Good days

This past Wednesday at work was a good day. We had 2 Great Dane patients, both post-op GDV surgeries, one an example of everything that can go wrong, and the other an example of everything that can go right. GDV stands for "gastric dilatation and volvulus". Also known simply as "bloat". It is a common problem in large-breed and deep-chested dogs, where their stomach dilates and flips over on itself, cutting off circulation to the intestines and the stomach itself. It is a MEDICAL EMERGENCY!! The only way to fix it is surgery. Expensive surgery at that-the bill for the Great Dane with complications was at $12,000. Yes, 3 0's. The one for the surgery without complications was at $5,000. And note: we are not an expensive hospital, but we do provide the ideal in terms of care; there is no cutting corners when the pet's life is on the line. If the client can't afford bloat surgery, the dog must be put down. It is a slow, excruciatingly painful death otherwise. This is why everyone should have their pets insured. Especially if the pet is a dog. Especially if the dog is a purebred. Especially if it is a large breed dog.

Venus was a 130 lb Great Dane who walked in the door and at first hand, did not appear to be a bloat after all-her belly did not appear distended. Radiographs proved otherwise-her stomach had distended cranially (in the direction of her head), under her ribcage. This is why she didn't have the classic bloat presentation of hugely enlarged belly. Her insides were going crazy, too-she was already throwing some pretty scary arrythmias when we hooked her up to the EKG. Venus was one tough cookie-it was pretty amazing that she was still standing. She immediately went into surgery. Her stomach was dark when they went in, meaning that circulation to it had been cut off for awhile. It became pink after being untwisted, but whether or not the stomach's capacity to function fully had been compromised was something we'd find out later. She was in surgery for a long time; my shift ended before she came out of surgery. I returned to work 2 days later to find Venus lying on her side on our orthopedic mats, with an oozing incision site and her hind legs swollen to dramatic proportions. I was shocked to see her this way. Her body from her incision back was one giant bruise, all the way to her tail! This was highly unusual and a sign of very bad news. As the next week and a half progressed, Venus continued to have a very hard time getting up to go for walks-it took 3 people to get her up to go outside, and to get her to switch the side she was lying on because she continued to be laterally recumbent (we rotated sides to prevent bed sores, just like in people).  Bloodwork indicated a failing liver that was getting worse, delayed clotting times (her blood was taking a long time to clot), a low platelet count (this can prevent the blood from clotting entirely, hence the bruising) and low blood protein (the cause of all that edema/swelling). The doctors thought she might be going into DIC. (DIC = disseminated intravascular coagulopathy. Also known as Death Is Coming. There is no coming back from it; it is a death sentence). I very sadly said my good-byes to her at the end of my shift Saturday night, thinking that she would not be there when I came back to work on Wednesday.

On Wednesday morning, when I came back in to work after 2 days off, Venus was lying on her orthopedic mat like a sphynx, head up and front legs stretched out in front of her, all the bruising done.  On Saturday, we had thought that surely she would die on her own. The owner wanted to give her one more chance; the doctors changed the antibiotics Saturday night, and everyone continued fighting to keep Venus alive. On Monday, her bruising was halfway gone. On Tuesday, Venus had ripped out her IV catheters herself, and out of the blue started eating on her own. On Wednesday she was wagging her tail at us and the surgeon and criticalist declared her ready to go home. It was amazing. Venus was amazing. At the end of the day, I was massaging her legs (the swelling was almost completely gone) and she lay her head in my lap. I was almost moved to tears. What a dog! "You have no idea just how incredible you are, baby girl." I told her.

