The Old P

After a very sudden whirlwind of events, the old Pmare is now home. This has been a total chaotic cluster of a week, and I'm still trying to process my thoughts on everything.

Yesterday, I got a text from P's lessee saying that P had cataracts. Cataracts? She didn't have cataracts when she left my place, when did these show up? Only one eye? And 48 hours ago? Ok, that's not normal. 

She texted me a picture:

Oh geez. THAT'S not normal. It looked like a small ulcer, or fungal infection. It looked as though there was already a small crater in it. I told her that she needed to have the mare taken to the vet right away, and that eyes were never something to mess around with - it might be nothing, but it might be something that causes her to lose her eyeball. You just don't take changes with an eye.

Then I started getting texts back saying, 'welllllll I don't know how I'm going to pay for that, sooo....'

Welp, that's the end of that. That is a breach of the terms of lease - the lessee was to pay for all veterinary upkeep (and farrier, and feed) in place of a lease fee. (Barring major catastrophe, which was a negotiable thing.) If you can't even afford to have the vet come stain the eye and look in there to see if there is something going on, then you certainly can't keep the horse. It is one thing if you choose to bypass a veterinary issue with your own horses. It is another thing entirely if you choose to do it with someone else's horse. I told her I'd be there as soon as I could in the morning to pick the horse up. 

I got up at 4, slogged my way through dressing, driving, hooking up my trailer, feeding the horses, and then driving for several hours to pick up my mare. I texted the lessee an hour out, and then 10 minutes out, to let her know I was on my way. 

When I arrived and called to Pmare, she popped her head up and stared at me in what looked like total disbelief. She didn't come over at first, just stared at me while the other horses ate. It was almost as if she was going, "are you seriously here right now?" It was definitely a look of recognition. A minute or so passed, and she decided to make a beeline to the fence to come over and see me. Good old mare. 

I still had no reply from the lessee, even though I had texted her to tell her I was there. I had already schedule a vet appointment at 1pm, so I couldn't really hang around. I tried to call her, and the phone picked up, but then promptly hung up. I tried to call back, but the phone went to voicemail. A third call sent it to voicemail as well. Frustrated, I searched the barn for her belongings - her Renegades, her blanket, her bridle - but I found nothing. I tried to approach her door, but her dog wouldn't let me it. Finally, I just gave up, took the horse, and left. I texted her and told her to send the things to me, though I don't expect to ever see them again.

Several more hours in the trailer, and finally arrived and unloaded her at the vet. She's very dirty, very hairy, and a lot thinner than the last time I saw her :(

Obviously she's not emaciated, but to give you some idea of a comparison, here's how she looked at this time last year, shortly before she left for the lease:

It's unrealistic to think that anybody I could have ever leased her out to would uphold my ridiculously high horsecare standards, but this is a little ridiculous. Return her to me dirty? No problem. Return her to me a little rude and pushy? That's fine, I get it. Return her to me with her ribs sticking out and neck half the size of what it was, and feet flared out with tons of extra toe? That's really not cool. 

The good news though? Today, the eye thing has magically disappeared. When I arrived at her lessee's, I immediately looked in her eye, and.... saw nothing. Huh. We stained it at the vet anyway, and... nothing.

Diagnosis? Really interesting looking EYE BOOGER. 

Obviously, it was some divine intervention or something though.... she couldn't stay at that place looking this way. All the pictures I've seen of her were taken from angles that just never showed how thin she really had become. I had no idea it was like this. It just took a really questionable looking eye booger to get her out of there. 

So, thanks eye booger! Now begins the long process of getting her back to the way she used to look... 

The Horse That Does Everything

Can I just take a moment to say how much fun it is to have a horse that is capable of doing a little bit of *everything*? I feel at this point like O could do almost anything we decided to try. (I say almost, because things that involve a steady rhythm or being slow, like hunters/WP/etc, are definitely NOT things she would be capable of doing well at. 'Slow' is not her thing!). 

Today, we decided to play around on the barrels, because why not? We are just starting to canter parts of the pattern, and she is starting to understand that idea. (We started with walking the pattern, then trotting the pattern, then we switched the pattern to run it backwards, and then we started with the canter, all over the past few months.) After watching these videos, I see that I need to give her some more of her head around the turns, but the rest of it doesn't look half bad for someone who doesn't actually know anything about running barrels. It's fun!

