Baby Shenanigans

Approvals are exactly 3 weeks away now. I'm working hard every day to make sure everyone's coats and tails are holding up in the sweaty Texas heat, dumping feed into P, and working on leading skills with Pax. (Not that P is skinny... but a little extra cover for her saggy topline can't hurt. Go ahead and judge me for that one.)

I ordered a leather halter for Pax, and it nearly fits! In 3 weeks it definitely will.

She looks so grown up wearing it. She'll be four months old next week - where has time gone!?

Every night, she gets up to shenanigans after dinner:

If she fails as a driving/dressage horse, she can cut it as a reiner

O gets in on the action too!

O says, please leave me alone, Flymask Marking Girl

P is getting increasingly tired of these shenanigans. Most of the time, she totally ignores Pax, letting her do whatever she wants and pretending like she doesn't exist. She never grooms her, touches her, or pays attention to her. When Pax nurses, P stands there clenching and sneering. She's a very tolerant mother but I think if she had the choice she'd be spending her time eating and not caring for a baby.

"Really kid?"

"Maybe if I ignore it, it will go away."

See what I mean about "not skinny but also not muscular"? She is 19 years old and not sound enough to work much, with a heat intolerance and a giant red parasite sucking her down. Can't blame her for being a bit cranky and saggy these days!

It's a depressing day when your 30+ year old cripple mare has a better topline than the broodmare:

Darby says, if you could get me a better fitting halter and a flymask without holes, that would be greaaaaattttt

She looks pretty fantastic. I'm actually starting to wonder if she isn't younger than I was told. She is clearly over her mid 20's but she may be some years less than I thought. I have a hard time reading teeth, but the dentist will give me a better idea when she comes next month. What 30+ year old looks that good though? She is now eating even less grainfoods than P is! She is getting around great, so long as I keep her feet dry. Sometimes the water trough overflows (because I am spacey and forget to shut it off in time), and if she stands in a bit of mud even for a short time, she gets tenderfooted. This spring, she was getting 1-2g of bute every single day to try and turn her around. Now, I haven't given her any bute in a month and a half - she hasn't needed it. Our dry spell definitely has helped!

I'm sure she has extensive bony and corium damage in her feet (and of course, the left hind fetlock). She's not really one that we can 'fix' per se, just keep her comfortable until it is time for her to go to the gates of Dark Forest. She's not ready to go yet though - at this rate we might have quite a bit of time left with her, far more than I expected! We'll just have to see! I won't put her through any lengthy ordeals though, so we'll just keep on keeping on for however long she has. 

It's too bad she's too crippled to really move faster than a walk anymore... she'd really let Pax have it if she could get her hiney moving. That filly needs a good butt-whipping and I'm the only one around here who ever does it!

Break On Through To The Other Side

I have a confession to make. Up until recently, I was a snaffle snob. I was a purist who thought that if you can't do all of your flatwork in a snaffle, then you're doing it wrong.

And largely, I still feel that way. If you're doing dressage and your horse can't happily do work in a legal snaffle, then you need to reassess and go back and figure out that ultimately it has nothing to do with the bit you're using. In the end, the horse has to take responsibility for his own body, and you have to take responsibility for your own too. No bit is going to "control" your horse.

That said, and while I wholeheartedly believe that getting every horse to be able to travel around quietly in a simple snaffle is a worthy goal, sometimes you just have to let go of the idea that every horse should be able to go in a snaffle right away. Because sometimes you're riding a small red freight train, and a light and smooth snaffle is a complete afterthought for her when she checks out.

Recently I really just got tired of the problems O and I were having on the flat. I had gotten her to the point of being able to quietly do flatwork in a Happy Mouth mullen mouth with no other gear... SO I THOUGHT. Then I added canterwork, and it all went to hell. We reverted right back to no brakes and no steering, and I got frustrated and spent a few months doing everything BUT dressage, simply because I felt like she didn't like dressage. I did some soul searching, decided to get back to it, and still found I had the same problem that she came with - namely bolting at every gait whenever she did not feel like playing the game. Walk, trot, canter, or gallop, she throws her head up and zooms off within that gait. Good luck if you try to stop her - she locks down on your contact, braces against your half-halts, and accelerates. I realized that this isn't exclusive to just dressage-type work... everything she doesn't want to do, no matter what it is, is met with her favorite evasion, the grab-and-bolt. It was a fundamental training problem, and nothing more.

