Moole Progress

Despite the steamy heat we've been having lately, the mooles are all doing extremely well. They all seem to like the heat, even going so far as to lay out and sunbathe in the 100 degree afternoons, when the horses are standing in the shade sweating. Surely it's the donkey in them... it makes them more heat tolerant!

Wee baby Uma is starting to have *more* mature days than immature days. She is the same age as Pax, so she still has lots of tiny moole fits and doesn't have much attention span yet. But, she is starting to mature slowly, and some days it surprises me with how many things she is good with. The rest of the days, she still pitches giant moole fits, but... ah well. She will get there, she is just a yearling after all. You think yearling horses are bad... yearling mooles are like dealing with rancid little tweens. She recently got her very first bath (ever!), and she was surprisngly great with it. She wears boots and bells for fun, and she let me roach her mane with the clippers recently. A few months ago I tried to body clip her and she absolutely FLIPPED out, so this is a big deal. To go from totally freaking out to being quite fine about her mane being clipped in just a single session is pretty good!

Lendri had been doing a lot less these days, mostly because it's a million degrees out and I have been prioritizing for the horses who are in work. I did find a pony size cart recently that I bartered out work for though! I will need to switch out the shafts I think, as it does appear that mini size shafts were put on a pony size body. The best thing about the cart is the fact that it has a GREAT set of steel wheels. If nothing else, the wheels are worth the entire purchase! 

Hey look, I found a flymask that fits me!

Grooming with Pax

Lendri meets her doom

Sriracha on top, Uma on the bottom. You can see their size difference, although Uma is catching up!

Sriracha all shed out!

All of the mooles got haircuts. It's traditional turnout for mules and donkeys to be roached for shows, so I decided to give everybody the roach to see how it looks. They look adorable! I love it. The foofy manes and mohawks are equally as adorable though... basically everything about them is adorable. How can I pick just one look! 

Fully roached but still hairy eared! 

I've had Sriracha now for two months, and she is looking fantastic. She is a lovely mule, intelligent and willing to learn, fast losing her suspicion and more willing to try for me every time I work with her. She is gleaming and shiny. She bathes, clips, leads, ties, trailers, and wears her flymask. She is getting better and better about grooming and flyspray. and she picks up her front feet and even let me nip off the excess. She is letting me touch her hind legs now too, so it won't be long before I can do them as well. 

Looking so good! 

Looking like a proper show mule! Almost anyway!

Picking up feet

She is coming along so well. I just love her! She really was a lucky find. 

Slow Internet Makes For Bad Blogging

One of my New Year's resolutions was to blog more. I have clearly been falling behind in this, but it isn't entirly my fault. Out here in the bumpkinlands, we have satellite internet, which means that whenever the weather gets questionable, the internet goes kaput. There isn't much we can really do about it. We do still have our phones and pretty good service with them, and I can post stuff to Facebook/Instagram when I'm out and about, but actually sitting down and writing blog entries isn't really so doable. If you really get down to it, technically it's not that bad of a thing - after all, I do get a LOT more done at home when I'm not sitting around on my butt wasting time. My other problem is that I have SO MANY other things I need to be doing. I have a buttload of horses to be worked, I have daily paperwork that needs to be done, I have a house that needs to be cleaned. Today in particular, I have hay that needs to be picked up and I need to get ready to leave for California midweek. I even have my trailer hooked up and ready to go because I was planning on going to ride this morning at WD. Unfortunately, it is 25 degrees and blustery out, and I am a complete and total wimp. I have been running and running so far this month, and haven't had much time to just relax. 

Last week I was able to trailer Dylan out twice to WD, and hacked him once. I feel better every time I ride, and feel like I am sitting better too. I'm still sitting defensively, which I think is just a throwback from riding O, but my shoulders are much straighter even though I am still leaning forward a bit. That's the defensiveness kicking in - the leaning forward, the legs a bit too far forward. It's improving bit by bit. I also definitely feel strong enough now to be able to take some lessons without looking like a total fool or being so exhausted that I pass out fall off halfway through.

I am also seeing a new physical therapist for my bad calf, and I do think there has been some improvement in my flexibility. It's going to take a long time, but I think I may be able to regain enough freedom in the limb to be able to comfortably ride pain free. This is so huge! I had really thought I was done with serious riding for good - the pain was so intense every time I rode that I didn't think it was going to be possible anymore. Now, maybe I still have a chance! 

