I wonder about people

So 3 of us are riding back home on a single track trail, winding down a hill, when we meet another rider.  Zoe is in the lead.  She stops, then realizes it's just another horse.  We pull to the side to let her go by when she announces that she has a dog with her, just behind her….somewhere.  Somewhere but not to be seen…way back there-in the direction I'm headed.  She says we can go ahead because her dog is fine with horses.  We just stand as she is calling her dog.  I wonder about people.  Finally the dog shows up and freezes because now we find out he's scared of horses, he won't do anything but run from them or try to walk way around them.  "Fine with horses".  Humpf.  Her comment to go on ahead was strange too.  Yes her dog might be fine with horses but is my horse fine with her dog showing up randomly somewhere up ahead on the trial?  How does she know that my horse will be okay with this?  Hmmmm.  When the dog showed up we had moved a few steps ahead but I knew that the dog would be a trail obstacle.  Hoping that we would not repeat the squirrel episode of the previous weekend I was ready for anything.  Zoe saw the dog and froze again.  Stopped to stare but no turning and loping away.  That was good.  Once she figured out it was just a dog she was fine.  The dog wouldn't take the trail to get to it's owner.  It skirted the trail and our horses, traveling way up the hillside and down again to get to it's owner.   I don't have a problem with loose dogs on the trail as long as they are somewhere close to their owners and aren't aggressive.   I just wonder about people sometimes….

Dentals

Dental time of the year is here.  This week Sky and Zoe had their teeth done.  Skippy had hers done last March when she had her fillings.  I was describing the dental process to my brother over the Christmas holiday.  He was amazed so I took pictures, mostly for his benefit but decided to post them here too.  These pictures are of Sky.  I could have taken pictures of Zoe but pictures of a dark colored horse in a dark place usually don't turn out so well.  Hence I took pictures of Sky.

He had some points that needed to come off.  He had chipped his upper back molar on his left side-probably on a rock but it wasn't a problem 

Such a happy pony 

He also chipped his front teeth-also not a problem.  Hopefully if won't become a problem. 

Very sleepy horse.  He stood like this for 1/2 hour!

Zoe's teeth had no problems.  Her infindibulums were not very deep-hence no cavities to be filled.  She did have a diastima-space between teeth that food can get packed into.  It was not a problem now just something to watch.  Zoe was sleepy for a while too.  Now she can be a more efficient eating machine-great….my "fluffy" horse can now get fatter.  More exercise and less food for her.  

Those Squirrels...

Last Sunday Jim and I went for a ride on Skippy and Zoe.  We went on the canal trail.  Jim had not been on that trail in a long time-this ride we had the time to do it and Jim's knee wasn't bothering him…so we went.  Jim and I took turns leading down to the canal trail.  On the trail Skippy took the lead and trotted out-not her fastest (which most horses have to lope to keep up with) but a nice medium trot-for Skippy.  Anyway Zoe had to practice following a faster horse and having manners.  Which Zoe did pretty well.

After the aquaduct we took the cutoff back home-it goes up a hill for a ways.  Zoe was in the lead.  The trail has logs crossing it…like large stair steps.  After that it narrows.  The whole trail going up the hill is a single track trail with just a few wider spots.  There is a definite uphill slope to the left and a down hill slope to the right.  It was on this trail in one of the narrow spots, after the "stair steps" that Zoe saw a squirrel.  Now Zoe has seen a bizillion squirrels.  This squirrel was pulling on a pine cone.  Maybe it was the combo-squirrel and pine cone- that spooked Zoe, maybe the squirrel had a mean look on it's face because the pine cone was pretty big compared to the squirrel and it was having a hard time moving it.  At any rate Zoe did a 180-turning front end over the downhill portion of the hill- and proceeded to lope down the trail.  (Side note- amazing that horses can turn in such tight spots-on a dime) Skippy said "if she's going to run, I'm out of here too" and Skippy did a 180 and loped down the trail-everybody going downhill at a lope, now Skippy is in front.  Jim comes to a wider spot and does an emergency brake and it works for him.  I'm not sure there is enough room there for me to do the same so we blow past Jim/Skippy.  Zoe is now headed for the stair steps and I have to stop her and there is now no wide spots left on the trail.  She notices that Skippy is not following her and starts to slow and I finish it off a loud "whoa" and a pull on the reins to stop the horse.  It didn't take much to stop her, phew.  It was all over in just a few seconds but still heart stopping all the same.  Glad we didn't lope all the way down the trial.  Afterwards we put Zoe back in front and later on she saw another squirrel…this time she gave it "the ear" and that was all.

