The long and the short of it

Riley has managed to pull three shoes off (LF, RF, RF respectively) within 5 days of each other over the last 2 weeks. To say that my farrier and I are frustrated would be a massive understatement.

Troublemakers.

Saturday, we planned to trailer Riley along with Prima (she was competing at Fairhill), but the morning started with a weird vibe. When I got the barn, E had Prima bathed but she had a quizzical look on her face. Something wasn't quite right. Prima was a bit footsore so we bagged the idea of going to Fairhill. No need to make that any worse. With the truck and trailer hooked up and a beautiful day we decided we could take advantage of the circumstances and put the boys on the trailer and go for a nice hack at The Laurels. Henry decided he's never been in a trailer before and made me chase him on with a pitchfork and Riley smashed me in the top of my head as I was fixing the front bar in the trailer (totally an accident) -- like I said, the day had a weird vibe. With Henry working himself up we decided to trailer over to a local tavern, get some lunch and some beers and see how they were doing after a little time to settle. Wouldn't you know they were as quiet as could be when we returned. Off we went for our hack. Except that Riley refused to stand next to the trailer for me to get on. Grrrr. We had a few discussions about this until I led him down the road to a little bank near the entrance to the park. He pulled the same shit again and I made him walk up and down the back until he was will to stand still next to it. Don't misunderstand me here, I realize it's a new, exciting environment and he might not be an angel for mounting, but when I stick my foot in the stirrup and he flies backwards... that is not cool. Finally he realized that I was going to make him work really hard if he wasn't going to stand still, and he finally stood patiently while I got on! So dramatic.

Cutest pony after his hack!

Our ride was really nice. Both horses seemed very happy to be out and about. We crossed a few streams, got in some trot sets, a little cantering and as we headed back toward the trailer we did a quick shoe-check. Guess who pulled his RF? Seriously.

He was understandably really sore on the blue stone and sound on grass. Sigh. Time to reevaluate his situation again. My gut tells me that we should pull him shoes now before the ground get hard (since he is sound enough on grass) and ride him in boots. I've done lots of research on boots and found some that I think will work for him (the farrier will make sure they fit today). This will give him a little bit of time to get over the transition (roughly 2-3 months until the ground gets super hard) and he'll still be able to get in some work. We'll keep the sessions short while his boots break in (and to help prevent him from getting too sore). We will keep him barefoot from now until next spring, in the meantime P will try to trim his foot back to a functional starting point in small measures.

When I called P today, he laughed when he answered the phone and said that he's never had a client like Riley! It was his suggestion that we pull the shoes and he liked the idea of using boots to keep him in light work. He said it's his inclination to pull shoes on horses like Riley, but not a lot of owners can watch their horses throughout the transition (admittedly, it was hard in July, but that was only for a month). I told him that we've taken all goals off the table and that I just want to get him healthy.

These are the boots we tried Sunday -- they are too big, and I exchanged them for a smaller size in the "sport" version

Test run in the arena -- he was sound despite the fit!

I'm going to get some good photos today to show our starting point. It will be interesting to see the differences over the next 6 months. At least he's a good sport about getting the boots on! I'm going to order the pastern wraps today to make sure he doesn't get rubs.

So that's all for now... I'll keep you guys posted on how things go later today. For now, just some cute photos of Riley, since I'm too frustrated to even think straight.

Riley making friends with Zee .

At least he's an easy keeper.

Best buds for life/ Henry makes Riley look like a pony.

ps. Don't forget to enter my contest!!!!!!!

200th Post! It's giveaway time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can hardly believe that I have written 200 posts! Let's take a little look back since I started this blog wayyy, wayyy back in May 2007 (really????)
While I haven't always been consistent with my posting (I mean, I didn't even own a horse until 4 months ago) it seems as though I've always had plenty to say. I've had almost 25,000 page views to date (though is suspect many of those are from me), averaging about 1200 a month. With a whopping 74 followers, I'd say that's pretty good. I know in the beginning, I was writing for myself as a way to journal my experiences with Kiki. I never imagined owning my own horse, or making such fantastic connections along the way. It seems silly, but blogging reminds me of my youthful pen-paling experiences and the idea of having friends miles and miles away that I communicate with through correspondence is still something I love. Throughout all the ups and downs I've felt supported by all of you and I am so grateful for all of your feedback and help over the years. I can't wait to see what the next 100 posts bring for me and Riley, most of all I just want us to be happy and healthy!