I've been alternating back and forth between the snaffle and the double bridle. On days when I don't feel so solid, I use the snaffle, and on days when I feel really good I use the double. The feel of the double is really a wonderful and complicated thing, especially with a horse who is already double trained and knows how to independently work from each rein. I think it is only fair that I am strong and solid in my riding when I use it though, so I am mindful of how I feel before I get on each day. 

Little by little, I improve. The better I ride, the better he goes. 

Half pass

1/2 pirouette - easy speed racer it's not a reining spin!

Another 1/2 pirouette - much better

Big pats for good boys

Dylan has been barefoot now for four months, and his feet have changed SO much. 

I haven't trimmed him at all, save for nipping off a small bit of flare on the fronts once. He works and moves a lot on his own time, and maintains himself very well. I prefer to do it this way if possible. It's unorthodox, but when it is doable, it is incredible to see the changes that take place over time. 

For those of you who are better about blogging than I am - who has suggestions for making time to actually sit down and write things out? How do you get EVERYTHING in your day accomplished? 

Pax - 4 weeks old!

If you've been paying attention to the news lately, you'll know that Texas appears to be being biblically flooded out. I guess the deities saw that Greg Abbot got voted in as governor, and they decided to drown us and start Texas over again from scratch (not a terrible idea really). Unfortunately, so far our literal 40 days and 40 nights of rain has basically put a huge damper on not only the show season, but the thought of working the horses at all. Not to mention the fact that trying to move while it is raining EVERY SINGLE DAY is just awful. Everything is covered in mud, everything is dirty, and everything is wet. And it sucks.

May's show season was supposed to be thick and full - three shows right in a row. Then it started raining right after Sunrise Ridge, and hasn't stopped since. After Sunrise Ridge, I didn't work O for two weeks, then loaded up and headed right to the Games Day, where she did super well as you know. Then I couldn't do literally anything else, because it started raining even more, and every day. Even during the sporadic breaks in the rain, everything is bogged down in massive mud - there's no decent footing ANYWHERE you go, and even if you did try you'd either ruin the ground or ruin your horse's legs. There has been nothing that anyone can do really (at least not with the move. When the move is complete, I can trailer out again). 

The Carriage Classic at the beginning of the month got cancelled due to the weather. Then the Games Day, slated for the following weekend, also got rescheduled due to the weather. It was supposed to be held today, but once again, it had to be cancelled because of the weather. The last show I was supposed to do was Pine Hill, which is in fact running, but is also this weekend - and this is the weekend my parents came down to help us with the move and setting up things in the new house. Seeing as I literally haven't hooked my horse once in nearly a month - and have only been able to lunge her twice - it's not like we were remotely ready anyway. But, it sucks, there's no way around that.

I have no idea when or if it is ever going to stop raining. Tentatively we are going to the Cowboy Country HDT in mid-June, and hopefully the ADT in late June, but we'll just have to see how the weather holds! When I get my cart over to the new house, I will at least be able to drive up and down the roads, if nothing else. O is acting crazy possessive and protective over the baby though, so it might be kind of a rodeo to start.

In much better news, Pax turned 4 weeks old on Thursday! With my parents coming in and the move going on, I haven't really had much time to sit down and write about it. (Technically I should be up and showering right now, but oh well, I wanted to blog so I'm gonna do it!) I can't believe she is already a month old. She is growing like a weed and is just gorgeous.

When it was warm and sunny for 10 minutes, a million flies and mosquitos came out. Everyone got their flymasks, even Pax:

If that doesn't make you feel all warm and squishy inside, you might be a dead person, because baby horses in baby horse flymasks are adorable.

She also does many 'adult' things now, such as:

Grooming: 

Oh yea that's the spot

Picking up her little feet (and she'll get her first trim in a few days!):

Standing 'tied' (meaning, the lead rope has one turn around the fence and she can easily pull free if something happens - but she understands pressure now and she stops if the rope tightens. Don't actually tie your baby horse, their necks are SO fragile at this stage - teach them about pressure first, and then everything goes from there!):

She is too wiggly to stand well for conformation pictures... this is about the best one I managed to get:

She also learned about blankies for the first time (although I did stick one on her as a neonate for a new minutes). The other day I pulled in to feed them breakfast, and Pax was absolutely soaked and shivering hard. P is a feral beast, and doesn't like to go in her shed when it rains, so she makes Pax and O stand out in the rain with her. Pax obviously isn't going to leave her mother, and O isn't going to leave either one of them, so they just stand there and shiver miserable next to P while she, blissfully unaware of the rain, eats or naps.

