saw the farrier who did Jay, and got to talk with him some more. So long as Jay does well with his shoeing, I have a new farrier who would have been very hard to find otherwise because he is so new to the area. (In fact HE didn't even know he lived close to where Jay is boarded...his girlfriend who knows the area spoke up that night!) He cold shod Jay, but should it be needed he also does hot shoeing, something that is hard to find in this area.

Later this week I will be able to start thinking about riding Jay. The vet said to not even think about it for 10 to 14 days. ...OK, I admit it, I AM thinking about it, LOL!

BTW, where is everyone? I know that I am guilty of being MIA/AWOL too! It has been a busy time with moving, multiple trips per day to the barn, moving barns, etc....plus I haven't been able to ride to post any updates on that! I hope everyone comes back! :)

Pony Club Camp

Well, this is a bit overdue...but better late than never! I went to Pony Club camp the last weekend in July. It was supposed to be a mix of Pony Clubbers and Horsemasters, but it turned out to be all Pony Clubbers and one lone Horsemaster, me. Let me tell you, those Pony Clubbers are way more horsemastery than me!

I arrived Thursday evening and attempted to settle Skate in his stall. He was not a happy camper...lots of pacing and calling out. I slept in a tent outside the barn and slept maybe an hour total b/c I just knew he was going to work himself into a colic. One of his neighbors had severe allergies and spent the evening coughing - I kept panicking that it was Skate and he was choking. It was ridiculous - this is why I should never have my horse at home, I'd be a total helicopter mom.

By Friday morning he had settled a bit...I had a dressage lesson late morning. Funny thing was, once he was out of his stall, he was perfectly content. He just didn't like being in there all alone. It was also a cinder block barn - and visibility was low for the horses. The windows were barred and he couldn't really see his neighbors. Anyway, Skate impressed everyone with his ground tying skills, he was that quiet once out of the stall. I found out there were enough turnout paddocks for the him to go out in the evening, so that was my plan.

The dressage lesson was good. The woman teaching the lesson was a woman I had seen ride at Skate's first show - her horse had a meltdown so I remember it really well. We discussed how that judge was TOUGH for a schooling show - no one had scored above a 62 that whole day (I had scored a 54 and a 50, and my rides were not that bad). Anyway, we worked a lot on transitions, as I have a tendency to collapse and cause Skate to sorta shuffle into the next gate. I also learned my left shoulder is way ahead of my right. I had no idea I was that crooked. We then worked on TL 3, so I could ride that test for the fix-a-test that evening. That evening I rode the test and she scored me a 62...with instructions to work on my circles (as usual) and that Skate's not really reaching down consistently for the stretchy circle or the free walk. He stretches at first, but then pops back up, down, up, down. This was our first attempt at TL3, but it was way more entertaining than TL1. Geez, that test is boring!

Skate was out all night Friday, and was happy as a clam. I, however, was a nervous nelly over my upcoming jumping lesson. I haven't really jumped in a year! Thank goodness they let me do a private lesson. The instructor was awesome. Super positive and supportive. She helped my confidence and gave me some great position pointers to make me more secure. The lesson was focused on gymnastics....and she tricked me into doing the whole thing by saying we'd stick with poles if she felt I needed to. By the end we were doing 4 poles to a x-rail, to a 2' vertical, to a 2'3" oxer, to another 2'9" oxer! Yay! Thank you Skate, for being a trooper and toting my unbalanced butt over those.

Sunday was another jumping lesson, with the focus on our position. I sucked it up and rode with the big kids : ) That lesson was super fun. Skate was a little rushy and cranky - once the height went up he bounced the one stride and commenced to continue bouncing up and down after the line. I managed to hang on and come back through, and learned my lesson about trying to sit on Skate's withers over fences. He's already prone to getting on his forehand due to his conformation, so I've got to help him stay balanced by staying BACK over fences. I got to do the whole gymnastic with NO HANDS! That'll teach ya not to lean. The other teens were brave enough to do no hands, no stirrups, but I said no thanks to that. Ha.

We then went on to switch horses. The first horse I got on was a huge mare that was a Hobbes replica. She was the horse everyone needs to learn to jump on...very flat easy peasy jumper. I loved her although she did require some encouragement to go forward. That's the type of horse I ride better, anyway, though...Skate's tendency to get rushy has taught me a lot, but its not my specialty. The next horse I got on was a 14 h pony! She was the cutest little thing - basically pushbutton but was a jumping fool. I was terrified that she'd have to crack her back over those bigger oxers, but her jump was easier to ride than Skate's! She's got little springs for hooves.

While I was riding the other horses, Skate was getting schooled by the teens. The first girl who rode him whipped his rushy butt into shape. She's a super rider and had much better control of her body than me, so she was able to really focus on balancing him between fences. He was transformed into a cute hunter pony after she finished with him! We all agreed she rode him way better than I did - we had to critique each other's rides and discuss what we would work on with each person's horse to improve their way of going.

Lots of other things went on during the weekend; we drove to Tryon to watch a dressage show and do a little shopping (bought some Akene leather conditioner, that stuff is awesome), did a bunch of crafts (tie dye, anyone?), and watched some horsey videos. I had a great time, although I wish I had another horsemaster there with me!

