Brief (30 minutes) mystery ailment hits Dude

Last Thursday I decided to run by the barn post-work and pre-yoga class because I knew the horses had been in due to muddy fields and I wanted to walk Bestie. Normally Katie does the barn on Thursdays to allow me to go directly to yoga. She arrives later in the evening, so it was lucky that I went.

When I got there, I opened Dude's door to give him a treat and noticed that he was sweaty. Really sweaty. Sweat rings around his ears, sweat on the neck, sweat soaking his rib cage. I pulled him out of the stall and hollered for the barn manager. He wasn't upset, just sweaty. And his neck muscles were twitching, with his esophagus looking like it was rhythmically contracting. I ran my fingers down his neck but didn't feel anything. The whole thing was Very Odd, to say the least. We took off his turnout and threw on an Irish knit. Caitlin went out to the the indoor with me and walked him around. He seemed perky and pretty unconcerned; basically fine other than the muscle twitching and sweating. He had pooped quite a bit in his stall, so that was good. Caitlin took his temperature a couple times, and he didn't have a fever; also good.

When we brought him back in I put him on the cross ties to watch him and right about then Katie arrived. His neck muscles were still twitching a bit, but the sweat had dried. He hung out placidly on the cross ties, and over the next few minutes, the muscle twitching stopped. Katie walked him and groomed him. I had called the vet and they had said to hold off feed for the night, which we did. When the other horses got fed their evening hay, Dude put his angry face on, and we figured he was back to normal. Barn owner Larry's diagnosis was a mild choke, just enough of a choke to get Dude riled and sweaty, but not enough to have the whole disgusting-stuff-coming-out-the-nose phase. My frantic Googling of varied combinations of "equine muscle tremors sweating" turned up all kinds of scary but unlikely possibilities, so we're going with a mild choke as the best guess. We wet his hay the next day, and he's been _ _ _ _ since. (Not putting the actual word in print for fear of jinxing his return to normalcy.)

Confinement stinks...

... but so does standing outdoors in mud. The horses have been in since Saturday due to the conditions in the fields. It's been a very warm November, and I'm hoping December will usher in some seasonable temperatures. We had a little stretch of cold a couple weeks ago, but over the last week we've seen temperatures in the 50s and even in the 60s - crazy warm for Vermont. It hasn't rained that much, but it has rained a bit, and I think that combined with the little freeze-thaw cycle was enough to do in the fields.

Dude and Bestie have been remarkably low-key during the confinement. Dude in particular usually gets quite angry when confined to his stall, but he hasn't been bad at all. Perhaps because everyone else- meaning his buddies - is hanging out too. Tonight there was no one in the indoor so I let him loose, and he did a buck that was pretty impressive for a horse who normally gets his back end about a foot off the ground. It was quite the wild bronco, back twisting, disgusting-noises-from-the posterior kind of buck. Then he ran about 3 steps, stopped, and looked at me like, "Whew, got THAT out of my system."

After I brought him in I put Bestie on the lunge line. I tried to get her to romp, but all she would do was a pathetic shuffle-trot, so I just had her walk for about 10 minutes. I was definitely expecting them to want to run off some energy. You just never know.

A visit to the Equine Affaire

This weekend I enjoyed a wonderful couple of days at the Equine Affaire in Massachusetts. It worked out perfectly because I had to be in Boston for a work-related function Thursday night, and once that was over I jumped on the Massachusetts turnpike to head to Springfield. A bunch of people from our barn were driving down on Friday, so I was able to meet up with them.

When the girls were still showing I think we visited the Equine Affaire at least 3 years in a row. These trips were always great fun with really informative clinics and tons of shopping. This trip was no different; in fact, it was hard to cram everything into the day and a half of time I had there. I really enjoyed presentations on riding skills by Hollie McNeil of Riding Right Farm in New York and veterinarian Chris Bessent on acupuncture; each of their sessions provided lots of food for thought.

The seminars are just so energizing. I get caught up in all the busyness at home, and taking the time to attend the Equine Affaire and listen to so many informative speakers helps me step out of the "rush to the barn, have a ride or half hour lesson" tunnel vision and think about the bigger goal of improving my riding and establishing a partnership with my horse. What a wonderful luxury, to only think about horse-related things during this day and a half!

Over the weekend I ran into some faces from the past; friends from previous barns that I'd lost touch with but so enjoyed catching up with at the EA. And Friday night, our group from my current barn went out to dinner and had a wonderful meal and great time laughing and talking. So nice to spend some time with these great people outside of the usual quick few minutes chatting in the aisle at the barn.

And the shopping ... I bought a new saddle pad - a lovely Professional's Choice pad in the right size and thickness for Ms. Bestie; I rode tonight, and I may be crazy, but the whole feel of being in the saddle was different :). I also got Ariat paddock boots - I'd been wearing Maddie's old boots and the zippers have started to pop open (after 7 years of heavy wearing - not bad). And odds-n-ends like Lexol leather cleaning wipes, Sore No More salve, Cowboy Magic leave-in conditioner, a Himalayan salt block. The EA is truly one-stop shopping for every possible need related to horses. Oh, and I got lovely Sanita clogs, at $50 a real steal.

Bestie modeling her new pad ... she was a bit impatient with the photo-taking session and is rather pointedly looking at her stall door, having just come off a ride and eager to get into her stall for dinner.

Ugh, November

I suppose that technically our November hasn't been too bad. It started off kind of ugly, with snow Halloween weekend, then some up and down temperatures and some rain. But we're currently enjoying a series of sunny days with fairly warm days. If you don't have horses, it's awesome. But with horses, the problem is that the early wetness made the fields muddy, and it's not warm enough to really dry them out.

