End of October Analysis; November Goals!

November is here and the weather is PERFECT. Sunny with temps in the mid-70's.... who can complain about that!

Our October goals seem to have completely collapsed mid-month. Not being certain that I want to actually event O after all (after giving her form over fences a long, hard look) has really thrown everything to the wind for the moment for her. I'm still 100% undecided on whether or not I want to keep trying to make her an eventer or if I want to turn our focus to other things (or do both at the same time).... I really don't know what I want to do. I'm so competitive that it is hard for me to abandon ideas!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

O-Ren October Goals:

1) Continue working on w/t/c dressage work, REALLY focus on the canter!
That fell through completely. Our w/t dressage work is just lovely, but we didn't focus on the canter hardly at all... we were doing other things instead!

2) Continue with jump schools - gymnastics, cantering courses! 
Nope... again, it fell through completely. Same reason as above.

3) XC schooling - any schoolings possible, work on BN fences and BANKS!
Same story, total collapse of structure!

4) Revise show schedule - what do we want to do this fall vs. this spring?
Well, I DID do that at least.... I have a whole new plan!

5) What else do we want to play with? Driving, poles, barrels, roping, trails - make some loose plans for other fun things!
Now THIS is what I really focused on. I've been in touch with a carriage maker who is local (the ONLY driving person this side of Dallas) who will give me some driving lessons soon, I hope! When S gets back from all her travels, we're making a pact to go to a barrel race a week (or every other week) - there are SO many around, several a week, all local! We'll start to exhibition, like we did at Glen Rose, but this is something she is probably going to be really good at, so it won't take long to get going faster. I have to set up the poles... they are sitting out and I don't know how to properly space them, so I have to wait for S to come back. (Or maybe I will look it up myself!) We are going to our FIRST little endurance ride NEXT WEEKEND! It is just the Intro division - it's only 9 miles - but this will give me a good idea of what to expect. I need to get my physical issues under control through... my calf cramp is making longer rides miserable. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

O-Ren November Goals:

1) Really consider the eventing question.... to keep at it or no?

2) Get through our first endurance ride alive! And look for the next one!

3) Continue patterning on the barrels... and try poles!

4) Chiro adjustment! She hasn't needed anything so far but it pays to be proactive!

5) Continue long-lining, all over the place!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


And of course, Tre needs her goals too!

Trebuchet November Goals:

1) Get going under saddle.... good behavior, w-t-c!

2) Trailer out to a few places... behavior in the trailer and at the places we trailer to!

3) Start going out on trails with a buddy.... work on being a good girl!

4) Tack... try to find some things that actually fit her tiny shrimp size!

5) Put on some weight and muscle!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tre is doing really, really well on the lunge, and not so well under saddle. When you buy a horse for as cheap as I did - a horse that supposedly had physically problems, but so far hasn't taken so much as a gimpy step - you wonder how much wasn't told to you. She just turned 5, so she's young anyway, but while she seems to be pretty quiet on the lunge - even a little bit lazy - she is much hotter and much more anxious with a saddle on, and with a rider up. Lunging her in the Faux-ssoa, she is quiet and slow. As soon as you get out that saddle and she sees it, she is nervous pooping. We had a pretty exciting incident today when she pulled totally free on the lunge and took off across the field in full tack. (Which is why it was beaten into us that you never lunge in an open space...) It's my fault, I was not paying enough attention and let the line more or less just fall out of my hands! I don't know what I was thinking. She had a good few gallop laps around and around the field, and then finally stopped and came back to me (good girl). We lunged for quite a long time after that.... she was much more 'up' than she had been in the Pessoa. MUCH more up.

I lunged her until I felt that she was relatively quiet, and then I hopped on. She definitely has some behavioral stuff that needs to be addressed immediately... mostly she just wants to go where she wants to go (back to her friends!), and screw you if you're in the way. She balked, she rooted hard, she went sideways, she jigged when we faced the barn and refused to go forward away from it. She's a pretty good natured little girl for the most part, so it just took a few walking circles to quiet her down. She's in heat big time too, so that REALLY isn't helping!

