Christa

The vet came out Tuesday morning for Lily's first round of vaccines, and as it turns out, she is not 4 years old...she's 5.5 years old! I felt like an idiot-I can tell a horse's age by their teeth but I had never bothered to look because I have Lily's Coggins from last year saying she was a 3 year old at the time. I guess THAT vet (the same one that wrote her up as an Iberian horse...) didn't bother looking in her mouth. I probably could've guessed that, but oh well. Her body continues to change and develop; she's losing that filly look.


We had her Coggins, West Nile and Rabies done today. My vet doesn't use the 4-in-1 vaccines because they are more likely to cause adverse reactions, which I like, but due to the nature of my work, I get the heebie-jeebies about vaccines, too. Since Lily is still young and I'm not familiar with her vaccine history and possible reactions (all we got from the previous owner was her Coggins), I decided to split up her shots. I'll have her Encephalitis and Tetanus done in 2 weeks. She felt fine at end of day and yesterday; I iced the vaccination spot Tuesday evening in case it decided to swell (she jumped when she was poked with the needles, making it more likely she'd bruise) and I couldn't find any swelling last night. I love my vet, but he advised putting front shoes on her. She has been barefoot for 2 months, and is doing great-she has a flare in her right front which I think can be corrected with good trimming-I like my farrier and he does a beautiful job on shod horses, but I wish I could find a really good certified barefoot trimmer in this area...no luck yet.


Tuesday was also the second time ever that Lily has nickered at me in greeting. :) This is pretty exciting-I don't bring treats; she only gets them when being trained for specific things (such as trailer loading) and during her post-workout stretches. If a horse nickers at me, I want it to be because they are truly happy to see me, not because I bring food. This made my day.
I gave Lily the rest of the day off, and rode Christa in the afternoon. Christa is the little paint mare whose mane I trimmed last week. She is owned by Elisabeth, a sweet German lady in her early 60's (she sooo does NOT look her age!) who has owned the mare since she was a 3-year old. Christa is now 9; Elisabeth's daughter, Stacey, a hunter/jumper rider with eventing goals who is going to UF for vet school, helped a lot with her training, and continues to help when she is on vacation from school. Christa used to be a hunter, and was year-end champion at one of the local schooling show circuits with Elisabeth's daughter a year or two ago. Elisabeth mostly rides her on the trails now that Stacy is in school, but just started taking dressage lessons with Judy-she is interested in taking her to a schooling show early next year, and also wants to see Christa continue to develop herself correctly. Elisabeth's previous trainer shunned working with Christa simply because she is a paint and she was thought to be lazy overall. I think this is ridiculous-a horse's breed and/or color does not determine its athletic capacity (see Klein mare), but it is the typical show mindset here in South FL (and in a lot of other places, I know)-if your horse isn't a bay or chestnut TB or Warmblood, it is considered useless in the hunter ring.


Christa's back is sore, and I had been told by Stacy that it has been sore for years. She is usually ridden in Elisabeth's endurance saddle; Stacy used to ride her in a Pessoa. I am not an expert at Western-type saddle fit, so I have not checked the fit of Elisabeth's saddle. But it is concerning that she has had back pain for so long. They do have her adjusted by the chiropractor every 6 months. I already knew this when I started grooming Christa. When I ride a horse for the first time, I like to establish a relationship. I will groom the horse top to bottom-if the horse lets me touch every inch of his/her body and stays still and relaxed in the crossties, you can *usually* count on them being fairly well-mannered in the riding arena. The grooming process is also my way of introducing myself to the horse and saying, "Hi, nice to meet you. I'm here to work with you and help you feel good." There are a lot of things that you can tell just by grooming a horse-conformation flaws that can affect performance (Ex: a horse that toes out in the back usually has weak hind end muscles and his/her stifles may hitch when circling/cantering), uneven wear of feet (this can indicate tightness/scar tissues further up the legs, shoulders, hindquarters or even the back), old scars (Pink, for example, has a knot on one hind fetlock-it is a joint effusion, and it does affect her when picking up her hind legs over jumps if she is not warmed up correctly. She has a hard time snapping up her hind feet, which is why, when she gets jumped (not often), it is only with proper prior conditioning, only over low jumps, and she gets boots or polo wraps on her hind legs in case she grazes the jumps), and you can identify sources of pain or knots in their muscles that may be a cause of misbehavior or lack of performance.


