What is a twenty meter circle anyway?

Lots to report over here with another successful weekend of riding behind us. If you live in the Northeast you know that we got an inordinate amount of rain and a freak thunderstorm during the week that left everything a big wet mess. We were able to get the ring sorta dragged Saturday enough to do some flat work and Riley got reintroduced to the Pessoa. In the ring we worked on slightly raised cavalettis and two canter poles set 60 ft apart. I could feel the gears turning in Riley's brain approaching the 4 raised poles like, "Am I supposed to jump all of these"? Luckily he didn't, though he felt like cantering a few of them made much more sense!

I took a trip down to Dover and Maryland Saddlery on the hunt for a few things for the pony and a dressage whip. I was also looking for a new helmet, but they didn't have any of the new ones in yet:/ I did pick out a new whip and also picked up this little beauty that I've been obsessed with (plus 30% off)!

From Dover's site: Because who doesn't love houndstooth?

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.

Hunterland, hooves and head shaking. **Edited with working videos!

Nerd alert.

First up: I rode in my first hunter show in about a billion years on a horse I had ridden once and it was his very first horse show of any kind. Did I mention he's a multiple stakes winner OTTB? Well, turns out he's also a class act and despite not having a confirmed right lead canter, we actually won something! I definitely felt very, very out of place in hunterland, but it was fun and I would do it again in a second! I really liked just being able to go in the ring over and over again to get a feel for things. I had no idea how self-conscious I would feel in the ring though... at least in eventing you feel like you are competing against yourself when you are in the ring (or rather, that's how I feel) but it's hard not to feel self-conscious in a ring full of really nice horses where everyone knows what the are doing and I'm just trying not to make a fool out of myself! The day started off a little rough because of imminent thunderstorms. We got the horses tacked up, walked around and then hacked down to the rings (it was quite a distance) and just as we get there, I hear the hounds (the show was at the facility of a local hunt club) baying and lightning strikes really close by (I nearly pee myself) and then KABOOM (thunder)! My lovely catch ride, stood stock still while I dismounted and everyone walked back to the trailers to hide for the insane 20 minute storm! He also didn't flinch during a WTC class where a horse bolted straight at us and dumped his rider. Thoroughbreds, man... so good. I'm so lucky to have really nice horses to ride while mine is doing... well, what is he doing???

I can tell you what he's NOT doing.

He's not head shaking!

It's been roughly 3 months since his first symptoms showed up (beginning of May, though i think he had some signs in late April), by June they were so severe I was really worried about what the outcome might be. It's been at least a month since I asked him to do anything on the lunge line and the last time I tried to ride him was a disaster so I just kind of ignored him for awhile. Keeping him under a microscope was doing my nerves no good and it was making me a bit bonkers (just ask my horse friends).

I kept hearing more and more updates about how well he seemed and that his symptoms had all but disappeared so I thought Saturday I try to stick him on the lunge line during the hottest part of the day to test it out.

And while he was naughty... save for a few sneezes, he showed no signs. If you look at the videos from previous posts about this the change is remarkable. Ps. If he looks a bit short in these it's because he's barefoot on crumbly hooves.

I actually cried into his neck after this one (a combination of things, but more out of sheer joy to see my horse feeling better).

And I have to say, for a horse that hasn't been ridden or worked since May, he's looking pretty nice. He fist up very easily and he's quite fat and sassy right now, so we'll be lunging for a few weeks until he gets shoes back on and his head is back in the game. I'm still going to be carefully watching for indications of head shaking, because I want to keep him as happy/comfortable as possible and with the weather being as hot and humid as it's been, there's still a chance that we're not out of the woods yet and I'm not sure how he'll be under saddle.

I lunged him again last night and he sneezed a bunch (normal) and I maybe, maybe saw a tiny glimmer of the head shaking, but he was also being VERY cheeky!

I tried to take video but literally every time I did he took it as an opportunity to bolt and spazz out because there was weed whacking in progress nearby. Twit.

Thinking cap engaged.

Full of sass.

Not too shabby for a horse 3+ months out of work, eh?

So, he gets shoes back on August 4th, and the farrier is going to tidy up his crumbling hooves tomorrow so they don't completely fall apart before then due to him stomping flies and growing out the old nail holes. I was going to maybe take him to a hunter pace Saturday, but I want to leave his feet alone and I think it wouldn't be the best idea to risk bruising his soles. So I'll just ride something else (I'm so lucky to have access to lots of other ponies)!