We'll get to the bottom of this. We ended on a nice note, a quiet halt away from the barn. I am starting to understand why I never saw pictures or video of the mare being worked in anything but draw reins... she gets her head HIGH when she wants to. I'm curious to know what she would do if I put the neck stretcher on her, but I'd rather just avoid gadgets of any sort. With the reins loped behind the stirrups (in the video), she put her head high and fussed for a few minutes, but eventually relaxed into it, more or less.


Today, I tried two new things with O. The first was a set of Easyboot Transitions, which I was SUPER excited about.... aaaaaand they don't fit. Apparently she has sized up since her brand new foot hit the ground! She has gone through a whole cycle of growth already, and while she still has a LONG way to go in terms of getting the back of her foot strong and her sole thicker, she has really come far. She still needs protection for rocky or rough ground, and I am hoping the sleek new design of the Transitions will keep the boots from turning or rubbing (which happens with the Cavallos regularly).
The other thing I tried with her was a long shank hackamore instead of her usual snaffle. If she is to do endurance regularly, she is going to need to learn to eat on the trail, and she is not keen to eat with a bit in. Even when she had been fed a cookie or has snatched a last mouthful of hay when tacking up, she'll hold it in her mouth for the entire duration of the ride and not eat it. I wanted something that gave me some level of control still, but would leave her free to eat when she needed to. The hackamore had a long shank, but not a SUPER long shank... but it ended up being WAY WAY too much for her. The first rein aid she got was mostly an accident, when she spooked hard at one of the neighbor's dogs (which is odd, since she never spooks at anything, much less the dog she sees every day!). She threw up her head, hit the shanks, and EXPLODED. I'm not entirely sure how she managed to stand on her hind legs and run backwards at the same time, but she did! We tried to do some more finesse work, and while she was more than happy to trot along on a loose rein, the moment I so much as touched the reins, or the shanks jingled a little, she threw up her head, hit the brakes, and smashed me in the shoulders with her neck (years with Gogo taught me to get my head out of the way when a horse gets too light in the front end!). I had WAY too much in the way of brakes, and NO steering whatsoever.... not good. 15 minutes into the ride, my calf locked up badly, and I was in such horrible pain that I had to quit and get off. I'm really getting frustrated with this calf problem... it's terrible.

So we had one galloping loose beast and one naughty pony, one set of boots that didn't fit, and one rearing horse who did not like her hackamore at all. Did I mention the best part... that my horses got skunked last night?? I couldn't figure out where the stink was coming from... it was Tre!! The mares both had curious scrapes on them, so I wonder if there was a scuffle trying to get away from the stink. My guess is that Tre, the curious one who chases dogs and cats around, went for the skunk thinking it was a cat. Not a cat Tre, not a cat!!
Oh, and poor Shitten is going through a growth spurt and is pretty lame.... and the elderly Corgi is really lame today as well, for reasons unknown. What else can go wrong today??

Nothing else, I hope... it is bedtime, and I am ready for this day to be DONE!

Back to the Grind

After a blip in catchability, one very intense dental session, and a few days of refusing to eat much of anything, Imogen is back to work and doing amazingly well. I can't believe how much better her attitude is already! 

Her little bit of time off before and after the dental work did good things for her brain. After I scared her half to death when I slapped her on the chest last week, we stepped back and did groundwork and grooming for a few days. This made a huge difference for her mentally, and I think it is a good default for when things are a little overwhelming for her. Working with an abused horse is very difficult, and maintaining trust in a relationship with a horse like Immy is a critical key. Without that, you have nothing. Obviously, there are going to be times when she needs to be disciplined for something or another (like if she runs me over again!), but she will learn with time that I am not going to whale on her in anger for no reason. It just takes time, and consistency - no surprises, and no deviations. She needs trust that I am not going to do anything scary and out of left field... it just takes time. 

This week went something like this in terms of a schedule:

Monday: Dentist

Tuesday: Off

Wednesday: Lunge in halter (and P and I went with S to her barrel race!)

Thursday: Off (Future Hubs and I were at The xx show in Dallas... you're jealous, I know!)

Friday: Groundwork

Saturday: Lunge in sidereins 

And the next few days will be as follows:

Sunday: Ride

Monday: Lunge in sidereins

Tuesday: Ride

Wednesday: Pool

Thursday we have a tentative craniosacral session scheduled, but it might actually happen on Sunday... I have to hear back from the therapist and see!