I'm glad I was able to sit the spin and stay on and stop.  Just can't be a passenger on any ride, you never know what a horse is going to do…

Maybe we will call it "Squirrel Hill"

Ice

Last week was frozen.  And I wanted to lunge my horse but the arena was being used.  So I went to the round pen.  There are puddles in the round pen that were ice, hard ice.  Zoe and I went in and I just let her wander around to check it out.  She sniffed at the ice but stayed off of it.  And she noticed that if she stayed on the fence line she could stay off of the ice.  So she started trotting…after all we are in there to work.  So I said fine, trot.  I asked for changes of direction by turning into the rail and sometimes away from the rail.  She was doing good, listening and staying off the ice.  So I was surprised at one of the turns she headed straight for the ice.  My heart stopped.  I saw her trot on to it, realize it was slippery, tried to stop, saw her hind end get very squirrely, and she managed to stop on the ice.  I was worried that she would pull her suspensory ligament again.  She sniffed the ice and walked off of it and trotted on.  She was moving fine so I let her continue…she was the one who wanted to trot at this moment.  So I put her back to work.  Again at another turn she went towards the ice.  This time I stopped all movement with my body and before I could get a sound out of my mouth, her front feet were on the ice but she managed to stop herself with her hind end-that was not on the ice yet.  I thought it was very interesting.  She is a lazy horse and will usually stop on her front end.  But doing that this time wouldn't have worked-it would have caused her to continue sliding forward and all her feet would have been on the ice.  So she used her hind end to stop and I've never seen her do it so well.  It made me laugh.  The next day she was fine-no problems with any pulled suspensory ligaments.    And she learned a valuable lesson-stay off the ice.

Should haves

Today I should have lunged my horse before I rode her out on the trail.  I felt like I was riding a wound up rubber band.  She was trying to be good and she was good for the most part.  But it was a day when I had to be careful with my boundries.  For example if I starting trotting, I think I would have been sorry.  We would have had bucks, spins, more "woo hoo" moments than I would have cared for-especially with the trail conditions.  It was a very cold day and the trail was not good for trotting.  If it wasn't wet and slippery, it was very hard-like walking on icy ground.  So walking was appropriate.  So when we got back, the arena was good for going fast.  So we unsaddled and lunged the horse after I went on the trail.  Now she was having a good time:  trotting, loping, bucking, spinning.  Thanks go to my trail partners for the day that understood that walking was about all we could do safely-for Zoe's mindset, and for all of the horses for the trail conditions.  When we were coming back from the trail and we got back to Lomida, I got off and walked because my left foot was asleep.  I was thinking that if Zoe did something that required me to use my left foot, it wouldn't work-the foot was useless.  I should have rode for a bit with my foot out of the stirrup that way it wouldn't have been such "dead weight".  And I didn't realize it but my right hand was so cold that it couldn't hold onto anything.  Should have used my gloves or switched hands around, because my left hand was fine.  I guess some "pre-focusing" would have been appropriate.

Focus

Thursday I chose to ride in the arena even tho it was in the middle of the day.  Time was short so I wanted to ride and be able to accomplish things in a short amount of time.  My horse would rather have me space out, try something for just a minute or one time around the arena then stop or poke around the arena with no plan in mind.   I have found that riding in the arena takes focus.  Especially when you are short on time.  For example - can I trot around the arena collected and side pass on and off the rail on the long sides?   Not at first.  It seems so simple but not today.  I found that focusing on what I wanted to do, focusing on where I wanted to go (not just 5 feet in front of me) focusing on my seat, focusing on my feet, focusing on my cues, focusing on the position of my hands-sounds like work.  And it was.  But I found when I really paid attention to what I was doing, my horse did much better.  Most of my rides in the arena are short-Monday before work, Tuesday before work and sometimes on Friday before I leave to pick up Zeke.  So I have learned how to focus.  It has really helped my riding.  In other areas of my life I can use that ability to focus to block other things out and focus on the task at hand with the tools I have to accomplish that task.  I do have a choice, to focus or not to focus...

Note to self...

Note to self…when hand walking your horse and you ask your horse to walk thru a puddle as you avoid the puddle, you will still get wet!  In retrospect I don't know why I thought it would turn out any differently.

Icelandic Horse & Zoe

Today we went on the trail with an Icelandic horse-Keeko.  It's not very often that we go out with a horse that is smaller than Zoe.  Zoe is usually the smaller horse when I go out with a group.  But today was different.  Keeko is going to do an endurance ride next month, a 30 miler.  So she wanted more trail practice.  Keeko is a nice horse, not a spooky horse and has good manners.  I've been told that in Iceland the horses really don't have any predators, there is nothing there to be "scared of", so these horses tend to be curious rather than spooky.  And I learned today that some Icelandic horses tolt better than others, the tolt gait can be "stronger" in some horses than others.  Keeko isn't considered a horse with a strong tendency to tolt.  But she can tolt, her owner has worked on it.  She was slow up the hills but kept going.  Her owner wanted me to be in front for the ride so I kept my eye on her as we did hill work.  We took some walking breaks and stopped a few times.  Zoe didn't mind going out with a "new" horse.  Today we went to 3 spots that overlooked the lake.  Here's one of our stopping places...Inspiration Point.

