Tantrums & protesting

this can only mean one thing...

You guys remember that lovely, sweet, kind, tolerant OTTB that let me climb on him bareback a few weeks ago?

Anyone?

No? Me, either.

Mr. Irish Goodbye got his shoes back on last Wednesday and Thursday I came out to see how he looked and put him back into proper work. We've been equicising and lunging (as much as his feet could handle), so he's not completely out of work, as it were. He was great about being tacked up (though inevitably, he always gives the lunging surcingle the hairy eyeball). 

Wait. A. Second.

Buddy, the vacation is over. He felt like being lunged in the small paddock adjacent to the barn was absolutely criminal. All his friends had their heads hanging out the windows and it just WASN'T FAIR.

Oh boo hoo, Riley you expensive pet!

I'm sure I've gone on a rant about lunging before, but whether I'm being redundant or not, I like it as a tool for young/uncoordinated/unbalanced horses. Furthermore, I really like the pessoa. It really helped Riley find his balance at the canter (without his jockey flailing about) and improved his straightness tenfold. I usually start by lunging in both directions, w-t-c with no engagement from the system. Once the buttons are reinstalled and he's obedient, I engage the pessoa. I like the setting that encourages long and low, but you can set it up a myriad of ways for various things. It's always set so his nose can be several inches in front of vertical when he's not fighting himself. In the 2 years that I've owned him, I've never really had to get after him with the lunge whip, nor have I ever lunged him DOWN from exuberance/naughtiness, etc. In the past, I would simplify the task until he got his brain back and make sure I didn't fry his little soul or he would get offended and just shut down and it was useless to push him through it.

Spring fever!

View from the passenger seat didn't change much all day!

 You guys... taking care of two barns and 30 horses is a lot of work...

We were farm sitting over the weekend for a friend who has a lovely place about 35 minutes from our farm so we made the most of the opportunity by shipping Riley down and back twice for some real rides!

Weekend recap -- progress made?

Muddy Mudskipper (click for weird hairiness)

Phew! A bit of a whirlwind weekend there! I have to go out of town this upcoming weekend to take care of my Mom while she undergoes neck surgery (in Florida), so I wanted to get the most out of this weekend as possible. The forecast promised two beautiful spring days and with 4 new horses showing up in the last week, I was needed as an extra hand around the farm to help get the sales horses ready for clients! We were up early Saturday morning, as my trainer was taking a sales horse over to Philly Dutton's for a client. I was attending to the farm chores and putting a couple of our guys on the Equiciser to warm them up. Though it was a beautiful day with temps nearing 60, the wind was HOWLING. We are essentially out in the countryside/woods and when the wind picks up it can be downright daunting (think haunted woods). Gusts of 40 mph meant that our scheduled hack to the indoor was going to be interesting.

Brooklawn Double, Brody.

 Through a series of serendipitous connections, my trainer was going to be showing two of her sales horses to Suzanne of Confessions of an AA Rider, I was secretly more excited about meeting a fellow blogger in person, but also happy to help get the horses ready and hack them over to the indoor. I would be riding Brody who is a 6 year old, 16.2+ TB. it's amazing how those few inches can make a huge difference to someone my size. Riley is a big bodied 16 hh horse, but he's a very smooth, fluid mover and is truly, just the right size for me. Anything bigger and I feel like I'm a little kid! Brody is not only tall, but he's also a really big mover, it's pretty amazing. The effort needed to post his trot is exponentially higher than riding my pony! But, in the crazy wind and the 2 mile hack over, we mostly trotted (to escape the wind) and I was actually able to keep up with his movement! The two boys were both so great in the decidedly spooky weather... it's easy to forget you are riding thoroughbreds when they are just so level-headed.

Legging up -- considerations

Go away snow + mud!

With the worst of winter behind us in the Northeast, it's time to start legging our horses back up. Unless you're lucky enough to have an indoor, keeping a horse fit and going up here has been nearly impossible (even trailering to an indoor has been tough!). In previous years, I remember distinctly seeing groups of riders walking and trotting along the roads near our farm all season long. This winter, the roads were much quieter, either people migrated to Aiken for a few months, or conditions on the roads were just too treacherous (see: ice).  So, with the ice melted and very little snow on the ground, we've finally been able to get our guys going again. *ps. while I could have technically gotten Riley going a little sooner, starting and stopping with him isn't good for anyone!