I can't believe the difference in Immy since her dental work. It just kills me that it has taken THIS long to have it done (months, literally), with all of the scheduling problems (on his end), the no-shows, the problems. I almost bailed on the guy and didn't use him, just because I was so annoyed, but I am so glad I didn't. The first few days following her dental were not so much fun, due to the fact that her extractions made her mouth pretty sore, but she managed to continue to eat the softest, fluffiest hay that I had for that time. She wasn't interested in eating her grain mush until Wednesday evening. By that time, she was back to her old self, but she had lost a few pounds in the process. She was looking amazing last week weight-wise, but looks a little less filled out this week. With her appetite back and her new set of chompers, I expect she'll put it back on quickly.

When I pulled her out for her grooming and lunging session on Wednesday, I had a huge surprise waiting for me. I have a grooming routine that I go through when grooming, and for whatever reason, I always start with my curry on the left side of her neck. From there I go up as high as she will tolerate, and then go back down her neck and onto her shoulder. Usually she raises her head and resists whenever I do this, not wanting me to go near her ears or poll, but nothing happened that time. Literally nothing! The same went for the right side of her neck. When I followed over with my medium brush, she let me groom her poll with NO head raising or reactions of any sort. NOTHING!

You have no idea how huge that is. HUGE! That is the first time she has ever, ever let me approach that area of her body without some sort of resistance. I couldn't believe it. I still can't!

As for our lunge session that day, it was short-lived. The ground had been slick and muddy for a few days following our last rainstorm, and I thought it had dried out enough for a lunge, but I was wrong. She did the slip-n'-slide for a few minutes before I called it, not wanting to cause a wipeout. 

Today was her first day back to real work. Once again, I was completely delighted with her attitude - she was calm, quiet, peaceful, and totally amenable to having her head and poll groomed. Bridling her was by far the easiest it has been, simply because she let me get near the top of her head without major issue. In fact, I'd say that was the best bridling she's ever had. (It also helps to have a clear bridlepath to work with... she hates having her mane pulled on!)

Her poos are WAY better as of this week as well... only a horseperson could be this concerned about horse crap! Granted, I did change a few things to see if I could have some improvement there, and they all seemed to happen at the same time (a round of SandClear, the dental, a few weeks on EquiShure, and a secondary probiotic that somebody gave me to try, just to see)... it is hard to say what worked, or what combo of things worked. But, something worked!

She was excellent today on the lunge. She's still not 100% sure about the sidereins, but she is starting to get the concept at the walk. I'm not one to crank down a set of sidereins to force a horse into a frame... I just want her to start getting used to the idea of contact. Once she is a little further along in her schooling, I will probably never use them again. When lunging my schooled horses, I only really ever use a chambon, but obviously Immy is NOT ready for that yet. 

Tomorrow, back to work under saddle!

Swimmy Immy

One of my February goals has been to start taking Immy to the AquaTread once a week. It is great conditioning, helps counter work we do on the dirt, and it super for desensitization. Plus, we get to practice trailer loading as well as leaving Big Sister behind (which is very traumatic). I picked Wednesday for this, so I could ride on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and have a break in the middle.

Tuesday's ride did not happen due to a well-needed date night, so Immy spent the day galloping like a maniac out in the big field instead. 

Wednesday morning came bright and early, and I fed the girls, hooked up my trailer, and recruited S to come help get her on. Immy wasn't particularly keen, and ignored both of us for a moment while she called for P, who was making a right fool of herself with her mad galloping and screaming. (How old are you again, mare?) Finally, S got tired of it, and gave her a decent whap on the hiney with a dressage whip. Immy walked straight on after that - sometimes, you just have to law down a little law.

At the other facility, I unloaded her and settled her into a paddock with her hay net. She did some trotting around and calling for all of her old friends, then quieted and ate her hay for awhile. When I went to go catch her, she took one look at me like "forget it, lady" and walked off. She didn't go far, but I was not particularly amused.

She redeemed herself in the pool barn by standing like a sweet little angel, totally immobile and silent. Atta girl! 

