Current Equipment

One of the things I love about dressage is the simplicity of the gear required to do such complicated and intricate things. You don't need the most expensive set of everything in order to do it. Sure, you can buy $200 breeches and a $1000 pair of tall boots, but you don't *need* them. If you have a well fitting saddle, a well fitting bridle with appropriate bit, and a girth, that is really all you seriously need. 

When I was eventing I had basically one of everything in baby blue (or purple, before I got into the baby blues). Everything. Boots, bells, bit guards, reins, saddle pads, martingale and rein stops... even my spurs had baby blue stones set into them. If it came in baby blue, I had it. I had SO MUCH STUFF. And I have a lot of carriage driving stuff too. Carriage driving basically requires you to have an insane amount of everything... there is SO much gear. Regular plain old dressage is bringing me back to refreshing simplicity, and I'm enjoying it for a change.

Have saddle, have bridle, have boots, will ride. (And of course, helmet and gloves!)

I own surprisingly little gear. It surprises even me sometimes. I only own three really good pairs of breeches. (I have a number of others, but they either don't fit or they're aged and showing it... I should get rid of those). I have a few pairs of schooling gloves, which I think are important and worth spending money on. I have two helmets, a Charles Owen and an IRH - the IRH is the only one that is really dressage appropriate, but it is also aging and will need replacing before long. I only ride in tall boots (force of habit, I think), and am getting ready to invest in a nice new pair - I also always wear a set of spurs. As for shirts, I wear polos when I am at clinics, lessons, or schooling shows, but the rest of the time I just toss on whatever I feel like wearing, mostly tank tops or the occasional t-shirt. I don't have a million pairs of ridiculously expensive breeches or fancy fabric riding shirts, not by a long shot.

DSB boots and polos

Dylan's gear is also very simple. While I have about 50 million polos and boots, all that I use with regularity on him are either his DSB boots or leg liners with polos over them. He always wears bells, and I have lots of pulls ons in rotation as well as a pair of fleece lined ones. He has only one saddle pad, a Back on Track pad with a Thinline pad sewn right into it. It's the best pad I've ever owned, and still looks great, despite the fact that it both gets a ton of use and a ton of washing. Before I had the saddle fitted, he also had a Mattes correction pad, but since he no longer needs that I only ride him with just the saddle pad and nothing else. I've never had a saddle fit so well that I didn't feel like I needed some kind of something between it and my regular saddle pad, so this is new and exciting territory for me. He's going SO well with the newly fitted saddle that it makes me wonder how I ever got on otherwise! His saddle is obviously the Schleese, which is the one he came with that was custom fitted for him years ago. I alternate between the snaffle bridle and the double. I've been considering just showing in the snaffle bridle to start when we go out at 4th, which is completely acceptable. He goes just as well in either bridle, but since I tend to forget how to ride when I'm anxious, I don't want to get hung up on my curb unnecessarily in the show ring. 

Only the best pad ever

DSB boots and bells

Polos and leg liners

Double bridle (and O's lunging bridle next to it)

Picked this up for not very much money! Patent noseband and unnecessarily ridiculous browband

The old reliable... Schleese and girth!

There are things I am willing to spend money on, and things I am not. Things that really are important to a horse's comfort and ability, like well fitting saddles and well made bits, are things I don't compromise on, though I will always look for a good deal if possible. But all the frivolous stuff? Eh. I don't need it. I have more important things to spend money on, like good feed!

I pride myself on being a ridiculously good deal finder. I like nice equipment, but... why pay full price on it? I'll have another post on that later!

So, what do you use for your horses? Do you stick with the necessities, or do you go all out? 

Saddle Fitting and Pilates

It's been a very busy week over here. Dylan is back in work and doing great, I'm up to my armpits in clients this week, and I also have the babies to all work! Oh, and did I mention it's been nearly 110 degrees every day this week? 

Last Saturday, I finally (after months) managed to wrangle down the closest Schleese saddle fitters, who thankfully were already coming to WD for the weekend to do fittings. The Schleese is not mine, it belongs to K and was custom fitted for Dylan many years ago, so it came with him when he came to Texas. It took me 6 months until I could ride in it without feeling like my legs were going to break off at the hip (I need a SUPER narrow twist to accommodate my issues), but have grown fond of the saddle over time. Dylan has changed a ton since he has been here, so I wanted to make sure everything was suitable for him still.

