Feet

A week after her trim and shoes. I wish her toes were a tad shorter, especially on that right front. You can really see the rings halfway down her feet in this photo marking where I discontinued the California Trace. Note the more oblong right foot.



In this photo you can see how her right front appears flatter and kind of offset to the outside. This is definetely a horse that needs to be on a hoof supplement. :/

 It is interesting to note that for once we are NOT the hottest state in the country at the moment. It certainly feels like it with the humidity.

Our barn farrier, Edmundo Martinez (the same guy from the post "Paso Fino Adventure"), came out today to do Lily's and Rose's feet. He drives all the way up from the Kendall/Homestead area, and is an awesome farrier. He's the only one I've used so far whom I can talk to, ask questions to, and he really tries to educate you. Lily's right front is flaring out again, and is starting to look like when she was barefoot last year and was being trimmed by a different farrier. I addressed it with Edmundo, and he explained that she is slightly club-footed on that hoof. He had an entire magazine in his truck on managing club feet in horses, which he offered me to read. I sat down and read the magazine from front to back while he did both Lily and Rose. He was literally doing everything by the book, and he showed me which parts of Lily's hoof were more symmetrical than they had been previously. As it turns out, Lily has actually improved, with the angles on her front feet only having a 2 degree difference, whereas before when he started doing her feet, there was a 5 degree difference! It's interesting how appearances can be deceiving. The rings she had last year on all 4 feet are coming back, however, with the changes in humidity that are classical Florida summer. I had her on California Trace for 9 months successfully-this supplement had made a HUGE difference in the quality of her hoof horn, but they seem to have changed the supplement formula and all of a sudden, after all that time, she stopped eating it. She would pick at her grain around the supplement and leave all of the supplement behind. If I mixed it in her beet pulp, she wouldn't eat it at all. So I took her off of the supplement, and her feet have suffered for it. I have been searching extensively for a similar formula to California Trace, but anything with a similar mineral or vitamin content is missing biotin, and anything with enough biotin has the wrong mineral content. Either that, or the supplement has iron in it, a huge no-no especially when your horse is already drinking well water (well water tends to be high in iron as it is, and contrary to popular belief, horses do NOT need supplemental iron!) I want to try Equine Challenge Grass Supplement, but have not been able to afford it. Judy suggested Focus HF, but after some research online, I have gone with Kauffman's Integri-Hoof. It is affordable at $27 for a 30 day supply, and is The Horse Journal's #1 choice both as a general supplement and as a hoof supplement. I may have just found my California Trace substitute...we shall see how her feet look in 3 months from now-those rings on her feet should have grown out some by then.

 I'm still debating whether to keep this farrier or go back to the previous one, or just try her out barefoot again altogether...I thought her feet looked better with the previous farrier, but there are other factors at stake here too: the rainy season has started, and the change from wet to dry and back again will wreck havoc on a horse's feet; she's been off her hoof supplement for 3-4 months; and I've been working her more to the right in an effort to get her more supple in that direction. So all of these things could be contributing to the changes in her feet. Around this time last year I tried her out barefoot and that was when her right front became misshapen...I'm wondering if it's more of an environmental & dietary factor contributing to the foot, as last year I didn't have her on the California Trace yet, and rainy season was in full swing. I'm not sure yet what to do. I look at Bali's gorgeous bare feet and wish I could do the same with Lily. Diana's farrier does a nice job, even though I've never heard of him before. I do like Edmundo and the fact that I can talk to him and ask questions, and he is constantly educating himself.

Bali's pretty bare feet, 3 days after their trim

I have not written about Rose in a long time because I simply have not ridden her in a long time. Her issues continue. Her right hip had been bothering her and she had been slightly off in the back because of it. Judy was giving her glucosamine injections per the veterinarian, but this had not made a significant difference. Judy started her on Recovery EQ, and no difference there either. The one thing that made a difference was placing her on the liquid supplement whose name I can't for the life of me remember (I just know Smartpak doesn't sell it) and her hips don't click anymore when she is being ridden. She has been in heart bar shoes for the last 7 months per the vet as well, and on Sunday Edmundo recommended placing Rose in regular aluminum shoes, since her heels are high enough that she will have enough support for her suspensories. He also showed Judy where the heart bar shoes were digging into Rose's heels, which may have been causing some of her current hind end issues, as the sore heels would have caused her to rock her weight back 24/7, making her hips sore in turn. After the first heart bar came off and the first aluminum shoe went on, Rose immediately seemed relieved and was much more cooperative for her other 3 feet. Hopefully this resolves some of her issues. Fingers crossed!

I rode Lily Western on Saturday again and since it was too hot to ride in the arena, even at 6:00 pm, I took her out on the trails where there is shade. We had a great workout-we did a good 45 minutes of solid trot work on the trails, alternating between extended and collected trot. Mentally she was really good, too-she stopped or paused to look at things, and tried to turn around a couple of times, but I only had to circle her once each time and send her forward, and she complied. We power-walked home. I'm falling in love with riding her Western, to tell the truth-since I can't feel every little time she tenses up, I'm a lot more relaxed if and when she acts up, which in turn makes her a lot more relaxed overall. I've actually looked at Western saddles on eBay, but it is only a thought I'm entertaining while I wait for my saddle to arrive. Hopefully I feel as secure in the Alta Escuela as I do in Dianne's Western saddle, and hopefully it really does fit Lily that well.

