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I'm trying to figure out how to clump and categorize my writings about each equine. Sometimes I feel like I jump around from blippet to blippet without a lot of structure or lead ins, and it sometimes comes off as either confusing or as just a bunch of things thrown at a computer screen. How would you structure it, if you were me? A post per critter? That seems excessive, there are so many of them and several of them get worked every day if I can help it. A post per day? It would never happen every day. And how do you keep people straight on your particular goals for each, when they are all simultaneously going? There is a lack of structure in my writing and I need some suggestions as to how to order it better to make it a more coherent read!

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Dylan and O saw the chiropractor again on Monday. This is their second visit from her, and I'm really happy with the progress so far. I've obviously been out of the saddle a bit this past month, so Dylan hasn't gotten the same work as O, but he was far more 'out' than she was. She had adjustments that needed to be made for sure, but not like he did. 

Apparently the chiro is working

Dylan on nightly patrol

We're working to build his back muscle up better. He has a big giant stallion neck and a well muscled hind end but he is really lacking right in the middle. Part of this is being out of work for a couple weeks (or well, it didn't help, he is looking kind of saggy), and most of it was the fact that he was so out all the way down his spine that he just never could properly use those muscles. These Spanish types really like to be upright and compact, and it's hard to get them to really go over their backs properly and use them correctly. So in addition to saddle time (when I get back to it, which should be soon!), I'm going to add in more trail riding and lunging in the chambon. While Dylan isn't exactly going to cut it as a back country mountain climbing type of horse, he is perfectly capable of doing some of our local trails, as long as I can drag someone along with us to keep him company. I know a few takers who would like to join me I think! On the lunge line, he's not been working in a chambon that I know of (or at least not anytime in recent history) but it will help him once he learns. 

I'm sad to say the rain has struck down another event for us, this time a driving clinic that was supposed to be held this coming weekend. We are supposed to get flooding rains tomorrow, and nothing will be dry by Saturday, so they cancelled. It was a good choice to make, but a real bummer as it was supposed to be both a private dressage lesson and a group lesson on cones and marathon obstacles - something I want to soak up as much information as I can on. Crossing that off our list, we now only have two shows left in the spring season, both back to back. They are the really big spring HDTs around here aside from Sunrise Ridge, so I'm getting excited and nervous. So much to do still! I need to get a new spare for my trailer. I need a health cert for O for the out of state one. (It will be my first trip to Oklahoma!) I need to work the mare should it ever stop raining. I need to make sure everything is in order with hotels, travel, and feeding my nag-ivator B2. We are staying with one of my college professors in Stillwater for that weekend, but need a hotel for Pine Hill. I can't remember the last time I stayed in a hotel for a show - usually I just camp it out in my truck - but if I'm dragging B2 along with me I have to take good care of her after all!

Look at little Sriracha. How good is she being!

 I've had her for just about two weeks now and she has come along SO well and so fast for what she is. I really think Lendri was mishandled because it took her so much longer to come around, months and months and it was gentle and slow progress. If I could walk near her without her running off it was a success. Sriracha is very different in that while she was never handled by humans before, she also had never had a bad experience with them that I know of, and therefore while she is still watching me to make sure I'm not actually a predator, she doesn't necessarily expect bad things to happen like Lendri did. She is curious and gregarious, and it helps that she loves carrots just as much as the rest of them do. Carrots really help to leapfrog their abilities, from "I really am not sure of what you're doing right now and I'm highly suspicious of this" to "hey if I just let you do this thing I get a carrot, now I want to let you do all these things because I might get carrots!" It sounds like a cop out training method, and I'd agree with you that it is with horses, but it really does seem to help the mules learn that there is something in this for them and if they stick around and give it a try, good things will happen. God knows you can't force them, just teach them that they really do want to give it a try. She walks up to me in the field and follows me around, and stands to let me pet her face and neck while out loose in the field. While she is still a little weirded out sometimes by hands, and still completely freaked out by having her legs and belly touched, she was completely satisfied to let me brush her neck, shoulders, and back with no issues. She's letting me stand next to her more comfortably as well - sometimes being that close to them makes them uncomfortable and they scoot off, but she is learning that it's all right. We'll continue on with the brushing and the petting, eventually getting to her legs and belly and tail - all bits they don't like touched. I was able to brush her belly a little and legs a little today, but had to hang onto her in order to keep her from pitching a huge fit. It's going to take awhile before she is comfortable letting me touch any of those parts. She needs a trim but I'm not willing to wrangle her just for the sake of it and set her back. She'll get there. 

