Giving Thanks, 2012 Style

I have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.

I am thankful for my family, who still puts up with me even after all these years. The older I get, the more I appreciate them and I can't wait to see them at Christmas.

I am thankful for all my friends and contacts worldwide, who have always been there for me throughout the good times and the tough times alike.
I'm thankful for my wonderful Future Hubs, who puts up with me, laughs with me, gets into tickle wars with me, dances like an idiot with me, sings out of tune with me, snuggles me, and looks into the future with me, always right there by my side no matter what.

I am thankful for my menagerie of pets... the make me smile and laugh every day. Without them, life would be empty and colorless.  

I am thankful that I am still excited for the future, because it's only just beginning.

I am thankful for Texas, because even though it's one of the most ridiculous and random decisions I've ever made, it led me right to Future Hubs, Tonka, Twiggy, Monster, Pickles, Jasper, Mimi, Pangea, and Imogen... and that's exactly where I want and need to be.

I am thankful for Metro and Quincy, my two long gone but never forgotten boys. I honor their lives by naming my business after them, and not a day goes by without missing and remembering them.

I'm thankful for five beautiful, crazy, intense, amazing, eventful, and memorable years with my Gogo. She made me a far better horsewoman and rider, she made me laugh and cry, she molded who I am now as a young adult, she got me started on my career path of choice.... and so much more. 

I'm thankful for the chance to right my karma by bring Metro's daughter Pangea into my life. She is so much like her father in so many ways, and even when we bicker like an old married couple, she still makes me laugh and smile and thank my lucky stars for her presence.

I'm thankful for Imogen, and our beautiful new story together. If ever there was a story of fate, this is it, and I can't wait to see what the coming year brings for us. She is the true joy in my everyday life, and words can't describe how much I love her.

From Ti, Tonka, Twiggy, Jasper, Snidget, Mimi, Saba, Pickles, Monster, Pangea, Imogen, and myself, Happy Thanksgiving, and I hope you all have plenty to be thankful for too.

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!

Tina, eat your food!!

Ever owned a picky horse? One that takes delicate sniffs of the meals you serve them, and disdainfully turns their nose up at it? One that WANTS to eat that food, but thinks it tastes ucky? One that carefully takes bites, and then spits them back out with the yucky face? I never did until now. But Imogen takes the cake - she is genuinely suspicious of any food that isn't already on her safe-to-eat checklist, so you can imagine things with supplements and herbs in them are mighty yuck to her.

She WANTS to eat them. There's no question there. She mills around by the bowl looking pitiful, taking bites and making sad, sad doe eyes at me, wondering why I would possibly want to kill her with poisoned food. She usually eats about half of her breakfast, and then finishes the rest for dinner, but that's about the only way I've been able to convince her that the stuff in the bowl is actually appetizing. Switching her over from a lifelong diet of sweet feed and oats is not to her liking, I suppose. (Who can blame her? Who wants to eat their vegetables when all you've been eating forever is candy?)

She snarfs her hay up, at least. She thinks piles and piles of delicious timothy and orchard grass are the most wonderful things she has ever tasted. And once she stops curling her lip and making bleugh faces at her little handful of grainfoods, she does eat them as well. But still... I'd like you to finish it in one setting, mare. It really is only about a handful!

But she sure looks snazzy in the blanket, no? :) She has gone in two days from total blanket panic (she apparently didn't remember how blankets worked) to almost letting me toss it onto her last night. (I say almost... I'm not quite ready to start throwing it up there yet, I think I might get trampled in the process.)

Lunging is going better and better every day! Yesterday she wore a surcingle and POLOS for the first time!! Going to the left, she got a bit rushy and pulled on me some, but going to the right - her harder direction - she actually was a very cool cucumber and stayed on a very light contact the entire time. Once you turn off her RUN FASTER button, she is super level headed and willing. 

And it is about time to pull off the catch halter and get her a real one of her own. None of mine fit her!

And.... Tailmasta has begun the taming. There's a long way to go, but I'd say this is a mild improvement!

Back to lunging!

Imogen had two big things happen to her today! Like I mentioned yesterday, today we went ahead and did our first lunging session outside of the roundpen. This is an extra big deal because the arena we were working in is not fenced in at all... this was a VERY big step! Lunging within the confines of a circle is one thing... lunging without is a whole 'nother ballgame!

On the whole, she was great - I don't think I could have asked for better considering the circumstances. P, of course, was hollering for her the entire time, the stallion that lives right next to the arena was rearing and putting his front feet over the sides of his pen, and the wind was gusting at 40mph. She put her game face on, and despite a few scoots and spooks, she kept it together and went to work. She did start out doing large ovals, ducking in on one side and pulling hard on the other (the side face where P was), and going to the right she slammed on the brakes and turned to face me a few times when she pulled on the line too hard on her own. I sent her on, and she ended on a great note, keeping even tension on the line the entire time and responding to a "walk" and a "whoa" command. 