No, she's not massively roachbacked - just had the MAJOR butt squinches due to the cold rain! I conned them into the shed for some alfalfa.

So, we learned about wearing a baby blanket:

It's kind of like a mini skirt, but it works

As you can see in the pictures, O is always super concerned about her tiny friend, and P kind of doesn't care. O and Pax go off and do their own thing all the time, and P ignores them to eat. 

I did get to lunge O for about 15 minutes the other day, inbetween rainstorms... it wasn't much but it was something!

 And now it's pouring again.... sigh!!

Impatiently Waiting

Now that we have crossed the 320 threshold (day 324 today, and no changes except a slightly bigger udder today), I'm twiddling my thumbs and hanging around, getting my focus back on other more alarming matters that are speeding toward me. Like for instance: the fact that Sunrise Ridge is only 14 days away and I HAVE NO HARNESS. Gahh!!

I've been pestering the lady and so far she hasn't heard from her harness maker. They have special distinct orders to get it to me before the 9th - but my god, even if it gets here on the 9th that will mean I won't really get to drive at all before we have to leave for the show. I REALLY REALLY hope it gets here before that!

I am SO happy though that my chrome rein rail is in the mail - it will be a pretty simple install once it arrives! I need to get a bit of paint and touch-up the cart in a few spots, and wash it really well, and then it will be ready to roll. I hopefully am having another lesson on the 3rd... but this is pending harness of course.

I've lightly lunged O a couple days in a row now - I don't normally do this much lunging, but I want her to do *something* daily while we lead up to the show. Lightly usually means no more than 15 minutes, and more like 10 for these last two. She was totally perfect yesterday and total, poking along like she was mostly asleep, listening to her commands and being very, very quiet. Quieter than usual, even! I have a very full day tomorrow so she'll either be lightly long-lined, or have off. Mostly next week I plan on long-lining and reinforcing all of her commands - kind of dressage-on-the-ground, sort of. 

Trying to capture artsy pictures of Pmare at day 323...

... but I had some company....

... who could not help but be RIGHT there waiting for some lovins'.  I was kneeling taking pictures of P, and just aimed the camera straight up!

It's one thing I do love about this mare, how affectionate she is. For all that people have been mean to her, and done terrible things to her, that never dampened her genuine longing for human interaction. If I am anywhere in her paddock for any period of time, she is right there next to be following me around, waiting to be scratched. If I ignore her and do something else - like take pictures of P, for example - she'll just stand there and doze, and stay with me. And she always comes when I show up with a halter - always, even if I've pulled her out a million times already that day for various things. It is really, really endearing.

With no ability to drive, and with the show looming up on me, I am directing my energies towards getting everything else together in the interim, so there is no panicked last-second scramble. I am probably already going to be panicked last second if my harness shows up really late, so I am trying to minimize that! I scoured over my list of supplies - I think I have everything I need. I'm only missing, you know... the most critical thing on there. O.o 

I also went ahead and reapplied Easyshoes on O's fronts today. I may do her hinds as well, but probably not right now. The Easycare support team contacted me via my blog and passed on a few of their mad genius tips I hadn't thought of before - so hopefully we can get them to STAY this time!

Basically I feel like I am sitting around twiddling my thumbs waiting for all of these enormous things to happen, when the enormous things are flying towards me at high speed:

1) Show season starting 

2) Pmare being due

3) House hunting

4) Working working working working

5) Going to CA this summer

6) Going to MI this summer

I am waiting for this harness... and waiting for this baby... and then everything is going to break loose!

The Great EasyShoe Fail

If there is one thing I know in this world, it is that O is the most frustrating horse on the planet when it comes to footwear.

Her feet are SO much better than they were when I first got her. They used to be paper thin, completely flat, and had her totally crippled even just on surfaces like pavement. Now, a year later, she is SO much better, but our terrain is still covered in rocks. Her living area and our riding areas are full of rocks. Big rocks, little rocks. Gravel, boulders. Rocks. 

So we need some help.