As a way to thank all of you, I've come up with a fun giveaway. It will take a little bit of work on your part, but I think the prizes are worth it!  Best of all? There will be two winners and 5 runner up prizes!

Rules:

*Send me a photo summing up why you love your OTTB
*If you do not own an OTTB, please send me a photo of why your horse is awesome
*These can be as simple or as creative as you want. You can add text, effects, etc.
*One photo entry PER horse -- that means you lucky individuals with more than one pony get multiple chances to win (limit: 2 entries)!
*You do not have to take the photo yourself, you may be in the picture too!
*I hate making rules.

Terms:

*Please send your entries to: xniamhx@gmail.com (put OTTB or non-OTTB in the subject line)
*Leave me a comment on this entry so I know you've entered (sometimes things end up in junk mail)
*Please include a small bio about your horse
*Re-post on your blog for more chances to win
*Winners will be chosen by a small panel of horsey and non-horsey people
*Contest ends 2 weeks from today on September 26th @ midnight! Winners will be chosen Friday, September 27th (that gives you two weekends to get your stuff together!)

The prizes:

1st prize in the OTTB group:

Woot!

1st prize in the non-OTTB group:

Picture your pony here!

5 runner up prizes:

Perfect to stick in your grooming box for shows!

Have fun and best of luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Progress?

progress

n [ˈprəʊgrɛs]

1. movement forwards, esp towards a place or objective

2. satisfactory development, growth, or advance she is making progress in maths

3. advance towards completion, maturity, or perfection the steady onward march of progress

4. (modifier) of or relating to progress a progress report

5. (Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Biology) Biology increasing complexity, adaptation, etc., during the development of an individual or evolution of a group

6. (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) Brit a stately royal journey

in progress taking place; under way

vb [prəˈgrɛs]

1. (intr) to move forwards or onwards, as towards a place or objective

2. to move towards or bring nearer to completion, maturity, or perfection

[from Latin prōgressus a going forwards, from prōgredī to advance, from pro-¹ + gradī to step]

While I don't feel like we've made much progress in terms of fitness or training, Riley and I have progressed by definition. This photo doesn't give much of an idea of that, but even with all of the setbacks we've had since I first purchased him, I feel like we have moved forward. He looks better (he's gaining some muscle, a tiny semblance of a topline, and he's carrying himself properly instead of a bit inverted) I look better (chair seat is gone, my shoulders are going back to where they should be and I'm not riding defensively all the time) -- I have hope that we will continue to move forward and progress and that we will paint a very nice picture one day together.

The nice thing about documenting every little thing is that you can really start to see the incremental change. Not everyone enjoys that, but I love seeing how he and I become more of a team every time we see each other.

Brrrrr, it's cold in here -- I need your help!

Okay, so it's actually going to be 92 degrees tomorrow with 1 million percent humidity, but Saturday is bringing a low of 44 and the forecast for next week promises true fall weather! With that in mind, I need some help from you guys. Riley is now living outside 24/7 with a nice big shed. The plan is to continue that throughout the winter. I've been lucky enough until now to borrow things as I've needed them, but with my enabler friend owning three horses now, I need to outfit Riley with a fall/winter wardrobe.

What we need:
*A lightweight waterproof turnout
*A medium weight, high denier (also waterproof) turnout
*A heavy weight, high denier (waterproof) turnout
**Possibly a spare medium weight (our barn likes you to have at least one spare available)

What I need from you guys are some recommendations. I'll admit, I am a little overwhelmed at the options! Some people swear by Weathebeeta, some people say Rambo is worth all the money (and hype) and there are tons in between. I do really like Schneider's products (Riley's flysheet is from there and it's terrific quality and held up well to the rigors of 24/7 turnout). Do you guys prefer to layer? Have one really heavy blanket? Do you like neck attachments? Any preferences on belly bands vs. surcingles? I am probably not going to fully clip Riley, but he will most likely get a trace clip once he gets woolly (and oh does he!).

I'm asking for your feedback!

ps. Riley wears a 78" in case any of you have spares lying around that you would like to sell us!

Help.

pps. I'm trying to flesh out a few more posts before my giveaway! I thought I was nearing 200, but I had 3 blog drafts that were being including in the count. I believe this is post 198 (for real, this time).

