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.