Speaking of grooming, Pax is going to have super amazing locks. Her tail is already past her hocks and is thick. Her forelock is suddenly all kinds of wavy and it's long too - longer than any other horse on the property aside from Dylan! 

So much HAIR

As compared to P, who has barely any forelock at all:

Maximum derp

Lendri is just like, stupidly adorable. How cute is she?!

We tried a bit to do some double lunging yesterday but that concept is kind of beyond her still. She would get going fine, but would then would try to use it as an evasion, scoot sideways against her reins, and find herself turned around. She is so very round that the saddle will slide if the reins pull a bit too hard, which sort of doesn't help anything. So, we worked on me walking on either side of her instead of her going around me in a circle, which went better. She is fine about letting me jog along behind her when she is trotting, although she can get a little strong sometimes. Overall, for a feral little mule who knows nothing, she is really coming along!

Working Equitation

This year, I am finally going to get to participate in something I have ALWAYS wanted to do - working equitation!

I've talked a bit before a long time ago about how addicting dressage is, and how it can kind of be a snooze-fest despite that - but I also had written about WE and how much I wanted to give it a try with O. Obviously that went flying out the window, since O went from a terrible riding horse to the best damn driving horse on planet Earth (I'm definitely not biased or anything). Dylan is completely opposite of this: he'd probably be a terrible driving horse, but he he excellent under saddle. He is hot, and he anticipates *everything*, but when he is listening he is outstanding. His talent for collection is incredible. And his work ethic is magnificent. My desire to give WE a try is actually doable now!

He has really changed over the past few months. When I first got him, he was highly suspicious of me and everything I did. He was SUPER hard to catch. He was wild about the mares. He was weird about his food. He walked the fence constantly. He was thin and super wound, all the time. 

I've had him now going on six months and he is totally different. He walks right up to me. He is FAT and sleek. He doesn't walk the fence anymore (unless the neighbor's stallion is out, then he goes down there and promenades back and forth to show off his manliness, but that's quite acceptable). He is best buds with Zuul and he really enjoys having a friend around. He leads with just a cotton lead rope. He doesn't fret about the mares anymore, although he always keeps an eye on them and talks to them whenever they come near him.


Just letting him be a horse changed all of these things for him. I think his old trainer took great care of him and was a wonderfully skilled rider, but I just do my management differently and I think he has benefitted from it. He was in a stall constantly with little turnout because he walked the fence so badly that he would walk himself to skin and bones if he was left outside for too long. He was isolated. He was getting fed a commercial processed feed but it wasn't doing much for him. Now, he's out 24/7 with hay and pasture in front of him all the time. He eats a minimal amount of Crypto Aero and a tiny bit of fat - I had to cut him way back recently as he had gotten so huge I thought he might explode. He has a buddy. He lounges under the trees. He is mellow. He is content. And he is friendly too - I don't know many mature stallions that you can just hang out with loose in a field and not at least be watching them all the time, much less worrying about your safety. I don't worry about that with Dylan.

He still has his little quirks - he hates the spray bottle, he's not a huge fan of his ears being handled, and he anticipates literally everything you do under saddle. But these are just things that make him who is he - and I like a bit of spice anyway.

Whoa there wild steed don't let those mares distract you too much! 

Also you're jealous of this tail aren't you.