Dude's field seems to have dried a bit in the last couple days, since he's not coming in with mud up to his pasterns anymore. But Bestie, who is definitely more of a swamp monster anyway, is still coming in with mud plastered up to her hocks. Yesterday it was warm enough that I took her out and hosed her legs and scrubbed them with Betadine. I feel like every fall I deal with scratches, particularly with Dude. Can't actually remember Bestie ever having them. But the scratches are such a pain to deal with I'm being extra vigilant and trying to keep their legs clean. I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle, though. Rain in the forecast for Thursday means the mud will appear again in the fields. Ugh, November. Waiting impatiently for snow cover!

A scary few days with Dude under the weather

Last Saturday Katie went to the barn around mid-day to ride. When she got home she remarked that Dude seemed a little lethargic and not quite himself. He didn't come to the gate when she called him, like he usually does, and when she rode, he wasn't too energetic. Just about the time we finished talking, barn owner Julie called to say that something was definitely going on with him, he was standing in his stall with his head hanging and completely uninterested in what was going on around him. She had taken his temperature, and it was 99.6, then about an hour later, 100.8. So not super high, but combined with his lethargy, concerning.

I headed off to the barn by myself, as I had planned to ride Bestie that afternoon. I called the vet shortly after arriving; Dude just didn't look right, and it turned out he hadn't eaten his grain or hay that morning prior to going out. He swung his head when I approached the stall, but didn't move, and when I tried to get him out of the stall, I couldn't budge him. He'd been in by then for a couple hours and hadn't pooped or peed.

The vet arrived pretty quickly. Dude wasn't exhibiting classic colic symptoms, but he was stopped up and after sedating him she was able to glove him and pull out some stuff. She also put two bags of fluids into him intravenously. Once the sedation wore off he seemed to perk up, but was definitely not back to normal. We walked him, cleaned his water, and watched him for a while.

Julie and Larry checked on him twice that night. He didn't poop until early the next morning, but seemed pretty comfortable. As Sunday wore on he seemed to tank, and we ended up calling the vet again. His temperature went up and he got sort of dopey looking again. More hand walking and willing him to poop. His blood work came back negative (the vet had thought he might have Potomac). He had a small amount of bran mash, which he wolfed down.

On Monday he pooped early (great rejoicing!), right after I arrived for a pre-work check on him, and the vet stopped by. She thought it would be good to get him out, since he seemed to have rallied again, so he went out in the round pen by himself, within view of the other horses in the paddocks. He had breakfast, lunch and dinner bran and nibbled on a few grass blades he could reach from the pen. He wasn't drinking much water, so it was good he was getting some hydration from the watery mash. When Katie and I got there in the evening, she handwalked him a couple times, and he actually seemed fine, except for only pooping once more. We hung out until about 9:30 that night.

Yesterday he was cleared for watery grain and some hand-grazing (which seemed to prompt him to drink), and today he had watered hay. Knock on wood, he seems to be rebounding and getting back to his normal self. I'm hesitant to say he's fine (feeling like I might jinx the recovery) - at the barn yesterday and today I found myself peering at him for any little sign that he might be going downhill again. By the time I left the barn tonight at 6:15 pm, he had pooped twice since turn in, a new record :). Over the next couple of days the vet feels we can ease him back to his regular feeding routine.

Needless to say, it's been scary; we've never really dealt with anything like this. The uncertainty and the worry was nerve-wracking. Support from the vet and from Julie and Larry at the barn was awesome - they had some late night shifts as well as conscientious daytime nursing, for which I'm so very grateful.

Lesson time again

This week I was off from work so it seemed like a good time to get a lesson in. It had been a while since my last one; other events and activities kept getting in the way. Bestie hasn't been ridden much recently for the same reason. I had a hockey tournament this past weekend, so I rode Friday, but then didn't ride again until Tuesday, right before my Wednesday lesson.

When all was said and done, I ended up being on her for about an hour and ten minutes ... slightly (!) more than the half hour originally scheduled. We trotted a bit at the outset, then Caitlin set up some markers to follow for patterns. But we started doing turns on the forehand and turns on the haunches and never got back to the patterns.

After about 40 minutes of mostly unsuccessful attempts at these turns, I called it quits, feeling like my head was going to explode. For some reason, none of the aids necessary for either movement were intuitive to me, and flip-flopping from practicing forehand to practicing haunches over and over just got them all jumbled in my head. And if they were jumbled in my head, I can only imagine what Bestie was thinking ... most likely, something along the lines of "what the heck is she asking me??"

I used to do turns on the haunches with Dude, and I was remembering it as a fairly simple maneuver.  I finally told Caitlin I just needed to take a break and read about it at home to get it straight in my head. But then, to complicate things, one article I read online said that turning on the forehand is a waste of time; that generally riders are trying to get horses OFF their forehand, so why waste time teaching them to turn on it? Or maybe that uncomplicates things, giving me an excuse to be DONE with forehand turns. :)

The bottom line is that I need to get the how-to's straight in my head before I get back on Bestie and make her crazy with my fumbling.

Do I need the $150 saddle pad?

Julie at the barn asked me about my saddle a few weeks ago as she is in the market for a Western saddle. Her question led me to realize that I've now had the saddle four years (where did the time go??), and the saddle pad for the same amount of time. No complaints with the saddle; I love it. But the saddle pad is another story.

When I originally bought the pad, I selected that particular one because I couldn't find anything else in the stores in our area, the print went well with the saddle, and I didn't want to spend a lot of money since I wasn't really convinced that I'd be riding a lot. I believe I paid about $35 for the pad. It's nothing great, just a typical Western looking pad with a woven print top and faux fleece bottom with some sort of padding in between.