Different Wednesday Ride

On Wednesday I usually go on a trail ride with just me and Zoe.  I find that I need to do that at least once a week in order for Zoe to be accustomed to being out by herself.  There was a time when I was going on the trail all the time with other people and then I tried to take Zoe out by herself and I had a horse that didn't want to go out.  So I find going out by myself once a week helps with that.

However today (Wednesday)....we did something different.  I had a friend ask me if I'd go with her-she has a foxtrotter.  My past experience with foxtrotters told me that our two horses gaits would not be compatable.  So I was thinking that we could leave together but we might end up going home our separate ways.  So it would be an adventure-something different.  My friend also said that her horse can be high energy-barn sour tense energy-especially on the way home.  So I said we'd give it a try.

The first half of the ride was good.  The foxtrotter was faster at the walk but we could keep up.  And trotting was okay, we stayed pretty much the same speed.  We got to the KBB Hills and worked some of them over and over again.  Then headed towards home.  That's when the foxtrotter turned into a different horse.  He was naughty...jigging, tense, not listening.  Zoe didn't feed off his "energy",  she remained calm but was mad at him.  Every once in a while she would lay her ears back at him as if to say "knock it off".  So we decided to go our separate ways.  That way the foxtrotter could get the extra "work" he needed.  And go extra miles if needed.  Zoe was fine going down a different trail.  She doesn't really know this horse very well, there was no attachment there, so I think it was easy for her to leave him.  We walked, did some extended trotting, collected trotting, took a less traveled trail-all the while heading home.  She was fine.  So I guess I did end up going out by myself.

Show time

At our stable we have a horse show once a year.  We just had one today.  It was the first year we had dressage tests, we had introduction tests A, B and C.  I decided to do a pleasure class, 18 years old+ -walk, trot and tests A and B.  I wrote in a previous blog about trying to do dressage in this years show.  It was an interesting experience and I look forward to improving my scores.  Test A was 53% and test B was 54%.  I'm told that a score in the 50%'s is ok, satisfactory.  The 60%'s would be considered good.  If one gets a score in the 60%'s or higher three times in a row they should consider advancing to the next test.

The tests seemed to go by so fast.  There were things I knew I could do better, things that I knew Zoe could do better.  There were other things that we did better than the "satisfactory" 5 score.  Each part of the test is scored 0-10 and comments are written next to certain activities.  Basically, if I can get more impulsion out of my horse the scores would be better.  Rhythm is so important.  I also found out about 4 days before the show that the rider is not allowed to give verbal cues to the horse.  So I've found myself with another bad habit-clucking to my horse.  So I've spent the last few days concentrating on using my seat to move up and down in my gaits.

 I did find out that my equitation isn't as bad as I thought.  On the dressage tests I got a 6 and 6.5 on rider's position.  And in the pleasure class I got 4th place-the judge said she would have scored me 1st or 2nd place if it was an equitation class.  So my equitation is improving.  I use too much foot movement in the pleasure class to look pleasurable.  So it was my first year riding english and it was interesting.  The dressage is so precise and challenging, I think I'll enjoy working on it.

 Patti with the flag

 Jeni and Zeke came to visit 

 We had to scoop poop

 

Fly masks

I almost hate to say it, I might be jinxing myself but here it goes...all 3 of my horses have not destroyed their flymasks this summer.  Each one of them is still wearing the same mask they started with at the beginning of summer.  This is amazing to me.  Zoe usually goes thru a couple of them.  Sky gets about 2 a summer.  Skippy is the only one that seems to keep one mask thru the whole summer.  Maybe Skippy has been giving the other 2 lessons!

Summer sores

I hate summer sores.  This blog is usually about Zoe and me but this time it's about another horse I have-Sky.  He's been getting summer sores the end of every summer for about 3 years in a row.  I have an idea about this.  Every since I've been deworming him 2-3 times a year (dependent on his good fecal tests) I have to deal with summer sores.  So I think I'm done with the 2-3 times a year deworming and will go back to my old schedule.  Maybe he's just a horse that needs to have the extra protection.  We'll give it a try and hopefully I'll remember and write about it in a year and it will be better.  Anyway here are some picts of this year's sore.  I've been working on this since July and here it is Sept 23 and it's finally healed.  Wrapping and Prednisolone.  Normally I don't give the Pred for this, but this one was nasty.

Rain in September

I love going on a ride after it rains.  I say that now-in Sept.  Come March, I may not be so happy about the rain.  But it's been a normal long dry hot summer, so in Sept I can appreciate the rain.  It smells so good, the dust is down, no wet slippery spots yet, the horses have been worked all summer so they are obedient (for the most part), it's not freezing cold yet, the poison oak isn't so "juicy" so it's harder for me to get a rash, animal prints are easier to identify, the "naked ladies" are blooming, did I mention that it smells so good....  I'm sure there are other things that will come to mind after I finish writing.