Tailmasta has the tail magic. Sadly today it looks brown and gross again

He could see the reflection of the mares in the window and was super confused 

I think he has grown some mane too! Not much though. He has the worst mane I've ever seen on a Spanish horse EVER

I thought when I got Dylan that I was going to leap right back into USDF shows straight away, but I haven't done this. Instead, I've spent the past six month getting to know him better, trying to sort out my physical issues, and feeling my strength and seat gradually returning to me. I've been seeing my physiotherapist regularly and we have made real progress in getting some mobility back into my calf. I still don't have a ton of flexibility yet but I am able to ride mostly pain-free, which is something I haven't been able to do in years. YEARS! This is so exciting and opens up so many possibilities for me. 

This weekend our local WE club is putting on a free practice at one of the training facilities around here. It's probably a solid hour from me, but to be able to work with all of the obstacles for the first time - and for free too! - is really a great opportunity. I'm eager to dip my toes into a new sport the same way that I did with O - just like with combined driving, working equitation has a basis in dressage but with SO MUCH MORE on top of it. 

Secretly, I am hoping one day to go to the Haras Cup, but we'll just have to see about that!

El Macho

Dylan has been here for four days now, and he is starting to settle into the routine. Getting to know him more has been a really interesting experience so far - he is such a sensitive, smart, interesting character. He might be the smartest horse I've ever met in my life - even smarter than P, who I've always said was steal-your-credit-cards-run-for-the-border kind of smart. Dylan is even smarter. I swear he has counted and catalogued all of the mares, and personally keeps a tally on each and every one of them from across the way in his field. 

He is also re-learning how to Horse. When he lived with K in New Mexico, he lived outside 24/7 and was quiet and good. When he moved to SC and was with the trainer, they primarily kept him in a stall and he started fencewalking. He is absolutely hands-down the worst fencewalker I have ever seen - I think he walked for 24 hours nonstop when he first got here. He would take a bite of hay and walk, and take a bite of hay and walk. He just would NOT stop. He walked, and walked, and walked. The second day, he stopped for awhile and ate, and then kept walking. The third day, I started him on ulcer meds - I just had that feeling. I'd say his fencewalking has been cut down about 70% since then - he does still walk at times, but it primarily seems to be when something is going on, like when I am in doing something with the mares, or when I am getting food/hay/doing stuff around. It's like his anxiety level manifests in itchy feet - he just needs to move and move. When he is quiet, he is still. But when he gets anxious/anticipatory he gets going. 

Today, for the first time since he got here, I saw him grazing and lounging under the trees. The fencewalking is drastically down, which is great - the trainer had since told me that he apparently walked 100% of the time in his turnout in SC, so I am super happy to have gotten him to cut a large portion of it out. I think he will always default to it, kind of in the way that O does when put in a situation that worries her. It would be nice if Dylan could have a friend, but he is a 14 year old stallion who has been solo his whole life - there's not any way really to safely do that, though we wish we could. We are pretty optimistic that as he settles in, and especially gets back to work, that the fencewalking will just be mostly a memory.

Is this how you horse? Eat all the food?

He is PIG PEN. It is hot right now, and he is sweating quite a lot and then rolling a million times in the dirt, so he has been hosed every day. I've played Hair Therapy with him a bit too, which he has tolerated with some vague annoyance. He is a total spaz about spray bottles, which K told me about, but I did manage to spritz his hair down with detangler. He is also spazzy about water near his head, and having his ears touched. Basically he has several little funny quirks to be mindful of!,His tail needs a good wash too, but I have detangled it and oo'd and aah'd over the thickness of it. It is SO GORGEOUS.  

THAT TAIL THO.

It is stupidly hot outside, and I have been really sick this week, so I think he will probably have another week or week and a half off before I get on him. I want more weight on him, and I want him to be settled and get to know me better before we work together. He is suspicious of new people, and while he has been good about getting caught, I think he is eyeing me and sizing my personality up. He wants to know what I am all about. 

This is what makes stallions so interesting though. Dylan is bold, and strong, and very, very macho. He has a high opinion of himself, and he wants things cut and dried. I'm only just getting to know him, but I have a feeling that more and more layers of him will unfold. He is a very complicated guy and he wants to be seen and respected as such. Once you get through to a stallion - once you get them on your side - there's nothing you can't do.