In case you are curious... what's seems to be working:
35 grams of Magnesiumin feed
Taurine (he's part of a study on HS that we just started -- it's an amino acid that is supposed to help with nerve disorders)
Night turnout

*He was on Shake No More Gold for a month, but we just finished it and I am giving him a few weeks off to see if it was a contributing factor. I am very grateful that we haven't had to go the steroid/drug route yet.

Oh, and I have a lesson with a local BNR Thursday! She's going to teach me on one of her cool former upper level horses! Wish me luck!

Feeling blue.

I've been sporting an enormous smile on my face coming off the heels of a very special cross country road trip. To say life is good would be a massive understatement. I was eager to get back to my pony and start looking ahead at our plans for the summer, and then nearly all at once, my hopes, and plans and dreams were brought to a screeching halt.

I didn't want to write this post.

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.

Lunging -- revisited.

Yesterday I had a horrible dental appointment in the afternoon which meant taking a half a day off work... the only silver lining being that I could get to the barn early as my dentist is just a few miles from the barn. Riley is being kept toward the back of the property right now, which means that when I want to work with him I have to pack up my car and bring everything out to him, groom him outside his field and then get on and hack to wherever I want to ride. He's pretty good about it, though his pasture mates like to mess with him while I trying to do this. Henry literally unbridled Riley one day while we were getting ready. Cheeky!

Oh, but first. I arrived to the Riley's pasture only to find a new born lamb stuck in the electric fence. Poor little dude was being shocked over and over again, so I unhooked the electric and held him until the sheep guy came over from the barn...

He was fine, just a little worn out and hungry. The fence doesn't hold a typical charge:)

I was all numbed up from my crown procedure so I opted not to ride but to lunge (you know, in case I accidentally bit my tongue off or something). This was partially an experiment as 1.) we haven't lunged in weeks and he's MUCH fitter and 2.) I would be forced to lunge him right next to his buddies with lots of distractions and in an unfamiliar area. So a good test for both of us. Plus we had to walk away from his buddies on this out of the way path to get to where we could lunge. He was UP but attentive to me, even while his friends did everything to distract him. I do love that fact that I can tie him just about anywhere and he stays put, when he feels tension on the line he stops moving around and he was quite patient as I grabbed everything out of my car and slapped it on him. Not to worry, I gave him a quick curry, brushing and picked his feet.

We had the best lunging session to date. The spring grass has been really good to him. His winter coat (what was left of it is nearly gone) and he really feeling full of himself. I need to get a new conformation shot of him while he starts regular work so I can compare in the fall. He was forward, happy and focused despite the peanut gallery watching from the next pasture.

Warm up trot, actually focused on me.

We mainly worked on transitions. I want to make sure he really understand WHOA. We also worked a lot on walk-trot-walk and canter-trot-canter with plenty of walk breaks as it was a million % humidity. His upward transitions are really coming along and I barely had to fuss at him to keep tempo (something we've always struggled with). He even looked great tracking right which is his stiff side and although picking up his right lead was a challenge, I was able to force him to do TWO flying changes on the line to fix it. Laziness is not tolerated on the lunge line! After a successful canter depart right without the need of a change we called it a day, he was sweaty, I was sweaty and he got plenty of praise throughout to reinforce the RIGHT THING. Sometimes I forget just how important this is with the young ones!

Some highlights, tracking left:

He looooves to stretch. This is the easiest setting for the Pessoa. Once we've warmed up, I like to set it so his head is a few inches ahead of the vertical when he is relaxed. He's capable of carrying himself and keeping mostly steady contact now.

Warm up canter left. Zoom! You can see the Pessoa is at rest here giving him full freedom.

Carrying himself nicely, love his back leg here.

Tracking right:

Warm up trot, tracking right. Hunter pony in the making -- too bad I banged his tail:)

A little resistance, but he was brilliant tracking right yesterday, he never stopped or fought me and was always in front of my leg (so to speak)

This is where we ended up. What a fancy dude. His neck is looking great and his muscles are starting to really come in. I just love how relaxed he looks really striding out here and just slightly in front of the vertical.

I've been riding him in a Dr. Bristol full cheek and he really seems to like it. I think the Happy Mouth was just getting a little too light for him, plus it made him fussier in the contact.