The problem is threefold: 

1) She has very crooked legs/feet and is toed in

2) She is a short-backed big mover, with some side to side fling of her legs, and is full of random erratic movement

3) She is made of paper and everything in the world rubs her, even just saddle pads and girths on everyday rides

All models of Easyboots rub her raw, and she rips them off. Renegades don't fit due to her crooked feet, and they spin and come off. Cavallos stay on, but rub her until she bleeds no matter how broken in (have had some success with Elastikon tape for dry, short rides). Every single model of synthetic glue-on that I've tried, she has stepped on and ripped off within a day. EVERY model, even just a rim of Superfast she ripped off. She doesn't step on herself until you add just that tiny little bit of extra weight on the foot, and then you can hear her vigorously clack-clacking along on every ride. (She does that in boots too, but not bare.) Every ride always ends up being one ride, because they always get ripped off anyway. I'm 100% sure she'd rip off steel too, if I chose to go that route, and god knows then she would take half her foot off along with it.

I've had my eye on the EasyShoe ever since it was announced last year. I've been eagerly awaiting it's arrival, and in February I pre-ordered a few to try. I made the discovery that she had sized out of the size she used to wear (which is good!), so I ordered the next size up and tried again.

And this time, I was determined NOT to let her get the best of these extremely pricey bad boys. They were gonna STAY damnit. They were gonna stay.

I glued them on with meticulous prep. I put a layer of casting material over the finished product. And then I added bell boots. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that would be called Overkill. That was me desperately going "stay. Please stay. Damnit, you shall stay. You have GOT to stay."

Surely, she can't rip off a well-glued shoe with a cast AND bell boots, right?

She looked ridiculous, but I was not taking ANY chances that these bad boys were coming off ANY time soon.

 

I applied them yesterday morning. 

I rode today. 

You want to know how long they lasted?

8 miles.

Yes.

8 miles.

EIGHT STUPID SLOW MILES, and she had ripped off both casts, torn a bell boot, and then ripped an EasyShoe off. I felt her snag up on it (we were seriously just slowly trotting along), and then a few strides later I saw the dental impression material go flying off, so I had to turn around and go find the glue. I found some strewn bits of cast as well... looks like she systematically stepped on it enough times to slowly shred it over the course of eight miles.

I hope you are proud of yourself.

"Oh, I am."

She's an efficient mover when she is bare - she never hits herself, catches herself, or does anything questionable when she is totally bare. (Most rides or workouts, I don't bother putting polos/bells/brushing boots/whatever on her, because she doesn't need them.) And it doesn't matter if I push her hind toes to the absolute limit of how far back they can go either, as soon as I put something on her fronts she is stepping on it.

But when your ho-hum not-forward trot looks like this....

.... you're pushing it to the limit when you start to add some more impulsion. The be-bopping slow trot is already cutting it prettttttttttttty darn close to the interference level.

Mares. Back to the drawing board, again, for the millionth time.

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 August Recap; September Goals!

It's September!! That means that rain, cooler weather, and the fall show season are all on their way! It's actually thundering and pouring outside right now.... I can't remember the last time it rained. I love it!

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August Goals:

1) Continue basic dressage work - walk/trot/canter on the bit, emphasis on stretching and quietness, taking a contact solidly!
 Success! I feel like this past month has finally started the turnaround for her in terms of really "getting" the idea of stretching out over her back and reaching out to take a contact. She's not there 100% of the time by any means, and we don't quite have the magic formula yet for how to get her there (it varies during rides, sometimes she is ready to stretch right off the bat and sometimes it takes an hour to get her there), but she is really getting it and we get to that point every single ride now. She has been doing the best in the famous blue bit, so well in fact that I decided to get another one exactly like it (except it isn't blue, sadly!) so that I could put it on her dressage bridle and keep riding her in the blue bit with the western bridle (it ties with latigo instead of a buckle so it's a pain to undo and put on to another bridle) whenever I choose to put western tack on her. I've been riding A LOT with the barrel saddle... dunno why, but we've been getting some great work done in that. I think she really likes the distribution of weight over a large area, but she also does very well in the dressage saddle... mostly I have been lazy and not wanting to change out of my jeans into my britches! She no longer rides in the neck stretcher or the martingale or any of the bigger bits that I had been playing around with - everything has been just in a simple snaffle, except for the slow twist when we go out schooling XC off property. S has a short shank pelham with the same Happy Mouth mullen mouth mouthpiece (how many times can I say mouth in one phrase?), which I think would be great to try - it's a mouthpiece she loves and I can ride her off the snaffle until I need a little extra in the way of braking with the curb. I just need to practice holding two sets of reins again.... it's been a LONG time since I needed two sets of reins for anything!