 Nikkita was the other Great Dane in hospital that day. She was a harlequin color with black-rimmed yellow eyes. A beautiful dog. And so very, very silly. She had come in Tuesday night for the same problem as Venus-GDV. However, her surgery was uneventful and 7 hours post-op, she was already bright and wanting to move around. You would never have guessed that she had just had life-saving surgery. She was my favorite patient, though at times she made me want to bang my head against the wall! I took her on myself because the other technician working with me is new to the hospital and ECC, and I didn't want him overwhelmed. Nikkita was young, less than 3 years old, and oh so goofy. She kept turning and turning in circles tangling up her IV line and the lines of her telemetry pack into one giant knot. By the 3rd time I went to untangle her, she knew she was to lie down and stay still while I undid the 5 million lines. This was the story of my life that entire day. By the end of the day, she would melt against my legs when I went to do her treatments, and slide onto her mat, exposing her belly for a scratch. It was a good thing we were relatively slow, and I actually had time to do this every 5 minutes! That is a LOT of untangling when your shift is 12 hours long. She eventually relaxed and would sleep for an hour or two at a time. By the end of the day, the criticalist said it would be okay to discontinue the telemetry, since her EKGs had been normal pre-, intra- and post-op. She also gave the thumbs-up to discontinue her IV fluids once her current bag was done, as she had been eating and drinking well all day long. Yaaay! No more lines for her to get tangled up in! Nikkita is probably one of the best recoveries I've seen so far from a GDV surgery. You can't beat a recovery like this! That girl was bright and alert, going outside for her walks and wanting to go and explore (the surgeon said we were to keep walks short the first day, of course). She made all of us laugh with her silliness. I gave her a big fat kiss on that gorgeous face at the end of my shift.

I left the hospital with a smile on my face and was still thinking about these two while I cleaned Lily's stall. She had her dinner outside in the paddock, a nice change of scenery for her. She ended up being out for a total of 3 hours or so, which is a lot in the summer: days are too hot for extended turnout, especially in our turnouts, which don't have shelter from the blazing sun or the electric storms. I also get nervous with night turnout, as there is no one at the barn to check on the horses if something happens, and the turnouts are not large enough to keep the horses entertained; grass is scarce, and in the summer, we can also get lightning storms in the middle of the night. 2 horses died at the park in the same week due to evening storms at the beginning of the summer. My previous horse would get into trouble at night at this current barn-he tore down a fence board one time, another time he put a giant dent in the gate, and the 3rd time, he sliced both front knees open. After that, no more evening turnout. It still makes me nervous. So for now, while it's hot, Lily gets some late afternoon/early evening turnout between 5pm and 8pm. This is, of course, if it's not storming! You just can't win with Florida summers...

On Thursday morning, I took Lily down to the field to longe her for 15-20 minutes, as she had had 3 days off in a row and we had a dressage lesson that night. I wanted to get any extra energy out before the lesson, and it also gave her a nice break between the longeing and the lesson-lessons are an hour long and I knew she'd be exhaused by the end of it if I longed her immediately prior to riding.

She had one bucking fit at the beginning of the workout, then she settled in nicely. I had her warm up w/t/c without side reins, and then I attached them to her bit for another 10 minutes of w/t/c, using the entire field for the session. This is the nicest she has ever gone in side reins. She's starting to get it! She was even salivating a little with the bit!

 She was doing a nice medium trot when I took this photo. Now I just need her to be like this under saddle!

Cool down walk while still in side reins. She was overtracking by a good 6".

In the afternoon, I returned to the barn early to give Lily a snack before the lesson and to longe Bella, whom I hadn't worked in a week. We did some w/t/c, then I had her follow me around at a walk while I set up a bounce with the cavaletti. Bella thought she was done, and when I asked her to trot again, she gave me a whole lot of attitude, including a rear! I don't put up with her crap, though-I cracked the whip, growled at her, and got her going at a nice little canter. She popped over the bounce effortlessly. I had her do it 5 times in each direction, and then I walked her out before hosing her down and rushing to tack up Lily before Judy arrived.