So much slobber.

I know a lot of people don't care for lunging and I keep my sessions short (usually 5 minutes warm up in either direction and 5-10 both ways doing "work'), but I do think it's a beneficial tool for a variety of reasons:

*Sometimes there's no one around and you don't want to ride alone (safety first)
*It allows them to work on straightness and balance without the weight (or imbalance) of a rider
*Certain tools (like the Pessoa) can teach them to push from behind, unlocking their backs and helping them understand carrying themselves correctly
*Verbal transitions are always helpful
*It's a good bonding experience between horse and rider
*You never know when you might NEED to lunge your horse (ie, at a show and what happens if he doesn't know how to without scaring everyone)
*It mixes up your routine

**When I lunge I don't always stay on level ground nor to I stick to a 20 meter circle. I like to walk around a bit to make the circle more of an oval and to not allow them to lean on the shape (if that makes sense)

What are your thoughts about lunging?

Springing in Spring complete with a shameless photo dump.

Apologies in advance for the one million photos. I rarely get any photos of me riding and Emily and I took turns in the jump school and riding in the ring so we could shoot each other. Side note: It was a good test for both babies to trailer together go stand in a stall and then play musical horses for the next few hours. Neither of them minded being away from the other which is great since some get VERY attached on even the shortest trailer rides.

Oh, and my horse self loads and unloads now:)

om nom nom nom

Training rides

Riley has had two training rides Friday and Saturday, so I decided to take the day off from riding (even though I was planing on going for a hack today). It's been a long time since I took a weekend day away from the barn and I slept in (highly unusual) but completely delightful.

Friday Emily rode Riley and said he felt really great. The big difference between where he was 6 months ago and where is now has a lot to do with his feet. He is still stiff tracking right, but I think once we unlock him a little he won't find it as hard. She was even able to get him to pick up the right lead canter 3 times. Saturday I planned to have her ride him again so I could see how he's looking under saddle and she could show me some tools to work into his routine. He's very focused on the cows and utilizing lateral work and some shoulder-in helps get his brain back. Emily commented that he feels much, much more forward than he did last year and that letting him move out and settle into the contact works best. He's very willing to find contact at the walk and trot but still needs work at the canter. I think once our transitions are confirmed the rest will come. Emily also said that she thinks the Pessoa had really helped his balance and that his willingness to utilize his topline.

Warming up, Emily commented that sitting the trot stabilizes him (and that he has the most comfortable trot ever!)

His concentration face.

Moving out beautifully and relaxed along his topline.

You can see there's more tension tracking right. Emily really drove him forward until he relaxed.

Stretching down into the contact. He loves doing this!

Proof! He DOES have a right lead canter and it's adorable.

YAY!

My takeaways from the ride were to keep his confidence up (lots of verbal and physical praise), give him lots of breaks between the hard work, use lateral work to help engage his hind end and to help him understand moving off my leg instead of leaning on it (he was not able to move off my leg at all last year, continue to encourage forward, always forward (which will help with the nappy behavior), lots of changes of direction keep his brain busy. Oh, and to ride him with a dressage whip so I can give him little taps behind my leg without losing focus. *He actually kicked out at the whip when he was being stubborn about picking up the right lead canter!!!

I have a few more training rides banked with Emily, and then I'm going to start paying her to ride him once a week. I'll be able to ride/lunge him at least 3 days and I think that will be plenty to get him ready for some schooling events. I want to at least use the Pessoa once a week to continue the improvement with his straightness and topline. We'll keep our serious rides on the shorter side 30-45 minutes and keep hacking out. 

I am really impressed with how he looks, being in a 20 acre hilly field has been good to his body. His condition is really great for a horse who essentially had the winter off.

**Also, just in case the horse world isn't small enough, I was in the city last night at one of my favorite bars and I chatting to a couple standing behind us... the girlfriend happens to be an advanced rider who sold Emily her most recent horse Brody!!!!! Whoa.

Double post!

Hi all,

I really wish I could have posted on St. Patrick's day, with it being Riley's birthday and everything, but well... the day got away from me. Instead, you get two posts in one!

Riley officially turned 5 on March 17th, so I made him a little cake and spelled out "5" in peppermints. Oh, and there was Guinness. 