The fitter herself is actually an alum from my college! She graduated a year before I started and we knew the same horses and professors... how about that. They took a million measurements of Dylan, watched me ride in the saddle, and then took it to change the tree and reflock some bits of it. The technology of Schleese has changed a lot in the past 10 years, so they of course wanted to sell me a new $5000 saddle... I politely declined. 

That said, after we put the saddle back on and went back in the ring, there was a HUGE difference in both the way I was sitting and the was Dylan was going. He felt so much freer in his shoulders in the canter - and he has tons of freedom up there already - and I was sitting in a better spot. Everything felt so much better! It was amazing how just these little adjustments changed everything so much. 

I'm pretty sure that guy knew I was creeping a picture

Also, I think it's safe to say that Dylan is a very good boy, because people continue to do things like lead their horses right up to him or next to him, despite every saying "that's a breeding stallion please don't do that!" He of course talks to them and wiggles around but does not flip out or go for the other horse, thankfully. Good boy. 

He feels really, really good. His leg is staying down, he is sound, and he is getting his fitness back. 

My plan is to take him out at 4th this winter. I am extremely anxious about this, as it's my own 4th level debut and I also haven't shown in a rated USDF in nearly 10 years. I don't really have any interest in doing schooling shows - if I'm going to spend my money on showing, I'm going to make it count by god. 

Hackabout

Speaking of fitness, on the same day as the saddle fitting I tried something new - a pilates class geared specifically towards the dressage rider. I've done a lot of yoga, but never pilates and I wasn't sure if my body could handle it. To my surprise, I did better than I expected I would! I have more strength than I realize. The class's main objective was to bring awareness to the core, and how to specifically isolate and use the lower abs. I REALLY learned a lot in terms of engaging those lower abs and lengthening my lower back. My seat sometimes alternates back and forth between sitting well in my truck but then rounding my shoulders and slumping up top, to sitting ramrod straight up top but then getting a bit swaybacked and off my seatbones. Getting both of those things together at the same time is hard ya'll. But applying this new knowledge to my saddle time is going to be super helpful. 

I have a lot more to catch up on with the babies... but that will take another blog entry for sure! In the meantime, here is the one and only looking completely perfect and excellent and beautiful: 

I miss working her, but she's enjoying her downtime for sure. 

In Which Andrea Decides Not To Drink For Awhile

This story is partly about the amazing, incredible, mind-blowing generosity of total strangers, and the incredible things that can happen when you least expect them.

And, partly about being drunk.

A week ago, I got an email in from blog reader Meghan, who had read my laments about not having a proper endurance saddle and not being able to afford one. I'm about ready to make the leap to 50s, but I had no intention of doing so in the big clunky barrel saddle if I didn't have to... but my budget is shoestring at best. There is just no possible way at the moment that I can afford to buy a saddle, ANY saddle, even the crappiest ones out there.

So she told me she'd send me her Stonewall. Yes, her Stonewall... the very kind of saddle I've been drooling over for years, even back when I had Gogo and was oogling at them over at The Barb Wire. That was at LEAST six years ago, WAY before I ever considered endurance at all. She told me she'd send it to me as a pay-it-forward.... try it out, keep it if it works, if it doesn't work, then pay-it-forward to someone else.

To say I am completely and utterly overwhelmed by this kind of selfless generosity is an understatement. I don't even have the words to describe what I am feeling right now. It's overwhelming. Completely overwhelming. And totally amazing.

Thank you Meghan. Thank you from the very bottom of my heart. Truly, thank you.

It might not work out (I DESPERATELY hope it does), so I can't get my hopes up *too* high until I set it on my horse and get some rides in it.... but that didn't stop me from celebrating its imminent arrival.

With some wine.

Ok, maybe a lot of wine.

Hey, that's what I do.

A group of my local endurance friends was bantering on about leaving this weekend for Post Oak, which is a local ride that I had originally been planning on attending as our last 25 before our first 50. I recently had an extremely disastrous conditioning ride in my dressage saddle, in which a stirrup leather rubbed a hole right through one of my calves (why was I not wearing my tall boots? What was I thinking?? Wine??), and since the Stonewall was coming anyway, I opted to give myself some time to stop bleeding on my tack and let the huge wound heal. I told them good luck, and that I wasn't going to be there, but that I would see them at Bluebonnet (which is the next one).