Since that weekend, Skate has been a superstar. Every ride has been easy and I'm really looking forward to my lesson tomorrow. I think the 3 days of hard riding must have refocused him, maybe?

Good boy!

Pro has been great lately, and I've been miserable about updating. Friday's lesson was quite good. We started off with the poll-flexing exercise. Gayle reminded me that I need to do it SLOWLY, otherwise it becomes the razor in the monkey's hand. He really needs it done more to the left, and not so much to the right. Although he tries to overbend it right because it's easy for him and he thinks that's what I want. So then I have to carefully and slowly flex him back left, and I even saw his nuchal ligament pop back into place, which was pretty cool. Once we had him flexing AND staying attentive, we walked off. Gayle corrected my hands right away and with that, he started stretching and looking for the bit.

It's one thing to be conscious of keeping your lower legs off of the horse unless needed, but it's another to lift both your legs off the horse from the hip - I felt a few things in my lower back crack! It's sort of fluffing your legs, so the horse realizes he can poof his sides out. I remember the judge I took lessons with occasionally would have us do that periodically at the sitting trot, to sort of fluff out the horse. Pro seemed to really enjoy this fluffing, and poofed out! Unfortunately, there were a lot of distractions on Friday. Big Horse was doing some work with his owner in a nearby field, a brush hog was mowing across the pond, and the metal roof on the shed was banging and flapping in the wind. It was clear that Pro was getting nervous about these things, so Gayle stepped in to take advantage of the situation. We had to remind him that there is ALWAYS a safe place for him when he gets scared, and that safe place is chasing the bit.

So when he got nervous, I offered him the bit, and he actually remembered! He relaxed into his game of chasing the bit, and the nervousness disappeared. I was so proud. :) We did some spiraling in and spiraling out - spiraling in involves taking control of the horse's shoulder, and pushing that toward the inside. At the same time, you keep that inside hind leg engaged with your inside leg. It's easy for the horse to feel trapped here - with you in control of his shoulder and inside leg, so it's critical to make sure that they know they have an open door in your inside rein, to chase the bit. Pro hates feeling trapped, but I kept offering the inside and he relaxed! To spiral out, you switch the "door" to the other side, and open your outside aids - the horse steps over and over to fill those aids. He did so well.

We worked on longitudinal elasticity - lengthenings! Posting is following an arc, so to lengthen, you flatten that arc and post more forward, in a way. I had to remember to be prepared for his jump, and not get left behind the motion in that moment. He figured it out, and enjoyed himself! From there, we cantered, and he was just so well-behaved, and at this point Gayle had used up her lesson quota of "good boy!" sayings ;) so we ended it there.

Last night was pretty much a repeat of the lesson, only quicker. At each gait and direction I tested for the basics and once they were there, I moved on. I did let him work at the trot for a bit, since he felt really correct and it was giving his muscles a good workout. Once I checked the canter in each direction, he was done. :)

Here is us experimenting with leg-yielding - Gayle tells me to just turn my head and think sideways, and Pro SHOOTS sideways!!!


And the lengthening:

Worth the wait (for me, maybe not for you ;))

Friday morning Gayle called to let me know that she'd been kicked in the knee by her son's pony the night before so she was running late. My 10 o'clock lesson ended up being at 11, and I was a little worried about the heat, but typically once I get on and start riding I don't notice. Gayle brought out one of her Prestige saddles for me to ride in and Pro and I both loved it. I think it'd have been a good lesson either way, but in this saddle everything felt easy for me, and I think even for Pro. I was a bit concerned at first because it had HUGE thigh blocks and I've never ridden in anything that came even close. They were set far enough up and forward that they didn't really come into play except when we first started trotting and Gayle said to use them to help me do some half-halts. Other than that I never even noticed them being there.

We started off getting him to flex at the poll with the magical not-to-be-explained-on-the-internet trick Kate learned last week. Because of all the ligament damage in his head/neck from being cranked around as a baby, his poll and neck are too flexible. So I have to be very careful to get him to flex correctly and not over flex. Pro had already tuned me out by the time I asked him to walk off so I'd flex at the halt till I had his attention and his energy was pointed forward and ask him to walk off. If he went immediately to pieces then I'd halt, regather him, and ask again. After about 5-10 minutes we were able to walk off straight and engaged. With that as a start it was pretty easy to get him in front of me and thanks to the saddle and the engagement he rounded up with his back at the walk. Once I had him going forward with impulsion we worked on collecting that energy. So I had to get him out in front of me, but then once I had "forward" I had to collect him back so that I had "up". Part of doing that was giving him space to bring his withers up in front of me. Gayle had me shorten my reins a notch by moving my hands up to the next notch, not by bringing the notch back to me. That gave Pro space between my seat and my hands to come up. Pro spent a lot of the ride trying to convince me that it really was much better to do things his way, but luckily didn't have as much success getting me to dive with him or monkey with his face. I wish I could explain exactly what I did, but Gayle gave us a lot of time to just figure things out with the new saddle and me trying to not give in to the dark side, so a lot of stuff was little tiny adjustments that wouldn't make much sense on the blog ;).