Not Riley, yet.

Whole30 wrap up and I meet a blog friend IRL!

As you may remember, I started the Whole30 challenge a month ago. The last four weeks have been filled with plenty of ups and downs and without going through the whole month day by day I'll give you some highlights and lowlights.

Pros:
*My near chronic shoulder pain is completely gone. I'm astonished.
*My insomnia was not an issue. I slept remarkably well and felt more rested in the mornings and more energetic during the day.
*I made lots of awesome recipes that I'm keeping in regular rotation.
*I lost 11lbs. Seriously, this is insane.
*I generally felt much better overall.

Cons:
*I don't care what they say, doing this was actually quite hard... not constantly, but when it got hard I really had to fight not just throwing in the towel. I had at least 4-5 days over the 30 that I came close to quitting due to external stress.
*Due to being busy, I got a little lazy about planning which made some meals a little boring and predictable at times. It was definitely easier to follow this plan if you tried new recipes often.
*The first week is pretty brutal... but that only highlights just how unhealthy your lifestyle was before.
*I got really sick of eggs.
*There were a few days where following the plan meant skipping a meal (which is not encouraged obviously) but I didn't really have a choice. Those were very tough days! For example: when we moved the horses to the new barn (being out in the middle of nowhere without a decent place to get food and poor planning on my part left me very weak and light-headed).

All in all, I feel much healthier because of Whole30. It really helped me understand just how awful processed food is and further more, that sugar is in EVERYTHING. Holy crap. I'm really happy with the results and it's inspiring to think that simply eating clean can have such a holistic effect on your well-being. Going forward, I'm going to implement many of the things I learned throughout Whole30. Specifically, the cooking oils I used. I am completely a ghee convert! Overall, I feel really good about completing this challenge... emotionally, spiritually and physically I feel amazing.

Riley actually moving straight! Love him.

On Saturday, I headed out to the barn to ride and hopefully meet up with Miss Carly of Poor Woman Showing! We exchanged texts throughout the day to coordinate and I crossed my fingers that we'd get a chance to actually meet! The funny thing about having a blog and blog friends, is that when you talk about these people in every day life it sorta makes you sound like you have a bunch of imaginary friends. I has been riding for about 20 minutes when Carly and her hubby and pups arrived. Riley and I had a bit of a discussion about stopping/bulging/cropping at the gate (oh, all while being herded by an unruly border collie -- seriously, my horse is going to be sooo desensitized after this place) so I schooled the hell out of him on a 20meter circle until he finally understood that I meant business. He felt really sound with only a tiny bit of unevenness tracking right and he was delightful in the contact (he loves the happy mouth). I wanted to see my friend school is canter being that she hasn't ridden him since he got the pads/shoes on I thought she would like to feel the difference (plus, any chance to have an advanced event rider school my horse = yes, please). She had him looking wicked fancy within a few minutes, She couldn't believe how much different he felt in the contact and how much freer and more forward his movement was! She picked up both leads with no problem and his right canter departure was probably the best it's ever been! Carly arrived and we chatted for a minute before I got back on to test out his new found happiness in the canter.

Riley is growing into a lovely little sport horse. I can't wait to see what he's going to look like in full work! Also, is it just me, or does he make me look small?

We got one full circle in (as seen above photographed by Carly herself) and suddenly my horse was on 3-legs. Um, what? I hopped off immediately to find that he had sprung his RF shoe and bent one of the clips just enough that it was sticking into his sole. Perfect. He's only 2 weeks into his trimming cycle, so while the shoe was half off it was also solidly half on. We tried to pry the clip back enough so he could put his foot down and then we brainstormed on what to do. I honestly could do nothing but laugh at the situation! Between all the ups and downs I've had with him over the last four months and Carly being there to witness the shenanigans it was pretty hilarious. Because we're still in post-moving craziness, we couldn't locate any proper farrier tools so I tracked down a maintenance person and begged him to find a hammer or something for us! He came to our rescue with a weirdly shaped tack hammer and a pair of pliers. We made it work while Riley made a liar of me and stood like a perfect gentleman as we tapped, pulled and pried that sucker off. He lost a bit of his hoof around the clip (so now he has matching holes) and I covered it with a diaper and some duct tape to help protect it in the meantime. Sigh. I was able to give Carly a full tour of the place and I'm sure it was fun for  her to meet some of the horses I talk about all the time! She stuck around long enough to watch E get on her 4 year old for the first time post-track. Kiwi acted like she's been doing this her whole life and walked and trotted around the ring on a loose rein. She's going to be such a fancy horse!