"What?? Why!! Noooooooo!!" was the general consensus. "Come ride with us!! You have to!!"

"No," I told them, "the Stonewall is coming and I want to get some rides in that first!"

"Oh come on," they said. "Come with us! Ride in the Stonewall! You'll be fine! Just bring your other saddle if it doesn't work out!"

The wine said this was a Great Idea. Totally, I'll just bring my other saddle, just in case!

"Come do the 50 with us!" they said. "We're doing a slow one on unseasoned horses! We'll take care of you! Ride one saddle on the first loop, and the other on the second! You'll be fine!"

The wine said, that is such a Great Idea! They'll take care of you! You'll be fine!

I burbled out yes, that I was totally game for that, and that I would go. In a saddle I had never ridden in. I needed to find some britches and boots for that, so probably wearing clothes I hadn't ever worn before long distance. With a huge bleeding saddle sore on my leg. 

What could possibly go wrong? I'll be fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnneeee!

My friend The Wine high-fived me and told me to go fetch another glass to celebrate. Liquid courage, my friend, you need that!

Obviously, that was not actually a good idea at all. Once I sobered up, I passed my story around, kind of staring at the idea blearily and wondering what the hell I had gotten myself into. Thankfully, Aurora was the one to finally go, "are you stupid??" You're going to go to your first 50. In a saddle you've never sat in. Wearing clothes you've never worn before. And you're trailering in the morning of. The hell are you thinking!?

Oh. Hmm. Without my friend The Wine telling me what a wise and grand decision maker I am, it occurred to me that maybe this wasn't such a fantastic idea after all.

Maybe it's time to take a break from my relationship with The Wine. It's not you Wine, it's me. Ok, no, it's you.

(No redheaded monsters were harmed in the making and unmaking of this bad decision. Don't worry, I would have come to my senses at some point and not actually done it!)

The Stonewall goes for a test ride tomorrow.... stay tuned for that!!!!!!!!

The Trouble With Tack

First off, thank you SO MUCH to everyone who has chipped in for the little munchy kitten's surgery!! He's doing really, really well, perking up every day and starting to get a little more mobile. He needs to finish his course of antibiotics and get some strength back, and then he goes in for surgery. (This will give him the best chance at making it through surgery... going under can be risky when they are so tiny!) I'll keep everyone updated on how he is doing!

In other news, I am having to face the fact that neither one of my saddles is a good fit for Immy. I got away with it while I was breaking her, but now that she has gained some weight it's becoming an issue. It's not that the saddle itself doesn't fit, it's mostly the fact that she has a narrow and far-forward girth area and enormously sprung ribs (and belly) right behind it. Couple that with her mutton withers, and it pulls saddles forward like crazy. If the saddle gets too far forward, she stops dead. If it really gets too far forward, she bucks. If you get off and fix the saddle when it slides forward, it's not a problem... she'll let you know when it's sliding because she stops. But it's not exactly a feasible option to dismount repeatedly during a ride! 

Things to try: no-slip pad (I have one, worth a shot), a crupper (as a last resort ONLY), or an anatomically shaped girth (possible, since I have one, but mine is so wide that I don't think it will make a difference either way). Things to really consider: if I want to ride this mare more than I have been, I need different tack. The problem with this? A) I cannot possibly afford all new tack at this point. B) I am hopelessly attached to my saddles and they fit P well and fit O as if angels created them custom for her. (O and Gogo have exactly the same back!) If Immy was shaped more like the others, this would be less of an issue. Or... if I had a saddle to fit a more mutton-withered horse... a saddle that also had a back girth, like the one I broke her in (which stayed put).... then it would stay where it belonged.... wait a minute. I should try a western saddle. They're made for horses built just like her, AND they come equipped with back girths which will help the saddle stay put around her belly. It doesn't have to be forever, just for now... it's worth a shot. S has an abundance of them, so I will have to ask if I can borrow one!