 

 She and I recently got into some discussions about this. It was not pretty.

And so, I changed my gameplan. For a long, long time, I was riding O a bit like I rode Gogo - just giving her a chance to ping-pong around within her own confines, wait for her to relax, stop rushing, and quiet down long enough to take a contact. But O doesn't work that way. If you let go bounce around within her own confines, eventually her confines get bigger. She bounces harder and harder against the ever-widening boundaries that she keeps knocking back more and more, until eventually she takes total control of the situation. She is truthfully the ultimate if-you-give-an-inch-she-takes-a-mile kind of horse. Every ride, you have to ride every stride, every single one of them - if you're not in control for just a second, she is. So the gameplan has to change for her. I just can't ride her the way I've ever ridden anything else. She is just different.

 

I did away with the nice little snaffle. Instead, I bitted her up and laid down some serious half-halts whenever she'd speed up of her own accord (her favorite evasion). Right from the get-go, she no longer gets ANY say in the speed we're going. We are walking at this speed in this straight line or circle, and trotting at this speed, and cantering at this speed, and that is the final word on it. The second she changes her speed by herself, the idea gets shut down. Absolutely NON-NEGOTIABLE. And you know what? I'll be damned, but it works like an amazing charm, now that I have a little brawn to back up my requests.

 

 

I switched out my snaffamore (Happy Mouth mullen mouth snaffle with one set of reins, and long shank hackamore set overtop of it with a second set of reins), for this insane combination bit as well:

 

 

Pardon the mud. SO much rain this week! It's not even worth scraping it off, she's just going right back out to roll in it again.

That is not a nice bit. That is serious business right there. But let me explain why I picked it.

 

This bit has several parts to it: a mouthpiece, a noseband (the fleece part, sitting overtop her actual noseband) that has a hinge which attaches it to the bit, a curb strap (not a chain, just a strap), a sliding shank (when engaged, the shank can slide through the mouthpiece like a loose ring would, thereby lengthening the shank and engaging the noseband/curb strap/poll pressure. Basically, this is the bit you would use to stop a charging rhinoceros, should you ever choose to ride one. 

 

The mouthpiece is actually just a plain, smooth, single-joint snaffle. I'm not generally a single-joint kind of person, but decided to give it a go anyway, and am happy to report that she likes it. A double jointed snaffle in the past has been too much stimulation for her (too many moving parts), so she has been either in the hackamore or a mullen mouth ever since. She also seems to like this single joint quite a lot. When you ride exclusively with your snaffle rein, it only engages the snaffle. She is free to stretch out over her back to the contact and take it, and all is well in the world. But when she barges forward, bolts, or even just needs a rebalancing half-halt, I have some VERY serious brakes. Because of that, I also have a newfound ability to be extremely honed and light in my aids, something which she greatly appreciates. When I'm quieter, she is quieter, and we're both a lot happier for it. Before we were shouting at each other, and now we can whisper. 

My curb rein is loose or even floppy most of the time (or even sometimes I'm not even holding it!). The curb rein is never, ever tight. It doesn't need to be. There is no pulling from either one of us either. I can give, and leg her forward, and still be there to catch her and recycle the energy once she gets out and reaches the contact, all without risk of her flying off out of control.

This has really opened up a whole new world of possibilities for me. Why didn't I do this sooner!? I've ridden twice in the combo bit, and both times she was wonderful. Even when she wasn't quite all together, or has her head a bit high, or was a bit crooked, or was still kind of giving me the oogly eye over her shoulder, she was responsive and stayed at whatever speed she was set at. For the most part, she reached out to the contact and took it nicely as well, even in the canter. 

We might just make an eventer out of her yet!!

"Warmblood Mare, Comes Complete With Issues."

"Warmblood mare, comes complete with issues."
Remember that line? That was O's sale ad from when I first bought her. And if you remember, she had some SERIOUS ones.

 Sometimes I forget exactly how far I have come with my wild redheaded beast mare. But sometimes, like these past few days, I am reminded of just how far we have yet to go.