2) Jump schooling - work on gymnastics, small courses, things in the arena - just getting her rolling, quiet and confident! Also go to some XC schools, but keep it low key!
Success! Since she did end up getting a nice two-week vacation, we didn't jump nearly as much as I thought we would, but for the time that she was working she had some great jump schools. She jumped around XC at Greenwood like a champ, even handling some slightly bigger fences with no issues. (Meaning like, BN fences.... but that's a start!) Her most recent jump school had her jumping a one stride and a three stride line, a few verticals, and even some canter fences. Aside from still not having the greatest brakes when she gets hot, she is really doing well. We have more XC and jump schools in our near future!

3) Keep to our monthly calendar!
I'd call it a partway success - I did opt to give her that vacation instead of keep grilling her with the schedule I had set up. But it was the right thing to do and she deserved it - I believe in taking brakes to mentally and physically chill out before and after important training/showing events!

4) Continue to dork around with hoof protection options - how best to help this mare with traction and comfort! 
Success! It has really just been in the past month that she has really started to get comfortable on rougher terrain without any protection. I ride her now without boots just as much as I ride her with them - the positive changes in feet have been absolutely incredible. She is now outfitted with Cavallos all around, Simples up front and Sports behind, but honestly I have mostly just either been riding with only the Simples/Sports up front sometimes and barefoot the rest of the time. The Simples don't rub her at ALL (scored them used for cheapo so they were already broken in) which is great, as they fit best without the pastern wraps. They are slightly heavier than the Sports, but both are lighter than a set of steel shoes anyway so there you are! It has only really been a few months of change, so everything should continue to just keep getting better and better and better from here!

5) Keep playing with barrels, and conditioning work.... because you never know, maybe we'll play around with some limited distance stuff and some barrels too ;)
We did some of this stuff, not as much as we could have, but I spent most of my time focusing on dressage/jumping things instead... that is what is in the immediate future after all! We'll play around with this more when we have some more downtime, but now is the time to focus on the upcoming tasks at hand. 

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Our September goals are largely the same, with a few big additions....


September Goals:

1) Continue basic dressage work - walk/trot/canter on the bit, emphasis on stretching and quietness, taking a contact solidly! As always a work in progress! 

2) Jump schooling - work on gymnastics, small courses, cantering fences, slightly bigger fences and more XC schoolings!

3) Keep to our monthly calendar! 

4) Get organized - what do I need for showing? Dust off show clothes/tack and inspect everything!

5) Survive our first schooling show! Get through with a good positive experience no matter what the score!

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Yes, that's right! September brings OUR FIRST SHOW! This will be the first time I have set foot in a show ring as a competitor since our ill-fated AECs in 2009. I feel completely out of the loop and like a total noob. We're going to go XC schooling at Curragh on the 7th but we're not going to show there on the 8th - there is a show on the 22nd at Lazy Dog that is smaller and is probably a better first one to shoot for. The Curragh show has a w-t-c test and a longer/bigger elementary course than the Lazy Dog show does (tiny, shorter, w-t only test). There is another Curragh show next month that we'll shoot for instead, but this month we'll keep it simple and small.

It's still raining.... a perfect day to relax and figure out exactly what needs to be done to prep for showing later in the month!!

Catch-Up Post, Part I (Or, Attack of the Emus)

I am long overdue for an update on all of our rides this week!! I'll try to keep it short and sweet, and now that I am getting back on track with blogging I will try to make sure I do it on more of a regular basis, for my sake as much as anyone else's! Writing things down every few days makes it easier for me to track progress, and to keep memories fresh and alive, since my horses tend to like to, you know, die on me and stuff.