Now that I'm riding more, and another person is also riding Bestie, I am not liking the pad. In fact, it's gotten to the point where I feel kind of irritated whenever I look at it. Why? A) The fleece is fake - not breathable at all and it has gotten sort of crusty feeling in spots. B) The pad is quilted, so it has flat spots and poofy spots, and the fill seems to be redistributing oddly, all of which I wouldn't imagine would be comfortable to Ms. Bestie. C) It is 32 x 32 inches, and while she is indeed short-backed, I think a slightly bigger pad would hold its place more securely under the saddle.

So I've been poking around the internet for weeks looking for a pad. I want wool. Real wool. I want it to have a snappy pattern that makes me happy when I look at it. It needs to be sized something like 33 x 33 or 33 x 34. I want wool fleece, real wool fleece, on the bottom. All those tacky bottomed pads kind of give me the willies. And it can't weigh too much. I've seen some pad descriptions proudly proclaiming a weight of 5 pounds or heavier, and that just seems like too much for my dainty mare.

Which brings me back to the $150 pad. It meets all of my criteria. Every single one of them. But I'm hung up on the price. It just seems like a lot of money to pay for a pad. But it IS the only one I've found where I've been able to say "check, check, check" as I run through my criteria. And the construction does seem more equine back-friendly, hopefully hedging against future chiropractic expenses. And presumably a $150 pad is of great quality and will be around forever. I think I'm talking myself into taking the plunge.

Perfect

This is what Tuesday looked like in northern Vermont ...

... so, needless to say, I was itching to head to the barn after work and ride Bestie. All through the afternoon hours, I thought about it with anticipation. Got to the barn, saddled her up, and off we went. It wasn't a long ride, or a ride where we perfected something that had been a challenge. But it was a great ride. Really fun. Maybe Bestie was pleased about the beautiful day, too. Maybe she fed off my happiness and feeling of relaxation. In any case, it felt like we were both "walking on sunshine."

I thought back to Tuesday afternoon at my yoga class last night. Our teacher was talking about meditation, and how it may allow you to have these insights that flash at a moment's notice. She described a recent instance where this had happened to her, and how it was a perfect moment. That's how I felt on Tuesday. Perfect. And I'm going to try to just accept it and be grateful and not be too greedy for such moments. I'm sure there will be more.

Horse Dad

That's my husband on the right, with his mom and older brother. I'm guessing he was maybe about two years old. He sent me the photo in an email with the subject line "my first horse." When I opened the message, the only words were, "guess I never found another one so nice." I'd venture to say that's probably a true statement, given his horsey experiences. That faintly alarmed look on his little face might be due to the fact that he was having some premonition of what the future would bring: a succession of horsey misadventures.

These have included going on a trail ride with a raging fever rather than telling his mom he was sick and missing the ride; going on a trail ride -with pneumonia- to celebrate one of our wedding anniversaries (he actually didn't know he had pneumonia, he just felt really really bad and rode anyway); suffering a torn Achilles while hanging from a horse that took off with him in the process of getting into the saddle (on a multi-day trail ride to celebrate another anniversary); and being on the receiving end of a sound kick to the thigh as an innocent bystander near two ponies who went from nosing each other to expressing their dissatisfaction at each other's proximity by Kicking Out. Ow.

Given all this, I can't really blame him for not exactly embracing the horse experience. But he has ridden Dude a couple times with no ill effects, and when the kids were showing he could be counted on to hold the reins when one of them needed to eat lunch or run to the bathroom, or to give a leg up when mounting blocks were MIA. He might have done all this with the same slightly unsettled, perplexed "what's this all about??" expression captured above, but he did it. Thanks, Horse Dad. :)

An A+ view of a lovely fall afternoon

Today started off very rainy, but by the time I got to the barn in the late afternoon the sun was starting to peek through. After the rain the emerging fall colors seemed to come out a bit more on the trees. The horses had gone outside despite the weather and were muddy and happy. I lunged Bestie in the indoor arena to check her out; Caitlin said that she had been a little ouchy on Monday after the farrier's visit, but she seemed fine. Just dozy, trotting around with her eyes half closed and her lower lip hanging, but waking up enough each time she passed by the open door to swing her head around and look for any activity outdoors. 

Why a horse says "no" - a checklist for riders

I receive the Holistic Horse email newsletter, and I love that the topics covered seem to coincide fairly frequently with something I've been wondering about or dealing with. This happened recently - as I've been learning to work around Bestie's pretty emphatic "no's," this week's newsletter contained a link to Kim Baker's Reasons for Resistance. Pain, fear, confusion and lack of respect - seems like a fairly straightforward checklist to keep in mind. And short - I like that - easy to remember when dealing with a horsey "no way."

Steps forward, steps back, steps forward

I'm really enjoying my lessons on Bestie. We've been working on figures like serpentines and figure eights to give her and me something to think about, and also to give her a smaller area to work in so she doesn't get so crazy fast. Although, as I said to Caitlin today, thanks to the lessons, I feel less panicked when she does speed up because I have "tools" to work with in these situations, whereas before I just felt a rising sense of panic and usually dragged on her to get her back to a walk.

We seemed to be clicking along, so I got a little overconfident and decided to ride out with Katie on Dude to the outdoor ring. I hadn't ridden Bestie in about four days, but I thought she might have been ridden by a girl who is going to work with her a couple times a week. Well, turned out she hadn't been ridden since I'd gotten on her, and she was a total pill once we got to the outdoor ring. Very fast, very "up," and no fun at all. She had one little fit early on, then calmed down and we returned to walking around the ring (no way was I going to attempt a trot).