Next time, Carly is either bringing Bobby, or she's bringing her helmet and breeches and we're going for adventures together! My horse is going to have to get it together. In the meantime, I spoke to the farrier who had to laugh when I called him over the weekend. He's going to tack the shoe back on, but if Riley can't keep the leather pads/shoes on for more than a week, we're going to possibly switch him to plastic pads and a tighter fit on the shoes. I'm also looking around for a pair of used Cavallos boots so that the next time this happens I can at least keep him comfortable. We may wind up switching to boots while his hoof grows out. He had such a beautiful hoof wall and now with two sprung shoes, he's got giant holes:( He'll get the shoe put back on tomorrow and I'm going to run out afterward to take him for a spin. Now that he's getting in semi-regular work, his greenness is really starting to show and he's starting to test me more and more. I'd really like to stay somewhat consistent with his training, so I don't lose my upper hand!

Oh yea, super awesome bonus: I stopped at Bartville Harness to pick up some first aid stuff and I found a pair of wide, triple stitched Nunn Finer leathers for $30, a neck strap, and a fleece girth (used) for $10! Score!

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!

Best laid plans...

What do they say?

Whatever the saying, don't make any plans, ever, with horses. That's my takeaway.

I took the day off of the farm yesterday to spend some time with the pups. I took them on a really nice morning hike to a local state park that I haven't had the chance to explore yet. It was delightful and they had a super fun time.

Happy Pups.

Monday's forecast was looking pretty grim with thunderstorms due all morning and throughout the early afternoon but I was determined to get out to the barn to take Riley on a maiden voyage around the barn.

Riley had other ideas and when I grabbed him from his shed I realized he had ripped his brand new shoe off. Grrrrr. I haven't even had a chance to ride him since he got the leather pads and shoes! AGH! Oh, and it was on his LF, you know, the problem hoof. Sigh. It took some convincing to get him to walk past the scary brush and cat house again on the way to the barn, but he actually settled really quickly. I wrapped his hoof with some vet wrap, put some ointment on the gash he sustained in turnout (looks like it happened on a tree) and fly sprayed the crap out of him. (The BO found us and mentioned that if I leave my fly spray hanging up, they'll spray him every morning for me!) I decided despite the gimpy leg, we'd go exploring. There's so much cool stuff to look at around the farm and he's going to have to address it at some point! So off we went, through the grass jump field, and around a part of the xc course around the perimeter of the property, down to the arena (which they were abut to drag) and back past all the farm animals (swans, pigs, goats, et al). He was quite good abut everything! While in the arena, I thought I'd jog him to see if he was super lame (he wasn't), but he was lazy and a bit uneven):

Why am I doing all the work? Lazy bones. In other news, Whole30 must be working, I'm looking svelte!

I was pretty grumpy by the time we left. I was admittedly really excited to get back on, especially considering how sound he's been looking! A call has been made to the farrier and hopefully he'll be out tomorrow to put a new shoe on him. Sadly, I took a spin around the field to look for the shoe to no avail. Just flushing money down the drain!

 At least he's looking shiny and happy (oh and completely awkward during his growth spurt):

The Odd Couple. Also, his fly mask's ear is hanging on by a thread!

Hopefully the shoe goes back on successfully, he managed to rip a big chunk out of his toe (where the clip was) and we'll get some evening rides in this week!

Ps. I'm nearing 200 posts and I'm thinking of organizing a fun post with prizes!

Moved!!! In which I write about something the same day it happens!

This will be a picture heavy post... one because I am wiped out and too tired to write a full report, but also because I took a million photos!