Saturday:
Saturday was our first ride back after O's two week long vacation! I'm glad I did her little mini-break, and I'll continue to do them more often than I have in the past - it's nice to let them have a little down time to relax mentally and physically. (Me too, although admittedly I was getting a little too much sleep and not enough saddle time!) Our first ride back was *supposed* to be nice and relaxing, just an hour long walk hack, but we all know how the best laid plans fall apart in the face of a very fresh mare just back to work. She held it together well for the first 45 minutes of the walk, although it took a bit of encouragement to get her going forward away from the barn. She was on the tail end of her heat cycle, so she felt more or less glued to the barn and not really willing to leave her boyfriends, but after a a few wake up bumps with my spur, she quit walking like a drunken noodle and starting moving properly forward. Halfway through our ride, we were accosted by a very angry pit bull who was guarding his property (and of course, Monster Dog Queen of Dumb Dogs decided to ignore me and run over to make friends... thankfully nobody got hurt in the process!), but we managed to make it safely around and made our turn back for home. On the route we normally take down the road, there is a pair of emus that roam one of the fenced in ranch properties. I have no idea why these people have emus, but they do, and the horses do NOT like them. When they are just walking around, O gives them the stink eye but doesn't do anything more, and we can pass on without incident. We passed them on the way out with no problems, but on the way back, they had become separated by a corner of fence and couldn't figure out how to get back around to one another. Seriously though, how stupid are emus? They literally could NOT figure out how to walk 5 feet around a corner and get back to one another, so instead they ran frantically back and forth against the piece of fence that separated them, leaping up into the air and kicking out at the fence, wings waving and feathers flying. Poor O took one look at this chaos and froze, absolutely immobilized with fear. I could literally feel her heart hammering through my saddle. They were admittedly terrifying, so I gave her the benefit of the doubt and dismounted, leading her over to them so that she could get a better look. The stupid things finally figured out at that point how to get around the corner back to each other again, and everything settled down momentarily... until the neighbor's horses decided to all come galloping across their field right at us. We were obviously on the other side of the fence, but O at this point more or less short-circuited, and we spent a good 15 minutes re-learning how to back up in hand (she had conveniently forgotten how to do this in the midst of all the chaos). When I got back on, she was a little bit fried, so after working on some failed walk-trot-halt-holdfreakingstill transitions, we just trotted off down the road to blow off some steam. Wouldn't you know it, she stretched out over her back, took a contact, and worked like a wonderful little angel. We trotted for quite a distance down the road, and when I finally halted at the end of it, she came to a smart stop and held perfectly still. Fantastic note to end on, if I do say so myself! Unfortunately at this point, it was already almost dark (what happened to just riding for an hour!?), so we called it a day and made our way home.

Sunday:
Since our Saturday "light hack" turned more into a dressage school than anything else, I decided to hack out in the late afternoon with S and do our nice little hack then instead. We admittedly had a few drinks as we were tacking up... ok, several drinks.... and by the time we got on we were feeling pretty good. (NOT CONDONING THIS.) S's little hotrod was acting up on our way out down the road, so we bumped it up a notch and trotted off. O, once again, totally surprised me by stretching out, relaxing over her back, keeping a perfect tempo, and taking a good contact. At the halfway mark (it was getting dark!) I let her stand quietly and relax while S worked her horse a bit more, and then we trotted/cantered back, O acting just as perfectly as she had on the way out. At the tail end of it, things got very interesting - S decided that the best thing to do for her horse was to breeze him up the hill past us, just to let off a little steam. As soon as he zoomed by, O lit up and exploded after him. Being slightly intoxicated, I just hung on for the ride and let her go.... probably not the best idea I've ever had, but it felt good to just let her rip. We walked down the next hill and let them go again on the way back up, and I can say with certainty that I can't remember ever having gone that fast on horseback ever before in my life. She blew right back S's extremely speedy barrel horse and kept on going until we reached the top of the hill. It was GREAT.

Back at the barn, we enjoyed a nice session on S's new favorite toy, the Theraplate...

If you've never experienced the awesomeness of vibration therapy (and get your mind out of the gutter, you pervert!), it's WONDERFUL. Check out more info on it here. 

Monday:
On Sunday night, S and I got a text from the guy leasing the pasture behind her house asking if we would come help push his cattle in the morning so that he could separate calves for that day's sale. We were planning on heading to WD in the morning, but of course agreed to help him, so at the crack of dawn we were saddled and out riding to meet him. Neither O nor I have ever helped move cattle, so it was brand new for the both of us, although it wasn't hard to figure out. Most of the cows followed the feed truck over to the holding pens, but it was left up to us to get the ones who weren't interested in following. O was a very good girl, more than happy to run at the stubborn little bull calves who are all getting old enough to be getting ornery, and even chased down a Longhorn and her calf who were trying to break away (there is one Longhorn out there with the rest of them, apparently owned by somebody else who wasn't smart enough to consider the fact that you can't run Longhorns through a chute!) On the way back to the barn, I gave her another brief flatwork session, and she was just as perfect as the two preceding days.... awesome!! Interestingly, she was in a western saddle with the blue bit in... I haven't been able to decide if she loves the blue bit or if she loves the other loose ring snaffle, but I think I will do more work in the blue bit... and who says you can't school dressage in western tack anyway? ;)

Back at the barn, we had a nice little surprise when a giant tent from the neighbor's house came blowing in the wind over to O's pen.... it must have been one heck of a gust to send that thing flying our way! O, true to form, looked at it with mild interest when it came crashing into the fence, but went right back to eating her hay. Giant tent monsters = 0, O = 1.