Once we decided to head back to the barn, she exited the ring fine, but started having a major fit in the field, backing and spinning and jumping around. They were haying in that field, and she had walked by the tractor fine on the way out. But on the way back, it was like she was just using it as an excuse to throw a temper tantrum. I thought I was going to pop off a couple times, but managed to stay on and finally got her to stand. At that point I decided to err on the side of caution and I jumped off.

Dude and Katie walked on ahead, and I led Bestie back to the barn. She was spinning around me, so I kept making her stop, asking her to back up a few steps, then walking forward again. It took forever to get back, but I kept stopping and getting her to back up every few yards until she calmed down and walked more slowly. I put her on the lunge line once we got back for a few minutes with some transitions to make her work and burn off some steam.

I've ridden twice since that time, and she's been good. Today we doubleteamed her on Operation Get Bestie to the Outdoor Ring :). I rode for a bit, then directed her out to the field as Caitlin walked alongside. She tried a few times to spin, but Caitlin told me to rein her the opposite way and be firm about it, and Bestie gave in. After we got past the paddocks, she walked out to the ring, but she certainly wasn't relaxed. We walked around the ring a bit, and she slowly relaxed, although once we got to the gate she tightened up. I kept her in there, walking circles around the jumps a few more times, before we headed back. Pretty uneventful, all in all. Caitlin suggested doing that - striving for a relaxed walk - a few more times before attempting to trot out there. I'm not sure what this is all about ... she used to walk out fine. Never a dull moment!

Post Irene

Little did I know Sunday that as I went off to the movies to pass the time on an excessively rainy day, then swung into the barn to groom the ponies, Hurricane Irene was wreaking complete havoc on the southern and central portions of Vermont. Although our general area, and particularly a bit north of us, suffered flooding and property damage, the waters receded quickly and left nothing like the complete devastation down south. There are still towns that are completely cut off from services, and the scope of the damage is too much to comprehend. There are many local efforts to support those in need, as well as larger efforts from the Red Cross, the Vermont FoodBank and the United Way. Please consider supporting one of these organizations with a donation - it's going to be a long haul for many communities in Vermont.

Irene is coming to visit

News stories over the past several days have focused on Hurricane Irene and her path up the East Coast. Hmmn ... "her"? Is that right? Should it be "its"? I'm just not up on proper hurricane pronoun usage - it's not something we ponder too frequently in northern Vermont. The frenzy of reporting has been crazy; I swear that within the space of 3 minutes I saw two different graphics on the tv this morning - one showing in bright pink how the "extreme weather" would overtake our state, and another showing the weather line at central Vermont, well south of us. What to believe?

Today was beautiful with sun and warm temperatures and barely a breeze, making it hard to believe that high winds are coming our way. I put all my potted plants down on the ground, off the benches and what-not that they're on, and took a few hanging things off the exterior of the house. And the garage got cleaned out so that our cars could go in. That's about the extent of our preparations.

If anything worries me, it's the heavy rains that are forecast. Our barn leaks like a sieve in many spots, and I'm worried what torrential rains will do to the hay that is stored up in the loft. After the extremely wet spring, there was a stretch of great weather for haying, and as a result, there's a ton of hay up in the barn. Would be a shame to lose a lot of it to mildew, or worse, for it to get sodden and heavy and stress the barn. The first bands of rain are supposed to start later tonight, so at this point it's a waiting game to see what happens.

Given the weather reports, the horses are due to stay in Sunday and possibly Monday. If the weather hasn't turned ugly by tomorrow morning, I may head to the barn early and put them out for a bit or give them some grazing time.

Tack cleaning and riding this week

Over the last week I've spent some time cleaning both Bestie's and Dude's saddles. It's not something I'm very consistent about, for some reason. Just a time thing, I think. When I do clean them, I'm always so amazed and pleased at how great they look - I really should do it more often.

I cleaned Dude's saddle yesterday, thinking I would ride him today. The bad news is that as soon as I got on him and started down the path, I could hear a shoe/s clinking. I hopped off only to find that one shoe was pretty loose at the heel. Back we walked to the barn. Barn manager Caitlin took a look and thought that actually both front shoes are loose. His feet are a mess because the last farrier appointment was so overdue. I think it's going to take a couple cycles to get Dude's hooves back in shape. Even though the shoe issue came as no surprise, it was still disappointing not to be able to go out to the field with him. In a clean saddle :).

I ended up hopping on Bestie and riding her in the indoor, and she was good. We had a nice little session working on trotting and serpentining as follow-up to my lesson. It was necessarily short since the whole thing with Dude had taken up some time. I'm really trying to not tense up when she gets fast. I sit deep, try to keep my shoulders down, and breath calmly and it seems to help. Since the lesson we've had a couple rides where she's gotten fast, but then relaxed. It may sound like a small achievement, but it IS an achievement - this is the horse who can work herself up into a trotting frenzy of epic proportions.

We started talking at the barn today about the Equine Affaire in November. A group usually goes from the barn, but I haven't been in several years. I'm seriously thinking of going this year. When I've gone before there have always been wonderful clinicians, plus it's a great shopping opportunity and the horses do need new turnout sheets.

Lesson time - Bestie and I reinvigorate our relationship

So, this was a good week. Bestie and I took a lesson with our new barn manager, and while I won't say that the lesson went well (due to a certain mare's "my way or the highway" outlook on life) it was kind of fun and did give me some new things to think about and try. I've ridden her twice more since the lesson and we seem to be getting somewhere. Who would've thought that consistency would be a good thing? Ha.

