Catch-Up Post: Driving, Lessons, Vetwork, Kicking Addictions, and More

Let's try to break this massive thing down some, shall we? When I last left you guys, I had a very nice dressage session in the Happy Mouth,  a nice 3 mile light conditioning drive, and an uneventful lunge. That brings us to...

Sunday the 8th:

Another uneventful lunging day. I've pretty much canned the chambon at this point as it is only effective when she is super relaxed. As soon as she gets a little spiced up, she braces against it, and it just doesn't do anything except rub her chest while she zooms around with her head in the air. Kind of the opposite of effective. She was quite quiet today, in no small part thanks to the fact that she went galloping like a wild animal around her pen shortly before I got her out to work her. This usually makes a HUGE difference for her, as otherwise she gets the squealy bucks on the lunge when she canters. Lunging time is work time, not run-like-a-maniac time, so when run-like-a-maniac time happens pre-lunge, it is for the best.

Monday the 9th:

We had an AWESOME drive on Monday. She was just so *there* with her snaffle, and so very pleased by it that she was super ultra mega compliant. She is such a funny case... when she is pleased, she will do ANYTHING you ask, with ease. When something irks her, AKA a bit she doesn't like, she will fuss and fight and be a general hellion nonstop until you do something about it. We only drove for about 20 minutes, because she was just *that good* that I saw no reason to continue. Perfect 40m circles, and 20m circles, and looping serpentines and changes of direction, and lovely quiet transitions. What more can you ask for!

What are you looking at

Tuesday the 10th:

The mares had a vet appointment at 9am with Dr. H to get their Coggins, Rabies, and fecals done, and to give Pmare the pre-foaling once over. Dr. H took one look at P as she stepped off the trailer and went, "so when is she due? Tomorrow?" She is SO HUGE! We weren't even there for 15 minutes... maybe even more like 10. O got her Rabies, and I took P's home with me to administer with her pre-foaling vax. Both mares had completely clean fecals, so the plan for Pmare is to not deworm her again until the day she foals. I'm a deworming minimalist and only go based on what fecals tell me, plus hitting for tapes and encysted strongyles. O has had a clean fecal for almost 2 years now, and while P had strongyles when I got her back from the bad lessee, we eliminated those quickly and she has had clean fecals for almost a year now. 

The plan for P: give her final Prodigy shot on the 15th (which I did), give her full set of shots early to mid-March, and start watching her. 320 days is March 24th (she'll be officially full term at that point). 340 days is April 13th. She could in theory go all the way to May if she really felt like it but I highly doubt she'll make it that far! She is extremely happy at the moment - very comfortable, totally happy in her job of eating and eating some more, and looks great.

So shiny!

80 degrees.... warm, dirty, and sleepy.

Give me a cookie or the gate gets taken down!

Wednesday the 11th:

Today was another conditioning day - slowly ramping it up to 4 trotting miles today. It's easy work for her, and for Training level HDTs/CDEs we don't need to be terribly fit, but I think it is important to break up dressage-type work and be able to trot down the road on a loose rein. She was a lovely girl, and it was a super nice day, warm with a very light breeze and not much happening out on the road (always a good thing).


Thursday the 12th:
I was going to do a dressage day, but I had signed up to trailer to Denton and take a lesson on Saturday, so I decided I needed to do something lighter and then give her Friday off. We opted for another lunge, which was very short and sweet - she was quiet and amicable, which are my two favorite flavors! No need to do any more than a short lunge, if she was perfect.

I decided I like driving enough that I am actually letting the top of her tail grow out instead of pulling it! She has a horrible tail but I am pretty good as disguising it, being the Tailmasta and all.

Friday the 13th:
O had her day off, which was perfect seeing as I worked all day long and didn't get to the barn to feed until dark. I hadn't even cleaned my harness yet for my lesson in the morning! The evening took a turn for the weird when I tried to leave and go home (to have a nice dinner date with Future Hubs for Valentine's Day) and realized my keys were gone. My phone was dead, it was pitch black out, and my keys were not in their usual place - the spot I always put them so that they don't fall out of my pocket and get lost around the barn. A really frantic and fruitless search led me nowhere for two hours - the keys were just NOWHERE to be found. I was almost out of ideas when suddenly it occurred to me that the neighbor's puppy had stolen my driving cones last week and had hidden them in the neighbor's garage. Could it be possible that the puppy had stolen my keys? Turns out, yep.... the puppy had taken my keys, gone all the way back to her house, and hid them in her garage.
Friday the 13th certainly lived up to its reputation.