She's had her month off and she looks great - her weight is good, her coat is great, her demeanor is excellent and she is acting like her silly, sweet self. She was very determinedly trying to open her gate today when I was making grains - she had the whole chain in her mouth and was trying to wriggle her lips just right to see if it would open for her. Such a goon...
The plan at this point is to just let her come along as slowly as we need to - since I have O to focus on competition-wise, I can let Immy take all the time she needs to slowly come into herself. Some trail rides, some fun things, some light work.... just having fun, no pressure. I see no reason to rush this mare... it will only get us nowhere. She's come so far, and I am not about to let her backslide. She needs to just have fun, and enjoy herself in whatever we're doing. I think that's really my only goal for her in the foreseeable future.... have fun, in whatever we're doing. As long as she is enjoying herself, I'm happy. Think that sounds like a fair plan for the time being?




More on this little red demon shortly... she's starting to look GREAT, isn't she?

Settling In

Our first few days at the new facility have been quite all right, if I do say so myself. The girls are transitioning into their new herd situation without a hitch, and are making some fast friends other than each other (thank god for that). P especially is totally enamored with everyone around her, and talks to all of them constantly. Imogen is, mostly, still just completely obsessed with P, although that too is diminishing. I am pleased (and a bit surprised) to report that both of them come right to me whenever I call them over - and they even call back! Who knew? They are more than happy to leave the herd and the snacks to come find me. Seeing as they are on 15 acres, and that it is now completely dark by the time I go to bring them in to feed some nights, this is totally a huge bonus. All I have to do is stand at the gate and call, and they come. 

Happy mares.

And look, here they come! Peas in a pod, these two.

It was a rude awakening this weekend to see how seriously obsessed they are with each other. Thankfully, I was right to assume that once they got out in a herd situation with other buddies, they would have other relationships to work on, and be able to not be totally stuck on each other. Monday night was a little bit hairy on Imogen's part, seeing as it was her first time really away from P in about a month in terms of tacking and prepping for a workout. She made a right fool of herself in front of the barn owner while in the barn, wiggling and screaming and pooping all over the place, worried about P. She also gave me her regular level of grief about bridling, and the barn owner suggested roundpenning her to try and fix that. I have absolutely no idea how that would actually help, but since I was a bit embarrassed I sort of halfheartedly agreed that it maybe was a good idea, sort of, I suppose. She unfortunately was not around to see today's grooming/tacking/lunging session, during which I had a totally silent and immobile mare to work with. She even let me take off her bridle with the least amount of fuss yet... we are getting there!!! I am super happy that Immy seems to be settling down day by day into a routine where there is no P around, or anyone else in fact save for me. I'm the one she needs to be worried about now!

She wore sidereins for the first time on Monday, and aside from an acceptable level of mouthing, she was totally fantastic. They are on the very last hole, of course, but they make a very light, light contact with her mouth, especially when she is bending. 

Yesterday both girls had a grooming and spa session (and they were wonderful angels who were both on their best behavior), and today Immy got back to lunging, this time with the rope saddle and sidereins:

She was a little bit amped up, but it wasn't unwarranted - chilly night, dark out, no friends. Sorry about the video quality - my phone battery is shot and it keeps dying before I ever get into the arena, so I have resorted to using my old dinosaur video iPod that I've had for a couple years now. You don't realize how far technology has come until you compare the two. Although considering that it is owned by me, the Queen Mother of Destroying All the Electronic Things, the fact that it is still alive and working is quite an amazing feat for it.

Tomorrow, M is coming to help me with ground driving for the first time! If all goes well and she is able to set us loose to work on our own, we'll practice ground driving for the next week or so.... and then we back her!

Pony Horse

Sounds like an oxymoron doesn't it, a pony horse? Up until I moved to Texas, I probably would have laughed and agreed with you. Until I moved to Texas, I was completely immersed in the English horse world - all that weird Western stuff was completely foreign and strange to me. Nobody ties their English horses, they crosstie. Nobody ponies their horses, they don't have the means. Nobody uses rope halters, they're crude and funny looking. Or so I thought. Hell, I didn't even know how to tie a rope halter properly at all, much less even tie a rope properly! 