And sometimes, you just gotta lay down a little law and have a come-to-Jesus meeting with your extremely stubborn redheaded beast mare. Redheads tend to have this tendency to, erm.... think they know better than you ALL the time. O is obviously no exception to this rule.

Following O's planned week off, I broke out my lunging equipment for her first day back on Saturday. She started off pretty quiet, trotting/cantering over some poles going to the right, and then she knocked one of the poles over and zoomed off into the canter. Several verbal "trot" commands from me were completely ignored, or met with one trot stride followed by an immediate pick back up into the canter. Well, fine then. Canter until you're done wanting to canter, and then you have to canter some more. I knew I wasn't going to wear her out per se, but given the chance to let her fizzle herself out a little, I knew I'd have a slightly more malleable horse on my hands.

45 minutes, she was still cantering, with no interest in trotting. I tested her a few times to see if she was ready for trotwork (she wasn't), and when she broke a few times, I asked her to keep cantering anyway. Finally, she responded to a trot command and stayed trotting quietly. 

I'd rather not have my horse stuck on an endless circle for a huge period of time, but sometimes you don't have much of a choice. Either get into a big fight, or let her fizzle herself out... I chose the fizzle route. 

We went through the same thing in the other direction, although it thankfully did not take as long. She went along in zoomy canter and zoomy trot, then of her own accord decided to smooth out the work. It's interesting to watch... she will be flying around in this unbalanced Standardbred-type trot, and then suddenly will shift down a gear and give you a nice, quiet, balanced trot. Shortly after she does this, she'll try to do a downward transition ("see look I did what you want, now I am going to stop.") If you ask her to quietly move onward, she will fly off again in her Standardbred trot or canter with a very pissy face. Anything to not do what you originally asked.

She is very interesting in that she never gets nervous or tense in the usual 'hot horse' sense.... she just chooses when she is going to use speed as her evasion of choice, and when she is going to be quiet. She is not an inherently hot and high energy character - around the barn and during hack rides, she is a completely chill cucumber, happy to stand immobile all day long, snoozing and eating her way through the day. I can hack her all day long at a walk in a halter and leadrope, no problem. But when she is asked to work, and she either a) doesn't understand, b) is unbalanced, or c) just doesn't feel like it, speed is her first and favorite evasion. Being a stubborn redhead, if she doesn't see why she should bother doing what you ask, then she is either going to fight you tooth and nail about it, or completely tune you out and ignore you. For being as strong-willed and forward as she is, deep down inside, I honestly think she is a seriously lazy critter at heart.

Sometimes, you just have to tell her "too bad, you have to do XYZ thing because I said so, and that's the final word on it."

On Sunday, all I wanted to do was get on and have a nice bareback hack around the barrels. Two of the hinges on my trailer tackroom door are broken, so until T can see about fixing it, I can't get into my tackroom without risking the door falling off. A nice bareback hack seemed like the way to go. We walked around the barrels once or twice, and then I asked her for a little sideways movement. She obliged, I stopped and patted her. We went the other way, she stalled out halfway through the exercise and sulled up against my leg. (Remember, this is the horse that when I got her would only walk, because any leg cues were met with a dead stop and an attitude of "nope won't do it," complete with kicking out, glaring at the rider's leg, and pinned ears. I don't take any regressions lightly.) I asked her to go forward, and move sideways again, and she stopped and threw her head around with an air of, "no, I'm done with this now." She refused to budge.

I got off her and started to move her around in hand. She had grown roots at this point, and when I touched her side to move her over, she didn't respond. I poked harder, no response. I poked HARD, no response. I openly slapped her in the belly, no response. NONE! She stood there stubbornly, looked at me out of the corner of her eye, while I poked and slapped away at her side. She knows FULL well how to move over and exactly how to do the exercise I was asking. Finally I poked her in the gut with my knee, and she begrudgingly obliged. We moved around for several minutes in this manner - her ignoring me, me insisting she do XYZ thing until the escalation got so high that she finally begrudgingly did it. But there was no improvement in her attitude, or the speed at which she did anything. She just said "no" to everything I asked, because she didn't see why she should say yes.