Camping

This year we went to Skillman for horse camping.  The trip there was easy on the truck as we were only 3700 feet.  Last year the trip to Wrights Lake was too much for our truck-almost didn't make it.  This year the trip was shorter and the uphill grade was not so steep and long.  The smoke from the American Fire wasn't bad.  It was very slight in the morning and then it blew away during the day.

In my last blog I wrote about ponying horses and the problems/resolutions that came up.  The first day we went on a short ride on trails around camp.  I ponyed Sky off of Zoe.  The combination worked fine.  The trail we chose had alot of hairpin turns in it, but we did ok.  The next morning we went for another ride.  This one wasn't as fun.  We took our dog camping.  In the past we always had 2 dogs at horse camping and we left them back at camp and they were fine.   Last November we had to put one of our dogs down leaving just one for this trip.  We didn't want to leave just one dog back at camp by herself.  So we took her.  The first day she was fine.  The second day she caused some problems.  The dog is 1/2 healer so she liked to stay behind the string of horses.  On the second day she must have done something to spook Sky.  We were on a narrow trail.  Sky starting running up on Zoe and spinning (as I'm holding on to his rope).  Because Sky was spinning, Zoe thought it would be a good idea to do the same.  Now I'm riding/ponying 2 spinning horses at the same time.  All I could do was hold on and yell at them.  They all stopped, I got everyone turned around and we continued on.  Not fun.  Then Zoe and Sky decided it was time to eat.  Every 20 steps or so one or the other would stop and eat.  It's not easy for me to control that behavior with 2 horses at the same time.  So we got off the narrow trail and that took care of the eating problems.  At that point we stayed on a wide road and went back to camp.  So the ponying combination went fine, I just didn't plan on the dog causing problems.

Once the 3rd rider showed up I no longer had to pony a horse.  When Zoe was little I would pony her everywhere and as time went on I got tired of it.  Ponying horses is something I can do but it isn't my favorite thing to do.

We went on a nice long ride that afternoon.  We took the Hallelujah Trail out from camp, met up with the Pioneer Trail by Hwy 20 and rode back to camp.  Zoe was in the lead on the Hallelujah Trail.  She did pretty good leading on a trail she had never been on before.  There were alot of hairpin turns on this trail and it was no problem for her.  We mostly walked and did very little trotting.  All the horses were excited when we first started and it took quite a while for them to settle down so walking seemed the best choice.  But after a while they calmed down and trotting was ok.  We almost took the wrong trail to get back home.  I was glad I had the map with us.  It was a pretty good map-for those 2 trails.  Not sure about the other trails.  Those were the only 2 trails we traveled on the whole time we were there.

The next day we went on a short ride in the morning as we had family visiting later that day.  It was good to see everyone again.  No one wanted to ride and we were having too much fun visiting.  The next day was our go home day.  A short ride in the morning was all we had time for.

 Site 15 had 2 corrals so we highlined a horse.  It worked out just fine.

 Mom, I'm busy eating!

 Skippy doesn't even bother to look up.

 Sky did great on his high line.

 Relaxing

 Relaxing

 Skippy

He was only there for a few minutes and the dirt just jumped on him!

Mares

Most days I like my mares.  There can be a few days during the month that I like them less.  Two Saturdays ago one of my mares was on my "bad" list - Zoe.  She was in heat.  That usually means that I don't have her full attention when I'm working with her.  If I had been paying more attention I would have put some clues together that would have helped me out more that day.  It usually works that way-hindsight is awesome.

The Wednesday before she gave me some clues that this heat was more intense than normal.  That Wednesday while I was getting her ready for a solo trail ride she urinated twice.  She never goes pee while I'm brushing her.  There were no other horses around for her to "impress" with her activity.  I remember thinking that I hoped she was okay to go on a ride-that she was okay.  The ride turned out okay and I thought nothing more of the situation.