We trotted both directions and worked on keeping his rhythm the same, nice and steady, but pushing him forward with NO rushing. I had to fight to keep him straight as he kept wanting to bulge (either out to the right or in to the left). Gayle had me straighten him a tiny bit at a time. Every time he'd get straighter and stretch down, I'd send him forward. The idea here was that he can't go forward and under himself unless he gets his front feet out of the way. So when he'd straighten, I'd ask for forward and get it, and THEN he couldn't really bulge as much anymore because his back feet were in the way. I love playing tricks like that on him! At the end he was taking these HUGE ground covering strides and we were all having a blast. Pro thought he was hot stuff, I was having fun because it was going so well and he felt so awesome, and Gayle was happy for both of us. She says a lot of people get intimidated by all the power when the horse is really traveling forward. I think I'm addicted instead. No worries I'll be trying to shut his gaits down. Now I just have to try to recreate it next time I ride. This heat has been giving me too many excuses to not ride...

Jay Needs Jingles!

I know I must be getting a reputation for long posts...sorry! I hope you will read, though, and I did include pictures! Jay needs some jingles!

A lot has been happening with Jay. After a little over two weeks this is what Jay's glue-on shoe looked like:

The new farrier came out 6-9-09, and removed that shoe. It was about to "remove" itself, LOL! She and I decided to try the Hoof-It composite shoes that I mentioned in my last post. I didn't get a picture of them on him, but this is what one looks like on another horse she has done:

She spent about three hours (!) working with Jay, who was not entirely cooperative at times, mainly because he hurt. Because we were trying the Hoof-It shoes, Jay's LF aluminum shoe had to come off too. There still wasn't anything to nail to, so both shoes were glued on.

Jay stayed overnight at my friend's place, where I had met the farrier, to let the glue dry. The next day I was getting reports that sounded like Jay was virtually crippled! So the farrier was super to meet me out there again that night to try to get Jay into a better situation ASAP. He was about 3 out of 5 lame which is still not good, but better than crippled! She began by removing the bar in the shoes with her nippers, and that helped Jay some, but he was still clearly uncomfortable. So off the Hoof-It shoes came! Between the shoes, glue, and overnight stay, there went about $60 down the drain! Ouch! The farrier has been great about helping me out with cost as best she can, though. She has really been great, and our next attempt was trying some hoof boots...and she let me borrow her own personal boots. So these are the Cavallo hoof boots with Happy Hoof pads inside them:

I have to add that this farrier's trim virtually eliminated the characteristic "twist" that Jay has had in his LH leg as he moves off. As we were watching Jay move, watching for it, I noticed some steps that I didn't like. So I did some neurological tests like circling and the tail pull, with not very encouraging results. I knew Jay was hurting from all the foot soreness and changes though, so I tried not to panic and took him home to see how he would settle in. The neuro tests steadily improved, so I think it was just from soreness.

Jay looked relatively good in the boots after 24 hours, and there were no signs of rubs. He had increased digital pulses which worried me, but TPR were OK, so I gave him bute. The next morning Jay looked good and seemed pretty happy, no increased pulses, and so with some more bute I made the decision, with some trepidation, to take Jay to pick up the new saddle. He looked good on arrival there, and was such a trooper and let me sit on him in the saddle for about 15 minutes to check the fit and make sure it was adjusted correctly. Not a very good shot, but here it is:

When we got home I removed Jay's boots to check everything over, and there were some rubs. Aargh! They weren't really bad, and I didn't want them to get worse, so I decided to not continue using the boots. I didn't feel comfortable trying them with vet-wrap, which is supposed to help with rubbing. I called Davie County Large Animal Hospital (DCLAH) to get an appointment with Dr. Meeker. Jay is scheduled for the farrier meeting July 14th (YAY!), but I wanted him to be checked before then. The soonest I could get an appointment with Dr. Meeker was this past Monday. The farrier met us there, too, which was really nice. She was VERY instrumental in getting Jay into the farrier meeting, too!

Dr. Meeker did a low block that blocked just the heels, and Jay went relatively sound. His coronary bands are still so inflamed from the boots that they are contributing some. He also did x-rays, and I was really nervous at this point as laminitis thoughts were being floated about. I was also worried about navicular, etc., because Jay was SO painful and lame.

Thankfully the x-rays were actually pretty good. There were no signs of laminitis and no navicular changes...YAY! However, Jay's sole depth is less than 1cm, which is about the minimum "acceptable" thickness. There is just still nothing to nail to in order to get a shoe on to protect him! Dr. Meeker said that Jay is excellent for the farrier's meeting, we just have to keep him comfortable until then. So I have found a better place to keep Jay for at least the next three weeks so that he can have good stall rest with limited turnout. The farrier also let me borrow her own Easyboot Gloves, with thicker Happy Hoof pads, for turnout.

Jay is so lame and uncomfortable that we did not get into evaluating his LH "twist," whether that is a contributing factor to the shoe pulling, and the effect that this most recent trim has had on it. Things are complicated right now!

A week off = Silly Pony

Once Skate gets used to thinking for himself, he prefers to keep it that way. He had a week off due to a death in the family so getting back into the swing of things is going to take a few rides. Last night he was rushy, tense, spooky, and on his forehand. Ugh. Good times! On the bright side, it really made me work on myself - I spent a lot of time really sitting back and deep trying to get him to engage his hind end and quit trying to dig a hole to China with his front hooves. My back is sore from having to half halt his front end so his hind end would catch up. I don't think its unreasonable to think he can canter down the long side without speeding up. We do not need to circle constantly! I spent a lot of time telling him to "get it together!"