Ines has officially started jumping Pink after a good 6 months of flatwork. Since we don't have jumps at our barn, she's been paying an arena fee at one of the barns across the street and riding Pink there. Pink did great last time, except for a couple of stops, but once they warmed up and got going, Pink was fantastic. On Sunday we all went over to the other barn to watch the ride, but it was already infernally hot at 8:00 am, and Pink fatigued rapidly. There was a small box jump that she refused to go over. It was not fear-she simply came to a stop and would not even walk over it, despite being only about 2' tall. Both Judy and I observed that her reaction seemed to be more pain-induced: Pink has arthritis in her rear fetlocks for sure, and probably in her hocks as well, and sometimes has problems lifting her hind legs over fences. I'm sure the high humidity wasn't helping Pink's joints. Ines finally got Pink to trot over the small jump and ended the session there.  No one knows Pink's background other than she used to race, but there were many years in between that we know nothing about-she was found by the SPCA abandoned in a field with another mare, and was at the SPCA for about 6 months before Dianne adopted her. I doubt her name was ever changed, as she has always responded to "Pink" and will come when called by her name. She does know how to jump, is relaxed about it to the point of distraction, and is unfazed by funny-looking jumps, so at some point she was trained over fences. She has a terrific jump when you can get her to pay attention!

That afternoon, Judy and I rode Rose and Lily out to the park for a 45 minute walk. It was too hot to do much else, and for some reason, both mares were particularly skittish. I'm not sure why because there was nothing going on in the park-all was quiet, but I was surprised, as Lily had been so good the day before.

That evening all of us went out to a local burger place for dinner. It had been MONTHS since the whole barn went out like this-we used to do it every weekend, and it used to be one of the big highlights of the week for all of us. Even Charles came along this time, and him and Mark did some catching up. We had a great time. It's nice to have things back to normal at the barn.

February

February has escaped me without posting on here. Judy had commissioned a painting for her niece, whose birthday was in mid-February, and any spare time at the beginning of the month was used to finish a watercolor of the niece's Quarter Horse gelding.

I'd forgotten to post about this, but I've also consistently been riding Rose since January. The goal was to take her to the January Parkland dressage show with Lily, and start her in the Intro classes. But at the beginning of the month, she came in from the paddock dead lame, with a swollen spot on the inside of her right front just under her knee. Judy thought she'd popped a splint. After 3 days of diligent icing, cold hosing and wrapping, the swelling had gone down somewhat but Rose was still favoring the leg, so our vet was called out. He diagnosed a mild suspensory strain due to weak hindquarters and lax stifles, and gave us a workout program to get Rose back on track and strengthen her hind end. Judy started handwalking her for 30 minutes at a time for the first week, then the same amount of time under saddle, and we were to progress slowly into trot from there. Rose's rehab has been pockmarked with setbacks, including Judy catching a stomach virus, injuring a knee (she's still recovering from that one), me getting sick with a chest cold, a week of pouring rain where no one could ride in the flooded arena, and Rose having ups and downs in her ability to progress, including stumbling and falling while I was riding her in a downward transition from trot to walk. It scared me shitless, but thankfully the chiropractor was scheduled to come the next day to adjust Rose. He informed Judy and me that she has several issues going on with her hips, in part from her own conformation and lack of conditioning, that will need to be worked through slowly. We still haven't made it past 10 minutes of trotting, and with Judy temporarily out of the game, I've doggedly continued with her rehab. Anything is better than nothing!

Lily has improved by leaps and bounds. We've finally done proper training rides in the park, working on a forward trot on the bit, and this was a huge success! Whereas before, Lily had to stop and look at things she wasn't sure about, and preferred to walk on the trails, she has discovered how much fun it is to trot in the "wild". Our second conditioning ride stands out because it was the first time the light came on, "This is actually kind of fun!" Lily's ears were pricked the entire time, but still paying attention-she'd flick them back to pay attention to me constantly. The park has expanded the main trails and at one point I was completely lost. So I let her choose the way, and she did so willingly and happily, with her neck arched and pushing from behind. She seemed bummed out when we made it back to the powerlines and I insisted that she walk. She did, and we walked home at an extended walk, her hind end swinging, on a loose rein. It was a lovely ride, and we have been able to repeat it. Lily did way better on the trails than in the arena, so my next goal was to reproduce it at home.

In the attempt to help me do so, Judy injured her knee. Here's the story:

About 2 weeks ago, we had Rose and Lily turned out in adjacent paddocks. They were playing together from opposite sides of the fence, bucking and kicking. We had just decided to bring them in before they hurt themselves, when I see Lily rear up in the air in slow motion and pivot on her hind legs 180 degrees, land facing the opposite direction, then buck and a kick from a standstill. The movement was done with such grace and ease that my jaw dropped. I've watched horses play around in the past and do all sorts of crazy contortions with their bodies, but what got to me about what Lily had just done was the effortlessness with which she did it. 9 months ago, she would not have been able to do a move like that with such ease-it is a result of all the conditioning I've done with her. She never bucked or played in turnout, which I always thought strange in a young horse. She's making up for lost time now!

