Not your average OTTB given another chance at a new life and a mostly average busy Mom who never gave up on her dream to ride again. An unlikely pair at an unlikely time, learning to event and loving life!
Monday, December 13, 2010
Getting the most out your lesson
I am a fan of The Chronicle of the Horse on facebook and they have some really interesting articles. I especially liked this one. I could relate to it and it was great information. Making most those 45 minutes amateurs; guide getting top value from lessons.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Worms, parasites and other fun topics.
I heard the most facinating talk on the radio the other day. I don't know if any of you have heard of or listen to Horses in the Morning but they have some interesting topics and great for those of us that love to indulge our horse addicted minds. Last week I listened to this facinating topic of worms and parisites. I honestly am not very educated on the subject and that show was very informative. This may be stuff everyone knows but I did not so it helped me but also left me with questions. I plan to talk to my vet this week about it.
My limited knowledge of de-worming was you buy a de-womer at the farm store and keep your horse on a scheduele of every 6 weeks. Administer the paste orally and that is about the extent of it. I found out that de-worming isn't necessary in all horses. That a majority of horses maintain a healthy level of parasites with no help. There are horses though that do need to be de-wormed but the best way to regulate parasites is to have their poop tested. Now I have not checked into the cost of parisite analysis and I hope to find out this week. I am thinking though that even if I find out that one of them does not require regular worming in the long run it would not cost more to have them tested periodically.
The reason though that they do not suggest the regualar de-worming method is not to save any money but to preserve the effectivness of the medicine. I found out that there are no new developments in the area of de-wormer and if we over use them and ruin the effectivness and we will be left standing with little help in controling parasites. That IS a great reason to use de-wormer resposibly. I will not go into any greater detail in this post because well you could just listen to the show but it is interesting and definitely worth a listen. It's pretty funny that the topic of poop could be so very interesting and only horse crazy people can understand..haha.
My limited knowledge of de-worming was you buy a de-womer at the farm store and keep your horse on a scheduele of every 6 weeks. Administer the paste orally and that is about the extent of it. I found out that de-worming isn't necessary in all horses. That a majority of horses maintain a healthy level of parasites with no help. There are horses though that do need to be de-wormed but the best way to regulate parasites is to have their poop tested. Now I have not checked into the cost of parisite analysis and I hope to find out this week. I am thinking though that even if I find out that one of them does not require regular worming in the long run it would not cost more to have them tested periodically.
The reason though that they do not suggest the regualar de-worming method is not to save any money but to preserve the effectivness of the medicine. I found out that there are no new developments in the area of de-wormer and if we over use them and ruin the effectivness and we will be left standing with little help in controling parasites. That IS a great reason to use de-wormer resposibly. I will not go into any greater detail in this post because well you could just listen to the show but it is interesting and definitely worth a listen. It's pretty funny that the topic of poop could be so very interesting and only horse crazy people can understand..haha.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
A butt scratching mystery.
Literally. I went out to feed this am and give Steady his once over. Pretty much the extent of what I have done horse related this week since the temps were hovering frightening close to 0 all week. As I was looking him over he had a large, fresh gouge out of his hing end at the top about 6 inches left of his tail. It was wet with very little blood. Looks like it just scraped off the top layer of skin but didn't break it. It looked to fresh to have happened last night. I looked his stall up and down over and over and could not find anything protruding or something with his hair on it. I have no idea how he got it. The worst part is that he did get it and if I don't know how I fear it could happen again and God forbid in a worse place on him. Grrr it is frustrating.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Are you calling me a horse??? Why, thank you.
In his stoic personality, his steady temperment, his level headedness those are traits I do not possess.
Mostly though in his guarded heart we are the same. It is not that he does not possess the ability to love or be loved. If I had to guess it is more of the past disappointments in his life that have caused him to be gaurded. That there were those in his past that he trusted and gave his heart to and they took that precious gift and abused it. They didn't return the love or they left him standing alone when he thought they would be there for him forever. It is not that he doesn't contain the ability to love or be loved because I have had the rare priviledge to feel his love. It is not that he cannot trust because he has placed that fragile gift of his trust in my hands. It is quite the oposite we are both creatures that to most of the world seem tough, cold, indifferent but to those few souls in this life that we trust with our hearts they are the only ones who truely understand the depths and lengths that our love goes.