Getting into the pool itself? She was not particularly amused with the idea. Last time - which was her first time - she went plowing right in, completely surprised at how she had ended up there. I've seen loads of them do exactly the same thing, and banked on her doing exactly what those kinds of horses all do the second time they get in - BALK. She spent about 5 minutes going "no, no way, oh hell no, nope, no..." until she finally told us to go screw ourselves and went backwards. We train all our horses to go into the AquaTread in the same way: stop and let them think, ask for one step at a time, reward each attempt at forward movement lavishly, and sharply correct backwards movement. All the horses learn that there is only one way to go (forwards), but they are never beaten, dragged in with ropes, or drugged. I've seen literally hundreds go in, and trained god knows how many of them, and this method really works. I don't have one horse that I see that doesn't just walk right in, once they learn how. When Immy went backwards, she got a swift spank in the butt from M, and she promptly changed her mind. Much like with the trailer that morning, she just walked her little self right in, carefully and methodically. 

If you notice, she's trying REALLY hard to turn her head all the way around to look at the other horses in the barn - hence why she is tied to the other side. P did the same thing at first, and I had to tie her over there to straighten her out just the same. She'll figure it out shortly, they all do!

We took a stab at breed guessing while she was working out, and settled at a probable Quarab. I mean, have you SEEN that butt lately? 

BOOM!

She rounded out the day by completely 100% surprising me - she walked on the trailer with no hesitations whatsoever. She just followed me right in! That was the first time I have solo-loaded her with absolutely no issues at all. Granted, we WERE going home instead of leaving home, but still. I was super impressed with her, and can't wait to see what she does next time!

As for Thursday, well... that was more or less a bit failure. She's been teetering on the edge of hard to catch again, probably because life is hard when you are hopelessly attached to your pasture mate, and your person like to take you away from your best friend and your food. It was all peachy keen when we were just hanging out in the pasture eating snacks together and being friends, but it is a very different situation with her now being in training. More than anything, I want to remain her friend, but there are certain lines I have to draw, and certain rules to follow. Thursday was pedicure day for the girls, and I pulled both of them out, starting work on Immy first. Having seen the hoof stand about a million times, she spooked at it hard for whatever reason, and basically went leaping forward away from it when I brought it over. She was tied, and half ran me over in the process. Instinctively, to get her off of me, I raised a hand and popped her in the chest. I didn't strike her in anger, I didn't beat her senseless, and I didn't hurt her in any way, but in her mind I may as well have, because she shot backwards to the end of her rope and acted like I was the scariest person on earth. She wanted absolutely nothing to do with me after that, though she tolerated her trim - I had proved to her that I was a terrifying monster, and she wanted no part in my company. 

Working with an abused, reactive horse is very, very hard. They are very big, very strong animals who could potentially hurt you very seriously, if either a) you frighten them with your disciplines, or b) you cater too much to their pasts, don't lay down enough rules, and let them run all over you because you are too worried about scaring them with disciplines. It's a seriously fine line. What do you let slide, and what isn't acceptable, at the risk of scaring them? There isn't really a proper answer, especially with a horse like Imogen. Honestly, I did what I needed to do in the situation - I don't allow my horses to trample me, just because something they've seen a million times is scary today for whatever reason - but now I have the task of proving to her that I am not scary, she can still trust me, and that there are still some rules that need to be followed, even if things are scary... and if you don't follow the rules, there is a consequence to it.

Easier said than done, of course. Yesterday, I had a mare who took off in the other direction away from me at breakfast time. Her desire to eat grainfoods overcame her concerns, and she let me walk up to her and catch her. Undaunted, I came back at lunchtime to just hang out with the ladies, and spent a good long while sitting next to their shed, basking in the sun. P-mare came over and hung out with me for a long time, while Immy stood peering out at me from behind the shed, not brave enough to come over.

I got up on P for a little bareback ride in our new hackamore, which was wonderful. It really is nice to get on an old steady-Eddie type horse when you've been working with a greenie. She looks lovely in this getup, don't you think?

After our lunchtime ride, Immy still didn't want to be caught, so I let P out with the boys into the big field for a few hours while I went back to the main farm to feed. Immy was NOT happy about this arrangement, but she wouldn't be caught, so... sorry mare! I can't help you if you won't come to me!

We went for another bareback jaunt around the big field that evening, which was just as nice, and at this point Immy was ready for some attention. She came right to the gate for catching, and let me rub on her without jumping or scooting away from me. She was the same today - she was easy to catch, and more than happy to be petted and loved on for the most part. It was crappy and misty out, so I left them alone, wanting to leave Immy on a positive note.