The lesson went fantastic! Lily made progress, and Judy had us doing serpentines and spiraling in & out in both directions to work on getting her more supple. I could feel the difference in her with these exercises. Judy gave me homework-I am to warm up with spirals and serpentines every time I ride for the next week. We also cantered in the lesson, which I was a little apprehensive about, but Lily was an angel. Judy had me sitting back in the saddle in a more classical dressage seat-Lily tolerated it well! We reviewed lateral aids, as all I know is book-learned (I have been riding for 20 years, but in Puerto Rico we did not have dressage instructors; I had always wanted to learn because of its importance in the development of both the horse and rider.)  Judy was pleasantly surprised when she saw Lily execute a pretty decent leg yield. She came with this training; I just figured out that she had an idea what it was by playing around with the aids. As it turns out, I was doing everything correctly. Our shoulder-ins were also perfect, with the required 3-tracking. I was giving the aids backwards, but Judy told me how to sit to make sure I was doing my part correctly. I turned my shoulders, allowing my legs to turn in the same direction, and Lily did her shoulder-in just as well as when I had been giving the aids backwards. Gotta love my little mare!! I really like Judy's style of teaching-very low-key, relaxed, persistent, and patient. Very different from other instructors I've had in the past. Plus she isn't prejudiced against specific horse breeds, like some other dressage trainers in the area. 3 of us at my barn take lessons with her on our horses, all of us with non-traditional horse breeds (Crissy the paint, Big Boy the halflinger, and Lily the appendix) I still have a hard time with the sitting up straight-I have a bad habit of riding forward from so many years riding jumpers, so every time I take a dressage lesson, I feel like a beginner all over again. It's my favorite thing about being around horses, though-you really never, ever stop learning!

On Friday I rode in the afternoon. I set the cavaletti up as ground poles about 10 feet apart, so they could be cantered as bounces or trotted with 1 stride inbetween. We then worked on our homework after a nice long walk on a loose rein, and then lots of circles at a working walk. Lily's spirals at the trot were excellent! I took some video-will post it as soon as I have it edited. We then cantered around the arena and large circles in both directions, and then proceeded to trot the ground poles. I had her canter through the line once in each direction, but the ground was wet from rain earlier today, and there wasn't enough room to make the nice wide turns that I wanted, so we just trotted through a couple of times more. Lily did great. She's getting better with the ground poles-she used to be so apprehensive about them! We took a walk break with lateral work-leg yields and shoulder-ins in both directions, and worked on trotting some more circles. Our workout lasted about an hour, and then I took her down to the field to cool down at a walk. By then, dark storm clouds had rolled in, with thunder and lightning in the distance. The lightning sirens went off at the park as the storm got nearer, and we turned around after one loop of the field and headed back home. Riding past one of the barn driveways, the owner was fixing the giant pothole at the entrance with an excavator. It was extremely noisy as it pushed the dirt and gravel towards the pothole. Lily didn't even flinch and just walked on calmly past it. I love her!

Sunshine State

I didn't sleep much last night, worrying about that beginner girl leasing Bella. People in South FL are a sue-happy bunch and you just never know what can happen when giving riding lessons, especially when the horse being used for the lesson has no patience for beginners. Just last week we had a serious accident involving another trainer's student on one of the barn manager's horses. This horse in particular is a big sweetie who is on the lazy side in the arena under normal circumstances, and has proven to be a pretty good lesson horse. However, on that day, said horse had a bucking fit when asked to trot by this rider. The rider, a beginner, fell and couldn't get up. We had to call 911; an ambulance and a bunch of cops showed up. The rider was taken to the hospital, where it turned out she had a cracked vertebra and would need surgery to repair it. We were all pretty shaken up; nothing like this had ever happened at our barn, and none of us individually had ever witnessed a riding accident so serious that the rider needed to be whisked off in an ambulance.
The barn manager understood when I talked to her; she was the one who had been pretty unnerved by  that accident. She said she would have the parents transfer the lease to Tater Tot, the other lesson pony. He's an ornery little guy, but at least he doesn't rear or spook with beginners on him.