The day started early, with everyone meeting at the old barn to make a plan for the day. We still had a little clean up to do at the old place and we had 7 horses to move to two different properties.

heading out

We started off by moving the boys to the new farm, they were expecting us between 9-9:30 so we aimed to load up around 8:30. As usual, loading the guys up was completely uneventful (have I mentioned how grateful I am for the zero-drama horse hauling) -- they seemed to know something was up because they were both moving around a lot and were quite sweaty by the time we arrived at the new barn. It was only about a 15 minute ride, but they seemed to get themselves a more worked up than usual. When we arrived to the new barn (keep in mind I hadn't seen the place at this point) the atmosphere was bustling. Like I mentioned before, this farm is home to an animal rescue so I knew there would be more activity on the weekend than during the week, and I had mentally prepared myself for volunteers, kids, and lots of foot traffic (of the 4-legged kind and otherwise). It was a bit of a zoo (literally) when we pulled in and we were directed to the back of the property by the grass jump field...

what a dumb week

**EDIT: more barn drama following this, stay tuned for part III**

This week has been filled with some serious ups and downs. Sometimes I really think that life likes to kick you when you are down. Don't worry, we're okay, Riley is okay (actually, better than okay), it's just been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week.

Looking very cheeky this morning

I'll keep the recap strictly to horse stuff so as not to get too off track. First of all, the farm owner from the place we were moving to backed out two days ago (VIA TEXT). Seriously? This is not online dating, it's real estate you jackass. We also found out that he gave the current tenant one week to move out on a whim. So sounds like we dodged a bullet on that one. But that leaves us homeless/barnless... Luckily the girls found ANOTHER barn that will work just fine. It's actually even closer to us 40-45 mins vs. 1 hour and it's right down the road from the place I looked at on my own... which means... ALL THE HACKING. There's also apparently a gallop track there and it's across the street from a really nice facility so we're going to see if we can use their ring from time to time. The barn doesn't sound as nice as the other one, but the owners are doing a lot to get in good shape for us (including power-washing the whole thing). Hopefully, the details will be smoothed out and the horses can moved over this weekend (they can live outside for a few days -- there are two huge pastures with sheds) and we can get settled in. The long weekend should certainly help give us a chance to unpack, get organized and let the horses get used to their new surroundings. Ugh, I hate not knowing what's going on!

In other news, slightly more uplifting, after a week without a shoe and a soak, wrap, soak, wrap routine for most of it, Riley never popped an abscess. Awesome farrier P came yesterday and he put the hoof testers back on Riley (to which he reacted violently to a week ago) and got nary a reaction, save for the inside heel (but nothing too dramatic). He opted to put leather pads and shoes on him with magic cushion underneath. He was jogged on concrete and said to look really good and only slightly off, then E put him on the lunge and trotted him in both directions and she said that although he started off tentatively (he's been protecting that hoof for months now, can you blame him) he did a beautiful extended trot both ways! Hooray. So $100 later, he's (that thing that rhymes with round) again. I went out this morning to feed and pack up m tack etc and put him in the arena to do another soundness check (*though, based on the galloping he did to come in for breakfast, I needn't have worried).

He's looking very good and feeling very good too! His trot looks even and cadenced, thank the Lord! Also, we was being a bit lazy as you can see in the video, but I don't really believe in chasing him with the lunge whip. I can't wait to get all moved in and start hacking all over the place. Time for him to lose that belly. Also, I switched his supplements up slightly, he's still getting Farrier's Formula (double strength) but I swapped his Platinum Performance Skin and Allergy for Smartpak's Horse Shine Ultra (very similar ingredients and more flax), I'll let you know how it goes.

ps. I'm on day 22 of Whole30, and I'm hanging in there. It's actually been much easier than I thought and I haven't cheated at all (okay, I did buy organic bacon from Trader Joes that has turbinado sugar in it). I've been sleeping way better, and even though this week has been enormously stressful, I've been able to channel that energy elsewhere (for now). My gut feels healthier, my clothes fit wayyy better, and overall I feel renewed.

Oh yea, I think he might be going through a bit of a growth spurt. It doesn't help that he's totally standing here all derpy.

Holy butt high allofasudden.

chh-chh-chh-changes...