Saturday the 14th:
Valentine's Day went awfully well if you ask me! I was up early to clean my harness (finally), let the horses eat breakfast and their alf, loaded up the beast, and headed out. O is silent on the trailer and well behaved, but she never touches so much as a mouthful of food when underway, so I try to stuff her full of hay before and after trailer rides, as well as give Ulcergard and Pro CMC if we're going to be away for any period of time. She'd be eaten from mouth to butthole with ulcers if I didn't stay on top of it, I can tell you that much.... so I tend to be pretty overboard with it. Better safe than sorry I figure.
I've spent an awful lot of time trying to make O a solid citizen, as everyone here has seen, but I sometimes still worry that she'll act like a fool whenever we go somewhere new and do something totally different. I've only ever driven her in *her* cart, and at home, aside from the times we went to WD for those fall shows - and she had been to WD a billion times before. This time, we were going to a brand new indoor, using someone else's cart. Would she be a total idiot? Freak out and spook? Kill us all?
Turns out, I didn't need to be worried at all. She walked in like she owned the place, stood placidly in the crossties for tacking, and waited for us while we chatted. G decided to long line her first, just to see where she was (I told him to treat us like rank beginners!). We started with some softening exercises, getting her to yield and drop her head. She picked it up pretty immediately, and would drop her nose right to the ground and stay there, as you can see:

I long lined her for a few minutes, and G has me shorten and lengthen her stride at the walk, as well as place her in several different spots (lengthened out, at the vertical, behind the vertical, bent left, bent right, etc) to help her learn that she is to go out wherever the bit is and stay there. After this, we took her back in the barn, hooked her up, and took her back into the arena. We both took turns driving her, and worked on moving laterally in both directions, spiraling in and out on circles, trying to achieve parking one wheel and getting her to move the cart around it on a pivot. You guys have actually seen me do this a lot, if you've watched any of our videos over the past few months - it was something I guess I was intuitively doing already. I use it almost every drive, especially to the right - she likes to lock up and be stiffer to the right, so I always make sure to spend time parking my right wheel and pivoting around it. I had to laugh when I realized what we were going to be doing to help her be more supple, and told him I already do it a lot, and that it really does help! As it always does, it suppled her up considerably, and before long she was doing lovely little circles in both directions. He had me stop and back her up, which is something I have worked on in the past but stopped doing recently because she was starting to halt and then automatically back up (do not want!!). I had her go back a few steps, and then gave the reins to him so that he could show me how he wanted it to go more efficiently. That was when O decided to show a little more of her um, personality... which I had warned him about when explaining her quirks. She didn't understand his cues (I just taught them differently, so she knows my cues), and he clucked at her a few times. She is CRAZY sensitive to clucks, and then are a go forward cue to her, so when she felt his backwards pressure on the reins but a forward going cluck, she checked out, did the violent headshake, and tries to bull forward away from the pressure. After that, she would not give him one step backwards to save her life - he could have pulled on her til he tore her mouth off and she would not have given him one step.
G looked at me and went "wow, somebody really did a number on her!" You're telling me G... you're telling me.
We moved back off to do some more circles, and O was decidedly more agitated and a bit jiggy. I told him about how this is kind of the way she is - you push her a little bit, then back off and do something simple, and push her a little bit, and back off and do something simple. If she gets too frazzled or upset, which she does sometimes, I always go back to something she understands and chill her out, otherwise you'll just never get anywhere with her. Escalate and de-escalate. He clapped me on the shoulder and told me I was a good smart horsewoman, and that I had the right idea. We finished on a good note, and I definitely have some homework to work on!