We've done this several times before. Sometimes, something is just a little too much for Immy, and we need to back off for a few days or a week before continuing on. It just takes time... lots and lots of time. Looking at my list of yearly goals, I think they may be too lofty for what is realistically achievable this year. I don't see any need to push her or go faster than I feel like she is capable of mentally handling, so everything comes one day at a time. She should be further along in her saddle training than she is, but honestly I am not getting on this mare unless she is relaxed and trusting me. It's a recipe for disaster, and a good way to sour her off saddle work quickly. We'll continue training when we re-establish some relaxation and trust on her part, but not until then.

The most important thing is to keep being consistent and quiet with her, showing her that I am not going to surprise her out of nowhere by doing something seriously unexpected or mean. And, if she DOES do something completely unacceptable (like run me over), that the counter-response on my part will be a quick correction and not a full-out abusive assault. 

Time, time, patience, and more time is what this mare needs. Did I mention time?

Interference of the Bad Kind

Well! We've had an interesting (and not in the good way) few days. As a preface, everything seems to be back to normal... I hope!

As you know, I rode Imogen for the first time on Sunday, and it was fantastic. I gave her Monday off, and all  I did with both girls was to let them out of their runs at the end of the day (they had been up because of the rain). Nothing out of the ordinary happened... all was well. The next day, Tuesday, I had plans to pull the girls up and give them a good grooming, and give Immy a second day off. Both girls were standing near the gate when I arrived, waiting. Much to my surprise, when I went to go catch her and bring her in, she raised her head in alarm and moved away from me, turning on one heel and bolting off. Uh.... okay.... not normal. She wouldn't even come near me after that. I never ended up catching her at all. P came up and had dinner, then went back out again and left. Immy kept coming to the gate, but any time I walked towards the gate myself, she took off again. Eventually, I just gave up and went home, leaving her standing by herself at the gate. She was still there when I drove away, waiting for me to catch her but not wanting to be caught all the same.

Okay... what was going on?

The next day I arrived at around the same time, and both girls as usual came to the gate when they heard people arriving. Another boarder had arrived at the same time as I did, and she went into the pasture to bring her horses in first. Both P and Immy were at the gate when I arrived, but when I went out to catch them, they were gone. P came back within short order, but when I went to catch her, she too threw her head up and backed away, like she was afraid of being struck or chased. P is never, EVER, hard to catch. "Did you shoo them away from the gate?" I asked the other boarder. She replied that yes, she had chased them off to get her horses in. My heart sank as I spotted Immy down the hill, standing still and watching me with an eagle eye. The moment I turned to face her, she galloped in the other direction.

I understand now. She is getting aggressively chased away whenever anyone goes out to catch their horses... that terrifies her. Absolutely terrifies. I had no idea if I was going to be able to catch her... she wouldn't let me within 30 feet of her without galloping away. 

I enticed the yearling in the pasture over with a bunch of cookies in my pocket. It didn't take long before Immy's curiosity got the best of her, and she too came over and got a cookie from me. I stroked her cheeks for a minute, and then moved to touch her neck with my hand. Just the motion of raising it made her recoil in fear, and she bolted. (The "shooing" motion that scares her so much.) I couldn't get near her again, and night had completely fallen by this time. Over a half hour into it, I was nowhere near catching her.

I needed to get her to switch from right brain to left brain, and walking her down was never going to work. 

It was time for Plan B. I poured a whole bunch of cookies into a bucket, took it out into the field, and shoot vigorously. Hey, I'm not above bribery when I need it.

It worked like a charm. Immy and the filly came over, and after some nervous snorting, they both stuck their noses in the bucket started to snack away. I was able to reach up and pet Immy on the neck, and she no longer flinched away. I had a rope around her neck within short order, and was able to put her halter on with absolutely no fuss at all. She gave me her best Joyful Cookie Face, and I brought her up for dinner. She was a changed woman - all over me, cuddling up to me, happy to be in my presence and happy to be touched and loved on. 

Well... I guess we know the problem now. We can't have this happening though. She is nowhere near ready to have interactions with strangers, much less negative interactions. 

I formulated a new plan for the week: 

Wednesday: Just be able to catch her and love on her (SUCCESS!)