So later that morning I was riding her in the arena while Judy rode Rose. We had just warmed up and were starting to trot, and Lily was bracing against the contact instead of reaching for it. It wasn't bad, and I was expecting her to warm up out of it as we continued to trot. Judy tried giving me pointers from Rose's back, and suggested me visualizing her doing that same move she'd done in the paddock to imagine her pushing up and forward into the contact. I laughed nervously at the suggestion and made a point of not visualizing that move as I asked her for more energy. Instead of extending, Lily became pogo-sticky and hollowed her back and neck. I slowed her down and sat her trot, and she was thinking about giving, when Judy suggested trading horses. I was thrilled at the idea, as I had always wondered what would Judy be able to do with Lily, and had wanted to watch someone more experienced ride her to see if she'd be better than with me.

I got on Rose and continued to walk her around the arena while Judy rode Lily. She pushed her hard, asking her to extend her trot and reach for the contact. Lily would try to evade, and Judy would ask harder. Lily looked gorgeous when she responded. She'd occassionally try to shoot forward but Judy would hold her in. I watched them for awhile, then decided to trot Rose a little since she was about half way through her 45 minute session. She trotted for 3 steps, feeling slightly off, and I looked down at her. That's when I heard the "thump." I look up, and Judy was on the ground, Lily standing next to her. Everyone from the barn was running towards her. Ines, who'd been watching from the arena gate, had called to everyone else. I leaped off Rose and ran over to her too, Rose trotting behind me.

Her face was contorted in what I thought was pain, and I freaked out. Upon closer inspection, though, Judy was laughing, and we all breathed a collective sigh of relief. She got up, brushed herself off, and turned to me. "I've been teaching you all wrong. This mare can't be ridden the way I was telling you to ride her. That's why it wasn't working. I'm completely changing the format of your lessons from now on."

I asked what had caused the fall. Apparently Lily had reared up in the air and done a 180 turn on her back legs... "Oh boy-she did exactly what you wanted her to!" I said, laughing, referring to Judy's wanting me to visualize that move to get Lily moving forward. Judy opened her eyes wide, and laughed harder. The conclusion was that we weren't going to think about that maneuver any more!

Judy got back on, despite my protests that I could continue to ride Lily. I was afraid the event would repeat itself, but Judy wanted to finish figuring out my mare. I mounted Rose, and made a point of walking inside the dressage arena, staying somewhere near the middle of the arena when Judy was working at either end. My idea was that if Lily tried another stunt, I'd block her with Rose.

They walked for a long time, Judy getting Lily on the bit. I could see the tension in Lily, though, and when Judy asked her to trot, Lily scooted forward and turned towards the inside of the arena on her own, accelerating. I swung Rose into Lily's path, and Lily stopped. Afterwards, Judy continued to walk, and they ended up just working on a 20 meter circle at one end of the arena, alternating walk and trot.

Lily on the bit, at the walk

Rose standing quietly while I took pics of Lily and Judy with my phone

I exited the dressage arena and walked Rose on a loose rein when I saw Lily finally relax and understand what Judy wanted, and realize that Judy wasn't going to hurt her. Judy trotted with Lily again, and once she had her consistently on the bit, passed her back to me. By then it was time for Rose's workout to be done. I rode Lily around in a 20 meter circle, first walking, then trotting. I could tell she was relieved to have me back riding her because any tension that had been remaining evaporated. After having Judy work with her, it was twice as easy for me to get her using her body correctly. Judy confirmed what I had already been doing with Lily during our workouts: I should do lots of walk on the bit, then keep her at a slow easy trot to keep her calm while focusing on lowering her head and lifting her back. I was happy-I'd been on the right track.

Judy's knee started to bother her after the final ride on Lily, and despite immediately icing it and taking ibuprofen, it was very hard for her to walk the next day. As it turns out, she had a partial tear to her MCL. I feel awful about it still, but Judy still insists she doesn't care, because it means she can teach me better. Yup-trainers like her are few and far between!

I'm happy to report that after 2 weeks of taking it as easy as possible given her own schedule, her knee is a LOT better, and she is hoping to ride again sometime this week. Phew!

These are some photos from one of our more recent lessons:

Lily at the walk

A very calm trot, on the bit.  She was chewing and relaxing her jaw-this is a new event in her progress!

Compare to how Lily looked here.



And a photo that Judy took of Rose and me during one of her recent rehab sessions.

She says we look good together. :) I don't know what it is about riding Rose-maybe it's her uphill build? But it always feels like my upper body wants to be in the same spot in space as if I were on Lily, while my lower body is a full hand higher in the air (Rose is a big girl!). The result: I usually look like I've been bent into a lump when I'm on her. At least that's how it feels. I have to constantly remind myself to pull up my upper body and stick out my abs-this is what it looks like when I do!

With her, my current goal is to make it to the park by ourselves. It will be great for her rehab to go on those hills! Rose has been out in groups, and has always been a very good girl, but would not step beyond the barn parking lot with me on her. The past 2 days, we have made it down the driveway with no complaints, and off of the property for a short distance. I plan to slowly increase the distance until we make it to the park. We'll see how it goes. In the meantime, we are walking for 45 minutes total, with 10 minutes of trotting spread throughout. I've added stretches before and after our rides-she is incredibly stiff in her entire hind end, and I think eventually this will help. So far, all I can do is hold each hind leg up and out, with stifle and hock at right angles. This is the most she can go right now.