They were awesome enough to take me out to lunch, and we had a great time. Back at the barn, G had me jump in the cart to work with him on a really nice Morgan, on a lot of the same principles - lateral work, suppleness, parking the wheel, lengthening and shortening. The Morgan was like driving a little hot rod - SO forward and strong but so fun. We also took him out into the field behind the property, where there were a number of roundbales set up like a cones course. They looked so narrow to me - how in the heck could we even fit through those?? You had to be accurate and you had to get it right. G taught me about driving the water hook of the saddle, which is the part where the overcheck hooks to, if you were to use an overcheck. That is pretty close to the area where your legs would be if they were on either side of your saddle, so he had me think of that as my legs and to steer that part of the horse instead of just the head and neck. (Oh wait duh, you do that in riding too...) If you steer the horse and you put that water hook right in the center of the two cones/roundbales, you'll clear them every time, even on super tight turns where it seems impossible. And he was right... we were flying around that field whipping between the roundbales, clean on every one. I had my go, and even though I brushed a few whisps of hay on a few bales, I was totally surprised to find that I was dead on almost all of the time, even at speed. It was awesome!

The golden loopy swirly hook in the center of the saddle.... yea, drive that part.

It was a great time, and I have another lesson set up in the near future. And have my homework to work on too!


Sunday-Tuesday:
The temps dropped and the rain came in. O had a few well-deserved days off while I worked and froze my tush off. I got off my habit of trying to do one driving-related thing every day, so I am back on that as of today! P got her final Prodigy shot on Sunday.... now the countdown to her full set of shots begins, and then THE BABY COMES!

Pmare, shedding... and sagging. Big time. That's her entire winter coat right there... that's all she ever grows!

Wednesday the 18th:
O got back to work today with a very nice lunge. We did our suppling exercises pre-work like we did with G on Saturday, and I was pleased to find that she retained all of that and immediately complied. I also went ahead and roached her mane again today - this will give her two months to grow a nice new roach in. It was getting sort of out of control, and a roach only really stays nice for about half a year (with regular trimming of course) before it starts to flop around and look stupid. O's was definitely at that point, so off it went. Poor thing looks like a funny looking orange mule, but it will grow back... hopefully sooner than later.

Meet my new mule!

As a bonus, somewhere mid-week last week:
Sometime last week - can't remember which day it was - I was poking my belly and feeling really irritated with the weight I have gained since I moved to TX. I'm not *fat*, not by any means, but I'm not the tiny little stick that I was when I moved here. I realized some time ago that I was drinking a HUGE amount of soda, every day. Like, a ridiculous amount. I was highly addicted and didn't want to stop, because that's how addiction works. Soda isn't exactly heroin or anything, but you get pretty hooked on it and then make up excuses as to why you don't need to quit it. I don't even know what the last straw was, or if there was a last straw, but I decided I just needed to *stop.* So... I did. I just quit soda, cold turkey. I'm not going to lie, I wanted to just flat out die the first day. I think I must have been living in a state of constant dehydration from all the soda though, because I plowed through almost 2 gallons of water the first day, and the second day as well. My body seems to have leveled off a bit, but I probably looked ridiculous as I stood there chugging my 5L giant bottle of water like a camel at an oasis. I was really goddamn thirsty.
Future Hubs says I look thinner already. I don't know about that, but I feel a little bit better. I'm past the hump of craving soda, and have just been drinking water instead. I'm not going to 100% say no to soda forever - like if I go to the movies, I'm getting a giant bucket of popcorn and a big soda, because MOVIES - but I'm not going to slip back into old habits, because I just don't want to. It really is as simple as that, it's just a mind game. I just decided that I don't drink soda anymore, and voila... I don't drink it anymore.

I'm also working heavily on my bad calf, and I think I have some answers. I first thought it was Achilles tendon, but with more experimentation and stretching, I actually think it is more muscle related instead (which is a relief). I think I just limped on this leg for so long that everything in the calf shortened in response. A LOT of stretching has been helpful, but I have to do it every single day, or else I feel it shorten right back up and lose flexibility. Massage and theraplate has helped as well, but not as much as the stretching. I have some KT tape on it today, and I actually think it has alleviated a fair amount of the pain, although it seems to limit my movement a bit. Next up to try: foam rolling, although I feel like that is going to be hella painful.

Damnit though, I want to ride. I want this to be better. So therefore, I'm going to fix it, because I decided so.