It was broiling hot today, despite it being the morning. I tacked up Lily, hosed her down, and decided to take her out for a solo ride, since I hadn't had a chance to take her off the property by herself in 2 weeks. The minute I got on, she balked. She does this sometimes, but today was the worst she's been! She would take one step and balk. I would thump her with my legs. She'd take another step and stop. We made it across the parking lot, but she tried to back away from the driveway. I swung her around and made her back up away from the barn, down the driveway. One awesome thing about her is that Lily backs up almost as well as she goes forward. However, halfway down the driveway, she pauses and I see her ears tense up. When she has her little crowhopping fits under saddle, she gets this funny expression with her ears-they point straight up, super-stiff, with the front of the ear facing back. It makes her ears look almost like antelope horns. Well, right now she had THAT look, and the thought crosses my mind, "What naughtiness are you thinking?" There was one moment of hesitation, and she half-reared! It was a slow rear, if there is such a thing-she was showing me that she did NOT agree but at the same time she was being careful. A good thing, as we were halfway down the driveway, our backs facing the slope! "LILY, NO!!" I yelled at her. Her feet touched the ground, I spun her around, kicked her forward, and she marched down the driveway and off the property without another complaint. I kind of had to laugh because the little rear had been so tentative, like a half-hearted attempt at seeing if I would give up. Nope. Lily-0, Me-1.

We made it down to the park uneventfully. Entering the main gate, I texted the husband to let him know where I was going and for how long I'd be out. He had gotten home from working an overnight, and said he would wait the hour until I was due to call him back, to make sure I made it back okay. I love him. :)

Once inside the park, I wanted to trot. Lily wanted to stop and observe. We had a small disagreement. She trotted. Lily-0, Me-1. Then she startled at a patch of dark brown mud in the grass. There were a lot of mud patches because it had rained the night before. We were stop and go all the way up to the first hill, her trot extremely choppy (the more tense she gets, the more uncomfortable her trot is). We did hill sets-trotting up the hill and walking down. That kept her mind busy-she has to concentrate to go downhill correctly, but is getting better and better at rocking back on her haunches while coming down. There is a valley behind that first hill, and I asked her to trot again with the intention of doing some long and low work, circling, in the valley. More mud patches, more stops. She would NOT step on the mud patches (I think she was seeing them as giant holes in the ground) but she would trot past them after realizing that nothing was going to reach out of the mud and grab her as she went by. I decided to adjust my stirrups while in the saddle. The stirrup tapped her side while I was yanking at the strap, and she gave a giant jump and tried to walk forward. My heart leaped into my throat, as I had one leg propped up on the saddle to adjust the stirrup. I stopped her. The stirrup tapped her again when I finished ajdusting it, she startled again. I stopped her again. I got off to adjust the other stirrup, and made it tap her side on purpose. Not even a flinch. She was really out of sorts today. I got back on. Lily-1, Me-0.

We did more sets on the next hill, which is steeper than the first, then walked down to the powerlines, where we trotted in a straight line all the way down, and all the way back up. She was a really good girl on the powerlines, dropping her head and extending her trot. Then I had her follow the street that winds around the park. This street eventually leads back out of the park, but first it goes past a petting zoo. The petting zoo has some farm animals on it, including a miniature pony the size of a labrador retriever, who she thinks is bat out of hell dressed as a small horse, and 2 spotted cows with zebra-striped fly masks. She HATES those cows. She thinks they are carnivorous mutants that like young fillies for dessert. I headed that way on purpose. Last time we had come through there, we were with Beau and Mark. Beau had freaked out about the cows, but Lily had walked right on past like nothing. The first time we had gone through by ourselves, I had to back her up past the cows. *lol* She would not go forwards past them that first time. I wanted to see how she would behave now, though I was expecting her to be a freak this time as well given her behavior during most of the ride. We worked on working walk and free walk on the way there. She always relaxes on the free walk, so I made sure there was slack in the reins as we approached the cow enclosure. It made no difference; she tensed up the minute she saw their stalls and stopped. She hadn't even seen the cows yet. I made her take a step forward and asked her to stop myself. Before we started fighting, I got off and led her over to them. She followed right next to me without hesitation (I love how she trusts me!) and we stood right outside the enclosure fence and stared at the cows for a few minutes. Her ears were way forward, eyes big and nostrils flaring. But she stood right next to me without even trying to turn away. The cows didn't even look up; they continued grazing slowly. I think we're going to have to do this a couple of more times, though, before she's completely over the Horse-Eating Cows. I also led her over to the paddock where the Ferocious Tiny Mini Pony was also calmly grazing, and let her stare at him too. We have 4 minis at our barn and they are all right across from her stall. You'd think she'd be used to them. Ahhh, baby horses.