Tuesday:
Tuesday was a somewhat un-anticipated day off! I had intended to give her Thursday off instead of Tuesday, but S wanted to go to a local barrel race on Thursday and asked if I wanted to join. Well, of course I did, so I decided that since she had been so very good for each of our previous rides, I could let her have a nice relaxing day off instead of a workout. I groomed her, fussed over her feet and tail, and gave her some extra cookies, just because she is awfully cute when she's finally not in heat anymore.

I also got a few quick shots of the changes in her feet!

Note: She has NOT been trimmed in this interim save for knocking a few edges off here and there! This has ALL been done through movement and diet!

Left: when I first got her. Center: 2.5 months of change. Right: 4 months of change. You can see how crappy, thin-soled and thin-walled she was in the first photo - weak, underdeveloped frog, long toe, quarters broken out with some WLD problems. I could depress her sole with my thumb!! Center photo showed massive frog improvement, a thicker sole, better development at the back of the foot and a shortened toe with a better breakover (you can see where she creates hers, off to the side, since she is slightly toed in). Her bars are long, but they have filled in in place of the weak wall in the quarters that was still being treated for WLD. The most recent photo is slightly deceiving, since the morning light makes it had to see the back of the foot and she had a flap of extra frog hanging over her central sulcus that makes it look like a big crack (it isn't a crack at all, just is being covered by the extra flap a little). Sole and extra bar material is starting to crack up a bit as it prepares for exfoliation, but just LOOK at how much thicker that wall is!!! New research has shown that new wall growth not only grows down from the coronary band, but also generates outwards from the laminae as well, which shows quite clearly in this photo. In the bottom photo, you can see just how different her new growth is from the old crappy stuff, which was thin, shelly, weak, and prone to cracking and chipping. She is getting increasingly surefooted every day - it wasn't long ago that she couldn't even walk on pavement without being crippled. Now she is starting to walk over gravel and rocks with increasing confidence - she isn't totally "rock crunching" yet at this point, but loves her boots and rides great in them. We ride without boots as much as we ride with them, whereas before I couldn't do anything at all without the boots. Progress!

I'll have a Wednesday-Friday report shortly! 

Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Jump School

Oy vey! You ever just have one of those rides where everything just goes to hell in a handbasket? I had one yesterday and it sucked!

It's really just not been a good week all in all. O in heat, which basically means she is a distractable tight-backed cacahead, to put it nicely. She gets her panties all wound into a knot, and can't seem to untwist herself no matter what. Last Saturday, I thought I'd try to stretch her out a bit on the lunge, and try a chambon on her instead of the Faux-ssoa. I thought, hey! This will help her relax through her back and allow her to stretch out properly (demonstrated by Gogo here). I think our time with the Faux-ssoa has come to an end - it's time to get her stretching down and out more, and she just can't do that on the lunge properly in anything but a chambon. I thought well hey, let's give it a try!

WELL. She was not having ANY of that nonsense. I should have known when I went to go rig it up, and she just stood there, totally unaware of the poll pressure even though it was pretty darn tight and any reasonable horse would have lowered their head (and she KNOWS how to lower her head in response to pressure!). She then spent the next HOUR running 9-0 on the lunge, completely braced against the chambon and totally unwilling to even think about trying to lower her head and move away from the pressure (which, again, she knows how to do). I thought I'd just let her zoom around for a bit, and she'd figure it out, but I was just plain wrong. She just RAN. A LOT.

GO FASTER BRACE HARDER. 

At one point, she stumbled and bounced around for a minute, and one of her boots started flapping. Oh no.... did I kill the boots?

I did. Dead boot. I might be able to *try* and fix it, but I'm no handyman when it comes to things like this. Sad too.... I put those boots through everything I could think of, and was really starting to think they were indestructible. What took them out? Lunging. Fail!