We even finished before it started to rain, how about that.

I obviously don't *really* know how to barrel race, but it is super fun to do and can be very technical. It's a constant fun challenge - how best do I negotiate this obstacle at speed? A little of this, a little of this? And sometimes it all comes together perfectly. I'm not about to jump ship and change disciplines, but it might be fun to do some of our little local rodeos. 

Naughty ponies that flip their heads around have to have their tie-downs put back on though...

Please excuse extra strings in the background... that's how you keep your tackroom door open ghetto-style. There is a little bumper on the bottom of the door that is supposed to pop into a little rubber holder to keep your door open, but you have to push hard on your door and the hinges to get it to pop in there. Sundowner hinges are notorious for breaking, and I've gone so far as to have all of them replaced from the plastic (that snaps) to metal (that rips the screws out of your door) to metal with bolts that go through the entire door (that all snap in half)... so at this point I give up. I just loop a long string that I tied around the doorhandle all the way to the tongue of my hitch and call it a hooptie day! 

When I got her, she was THE queen of the head toss, She'd about put her head in your lap every time she did it, and she did it CONSTANTLY. We got her over that, and she hasn't done it in a very long time (and I haven't needed to put anything on her except a snaffle or the hackamore), but she started to pick it up again at the last endurance ride when we spent a lot of time arguing about speed on the first loop. She does it mainly as a protest (do not want to slow down you can't make me!). The tie down is great because it is loose and has give to it, and it doesn't do anything at all unless she tosses her head. One head toss today and she went OH WOW SORRY, and didn't do it again. It's nice because she only pulls on herself, and I don't have to get into a fight with her about it. She pops herself in the nose once, and doesn't do it again. Mares.

Also, PHEW! She is also finally starting to shed. Not that she had a lot of winter coat to begin with, but it is nice to know that soon it will be gone. 

Yes, she really is that shiny. Yes, that is her winter coat. Yes, winter coats are supposed to be shiny!

We also figured out that she may have some funny extra krazy kolor genes going on.... first, check out her countershading dorsal stripe! It's not a *real* dorsal stripe like a dun horse or a horse with primitive markings has, but it is a special kind of genetic switch that gets flicked on during her change of coats. I knew it was there, but it is REALLY noticeable now versus last year when I had just gotten her and she had kind of a raggedy winter coat. If you look closer, you'll see all these little white hairs all over the place, white ticking all over her body. That means she's possibly a sabino! It's really minimally expressed, and without testing we don't really know for sure what it is (and I don't care about color enough to bother testing), but it is interesting, and everyone I've shown it to that knows color is oohing and aahing over it. R also reports that her breeders thought she was sabino too! 

She used to have a few white birdcatcher spots on her when I got her, but they have all vanished and haven't come back. Weird! Color genetics are really cool and way beyond me. 

Self Exploration

Phew! I have some catching up to do. I have another post to follow about my birthday, but I better catch upon this one first!


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Little Miss Tre left for her new home this past weekend! After this experience I can safely say I am NEVER EVER EVER doing the buying and selling thing ever again, EVER. It was a horrible, frustrating, money-bleeding experience, and I never want to take part in it ever again. She went to a great place, but not for what I wanted and not within the time frame that I wanted. It was a learning experience for me, but mostly all that I learned is that while it seemed like a great endeavor, it was not, and I am not made of the stuff that horse sellers are made out of. I am never. Ever. Doing. That. Again.

EVER.

Doing this also gave me some good insight into my own workings though, and for that I am grateful. I realized at some point that I am really just a one-horse kind of person. I really like just have one single one to spoil and dote on. It's very hard for me to have two that are both in work at the same time (having one retired one or one youngster plus a working one is a different story, that is doable). I don't know, I'm just sort of... horsey monogamous, I suppose. Only having one means that the one that I have doesn't have to want for anything. Only having one means that I can take as long as I feel like every day, because there isn't a time constraint. 