After a full weekend of what I consider a good start to getting him legged up, I found myself thinking about the process and what I consider when bringing a horse into work after several months off.

Spring forward -- and a lengthy update!

Finally!

The clocks have gone forward, the days are longer and dare I say it, the weather is warming up. Which can only mean one thing...

Spring Mud Season

Yep, all the snow and ice we've had lying around is quickly melting into little estuaries and streams around the farm. There are giant mud pits around the gates and water troughs, but I don't care... I'm completely over winter and I'll take a muddy mess over frozen hands and toes and constant wind burn on my face. The new farm appears to have decent drainage and thankfully the owners know exactly just how muddy the property gets so we're not freaking out that the horses are making a mess.

Getting back on track and setting some tentative goals

Gorgeous sunrise at Derry Meeting.

So the weather has been a bit bipolar to say the least. We've had days where the high was 5 degrees followed two days later by 60 degrees and rain. The conditions at the farm have held up pretty well considering we had a foot of snow on the ground two weeks ago, last week we got 2 inches of rain in an hour, and now the ground is frozen again. According to the farm owner, our property is holding up better than most (she currently boards her horse at a very fancy facility that she said is a complete mud pit). Now that the ground is frozen again the chopped up muddy areas are tough for some of the horses to walk on, but I have to say that Riley is not even a little sore. I'm hoping he doesn't bruise his soles over the next couple of weeks, but so far, so good. So fingers crossed for that. In the meantime, I've been picking up bits and pieces of tack to replace what was stolen. I broke down and ordered Riley a new bridle (though I'll probably reserve it for showing, etc) and it looks lovely. I was inspired by Aimee's post about bridles, so I took the plunge and tried out an Ovation Figure 8. It has just enough fancy stitching, a fancy padded crown piece and it's nicely padded overall without being bulky.

Absorbine Stain Remover & Whitener Review (and how my horse is a saint)

Riley had rides 2 and 3 with his boots this weekend, we attempted a ride on Thursday but his feet have expanded/had and I could not get his LF boot on (grrr), and he's going really well. I've been relying on Andrea for moral support, professional opinions and for generally talking me off a ledge. She recommended using nylon socks (of the human variety) inside the boots to help slide the foot in until they're broken in. I also took charge of the flares by means of a Rider's Rasp and managed to get his hoof to stop grabbing the boot while I was trying to put it on. Success!

Saturday I went out to the barn early to lunge Riley (we've been keeping his sessions quite short to prevent issues with the boots), when I arrived the place was buzzing with activity and was more or less a three ring circus. Most of their volunteers come on Saturdays/Sunday from 9-12, they have a regular group of people who go on a morning hack on Saturday, visitors are permitted during that time and there were plenty of weekend warriors out to see their horses. On top of that, a new gelding was moving into Riley's field so he and Henry were inside while they transitioned the new horse in. I wasn't too worried, but the energy level was quite high. I got Riley booted up, threw his surcingle and bridle on (btw, Riley's new game is to pretend that he doesn't know how bridling works) and headed up to the arena. I had two goals for Saturday... lunge Riley to check for soundness in the boots and to ride him bareback (!!!). We headed up to the arena and so did everybody else... we were joined by a western horse and his two owners (who are ALWAYS screaming at each other, it's so awkward, but they are perfectly nice to anyone else) doing rollbacks etc on one end, a woman schooling dressage on her lovely warmblood, and a black and white mini with THREE tiny riders taking turns going around the ring... also, along the fence line an old TB who had just been switched to daytime turnout just about lost his mind when his turnout buddy went for a trail ride (he literally screamed and paced the whole time), and a growing group of onlookers.

Back to School

It's that time of year right?