That all changed when I was unceremoniously thrown into the Western world down here. I still don't get it, and I can't hardly sit in a Western saddle properly to save my life (even though I do it several times a day, several days a week), but there are some Western-esque things that I have embraced and assimilated into my training and my daily routines with my own horses. For example, Gogo couldn't tie to save her life - she crosstied, but only when she felt it was necessary. She was a religious halter breaker, and I can't tell you the number of halters she broke over the years from all the times she set back on me (yes, that is also a Texas term, "she set back" instead of "she pulled back"). Maybe I just got tired of it, but I have made it a point that both Pangea and Imogen learn to hard tie. Thankfully, they are both good girls, and I can now leave them alone and tied for long periods of time and know that no matter what, they aren't going anywhere. I don't think I really appreciated what a huge help it is to have horses that tie until I was around a lot of horses that all tie without problems. (All the Western horses around here do, and it is so EASY!) I also regularly use rope halters now, which was weird to me at first. Pangea has a leather halter, and I do school her on the ground with a chain, but Imogen? The very idea of putting a chain on her makes me cringe - I can't imagine how badly she'd react to that. I needed something with control that didn't come with the additional risk of scaring her half to death. Enter rope halter with extra nose knots - voila! It isn't enough to really stop Pangea when she gets bargy, but it does the trick with Imogen. The one I have for her is a wee bit too big, so she does need a new one, but it is something. And she will have a nice leather halter for shows of course... but not for schooling at home!

The last thing I wanted to make sure that both girls knew how to do was pony. In all honesty, I've never ponied horses before in my life. It's just not something that English people DO that often. Granted, it is pretty hard to teach horses to pony when you don't have a horn on your saddle, but still. I have a particular checklist of things for Imogen that she needs to solidly know how to do before I ever get on her, which is as follows:

1) Solid base of groundwork

2) Lunging (with tack)

3) Bridling, saddling, wearing of general tack/boots/clothes 

4) Ground driving - which we haven't yet covered

5) Ponying

The thought is this: we may use Pangea as a buffer for when I first get on Imogen. Sometimes with a hot, scooty horse, having a buddy there is not only calming, it provides a stop for a horse that tries to rush, scoot, or otherwise get anxious. I don't anticipate that she will, if I make sure everything is all properly squared away, but it is a handy thing for a just-in-case moment. The other reason for teaching her to pony is that I have an awesome tool in Pangea - she is a go anywhere, do anything ATV, and will do just about anything that you tell her to under saddle. Scale rocky hillsides, plow through deep water, pick her way through thick brush, you name it! Being able to pony Imogen off of her when we go out for trail rides is going to be a huge pay-off for me - she'll be exposed to TONS of stuff, and will have a calm and nonchalant buddy there with her the entire time to show her that things aren't scary. It is win-win for everybody involved - Pangea gets out to stretch her legs, and Imogen learns. And I get to spend time with my two awesome girls, of course!

Imogen is thankfully feeling much better after her little snotty nose reaction to her Strangles vaccine last Saturday, so on Tuesday I put her back to work on the lunge line with a full set of tack and bridle on. I actually tried Gogo's famous blue Happy Mouth mullen mouth bit on her, and she LOVED it compared to the other snaffle! I have a third snaffle I might try on her, a very thin double jointed loose ring, but she was very happy with the Happy Mouth. It's a good baby starting bit, so maybe we'll stick it it for now! She worked great on the lunge, and I even let the stirrups down on the jump saddle so they could flap around and smack into her sides while she moved. She didn't care at all. I think at this point we can safely say that these bases are covered - once we start ground driving, she will be ready to start under saddle.

It was also high time to teach her to pony! Thankfully, teaching horse to pony is super easy, so long as the pony horse is of a compatible personality, and they understand general things like what pressure on their halter means. Aside from being a bit surprised when I swung up into Pangea's saddle - she's never seen a human on a horse before, after all! - she took the whole thing in stride like a champ. By the end, we were walking, trotting, and stopping together with no issues. I think we can also check this off our list - ponying is easy!

I'd also like to point out that I had every intention of wearing gloves.... I put them out and everything. I just, you know... totally forgot to put them on. Thankfully there were not any rope burned hands in the process! 

The girls move to the new place on Sunday, and then it will be time to recruit some helpers for teaching her to ground drive. We've not covered that yet simply because I really do need a handler to help lead her while she learns how to do it, and I haven't had anyone here to help me. After that is squared away.... we back her!

Rope Saddle vs. Imogen - Imogen wins!