Note angry red interior. And Toy Story PJs.

Phew!! I think I am finally caught up!

High Roller I Endurance Ride 1/4/14 (Part II)

Our night of debauchery behind us, O and I headed to the vetbox as soon as they opened up. I had gotten her to eat some hay pellet mush at around 4am, but she was too riled up in the morning to do more than flip her breakfast bucket over and spill her breakfast meal everywhere. She drank about 1/2 a bucket of water, which is pretty good for her! This will HAVE to improve in the future though.... the hotter it gets the more she just HAS to drink. Eventually I got tired of her freaking out (the 50s went out at 7am right in front of the trailer and this was SO MUCH for her brain) that I tied her up to the trailer for a few hours with a haybag so she'd quit running the fence. Last thing I needed was for her to go busting out and gallop off with the 50 milers!

I vetted in with a vet who thankfully was not the one who I stole the parking spot from, and later found out she and one of my clients are apparently besties and the client had been telling me all about her previously - small world! She sympathized with me about the oops-loose-horse-in-the-middle-of-the-night, and told me her own horse had gotten out a million times. (I *hope* my horse does not ever get out again but I'm sure it will happen! I saw like 12 loose horses... is that a thing at rides? There's always a loose horse at events but not THAT many!) O vetted in with all A's and one B+ for gut sounds, and off we went to saddle up. I continued trying to coax her to eat (EAT PLEASE EAT), and she did somewhat, but was more interested in watching all of the horses passing through the vet. Finally it was time to saddle up and head out!

They did a controlled start for us - we all followed some guy and his grey horse at a set speed until we reached the trail head, and then he let us roll on out. I started somewhere in the middle of all of the horses, and ended up passing most everybody within a mile or so. It wasn't long until I found myself in the company of two quick little Pasos and a lady with a big Arab/TB/Trakehner gelding (at least, I think that's what she said he was... he was a very nice looking mutt!). We kept partly in time with another lady on a PSYCHO Arab in front of us who kept blasting off ahead and then slamming on the brakes... he must have ended up being pulled because I never saw him again and he was ahead of us the entire time. The Pasos were in love with O and the younger girl spent most of her time riding along behind us with O's big red butt for motivation. I kept in time with the girl with the lovely mutt-horse for awhile, and may or may not have almost collided with her when the trail unexpectedly turned and I was not paying attention... oops. We spent most of the first 2 loops (purple to blue) chatting with each other, moving forward and falling back and generally keeping company with all the rest of the front runners, right where O wanted to be. She really has discovered the joy of cantering, and cantering is really all she'd like to do. This suits me well as it is SO comfortable to get up in half seat and just roll along with her smoothly - no bouncy posting. Bonus, she does clean changes back and forth from each lead of her own accord whenever we are turning or changing balance, how great is that! I can bump her from one lead to the next with a change of balance but as for a cue we don't have that yet. Our leg cues for canter still involve a head raise, an ugly face, and a surge forward... yeck. On the other hand, if you are out on the trail walking and you cluck quietly once at her, she's off trotting... if you cluck (or kiss) at her again, she's cantering. This really annoys the dressage person in me, but as for working on the trail, it's pretty darn convenient.

We rolled comfortably along for the first loop, and I was surprised when only a little more than an hour had passed and we were already back in camp. O had wasted a lot of energy getting charge-y on the first loop, and while she drank a few sips of water at the trough on the way in, she really didn't get too much in. She had also eaten less than I had hoped she would. We pulsed in immediately, vetted out with A's and several B's including a B- for gut sounds!! Not cool. Our hold was 45 minutes and I spent literally every second that I could trying to coax her to eat more. She wouldn't eat hay or mash, so I took her out and grazed her, and she perked up quite a bit with that. She wasn't getting her elytes in (that I had put in the mash, thinking she'd eat it), and I couldn't bring myself to dose her when she wasn't eating well. Of course, every second that a horse isn't gobbling food I start panicking and going OH MY GOD SHE HAS ULCERS. (I don't *actually* think she does, I think she was just amped up... but still.) Being the kind of horse that she is, I know I'll need to keep an eye on it, but I already manage this aspect of her life VERY VERY closely anyway so I think I am just hypersensitive about it.