In all of my soul-searching I have been doing over the past month or two, I've come to realize that all of the non-eventing things I've been trying with her - barrels and endurance specifically - are all things I chose because they allowed me to avoid bringing out this bad attitude in her. They allowed her to run along in straight lines and sharp turns, but they did not address the real issue - the attitude she came with. She still doesn't even get her correct leads half the time. That is irresponsible and bad training on my part. That is me avoiding the real problem. Sure, she can canter along for an infinite amount of time, or run and turn, but does she *actually* listen when I put my leg on her? No, she doesn't. In a way, she is no better trained now than on the day that I first picked her up. That is irresponsible of me. If your horse can canter for 25 miles but can't put in even a mediocre and obedient Training level dressage test (not a winning test, just be able to w-t-c halt and do reasonably round circles)... does it even have the basics down? Nope. I've been using the excuse of, "oh, she just doesn't like to do dressage," which is code for "geez this mare is SO HARD to ride on the flat, she makes it a total nightmare sometimes." That is me being a lazy, bad trainer. And that has to end now if I ever want this horse to succeed.

Unfortunately that means I am going to have to roll up my sleeves and not take no for an answer from her. Her "no" is not just a "no" either. It is a big, resounding, "No, F-YOU and I WON'T and JUST TRY TO MAKE ME YOU'LL BE SORRY."

(Add-in: I'm under the impression she was born this way. There is still a copy of her original ad floating around online, when she was 3 and not yet under saddle, and it contains a few telling buzzwords and phrases such as: 

"Gabby can be strong willed, so she will need someone who is experienced and patient. She has also become very herd bound over the spring/summer. As long as she is around other horses she is very sweet and affectionate, but gets upset once she is by herself. This mare will make someone who has time and patience to work through her issues an amazing athlete."

Sound familiar?? She wasn't even broke back then!! And that was a SALE AD, imagine how much they actually glossed over her REAL attitude!)

And yes, we've combed over her back and forth with a fine-toothed comb on physical issues. The only thing we can come up with is that she tends to have really whacked out heat cycles - last time we checked her, she had two giant angry swollen ovaries, both of which were covered with huge 25-30mm follicles (like 15 on each ovary). My vet, who specialized in repro work, kind of said, "wow.... that's really weird." She had just finished her cycle and was already out of heat. Basically she's just a swirling vessel of hormones, or as I like to call it, adrift in the estrogen ocean. We did put her on Altrenogest for the rest of the season, and that did keep her from going into heat, but it didn't really change the behavioral stuff, and it's REALLY expensive (AKA just not worth it). Aside from breeding her or spaying her, well... what can you do.

In short, I bought this horse for so cheap because she had been so thoroughly screwed up by an idiot trail rider that she was unrideable. Hell, her sale ad read, "Warmblood mare, comes complete with issues." It's not like I didn't know this had deep roots. I bought her because I believed I could fix her, and I still do. She has come a long way, but we still have a long, long way to go.

Anyway. Back to our work on the ground. 

After about 15 minutes of no progress in our groundwork, I took her up to my trailer and decided to tack up and get on. I did some more work in hand (backing up, switching directions, yielding), this time with the aid of my dressage whip. O was even stubbornly sulled up against that, and it took one or two solid whacks before she begrudgingly moved over. When I went to switch directions, she bolted forward directly into me, bodyslamming me and sending me spinning off to the side. She has come pretty darn close to doing the exact same thing before when working on the ground, so I wasn't completely surprised that she made full body contact with me, I was just... pissed.

That's enough. No more being nice. You do not come barging into my space. You especially do not run me over. Game over.

I spent 15 minutes absolutely handing her butt to her on the ground. Back, forth, sideways, forward, round and round. We were both covered in sweat by the time she started responding quickly. I hopped on when she was finally responsive and quiet, and still she fought me - I had a jigging, head-tossing, prancing hothead on my hands. I went about 20 feet before I turned around, hopped off, and went to go fetch the hackamore (I had picked her usual snaffle). I am also an idiot and fell into a cactus while climbing down from the fence with said hackamore in one hand... holy crap that is the worst sting you've ever experienced. With a butt-ful of cactus hairs embedded in my thigh and butt, I put the hackamore on overtop her snaffle, and climbed back on. 