If you've never stretched your horse, you probably should. It does a world of difference in their conditioning, muscle development, and their ability to move correctly. Studies at university veterinary hospitals have been done on their benefits!  Some of the leg stretches that I do with Lily and that I have added to Rose's program are included here. Lily has gotten the swing of them and totally gives in to them, releasing her hind legs backwards on her own when I extend her legs back, and leaning her weight into her haunches for a better stretch when I extend her front legs forward. She'll also give a deep sigh during and/or after her stretches, even closing her eyes at times. Pretty cool! She also does better with stretches BEFORE her workout (and after being groomed-currying helps warm up the muscles), especially if I rode her the day before. Post-workout stretches are not as dramatic, and I don't push the envelope if she doesn't want to give. The important thing here is that you stay in tune with your horse, that you don't do too much too soon (expect a horse that is bad for the farrier to be resistant to stretching, and take the necessary precautions when training them to stretch!), and that you don't push your horse on any given day if he doesn't want to give you the ideal stretch or it will be counterproductive. If the horse resists at all, he will be tensing up his muscles instead of relaxing, which defeats the purpose. Also stretching a horse is not necessarily like stretching yourself-we are supposed to hold a stretch for a minimum of 30 seconds. It's nearly impossible to do it for that long with a horse, and you shouldn't try-you must release at the first sign of tension, even if it's only been a couple of seconds, to maximize the benefits of the stretch.

On another front, it has been unseasonably hot pretty much the entire winter. It's the first time since moving to South FL that I've been wearing tank tops in the wintertime. Yeah, it's milder than anywhere else in the country, but we'll have our runs of days in the 50's and 60's, with nights in the 40's. Not this year. We had 2 days where temps dropped below 70, and that was it. :( Which sucks double time, because warm winters usually mean an active hurricane season, since the ocean surface stays hot. We shall see what this summer brings...

One cold day a year...

So I was attacked by a massive throat infection during the week between Christmas and New Year's, and ended up spending 3 days straight in bed, weak, feverish, and barely able to swallow. After dragging myself to the doctor's office a second time when I wasn't getting better, the doctor changed my antibiotics and within 2 days, I was feeling alive again. It was scary there for a minute-I felt so awful I thought Charles was going to have to take me to the hospital.

This, of course, meant no riding for almost a week, during which a lot of changes ocurred at the barn, including Rose's arrival. After colicking 3 times in a month at the Parkland barn, Judy decided to bring Rose over to the ranch to have her closer to home. This was wonderful news for Lily, who immediately remembered her paddock buddy. Rose and Lily started to stand next to each other for hours on end, separated only by the fence between walkouts.

I was finally able to work with Lily on Saturday. I could already tell she was "up" before taking her out of her stall. Judy was working with Christa on trailer loading (Christa is very stubborn, and had a very bad trailer loading experience when she was younger, in which she flipped over backwards) and so far none of us had been able to get her to load in Mark's trailer. Elizabeth is dying to take Christa to a dressage show or to one of the horse parks in Davie with us, but both things require trailering. Judy was bent on getting Christa on that trailer, and had already been working with her for a week using only natural horsemanship methods and lots of patience.

I took Lily to the yard in front of the house to longe her, away from Christa so she wouldn't be distracted, and also to take her away from Rose for the first time in a week. Lily was explosive initially, then settled into a long canter at the end of the longe line. She cantered endlessly, it seemed, in both directions, and I allowed her to get all of that extra energy out. She eventually settled into a nice, long, extended trot, and when she was finally asking to slow down to a walk, I took her back to the barn, tacked her up, and took her into the arena for a ride.

Walking around the arena, my position felt strange. A good kind of strange, but unfamiliar nonetheless. I looked down at my leg, and realized my ankle, hip and shoulder were all in a perfect line.

Kind of like this. You could've drawn a straight line from my shoulder to hip to heel.

I rode Paso Finos for such a long time, that even when I used to hike my stirrups up to the last hole for the jumper arena, I tended to sit in more of a chair seat, with my lower leg further forward. This automatically forced me to lean forwards to balance. Which is common in the hunter/jumpers, but is unheard of in dressage. I have been fighting with this bad habit for the last year! But all of a sudden on Saturday, everything suddenly fell into place. I felt like I was standing straight in my stirrups, all my weight evenly distributed in both heels (I realized recently that I have a tendency to sit to the right, which is why Lily was having such a hard time relaxing when we went to the left!), and Lily between my knees. I focused on staying in this position the rest of the ride, whether it be posting, walking or cantering. It was wonderful! Lily responded fabulously to this new, balanced seat, relaxing over her topline and reaching for the bit. It is amazing how well our horses respond when we're not constantly getting in their way!

By the time we were done, Judy had finished the session with Christa (both front feet in the trailer, but Christa had been completely relaxed!) and I asked Mark if he wanted to go for a ride. We all ended up going: Elizabeth, Judy, Mark, and myself. I led the way through the trails on Lily, giving Judy the tour, as she had not been on the trails often. We had a great time, and the horses did great! Lily and Rose each only startled once (they are the same age and almost equally green); it was a very good ride.

Judy behind me on Rose, and Mark and Elizabeth bringing up the rear on Beau and Christa respectively.