Christa has perfect conformation with great musculature while still looking like the pretty girl she is, but her back continues to be sore. She flinched with the brush over her back, and tossed her head when I placed my saddle on her. I checked, and my dressage saddle fit her like a glove-perfectly. It was originally purchased for my TB cross gelding who had low withers and a rounded body like hers. It sat flat on her back, following her shape like an outline, with no pinching at the shoulders and no bridging under the saddle panels. Christa tossed her head and pinned her ears when I tightened the girth. I knew with her this was no bad habit-this was the truth. I didn't tighten it all the way at once, but took my time going from one side to the other, one hole at the time (my girth has elastic on both ends, so I can make it even), and then put her bridle on. She gave a big yawn for the bit and accepted it in her mouth cheerfully, which made me smile, as it showed her willingness to be ridden despite her back.


I led her outside to the arena, which she wasn't too thrilled about (I had already been told that she's not exactly excited about arena work) and gave a small half buck when I went to swing into the saddle. I could feel her stiffness with the very first stride. Even her neck is stiff-she holds it extended, and you can see the tension in the muscles on each side of her neck. Because of this, we did a very long warm-up-a good 10 minutes of walking, first 5 minutes on a loose rein just going around the arena, then another 5 minutes of more collected walk, adding in large circles. Still very stiff. We worked on trot, and more large circles. Christa's circles looked like eyeballs; it took a lot of leg to keep her tracking around correctly. We did this for another 10 minutes or so, changing directions a lot. We walked again, and Christa stretched her neck down, holding it below her withers. Good sign-she was feeling better and beginning to stretch her back, which proved that my saddle was not hurting her further. We then cantered. She picked up the correct lead without problems and was fine going to the left, but when we changed directions and cantered to the right, she bucked once-more of a kicking out. She broke the canter, we walked, regrouped and I asked her to canter again. In the next attempt, she swapped leads coming around the arena. We tried again. She bucked again, swapped leads again, bucked one more time. I corrected her each time, regrouped, and kept trying to just complete 1 uneventful circle around half of the arena without drama from her. She has a big canter for her small size (about 15.1 hands) and I just rode it in 2-point to stay off her back; she seemed to appreciate it. I wasn't 100% sure if the issues to the right were my fault (touching her accidentally with a spur? I focused really hard on keeping my legs absolutely still), her having issues with maintaining her balance in this direction because of her back, or just her being a brat (each time she broke the canter, either to swap leads or buck, we were riding past the gate). When I got the drama-free circle, we took a walk break. We did a slight shoulder-fore in both directions at the walk. She could do a full shoulder-fore to the right, but not so much to the left. The left side of her neck was very stiff in trying to get a bend, especially at the base of the neck and at the junction between her neck and head. I stopped and stretched her neck from the saddle in both directions-she knew what I was asking; I could tell has done it before. We did more shoulder-fores at both walk and posting trot, also asking for more collection. I have to hold her up for collection because she leans on the forehand so much-not her fault; her back pain is to blame for this, so I did not push her too hard. We trotted large ovals down the quarter lines of the arena in shoulder-fore, in both directions, then moved on to circling. Circles were WAAAAAY better this time; nearly perfect in both directions. Christa did a good job, and I felt her interested the entire time; she did not get bored by what I was asking her to do. We need to work on impulsion more, as she is a little lazy in the arena, but I was very happy with her progress flexibility-wise; big difference at the end, and I think the exercises helped her feel better. After walking out for 10 minutes, I got off and stretched her neck and all 4 legs. She was familiar with front leg stretches but not so much with back leg stretches, so I did not ask her for much. Her right hind is especially tight at the hip, which reflects on the issues of her left front/neck area. This could also explain her kicking out on the right lead at the canter. Horses are complicated.  Of all animals, I think it would be the most to our advantage, as humans, if horses in particular could speak. I'm sure we'd get cussed out a lot, but I think it would revolutionize the way horses are trained and ridden even more. They do talk, but not everyone listens or understands. I have met "bad" horses, really "BAD" horses, but these horses were "bad" as a result of years and years of people riding them incorrectly and letting them get away with murder. Horses do get overfaced and will let you know when they are scared, and they will tell you when a bit, a saddle or the way you are riding hurts. But you can't just give up and put them away, to keep making the same mistake over and over. You have to work with them-change the way you ride, change your tack, your bit, don't let the horse spook and then proceed to get off and put them away-you will create a monster. By the time I came along and tried to correct these guys, these horses were already well aware of how big and strong they were, and would do anything to get me off once they realized I wasn't going to just dismount and put them back in their stall at the first hint of naughtiness. I got lessons in bronc riding from one of these guys, and then there was another individual in particular that reared 3 times on me, and when he realized that that wasn't going to get me off, he simply flipped over backwards on top of me. That did get me off. He was fine. I was out of commission for 3 months. Oh, did I mention that this was a horse rental barn? Yeah, these horses were rented out to random people of unknown riding background and allowed loose on the trails with no guide. One time they rented out 2 of the naughtier guys to a couple. The lady was riding double with her small child in front of her in a Western saddle. Can anyone else think of everything that can go wrong in that kind of scenario? I remember watching them go with my heart in my throat. I feared for the life of that little kid and her mom about as much as if I'd seen them ride away on the back of a grizzly bear. And the individual that flipped over on me? No one at the barn would touch him with a 10-foot pole-he was that bad. He was used for pony rides. Yeah, I know. Still, I would've liked to have heard his story if he could have talked; I'm sure it would've been something fit for the movies. A horse isn't born that way; it is made.


