Charles came with me to the doc's. It's a large walk-in clinic about 15 minutes from our house, the only place in our area that is open late and on weekends and holidays. They saw me back on the 4th of July when I broke my toe. A big plus about this place is that it is owned by a human criticalist who actually sees patients himself, and they have an on-site lab, radiology room, and pharmacy. Luckily, there was only 1 person in front of us and the wait was not long. The strep throat was confirmed; I was talking in a whisper at that point. They gave me the antibiotics right there, I took a whopping dose of ibuprofen, and then we went to the barn. Charles picked Lily's stall while I slowly set up her feed, walking like an old lady, then showed him with hand gestures how it is done so he could do it for me tomorrow (today). Setting up her feed is kind of like a small science project with her supplements. (I ended up sending him to the barn today with all the instructions written down and a diagram.*lol*) After that we stopped at Pollo Tropical to pick up some of their Caribbean Chicken Soup. If you have a Pollo Tropical close to you, you need to try this soup. It's like your hispanic grandmother's homemade chicken soup, with plantains, corn, yuca, pumpkin and chicken so tender it falls apart when you stir the soup with a spoon. This soup always makes me feel better when I'm sick.
Today the throat is better but I'm still febrile. I texted the barn manager last night to let her know my current state of health, and word got around the barn quickly. Dianne was nice enough to do Lily's stall for me this morning. She even sent me a picture of her so I could see her today:
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| My little babyface :) Isn't she adorable? Thank you Dianne! This made my day. |
And here is the video that I was talking about in this post a couple of weeks ago, that Charles took for me. Yes, we still have A LOT of work ahead of us, but one of the main reasons for the existence of this blog is to record Lily's progress. Sure, I could put draw reins or a chambon on her (a trainer in this area has all of her students using chambons for riding. *cringe*) and get her head down 100% of the time, but this will create problems in her back and neck, and cause her to develop her muscles incorrectly from forcing her body into a position it is not ready for. I'm in no hurry; I'm just looking forward to see her develop properly through correct and timely training. And no, I'm not completely dissing the use of artificial aids in the training and development of a horse, as there are people out there that have great success with them (and I've used them myself in the past but couldn't see how this would benefit the horse in the long run-I wouldn't want my head forced down for an entire workout session), but I've seen way too many horses ruined by their incorrect use, or sometimes simply overuse.
Direct link to the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2daVw62PVE
You can see the moments where she drops her head and reaches for the bit, and also how her head swings from side to side when she's happy (but not on the bit). I still have a bad habit of riding with very little contact after so many years of riding hot TBs off the track. We're working on that too.
So that is the end of today's report. I'm going back to bed.
Just found you - beautiful mare! I agree with you on the use of "gadgets" - they're a short-cut that forces the horse into a frame rather than developing softness and correct use of the horse's body - where the horse learns to carry itself correctly and to choose to do so - you're on the right track, I think. Yes it takes more time, but that's as it should be.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kate! I've just seen so much overuse, misuse and abuse of "gadgets"...I used to live in Puerto Rico, where the Paso Fino is the national horse. This was my first exposure to "gadgets"-like all gaited horses, Pasos are subject to all kinds of questionable"training", including tying them up to a post or in their stalls with a surcingle, bridle and side reins so short that their chins are touching their chests, sometimes for an entire day at a time. This is how they create the Paso headset, and a lot of neck and back problems along with it. I raised and trained my first horse, a Paso, from a weanling. He has a correct & natural head carriage and a beautiful gait that were all achieved by developing him carefully and patiently without artificial aids or harsh bits/training methods. This is where my aversion to "gadgets" stems from, I think with good reason. Lily is the first horse I own that I've tried to develop correctly with a good dressage base, because it is the first time I have full access to a good dressage trainer with a natural horsemanship background. So far so good! :) Thanks for reading!!
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