 I made a point of getting back on her right outside the cow enclosure, and we headed back to our barn. It was so hot. I could see the rain clouds starting to gather to the east, and thunder rumbled in the distance. My head was throbbing from the heat, and Lily was panting, even though we had barely worked. I hate South FL summers. I hate them so much I had my husband convinced that we needed to join the Air Force just so someone would pay us to leave this part of the state (among other reasons, but that was one of them!) THAT'S how much I hate these summers. I always vowed that if I moved to the US, it would be to a state with 4 seasons, where it got COLD in the winter. South FL is just like living in Puerto Rico, except it's hotter, muggier, and there are no real mountains.

Once back at the barn, hubby got a call to let him know we had made it back alive, and Lily got a nice bath and was hosed off until she had stopped panting-she had been walked out for 15 minutes. When it's this hot and humid, walking them out longer makes no difference. I also massaged her neck and back as an apology for taking her out when it was so hot. She closed her eyes for that. So cute.

I brought her in and cleaned her stall. The clouds had really rolled in then; thunder was close. The barn manager and I were the only ones there, and we both ran down to the manure pile to empty our wheelbarrows. The heavens opened up as soon as we were back inside. It was like cheap special effects-it looked like someone was tossing down buckets of water from the sky. The walkouts, paddock and arena all looked like swimming pools within 5 minutes. Thank God for our barn being built higher than the properties next to it-everything drains quickly as soon as it stops raining. We locked the horses in their stalls though, so they wouldn't be standing in the mud outside in their walkouts.

The horses had their lunch and I headed home. By the time I got home, the sun was out again. At 4:30pm I left the house to go to a nearby horsey warehouse to get a pair of thinning shears. Elisabeth had asked me to trim Crissy's mane-she has a fungal/bacterial infection going on in her mane and it needs to air out. It was bright sun when I stepped out of the house. When I turned on the street, however, I saw this:

See the light glinting off of the cars in the first photo? And then see the storm up ahead? In the second photo, it looks like The Nothing. Yeah, that's a Florida summer for you. These storms come out of nowhere every single afternoon. I swear we give Washington State a run for the money when it comes to the amount of rain that falls here. If you ever come to visit South Florida, don't come in the summer ("Summer" being defined as April through October). Whoever called it the "Sunshine State" obviously did not live here!

At the barn, I took Crissy out and crosstied her in front of Lily's stall. Lily and Crissy are best friends, which is funny because they've only been turned out together once. But it was love at first sight between those two, like long-lost sisters reunited. They have always liked each other, and even though they are several stalls apart, they call to each other when one leaves or returns. They are of similar height and build, with the same slender legs and feminine faces, but Crissy is a registered Paint. She is so pretty! She has a pink nose and her liquid brown eyes look like someone did her up with eyeliner. She's stall-aggressive, though, and does not like people standing outside her door and trying to make advances. She will pin her ears, roll her eyes, and might even bare her teeth at you. But when you walk into her stall, she pricks her ears and looks at you curiously, standing very still.

I brushed her mane out on the crossties to get any loose hair out. She had such a pretty mane. Elisabeth noticed something was wrong when she found the mare with half of her mane all tangled up in a knot, and had it all fall off in her hands when touched. Some more fell out while brushing it out today. However, you can barely see the bald patch with it brushed out. It's to the left of her brown streak in this photo:

It's a nasty infection, though. The area at the root of the mane is pink, oozing, and has crusty scabs. It almost looks like a hot spot. It was worse than yesterday, though, which concerned me-it's getting larger. Elisabeth had washed it with an antifungal shampoo yesterday and then applied triple antibiotic ointment. I really wanted to wash it again, but our wash rack is outside and it was thunder and lightning.

I cut off half of the mane with regular scissors, then got to work getting it the length I wanted with the thinning shears. I have NO patience when it comes to pulling manes-I've never been able to do a whole mane like that, but I'm really good with a sharp knife and thinning shears. Crissy's mane was done in 15 minutes. I pulled parts of it so it wouldn't look so crisp, but the vast majority was trimmed with the thinning shears alone.