Of course he was so opposed to listening to me, he tried to opportunize on every distraction...old rattly trucks seemed to be conveniently driving by all evening. Last week a biker went by and Skate cared less, what's with the fear of rattly trucks? I know he's totally just used to thinking for himself and I've got to reinforce that I'm the driver of this team!

I have always thought that the reason the horse was so bad after time off was b/c he was full of energy - last night I realized it has nothing to do with that. It was hot as crap, humid, and Skate goes out in a huge hilly pasture for 17 hrs a night...he is not full of energy. He was totally trying to control the situation. When he is worked regularly he is used to following my lead on the ground and undersaddle.

This weekend he'll certainly be worked regularly. I'm signed up for Pony Club camp, which includes two lessons a day in dressage, gymnastics, and XC (remains to be seen whether I'll actually be brave enough for this), plus trail rides each night of Friday through Sunday. Chubby Skate is going to boot camp! (Yes, he's actually getting his food cut back as he just slid over to the high side of the Henneke scale).

Elasticity!

Okay, so I'm finally updating my Friday lesson...I rode last week as well, but I guess I need to get more militant with myself about posting so I can actually use this blog to track my progress. **I also added pictures to Andrea's entry, so make sure to go check them out. :)

I was just getting on when Gayle arrived, so I took advantage of the timing to ask her to help with my pre-ride "ritual". We worked on standing poll flexion, which isn't anything like the way Chris Cox does it. I'm also sworn to secrecy, and made to promise that I won't teach anyone else how to do it. ;) It's something that's very hard to explain unless you're actually having someone stand next to you and show you, plus Gayle really emphasized that it can be harmful if misinterpreted and misused. But basically, I learned how to gently flex him at the poll (not his neck, at all...Gayle warned of repercussions of neck-flexing, especially when/if Pro ever gets into a double bridle!). She reminded me that the horse's atlas is a very delicate piece of anatomy, and doesn't need to be wrenched around in order to achieve flexion. Now, the neck-bending we did way back when she first started with us, that was discipline. And Gayle is quite clear on the differences between discipline and training. That was discipline, now we're training. :)

He warmed up pretty well at the walk, especially using my "high hands" trick to counter any attempts at giraffe-face. Pushing my stomach at my hand if he jigged. We moved on to the trot, and continued to practice "threading him through the bit", one piece at a time. Bump with my inside leg (or both legs, gently, to ask for a touch more impulsion), give with the inside rein when he pushes his energy back at me. Eventually we had quite the lovely trot :) and even ventured off of our circle into a figure-eight. And I bravely did my best at resisting the urge to TAKE my inside rein when he stiffened and pushed his energy back at me as we neared the bunny tree. Inside leg, give inside rein! We're making chasing the bit into his new safe place - where things feel familiar, comfortable for him. If he gets nervous, remind him to chase the bit, and he relaxes. And he did!! Finally, after many years, Pro is finally trusting me. Gayle reminded me that it will take a long time to completely undo all the misunderstandings from prior rides (both with me, and others before me). But he's finally realizing that he can trust me, and that I'll keep him safe, and always give him a safe place to go.

I also had a major conceptual breakthrough. :) I forget what triggered it, but I suddenly realized that ALL of these years, the words "on the bit" had conveyed the wrong idea to me. The horse doesn't go ON the bit, he goes TO/TOWARD the bit!!! The energy has to go forward, things have to go forward, how can things go forward if we're pulling their faces backward? Or pulling anything backward? I guess I'd "known" this in my head after working with Gayle, but it finally clicked into place and I really, truly got it. When everything goes forward, and Pro chases the bit, it looks as if he's "on the bit" when he's really always moving toward the bit.

We even cantered some, and he was so delightful about the whole thing. A nice easy transition up into the canter, and he relaxed into it. I feel like I can really sit deeper and more still when I consciously lift my lower legs off his sides at the canter. And Gayle reminded me that at all gaits, my seat looks more still if his back is up (counter-intuitive). There's no conscious going-with-the-motion of the horse (ie, moving hips, etc.) - you just sort of go with them by being still. If the horse's back is hollow, that's when your seat moves around, so it's a good way to check if their back is up...the feeling of "stillness" in your seat.

Gayle said Pro has finally (!!) developed elasticity. :) Longitudinal elasticity is the foundation of lengthening and shortening the stride, and lateral elasticity is the foundation of good lateral work. She said he's a solid 7-year old these days, so I'm just thrilled! :)

A happy moment...

I'm just going to say that yesterday Skate did what I have always wanted a horse of mine to do: He came galloping up to me in the pasture! I just went out to give him a once over and say hello and he spied me across the field and took off towards me. Sure, he just wanted a cookie...but it made my day and cheered me up after a bad week. Thanks, therapy pony : )

Reprogramming muscle memory

Sorry I haven't been blogging. There's just so much to do and so little time.