Back to Christa.
Elisabeth arrived when I had just finished untacking Christa. She was very excited to see I had ridden her. I told her everything I had discovered about the little girl, starting with her back soreness, and demonstrated difference between soreness in saddle area (running a fingernail lightly down her back between withers & loins elicited a big flinch) and muscle soreness (pressing on her lumbar back or sacrum would cause her to drop her hips if she were sore. She was not). Christa was notorious for not engaging her hind end. I told Elisabeth I would check her saddle's fit, and recommended a good saddle fitter that I know in our area. If the saddle is making her this sore, she won't be able to engage her hind end-she needs to be able to lift her back to do this; this is why she is having problems. I showed her how this happens-her abs tighten so her hind legs can come up underneath her, allowing the back to round. I pressed upward on Christa's sternum, which normally causes horses to lift & stretch their back. Christa pinned her ears and tossed her head. "See? Her back hurts, so she can't lift it when she engages her abs and hindquarters." Elisabeth was surprised when she saw this, but thrilled by the amount of information I was able to give her from just one ride. I showed her where Christa's neck was tight, and demonstrated stretching exercises to do with her every day, to improve her flexibility, especially after riding when the muscles have been warmed up. One of my favorite stretches is called the carrot stretch, where you take a carrot (its length is ideal for protecting your fingers while encouraging the horse to reach for it!) and hold it even with the horse's flank. The horse must reach around for it while holding their body still. Ideally, they should be able to reach their hip bone with their lips, effortlessly. A lot of horses can't. I demonstrated it with Christa; she could reach the far end of her flank but not her hip. The good thing about this stretch is that the horse will only reach as far as he/she can; you aren't physically pushing them farther than their muscles can take. I also told her everything we had done during today's session and the reasons for it. Elisabeth is a great horse owner, and just wants to do what will be best for Christa. She mentioned having me ride her more often and paying me to do it, but I told her we can try just once a week for now and play it by ear-she has been taking dressage lessons with Judy on Christa, and I think these are just as important for both Elisabeth and Christa's development together. I know she can't afford both the lessons and multiple training rides.


It was a cool day overall. I like helping out horses and their owners.