Consistency is definitely my problem, mainly because pesky things like work and family and other interests and miscellaneous unexpected horse ailments have a way of interfering with what I want to do with my barn time. I remember this same pattern developed when I first took lessons with former barn manager Emma - I felt like I was really getting somewhere with Dude, then he had a little lameness issue, then I got busy at work ... blah blah blah.

But back to this week's lesson. We walked quite a while as Caitlin talked about what we could work on, then we trotted a slow jog, which was fine (with me), but then Caitlin asked me to speed her up a bit, and that's when Bestie was like, uh, excuse me, I don't believe I signed up for WORK. So we circled and circled and serpentined and serpentined while she snorted and huffed and trotted really fast and broke into the canter a couple times with me thinking calming thoughts and trying half halts and saying easy easy easy like a mantra. But she didn't pull anything really bad, which was good, and at the end she seemed like she had resigned herself to this new relationship with the treats and grooming lady. In the two sessions that have happened since the lesson, I've worked on getting her to respond more positively to my requests to trot and she has been pretty good. Today at one point she seemed to be working herself up, but I tried to stay quiet with my hands and sit deep in the saddle and she relaxed.

It's interesting. Definitely not dull. I think a lot about her psychology and my own. My problem is that after about 20 minutes I tend to get bored in the indoor - and so does she. Whether she's feeding off me or that's just her timer going off, I don't know. But I've written before about the difficulties of getting her down the path, and we haven't attempted it alone again. We went one time with another rider, and Bestie sort of halfheartedly attempted to turn back to the barn, but when I encouraged her to go forward, she did. I'm trying to get a really great positive vibe going in the indoor before we do the path thing again. Unfortunately, I need to skip a lesson this week because I'll be out of town. Consistency is hard. Sigh.

What happens when a certain mare gets 3 weeks off?

Due to a combination of things - me in hockey camp and then a tournament that tied me up 8 days, extremely hot weather, and an MIA farrier - nothing much has been happening with Dude and Bestie for about 3 weeks. Last Thursday, I decided to put a saddle on her and do a quick ride in the indoor, not wanting to take her out and down the path because it is a bit rocky in little stretches and her feet are a mess. She was fine in the indoor, except for trying to veer through the open door of the arena on the first couple of passes. I really couldn't blame her because it was a little stuffy in there and much nicer outside. I rode for maybe 20 minutes, then decided to go down the path at least a bit since she really seemed to want to be outside.

We got down the path about halfway down the line of paddocks and she suddenly did a whirl to go back to the barn. I got her turned around and we tried again. Same thing, a bit farther down the path. We turned around once more, and same thing. I'm thinking, "What the heck is up with you? YOU'RE the one who wanted to come out here!" On the fourth attempt she started getting all huffy and prancy and I decided not to push it. I did bring her back in the indoor and we rode for a few minutes more.

Yesterday I tried again. I wanted to stay in the indoor again, just to keep her feet off the rocks. She tried a couple times to veer out the door, but settled down pretty well. Then a lesson started and I didn't feel like being in there anymore, so we went outside. Bestie was all perky, ears up, gazing around as we walked down the path, then at about the same spot, she whirled around to head back to the barn. I bet I tried four times to get her back down the path, and we'd get about half way, and she'd spin. So I rode her back to the beginning of the path, got off, handwalked her down to the point that I had intended to ride her to, and then walked her back, occasionally asking her to halt or halt and back. I thought maybe doing that would keep her focused on me and listening to me, and not on the pleasant little walk in the sunshine we were taking.

I'd love to be in her head and know what she's thinking. But I'm pretty sure it's something along the lines of, "What?? After three weeks off I thought I was on permanent vacation!" The plan is to ride again tomorrow, perhaps beginning with a relaxing little lunge to take the edge off, and try to be more consistent with saddle time. Fingers crossed that their hooves get done this week.

A beautiful by-product of a stormy day

A quick trip to the barn this afternoon just to clean Dude and Bestie up. It had been raining off and on all day, so I knew they'd be muddy. As I was leaving the barn to head home, a beautiful rainbow across the way caught my eye. At first it was really low against the trees and just barely over the sugarhouse ...




Then it seemed to disappear for a bit, but reappeared over the hill ...

Hooves and their issues

It's been a tough spring for the horses' feet. After the snow melted, there was a stretch of time in April when the horses went out onto the muddy pastures. Then the weather pattern shifted into endless rain in May that turned the fields to swamps and came down heavy enough to merit the horses being in for days at a time. While in, they alternated between standing on dirty shavings and standing on clean shavings. Sort of a wet/dry cycle for their feet. And once the rain stopped, they started going back out again, but the fields were still pretty wet.

As a result, Bestie's normally beautiful feet seem to have gotten kind of soft and prone to having chunks along the edge getting pried upward by rocks, and eventually chipping off. That's what happened to the spot in the photo above; it was a like a piece about an inch and a half long bent upwards, then eventually broke off. Her feet are about the ugliest I've ever seen them around the edges. Luckily she still has good frogs. I'm thinking about putting shoes on her front feet for the summer, both to protect the edges and because the rocks on the paths to the paddocks are hard on her soles, as are any rocks that are on the road when we ride.

Dude's feet aren't too bad around the edges, but his frogs are close to nonexistent, especially in the back, where he doesn't have shoes on. It's like they've gotten spongey from the wet ground and have just peeled away. Pretty yucky. I'm not sure what else to do other than try to keep them cleaned out and keep his stall as clean as possible.

Fingers crossed that we return to a dryer weather pattern that helps the ponies get their good feet back soon.