On Sunday, I rode Lily again, and again, it was easy for me to maintain this new seat. Judy rode Rose in the arena with me. I felt like I kept getting in their way, and since Judy only gets to ride Rose about twice a week due to her work schedule and early nightfall, I ended up taking Lily out of the arena and riding her in the "track" around the dressage arena, working on transitions. I've started reading "The Natural Rider" by Mary Wanless, and in one of the sections in the book, she describes creating impulsion by placing your legs in such a position as to allow the horse's front end to bulge out in front of them. I understood what she meant: if I sat with this in mind, Lily's front end would lift and she would engage her hind end better, especially at the canter. It was a very good ride, and after about a half hour of work, I took Lily on our first solo ride to the park since October. The only thing she spooked at were the sprinklers on the street on the way to the park, and tried to whirl around to return to the barn once. But I was able to get her through the sprinklers without having to get off and lead her, and afterwards, we were home free. We did one trotting lap around the park, slowing to a walk a couple of times so Lily could look at scary things (such as the picnic area BBQ grills covered with plastic trash bags), and she made me proud by walking up to these things that she wasn't sure of all by herself, to have a closer look.  Eventually we came out at the power lines. We trotted towards the horse gate, all the way down, then turned around and and cantered back up. Lily gave me a nice easy canter, and then we turned around again and power-walked all the way home. I was soooo happy to have her back to her normal self! It was a great first day of the new year!

I worked Monday. The high temperature for the day was 81. Overnight, it dropped down to 38 degrees...a 42 degree drop in less than 12 hours. Lily was blanketed with her Thermo Manager stable blanket, and her Weatherbeata turnout sheet on top. It had been cloudy all day, so all the horses stayed in their stalls to have access to cover if it rained.

Tuesday morning, the sun rose to a bright, cold and very windy day. The high temperature for the day was 55. We only get 1 day like this out of the entire year, and I took complete advantage of it.

When I arrived at the barn, the wind was tearing at the trees and lifting up clouds of dust. All of the horses were running in and out of their stalls into their walkouts. I turned out Christa, Pink and Bo, all still in their sheets, then took Lily's blankets off, put her rope halter on, and took her out to the arena, where I set her free and had her run around to get all of the excitement and excess energy out before expecting her to settle down and pay attention. She had a grand ole time galloping around the arena like a racehorse.

She was flagging her tail the entire time. :)

Her fabulous floaty trot. It has been improving at liberty; now I just need her to do it under saddle!

After letting her run around, I put her on the longe, and had her work at mostly trot and canter for 20 minutes. I let her walk to cool down, and since the wind was still whipping through the treetops, I put her back in her stall with her cooler, and brought Rose out to longe her.

Judy had been concerned during her last ride with her that Rose was having issues with her right hind, as she was reluctant to pick up the right lead canter. I had her do a long walk warmup, then a nice loose trot, and then I clipped the side reins on and put her to really work. We did up and down transitions at walk and trot, and also trot-halt, and halt-trot transitions, all on the longe. Rose did wonderfully! No silliness, no challenging authority, very attentive the entire time. I noticed that unlike in the past, however, she never once offered to canter. I did not push her.

That afternoon it was considerably less windy, though still in the low 50's and dropping. I tacked up Lily and rode. She was very spunky and was giving me a great workout, with a relaxed trot, and a wonderful left lead canter, up until the moment we changed directions and I asked for the right lead canter. She took off and bucked, leaping over the dressage arena rail in one bound and scaring me shitless. I had NOT expected that! She was very "up" after that, inverting her neck and getting above the bit with her pogo-stick trot. I sighed. 2 more turns around the arena and Lily had relaxed again. Left lead canter-fine. Then right lead canter. I rose into 3-point this time, staying off her back with hands quiet. Fine. She was so forward I decided to do some canter-halt transitions. This was new for her, but after attempting it twice, she handled the canter-halt transitions fairly well. We tried halt-canter transitions, with a change of direction after each halt. She was dominating this surprisingly well, with only 2 or 3 trot strides before picking up the canter. Then, going to the right, she exploded again. I think she spooked at some people loading up a truck on the other side of the fence, but God knows; this happens all the time and it's never bothered her before. I stopped her before she could go over the rail again.

We finished the exercise by cantering to the right for a good 5 minutes. I was exhausted by then, but Lily's energy was never-ending. It's amazing what a little cold weather can do for a horse's endurance!

I walked her out for a long time before putting her back in her stall with her cooler. This morning I was sore. My lower back has been bothering me when I ride, and today it was flaring up considerably. I rode Rose first, mostly walk and trot, and saw what Judy meant when cantering to the right-Rose's entire hind end swung and dropped to the right. Her right hind hitched once while trotting in that direction, too. I think it's her stifles, which makes sense, since she has not had much work at all for the last 2 years. She has very little muscle development in her haunches and she toes out considerably while standing-2 signs of weak stifles. I rode her like you would a stifle horse-lots of straight lines at a trot, with up and down transitions, getting her to engage from behind, and only doing large circles occassionally. She did beautifully and was a very good girl.

I only walked and trotted Lily. After yesterday, she was very relaxed today, trotting around with neck extended like a hunter, which is progress for her! We did not canter, because I wasn't in the mood to be bucked around again, what with my sore back. I did call the chiropractor when I got home; I'm hoping to go sometime next week. It sucks-I had NEVER had this issue before; I've always had a really strong core, but with my job and the barn, it is very hard to find time to exercise while still getting time to rest the body.