 That's a lot of hardware. The hackamore was actually overtop the front of snaffle for the ride, acting kind of like a kineton.

She took only two jiggy steps. Only two. The second that hackamore activated, she came to a screeching halt and stood immobile. I watched the wheels in her head turn. I smiled. I dropped the hackamore reins completely. I knew I wouldn't need them again.

She moved off quietly. She trotted on a steady contact in a steady rhythm. She stayed on a 20 meter circle with no speeding up. I was able to put my leg on her, and she lightly arced around it. 

I asked for a canter. She picked it up easily, on the correct lead, with no head tossing or bolting. She stayed on the 20 meter circle, on a steady contact, with no galloping/bolting/falling in/disaster. I put my leg on, and again, she bent nicely and stayed balanced. I think that is the first time ever that I put my leg on in the canter and had that response.

I slowed back down to walk. I trotted again, with the same results. I cantered again, with the same results. She was absolutely excellent.

I didn't even bother to go the other way, so great was my desire to end on a positive note. I just praised her heartily, patted her, and walked off on a long rein.

She had a very deserving two days off after all of that. 

I am no professional, but I'm not a half-bad jock. I have ridden a lot of hot, hard-headed, difficult horses over the span of my riding career. I can safely say that this is far and away the most challenging horse I've ever sat on. And this is coming from the girl who had Gogo The Rearing Wonderhorse.

At least O doesn't buck, rear, bite, strike, kick, or do anything mean. She just, you know.... makes me work really REALLY hard for every good moment. I will come out of this a better rider and a better horseperson, I guarantee you that.

The New Year Approacheth

Holy crap, the New Year is ALMOST HERE!

I have mixed feelings about this. 2013 was a really, really good year for me, all things considered. I had lots of positive changes, lots of big steps towards my future, lots of fun and lots of happiness. There is always bad stuff and stressful things and whatnot, but for the most part, it was all good stuff. It was different year than I'm used to having, but in a very good way. 

I have a lot of yearly goals for myself and the business, but my personal horsey goals are not quite as concrete as I'd like them to be just yet. I have a lot of musing to do when it comes to what my real goals for O are - do we event, do we do endurance, do we do other fun stuff, do we do it ALL? I have to solidify goals there before I want them totally written out on paper, but what I am leaning towards with her in particular is that I want to do LDs with her (and do several AERC sanctioned rides), start playing on the barrels a bit more seriously (because the mare lives to run fast and turn on a dime), and keep working on her dressage and jumping. Some days I want to event more than others - sometimes the idea just doesn't feel the same since Gogo died, and sometimes I crave it badly. Over the next year, I'm not sure that I'll go to anything recognized or not, but I want to get her to the point where she could be competitive at BN-N even if she isn't showing. I need to direct my finances towards the business more than anything, so spending money on shows isn't going to be a huge priority (even though I badly want it to be!!). Endurance is extremely affordable compared to pretty much everything else, so we can get our fix that way and save some cash at the same time ;) As for late 2014-2015, if she is going the way I want she'll be out doing recognized stuff. I want to be smart with my finances and only go out when I have a horse that is going to go out and win... it's just not worth it for me otherwise. 

Once I get more concrete goals written up, I'll put them up. I have to spend a few days really mulling it over in my head before I really make a decision. A lot can change in a year, after all.

BUT, one thing I DO know is that next weekend - the 4th - O and I will be doing our FIRST LD! Oh man... so excited, and a little bit nervous. It's always a little nerve-wracking doing something for the very first time. She is plenty fit, and I am hopefully fit enough too... ahhh! I have just a week to make sure we are all packed and prepared! 

I was seriously craving saddle time over the Christmas break, so when I got back from FL, about the first thing I did was hop on O and go for a little 5 mile ride to stretch her out after her five days off. We walked for a few miles, tried to trot for a bit but failed due to some extreme mucky mud, and then I let her blow off a little bit of steam on the way home. 

Quickie Ride!

Before I got on, I cleaned their pen for them. The girls must have known a cold front was coming in today... yesterday they went BANANAS for no particular reason while I was cleaning their pen. I have no idea what got into them, they just started running and didn't stop for ten minutes! 