The exciting news I referred to in my last post is about my boarding situation. The property where my barn is located has been leased by a BNR from Indonesia  (who's coming over to train with Phillip), even though there are two barns on the property, she'll be needing all of the space so that left us looking for a new place to live!  There are plenty of good things about this barn (ample turnout with sheds), stalls in a nice barn, a tack room, a well cared for ring, someone living on the property, close proximity to lots of good hacking, vet, tack shops etc. But the bad started outweighing the good (so we were sort of ready to move anyway), we had almost outgrown the property, it's land-locked and not close enough to any decent hacking that you don't have to trailer to, no bathroom, it's VERY windy and cold there when it's not summer, not hot water in our barn (and no wash stall) and it's an hour away from my house. We are located out in Chester County, PA... it's a VERY horse centric area, with a long standing hunt community, loads of big name riders, and horse properties everywhere... but finding a place has not been that easy and we needed to be out by Sept 1st! You'd think in our area it would be easier to find a place but we've hit a lot of dead ends, the girls have looked at some unsavory places and then the ones that were super nice were just out of our reach financially. Argh! So as a precaution, I chatted with them and offered to look around on my own as a regular boarder just in case they couldn't find something suitable for all of us. It's tricky because we needed to find a place that is self-care, not traditional boarding (I work out my boarding agreement with them), they are running a business and even though there are probably suitable boarding facilities nearby, that would make their overhead ridiculous!

Eating Clean

I've been feeling rundown lately. I think this summer I really put my body through some serious stress -- not enough sleep and certainly not enough exercise. My body was starting to shut down. Sluggishness, insomnia (but not like what I'm used to -- I've suffered with this since I was a teenager), general feeling of malaise, and I was starting to feel the pangs of depression rearing their ugly head. I knew it was time to hit reset. While I consider myself a relatively healthy individual, I knew that overhauling my diet was needed. Too many carbs, too much alcohol, and definitely too much sugar. I have been having digestive issues for a few months and since I was a chronic food allergy sufferer as a child, I thought the best place to start was with what I was putting in my body. I started doing some research and I came across the Whole30 plan. Now before you go getting all excited and frantic, I'm no stranger to "cleanses" and "detox diets"... but I was not interested in some sort of radical detoxification that would force my body to purge itself and then leave it hanging once it was over. I wanted real change. The plan is simple... for 30 days:

And NO CHEATING. Not even a bite or a lick or a sip. If you're interested in the complexities of this plan, follow the link for more thorough information, but the idea is to eat clean to help reset your gut. With that in place all other aspects of your like (sleep, skin, mental health) will improve dramatically. You sort of re-teach your body how to eat, what good food tastes like, and how it should feel when you're treating it with some respect. The "diet" (I hate calling it that because it's not a diet at all) further pushes you to seek out the best possible sources of food you can, avoiding all processed and unnaturally sourced food types (meat, veggies, nuts etc). It takes planning, and a bit of dedication to cooking (which I love) and will power (I did not empty our pantry of bad foods like they suggest). Finally, committing to eating three great meals a day (with limited snacking... this plan is the anti-grazing diet).  I'm nine days in and I can tell you that I am feeling the reward already. I am sleeping WAY better (both falling asleep and staying asleep), getting up easier, feeling more energetic, feeling more focused and clear headed, and better, I feel great about the food I'm eating. I have never, ever been the type of person who can stomach breakfast, and as I've been reading the book that goes along with this plan (It Starts With Food), I am discovering that my hormones are out of whack, telling me not to eat first thing. How crazy is that? On day 7 I woke up hungry for breakfast, and that in itself made me excited. I seriously underestimated how important breakfast was, and no... not the kind where you eat a ton of grains in milk!

I thought it would be an neat thing to post here, since I know a few of you are quite health conscious. What's very interesting about this program is how people react when you tell them you are doing something like this. Some say "oh my God it's the Atkins diet" -- it's not, and couldn't be further from, remember Atkins is nearly carb free (28mg a day), some say "I couldn't go without ______ for 30 days -- Yes, yes you could... most people can without a lot of things for 30 days, some think that I am criticizing their habits by even mentioning this program... look, different strokes for different folks. But if you are unhappy with the way your body looks and the way you feel everyday, then stop whinging about it and do SOMETHING. I am doing something.

I've been keeping a diary of my food (so much good stuff), my activity, and my feelings for each day. I think it will be a neat thing to look back on and reflect how I felt throughout. And to be clear, there's a small part of me that is doing this to prove something to myself, I want to know that I can push through and DO this. This is certainly more mentally challenging than physically for sure. I can't say that it has been easy so far, but it is getting easier each day. Apparently days 8-16 you're supposed to start feeling amazing, and I already do!  So wish me luck as I power though the next 21 days!