A week's worth of posts

It's been a crazy week. 3 people at work quit at the same time, and there's been a mad scramble to get those shifts covered. It's been rough in the real world, but at the barn everything has been falling into place.

Last Wednesday, I rode Lily out to the equestrian center, and she was an absolute BRAT. She did not want to go down the street; she would balk, back up, or pop up every time I asked her to go forward.  In the middle of the street. With cars coming both ways. And my health insurance hasn't kicked in yet. She was especially bad when we came even with the pasture with the two cows halfway down the street.

I ended up getting off and longing her in the middle of the street when no cars were coming, in an attempt to make her understand that if she made me get off, she would have to work a lot harder than me just asking her to walk forward. I then got back on. More balking, backing up, popping up. We tried this numerous times, and it did not work. I tried spinning her in circles when she acted up, then sending her forward. She figured it out on the first try, and as soon as I stopped circling her and tried to send her forward, on went the brakes again. I was hopping, furiously mad. She knew I was afraid of going splat on the pavement (I know I tense up on the street, no matter how much deep breathing I do), and she was completely taking advantage of the situation in an attempt to return to her little herd. My blood was boiling; I wanted to beat her. Of course I did not. I got off, longed her 3/4 of the way to the equestrian center (did I mention I was particularly tired that day?), moving like a planet with a satellite down the street, and then had to give up when too many cars were coming to be able to keep any kind of consistency. Once at the equestrian center, she was her usual calm self. Tired out by then, of course, but back to normal. I ended up riding her in both arenas: the white one was being used for a lesson, and after the girl disobeyed the trainer for a 2nd time and almost rammed her horse into us (the trainer asked her to stay at the other half of the arena so we could share) I gave up and we rode over to the red arena. The footing there was very deep, to the point where Lily was deliberately avoiding the rail because her feet were sinking to the pasterns in the sand. The sun was going down behind the trees at this point, casting a golden light over the enormous field next to the red arena. The grass sparkled like spun gold, making it look surreal and oddly 2-dimensional against the brilliant light. I just had to go out there into the gold. Lily was very willing to leave the quicksand, and trotted over the small rise that divides the equestrian center grounds from the field. We trotted and cantered a bit in the near end of the field, just for kicks. There is a cow pasture at the far end of the field, and Lily kept looking over that way to see if they had any plans to stampede our way and eat her, but she still paid attention to my cues, and cantered slowly when asked-no bucking, silliness, or trying to take off. 

Lily's version of cattle.

I could feel her own exhaustion now, though, and didn't push it much more than that. After that, we returned home. No major problems this time-she made a beeline for the barn, marching down the street, but I made a point of making her circle so she wouldn't be heading back in a straight line all the way. The first few times she balked, but then she understood that we were still going home despite the circling, and cooperated.

I started her on Mare Magic that same night!

She then had 3 days off due to me working, which were well-deserved because she had been worked 5 days in a row (a first) and most of the rides, though not always strenuous, had been pretty long . She got to spend her days and nights out with Rose, and yesterday Sunday I was back at the barn.

I longed Lily in the arena, and worked on some desensitizing with the dressage whip (she is deathly afraid of whips in general). She was a spaz. Looking for the other horses in the other paddock, tearing around, snorting, acting like I was going to clobber her at any second. Even though I have never done anything to hurt her. But this is her when she is in heat. She goes into this weird fear mode. I'm sure this was part of her problems with her previous owner and trainer. I let her run around on the longe in both directions, then asked her to walk. She would not. Gentle pressure on the line. Nope. Half halts on the line. This brought her to a walk, but when asked to change directions, she took off again. After about 10 minutes of letting her run around again, I asked her to halt and rubbed her entire body down with the dressage whip, both sides. She remained perfectly still, but she also wasn't paying 100% attention, still trying to look for the other mares. I extended my arm to the side away from her, and waved the whip up and down in the air so that it made whooshing sounds. This got her attention. Off Lily went again, tearing around in a circle. I asked her to stop, still waving the whip, and she changed directions. I asked her to stop again, she changed directions again. We ended up doing this little dance, her basically zig-zagging in front of me, until suddenly it clicked in her head, and she stood still, looking at me, while I whooshed the whip in the air on either side of her. She remembered that I am not here to hurt her. She received a LOT of pats, praise and kisses for that one. I then had her yield her front end and then her back end, and she responded obediently. I then had her walk forwards, back up, stop, turn, trot next to me. She had to mirror what I did without me asking. She did excellent!! The whip came in handy for tapping her when I started to jog and she tried to just walk fast behind me, but after one tap she understood that she was to pick up a trot and stay next to me when I jogged. It was a beautiful session. By the end of it, I was doing all sorts of maneuvers with Lily matching my every step, despite a big loop in the longe line!

After that, I turned her out with Rose and Lil Red while I cleaned her stall. This is the first time that the 3 of them have been out together since the last attempt when Lily first arrived, where Lily was chased away from Lil Red by Rose. This time, Rose came over to greet Lily over the fence when I brought her over to the paddock. She allowed Lily to come in, and they stood head to tail sniffing each other, with Lil Red on Rose's other side. I stood watching. And then...Rose stepped away and allowed Lily to greet Lil Red! I ran for the camera and took a slew of pictures. Lily is officially part of the herd!