From here on out, it will just be O, and of course Pmare when she comes home. Obviously, at some point in the (way distant) future, that will change in some way or another (I get rich, somebody dies, something unexpected happens, etc), but not now. Now is a time for conservation instead of excess. Now is a time to focus on building up the things I have instead of trying to reach for outside things. 2014 looks like another huge year for personal and professional growth, and not surprisingly I am feeling a little wiser with every passing day. My 29th birthday was yesterday.... hard to believe I am approaching the end of my 20's. What I know today is certainly far more than I knew at this time last year, or the year before, or especially five years ago, or ESPECIALLY ten years ago. Ten years ago at this exact time, I was waiting for my brand new horse Metro to arrive from Canada, while doting on my old man Quincy. Five years ago at this time, I had just recently moved to Connecticut, and was prepping young Gogo for her Novice debut in Area 1. Two years ago, I had just moved into a house with Future Hubs and was wondering how in the heck I had survived a year already in Texas. Last year, I was about to get struck in the ankle with a rock and have everything in my life completely change for the better. At the end of my 20's, I am seeing that everyone was right - your 20's is a RIDICULOUSLY dynamic period in your life. It is a time for growth, a time for huge decisions, a time for successes, and a time for mind boggling mistakes. A time to really figure out who the heck you are, and where you want to be going with your life. I know that I will change every year - that's just life - but I know a lot more about my older, wiser self now than I did my younger, more irrational self. I am also old and wise enough to know that I am neither old nor wise in reality, and that I don't know nearly as much as I used to think I did. 

Anyway, I digress. 

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The past two weeks has been absolutely insane. I was sick for a week and a half, which threw off all of my appointments, and then the weather tanked which didn't help any of the complexity. I then ran myself ragged trying to catch up with everyone, and finally everything is back to normal. In the interim, I only had time to lunge a few times and go for a quick hack, but hey, at least it was something! This week things have finally gotten back to the normal level of crazy, so I've been happily back in the saddle. 

O doesn't like to do the same thing every day. If she lunges two days in a row, she'll be much worse on the second day. Same thing with flatwork, or conditioning - some combo of being bored and using the same muscle groups makes her much less pliable on the second day. She seems to do quite well if you space out her more intense workouts with either a day off or some very differing kind of work. After our dressage ride on the 1st (a Saturday), she had a day off on that Sunday (when the weather tanked), and then on that Monday we went for a 5 mile hack. We checked on all the new baby cows (so far there are 14 new little squeezy cute beef tips!), trotted over some raised poles, patterned on the barrels for a little while, and then called it a day.

It was REALLY COLD, and I had to practically peel my frozen self out of the saddle. Is winter over yet!?


The rest of the week passed in a whirlwind of business. Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, she had off, and Wednesday and Friday she lunged in the Faux-ssoa. Putting a day off in between the two of those sessions was very helpful, although I did think that on the second day she was a bit less cooperative than she had been on the first. We worked on our usual stretching out, trotting and cantering over raised poles, and relaxation.

(If you couldn't tell from the change in background weather/scenery, those were taken on two different days.)

On Sunday (the 9th), I decided to try a little experiment. I had the idea long ago (meaning, a month or two ago) that I should try a pelham on O for some flatwork. This pelham has a short shank and the same Happy Mouth mouthpiece as the snaffle I ride her in. My idea was that I could ride off the snaffle, and then would have an extra bit of "excuse me whoa there wild animal" with the curb if I needed it. And that was a good idea, of course, but in reality it seems as though O has recently really connected with the idea of a half-halt. She stretched out and took a nice contact, moved off my leg, took half halts from my seat perfectly well, and was in general just fantastic. I ended up tying up the curb rein and just riding off the snaffle anyway, because I had a horse who was listening to my body and just taking a nice relaxed contact with the snaffle. I was also surprised to find that we have leg yields in both directions, really nice ones! I didn't know we had them... we certainly didn't have them before. Not sure when she picked that up, but she did!
She was great. Back to the regular snaffle, because all good dressage-y things come from a simple snaffle and that's how it should be!

She sure did look cute though!


We had another lunge, which looked quite a lot like this (although this was taken a few days earlier):



Awwww good mare.

We also had a fun day of desensitizing with a rope and playing on the barrels. She has started cantering the barrel pattern and is REALLY pretty good at it all things considered. I tried to get a video of that, but unfortunately all I ended up shooting was a long video of the sky. But, at least I got a short clip of playing around with the rope!