Ok seriously didn't even mean to go there I just thought this would be a light hearted personaity analysis and that was extremely powerful and deep. Excuse me, I need to go kiss a horse.
Thanks to those who posted this. I don't even know who the originator was but I first read it at A Year With Horses and also at Opening Up the Chord and Counting Strides and A Fearsome Beauty.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Elisabeth update
I did my best to make their Thanksgiving as nice a possible so I doubled our entire Thanksgiving and brought it to them. I just knew that her mom had to spend so much time caring for her she wouldn't be able to spend all day in the kitchen.
She has really been in alot of pain and on vicodin around the clock. She went in on Tuesday for an appointment and the dr. said that surgery was neccessary. We were all really hoping it could be avoided but that is not the case. Thursday was her surgery and it went well. She got to go home the same day. The first few days following the pain was still just as intense but now about 5 days out she seems to have moments thoroughout the day that she feels "good". good enough to get up and move around. She is in in a splint and can now stand and walk with her arm in a sling. Her break in her elbow was the most severe and the bone was actually rotated out of place and that is why she had surgery. She had 4 pins put in. They were very happy that they did avoid using screws. So she is very slowly getting better each day and now it is time to figure out what she can do since all the things she loves she cannot do for a while.
They have also not been able to even think about the horse and how to handle him. I am trying to help them as much as possible work through it but they can only deal with it the way they need to. Right now I think they are leaning toward selling him but they are not going to make any quick decisions which I think is for the best.
Thank you so much for all of you who have been so sweet and supportive through all of this. It really means alot
She has really been in alot of pain and on vicodin around the clock. She went in on Tuesday for an appointment and the dr. said that surgery was neccessary. We were all really hoping it could be avoided but that is not the case. Thursday was her surgery and it went well. She got to go home the same day. The first few days following the pain was still just as intense but now about 5 days out she seems to have moments thoroughout the day that she feels "good". good enough to get up and move around. She is in in a splint and can now stand and walk with her arm in a sling. Her break in her elbow was the most severe and the bone was actually rotated out of place and that is why she had surgery. She had 4 pins put in. They were very happy that they did avoid using screws. So she is very slowly getting better each day and now it is time to figure out what she can do since all the things she loves she cannot do for a while.
They have also not been able to even think about the horse and how to handle him. I am trying to help them as much as possible work through it but they can only deal with it the way they need to. Right now I think they are leaning toward selling him but they are not going to make any quick decisions which I think is for the best.
Thank you so much for all of you who have been so sweet and supportive through all of this. It really means alot
Last minute clinic! Are you kidding me!?!
I am still in awe that this happened yesterday. So a couple weeks ago I got an email that there was a dressage clinic at the stable that I take lessons at. I have never been to a clinic before but covet the opportunity to do so. I didn't mention it to my husband because I knew the answer would be "do you have the money for it". So I abondoned the idea. The clinic was to be yestereday and I awoke with one the on the brain yestereday. "Maybe I could at least go to watch". It is about and hour drive for me. I had already promised the kids we would do our traditional Christmas tree cutting down day so I was not sure if it was possible to squeeze in a trip to the clinic. I was looking at the email and Ryan asked what I was looking at. I explained it to him and would you believe the next words out of his mouth???? "Well why aren't you going?" WHAT!!?! So you better believe I jumped out of bed grabed my phone and asked if they any openings. Well why yes they did and I was to ride at 1:30!!
There were three of us riding for an hour. Lynn looked about 16 on a bay warmblood that she has owned for about three years and Alisha looked about 17 on her chestnut thoroughbred mare that she has owned for a few months. Each of them had all the good horsey gear. The Anky saddles and Charles Owens helmets and all the other goodies that I probably turn green just looking at. Then me trying to hide my green with envy face riding my Steady, 30 years old with my troxel helmet that makes me look like an egg head, my used coventry saddle and my probably 20 year old bridle. Can you tell I have a bit of a complex..lol?
Lightbulb #1 using correct aides at the walk.
She started off by trying to give us a mental picture. She started with the "hallway" she said we should think of riding in a hallway and always trying to keep our horses within that hallway. That they like to get out of the hallway because in the hallway means work so it is our job to always keep them in it. Then on a walk she explained how to ride a walk. The walking thing is foreign to me. I don't think in the hunter jumper world that the walk is ever given much attention and thus I do not know the first thing about how to ask for a correct walk. She explained that I should apply leg alternately as the horse moves and coordinate with his movement. This made sense and this was light bulb number 1.