Chatting with Dude

One of the treasures unearthed as my daughter has been cleaning her room were the notes from a psychic's visit to the barn to talk with the horses. The notes were taken by by the psychic's sister, who spent hours sitting beside her in the tack room as a procession of people anxious for insights into their horses' thinking came and went.

I'm going to type the notes exactly as they are written on the folded up page of legal paper that Katie found. Even though the punctuation is sporadic and the notes are choppy, it's pretty easy to tell which comments are observations by the psychic and which comments she was passing along to us as made by Dude. I'll just preface this by saying that there was no conversation about Dude between us and the psychic before she talked with him. All we told her was his name. The conversation occurred in March 2005, many months after Dude had suffered a significant hip injury and was confined to his stall with exercise limited to handwalking. The psychic began each session with a rundown of the aches and pains the horse communicated to her.

Dude: Physical discomforts - Right side of mouth all the way in the back. Left hind from ankle down. Right front bottom of hoof.

Personality: "Charlie Sheen."
Dude says he is everybody's. Getting some sadness - "I'm not doing my job." He feels like he let you down. I used to be important!
Show me his person: Showing you bigger than he is - You are in control. You can count on him.

He is a little ticked off. "I used to go out." You don't come often enough. Doesn't like his neighbor. A lot of complaining - told him why he is in his stall.

He has a really nice jog - keeps his head down.

What does he say about Katie?
You have a nice back. Your left foot tends to drift back. You have good hands. He likes going counterclockwise. Katie wants to lean to the left.

He is a bit heavy on the forehand.
Doublebeating.
Transition from trot is not good.
He is good.

What does he like to do best?
Eat.
Where was he happiest?
Showing himself at age 2-3.

He would be a great mayor/greeter. A little depressed.

Reading the notes, years after this session, I can still remember how blown away we were by the comments on his perceived lack of importance, and depression, given what had been happening with his injury. Katie and I both got teary eyed about it. The whole period after he hurt his hip was a long haul ... no turnout, cranky horse cooped up, teenager trying to get to the barn every day and hand walk him and graze him, not knowing if he'd come back from the injury.

I also remember that we were both a bit perplexed by the "Charlie Sheen" description (even more so now!). The session was fascinating, as were the others that we ended up sitting in on and listening to. My favorite line from our session? "You can count on me." He's a good boy. And Katie is definitely "his" girl.

Book review

I just finished reading a great novel, "The God of Animals." Let me just say I was a sobbing mess while reading the final pages, and that's all I'll say about THAT in order to not spoil the ending. :)

I can't remember how I found it. I'm always trolling for new books and looking for recommendations, especially for book club reading material. It's writer Aryn Kyle's first book, which is perfectly amazing as it's such a great story. The narrator is Alice Winston, who I believe is 12 when this coming-of-age story starts. As if the whole "coming-of-age" thing isn't hard enough under normal circumstance, Alice is dealing with the death of a classmate, the fact that her older sister has recently run away with a rodeo cowboy, her mom's refusal (for years) to leave her bedroom, and her dad's exhausting efforts to keep the family's horse breeding and showing operation going.

Alice is a loner who struggles with relationships, and it's really sad to see her trying to make her way, particularly since she receives very little attention from her parents. All of the relationships in the book are complicated and murky; nothing is what it seems. There's a sense that each character has hopes and dreams, but it's certainly not predictable as the story unfolds as to whether those hopes and dreams will be realized.

The family's business is also full of complications, like the challenge of raising horses in such a hardscrabble setting, keeping up with the competition and the pressures of wooing of new customers. For the reader with horse experience there are bound to be elements of the familiar in the passages involving training horses, the crazy mix of tedium and drama at horse shows, the competition with other riders and barns, and barn personality dynamics.

I haven't read a horsey novel in a while, and this powerful story definitely was a great pick. But I should've had the tissues handy.

Spring ... not Vermont's best season

I've been waiting with an increasing sense of desperation for the warm temperatures of spring. Once the snow melts in our neck of the woods, especially when we've had a bunch of it as we did this winter, the mud sets in. And unless the temperatures warm up, the muds stays ... and stays ... and stays. We're at that stage now. There have been a couple of warm days scattered here and there over the last few weeks, but for the most part we've had lots of rain, gray skies, cold days and even some sleet (today).

Due to the weather, the horses have had some stretches indoors, which I completely understand; I certainly don't want them tearing around in the mud and hurting themselves, and the horses and I are definitely in agreement that we want the grass to grow. Right now, when they do go out, they're being turned out on the low end of the paddock area, which tends to stay the muddiest. The paddocks on the higher end of the slope are being saved so that the grass can come in.

Yesterday the sun was shining so I took off from work a few hours early to enjoy the blue skies and relatively warm (50 degrees) weather. I rode Dude out to the outdoor arena with barn owner Julie on her horse Sky, and it was really pleasant. The path to the outdoor was fairly dry, and it was super nice to feel the sunshine and see everything greening up.

Then today we woke up to the sleet and wind. Yuck. I went to the barn mid-afternoon to take care of Dude and Bestie. There were two jumping lessons going on so I couldn't get them into the indoor for a roll, and because of the wet weather the path to the outdoor (and likely the outdoor arena itself) was really muddy. Our options were pretty much limited to grazing along the path. It was fairly windy, and Dude was hyper sensitive to every little bang of the barn door, so I didn't stay out with him too long. There's not enough grass to distract him from being crazy, and after his third leap sideways I decided to save my right arm from further yanking and marched him back into the barn. He pranced the whole way, snorting at all the invisible scary things outside. Sigh.