Caveat: do not be this lax with your own personal safety unless you really know the horse. I'm being very sloppy about safety in this video because I know this horse and I knew she wasn't going to do anything. Still, that doesn't mean that something unexpected could have happened - practice safety!

You can see that she's not particularly keen about it flying around near her head, but it won't take long for her to get used to that. I am a total goob with rope handling, so I won't be swinging around off of her anytime soon, but this is a good place to start. Not surprisingly, she didn't care about it much. You also get to see some very poor leading skills on my part... I suppose I've been letting her be too lazy with the leading as of late. I will get back on that now that I have noticed her trying to drag along behind me.

Phew, I think I caught up with all of the riding stuff!

Stupid blog!

Blogger is being a right pain in the fanny. I wrote TWO huge long posts, one about this past week, and one about my birthday, but they of course were magically deleted when Blogger decided it couldn't save them for some reason. DAMNIT.

So anyway, enjoy this adorable picture until I stop being angry at Blogger and get back around to re-writing THE WHOLE THING AGAIN. 

Hooves Are Cool

Are hooves not the coolest things ever?

If you remember, about a year ago O came to me with the cruddiest hooves ever. She had been in Texas for a little while, standing in a field for several months just eating on a nasty roundbale, and while she had been getting hoof care at that time (supposedly), her feet were still awful. Her soles were so thin you could depress them with your thumb. She couldn't walk on pavement without being gimpy. She had zero soft tissue development in the back of her foot. She needed some work.

There was literally nothing I could take off that would make it better. So, I put her to work. The best thing you can do for a horse with poor soft tissue development and thin soles is to make them comfortable, feed them well, and work them. Off we went.

She couldn't walk on pavement barefoot at first. She wore boots and pads for every ride. She tripped. She kept going.

Eventually, the boots started being less of a necessary thing. She couldn't wear them all the time due to how badly they rubbed her (ALL boots that fit her rub her, and the boots that don't rub won't stay on her crooked toed-in feet), so they started to stay off for periods. She wore them less, and less, and less.

Pavement because as easy as turf to work on. The gravel driveway became less of a challenge. The rocks in the big pasture started to be less terrible and more simple to negotiate. 

Eventually, the boots went by the wayside. I think they're in my trailer somewhere collecting dust. She hasn't worn them in months. 

The soft tissue in the back of her foot started feeling firm to the touch, like something was actually in there. Things were developing, responding to the hundreds of miles that we had traveled. And then one day, concavity was there. Where did that come from?

Voila! Here we are, a year later.

The first shot was taken last April, the second was a few days ago. Remember, NO TRIMMING happened during this time except for the very rare occasional touch-up. This hoof is nowhere near perfect by any means, but the development in the back of the foot is WILD, and there is quite a lot of concavity to it. It had some hunks taken out of the lateral side (she is toed in) when she was monkeying around one day but no harm no foul, just looks a little funny until it grows back. There is still a very long way to go, but this is remarkable progress. 

Good food and miles and miles and miles and miles of proper landings are the only real way to achieve this. Nothing you put on the foot will make it develop like this. It has to be done through stimulation and proper nutrition, and it doesn't happen overnight. By this time next year, they will look totally different, again.

So, what are you waiting for? Go ride! 

End of February Analysis; March Goals!

Is it already time to do our monthly goals? Where did the time go!

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O-Ren February Goals:

1) Survive our next LD at Racing Stripes I!

Success! We finished 8th with the High Vet Score. She was bouncing around like a maniac the next day, she recovered REALLY well. I, on the other hand, not only caught a stomach bug but also couldn't eat or drink much during the ride, and therefore felt like I got hit by a bus the next day.

2) Dressage work - back to walk-trot, and add in canter gradually! Get to it!!

This did not go over the way I was hoping. Due to the ride schedule, I spent more time focusing on conditioning, and she had a fair amount of time off before and after rides. Unfortunately, I planned for us to be at a another ride this weekend, and therefore gave her a chunk of time off between the last one and leading up to this one, but I ended up bailing on the ride this weekend because I was feeling too cruddy about everything to even consider going. Thankfully, Funder gave me some pep talking, and I'm not quite ready to dump the endurance idea yet. That said, more dressage work and more eventing-type focus is DEFINITELY warranted for the next few months. 