I was helping out with stick removal around the barn and it was really cold and windy, so I thought I'd give him a day off from "work" and just bring him in and spoil him a little. When I was finished helping out around the barn I saw that he was right next to gate so I ran down and grabbed him (in a 20 acre field this was a blessing)! I stuffed him in a stall with a handful of grain and a flake of hay. I got his birthday treat ready and brought him out to investigate.

Om nom nom... he careful picked off all the peppermints first.

Don't look at his disgusting muddy legs, treats took priority.

Then I shared a Guinness with him, which he was unsure of:

Oooooh.

He slurped a little but was pretty suspicious.

We also got a new addition to the barn... a little calico named Petunia. She's a friend's cat who was having severe asthma issues with her so the owner of the farm graciously offered to let me bring her out to see if she'd make a good barn cat. Luckily, the owner is also very fond of white cats and despite being calico, she's mostly white with calico points. For now she's living in the tack room (which is heated, while she gets acclimated), soon we'll move her into a stall with the dog crate I've been using for her and her litter pan so the other cats can get to know her with any squabbles.

Petunia, relaxing in the sun under the window.

If you have any advice on transitioning a city cat to the country life please let me know!

Yesterday, I took the day off so I could hold Riley for the farrier. It's been a while since I've been there to hold him and I just wanted to see what he thought about his progress. Overall he said his feet look great, his soles are MUCH improved but his hooves grown painfully slow (at the least the fronts). We've been able to go 7 weeks between trims and we're going to reevaluate on April 24th to see if he'll need shoes once I want to start competing him. While is is very comfortable on asphalt, he still takes a ginger step here or there on gravel and I don't want to bruise him unnecessarily. We'll get road hacking to improve his tolerance in the meantime. Things have gone from super snowy to ridiculously muddy and there's no point in putting shoes on now if he's comfortable and the chances of him pulling a shoe are high.

After his trim, we did a little bit of pessoa work and again, only one major meltdown about tracking right. He's getting better and neither seems to lose our cool anymore (which helps). I can reset him rather easily now and get his brain back in order. Keep in mind, we don't have a "ring" yet, so our current riding area is hilly and makes lunging, interesting... though I think in the long run it will help him with balance on uneven terrain.

He definitely had his thinking cap on yesterday. Look at that booty! he's going to be so cute once he's fit.

Good boy. Not as forward as I would like, but moving freely and accepting the pessoa.

PS. Sorry that my photos of him lunging are always tracking left, it's much easier to take photos with the lunge line in my left hand! Not to mention we usually have discussions about tracking right and I have to keep my eye on him at all times.

*There's been some chatter about heading over to Boyd's place for a little schooling show at the end of April, they have an elementary level that would be perfect for us to get our feet wet!
**Also, Emily is going to hop on Riley Thursday to make him ride past the scary cows... yay!

You win some, you lose some.

my favorite tree at the farm

Saturday was one of those perfect days where I would have killed for a buddy to go for a 3 hour hack with. Sadly, my riding friends were busy so I blasted through my Saturday morning chores so I could get down to business. Riley made me walk the length of his field to get him and he was NOT happy about coming out of there. Now that he's back in a program, leaving the field = work and so he has been blatantly ignoring me when I call him. The spring grass is starting to come in and the boys are thrilled to be grazing in the sun instead of standing knee deep in snow. I had to bribe him down with peppermints, cheeky boy! I do make a habit of tossing him a flake of hay or some grain when he comes in so it's not always a terrible experience (ahem, sarcasm). I thought we take advantage of the finally stable (ish) footing and at least get a productive session in with the Pessoa. Sadly, I've only been able to use it on him three times (this time included). He still fights it a little, but at least I got him to track right consistently with only ONE debate. So, minor success there.

Storm Prep part IV OR How I spent a 40 degree Saturday.

Riley says, get away from my hay pile!

When did 40 degrees become balmy? What hell winter? At least it was mild and sunny and after three days of temps in the single digits, I'll take it. We have a predicted snow storm coming overnight Sunday and Emily and I planned to make a run to the hay guy so we could stock up the sheds with hay for the boys. There are 3 of them on a round bale which as you can see from the photo to the left, didn't last much more than a week. We don't have a good way to move round bales right now and we figured they'd be hanging out by the shed during the storm so it worked out. Just in case we can't reach them for a half a day they'll have plenty of hay to keep them warm and happy.