As predicted, today the weather turned for the worse, and it dropped into the 20's with nasty sleeting mist. O still had a lunge on her calendar that needed to be done, so I got my lazy butt up and did it despite the weather and despite me being a bit ill. I seem to have caught some sort of icky bug on the plane ride home from Florida... gross.

This mare is just looking better and better. There are definite improvements here in the canter, although there is a lot way to go before it is any sort of show-ready. I've been doing a lot of cantering and galloping out on the trail, and have spent a lot of time on a very long contact - this has done nothing but benefit her. Her topline, which was nice before, has improved even more, and her neck has gotten increasingly loose and supple. She has really unwound herself through her neck and back. She still would rather be up and moving like a giraffe, but that is the way she is. I am loving how loose she is through her neck in the video, and how well you can see the difference in the canter from when she is too tight in her neck to when she is looser. 

The more relaxed she gets in the canter, the better her balance will become. 

Tomorrow if the weather holds, I'd like to get a good 10-15 miles in on her or so, even if it ends up being a bit slow and quiet. She'll have the rest of the week as mostly downtime to rest up before the LD on Saturday. Let's hope my cold goes away before then... 

Warp Speed

Hmmmm. Well, I think O is plenty fit at this point in her life.... after riding her for 4 hours the previous day, included a 5 mile dead run controlled hand gallop, I wanted to see how she was moving and feeling. Her girth swelling was 80% gone and was no longer painful to the touch, but you never know.... I figured she'd poke along and I'd get a good look at how she was moving.

Yeah.... I think she's JUUUUUUUUUST fine. 

I'm gonna go with "we'll be fine for the LD in January." 

Also, this, because she's adorable:

She's a funny thing, isn't she? She is SUPER interactive, and always has her head on you (in a respectful kind of way). She loves when you blow into her nosey, and she loves when you pet her face. She is always watching your every move. 

Zooooooooooooooom!

KITTEN UPDATE! We went back to the vet, and as it turns out, the little sh*tten's leg (not his real name, just his nickname for being such a little you know what!) is healing so well that we don't need an amputation after all! His spongy little bones are coming together of their own accord, and while he might always have a shorter leg and a mechanical limp, he is using the leg well and he'll get to keep it after all! I'll be returning donations unless otherwise specified - THANK YOU so much to everyone who donated!!!!

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You know, when I first got O, the entire reason for getting her for as dirt cheap as I did was because the mare would not go forward to save her life. She literally would not go faster than a walk - she'd just stop and pin her ears and refuse to move if you put your leg on her. Well, that certainly didn't last very long! My entire problem at this point in time? Getting her to SLOW DOWN! 

O is a veritable Energizer Bunny, or Little Engine That Could, or Perpetual Motion Machine, or occasionally Speedy Hellbitch - whichever name sounds most appropriate on each given day. I appreciate that she wants to go forward and is full of power when she does so, but she also uses speed as an evasion. If you trot fast enough, you'll either a) eventually break into the canter, which is easier or b) disconnect through the back and run around hollow, no matter how much it *looks* like your head is down and pretty-looking. (It's all a lie!) There is a fine line between having a forward horse and having a horse that is running away with you (and yes, they can run away with you in the walk and trot!), and O constantly toes that line. She alternates from perfectly reasonable forward trot to speedy hollow park trot in an instant, although her random upshifts are getting less frequent and are not particularly dramatic anymore. She still struggles with the idea of not only half halts, but downward transitions and actual halts themselves. The mare just wants to GO, and she wants to go ALL the time. And the fitter she gets, the more she wants it.

Don't get me wrong, I really like a forward thinker. I hate a lazy horse, and I loathe one that needs to constantly be nagged forward. I wouldn't say O is a hot horse, in that irrational TB way that you sometimes get in off-track horses... she is my kind of forward, more than willing to walk along on a loose rein and be chill but always ready to turn up the volume when asked. She doesn't do any of those silly hot-horse things, like jigging or dancing around or presenting extreme anxiety. She just has a motor on her that won't quit, and when she gets rolling, she GOES.