I applied iodine solution to the wound-it's very oozy and iodine helps to dry up moist wounds while killing almost everything. Hopefully its better tomorrow. Poor Crissy. :( We'll see.

I added more shavings to Lily's stall to make it extra-cushy, since she'd be spending the night cooped indoors due to the rain, and she received an extra pad of hay to keep her busy longer.

Hopefully the good weather lasts longer tomorrow...

Barn Sunday

I hate South Florida summers. You will hear this a lot. It is the #1 reason why I keep pushing for us to move further north. It doesn't have to be outside of the state, just a couple hours north. Today was typical. 95 degrees, with a heat index of 105. Humidity at 62% (actually lower than it felt). The husband and I used to live in Tampa, and yes, it would get hot, but not like this.
I was at the barn at 9:00 am and already it felt like you were breathing through water, it was so hot and humid. On Monday we had taken the horses down to Wolf Lake, a Davie park with a lake set up specifically so you can take horses swimming. It was Lily's first time being trailered anywhere with me, and she handled it SO WELL! She behaved like a long-time trail horse, going right into the water. She did not like the bait fish nibbling at her belly hairs, and had a small bucking fit in the water over that. lol But she stopped as soon as I yelled "Whoa!" She learned that tickling did not equal hurting, and after the one time, she did not buck again, and by the end of our outing, she had learned to enjoy being in the water, staying in, one hind leg cocked, until I asked her to come back out again.

Her first water adventure!

It was a long day though, and we also spent a long time on the trails, so she received a nice liniment bath once back home and had 3 days off in a row. I longed her on Friday but she had Saturday off again (I work from 6am to 7pm, and was exhausted after work), so I wanted to longe her a few minutes before getting on to head out on the trails. It was way too hot and humid for "real" work. I hosed her down prior to her workout, to keep her cooler. We did w/t/c as a warm-up, then I attached the side reins for more w/t/c. She was beautiful on the longe with the side reins, the best she's been so far (of course I didn't have the camera on me!). Judy has me working on getting her to relax her entire topline under saddle-she has a tendency to go hollow-backed after her bad experience with the cowboy, but is learning to relax sooner and sooner with each workout. She's just starting to learn to relax on her own with the side reins. She was cute-when she's relaxed, her head swings a little to each side with each stride, and she nods with the beat of her canter. It was so humid that even after 15 minutes of working, the water had not dried off from her shoulders and rump. I hosed her down again, squeegeeing the water from her shoulders with my hand as I continued hosing her, until the water was running cold between my hand and her skin. She's such a good girl she just stood there, no restraint, without even trying to eat grass or dance away from the hose. Mark had just started tacking up Beau, his bright bay Quarter horse gelding, so I got on Lily to do a little arena work.
  

Pretty girl!!

 

Baby face



We trotted, doing large circles, until she was extending her trot and relaxing her back and neck. I really want to take her to a dressage schooling show later this fall when it gets cooler! Mark walked out with Beau as I was hosing Lily down again. We rode out. Beau led the way; Lily hadn't been outside of the barn area in over a week and she always gets a little hesitant to leave when she hasn't been out in a while.

