Suffering from pony withdrawal

Today was my first day at the barn since Wednesday. Last week was crazy with 4H commitments on two evenings, a drive to MA to pick up Maddie, and a hockey tournament. Luckily Katie was home on break to pinch hit for me and to also enjoy a couple rides on Dude.

When I got to the barn I checked out their stalls, added a bit of shavings to Dude's, then walked out to get Dude and Bestie from their fields. Bestie nickered as soon as she saw me, as did Dude when he spotted me--what better welcome than that??! I went to get Dude first, and he started to head to the gate, but then Dusty, one of his pasture mates, got cranky and went after him, so Dude took off at a run around the field, away from the gate. The fields are such a mess after these two weeks of thawing that I was afraid he was going to slip and fall. I yelled and shook the lead rope at Dusty so he'd leave Dude alone, then I caught Dude and got him through the gate. Grrr. Put him in his stall, then went back out for Bestie.

Since I had played hockey all weekend I really only wanted to groom them and then head home to crash on the couch. They were a total mess: blankets caked with mud, mud on their legs and necks, hooves packed with mud. It took forever -- two hours -- to clean them up, and my arms are soooo tired tonight. I scrubbed Dude's feet out with hoof antiseptic. I tried to brush off their turnout sheets, but didn't accomplish much, it's like the blankets have reached the stage where the dirt is ground in. Hopefully the fields either freeze up or dry out. I just can't believe that it won't turn cold again ... it is awfully early for consistent temps in the 40s to stick around. Also hope this week allows for a bit more barn time. I miss the ponies when I can't see them every day!

Maple Valley sugarhouse steaming ... spring coming?

Today I made two trips to the barn, and on my second trip I sat in my car for a few minutes eating my lunch before going in. I noticed I could see the Maple Valley Farm sugarhouse in my side mirror, and it was really steaming. Very pretty against the snow and blue sky. It seems we've had great temperatures for sugaring, with nights in the 20s and days much warmer; the weather forecaster on the morning news is even commenting on it each day. If the stretch keeps going, maple sugarers are going to get that oh-so-tired zombie-like look soon!

Why two trips to the barn? Well, first trip was for my lesson. Dude was napping in the sunshine, and he was so slow during the lesson I don't think he ever really came out of his nap! We trotted figure eights and serpentines, both at the jog and at a posting trot, and then practiced transitions by trotting the curves of the serpentine and walking the straight path between sides. He was pretty good, just kind of dozy and slow--it was hard to get him into a nice trot that I could easily post to. And I haven't posted that much, so my legs are t-i-r-e-d.

With all the circles and curves I expressed a little worry that his old hind end injury might be bothered. Emma said he looks good, and he does feel fine to me. I guess I just need to be conscientious about warming him up, and she felt that the lesson plus one other session of similar length during the week and one little short one would be sufficient to get him into shape yet play it safe. Once the weather changes for good, it'll be nice to have the lesson in the outdoor ... more room. And it is also a lovely walk to get down there and back.

I ran and did some grocery shopping after my lesson, then came back in time to bring them in and pick out their feet. The fields are starting to get a little messy with these temps in the upper 30s/low 40s. Hopefully they don't turn into mud pits too soon. But they're messy enough that I'm really trying to take care of Dude and Bestie's feet. It's tempting to think that spring is coming, but it IS March, our month where we usually get a whopper snowstorm. We'll see!

Dude and his frogs

This is exciting news: Dude has one good-looking frog! This despite the fact that I have definitely been shirking my hoof-cleaning routine this week. I had to bring the Betadine home to wash out a skin irritation that Dixie has, so I haven't scrubbed Dude's feet in many days, just picked them out. And I arrived late to the barn this whole week, so have been picking them out in the dark of his stall. Bad, bad, bad. Imagine by surprise when I went to scrub them out today and picked up his left front only to find a perfect sturdy triangular frog!

I know I've written before about the trials and tribulations of Dude's feet. They are just plain hideous; always soft and peely on the frog. It's like they're constantly hovering on the edge of a giant thrush infection, and sometimes they cross right over into that stage. Katie once did a tabletop exhibit on thrush for 4H and we had Mr. Textbook Example conveniently around for hoof photographs. Most people look at Dude's hooves and sort of curl their lip in disgust. I think our farrier is so used to them that he doesn't do the lip curl, and he does celebrate the minor successes with me by grudgingly saying at times, "Well, they look pretty good. For Dude." I'm tempted to try to take a photo tomorrow to document this occasion. He's so bad about holding up his feet, I'm not sure I'll be able to hold the hoof with one hand and take the photo with the other. We'll see.

Today I cleaned them out really well with the 50/50 mix, then let him stand in the aisle while his feet air-dried and I got him brushed and reblanketed.