I decided that I should probably finish clipping Riley today after chores and our hay run so that I didn't have to start from scratch if I let it go another few weeks. We have him a little ace again and he really well behaved. He still wouldn't let me near his "business" on his belly (I need to get someone to hold a leg up while I finish that bit), but otherwise he was great! Even standing with the halter around his neck letting me clip his face! I have to say (for the millionth time) I love this horse.

LOVE.

Hopefully tomorrow will be nice enough to saddle up and go for a ride. I want to do some trot sets in our big field and I might work him in the pessoa before I hop on. I'd love to make a post with some goals but it's nearly impossible to do so with the unpredictable weather and the wheels coming off my personal life. Hopefully things will level out on all fronts soon and I'll be able to set some real goals for Spring! At least he looks the part and we can actually work now without him sweating to death. The only real downside is that he's super-dooper bundled up now.

Such a cutie.

So sleepy from the ace. Also, he's not cow-hocked, I don't know why he's standing like this!

All bundled up and ready to go back out. There was a face under all the hair!

I got his bridle back from Bartville today, I can't wait to see how it looks on his nice clean-shaven face tomorrow!

Oh yea, in case you forgot how cute he is in the last 5 seconds.

Riley making friends with my friend's little pup!

Day one in the Pessoa (picture heavy)

Being a little bit wild tracking right (his bad side)

Things started off a little rough while I reinstalled lunging basics with Riley. He was very good about his first time wearing the Pessoa. He's only the second horse I fitted one on and based on their very informative video on Youtube, I was prepared for typical reactions to the piece that goes behind their hind and how to set him up for success with the lines. Something tells me that Riley may have been long-lined at some point because he was the least reactive of all three horses we worked with on Saturday (*Henry gave out a series of hilarious bucks showing his disdain for the system). But I instantly got what I wanted on lunge = forward. He was very forward, so without any instruction (and he wasn't being naughty) he immediately picked up a trot once I let him all the way out on the line. I encouraged him to continue to move out and settle in so he could get used to the tension on the lines (they were on the loosest setting).

Warm up trot:)

Warm up canter -- look at that hind leg!

Once he got a feel for lunging again/the Pessoa I set the system on the "long and low setting". Essentially you loosen the side lines and run them through the bit and between the legs. He looked brilliant tracking left and wants to hold himself in a natural self-carriage. He also loves stretching and he was really reaching down and using his back. When I switched him to track right he started off really good but got distracted by a hunter just down the road a in safety orange jacket. he used it as an excuse to test me by stopping and turning in on the line. Grrrr. So we had a bit of a come to Jesus moment. With it being his first day back to work, I didn't want to frazzle his brain, but I also couldn't let him get away with that sort of behavior. Forward is always the answer. So, I stayed calm, made the circle smaller and tried again. He is a stubborn fool sometimes!!! Emily was supervising us and was giving me great advice, but I really couldn't anticipate just when to correct him without getting too aggravated so Emily took over. He got pretty nervous and Emily has to remind him that he could, in fact, walk to the right again (he gets very offended by the whip sometimes).

Emily walking Riley around the ring trying to reset his baby brain.

Emily, reinstalling FORWARD after his meltdown. Zoooooom!

I'm such a visual learner, so it's incredible helpful for me to watch someone work with Riley. I stayed around to watch her work with her two young horses too and her mare reacts very similar to Riley so it was a great lesson! Once he got his brain back, Emily was able to really drive him forward by almost standing near his hind end (as opposed to his shoulder) and she reminded me that sometimes you have to almost "ride" them from the ground when they get stuck. It's like he's behind my leg, but on the ground if that makes sense. In the end, we got some really nice work out of him and Emily handed the line back to me so I  could practice my new skills. I have to say, I'm really impressed with how he's looking. For a horses that's had 3 months off and was barely ridden last year the vacation had treated him well. He still has a top line and looks reasonably fit!

A little resistant, but getting the hang of things -- you can see the gears working:)

Looking fancy.

Not too bad for a horse that's been out of work.

 *I realize now after working him in the new bridle that I need to get Bartville to adjust the cheek pieces slightly. It looks fine from the side, but I think he needs it up a little higher on his nose.

**Also, I don't have a saddle yet, but I may be signing up for a Jimmy Wofford clinic in April! Yay!