So far in the training and sacking out process, Imogen hasn't been bothered by my surcingle or jumping saddle at all. Once she got over her initial fear of towels and blankets on her back, everything else I've put up there hasn't phased her at all. (Hopefully this will, you know, extend to ME once I am up there as well.) I lamented briefly a few days ago that my puny little English saddles are quiet and non-invasive, and that there wasn't any real bombproofing going on while she was wearing them. What she needed, I said, was a big honking, creaking, swinging Western saddle of some sort to bounce, flop, and swing around on her for awhile. Enter M and S, clients of mine who are also blog readers - they offered up S's rope saddle for my temporary usage, and when I trimmed their horses last night I picked up and brought the saddle home with me. (Double bonus - I'm also going to toss it on P and use it to teach Immy to pony. Ponying from an English saddle only works with a horse that is broke to pony.... there's a wrapped horn on rope saddles for a reason, to dally down a running animal!) (PS - re-reading that last sentence makes me feel like I've been living in Texas a bit too long... I'm pretty sure I didn't even know what a dally was before I moved here, much less how to take a dally!) 

I wasn't sure what she was going to do. This saddle in particular, especially compared to my jump saddle, is creaky, very loud, very heavy, and has swinging stirrups, a breastcollar and a back girth to go with it. The back girth was the big question in this case - would she blow up once it started bouncing around? Back girths are often the cause for huge panic amongst greenies, but since it was firmly attached to the saddle, I decided we'd see how it went and go from there based on her behavior. I opted to tack her up in the roundpen, just in case something happened and I needed to yank the saddle or let her go quickly for any reason. 

I swung the pad around, rubbed her with it, tossed it over her back, and started doing to the same with the saddle. She gave it a half-hearted snort when I first lifted it off the ground, but once I hoisted it up high and started bouncing it around, she didn't care. From there, it was an easy up and over onto her back, and she still didn't care. I took my sweet long time adjusting both girths and bouncing the saddle around on her back (while I still had the chance to pull it in case something went wrong), and the only movement she bothered to do was to cock a foot. She lunged in both directions, w/t/c, and just did. not. care. Even the stirrups swinging around against her sides didn't bother her at all.

I'm 100% certain that before now, she has never been saddled. She was so genuinely scared of towels and blankets being put onto her back that I can't imagine a saddle has ever successfully been up there before.... but once she stopped bolting away from her blankets and decided they were all right, she no longer seems to care about anything I put on her. She is genuinely just a total genius!

No, that's not a butt tumor.... that's my phone in my pocket lol.

Genius. Genius, genius mare. We're getting closer and closer to her first ride every day!!

Help for the Ear-Shy Horse

Today Immy had a full set of tack on (minus reins) for her lunging session!! She looks super sexy in her getup if you ask me - like a proper event horse in the making!

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but she has a gorgeous 4-beat walk. And that trot is a knock-out too! Also notice the back boots - she wore them for the first time and didn't care!

I suppose we can update this list again:

Stuff Imogen Knows How To Do:

- Halter

- Lead 

- Tie

- Crosstie

- Pick up all four feet & stand on the hoof stand for trims

- Shots & deworming (with only minimal fuss)

- Stand for sprays

- Stand for grooming & touching of all parts, ears & legs & belly included

- Blanketing

- Flymask

- Baths (including water on her face)

- Catch in the field

- Trailering

- Lunging loose & on the lunge line

- Saddling

- Surcingles

- Bridle (wearing only)

- Boots & polos

Stuff Imogen Doesn't Know How To Do:

- Everything else

Her lunge session went well today, but we are trouble-shooting with some small things that need to be addressed. Being a bit of a hot-head, the first thing Immy wants to do on the lunge is trot right off. I want her to walk nicely to warm up for a few minutes, but she isn't interested in that - she just wants to GO. I walked with her today for a few minutes in circles, slowly letting her out onto a longer line, giving her the command to trot once I had her all the way out there. That worked pretty well, but it needs work! Her other problem is that when she gets confused, she slams on the brakes and turns to walk in towards me. Trying to send her back out confuses her further, and she always makes the move to turn around and go the other way. Once you get her sorted out, she wants to explode out and power trot away again, which goes back to her not wanting to walk quietly while starting out. Other than that, she is listening to her commands quite well, although she doesn't respond well to commands to slow down when she gets rushy. It's a constant matter of slow down, slow down, quiet down, slow down. And when you do slow down, don't hit the brakes and come in to the middle! 