Thursday: Groom, love on, low-key lunging without bridle (SUCCESS!)

Friday: Lunging/Grounddriving with bridle

Saturday: Ride

Sunday: Ride

As per my schedule, I caught Immy, gave her a thorough grooming (including a leg wash), and lunged her in just a halter in the big arena. I wanted to keep everything low-key and stress-free, and was very successful in that pursuit. She was happy, relaxed, and peaceful in the crossties, happy to have her grooming and eat her cookies. She lunged like a perfect angel. To top it all off, she let me PULL HER MANE!! Or well, part of it... but it is DEFINITELY a start! It wasn't that long ago where I couldn't even cut it with scissors without her completely losing her mind, so this is a HUGE step for us. I only did a small portion of her mane at the base of her neck, but everybody has to start somewhere. Amazingly, after some preliminary wiggles, she stopped moving and let me do it without fuss. I kept shoving cookies into her mouth every time she let me pull without moving, so she had some pretty good incentive to hold still. 

Not saying it for sure helped or did not help, but when I first crosstied her, I tried out my bottle of Soothe Me spray from Zephyr's Garden (I LOVE their products and can't say enough good things about them!). She was very, very peaceful... maybe it helped! I am trying out the Soothe Me, Calm Me, and Settle Me sprays... I firmly believe in their other products, and regularly recommend them to clients and friends alike, so I can't wait to see if this helps her too.

There is supposedly some wintery mix coming in tonight (maybe, possibly, no idea... Texas weathermen can NOT predict winter weather to save their lives!), so we'll see what we have to work with tomorrow!

AND! January Goals and 2013 Goals coming up soon! 

Dear Mother Nature...

.... can you STOP being awful for 5 seconds so I can get Immy under saddle please? 

Christmas is finally over, and the New Year is right around the corner. (I know... where did the year go!?) I spent most of Christmas Day fretting over my girls, watching the radar as a massive winter storm came crashing into Texas, wreaking total havoc and bringing several inches of rain, snow, ice, and subzero temperatures with it. I had left Immy in a medium and P in a sheet, due to the fact that I knew the chilly weather was coming, but the days preceding were nearly in the 70's. The last time somebody other than me changed their blankets, Immy bolted with her blanket still half on (thankfully she managed to slip out with only mental trauma to show for). When I went on vacation, I left no instructions for blanket changes - I didn't anticipate that it would need to be done. Poor chillybears!

Thankfully, they survived the weather unscathed. When I got home, it was absolutely frigid (for Texas) and  snow was still on the ground (completely unheard of for this area). P, who had been in the sheet, was most happy to see me coming with a heavier blanket - usually she is the one who prefers to be naked, but not that day!

By Friday, everything had completely melted. This unfortunately meant that everything that had previously been frozen had now become total mush. The arena was soggy, so that was out. The roundpen is obviously covered, but the tractor lives in there. This usually isn't a problem - I just move it myself, and put it back when I am finished - but the ground outside the roundpen was far too soft and squashy for heavy machinery (one quick way to tick off your barn owner is to tear up their grass!). That left me with a single option: ponying! Braving the elements, I suited the girls up with a quarter sheet and a cooler, respectively, and headed out to the big pasture. Immy was a bit jumpy to start out - unfortunately, I had to whack P when she tried to bowl me over on the way out, which scared Immy half to death - but once I was up there, everything was fine. We had a little bit of trot time near the end of our ride, but unfortunately, P felt awful behind. Going into the new year, I'd like to alter her schedule some, and move her to poolwork and some light trail work and ponying only. I think that is probably about all she'll be able to handle from now on, poor old thing. 

Happy girls eating their dinner:

Today was a bit of a fiasco, all things considered. I had a horrible day from start to finish, and was exhausted by the time I got to the barn. The schedule that seems to work best for Immy is to work her one day, then give her the next off for just loving and feeding and happytime, then work her again the following day. (My goal here is to maintain her trust and our friendship, and to never have her anticipate my coming with work or  other unpleasantries). While they were eating their grainfoods this evening, I thought I'd take the opportunity to give P a quick shave and a haircut. Out came my quiet little Wahls, and the Bearded Lady was tackled. With her shaggy goat whiskers and bridlepath gone, I turned around, facing Immy with the clippers still running. The second I did it, and even though I was several feet away from her, she took off. Ooookay then... I guess we need to see that the clippers are not terrifying monsters!