It was suuuper cute to watch. Lily and Red instantly hit it off. Almost too much-they would stand head to tail, squealing and squirting. Yup, Lily confirmed that she IS in heat (I'd been assuming and hoping that this was the cause of her erratic behavior, but had seen nothing yet to prove my assumption) and apparently so is Lil Red. The first time they squealed, Rose came over, pinned her ears, and separated them, as if saying, "Knock it off, kids!" Then she walked away to another corner of the paddock and left them alone, acting very much like a chaperone. *lol*

Rose making sure Lily is still Lily

Lily has a new favorite friend

The little herd

Lily posturing for Lil Red. Yup, my mare is a hussy.

Rose the chaperone. "I see you looking at me!"

"Oh, that's why-you have a treat for me!"

"I know that camera is edible!"
She is the best herd leader. She is very motherly and caring while still being firm with the others, and is always the first to investigate anything new for the herd. Including anyone standing by the fence who just might have something in their pockets for her! *lol*

I cleaned Lily's stall while Julie gave a lesson on Miami. After that, I had the opportunity to ride Rose.

I have never ridden an Andalusian. Rose is half Andalusian, half Quarter Horse, but she looks 100% Andalusian. I have seen her trot and canter in turnout, and she naturally arches her neck and floats across the ground. It's just the way she moves, the way she's put together. Judy can't ride her due at the moment to an injured hand, and asked if I would like to exercise her for her. This is a major honor-Judy owned Rose's dam, and has been training Rose from the moment she was born. No one else has ridden her except Judy. This is a monumental privilege. So today Judy was going to show me how to handle and ride Rose.

She had me longe her first. Rose is 100% alpha, 100% of the time, and while she loves and respects humans for the most part (she can be a little pushy on the ground if you let down your guard), she will make you earn her respect. I love this mare and her personality. Judy stood to the side and gave me directions, showing me what maneuvers and cues Rose was used to, and how she is used to being worked on the longe.

I usually walk a big circle while I have the horse longe around me, just to allow them to make an even bigger circle. Rose is used to having the person stand still in the center. Judy trained her with the regular verbal cues, and I was to wave Judy's carrot stick at Rose or thump the ground with it if Rose did not pick up the next gait when asked to. Rose "challenged" me a couple of times, changing gaits when not asked to, or invading my space in the circle, in which case I was to tell her "Out!" She knew the command, but eventually decided to not listen to me when I gave it, requiring a tap with the rope end of the carrot stick on her belly to encourage her to step out to the end of the line. This worked well, and she needed no more reminders after that. She was goofy and playful on the longe, bucking a couple of times and galloping madly when asked to canter, but she had not been worked in awhile and needed to get all that energy out. Judy laughed watching her.

Once she had settled down, we brought her back to the barn, where Judy tacked her up for me and we went back to the arena. Rose seemed confused when she saw that I was the one that was going to ride her, not her mom. She stepped up to Judy for Judy to get on her. Really cute! Judy talked to her and held her while I mounted up. Rose is a big girl by my standards. Most of the horses I have owned and ridden lately have all been in the 14.3-15.2 range, and narrow. Rose has the typical wide round back of an Andalusian and is a little over 16 hands. 

She was a dream to ride. Her walk with me on her was tentative (she kept looking at Judy, as if asking "Why are you down there?", and I of course was tentative with my commands too, figuring out how much pressure she needed of legs and reins for her to respond. When asked to trot, however, she arched her neck, lifted her front end, and floated. Her trot is big and smooth at the same time; I could have sat it even easier than posted to it. "WOW!" It just escaped me, which made Judy laugh. Her canter was easy to cue, but I did not have the leg strength that Rose is used to, and ended up needing the assistance of a dressage whip to tap her lightly and get her going. She had a hard time with the canter, though, because the arena footing has gotten very deep, and she struggled in the far side, where it was deepest-we kept losing the canter because she'd struggle and I would lean forward in an attempt to help her, and then she'd come to an absolute stop, as she is very sensitive to changes in seat. Even so, what I felt of her canter was also wonderful-very rocking chair-like, her front end lifting even more when she engaged. I've never had such a ride. It was wonderful!

Afterwards, Judy and I gave Rose a "bubble bath", and she got to go out with her herd again. I left the barn to go home for lunch, then returned about an hour later to ride Lily. I rode her in the paddock by the barn, where the footing is better than in the arena depth-wise, but there are still a lot of rocks-she kept avoiding the areas with rocks and I didn't insist, of course. We did a lot of trot & walk transitions, halts and backing up, and transitions to trot from a halt. The barn is at the top of the slope, and the far corner of the paddock is at the bottom-most part of the slope. You barely see it when you're on foot, but you can definetely feel it when you're riding. Lily struggled a little in that corner initially, wanting to break down to a walk to go down and up, but after a couple of tries with me pushing her to maintain the trot, she got it. It was a relatively short workout-about 30 min-compared to the long rides we got in last week (most of them over an hour long), but it was intense work and she's not used to working on an incline like that. At the end of the workout, I had her stand and worked on her staying still while I got on and off. After last week's argument, she had just developed a new habit of backing up when I got off, and I've been meaning to seriously work on correcting her bad habit of walking off immediately after your butt touches the saddle when mounting up. After the 3rd repetition, she got it. It was nice to have a normal workout with her; Lily was back to her calm, cooperative self. I gave her a good bath after that and turned her out with Rose.