We also have the enormous issue of how terrible ear-shy she is. She is absolutely convinced that any time I touch her ears, especially her right ear, I am going to ear her. She lets me rub her poll and touch her ears now with relative peace, but putting tack on her head is a huge ordeal for her. Once it is on, she could care less about the halter or bridle being on her head, but getting it over her ears results in panic, bolting, and sideways thrashing. We have a LOT of work to do with desensitizing her to the process of ear handling, but this is something we'll work on side by side with training with tack on. Lots and lots and lots of friendly touches, as well as the command for putting her head down, are on their way. I expect this problem is going to take a very long time, seeing as it is severely ingrained in her mind. Poor, poor thing. 

Readers with headshy horses, what did YOU do to help your critter overcome their fear?

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a SADDLE!

My genius mare just keeps getting smarter and smarter by the second, I swear!! 

Immy has been lunging well, wearing her surcingle without issue, wearing polos and boots (on her front legs) with no problem, and is totally over her temporary fear of blankets - I can practically toss them onto her and buckle away without worry. (A few chilly nights and warm days will make you bombproof to blankets REALLY fast!) Since I am severely short on daylight hours now that it is winter, I am unfortunately very limited in what I can do with the girls once I get home from work. The new place we'll be moving to has a barn with lots of lights as well as a lighted outdoor and covered roundpen, but the barn they are currently at doesn't have any lights at all. Once the sun goes down, I am royally screwed until morning - and by the time the morning light comes, I am already on my way to work. Such is temporary life, but we make it work as best we can. 

Today I had just enough twilight to pull Immy out for a grooming, and decided I'd show her the saddle, just for an introduction. Much like when I put a surcingle on her for the first time, I had no intention of actually getting it on there and fastening it up, but she was so remarkably unphased that it just happened! She was a bit snorty at it when I first showed it to her, but once she had a cookie and gave it a look, she didn't care anymore. The one thing she does want to do when girthed up is take a slow step backward, but a quick whoa stops that problem right away. I don't think that will become an issue or stay for very long, so long as I continue to be careful about girthing. Even when I tightened the saddle up a bit after we had walked to the roundpen, she stood like a rock and let me.

I tied my stirrups up - I felt that swinging English stirrups were probably a terrible idea at this point - and let her loose in the roundpen to buck/leap/run around/do whatever she pleased. And... she did nothing. At all. She didn't care AT ALL! 

Sorry for the dark dark dark dark pictures. Like I said, no lights!

If she continues to be a total peach like this, it won't be long before I am on her. She needs refining on the lunge, and she needs to start ground driving before I feel like I will have given her enough tools for go and whoa under saddle. She is still a bit too hot and reactive to be sat on just yet, but we're close!

Through the end of the month (while we are still stuck in the dark), I'd like to try and follow this schedule as best I can (light permitting):

Monday: OFF

Tuesday: Lunging

Wednesday: Desensitization

Thursday: Lunging

Friday: Lunging/Groundwork/Ground driving

Saturday: Pony off of P

Sunday: Lunging/Groundwork/Ground driving/Desensitization

Yes, she'll start ponying off of P shortly! I don't have a western saddle anymore, as I sold my cruddy old rope saddle that I used to trail ride Gogo in (it rubbed P something horrible), so we'll see how that goes. Come to think of it, having a floppy old western saddle around would come in handy, as she is going to need a floppy heavy thing on her to bounce around for awhile before I ever get on. My English saddles are too lightweight and quiet!

We did do some desensitization in the dying light yesterday afternoon, and I can't tell you how totally easy it was for her. All we worked on was some Parelli Friendly Game-esque stuff, swinging ropes around and desensitizing her to the touch of the rope and to my hands all over her body. She didn't care at ALL - I had the dang rope swinging over her head and in huge circles around her, and she didn't so much as bat an eye. In fact, she cocked a foot! I rubbed her everywhere, pulled the rope around her legs, scratched her belly, rubbed her poll, and even touched her chi chis with my hand. She did NOT want her chi chis to be touched, but other than that she was rock steady. We'll work on touching the chi chis, we'll get there!