Last week I got serious about getting a new saddle and tried one out from Triangle Horse Sports. It was a little bit too wide for Pro and Gayle says that the gussetted style of panels won't sit properly on his back, so that had to go back. She thinks a Prestige will work best for him, so she's supposed to have her saddle fitter/neighbor David keep an eye out for a used Prestige in my price range ($800 or less, I'm a poor broke grad student right now). Until then I'll make do with shortening my stirrups a hole so I can post over the pommel of Kate's saddle ;). I realized about two weeks ago that I was slamming my crotch into it every stride at the trot so my butt would like some extra room. Dennis from Rocking B may come to the barn in July to fit several horses, so depending on how much that is I might buy in and have him see if there's anything closer to my price range that will work.

My lesson on Friday was hard because Gayle made sure we went to my weaker direction (going right) instead of left. To the left I apparently do an ok job of not fiddling with my inside rein, but to the right my right hand wants to do all the work still. That makes sense with what I'd noticed on my own about how I needed to keep a firmer connection with the outside rein. Unfortunately by the time my hand started understanding what I wanted Pro had already gotten pissed about me screwing around with his inside rein and gotten less cooperative. Gayle took control of my inside rein and helped get him to stop laying on my inside leg so that we could bend correctly. At the end we got a couple circles of nicer trot, though we had to go very slow to keep things at a speed I could control.

Last night the rain stopped/held off long enough for me to get a ride in. It was my first ride post-lesson and I went to the right and made myself not let my left elbow get in front of my left hip. That worked pretty well for keeping the outside rein connected. Then I tried to focus on every time I wanted to twitch my right hand bumping him with my right leg instead. If he didn't listen to the leg, he got tapped with the whip. If he didn't listen to the tap and get off my inside leg then I let myself pull his head in quickly and then immediately let go. He seemed much happier with that system than with me constantly monkeying with his head. I wasn't completely successful at staying out of his way with the inside rein, but I felt like it was progress. It's just a lot of work to stop myself from pulling inside, tell my leg to react instead, etc. We did almost the entire ride at the walk until I felt like he was stretching down and forward for the bit consistantly and taking "big boy" strides forward and was really in front of me. Staying at the walk helped give me the time to think and not worry about my balance while applying my aides. Our trot work was better than it normally is to the right, but it took a couple laps to get him back on the outside rein. It's going to take me awhile to get it right consistantly and convince Pro that I'm not going back to the way he's trained me to ride where I drop my hands and worry about his nose more than his ribs. Still, I was pleased with my progress in one ride, so hopefully by next Friday we can work on something different. :)

I'm Alive

I'm sorry I have been away. Its been a hell of the past few weeks. I lost my job, started training full time, and have been riding like crazy. I'm starting school in August to be an EMT. YAY!

I have 3 horses in for training and am working Andy like crazy. I'm keeping up with their training journals/blogs and trying to get everything else done too. I do come over and read everyone's updates though!

Skate - The Welcoming Committee Chairpony

Its nice to have such a friendly horse...but a pain when he feels the need to befriend the new mare in the neighboring field. Skate turned into a loudmouth last night when he saw his new BFF being taken away. Luckily, all his dreams were fulfilled when they rode in the indoor with us!

I figured, after hearing the "miss you!" screams in my ear while tacking up, that Skate would be a horrid pain to ride...but he was a very good boy. I don't know if things would have gone so well if the new BFF wasn't IN the arena with us!

How do you get a horse to shut the hell up? I feel like there's no need to punish, as long as he's behaving. He does this at shows, too...screams for anyone and everyone, yet behaves just fine. He can get tense, but still does what I ask. What do you do? Ignore?

Fiddling around

After a couple of conversations with people at the barn and Kate's work with keeping her reins longer, I decided to try a different sort of ride with Pro than normal today. I started with my reins LONG (4th stop as opposed to the normal 2nd) and just let him walk on a relatively loose rein. That didn't mean he didn't have to pay attention, but just that I didn't care about collecting him up. Instead I did a lot of circles and serpentines to get him listening. Even from the beginning he was reaching forward for the bit and seemed happy. Interestingly, with the longer reins he really didn't try to rush. Once I was happy with how he was going forward I shortened my reins to the 3rd stop and then started bumping him forward to get him really in front of my legs and stretching down across his back. Then back to a longer rein for a bit before asking him to step up into the trot.

He immediately went into a nice, rounded back trot and it really felt like he was coming up to meet my seat. We played with that for quite awhile. He was staying round and happy, but wasn't as lose in his shoulders as I was hoping for. The BM was riding with me and I asked her about it to see what she suggested. She had me do a 15m circle at a collected trot in the corner, then half-halt HARD as we came around the corner towards the diagonal and then send him out down the diagonal. The first time I dropped my reins at him and we got nothing. The second time I cut it to a 10m circle, half-halted and then released the energy from my seat instead of dropping him in front. He extended pretty nicely for a stride or two. A couple more tries and he shot off down the diagonal so extended that I think he freaked himself out. It actually felt like his front legs had some SNAP to them as opposed to shuffling. From there we spent most of the rest of the ride getting him settled and comfortable again and playing with loose and forward but not rushing. I also made sure to give him longer reins periodically and send him down and out to check that his back was staying loose.