Fast forward to the next Saturday.  It was 1 week before horse camping.  As usual the first day of camping I have 3 horses and only 2 riders.  So I usually pony one of the horses.  I've done this before.  The last few times I ponyed Skippy off of Zoe with no problems.  (Skippy is Zoe's mom and also her pasture mate)  So this day I saddle up Zoe with my western saddle.  She hasn't had this one on for about a year.  I ride a few laps around the arena and Zoe doesn't seem to mind the saddle.  So now I'm going to pony Skippy off of Zoe.  Only it didn't work out like I planned.  I had a friend bring Skippy into the arena.  I was not quite in the shady corner of the arena but close to it.  No sooner than my friend got the gate closed from coming into the arena, Zoe started the snorting she does when in heat and before I knew it-I was up in the air.  Yup, Zoe reared.  Twice.  Not so much energy went into the second rear-so it wasn't as high as the first.  I had 2 people watching me.  Both were holding their breaths.  I stayed on.  Both times.  A long time ago I read an article on how to ride a rear.  I guess some of the information stuck in my head.  Now I'm mad.  Once we had all 4 feet on the ground we were doing circles, small circles.  Funny thing about a rear-once I notice that she is too light in the front end and she could be rearing-we are in the air.  I guess I would need more practice riding rearing horses to feel that better-but not so sure that I want to practice riding alot of rearing horses.  In retrospect I should have abandoned the ponying idea and circled towards the inside of the arena and worked her hard. Sweaty hard.  But I didn't.  Once things calmed down I attempted ponying, but I never had 100% of Zoe's attention.  Her ears gave her away.  This day-I didn't trust her.  After a few trys I decided that this activity would be better for another day.  Once she was back in her paddock she still had attitude so I turned her paddock into a round pen and we finished out the day with some round pen work.  Hard work.  Attitude was much better when we finished.  I was mad enough to keep going but thought I'd better quit while I had her in a better frame of mind.  Yes I was mad at her but I was also mad at myself.  I had clues that told me I might have problems.  I should have worked her hard right after the rear.  I should have been in the center of the arena at the start - it would have been safer for me and easier to move her forward to keep her from rearing.  Maybe it was the saddle that caused part of the problem - it does have a back cinch and considering her "condition" it could have irritated her.  Alot of "what ifs".  I might never know but I'll be paying better attention next heat cycle.

So I decided to try ponying the next 2 days.  After all camping was coming up and I needed to know how Zoe was going to act around Skippy.  As the days progressed Zoe was less in heat and that helped.  I never did use the western saddle again.  And I did this by myself in the morning before work.  I've worked these 2 horses together for years and didn't worry about being by myself.  I took many precautions tho....just having them be around each other and gauging their attitudes towards each other. I did manage to pony Skippy off of Zoe but wasn't 100% sure we were done with "heat" attitudes.  So on the 3rd day I ponyed Sky off of Zoe.  Sky is my gelding.  Zoe could have cared less.  It was easy.  So I decided during camping that I would try that combo.  I'll try the first combo again at home, probably after camping but before the next heat.   So more about camping and ponying in the next blog.

New stirrups

Last blog was about something new to Zoe.  This blog is about something new to me.  I changed my stirrups to "cheese grater" stirrups.  I decided that there was nothing wrong with getting a tool to help me keep my feet in place.  I have "tools" to help me or my horse accomplish other things, why not this?  Usually my feet slip thru the stirrups until my heel rests against them.  Then the top of my stirrups rest against the front of my ankle. So if I'm really busy riding and trying to accomplish something, I ride with my feet like that and after a while my ankle starts to hurt.  "Oh ya, my feet are in the wrong place".       Now I've tried to ride correctly-balls of my feet on the stirrups, heels down.  But for some reason I loose the right position-and I suspect it is my right foot that gives me the most problems.  

Well after getting these, I figured out a few things that I've suspected all along.  Yes it is my right foot that "fails" first.  I thought I was riding with my heels down all along but no...especially my right heel tends to come up.  When I ride with my feet and heels in the correct positions and concentrate on keeping them that way-my feet NEVER move around in the stirrups.  The "cheese grater" keeps them in place.  As long as my heel is down-my feet never move.  It's awesome.  Now you would think if I applied the same principals to my "easy ride" stirrups I would get the same results.  After all it's what every trainer says- balls of feet on stirrups and heels down.  Should work.  I think the roughness of the pads really helps to keep things in place.  Also my barn manager pointed something out to me.  On "easy ride" stirrups, the top part where it connects to the leathers, has alot of swing or movement to it.  Therefore for people who have a hard time keeping their feet in place that movement doesn't help.  These new ones-not so much movement and that helps.  They are also pretty light weight compared to regular irons.  A nice tool to help me with my dressage riding.  They are also wider than regular irons.  I like that because I have more stirrup for my foot.  I guess it's a part of the "easy ride" stirrups that I really like-the wideness is nice.  

When I did my research on these new stirrups I found many thoughts.  A few said they "chewed up" the soles of their shoes but only a few said that.  I figured if it was a really big issue many people would have said that...so I discounted that negative comment.  A few said the stirrups "chewed up" their leathers and saddles.  But some people commented back that you just had to be careful and some suggested putting socks over the stirrups when done.  Careful and socks made sense to me.  Most of the people said they really liked how they helped keep their feet in place.  A few said they didn't help at all but only a few.  So I took the plunge and decided to try them.  Glad I did.  

Ear plugs

Z-now what? 

Me- just an ear plug.

Z- a what, I can't hear you?  Wait there's something in my ear, I'll shake my head and get it out.

Shake. Shake. Shake.  Ear plug falls out, bouncing on the ground

Z- that's better!

Me- Hold still, we'll try it again.  

I cup my hand around her ear, hold close to her head and pop the plug into her ear again.  This time it stays better.  

Z- (head shaking some) I can't get the thing out of my ear.  You said there were holes and riots?  What are you talking about?  (Note to self-not only does she do strange things to me but now she's talking funny.)