Bestie was fine when I took her outdoors, so she hit the jackpot - a walk up to the top of the ridge where there's a patch of growing grass, and a graze for about 20 minutes. She definitely was on alert with the wind, but she seems to process stuff more than Dude, who goes into reactive "the mountain lion's after me" mode. Bestie heard the banging sounds, looked up, and I could see her determine that it was the arena door. Splashing and clunking? Just a car coming down the road. No drama. Love it.

Ahhhhhhhhhh

That was today ... an ahhhhhhh day! Sunny, temps in the 50s, just one of those days after a l-o-n-g winter when you feel GOOD to be outside. Unfortunately, the fields are a mess with mud, so the horses didn't get their own ahhhh moment. Too bad, because I had left both of them unblanketed, and they would've enjoyed a nice muddy roll.

I decided to ride Dude, who was very fidgety on the cross ties. It didn't help that the hay cart was making its way through the aisle. Our ride didn't start out too well. While I was tightening his girth outside the barn he moved, one rein slipped down, and he stepped on it and snapped the leather up by the bit. Sigh. I took him back in and changed him into Bestie's bridle. Then we headed down the road, only to meet Scary Man with a Chainsaw working in a yard about two houses down. Dude was having nothing to do with that; in fact, he spun and headed in the other direction.

The good news was that as we pranced by the barn, another boarder came out with her horse and we headed out together, which pacified Dude quite a bit. Considering he hasn't been ridden since December, he was really very good. He had a few little spooks at random things, but nothing major.

The only sort of unsettling portion of the ride occurred as we approached our turn-around spot. We had decided to turn around at a property that has goats, horses, and miniature donkeys. I had just finished filling in my riding partner with details about Dude's unfortunate past history with miniature donkeys (he tried to attack one at a show; can't remember if I've written about that debacle) when the goats came running up to the fence. Dude was definitely eyeballing them nervously. Luckily the donkeys were not in a pasture with road frontage; they were set back in another field (thank goodness for small favors). And they didn't bray, which is what provoked Dude in the first donkey incident. Apart from some nervous snorting and a significantly quickened pace, he tolerated the goats fairly well. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have made it by there if we hadn't been with another horse with a "Goats, so what?" attitude. Or he would've made it by, but not in a way that would've kept me in the saddle :)

The nice thing was that all of the vehicle traffic that passed us was very respectful and slowed way down. I'm always so grateful for that, especially because it doesn't always happen. All in all, it was a really fun ride. I haven't been on either horse in so long, and this was a great way to start the spring season.

Blankie shopping

Back to talking blankies; actually, turnout sheets. I feel like I go through this every year about this time ... in winter the temperatures usually stay cold enough that the horses don't get wet - the snow might collect on their turnout sheets but it is generally easily brushed off and doesn't soak through. But now that we're moving into spring, it's become very clear that the waterproofing on the turnout sheets is shot. This is actually round two (and maybe even round three) of waterproofing, because I've had these sheets at least four years and have sprayed each at least twice with tent waterproofer after the original waterproofing seemed to wear off.

So I've been combing the catalogs, looking at "denier" and weighing closed versus open front, and of course the all important thing ... color. Is there a perfect turnout? Everyone seems to have their favorites. I really prefer the turnout sheets over the insulated turnouts because our barn is warm - I like being able to get that top layer off of them when they're inside in the winter, but still leave a layer on.

I was told in a tack store that the higher the denier, the more durable and waterproof the sheet is. Both Dude and Bestie need waterproof horsey wear, since they're out all day (although not when it's absolutely pouring) and when the weather is cool I don't like them to get wet. And Dude needs durability since his friends like to goof around with the blankies - he's got a tail flap on one sheet with a row of bite marks neatly imprinted along the edge, and a few little nibble holes on the rump section of the sheet that are bound to become bigger. I'm leaning toward Rider sheets for both of them: Bestie's first sheet was a Rider and it lasted well, in fact, she still wears it as a back-up when her main turnout is in the wash. So, 1200 denier for Bestie in a cute girly plaid, 1680 denier for Dude in a no-nonsense masculine gray/forest green combo. The pages in the catalog are folded down, ready for the call to place the order tomorrow. Whew ... I feel like I've spent an awful lot of time thinking about this. Fingers crossed that they're in stock!

Learning experiences

I had a conversation yesterday with a girl whose horse has been experiencing lameness issues for quite a while now. She said a recent diagnosis indicated that the lameness would be a continuing problem, and that surgery was possible but would be expensive and might not be successful. Her family opted not to do the surgery and to try to find him a good home to hang out at. She has owned the horse for less than a year; I could only imagine the disappointment that she must be feeling.

It made me think of the trying times - big and small - that we've experienced with horses over the years. Buster, Katie's first lease horse, was sent back to the farm he'd come from when the stable we were riding at decided they couldn't use him. It was a sudden decision, we were not informed until the last minute, and he was basically loaded on the trailer immediately after she had a lesson on him, and off he went. Lots of tears of disappointment after that event (and a private vow by Horse Mom never to be at the mercy of someone else through a lease!).

There was Dude's hip injury. A prognosis that a year's time off would heal the injury, which for the kid meant an adjustment in plans, with no show season for two seasons, lots of hand walking, lots of time doing the care end of things.

Then there were the little things. Like the horse deciding to act up in a class, the horse losing a shoe right before a show, the horse going lame before a show.

In thinking about these situations, I considered how much my kids learned through all of these experiences, and really, how wonderful it was as a parent to watch that learning process, even though it was disappointing or heart-breaking at times. Compassion, responsibility, patience, flexibility, leadership, and invaluable "people skills" developed through interaction with other horse-crazy kids, and adults in their roles as boarders, barn managers, trainers, farriers and veterinarians.