With that in mind, we're starting to add in some conditioning work, only we're not. I really don't want to over-fit her, I just strongly believe in cross-training and working different muscle groups. Our "conditioning" rides, aside from our long hacks out on trails, consist of just a few minutes worth of trot sets, and just a few minutes more of canter sets (about 2 mins each). Mostly, it's just a chance to let her stretch out after working on some more compressing dressage work the day before (I use the term dressage loosely here with her, as she's far, far away from being a presentable dressage horse... mostly I mean working on taking a constant and responding promptly to transitions!)

What I've found on our "sets" conditioning days is that a) the sidepull is DEFINITELY NOT AN OPTION, and b) she does some excellent dressage work when you're not actually asking for it. I might try the sidepull again at a later date, when she's a little more broke, but for going faster than a walk? Not an option. It started out well on our first conditioning day, with a long rein and a nice forward walk, but when I bumped her up into trot? Insta-uncontrollable. I had this image in my head of her trotting out on a nice loose rein, forward but perfectly content to bop along on her long rein.... and that image immediately vanished the second I started trotting. Her head went up into the stratosphere, her neck inverted, and she almost immediately broke into the canter. I couldn't slow her down, turn her, or get her to un-invert. The more I tried, the more she continued to totally ignore me. I eventually completely gave up, grabbed my right rein with both hands, hauled on her as hard as I could in an attempt to do a one-rein stop, and ran her into the fence. She finally stopped with that, and I tied her up and went back to the tack room for the blue bit. To my surprise, once it was in she was PERFECT - reaching for the contact, stepping through without rushing, using her back and minding her manners. Who knew! (I know I'm *supposed* to be all into natural stuff like bitless bridles and treeless saddles, but the truth it that most of my hotter horses can't stand or deal with the bitless bridles. Gogo hated them, Immy dumped me when I tried one, and O totally blew me off when we did anything faster than meander. P-mare, on the other hand, LOVES her bitless and acts like a fool when you use a bit on her. She was already quite finished when I got her, whereas the other three were either completely unbroke or very green... perhaps it's something in the way I train them? I don't know. Mine just like bits!)

Our "sets" are totally nothing to be excited about - two sets of 3 minute trots, and two sets of 2 minute 350mpm canters - but I don't need her to be ANY fitter than that for the time being. It's mostly just to get her moving out and using different muscle groups... I fully believe in cross-training!

"Come on lady LET'S GO!"

She's also had a few lunge sessions - one a week in the Faux-ssoa to offset the other work we're doing:

And, EARLY in the morning, before it gets hot!

Beautiful.

Coming up next... we have some INCREDIBLY EPIC Trailventures, including swimming in the lake, killing snakes, galloping flat out, and accidental mountain climbing! For right now, it's BEDTIME!

The Zooms

Is it too early to say that I think Immy has caught a little bit of spring fever?

Yes, yes, I hear all of you Northern folk complaining about your wretched weather and subzero temps.... I'd like to point out that it was 75 degrees today with abundant sunshine and a light breeze, and not only did I spend most of the day in a t-shirt, but both mares also had baths and dried nicely out in the sunshine. 

Hey, I put up with the Great White North for the first 25 years of my life.... I feel perfectly entitled to rub our good winter weather in when we get it. After all, it DID snow here this winter, TWICE. Almost a whole inch... maybe even TWO whole inches. And it stayed. For a DAY. Quelle horreur! 

Immy standing out in the sunshine, soaking wet but starting to dry after her bath today (she was on her best behavior!):

Yes, they are all basically the same picture, but.... she is so stinking cute that I just couldn't help myself!

(And that giant badonky... she for sure has Arab in her, and the bigger that booty gets, the more certain I am that she has QH in her too!)

I also went back and compared all of her old pictures to her more recent pictures... it is SO interesting to see the changes in her demeanor now that she has a job, a new life, and no annoying colt to pester her. She looks like an old nag in some of my older pictures of her... she's so different now!

S also caught the girls playing today, which she says they do most every day... she got the last bit of Immy's bucks and leaps on video and sent it to me:

She has a bad case of The Zooms!!!!

Unfortunately for me, all of The Zooms she has had lately are not always confined to when she is in her paddock.... more on that shortly ;)