Lightbulb #2: sweeping in to the outside rein.
Next mental picture was to "think of sweeping the kitchen floor all the time." We should always be sweeping the horse into the outside rein. The inside rein is the just there and not used to get correct movement. Lightbulb #2: sweeping in to the outside rein. Use the inside leg and sweep into the outside rein. That the outside rein is where the contact is.
She put us all on about a 20 meter circle in our respective parts of the ring to do trot work. About 20 minutes in I started noticing the lack of attention Steady and I were getting. About 30 minutes in I started noticing I think I need to start doing a little more trot work at home cause I was starting to get tired. By that time Leslie had come down and appoligized for not giving Steady and I adequate attention. Listen to this, she said "You two are just farther along than the other two" I think I had a momentary ego boost on that one. I was soooo proud that we had a little acknoledgement on our progress and by a pro none-the-less! She made a few more statements headed our direction the big ones were: "You have got a beautiful horse. You two seem like a perfect match. Do you realize with the correct work what an amazing dressage horse he could be? You have a wonderful horse, he is very honest and obedient. He really wants to please you." I am blown away that a woman of her calliber saw so much in my OTTB. I am not trying to brag but she did not say those type of comments to the other girls or about their horses. So I am fairly confident she wasn't just saying those things because I was paying her...ha.
So my complex of not having all the proper or fancy horse gear turned into "See you don't need all those fancy things to get some pretty amazing stuff out of your horse". The stuff will come little by little but it was nice to remind myself that it is OK to not have all that I want in this world. I just need to be content and take what I have and make the best of it. And always remember why I am doing this, it is not for the progress though it is nice. I am doing it for my love of horses and as long as I get to go out and ride my pony then the rest is icing!!!
Next she said two words I was hoping to hear. LEG YIELDS!!! Ever since I read the post about leg yeilds on TB at X I have been facinated with trying them. The post is very descriptive you should check it out. I also loved that the aides explained in the post were the same aides Leslie told us to use. Outside rein/inside leg. She said "Starting at the A end of the ring turn at the quarter line and start the leg yeild at the second letter. Inside leg to the outside rein." It was at that moment that I realized I have started to understand the "language" you know that second language called dressaganese. I realized she had been using termanology all day that two months ago would have been just as effective to give me directions in Chinese than Dressaganese. Woohoo, next step to actually learn how to speak it. If you have ever learned a second language you know that you can understand a spoken language much sooner than you can fluently speak it. That is where I am at I can understand about 75% of the language but can only speak bits and pieces. Hopefully the speaking of it will come soon. Nevermind that we were talking about leg yeilds.
Lightbulb moment #3 what a leg yeild feels like. The neck is to stay straight, inside leg to outside rein and they only cross over slightly.
Light bulb moment #4 Where his head needs to be.
For the first half of the lesson Steady would go on the bit nicely and then be super dramatic and pull his head super low. This is not a regular occurance but I am glad she was there to see it so she could help me correct it. A couple half halts and if it doesn't work then transition to a walk and quickly back to a trot. After fiddling with him for few minutes I figured out the half halt idea worked in conjunctin with pushing him forward with my leg. At some point during our ride Leslie said "Right there, that is where you want his head. So lock that image and feeling into the microchip in your head." Very helpful as long as my microchip does not fail me.
Lightbulb #5 The motor is in the rear end.
My goal is to get him to work from the rear end. As a racer he is inclined to go out in behind but he does come under himself nicely he just needs more practice and fitness. haha speaking of fitness about 40 minutes into it, mostly troting, I was reeeeally feeling it and my muscule response was getting slower and less acurate. Poor Steady. It probably started to feel like Gumby was on his back.
Light bulb #6 how to properly ask your horse for a canter....REALLY?...not sure how such a basic priciple is a lightbulb for me but obviously what I needed.