Finally, I threw in the towel and hooked her bungee up as a neck stretcher instead of as a chambon, just to change ANYTHING to make it better. It did help - we got a few minutes of a decent stretch and I called it quits for the day. I bathed her, stretched her, linimented her liberally, and let her back out in her pen to rest.

Now, if I had any sort of a decent memory, I would have remembered what had happened the LAST time I liberally linimented her. I usually use just a little bit, but the last time she worked REALLY hard, I more or less doused her legs in it, and the next morning was rewarded with HUGE fat legs, all four. Sunday morning when I showed up to feed breakfast? HUGE fat legs again! To say I felt like a total idiot was an understatement. I washed her legs off thoroughly and wrapped her, scrapping my plans to go to WD for the afternoon. By lunchtime, she was already a ton better - just washing off the residue from the liniment made a huge difference. By that evening, she was back to normal again.... phewwwww. Only all-natural stuff for her from here on, or only light coats. Her skin is just too sensitive.

On top of all of that, the area where the chambon was sitting when she was pulling so hard on herself developed a small hanging pocket of edema between her front legs. OF COURSE. Curse you, hormones!

I had a decently good ride on Monday. S and I trailered out to WD on Monday with the horses, and went for a long hack around the property before going into the indoor to school for a bit. O was fizzy and hot, like she usually is, but wound herself down a bit and settled into a pretty quiet rhythm. I did put a martingale on her, just because, but I think I won't be using it much anymore. Trying to get a tight-backed, tight-necked horse to stretch out is not an easy thing to do... we get moments where she loosens up, but we lose them just as fast. At this point, any flatwork ride where I have her mostly under control and where she doesn't have a major freakout is considered a success.

Tuesday? Psh. Tuesday was a whole different beast. I'm not sure what exactly got into the both of us, but neither of us were really on our game. I decided that my plan for the day was to do some hacking and some little XC jumps, just tossed in here and there for fun. We warmed up fine, in a relaxed manner, and hopped over some little crossrails and a little log a few times to get her rolling. Good, good.... this is starting out well. Off we went to the first little log along the way... and.... refusal. Okay... second approach. Refusal. Third approach, refusal. She looked at the log as though it might actually jump up and eat her... I couldn't figure out why it was so scary. All right, let's go over there and try that little log instead.... refusal. Really? Second attempt.... leaping stag jump where she threw her head on the landing side and yanked herself in the face due to her running martingale. Sheesh, what on earth is going on!?

Considering how awesome she was at the XC school we did right before this one, I stopped the schooling and assessed the situation. I had a few theories as to what was going on:

1) She's in heat and just was not quite in the game that day.
2) Tall grass was slick and she may not have felt secure in her footing.
3) Brand new course she had never seen before, still very green on XC.
4) I was not giving her a very good ride at all!
5) After the ride was over, I found that her little leftover bit of edema had rubbed against itself during the ride and was very sore between her front legs. Ouch... I wouldn't want to jump either, poor kid. I felt awful!

I decided at that point to walk over a little log a few times and trot her over the same log a few times, and had decently good success doing that, but I decided to call it at that point and try something else. We went into the outdoor, where they have very nice stone dust footing, and I set up two crossrails in a figure-8 pattern. The first few jumps she was just as awkward and weird over, throwing down the landing gear as fast as she could the first few times, and throwing her head up halfway through the jump. I gave her THE longest amount of rein that I could without losing total control of her front end (seriously, it had to be like 10 extra inches of floppy rein) and held her martingale strap to make ABSOLUTE sure that she had zero contact before, during, and after the jump. (The mare is going to force me to have better equitation over fences.... if I don't perfect an auto release quickly, I am going to have a serious problem on my hands!) Once we went through it a few times that way, she perked up, got bolder, and jumped better. We ended on a great note, thankfully.



I think my plan is this: nix shooting for the schooling show at the end of the month and take it all the way back to basics again. Basics on the flat, and basics over little jumps in the arena, placing serious emphasis on making sure I give her a good ride no matter what. I'm going to do away with the martingale altogether (although I might consider a standing martingale if she ever gets to tossing her head again), and use a neck strap to just make sure I stay out of her way while she organizes herself. Kat is sending me hers to try.... score!

I also am trying out some Superfast glue-ons for her, just for funsies:

Technology is freaking cool.