Mark & Beau

Beau jumped at a branch cracking in one of the trees as soon as we turned down the street, so Lily led the way down to the park. The baby pro trail horse! A lot of things had changed on the street since the last time Lily had gone out-a guy on the street had torn down his 4 stalls and was working on getting all the wood out, there was a pile of garbage by the hedge lining another property, and lessons going on in the arena outside one of the barns. Lily had to stop and look at everything. I urged her on each time, because if I let her decide, she'll say, "I'm not too sure about this" and will quietly try to sneak back home. I didn't want to be circling her all the way down the street. Since Beau was a little more uppity than usual (he normally plods his way down the street), I took the back way into the park, down the powerlines. Beau relaxed, and walked along next to Lily while Mark and I talked.
This park is one of the only ones in Broward County with a public riding stable. They give guided trail rides on the weekends. One of our barn buddies, Dianne, who also owns Pink Slip, the barn goddess (she is a TB ex-racer, and one of my faves in the barn after Lily!), works at the park on the weekends. Our goal for today was to go to the park barn to say hi. It was too hot to do much more, but long walks are still a great way of keeping horses fit. It's so hard to keep a horse fit in South FL summers! My previous horse had stopped sweating when it started raining every afternoon back in late May-high humidity is a big risk factor for anhydrosis. Lily is hypohydrotic, but with temperatures now 5 degrees cooler (believe it or not!!) and hosing her off prior to a workout, she will be sweating nicely by the end of a session without panting like a dog.
We rode down to the barn. There is a side road that leads to it. The first time we took that route, there was a storm coming, and I was tense thinking where we would take cover if we got hit by the rain. I hate riding in the rain. I wear glasses, and when they get wet, I can't see with them on. Everything is a giant blur without them on, so taking them off when it's raining is out of the question. Lily must have sensed how tense I was, because she was jumping at everything on that route that time, very unlike her. We did get hit by rain, and we took cover under a nearby parking area for the park trucks, and afterwards she was fine. But I chose to head out this way again this time to test her, and see how she would handle it. There are palms all over the park, and their leaves fall all over the place. Most horses think they are giant horse-eating octopi lying in wait for an unwary hoof. Lily is funny about them-she'll completely ignore them if they are on a route she's familiar with, but if I take her down a new route and there's a palm leaf on the ground anywhere, she'll turn her head to look at it sideways (she cocks an ear at it and looks at it with one eye-it cracks me up when she does that), and she'll kind of dance away from it like she's never seen a palm frond before. It had stormed last night so one side of the road was strewn with them:

I made her walk right down the center, and step on all the leaves. She didn't give a hoot. :) She did do the cocked ear & one-eyed glance act at a large puddle next to the palm trees, so I made her walk into it. She liked that once she realized what it was, and her ears went up as she splashed through the water. Silly mare.
We made it to the barn and I texted Dianne to let her know we had arrived. There was a lot of people in the barn area in general, and people walked past us warily, trying to stay away from the horses' hind ends. Lily looked at everyone and everything and didn't budge.

Watching the people on the pony rides, on the other side of the barn

We hung out for awhile with Dianne, talking, then headed back home. We cut through one of the paths between the horse fields, and into one of the trails to get some shade before heading back out onto the powerlines. I've only recently started to take Lily onto the actual trails. The first 2 times she would get a little claustrophobic and would start looking into the bushes, searching for some unseen tiger hiding in the trees. She led the way this time, no hesitation.

The powerlines. Awesome fun to gallop down them!! The footing is always smooth and fast. Haven't done it with Lily yet, but yes with Pink, the ex-racer :)

The rest of the ride home was uneventful. We bathed the horses and turned them out in the parking lot to graze (turnout space at our barn is limited to the arena and a large side paddock, so of course there is no grass in the official turnouts). Lily always enjoys this.

I cleaned her stall, soaked her beet pulp, tossed 2 pads of hay in her stall, and brought her in for her lunch.

That afternoon, I decided to work with Bella. It was the first sunny afternoon in at least 2 weeks. I have been trying to work with Bella even longer than that, but could never accomodate her either because of bad weather or because I was at work.

Bella is the cutest pony. She is a double-registered Arabian/Welsh pony cross, the perfect mix of the 2 breeds. The barn manager bought her as a lesson pony from a lady that was selling her in Orlando at a big hunter/jumper show barn. Bella had a different opinion as to what her purpose would be when she arrived at our barn.

Despite her beauty and excellent ground manners, under saddle she can get quite testy. Nothing to scare an experienced rider, but enough to terrify a beginner/intermediate rider. She can get spooky if you're nervous, and if she's in a bratty mood she'll refuse to go faster than a walk, or will simply refuse to go altogether! If you insist, she will probably toss her head and try to pop up. You have to spin her around once as soon as she tosses her head, and send her straight into a trot. She usually won't test you again after that, and will be a perfect pony for you. Good luck explaining this to a beginner. I had an intermediate student that was infatuated with Bella. Bella would give her hell each lesson. I'd have to give orders and smack a crop against my leg to get her going. Basically, the kid wasn't making Bella move-it was me with voice commands. The girl still had fun jumping her, because Bella LOOOOVES to jump, but it sucked for me knowing that this girl wasn't really controlling the mare on the flat. Oh well. Bella hurt her shoulder one night in the turnout and was lame for a month, and in the meantime I had this student ride Pink Slip, with whom she had a blast. They were a good match. But I ramble-back to Bella.