At that point she ended the lesson. She appologized to me that we didn't get to the canter but she just didn't have time with the three of us. I then so sweetly beeeeged if she would take 2 minutes at that canter with us. She agreed!! This is where I am really hoping to improve over the next couple months and we need some help. She had us on a 20 meter circle at the center line prepare aides and quarterline ask. Bwahaha not good. He scooted off and in her words "ran like a chicken". Well that is typical and I just always thought it was an issue he had. Oh boy was I wrong. After her correcting me, my aides and my movement he really had very little problem picking it up. I think her exact words were "why in the world were you posting? What do you think posting really fast tells him?" me:" Uh to trot faster". L: "Why do you think he takes off running like a chicken? Because he thinks that is what you want from him? Me: "OOOOH". Duh! L: "Sit your ASS in the saddle, sit back, look up and ask your horse to canter!!!" Me: AH HA, now I get it. Oh boy is my horse tolerent.
I walked away with so much information and so much excitement I thought I could explode. It was phenomenal!!!
The remainder of the day went like this
.
THE END....until tomorrow.
- Run do chores
- get the family ready and in the car
- drive 30 min away to tree farm
- walk through hundreds of trees to find the perfect one
- cut it down/shake it/ tie it to the roof
- drink cup of hot cocoa
- drive home
- put tree in stand
- throw in saddle and all riding gear
- hook up trailer
- throw in Steady ;)
- drive to clinic to arrive at 1:20
- Throw on tack
- warm up for 5 minutes
There were three of us riding for an hour. Lynn looked about 16 on a bay warmblood that she has owned for about three years and Alisha looked about 17 on her chestnut thoroughbred mare that she has owned for a few months. Each of them had all the good horsey gear. The Anky saddles and Charles Owens helmets and all the other goodies that I probably turn green just looking at. Then me trying to hide my green with envy face riding my Steady, 30 years old with my troxel helmet that makes me look like an egg head, my used coventry saddle and my probably 20 year old bridle. Can you tell I have a bit of a complex..lol?
Lightbulb #1 using correct aides at the walk.
She started off by trying to give us a mental picture. She started with the "hallway" she said we should think of riding in a hallway and always trying to keep our horses within that hallway. That they like to get out of the hallway because in the hallway means work so it is our job to always keep them in it. Then on a walk she explained how to ride a walk. The walking thing is foreign to me. I don't think in the hunter jumper world that the walk is ever given much attention and thus I do not know the first thing about how to ask for a correct walk. She explained that I should apply leg alternately as the horse moves and coordinate with his movement. This made sense and this was light bulb number 1.
Lightbulb #2: sweeping in to the outside rein.
Next mental picture was to "think of sweeping the kitchen floor all the time." We should always be sweeping the horse into the outside rein. The inside rein is the just there and not used to get correct movement. Lightbulb #2: sweeping in to the outside rein. Use the inside leg and sweep into the outside rein. That the outside rein is where the contact is.
So my complex of not having all the proper or fancy horse gear turned into "See you don't need all those fancy things to get some pretty amazing stuff out of your horse". The stuff will come little by little but it was nice to remind myself that it is OK to not have all that I want in this world. I just need to be content and take what I have and make the best of it. And always remember why I am doing this, it is not for the progress though it is nice. I am doing it for my love of horses and as long as I get to go out and ride my pony then the rest is icing!!!
Next she said two words I was hoping to hear. LEG YIELDS!!! Ever since I read the post about leg yeilds on TB at X I have been facinated with trying them. The post is very descriptive you should check it out. I also loved that the aides explained in the post were the same aides Leslie told us to use. Outside rein/inside leg. She said "Starting at the A end of the ring turn at the quarter line and start the leg yeild at the second letter. Inside leg to the outside rein." It was at that moment that I realized I have started to understand the "language" you know that second language called dressaganese. I realized she had been using termanology all day that two months ago would have been just as effective to give me directions in Chinese than Dressaganese. Woohoo, next step to actually learn how to speak it. If you have ever learned a second language you know that you can understand a spoken language much sooner than you can fluently speak it. That is where I am at I can understand about 75% of the language but can only speak bits and pieces. Hopefully the speaking of it will come soon. Nevermind that we were talking about leg yeilds.
Lightbulb moment #3 what a leg yeild feels like. The neck is to stay straight, inside leg to outside rein and they only cross over slightly.
Light bulb moment #4 Where his head needs to be.
For the first half of the lesson Steady would go on the bit nicely and then be super dramatic and pull his head super low. This is not a regular occurance but I am glad she was there to see it so she could help me correct it. A couple half halts and if it doesn't work then transition to a walk and quickly back to a trot. After fiddling with him for few minutes I figured out the half halt idea worked in conjunctin with pushing him forward with my leg. At some point during our ride Leslie said "Right there, that is where you want his head. So lock that image and feeling into the microchip in your head." Very helpful as long as my microchip does not fail me.