Me- now that's better.  We'll take it out in a few seconds.  Good girl! 

Z- now wetter? Water in my ear?  What's Earl got to do with all this?  WHO'S EARL!!!

Me- Good girl, out it comes.  (out comes the plug)  Now we'll try the other ear.  

Z- Finally I can hear you.  My ear was plugged up.  I'm not sure I like this game.  

I put the plug in the other ear and it stays in good.  She's not too happy as you can see with her ear position, but it's something that I think she can get used to.  

Z- I hope this leads to some treats, I think treats are in order.  

Finally a post

Seems like this summer has been a time of trying to get past big events.  At work we got a new computer operating system-learning curve again.  My workplace moved...lots involved there.  I'm the inventory manager for a horse hospital, so I was in charge of moving all the supplies.  After we moved I had an inventory to do.  Then I had a large endurance race to pack supplies for all the hospital trucks going to this race.  (Which means when they get back I have to unpack said supplies)  At home I decided to clean out the shed and turn it into a fort for the grandson.  And in my own personal horse world I decided to take lessons for a while.  See previous post.  This summer I've spent much horse time trying to put my lessons to work for me.  I'm one of those people that practice during the week what I learned at lessons-want to get the most for the $ I'm spending.  I do manage to get out on the trail at least twice a week but the rest of the time I'm in the arena practicing.  So all this to say that I've not been posting for a while but I've been busy.

Lessons.
I'm trying to get ready for a dressage test that we are going to have at the annual horse show at my barn this October.  I'm not sure I'll be ready.  But I'm having fun trying and I find that my horse is more responsive to me.  In any case I'm sure this is a "win-win" situation.  Dressage-seems to be the ultimate in pleasure and equitation all rolled into one.  And my equitation is not the greatest so it is quite a challenge to me, but if I get myself on the right track it will only help my riding.  I have a really bad habit of moving my feet/legs and my feet end up too far into the stirrup.  I have a few ideas to work on that and will post about it in the next week.  But it sure is alot of work for both me and my horse.  My horse is one that moves heavily on the front end, partly because she is down hill to the withers.  It is a challenge to keep her light on the front end.  I tend to urge her on with my feet-a habit I got into when she was a young horse, just learning to be ridden.  But it is a bad habit now, I find that I am working too hard while riding her-she needs to be doing more of the work.  So I have figured out how to just ride and let her do more of the work and we both are doing better.  Once she gets going she has an extended trot-the back feet reaching under her and exceeding the front foot fall and it feels like I'm floating.

Lessons update

One of the things I wanted to learn in lessons was to canter a circle collected.  We can do that now.  Zoe and I need to work on being light on the front end at the canter.  In today's lesson the trainer said we were floating at the trot.  It felt really good.  Felt like I had alot of energy in my horse that was used in a collected manner, she was paying attention, working like I asked without constant nagging on my part. The canter was a different story.  She was just heavy on the front end.  So I learned some techniques to help her understand to get off her front end.  Wrapping my legs around her (she is a smaller horse and I'm a tall person), using my outside rein and sometimes asking with my inside leg to stay to the far outside of the circle helps.  I could get different speeds out of her at the canter.  And we finally got lighter on the front end.  Something for both of us to work on.

In the past we have also worked on cantering over poles.  We used 1/2 of the arena, set up poles at 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock and cantered over them.  Sometimes she needs alot of leg to get keep up the canter when we are approaching a pole.

More pole work has been to trot over poles collected.  Sometimes the poles are on the ground and sometimes they are raised up-no more than 6 inches.  We've gotten so that we can do 6 poles in a row.

Something else we have been working on is haunches in, haunches out and shoulders in, shoulders out.  She understands this pretty well.  We just need to build on it and eventually the trainer says we will be trotting these types of steps.  We usually do this at the side of the arena.  Lately he's been having me do it down the middle of the arena.  We will do a haunches in to the left for a few steps, straighten out for a few steps and then haunches in the the right for a few steps...continuing down the arena switching sides as we go along.  A precursor to flying lead changes-which I'd like to accomplish.  My other horses just do flying lead changes when we change directions in the arena-I've never had to teach a horse or myself how to get this done.  I guess it's my turn to do that on Zoe.    We also do the shoulders in and out down the middle of the arena.  

Half steps are something that will take a while to accomplish but we are starting on it.

A couple of weeks ago we did counter canters.  She was better on the left lead going to the right.  I was told that this will tell me how balanced she is.  Obviously one way is easier for her than the other.

A challenge for us is to pick up a collected canter from a walk with NO trot steps in-between and then to drop down to a walk from a canter with NO trot steps in-between.  She can do it but it takes some work.  The trainer said not to practice this one all the time, just once a week is enough.  So I probably won't be accomplishing this one quickly-it will take some time.  I notice that in the round pen she can do it.