While it was sad news about the horse in our barn, I definitely admired his young owner's ability to talk knowledgeably and confidently about her horse's condition and the plan the family had been considering for him.

Spring? Winter? Make up your mind, Mother Nature!

It's been one of those weeks. We started off with a H-U-G-E snowstorm that blew in over Sunday and Monday, depositing about two feet of snow in many northern Vermont areas. Welcome to March! Then we had beautiful crisp, blue skies on Tuesday and Wednesday, blustery winds on Thursday and Friday, sprinkles on Saturday, and rain/sleety snow on Sunday.

The horses were in on Saturday and Sunday due to the rain; the temps had dropped back into the low 30s and it was kind of messy. Not that either said, "Hey, thank you for thinking of how chilled we might get standing out in that freezing drizzle." Uh, nope. Both Dude and Bestie looked at me pretty darn expectantly when I arrived at the barn Saturday and today. I think the message they were trying to send was more like, "There's been a terrible miscommunication, we've been stuck in our stalls all day, and we want you to make it right."

My "making it right" involved letting each of them roll and wander around the indoor for several minutes. Not too exciting. But the roads are slippery mud and the path through the paddocks is ankle deep in slush, so we didn't have a lot of options. Luckily, having that roll and strolling around the indoor seems to take the edge off. That, and a flake of hay upon return to their stalls.

Play time with the ponies

The horses didn't go outside today because of the weather. I actually missed the worst of it because we had gone to Boston for a hockey game. Apparently it rained here in the morning, and then right about the time we were heading back north, the rain turned over to snow. Now the forecasters are calling for anywhere from 13 to 30 inches! (This is a bit hard to take because it was 60 degrees in Boston!)

After we got home I went to the barn to check on the horses. No one was around, which was great because the indoor arena was empty and I could let them (one at a time) drop and roll and walk around.

I always find it kind of funny to watch them with this opportunity. Dude's routine is to roll first thing, then get up all full of himself and prance around for a bit. Next he'll try to get me to play with him by trotting up and sort of tossing his head around and looking at me expectantly. What he thinks I'll do, I don't know. He doesn't really recognize personal space too well, so I always shoo him away, telling him, "You're way too big to play with." After about 15 minutes of wandering about and sniffing things in the arena he gets bored and goes to stand by the door to wait for me to put his halter on and take him back to the barn.

Bestie wanders around sniffing the ground, looking for the perfect spot to roll. She's a much more leisurely roller than Dude is, and when she's done she stands up and looks at me for the next step. A lot of times if I start walking, she'll walk right alongside me like she's on a lead rope. It's hard to get her to romp around like Dude does.

The short walk from the side barn door to the indoor arena was pretty soupy with about 6 inches of snow and water running underneath the snow. With temperatures in the 40s earlier in the weekend and the rain, there's some flooding going on in the area. I'll be surprised if the horses go out tomorrow - things need to firm up a bit. Can't really complain though; they've only missed two days of turnout this winter - that's got to be some sort of record.

Day off ... earlier arrival at the barn

I took today off from work and boy was it nice getting to the barn in the sunshine, after a week of arriving in the dark. Never mind the fact that it was 19 degrees, it was still nice seeing the sun. The horses had recently come in from outside and were quite occupied with eating their hay. Well, except for the horses like Bestie who seemed to have vacuumed it down already.

I pulled her out of her stall to groom her first since Dude was still eating. I had good intentions of riding him (had the insulated pants and everything), but when I looked outside, the path down through the paddocks seemed to only go as far as the last paddock. The snow is probably a good two feet deep and pretty challenging to plow through. And it was getting a bit too close for comfort to the end-of-the-workday traffic surge for me to feel good about venturing out on the road. If I had gotten there about a half hour earlier I could've headed out with a couple other riders; bummer.

So instead we had a leisurely grooming session. They are both shedding quite a bit, so much so that the curry collects a mat of hair that can be pulled off in a solid clump. Hard to believe they're losing that much hair, because it has been pretty cold. But now's about the time of year when we start feeling the sun more and don't get as many of days in the single digits or low teens (yay!).

Not working tomorrow either, and looking forward to another day of more time with the ponies.

"Last published on December 7"

Yikes. It's been a while. Totally due to a combination of the winter season starting up at work and the holidays. And frequent stretches of work craziness combined with cold weather have led to very quick trips to the barn for grooming Dude and Bestie and mucking, but no riding.

The good news is that we're starting to see more light at the end of the day, which is nice, and I'm happy to no longer be driving in the dark if I manage to get out of work by 4:30 or so. The horses are still on their winter turn-in schedule, which means they come in around 3 pm. That's fine, because they seem to get bored outside once the morning hay is gone. The geldings appear to spend much of the day chewing on each other. Dude has little patches of hair missing from his jaw and his rear end - they can even get under the blanket and turnout sheet to nibble!

Seems like every winter about this time I start debating the merits of the blanket/turnout sheet combo that I've always used versus the insulated turnout blanket. The good thing is that if the turnout gets wet, generally the blanket stays dry for them to wear inside. Despite the extreme waterproofing I did late in the summer of the turnout sheets, they're still soaking through in heavy snow. It's very frustrating, but maybe the waterproofing just doesn't last more than a couple years. At least the moisture soaked into their under-blankets only once. Dude's turnouts seem to be slightly more water repellent than Bestie's (with the exception of her brand new one purchased in the late fall).

I'm hoping to squeak through this winter with the current turnouts, but I think I'm going to have to invest in new turnout sheets for next year. I've already got a bunch of catalogs laid out with pages marked - blankie buying is one of my favorite things :)