Lightbulb #5 The motor is in the rear end.
My goal is to get him to work from the rear end. As a racer he is inclined to go out in behind but he does come under himself nicely he just needs more practice and fitness. haha speaking of fitness about 40 minutes into it, mostly troting, I was reeeeally feeling it and my muscule response was getting slower and less acurate. Poor Steady. It probably started to feel like Gumby was on his back.
Light bulb #6 how to properly ask your horse for a canter....REALLY?...not sure how such a basic priciple is a lightbulb for me but obviously what I needed.
At that point she ended the lesson. She appologized to me that we didn't get to the canter but she just didn't have time with the three of us. I then so sweetly beeeeged if she would take 2 minutes at that canter with us. She agreed!! This is where I am really hoping to improve over the next couple months and we need some help. She had us on a 20 meter circle at the center line prepare aides and quarterline ask. Bwahaha not good. He scooted off and in her words "ran like a chicken". Well that is typical and I just always thought it was an issue he had. Oh boy was I wrong. After her correcting me, my aides and my movement he really had very little problem picking it up. I think her exact words were "why in the world were you posting? What do you think posting really fast tells him?" me:" Uh to trot faster". L: "Why do you think he takes off running like a chicken? Because he thinks that is what you want from him? Me: "OOOOH". Duh! L: "Sit your ASS in the saddle, sit back, look up and ask your horse to canter!!!" Me: AH HA, now I get it. Oh boy is my horse tolerent.
I walked away with so much information and so much excitement I thought I could explode. It was phenomenal!!!
The remainder of the day went like this
.
- Untack
- go into the tack store at the stable and buy a leather halter with brass nameplate for my daughters horse for x-mas (get a little jealous that I don't have one for my horsey)
- attempt to load Steady into trailer
- Steady slip getting in and then deciding it was not something he cared to do today.
- Freezing my butt off trying to convince him he needed to get in.
- Did I mention it was cooooold outsde? Brrrrr
- Begging for an innocent bystanders help. which I hate to do because they always have their own ideas of how to get a horse in a trailer and I know EXACTLY what it takes to get Steady in.
- After 5 minutes of me saying no all I need you to do is _______. No do not get close to him. All I need you to do is _____.
- The nice girl finally doing what I asked and Steady jumping right in.
- Me telling Steady that that wasn't nice and now I am frozen.
- hour drive home.
- unload Steady
- cook dinner
- do chores
- eat dinner
- try to thaw out
- Decorate christmas tree with the kids
- put the kids to bed
- crash on the couch and watch a movie
THE END....until tomorrow.
Baby it's cold outside.
The dedication and passion it takes to go out and ride when it is 27 degrees is a strange thing. I happen to posses that ability. Some call it dedication, some call it passion others (including my husband) call it obsessive. Call it what you want it is cold. I am glad I forced myself to get out and ride though my body was telling me to curl up on the couch and watch a movie. Other than the fact that I still cannot feel my toes I stayed moderately warm. But getting to live in that connection there is when I am on Steady's back is no match for dropping temperatures. He proves his abilities each time I get on and I am usually in awe. First at his work ethic, then and his intellegence and mostly at his tolerence. He has had to put up with me making so many mistakes on the ground, in our rides and in saddle fitting and those are only the mistakes that I recognized. Not to mention the ones I completely over looked.
He gave me a great ride and always tries to give me what I am asking for. His trust for me is phenomenal. His seperation anxiety has gone down tremendously and if I am near it is gone completely. He does still struggle when I leave and there are no horses but he has made wonderful progress. He knows I will take care of him and he has almost no fear if I am there with him. It is scary to me to tie my heartstrings so tightly to another living thing but it cannot be helped. I love this horse and our bond is amazing.
He gave me a great ride and always tries to give me what I am asking for. His trust for me is phenomenal. His seperation anxiety has gone down tremendously and if I am near it is gone completely. He does still struggle when I leave and there are no horses but he has made wonderful progress. He knows I will take care of him and he has almost no fear if I am there with him. It is scary to me to tie my heartstrings so tightly to another living thing but it cannot be helped. I love this horse and our bond is amazing.
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