Last week we did round pen work.  We learned how to do inside turns and outside turns.  Zoe usually does outside turns when she changes directions.  Inside turns was a new one for her and she finally got it.  The trainer did most of the work last week-showing us how to get the different turns.  Zoe made a mistake and was sassy with him.  That just made more work for her.  I'm pretty sure she left the round pen and was thinking "what just happened to me?"  I went on vacation for 3 days after that lesson so I didn't get back to practicing until this Monday.  Monday she remembered the lesson but was not cooperating at every turn.  Tuesday was better and Wednesday was good.  On Tuesday and Wednesday she did so good that I felt comfortable climbing up on her bareback and bridleless.  The only problem turn out to be the weeds in the round pen-she knew she could stop and eat them any time she wanted to-and she did.  I'd like to work on that some more-guess I'll have to pull the weeds.

Today we also did a collected canter down the middle of the arena, slowing to a trot, then changing leads, slowing to a trot and changing leads again, etc all the way down the arena.  Zoe was getting wired-alot more energy than I was used to.  Maybe she was saying "leave me alone and just let me canter!  Quit changing things up!"

So as you can see we have been busy with lessons.  We've been doing many different things over time. Someday I'll have to post some pictures of our work.

Hot walker

Yesterday I put Zoe on the hot walker for the first time.  My barn manager said I could use it anytime but I've never wanted to.  Since I didn't have time to go on the trail yesterday and was only going to do round pen work, I thought I could throw in some hot walker time too.  So in the morning was the hot walker and the afternoon the round pen.

My barn manager showed me how to get her going on it.  She suggested putting her on one of the shorter leads so she wouldn't play around so much.  Then I was to turn on the walker briefly, maybe for 1 second, to get her to feel which way she would be going and to get her used to the noise of the motor.  It does make a quiet noise.  Then turn it on and watch her to see what would happen.  The noise of the motor was noticed but wasn't regarded as scary.  At first she was surprised that she had to walk-something was leading her and it wasn't me.  She was on the walker with 2 other experienced "walkers"-and that was something the barn manager said would help.  Sometimes one of the other horses would stop just because and we have to yell at him to get going again.  Zoe picked up on that behavior really fast.  However she did learn that it doesn't do much good to stop, you just get in trouble.  Then she did really good.  The stopping behavior was greatly reduced and she spent about 20 minutes walking.  I'm not sure that she was thrilled about it as the pictures show but she did cooperate and it was a new learning experience.  I probably won't use it very much and I'm sure Zoe will be happy about that.  One of Zoe's horsey friends called it a hot dragger instead of a hot walker-I'm sure Zoe would concur.

Moving Manure

I work at the barn where my horses are boarded.  I do many things and one of them is to clean the pastures and stalls/paddocks of some of the horses.  Someone told me that a 1000 lb horse produces 50 lbs of manure a day.  That got me to thinking....how much manure do I move in a year?  Most of the horses I clean up after are under 1000lbs.  During the dry weather the weight of manure in the pastures/paddocks is lighter.  But in the winter it is heavy with the wetness of the rain.  So I trimmed the amount of manure each horse produces....because of the less weight of the horses and 1/2 the year it is very dry.  However the stalls-some of those horses just use the stalls as a bathroom!  So I came up with a number for the year-36 tons.  I went over the numbers again and again.  Still the same.  I guess I could say that's alot of manure.  But I think it says something else...   If someone were to ask me to move a pile of anything and that "anything" was sitting in front of me-all 36 tons of it-I'm not sure I'd move it.  But if I did a little bit every day and in the period of a year moved all 36 tons, that would be doable.  I guess when something looks insurmountable it is good to step back and look at the pieces, take it bit by bit and soon you will have accomplished your goal.  I guess if I can move that much manure in a year I can accomplish some more lofty goals...bit by bit!

This time Mommy came with Zeke to the barn

This time Mommy came with Zeke and Amma to the barn.  And because she was there we got some pictures that I normally can't take...seeing my hands are usually busy keeping Zeke safe.  Mommy grew up with the grey horse, Sky (in the horse world a white horse is called a grey horse).  She enjoys the fact that Zeke gets to see her favorite horse.  Sky is currently leased out to a friend so he gets plenty of exercise.   Every time we go out to the barn we do some work appropriate for Zeke's age...today that included taking the manure cart to the manure pile and of course riding the tractor to push back the manure pile.  And he is learning how to sit up on a horses back!   

When my girls were little and wanted to ride horses we had a friend that offered to let them ride her horses.  I wanted my girls to know that horses weren't just fun to ride but that they included some responsibilities.  So I asked my friend to include some work time along with their ride time.  They must have had the "horse bug" really bad because the work did not deter them from wanting to ride.  Eventually they got their own horses and here we are today.  One girl had Sky, the other had Skippy.  Zoe was Skippy's foal, Zoe turned out to be mine.  Zeke will also know that horses include responsibilities.  So far he's at an age that he loves to be a helper.  