About a month after she arrived at the barn, we took her to one of the small local shows. I didn't realize it was a hunters only show until a week before the event, when I had to scramble to get a cheap hunt coat and show shirt. Then I had to review the hunters rules. I have always competed in jumpers, and in Puerto Rico the hunters division didn't even exist-we just had equitation over fences, which I guess is similar enough. I hated equitation-too subjective, and that whole thing of counting strides was so difficult at the time. I was 14.

Counting strides between fences now was easy, so I figured we could do it without making total fools of ourselves. All we wanted to see was how well Bella would behave at a show, so we could use her for the kids. My one concern was that all we had at the barn to jump were 4 cavaletti. I would stack them up to make two 1.5' jumps, but I knew that the smallest jumps at the show would be 2'. Bella was so confident over fences that I figured she must've jumped at least 2'6" regularly, but it felt weird going into a show not knowing for sure. And without a trainer!! I had never shown a horse all by myself.

Bella in perfect form at the horse show

As it turned out, we had a great time at the show. Bella was awesome, and we won grand champions in the 2' adult division...against ourselves! There were no other competitors! Even the judges joked about it over the loudspeakers.

Bella,Grand Champion

After that, I started the new job, and then Bella injured her shoulder, and it's pretty much been 4 months since the pony hasn't been used regularly. I always feel bad, because she's a good pony, she just needs a firm confident rider.

About 6 weeks ago, I started working her on the longe to get her used to having a job again, and she was SUCH a BRAT!  She had gotten into the most annoying habit of divebombing (also known as yanking your arm out by plunging her head down suddently to eat grass), and of course I had the brilliant idea, the first time out, to longe her in the front pasture by the street. She would NOT go, and was completely disrespectful, refusing to obey commands and trying to eat grass like she hasn't eaten in a month (she's fat, too, btw). Until the longe whip came out. That got her going, and she had a good workout. By the end of the session, she was bright, perky, relaxed and enjoying having a job again.

After that, she had a dose of discipline every day I was off from work. And then my work schedule changed again, I had less time, and then it started raining every afternoon. So no consistent work for Bella for 3 weeks. Today I tacked her up and longed her for about 10 minutes prior to riding her. She doesn't go into the arena except when she's ridden, and if she hasn't been ridden for awhile, she will be a little spooky. Today was no different-we warmed up in the center of the arena with walk and trot, but as soon as I moved her close to the arena wall, she would randomly bolt & take off at a gallop, continuing the circle. I worked her in both directions until she was calmly trotting by the wall. Then I got on. By then, pretty much everyone in the barn had tacked up and had walked into the arena, a highly unusual event-it is very rare when those of us who ride are able to ride at the same time. There were 4 of us in the arena at once, this hadn't happened since the Christmas holiays! It was fun-Dianne was on Pink Slip, Matilda was on Big Boy, Elisabeth was riding Crissy, and myself on Bella. Bella had a couple of hissy fits, but we know each other and she knows she can't get away with stuff when I'm riding her, so she would always keep on working as soon as I put her in her place. We had fun-w/t/c, and then Elisabeth and I started riding around the arena like a pair, trying to keep Crissy & Bella next to each other at the trot & canter. While doing this, a couple showed up at the arena entrance, and I heard the barn manager telling them about Bella. As it turns out, those people wanted to lease a horse and a pony, and were so impressed by Bella under saddle, that they paid for her lease right on the spot! Of course, when I asked the barn manager later, they were leasing the pony for their 13-year-old daughter. Who's a beginner. And who gets to give her lessons? Oh! That would be me.

Here we go...

At least it was a productive day! :)