Had a nice ride on Dude today in the indoor. I practiced posting and we did some walk/trot transitions and figure 8s. When I pulled him up at the end of the ride, we both heaved a sigh right at the same time. Pretty funny. Before arriving at the barn I had thought about riding outside because it was a gorgeous sunny day with temps in the upper 30s, but the pathway was total slush and really messy. Our megasnow from Wednesday has gotten ugly.

Blanket juggling

Today temperatures were in the 30s and we had frequent bursts of wet, heavy snow. When I got to the barn around 3 pm and brought the horses in, Bestie's turnout sheet had soaked through to her stable blanket, and Dude's turnout felt sort of like it had soaked through but I couldn't really tell; it might've just been damp. When the weather's fairly warm and wet like today, I find it really hard to tell if the blankets are wet or just damp with slimy mid-winter yuckiness.

It appeared to be the perfect opportunity to bring the whole mess home and wash 'em up, and dress the ponies in their new fleece sheets from Schneiders Tack with clean turnout sheets on top. The doors were all open in the barn, so the temperature inside was hovering a bit under 40 and likely to drop slightly overnight, and tomorrow is supposed to range into the upper 30s. The fleece and turnouts seemed like a good combination to get them through the next day or two.

Bestie's size 78 fleece fits her perfectly, ditto for Dude's size 80. Is great having the leg straps and belly surcingle. They both looked so cute, like they were dressed in their warm jammies. Nothing like a just-out-of-the-box blankie!

I tossed the wet turnout sheets and stable blankets into the back of the car, briefly debated going to the laundromat, and then decided to go home--just couldn't muster the energy to march into the laundromat with four stinky blankets, although maybe on a Saturday night no one would've been there. My car smelled lovely by the time I got home :)

Now to get them all clean before the temperatures drop again...

Dude and I serpentine

I almost cancelled my lesson today because I've had a cold for a couple days and have felt yucky, but Emma is on vacation next week and I didn't want to go too long without a lesson. Plus, nothing clears out the sinuses like a cold indoor arena or an energetic session of stall mucking :). But am missing this weekend's barn party in favor of hanging out at home and drinking tea in my pj's in hopes of nipping this cold once and for all.

I got to the barn at noon for my 12:30 lesson, which was definitely pushing it; the traffic didn't cooperate coming out of Burlington. Luckily the lesson before mine was running long, so I had about 10 minutes to warm Dude up once I got out to the arena at 12:25. It worked out well.

After warming him up at the walk, we worked on my posting trot. We did it in sections around the perimeter of the arena using the dressage markers as guides. Basically I was trotting the segment in a "J" shape each time, because I always caught a straightaway and part of a curve. By the time we started the second round, Dude had caught on so we shifted the pattern a little bit. There were several good walk-trot-walk transitions, and a couple not-so-good ones. It's always a fight to keep him on the wall, so a couple of my transitions weren't too pretty as I tried to wrestle him back on the wall.

Then we went to jogging a serpentine, which was fun. And again, some lovely curves and some downright ugly curves! But all in all, enough nice ones that it felt good. We did a full pattern twice at the jog. I find I have to really concentrate on "feeling" his movement, because his jog is so slow that he can break without me feeling it coming. Emma pointed out that he tends to break in certain spots (nearing the door, for one!), and that I should keep alert for those spots and give him a bit of encouragement on the approach.

By the time we got done it was about 1:15, so I decided to just keep him in since they usually come in around 2/2:30. When I looked out to check on Bestie, Dude's pasture mates were chewing on each other--another reason not to put him back out! I brushed him really well and then got Bestie and groomed her. Was going to lunge her but my head started clogging up again.

Talked to Emma a little bit about his weight. We upped his grain about six weeks ago, but he is still looking ribby. Sometimes in the last couple of weeks I've felt like he's started to put on weight, but today I didn't feel that way at all. We decided to give him another couple weeks. I can't figure it out. It started about the time we got snow and they went off grass. With his grain increase, he's getting about double the senior feed he was getting.

When he's in his stall I think he gets more hay than he got at the previous barn. The only wild card is when he's outside--at this barn they feed hay outside rather than in the stall in the morning, so I'm not sure how much he eats out there (whereas at the previous barn he was definitely eating two flakes in the morning). Today when I got him for his lesson, there were still two untouched flakes laying in the snow in his pasture. He's not low man on the pole, but I still wonder how much he's eating. With his grain in the evening he has about a cup of Glanzen GL, one third cup of rice bran, and one little scoop (maintenance dose) of Vitamin E powder. He eats it all right up--never any grain left in Dude's feeder!