When we cantered he was sort of rushy and off balance, but once we did a couple circles and half-halts he found his balance and really settled in. I lengthened the reins at the canter to see what he'd do and he stretched down and down and down for the contact and then started falling on his forhand. D'oh! Back to the trot, a rebalance, and then we walked around on a loose rein. I think I'm going to play with this looser rein and more focus on forward (in balance, of course) for the rest of this week and see how the lesson goes. As the BM pointed out, he's really still more of a Training level horse and at this point he should be going in a longer frame so we can work on the throughness of the back. I think we had to collect him more than you normally would when starting a horse to help him find his balance, but now that he'll look for it on his own, we need to help him learn to carry the energy forward instead of getting stuck. I could be wrong though, so we'll see.

More Straightening...

I had another lesson this morning...Skate was a very good pony - quiet, attentive, and willing. Our exercise of the day was a short leg yield as we come off the short end of the ring. So, building on the straightening (in the corner) exercise of last weekend, we came down the long side in a sitting trot, spiraled in to a circle that would be at about the quarter line, then leg yielded quickly back to the rail. The first time I tried it we lollygagged back to the rail with barely any real crossing over of the legs. My instructor then stood in front of me about 3 strides off the short end so I would have to really push Skate over and get him really crossing over. We got it easily tracking left. Tracking right, however, was much harder. Our combined right-handedness makes for a very crooked horse in that direction so when I asked him to quickly yield left, his butt was somewhere else. So, I realized the point of the exercise - to position him straight (quickly) coming off the short rail so that our leg yield wasn't a failure.

Skate loves the lateral work...he's gotten so he likes to crabwalk around showing off how he has a butt that can move independently of his head! I think we could zigzag around all day in leg yields and he'd be a happy pony. As long as we're moving forward he's fine. Ask him to do a TOF and he gets pissy - its something about feeling trapped, I guess.

I've also gotten him a pretty set of white fleece boots...we are really looking like DQ's now! I have got to get some video/pics of us motoring around doing leg yields and sitting trot. I can't believe I've finally made it here!!!

Next lesson I'm planning on having my instructor help me over fences (cavelletti, really). I took Skate out on Monday and tried to hop him over some little stuff and felt all discombobulated. Ugh. I could NOT get out of the saddle...either due to weak legs or a poor fitting saddle. I'm going to blame it on Skate's recent weight and muscle gain and say its the saddle. Ha.

Carousel in the rain...

What a fantastic lesson! :) I'm getting it all written down now before I forget. Sadly, I could not convince my mom to take pictures but it's a good thing, since it ended up pouring rain the last 15min or so of the lesson.

We started off getting everything un-crooked at the walk, LENGTHENING my reins, and getting my hips straight. Which felt crooked. But they're really straight. Pro sighed a lot, which meant that he was exasperated with my bumbling incompetence, but pleased when I finally got it right. I need to remember to keep reins longer than I think so that he can unkink that long neck of his. He may look short, but he has quite the long neck. Once we got that, we worked on small circles and keeping my outside hand to the OUTSIDE instead of letting it be evil and try to cross his withers. After circling, we did small figure-eights at the walk and focused on me keeping my hands the SAME while his body changed underneath me to accept the new bend and the new outside rein. Eventually we had him chasing the bit at the walk, stretching down and lifting his back, and chewing.

Then we picked up our trot and started with the sameness routine - same stretch and up-back as the walk, same chew, same straightness ("bend") around the circle. Gayle is now weaning me off a new habit - compulsive giving with the inside rein. She's trying to get me used to the feeling of steady contact and letting him chase the bit on his own, instead of defaulting to continually helping him chase it. And to give the inside rein strategically - to give it whenever he pushes the energy back at me instead of pushing it forward, chasing the bit. It worked (haha, of course)! Especially feeling him so straight on the circle. Spiraling in by moving his shoulder to the inside, and spiraling out by pushing his inside hind leg toward the outside.

At 35 minutes into the lesson, Gayle announced that we had achieved dressage-worthy trot. :) So we played with it! We moved him down by the bunny tree, and focused on keeping him in that wonderful carousel sameness. With his back up, he would have to work pretty hard to suck back and invert (to spook), so if he started to think about looking, I just bumped him forward and gave the inside rein. I made it his safe place to be. And (finally, showing that he's FINALLY starting to trust me), he would retreat to his chasing-the-bit safe place. He felt so bold, so confident! It was like he was saying "HA! I'm a BRAVE pony!" to the bunny tree area. And we just trotted like that - forward and beautiful and balanced - for a good 15 min while it downpoured. He was so focused and so much fun. Gayle couldn't stop saying how damn CUTE he was. :) And he was!

Here's a video from last week's lesson...it was a lot rainier today, but it gives you an idea of how steady and rhythmic he's become. And this video has cantering!

Trying Another Farrier

Yesterday I went to check Jay, and could hear his glue-on shoe clicking before we got two steps.  I pulled up his bell boot to find that 5 tabs had come unglued.  Ugh.  So I hosed it clean, dried it off as best I could, wiped the hoof and tabs down with alcohol, and used super glue to glue the tabs back on.  For good measure I added a diaper and duct tape over that!

I had already decided to try a different farrier, but was just not sure when since since Jay's lameness seemed to be evening out some, and I hated have that glue-on shoe removed if it would actually work.  This situation has made it clear that I want/need to pursue another opinion and different options now.