In Riley news, he's been introduced to side reins and he's not a huge fan (they mean REAL work, you know!) but he's been pretty good about showing up for work. He's had three sessions in them now and I think his balance and straightness are improving already -- he even offered his right lead canter for the first try on the lunge (he couldn't keep it for a whole circle, but at least he tried). He seems to be working out his own relationship with the contact and we're keeping sessions at around 20 minutes with lots of breaks, changes in direction and transitions (only a tiny bot of cantering on the lunge) and only about 5 minutes each way in side reins. One thing I noticed yesterday was that he started off fine tracking left, but uneven tracking right. I worked him through it and by the time I was putting on the side reins it was hardly noticeable. I think that because he's had issues with the LF for so long, he has gotten used to protecting it which shows up as him seeming lame-ish (thoughts?). I'm hoping that he keeps improving! Sunset ride tonight!

I've got some potentially exciting news to report next week, but you'll have to come back later to find out! For now:

What a dreamboat in the morning sunlight:)

Sounder and sounder

Feeling quite sorry for himself

Something got into Mr. Riley last week. He just wasn't himself. I was terrified of even saying the word 'colic' out loud, but he was just off. Nipping at his chest and sides (he can sometimes be a little girthy), he was strange when I bridled him and worse by the time I got him to the ring. He REFUSED to stand at the mounting block. This is very odd for Riley. He's the kind of horse that I can park at the mounting block after having a month off and get on while he stands stock still. He was not having any part of it, and we had a bit of a come to Jesus moment when he tried to scoot away with my foot in the stirrup. I broke it back down to basics and I was able to get on without much fuss. Sigh. But all was not well once I was on. I know it probably sounds a lot like I'm babying him, but spending so much time with him while he was recovering from soundness issues had given me a really good idea of what his baseline personality is about. He wasn't been cheeky or hot, he was just not himself. When I got off (after only a few minutes of work) I took the photo to the left. Poor dude.

Special.

When I returned from my trip, Riley seemed sounder than he has been in quite some time. He's still a bit off or uneven, but I'm trying to work through it as I think it's a strength issue more than anything. His feet look GOOD. His soles have stopped feverishly exfoliating and they seem to be toughening up a bit. I think just getting them off the ground is helping. He was back to his old self, which was encouraging to see, the picture left says it all. He's a bit of a cartoon character most of the time, so it's quite noticeable when he's not feeling 100%. We've starting getting back to down to business, slowly adding time and real work into our rides. He's doing okay, but his stiffness tracking right is starting to be a real problem. He's just not strong enough to work correctly going right so we're going to take things back to basics to help him build up some muscles. He's so out of whack going right that when we're trotting, if I start to ask for some contact or bend (or heaven for bid, both) he break into the left lead canter for a step. I push through asking for trot, but he'll do it any time the work gets "hard".

It seems quite obvious that we need to work on strengthening up his back and teaching him some real bend. So Sunday I broke out the surcingle and side reins. I've been using a neck stretcher, but he's already really good at relaxing his neck and stretching on the lunge. I want him to learn so balance with a little bit of contact, and I think the side reins are just the trick. I warmed him up in both directions (though, getting him to move out is ridiculous... lazy bones) -- snapped on the side reins super loose, but enough to catch him if he got strung out, and sent him tracking left. Once he got a feel for them I asked for some trot and I have to say that he moves a hell of a lot better when he's actually using his back! Much more forward and balanced. About 5 minutes of varying speeds, with lots of transitions and we switched to his hard side. He was pretty good tracking right too, though less excited about not being able to pop his shoulder and throw his body around. I think I might look into getting one of the Faux-ssoa systems, since he throws his hind end around to compensate for his lack of balance. It would be helpful to have control of his whole body from the ground!

I think the lunging is going to be very helpful for him. It's a massive struggle to get him to canter on the right lead under saddle. As in, I tried unsuccessfully for 15 minutes while he got increasingly flustered. I think for ow, our workouts are going to either be lunging for 20-30 minutes with and without side reins or rides that include long warm ups with w-t-c and some connected work at the trot. I'm going to leave the canter off the table for now and see how well he does once he's got more tools in his toolbox. He's feeling much better under saddle as far as soundness goes and he can walk on all types of terrain without mincing along! Watching him walk confidently on blue stone downhill to the barn just about had me in tears on Sunday! Let's hope that things can keep moving forward so we can get him to some fun little shows in the fall. He's too handsome to keep at the barn! In other news, I'm sort of eager to move to a new barn because I am always riding alone and it is boring. The end.