3) Ramp up conditioning - possible 50s in our near future....

Well, I don't really know about this one. I'm not completely sure that I want to pursue endurance beyond LDs at this point, or if I want to pursue it at all. I don't really know. I think that I do, but I don't really have any intention of doing 50s in the barrel saddle. Unfortunately I also can't afford a new saddle right now. I could possibly do more work in my dressage saddle, but I don't really think I'll find it secure/comfortable for very long distances. So, I dunno what we'll do! 

4) Attend one or two more open XC schooling days! Spend time as well putting cavalleti/jump work in on the calendar as the canter improves!

Again, total fail. My endurance-y schedule majorly interfered with this goal, as all of the XC schooling days around here coincided with ride times or times when she needed to not be working that hard (right before/after a ride). We'll make this a higher priority this next month. I have been lunging her over single cavalettis at the canter though, and that's a start!

5) Install Easyshoes when they get there and see how they go! (Or, try glue-on boot shells instead!)

Much to my pleasant surprise, I ordered and received O's EasyShoes and discovered that she has sized up since I last measured her, which was not that long ago! She seems to have broken through her plateau, and has not only sized up but gained quite a lot of concavity as well as increasing surefootedness over rough rocky terrain, which is all great. But I'd still like to use her as my crash test dummy for the EasyShoes... we just have to get her into the right size. 

So basically, February did not go as planned at all. 

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O-Ren March Goals:
1) Dressage work - back to walk-trot, and add in canter gradually! Get to it!! High priority!!
2) Attend one or two more open XC schooling days! Spend time as well putting cavalleti/jump work in on the calendar as the canter improves!
3) Install Easyshoes and see how they go! 
4) Consider 'what else' we want to try and figure out how to fit it into the schedule - keep doing endurance? Try roping? Barrels? Driving?
5) Look at show/ride schedule - what will we be doing in the next few months?

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On the riding front, we've been mixing up some actual work with some fun. Last week, my best bestie best was here visiting from California, so of course we had to take the mares for a spin!

First, I put her up on Tre, and we went out to check on all the new calves:

And that was fun, but of course she had to get up on the Big Comfy Couch and try her out too:

O powerwalked with her for a minute, and then they meandered along on a long rein with no stirrups. She is a cool cucumber, that's for sure!

Our weather steadily improved over the course of the week, until it was sunny and in the 80s:

 Naked girls were LOVING the sunshine!


When I decided to bail on Bootlegger, I set her to work lunging instead. She had been a total wild animal all week, like she gets when she hasn't been worked enough - running around, refusing to be caught, and double barreling at us when we'd try to catch her. It's a playful thing, more like a 'whee haha you can't catch me neener neener' thing, but it's 1000000% never ever acceptable to kick out at your human, even if you think it's a game. I got fed up with her antics and freelunged the crap out of her on one of those days, long enough that she sweated up and stood panting for a minute when she finally decided she had better knock it off and stand still to be caught. Following that little come to Jesus meeting, she has been marching up to me in the pasture whenever I show up, nickering to me the whole time. She might be a wild animal when she is not in work, but when she is in work and getting her willies out every day, she's a TOTAL peach.


On the lunge, she needed to canter for about 30 minutes before she finally settled a little bit and got to work. I don't really like them to have to be on a circle zooming around for that long, but she needed to blow off some steam before I asked her to get to real work - there was no way she could focus until she got some of her zooms out of her system. Some of her zooming included cantering over a small raised pole, which was a big zoomy and exciting at first:

Zoooooooom!

And then, she settled. She did some nice stretching:

Trotted and cantered the little groundpole like a champ:

And had some nice halts at the end, which included giving me inquisitive looks:

She also had a nice bath and a mane trim, since it was nearly 85 degrees out by this time. Both mares are starting to shed too, which is AWESOME!