The farrier who arranges the case studies for Davie County Large Animal Hospital (DCLAH) did decide that Jay sounded like a good candidate for a case study, but this month's meeting is already booked full, so it would be July before Jay could get in there.  I really hope that we can get something resolved before then!  So then I had to decide whether to go through a vet at DCLAH to get in with one of the clinic farriers, who are VERY good, or go another route.  If I went with them, I do not know if either of the clinic farriers would then keep shoeing Jay as his regular farrier, but I don't think they would.  The farrier I spoke with there also did not know of anyone to recommend who he thought would come to me.

I have been corresponding with a farrier who responded to my post on NC Horse News.  She is a Certified Level II Proper Balanced Horse Trimmer, and did her apprenticeship under an AFA Certified Journeyman II Farrier.  She does not use traditional keg shoes, though, and that was one of my reservations because I am not familiar with the Hoof-It composite shoes she uses.  After doing some research and talking with her further, though, I think they are worth a try. This farrier is VERY convinced that Hoof-It shoes are just that much better for the horse.  They have a wide web, and she says they are more flexible and shock absorbing than traditional shoes, and give more support.  They don't rely solely on the hoof wall to hold up the entire horse;  the sole, bars, and frog share in the weight bearing, which allows better circulation in the hoof and ultimately better growth.  It is also possible to nail or glue them on, or use a combination of the two.  She also says they pull off less easily at the heel because they will bend instead of pull, they have good traction, and they can be rasped to a custom fit.  Add ALL of that up, and they sound like they may be exactly what Jay needs right now.  She has also got some Equi-Cast on hand, and I think Jay may need that too right now.  

This farrier says that she usually takes about an hour just trimming the horse because she wants to watch them move and see how they are responding.  She says that she just can't bring herself to do a 20 minute trim just to try to undercut the competition, because the horses (and her reputation) are just too important to her.  If her work and these shoes work out for Jay, she is also willing to travel to me, which will be nice! 

Carousel pony

Friday's lesson was good - intense. We worked with longer reins, which warped my mind a bit. At one point Pro threw a fit about something, and I was so focused that Gayle had to remind me that she was trying to teach me how to fix him, if only I would stop having a stroke. ;) So I had to disengage emotionally, which is really hard. Pro is my only horse, so all of my dressage success/failure depends on his progress. So it's hard to step back and stay calm.







At the trot we worked on "sameness" - keeping everything the same...tempo, rhythm, bend, stretch, etc. As well as working on clearly differentiating between bending...and straightening...bending...and straightening and just dropping him down, down, down. He resisted a little, and Gayle said he was getting so into himself and just having fun being round and bouncy, that he really didn't want to stretch down and over himself, but he eventually got it. Once I had him, he felt like a carousel pony - we just made circle after circle of steady sameness. Muscle-building sameness!!

And we even cantered, like a big boy. :) I was quite proud! I remembered Andrea's lesson and tried to erase everything I've ever been taught about sitting the canter. I pulled my legs off of him and immediately he seemed to relax.

Since the lesson he's been fairly good - my goal is to get him to carousel pony, and work him there for 10-15minutes so that he continues to build that muscle. We had talked about keeping his back up to prevent him from spooking, and last night it actually worked. After a 5min argument at the start of the ride where he just valiantly threw 50 evasions at me, one after the other in rapid succession, he gave in. But later in the ride, he spooked at one corner of the arena (I have no idea what, it seemed pretty genuine) and was only able to scramble beneath me instead of getting his head up and inverted. Pretty cool! I knew to be prepared when I passed there again, but my dizziness hit and he was able to suck back from the rhythm, invert, and spook. I got off and walked him around for a little while to regain my non-dizzy state. I really *wanted* to take the blunt end of the whip and beat him over the head with it, but I refrained. :P

I got back on, we resumed working, and he was fine. Even some carousel pony work. :)

Compliments from strangers!

Pro and I had a pretty good ride last night. The new boarder was out and she decided to walk her Lipizanner around the arena by hand while we were riding, but then she got bored and hopped on to ride him around bareback. Since he hadn't been ridden in several years before she got him, she asked that I keep it at a walk while she was on.

Pro was having his normal "debate" about whether or not he wanted to stretch down at the walk, so that was fine with us. We spent much longer at the walk than normal and on a slightly looser rein, but I made him go all over the ring and change direction periodically rather than our normal boring 20m circle. FINALLY he gave in and started stretching down and over at the walk. The new boarder and I both told him GOOD BOY at the same time, so it was neat to have a 'higher' level dressage rider (I think she's shown 2nd or 3rd level in the past?) agree with me. Once she went in we moved it up to the trot and the fact that we'd gotten the walk solid showed in his trot. We spent awhile keeping the correct bend to the right (focusing on not over bending) and even got some decent forward out of it. The canter in both directions also went really well, with the new boarder spotting us and commenting that he had a very nice canter and that it looked easy to sit. :) I pushed him to keep the canter for a little longer than he was comfortable with, but stopped before it completely fell apart. It sounds like cantering may become a regular part of our lessons so he's going to need those muscles again!

A steady connection - Finally!