Hello Sky

Sky is very gentle with Zeke...like he knows to be careful.  

What a helper! 

Sitting on the feeder and...

...feeding Zoe

Even got to sit on Skippy 

Feeding Sky 

Look Mom...I can sit on a horse 

And of course a trip to the barn has to include the tractor!

All Better

Zoe's eye is all better.  I can't find the place where she poked it.  It took about 1 week.

Here I could still see the ulcer and the pupil was still dilated but getting better.    

All better...where's the food mom?!?

Lupine and "OMG the water's going to eat me"

 Today it was a slow canal trail ride.  I felt like I was riding Zoe when she was 5 years old and just getting used to the canal trail.  At that time she was scared of the rocks, today it was the water.  The water was lapping the edge of the trail.  For the first half of the canal - every time we went around a curve I could feel her shudder underneath me.  "Just look where you want to go" I kept telling her.  She probably thought I was nuts asking her to keep going.  At one point the water splashed her hind legs and she crow hopped forwards.  Jim asked if I wanted Skippy to go first but I said no.  I wanted her to get more experience with the trail like this.  So I kept her in front the whole time.  But we hardly did any trotting, mostly walking.  I wasn't sure how she would be at a trot if she was so nervous at a walk.  So we were slow, like I said this ride reminded me of Zoe at 5 years old.  So a walk meant she had to deal with the water even longer.  I got to thinking that the trail isn't like this very often.  Sure I could take her down here alot when the water is close to the trail but that would be for a few weeks.  Then the trail will be covered and unusable for 9+ months-then when it cleared up we would start the whole process over again.  Not sure it's worth it.  So maybe I don't need to take her down to Folsom Lake when it's like this.  Maybe to trailer to other places and get more exposure to water that "moves" would be helpful and a little more consistent.  I guess I'll have to work on that.  We are good at other things but "moving" water apparently isn't one of them.

Anyway it was nice down there because the lupine was beautiful.  So it wasn't so bad doing the canal at a walk because at every turn there was a carpet of purple.  These pictures don't do it justice but here they are...

Corneal ulcer

This morning I was going to ride my horse but plans changed.  She met me at the gate to her paddock, head down-almost as if to say "My eye hurts".  Her left eye was swollen shut and tearing.  Hmmmm...no ride today. It was just getting light outside so we went into the barn to see better.  But the only thing I could see was the outside of her eye.  She would let me touch it but wouldn't let me open it.  The outside seemed to be ok, everything in one piece.  So it must be something inside.  Her conjuctiva was red and swollen-angry looking.  But I was unable to see her eyeball.  It wouldn't have helped anyway because I lack the proper tools to look into an eye.  The only thing I was hoping not to find was a foreign object in her eye and I was unable to get that far.  So the only thing to do was to call the vet.  I did wait until they opened and got a 1pm appointment.  We had some time till the vet opened so she got a good grooming.  After that the only thing to do was put a fly mask on her and put her back into her pasture.  She was acting normal otherwise.  I was thinking that she scratched it somehow trying to get to the grass on the other side of the fence.

Before the vet came

Before the vet came 

Dr S came from where I work.  She was great with Zoe and Zoe let her examine her eye without any sedation.  The outside was fine, the conjunctiva was irritated and Zoe didn't mind the opthamlascope.  Dr S stained her eye and we could see a corneal ulcer-a poke in her eye.  A bit worse than a scratch but at least she didn't poke into the globe of the eye.  Dr S showed me the ulcer.  I learned what a corneal ulcer looks like after the eye has been stained.  A scratch will show up as a line, an ulcer like Zoe's will show up as a dot, a puncture into the globe would show up as a donut shape.  Dr S said that she should heal up just fine.  She also checked inside the upper and lower eye lids for any foreign objects.  This was interesting.  Dr S put a glob of sterile lube on her finger and literally stuck her finger into the eye socket and felt around-and Zoe let her do it-she did raise her head a bit but didn't pull away.  Then she rinsed out the eye with sterile saline.  Zoe seemed to mind this the most, raising her head to try and get away, but didn't pull back.  Zoe hates it when I give her a bath and sprinkle her face with the hose.  This probably felt like that.  Triple antibiotic eye ointment in the eye twice a day for a week, 750 lb dose of banamine once a day for 3 days, a fly mask on and we should be fine.   She said eyes heal quickly and showed me a neat trick for getting the ointment into Zoe's eye.  We aren't sure how she did this.  There are no wires/nails poking out on her fencing or in and around her feeder.  It could have been just a poke from some hay too.  Dr S said I could ride her as long as she was comfortable and could see.  So we will see what she looks like on Sunday-I might be able to ride her.  A while back Zoe tore her bottom eye lid on the head of a nail sticking out of the barn wall-it was a very small tear and I remember how fast that healed up.  So without any complications this should heal up quickly too.

After the vet came

After the vet came