Well, that was a huge disaster. I was able to catch her and touch her with the clippers off, all over her neck, shoulder, and cheek, but when they touched her nose (while off), she jerked violently and ran backwards. She finally touched them and let me touch her nose with them, but she was pretty sure they were going to bite her up until then. And then I turned them on, well away from her... and she bolted, again. I had a terrorized blur on the end of my lead rope, running around me in circles as fast as she could. With some work, I managed to touch her shoulder, neck, and cheek with the Buzzing Death Machine, but she was absolutely panicked inbetween her bouts of brainwaves. She did get to the point of reaching forward and touching them with her nose of her own accord while they were on, but it scared her half to death when she did. The clippers were on for so long that they finally died, but it ended on a good enough note. By this time, however, she was so freaked out that I couldn't even put her leadrope over her back without her bolting off again. She was shredding the grass in the small pen she was in with all of her mad galloping, so I finally just gave up pretense and took her into the arena for some additional desensitization. To her credit, having a leadrope tossed over you while you have a noisy blanket on is definitely different from having a leadrope tossed over you while you are naked, so that did not help matters. Doubly not helping matters was the fact that my seriously neurotic Monster dog was completely freaked out by the entire thing (serious separation issues, and something fast and scary was happening with mommy... must run into the pen and help! Must growl at scary horse! Must run under mommy's feet!). Yelling at Monster dog to get out of my way so she didn't get run over/trampled/kicked/stepped on only scared Immy more... the neverending cycle! (Seriously though, the dog has mental issues.... she puts herself at risk daily in her desperation to be wherever I am. She gladly throws herself in harm's way just to get to me. If there was a swirling river of lava between the two of us, I have absolutely no doubt that she'd jump in and try to swim across to get to me, even if I was telling her from a distance not to.) 

In the arena, I was able to toss the leadrope over her from both sides, and she finally relaxed a little bit. We ended the session with lots of face rubs and pets, and she actually mentally came back to me very well. She doesn't always, so that was definitely a positive thing.

Touching her nose and face with my hand is fine with her at this point... touching her nose and face with anything else is not fine. (Exception to this: brushes and combs. She likes to be brushed and fussed over, so these things are ok in her mind). I have to keep telling myself that it wasn't that long ago that I couldn't touch her face at all from the cheeks forward - hell, I couldn't even crosstie her because it freaked her too much to get that close to her face! - so this is just another step in the process. We'll definitely be working on the clipper issue. At some point, just like everything else that used to scare her to death (remember how terrified she was of blankets and legstraps? The first time a legstrap touched her leg, she did the same terrified bolting!), she will realize that it isn't out to kill her, and life is still ok. 

Tomorrow we'll do more desensitization work with the saddle - I've already leaned on her and put my feet in  stirrups and stood with my full weight on her (more elaboration tomorrow!), but I've only done it from the left side. She needs more right side work, and then she'll be ready for her first ride!

Enjoying her week of downtime!

Immy is definitely enjoying her week of downtime. Not only is her weight bouncing back already, but her attitude is 110% improved. I will be away for the next few days at an equine rescue class (awesome stuff to learn!!), but come Sunday we'll be starting back up with lunging again. Hopefully we'll be able to carry on right where we left on... minus last week, of course.

It has been SERIOUSLY FREEZING this week.... 14 degrees yesterday morning, and 17 degrees this morning. Yes, in Texas. I KNOW, RIGHT? Today was the first day I actually pulled their heavyweights off of them since Sunday, even though I left Immy with a sheet on during the day. Does she not look cute in Gogo's light blue stuff?

P's heavyweight came off this morning and she got to be naked all day. Immy comes in for an extra grain meal (they are out on pasture with 24/7 hay) just until her weight stabilizes (and by grain I mean alfalfa pellets, a fat supplement, and her usual supplements and herbs), but all P gets is enough hay pellets and a smidgen of a fat supplement to just wash all her supplements and herbs down. She only gets this once a day seeing as it is hardly a handful.... and she is NOT amused when Immy comes in for breakfast and she does not.

MOM FOOD NOW WTF.

I'll be back Sunday! 