Skate and I had a lesson on Saturday. After a week of vaca and a show going on at the barn, I expected the worst....and was pleasantly surprised! There was that one instance where a spectator had a giant black and white geometric print umbrella up and was twirling it - that turned Skate into a complete statue. His little pea brain could NOT process what the hell that thing was. Luckily, the umbrella user must have scared one of the special olympics horses in the show, b/c it was put down quickly.

The lesson topic of the day was straightness. We all know straight on a horse means anything but straight. It means the exact bend necessary for the figure and the one sidedness of that horse. My instructor even got confused when trying to explain how we should be positioned for a correct corner. Haunches in, haunches out, shoulder in, shoulder out, bend of neck, blah blah blah. Just ride it and we'll see what we get! So we set up square corners (the ring is an oval) and did basic figure eights...I learned that Skate has progressed past me! I am still trying to correct his imbalances like it's last year - when he's gotten strong enough to do a training/1st level corner without my help. All I succeeded in doing was getting him off balance. After that exercise my trainer praised him profusely and I got the lecture! Ha.

We both noticed how well he did (after getting over the excitement of the show going on in the indoor) with a steady connection. We almost have this down pat...my only need to really address with the connection is when he spies something way more interesting than the figure we're currently working on, which can be fairly often. He does still like to drag me down when he gets tired or behind my leg....but when I push him forward in front of me, he's fairly steady. We do much better in a sitting trot than a posting trot with the steady connection...I will probably ride my next test/show in sitting trot, even if I sacrifice some forward. I've also learned that Skate likes a heavy contact (heavy for me, as I prefer whisper light reins flappin in the wind sort of contact). Because I prefer the extra light version, I'm actually too forgiving with my elbows. I allow him to pull me down and forward instead of holding my position.

Things to work on - I should ride Skate like 75% of him is in front of me; when he feels like he's hanging behind, push him forward. Support him around the turn, but don't overcorrect. And, as always head up and ponytail to ponytail. Whenever my head drops everything falls apart.

Walk...walk....WALK

Yay, sunshine! Before getting on this morning I spent a peaceful hour or so brushing filthy little Tango to a shine, de-dreadlocking his tail, and also thinning out and evening up his mane (just to my own lax aesthetic standards). At least he doesn't have that "Pigpen meets Bob Marley" look happening anymore!

We worked for about an hour again today, and it was apparent immediately that he hadn't been worked since my ride last weekend -- probably thanks to the weather, and also because his owner is pretty busy lately. It makes it a little more difficult to get "full of beans Tango" settled down for a productive ride, especially when I don't know how often his owner is getting on or what she's doing with him. We really need to coordinate better, but it's hard when everyone is so busy.

Anyway, there was lots of jigging and silliness. So in the spirit of Ellen's suggestions, I kept him at a walk for longer than I usually do at the beginning of a ride and worked on how we pick up contact. I discovered that when I pick up contact, I manage to keep my legs from tensing up but do actually struggle with keeping my seat, and with keeping my elbows flexible once I have those shorter reins. Drat. So I experimented for quite a while and eventually, after many tries, managed to pick up contact (outside rein first) without a jig and sustain a nice walk with contact for a couple laps around. It was a short-lived victory -- once I asked for a circle at the walk, he got all bunched up again, so we went back to square one and did it all over again in both directions until I was satisfied that I could pick up and drop contact without a jig. Thanks, Ellen, for the suggestions! These hyper-horse days can be so rough.

After all of that, I asked for a trot and got some rushing, but before too long we settled into more or less a nice, relaxed trot and got some decent figures. I figured that was the most I could ask from him after a week off, so I called it a day even though I hadn't exactly tired him out. More to come Monday, when hopefully the horse won't be quite so up.

Yes, I'm still here!

Drat this rain, I haven't ridden since last weekend, and Tango is happy to maintain his out-of-shape fatness while I wait for the weather to clear up. Stinker. At least he has finally lost all the extra winter fluff and (minus his neglected mane and tail) is looking beautimous. I will see about getting some pictures over the weekend.

But we haven't fallen off the face of the earth. After several round pen rides, we got back into the ring on Saturday and for once I had time to work for a full hour. Because he was more hopped up than usual after having a few days off, I decided to forgo the canter section of our normal warm-up. But in retrospect, that might have helped to calm him down. I was getting a lot of the usual over-responsive silliness -- like jigging at simple suppling cues at the walk, or if I picked up the reins too quickly after a stretch break. Does anyone else's horse do this periodically, and if so, how do you deal?

I was also struggling to keep the tempo consistent at the rising trot, since he was in rushy-rushy forehand mode. My solution to this was to try rising trot along the long sides of the ring, and sitting trot along the short sides of the ring, to keep him more focused on MY tempo. This actually seemed to work pretty well. I also put him over some trot poles. Since we were sharing the ring with a lesson, the poles were a bit close for him, but this actually didn't bother me, since he needs to be more mindful of what he does with his feet anyway. After trying to jump the poles a couple times (lol), he actually did figure it out and went through calmly. Good horse.

My leg needs some work, so I am thinking about doing some no-stirrup and sitting trot work over the weekend. With the exception of Saturday, I haven't asked Tango for much sitting trot work lately, but since he's mildly out of shape it might be good for both of us to focus on it a bit more. Out of curiosity, what place does sitting trot have in your workouts?