Looking good at the hold. 

Once she had grazed, and had tanked up again at the water trough (thank god), I tacked her back up and out we went again. I was a few minutes slow getting it together after our hold, but headed out with a brisk horse who was ready for more action. (This is great - I've never unsaddled her and then resaddled and gotten back on, so she was more than happy to go "uhm ok? Sure, I think we just did this but I am up for some more.") We headed out with a group of 50 milers who were lagging behind a bit (remember, they started at 7am and it was now close to 11 and they were just heading out for their second loop), all of which were very friendly and helpful and giving out unsolicited advice (some of it was nice, some of it was more like "god damn it don't ever pass anyone ever unless you know them," which I think was a bit silly.) I left all the 50 milers behind for awhile until we came to a group of cows that were laying down. O has this really fun spook at her where she goes from trotting or cantering to teleporting sideways and backwards at the same time in one movement, and we were in the process of thrashing around in a blind panic because oh my god I've clearly never seen cows before, mom these are DEMON COWS, they are going to eat us alive! when the 50 milers caught back up and took us through the group of them. (Remember, O sees cows every day...)

Eventually, we caught up to a nice cowboy man and his young horse who was struggling to keep going. We matched up together, and being with another horse motivated his colt to keep moving on down the trail. (He said he thought he might have to walk back home because he had nothing left in his horse! Strangely enough, he ended up winning BC!) The cowboy man and I went on and trotted/cantered along to the finish, paying attention to the deep sandy spots (tons of them) and the mudholes (even MORE of those). I even convinced her to drink ON THE TRAIL! First time she has done that literally EVER. Near the 22 mile mark, there was  big stock pond, and I decided to stop and wade in - she tanked up! I came cantering home across the finish line with a fresh horse who was still pulling on me. She never went along on a loose rein and I never asked her to go more forward than she already was once... she just cruised along and made easy work of it all. She drank even more at the trough at the finish, and I led her to the vet feeling a bit like I was made of jelly. I finished fine, but Funder had hammered on me to eat and drink and I hadn't done a very good job of it. It's hard when you finish your loops in an hour and change, and you have a zoomy headstrong horse! The photographer probably has some great pictures of me fist pumping and then giving the devil horns, just for Funder (because she helped listen to my inane babble and questions for hours and hours and hours before and after the race!)

O pulsed in right away and was perky for the vet. All of her vet scores got raised, all A's and one B+ for gut sounds! I was so excited about that, and about the fact that I had gotten her to drink! I unsaddled, threw a cooler on her, put her in her pen, and she got straight to eating her hay. She kept her muscles loose by doing a small walking circle every few minutes or so, then went back to munching. I collapsed in the front seat of my truck and watched her for a few minutes while I chugged some Gatorade and ate a Powerbar.

Looking fresh! Shortly after this she started trotting around... TROTTING AROUND.


I am still waiting on official times, but we finished 6th!!!!!!!!!!!!! A top ten for our FIRST ride ever!!!!

(One of TERA's members made a funny little video and we're in it, by the way - check it out!)

We went and stood for BC after an hour, and did quite well all things considered. I knew we weren't going to get it, but the vet was very complimentary and gave us a slew of 10s for things. We also got several 7s as her elytes were off (which I knew they had to be), and this changed some things with her gums and made her muscles a bit stiff in the back end. She was perfectly sound, just didn't really enjoy being poked by the vet. I will have to make sure this gets addressed, along with gastric support, for the next ride.


Sunday she was tired but not *that* tired, and I stuck her on the lunge to let her loosen up. She gave me kind of an ugly 'don't wanna' face, but did it anyway, and once she got to moving she loosened up and felt better. This mare wears her heart on her sleeve everywhere she goes, so I will always know if something isn't quite right. She is not going to push through her pain if she hurts, she is going to yell and scream at me about it to make sure I get the message. She has SUCH a red mare attitude. Her legs look great, she is eating well, and she is perky. Yesterday she was even brighter and perkier. (S said last night, "O's a much nicer horse when she's tired".... yes, yes she is.)


As for me, I am finally not feeling like I got run over by a bus. We need more conditioning, feeding, hydrating and elyting for the next one for sure!