Relax, Sweet Angel

Sigh. Don't you just hate when things go wrong?

Peeling back the layers of a severely abused mare sometimes offer up surprises that are both eye-opening and very sad. It is clear at this point that whatever was done to her was done repeatedly and in serious excess, and putting her in the roundpen and having someone aggressively chase her has brought back memories of trauma. That is the exact word for it... she is traumatized. If one single session of real roundpenning did that to her, I can't imagine how deep her fear runs. My poor, sweet baby... we have some backtracking to do.

We'll have to face going back in the roundpen at some point, that is for sure. I don't want her to associate the roundpen with terrifying things, seeing as that is where I want to back her for the first time, so maybe in about a week or so I will just take her in there for some low-key work and some love. For now, however, I just need to focus on getting her mind back and relaxed again.

Yesterday, I wanted to go back over the idea that ropes are NOT scary. She was totally fine with ropes - TOTALLY fine! - up until she was roundpenned. After that, they were terrifying - S slapped her all over with it, chased her with it, and pulled it over her ears in an attempt to desensitize her. It completely backfired, and gave her a reason to be afraid of ropes instead. This video is really, really long - like 10 long, boring minutes of pretty much nothing except getting her to relax - but if you watch most or parts of it you will see the difference from beginning to end. She starts off practically leaping away from me when I raised my arm with the rope, to lowering her head, to leaning into me instead of leaning away, to finally following me around at the end of a very loose and long line. She needs lots and lots of this, every day.




This morning, I wanted to see if she still remembered how to properly lunge. Unfortunately, the roundpenning very effectively backtracked us a few weeks - she had been doing absolutely fantastically up until now, which is a real shame. Today, she kept slamming on the brakes to wheel in to me, was gritting her teeth while chewing the bit (it w`as a new bit, to be sure, so that could have had something to do with it), and kept exploding backwards every time I went to correct her for wheeling in to face me. It took a little while, but she remembered what she was supposed to be doing, and I had a proper walk and whoa at the end of it. She was still wanting to whoa and turn in towards me (I HATE THAT!!) but at least she stayed out where she was supposed to instead of coming in to me. (Why natural horsemanship people want their horses to come barging into their personal space is beyond me, even when invited. To me, it is much more natural for me as the leader to come into THEIR space, not the other way around!) But I couldn't raise my hands at her - she bolted away from me every time, absolutely terrified. Even when we were grooming, if I raised my arms too fast, she went shooting away in the other direction. This is brand new and a direct result of being shooed away while roundpenning... sigh. Given everything that has happened, she was really quite good today... she could have been a lot worse. She had frenzied, frightened moments.... but once she was calm, she was very good.

I also can't believe how much weight she had lost in a single week. She must have dropped 75lbs... she's not totally emaciated, to be sure, but she's not the thick, healthy, muscular mare that she was one week ago. Observe:

It makes me want to cry looking at that picture. I can NOT believe how the weight has just come pouring off of her in ONE WEEK. I'm going to say it's probably 100% certain that she has ulcers by now, despite the fact that she lives out 24/7 and has free access to pasture and hay, is on a really good pre/probiotic with colostrum and beta glucan, is on aloe juice/slippery elm/marshmellow root/chia, and eats a very high fat, minimal stach/sugar diet. I tripled her aloe dose, doubled up her fat, and am looking into some other options, but I think the main thing to do this week is just to STOP all physical activity and not ask her to do anything stressful at ALL for the next week. We need to stop the weight loss immediately, and I think the main way of doing that is to minimize stress and maximize comfort, relaxation, and food. I'm trying to think of other things that can help her... another digestive supplement? Calming supplement? Immune-boosting supplement like APF with adaptogenic herbs? Ideas?

I could just kill whoever did this to this sweet mare. You know the funny thing about her jittery personality? She's not spooky. She's not spooky at ALL. She will go anywhere and do anything, and new things don't concern her in the slightest. It is probably why she walked into the pool no problem for the first time, and why she never so much as tucked a tail at her first saddling. The only things that scares her are threats to her own personal safety, and PEOPLE. People did this to her. Had the people in her past life only taken the time to be nice to her, she wouldn't be like this at all.

What a horrible week. Amazing how it is the little tiny things that can completely throw everything out of control.