Following our usual schedule, I had his teeth checked in the fall, but it's definitely time to have them looked at again in the next few weeks.

Fridays are Barn Day

Fridays have become Barn Day, since I usually don't work on Fridays and rarely have anything on that day besides the occasional appointment. Yesterday Dude and Bestie had a farrier appointment at 9 a.m., so I got there around 8:45 and brought them both in, then spent a few minutes fussing around with some little things as I waited for the farrier. Got Dude's saddle cleaned; it was looking pretty dusty after all the reno work in the tack room.

Their feet were a little ragged. The fields have pretty light snow cover right now and the ground is frozen, so they are walking around on frozen clods of dirt, snow and some ice, which takes a toll on their feet. No soreness from it though. Dude's feet are in their usual ugly state, with poorly defined frogs. I've been scrubbing them out every other day with a Betadine/water 50/50 mix to keep them somewhat dried out. He doesn't get many shavings in his stall and he tends to poop and pee all over the space, so once it gets wet, he's standing in a thin wet layer of sawdust most of the night. It's a constant battle and we've been dealing with it for as long as we've owned him.

I had another nice lesson. We worked on getting him to bend (he doesn't) and the posting trot again. His "go" button just wasn't on yesterday as much as it was the week before, at least until another horse came in for the next lesson and he started enthusiastically following her around the arena. It was good though. I've been using the wool quarter sheet with him to keep his hind end warm since he's pretty stiff back there. It feels really good on my legs too! (Even though yesterday the temperature in the arena was a balmy 30 degrees, probably the warmest it has been in there since November.)

After my lesson I ran some errands then stopped back by the barn on my way home to make sure they were all tucked in for the night. I tried the 78" fleece sheet on both of them. The sheets can't be returned if they get dirty, but I knew the 78" would fit one of them. It was a little snug on Dude but fit Bestie well. I had ordered an 80" for Dude, so he's all set. It'll be a nice layer to have under their turnout sheets once it gets into the low 30s, or even under their blankets outside if we get back to single digit weather.

Trotting trotting trotting trotting

That was my lesson today: trotting. And more trotting. It felt like a lot of trotting to me, and presumably to Dude (who heaved a big sigh at the end), but probably to more accomplished riders, it wouldn't be much. Bottom (ha ha) line? It was fun.

We started with our usual battle. Me trying to put and keep Dude on the rail, with a few occasional polite moves out of someone's way; him trying to wander aimlessly around the indoor wherever and whenever he wanted to. There were a couple other horses in there, so he liked to attempt to veer after them as they passed. He's worse with those tricks at the walk. Once he's trotting he's better, and he's gotten pretty responsive to my requests to move out, which is nice.

Emma adjusted my stirrups to be just a little shorter so that it would be easier to post. After a few "practice posts" while Dude stood still and at the walk, I asked him to trot. Since his preferred speed is s-l-o-w, it took a bit to get him going at a trot that I could attempt to post to. When he was moving at his usual jog, it was very hard, there was too much hangtime with my rear end suspended in the air and I couldn't get a rhythm going.

Toward the end he got into it and was moving pretty speedily around the indoor. Then we slowed back down to do a sitting jog around the ring and one big figure 8. He definitely is a big hairy sofa when doing his jog, it's so comfortable. I didn't walk him down through the field today, it was too windy and cold even though the sun was out. I brought him back into his stall and groomed him, then turned him back out with his buddies.

I lunged Bestie after the indoor cleared out. When I walked her yesterday (with intent to lunge) she was pretty peppy, so I abandoned the idea of lunging her because there were a couple beginner riders in the ring and I didn't want to spook anyone's horse. Today she had a couple little head tosses and bucks when ice slid off the roof, but those were really nothing compared to when she's in full form. Actually, I don't think she's had a major racing, snorting, bucking, farting fit since we moved. All-day turnout is definitely good for her.

Both horses stepped on my left toes today. Like TOTALLY stepped on, with a fully planted hoof. One toe is pretty red. Neither horse has done that in ages. Twice in one day. Owwwwwww.

Ordered fleece blankets from Schneiders for both Dude and Bestie. I'm still wrestling with how to dress them appropriately when it's cold outside but 40-plus in the barn. Twice this week I left them in their cotton/poly sheets because it was 45 in the barn, and they got turned out in those sheets and turnout sheets with outside temperatures in the teens. Ugh. I really don't want Dude cold because I'm trying to get some weight back on him. Last night I put them both in their midweights and then worried all night that they were too hot in the barn. My thought with the fleece blankets is that the fleece would offer a bit more flexibility with the combinations--a little warmer than the cotton/poly sheet, but not as warm as the midweights. An in-between layer. Sometimes I feel like I spend entirely too much time thinking about the complexities of blanketing.