On Monday, I turned out Miami, Lil Red and Rose in the arena, and we started out repeating the previous day's workout, but with more backing up, halts and lateral work in the paddock. I tried the Buck Branaman trick of getting her to move one step to the side with a weight shift. She responded...with 5 steps in the direction I was shifting towards! I would ask her to stop, shift the opposite direction, and stop her on step #3. We repeated this until she was only doing one step in each direction. Lily was ready to go, however, and let me know by pawing impatiently after the 4th repetition of this exercise. "This is boring! Let's go!" I laughed. So we kept on working. About 20 minutes into our session, Fionna and her daughter Jennifer showed up to feed lunch. Jennifer brought in the other 3 mares, and I moved with Lily to the arena to ride for another 10 minutes. Lily slogged through the sand, and I was glad I had decided to wrap her legs with polos for extra support. We ended up mostly walking, and had officially started our cool down when Fionna came over and asked if I'd like to go with Jennifer to the equestrian center to ride. I accepted-this was the chance to take Lily out with company.

Lily was a little reluctant to leave the barn area, but I pointed her in Red's direction and she got the hint, and settled into a long walk about a horse length and a half behind Red. We walked briskly all the way down to the center, and Jenn and I warmed up in the white arena.

Jen & Lil Red lead the way

Jen is a really good rider-she's only 14, and used to barrel race on Lil Red. She has a good seat and good leg on her little mare, not like some so-called Western riders who are just sloppy. After 10 minutes or so, we split, me staying in the white arena and her moving into the red arena to do rodeo maneuvers (spinning, turning, short sprints). She then took Red into the field, where they did gallops in both directions. Lily and I got some good trot work in and some nice extended canter work, and Lily felt great-energetic, happy, not tired at all, even though by this point I had been on her for over an hour and a half including the 15 minute walk down to the center. I had been concerned she'd worry about Red's depart, but though she was keeping an eye out for where the little Quarter Horse was, she listened to me. After another 10 mintues or so, she was sweating, so I walked her out and took her over to the hose by the clubhouse to rinse her down and got back on. The water was cold enough to make Lily protest initially, but it was a hot day (83 degrees in the sun) and the chilly water did her good. By then Jen was done with her gallops and we met by the red arena to head back to the barn. Lil Red set a blazing pace at a walk, marching her way down the street a good 5 lengths in front of Lily and me. I've never seen such a small horse (she's about 14.2 hands) walk so fast! A couple of times Lily asked for permission to trot to catch up, but I didn't want her to develop the habit of chasing after buddies who are moving away from her, so I half halted her each time to keep her walking and she soon relaxed into her own long pace, with no signs of separation anxiety as the distance between us and Lil Red increased. By the time we made it back to the barn, Lil Red was still panting after her power walk but Lily was mostly cooled off, and was happy to stand loose in the shade of the barn awning next to me while Jen hosed down Lil Red.  Afterwards, I gave Lily a liniment bath.

Today I started to clip Lily's coat again-I clipped her with a #40 blade about 3 weeks ago, since it's been so hot overall, and her hair has mostly grown back. I started out with a trace clip today, with the goal of finishing the rest of her tomorrow after the farrier comes. After that, I just longed Lily for 20 minutes. She did GREAT work on the longe, and did not seem fatigued from yesterday. We did a nice warmup without side reins, w/t/c, then I snapped the side reins on and had her do trot-canter intervals, of 2 circles on the longe at each gait before changing to the next gait. By the time we reversed and changed directions, Lily had enthusiastically figured out the pattern and did the intervals herself! Such a smart girl. On a whim, I unclipped the side reins and snapped them onto a pair of D-rings higher up on her surcingle, imitating more closely the position the reins would be in while I'm riding. This was the result:

She almost looks as good as in the pic Judy took of us!

She was even stretching down in this one. This is the best she's worked on the longe so far. Note to self: clip side reins onto higher D's, not the middle ones!

After that, I took Rose out of her paddock to work with her. I longed her briefly, for about 5 minutes or so, to see how she'd respond without her mom around. She challenged me a couple of times, but nothing major, and I immediately corrected her and sent her off in the desired gait. Charles arrived when I was tacking her up, and held her for me. Rose is afraid of the crossties + cement floor combo: when she was younger, she slipped on a wet cement washrack while crosstied. So Charles came in handy for holding her for me while I got all her tack out and got her ready for the ride.

Rose was way better than the day before-much more responsive, very willing. I did not need the dressage whip at all. Charles took pics so I could see myself riding her, and of course I'm horrid-slouching and leaning forward. Ugh. Rose worked properly when I rode her in a sitting trot, where I could stretch up my body and engage my abs. Automatically her head came down and she engaged and lifted. Gorgeous! We did mostly walk and trot, and cantered a little in both directions but Rose's stride is so big that she could get from one end of the paddock to the other in 3 strides. I can't wait to ride her in the equestrian center arenas, where she has more room.

Warming up at the walk

Trotting up the paddock incline

It was a short ride (about 20 min) and by then Rose was sweating and blowing. I cooled her down with the reins on the buckle, and hosed her off well before turning her out with Lil Red and their lunch.
I love riding Rose. I hope she takes me to the next level, so that I can in turn take Lily to the next level in her training!