Yesterday, we had a REALLY great dressage school. The last dressage school we had was kind of a disaster, but this one went very well. She was being fresh at the start, like she usually is, and I tried a few things that were different this time around to see if they would make a difference. I warmed her up at the walk, then did some SLOW trot work, where I felt like she was not going forward enough and was a little too bundled up, but was at least not zooming around. I half halted her about every other stride, and held her together with my seat more than anything else. She liked that quite a lot, and back at the walk, she stretched out and loosened up over her back. She eventually melted into that putty-like state that I love so much, where they become all loose and buttery, and it feels like you can smear them in all directions with your legs and seat. That's really the best description for it... they are butter and you smear them in whatever direction you want, side to side, forward or back, up into your seat. She is different from Gogo in her extreme desire to go forward, and in her rhythm... Gogo was born with perfect, consistent rhythm, always with that long and slow sweeping stride of her, always going at exactly the same balance and cadence, even when she was just starting under saddle. O on the other hand doesn't really have an innate sense of rhythm, and tends to bounce around from speed to speed within gaits, especially when she is hot or using speed as an evasion (her favorite). That said, they both require(d) a very quiet, uncomplicated ride, and neither mare can(could) stand a noisy hand. Gogo would rear if you got too up in her face, and O just braces and runs.



Gogo and her perfect rhythm all the time. So miss that mare.

Near the end of our ride, O kind of melted into that nice, relaxed state where she is happy to stretch out and take a quiet contact, and was happy to trot around willingly without having to half halt her constantly. I called it a day with that, very pleased with her. We even did some really excellent leg yields both towards the rail and away from it (rail = perimeter fence) - I haven't schooled lateral work very much, but she had shoulder-ins and leg yields, and when she is relaxed they are REALLY good. When she is still too up and forward, they just kind of rev the engine and spice her up too much, but when she is relaxed they really help to loosen her up. (Gogo was like that too... they really are similar rides, even in their differences).

Nice lipstick! I had a running martingale on her yesterday for the first time in months - I've never actually used one on her during flatwork before. However, Tre was down in her paddock hollering for friend, and everytime we came around the corner into view of the paddock, O would give me a good head toss. I thought that habit was over and done with, but apparently not yesterday! I jumped off for a minute, put on the martingale, and headed off, instead of getting into a fight about it. The head tossing stopped, the mare went to work, and all was well. I doubt I'll use the martingale much, but it is nice to have as a backup to toss on as a reminder - much easier to let her figure out out herself instead of get into an argument with her about it. Goofy mare.

Today, temps are hovering in the low 20s, with windchills below 0 and sideways sleet. O is wearing 3 blankets and Tre is wearing 2, and they are snuggled up in their shed with lots of hay to keep warm. All of my appointments for the day cancelled (thankfully), as did all of my appointments for tomorrow. We might have more sleet coming in Tuesday, which is SO NOT OKAY! Come on now winter, all the daffodils were up and the trees were flowering.... we thought you were over! Cut us some slack!

Shout Out!

While I'm trying to get my motivation for blogging back, I wanted to give a shout out..

 Go check out Polar Square Designs! Kate was awesome enough to do a portrait for Aimee when Cuna passed, a really pretty 8x10" graphite. Kate does commissions, portraits, ornaments, logos (including the Team Flying Solo logo!) and other super awesome things, including THE coolest saddle pads ever! (No seriously, THE coolest. You have to check them out!) 

Go check out her Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/polarsquaredesigns 

Etsy page: https://www.etsy.com/shop/PolarSquareDesigns

Website: http://www.polarsquaredesigns.com

And her email: polarsquaredesigns@gmail.com

I'll be back to writing... eventually. I had a large influx of hate emails and creepy Facebook messages about what a horrible evil horse abusing cheater I am, and that dampened my interest in sharing my story a bit. People went so far as to stalk my Facebook and ride records, and send me my own photos of myself riding to illustrate how bad of a person I am. I've met some incredibly nice, wonderful, generous endurance people, and then I've met some of the most terrifying, judgmental, angry people I've ever had the misfortune to cross paths with.... yikes! It's easy to be a couch jockey and barf up hated all over your targets from the anonymity of a computer screen, and I certainly don't feel the need to defend myself - I know full well how I care for my animals, since I am the one here doing it and they are not. But I also don't feel the need to share my story if I am going to get eaten alive for it. I don't need that kind of noise in my life.

That being said, it sounds for the most part like it's an isolated thing. Everyone I've talked to says there are some REALLY bad endurance apples out there that spoil all the fun for the good ones. Sounds like everybody has a story about being screamed at, or called names, or accused of overriding, or accused of being out of control, or whatever. I guess it comes with the territory. So, eh.