I was lucky enough to sneak away from work a little early yesterday to head out to the barn to ride with my friend E. The farrier was due at 3pm to put a shoe on both of our horses that lost theirs in the moving excitement... he was apparently running very late and actually didn't arrive until after I got there. That meant I had the honor of holding my horse for him...

With all the trouble that LF has given us over the last 4 months Riley has really started to develop some resentment about having it handled for long periods of time. This has resulted in several come to Jesus moments between us. He's usually very amicable about most things and well-behaved on the ground (I don't tolerate pushy horses), but he's gotten worse and worse over this hoof. The last two times the farrier was out he was pretty bad, but not nearly as bad as he was yesterday. He immediately pooped and peed in the aisle (which I should have seen coming), he was distracted by everything, he hardly kept his foot up for the farrier to take a quick look. Once he got down to business, Riley got worse, throwing himself around in the aisle (keep in mind this aisle is twice as wide as a regular barn aisle), leaning back and trying to sit down (because God-forbid he stand on three legs for more that 3 seconds). Even though I was holding him and correcting his bad behavior, it escalated. At once point, the farrier refused to let go off his leg and Riley hobbled away from him on three legs, he lost his footing and slipped in his own pee nearly wiping out completely... sigh. We decided to move him into the now free wash stall so he was a bit more confined. He was slightly better in there, but was still a bear. He decided that he could not keep his balance with his foot on the hoof stand and proceeded to thrash around and break that. Then he somehow cut the scab open on his old wound on the inside of his LF so there was a pool of blood filling up in his upside down bell boot (which wound up on the farrier). Thankfully, the farrier was able to get the shoe/pad on and finally get everything filed down and neat (though, without the help of the hoof stand -- farrier was not amused). He filled the hole left by the clip with some glue and he was as good as new... but not before he thrashed around some more and hit me squarely in the face nearly breaking my glasses. Admittedly, he got me really angry, frazzled and embarrassed. I told the farrier that I wouldn't mind if he tacked on an unruly horse fee on to my bill. Thankfully, my farrier is the nicest guy ever, and since he JUST put this shoe/pad set up on a week ago (and he knew I hadn't even had a chance to ride him!) he didn't charge me for the new set. I'm going to have to do something REALLY nice for him! But, after he left it really made me think about what I can do to improve his behavior for the farrier. He is really good for 95% of other activities. Maybe a chain shank/lip chain... I dunno, but he can't act like this again.

After we were through I quickly tacked him up and hopped on to see how he was feeling. We rode the perimeter of the property with our friend and he was quite good throughout. We trotted some hills on uneven terrain and he felt great. He walked flat-footed down the long driveway on bluestone without a care in the world. Hooray for that. We finished the ride with some quick arena work and he felt amazing. Hardly stiff at all tracking right and no weird steps. If I had to guess I'd say I felt a little unevenness, but it was marginal at best. I rode without spurs and he was lovely and forward (though I really do need them to help reinforce the bulging that happens) and we tried out a new bit which he LOVED!

We switched from this:

Herm Sprenger Duo

To this:

Happy Mouth Mullen

What a huge difference. I started him originally in a full cheek snaffle, which he went okay in (and I tend to like for babies), but he's not heavy in front and has good brakes and I wanted him to really think about the contact at the stage, so we switched the the Herm Sprenger. He went even better in that for awhile, but he was very unsteady in the contact and I think it was because of the loose rings. He would flap his head a lot and if I held the contact it felt like a tug of war because of all the movement in the bit. I read some really good things about Happy Mouths and I though since he seemed to like the feel on the solid bit we'd try to Mullen. Everyone seemed to agree that it was ideal for young horses and helped them seek the contact a little bit better. I wish I had taken photos after our ride because he had so much foam around his mouth. He rode so softly in it and after a few minutes of warm up on a loose rein when I asked for contact (gently) he gave and sought it out himself. Success! I think he also likes that this bit is much steadier in his mouth too. *ps. this was my first time riding in the arena at the new place and the footing is awesome!

My friend is going to try to ride him today and work on his canter a bit more and tomorrow we're hoping to school some of the xc jumps. I want to keep his work level as varied as possible!

This is post 198, stay tuned for exciting news at 200!