You can see a bit of the pulling tension here... she's obviously not ewe-necked, just pulling! She's also still in her catch halter, just for a few days until I can make sure she's still totally catchable all the time!:

Notice the other new item? Boots! This is the first time she has worn them. I guess those crappy neoprene boots have a use after all ;) She was a bit concerned about the noise of the Velcro, but didn't mind them on her legs. We'll see how she does on the back legs at a later date, we're not quite ready for that yet. You can also get a decent view of her feet, which need to be done... they're not terrible feet, but they leave a LOT to be desired:

Tomorrow is a crapshoot due to the weather - we are supposed to possibly have severe thunderstorms and cruddy rainstorms on and off all day, so we might not get to do anything productive. I of course gave her a bath today, so you know she'll be rolling in the mud tomorrow! I made a stab at braiding her mane over to the right, and I washed and conditioned her sad, sad tail as well... we have much work to do on all this messy hair. MUCH work. 

And also.... P and Immy are apparently now besties for life.

SHE'S HOME!

I almost can't believe it, but yesterday the next step in making this whole dream a reality came true - Immy came home to live with Pangea!! This had been the plan all along, but I had been scheming and planning and dreaming for so long that it almost didn't seem like it would ever happen. I spent some time on Wednesday evening cleaning out the back of the trailer, reorganizing the tack room, and in general prepping for the blessed event, and on Thursday morning schlepped my trailer over to the other farm. I luckily scored an afternoon off of work in order to be able to get her home and settled during daylight hours, and prepped the trailer for loading. I had absolutely no idea what she would do - would she be a horrible nightmare or brilliant? I was assured that there had thus far been no problems with her loading, but you never know.

And.... she was fantastic. She stopped and snorted a few times at the ramp, which she probably has never been on before, but with a few clucks from behind, she walked right on. We closed the partition and the back door without any fuss on her part, and hooked her to the tie. She didn't move at all. Literally, not one step!

I even had to stop by the neighbor's house to throw food at her horses, and she didn't make a peep in the trailer or move even once.

Once at the farm, she continued to stand quietly even after I had lowered the ramp - long enough for me to snap a picture or two of that 257!

That tail... yikes. Tailmasta has some SERIOUS work to do. It's not good.



She was a little bargy when I first unloaded her and led her around, but that was the worst of it. I released her into the wild (or well, her new paddock) with P after a brief meeting over the fence, and as expected, all went pretty well. I normally wouldn't just toss two strangers in together like this, but both horses are extremely social and well-adjusted, and both have histories of being put out with horses they don't know and not caring at all. Immy trotted around for about 3 seconds, found the haypile, and settled in to eating. P ran her off once or twice, just to let her know who the boss was, and that was that. I got to spend a good long while watching them mill around eating while I picked their paddock clean, and mixed up grains for a few days. Imogen, for the past year, has been eating a mix of sweet feed and oats... and that just ain't gonna fly anymore. I already ditched the sweet, and am mixing oats in with her new future foodstuffs - hay pellets and a fat supplement. No hard grains here! While the fat supplement obviously has a purpose, the hay pellets are mostly just a carrier for her supplements, which will be a vitamin/mineral supplement balanced for her specific grass blend, Cosequin, a quality pre/probiotic, raspberry leaf, rosehips, and chia seed. We'll have to build up to all these new things, obviously, but she had her first taste of some of this new regime last night mixed in with her old portion of oats. She did NOT approve, and made grossed out faces for a few minutes before finally giving up and leaving the meal entirely. Thankfully, this morning she decided that she would give them another try, and cleaned her bowl. I honestly can't blame her for turning up her nose at first... she's probably never tasted a single supplement in her life!

By the end of the day yesterday, P and Immy were hanging out pretty happily together. By today, they were best friends, sharing from the same flake of hay and snuggling up together. Nothing warms my heart like seeing my two angels munching together in the twilight. Bliss... absolute bliss.

I had just enough daylight today to give Immy a quick grooming and put her loose in the roundpen for a short free lunge session. I actually had her tied while grooming, and she didn't fuss or move at all! I don't technically know if she hard ties or not, so it's all a bit of an experiment to see if she is going to set back at some point or not. She'll hard tie soon enough either way!

I was beyond impressed with her behavior. New roundpen, new facility, new friends completely out of sight, and she walked right over to that roundpen and got right to work without any muss or fuss. She took everything in stride, and didn't so much as call back to P for reassurance. (P, on the other hand, called a number of times for her!) I am just floored. This mare is a mad genius!

Tomorrow, we'll have a first - lunging on the line OUTSIDE of the roundpen, in the real arena. She's ready, but it's a big step!


And as a final note, now that the two mares are both mine and home together, I am thinking I should combine the two blogs to make one.... what do you think? It seems silly to have two separate ones now!