Happy midweek, y'all! It's been a bit quiet around here for horse things, since I'm catching up with other life stuff that got missed while I was down with ye olde 'rona virus recently, womp haha...
barnyard perspectives with the red mare
But "quiet" doesn't mean non-existent, fortunately! Y'all might remember the somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but also kinda serious post I wrote about Doozy flunking her '30 day performance review.'
The gist was basically that... We're really going to need to see this horse be rideable from a soundness perspective sooner rather than later, and I put some specific numbers and metrics around what that'll mean to me by the time we get to around the 90 day milestone.
oooooh barn hacks with a babysitter too!
And ya know. It takes two to tango, right? If for whatever reason, we get to 90 days and Doozy hasn't cleared those benchmarks... Well, it should NOT be for lack of trying on my part.
So... sure, Doozy's foot is still sore from her recent giant abscess. But we can get a little creative in carefully and gently logging new and important adventures and experiences all the same, right?
the littlest loop that somehow still manages to check off a lot of good "hacking" boxes! landmarks, ridden counter clockwise: sheep top right corner, stream bottom left corner
Like recently, when we "hacked out" under the careful supervision of a junior who volunteered to hand walk her horse around with us to 'baby sit.'
Does Doozy need a baby sitter? Maybe not. Does she like it tho? Yep, she does. Is it nicer to log happy relaxed experiences right now? Yep, it is.
artsy?? or just too sheepish to ask for a pic? you decide!
It's especially nice when we get to that little stream crossing at the bottom of the wooded section heading back to the barn (bottom left corner of the above map). Doozy has crossed the stream in hand with water in it, and has crossed the section under saddle when it was dried up (is a very small stream branch).
But she'd never successfully crossed it under saddle while water flowed through. Until, that is, this ride!! Good girl!!
just #sheepish things
And ya know, context, situation, circumstances... They all work together, right? I'd hand walked her over it with legit zero issues the day before -- after having not seen it at all for a few weeks. And now we had a nice calm horse leading the way.
did i mention that it rained a bit during our recent starter trials -- great way to get all the little streams and such flowing again!
Doozy definitely wanted to go back to the barn, and understood that the shortest way home was over the little stream. And ya know, we were patient and let her sniff it out and think through her steps. And, ta da!, she did a little hop over it. Whaddagooodguurrrl!!!
omg look at these cute custom coasters created by one of our barn workers!
It was a really nice experience bc, from her perspective, a lot of nice things happened after she crossed the stream:
First, obvi, going home, yay, her favorite! But second, she got a shit ton of praise for it, which she wasn't necessarily expecting. But definitely seemed to like.
legit the actual cutest, i love them! will also *never* be used as coasters bc... too cute haha
That's the cool thing about her personality, too --- she seems really highly connective, highly sociable. Remember in the video I took when we first met her, when she both wanted to connect with the dog running around outside the round pen... but also wanted to join up with the handler conducting the round pen work.
resident barnyard panther Icee took a mouse into Charlie's stall for a little light murder/torture
My hope is that if I can help her connect the dots between the work I'm asking her to do, and that really nice praise and reward, she'll have a big breakthrough about like... everything haha.
But ya know. The whole 'sore foot' situation kinda works against me simultaneously --- if she instead connects anything we do with, 'wow that sucked bc my foot hurt!' then, ya know, that just makes everything harder. So as always, it's a balancing act.
lol and then there are my fat house cats haha....
We have options, tho, right? I had thought to maybe keep the horse barefoot behind over the winter, if possible. But not at the expense of being able to cope with all the rocky pathways and driveways etc. So we'll see.
In the meantime, we'll take the wins where we get them! Hope y'all are having a nice week too ;)
It might not seem like there's much overlap between subjects, but I often draw from my background in mathematics in approaching and understanding training and development with horses. For example, with ideas like the 'least common denominator,' or 'irreducible complexity.'
look at these ridiculous big boys (and spirit), hungry for breakfast but too silly to come down to the gate <3
The least common denominator is the smallest shared multiplier in a set of numbers -- the smallest possible "building block" that can be used to arrive at those numbers in combination.
Irreducible complexity is the idea that a process has been condensed to its most fundamental elements - that it cannot be simplified any further and still function.
nothing comes between this one and her food
So when it comes to the whole process involved in your typical normal run-of-the-mill ride, I try to see and understand all the various component pieces at play. For example -- bringing the horse in from the field, if applicable. Grooming. Tacking. Getting to the ring or riding place, getting on. Actually conducting the ride (and all the various systems therein). Finishing, and reverse-engineering all the previous steps, etc.
different day, same story: professional hand grazer
In an ideal world, all those various steps are more or less independent from each other. Or at least, that's the ultimate goal, right? We want to establish each 'step' as its own confirmed skill, more or less. "Good citizenship."
Realistically, tho, little hiccups, disruptions, etc, in any step can bleed into and influence a ride.... You might remember that was kinda the big focus of Charlie's first little show --- the actual dressage tests were almost secondary. Our main goal was just to make it through each step in a new, more stressful environment (ie, the show), without any major issues.**
(**Like falling off at the mounting block, or the horse breaking away from the trailer.... Ya know, hiccups lol)
ooooh charlesaurus!
This thought process is helpful right now with Doozy, too -- and for a few reasons! Obvi, first off, she's still sore on that abscess foot and vet wants me to just be a little patient with her, since it was such a big abscess. Cool, no prob, we can work on other things!
Secondly, tho, it's also becoming clear that Doozy has some associations and triggers related to arenas that... definitely predate her time with me lol. Like, most horses are some degree of barn sour, esp when they're more green. But she really feels a certain sort of way about being inside vs outside a ring, any ring, and it'll take time to unpack that.
his feet still hurt, but we enjoyed each other's company anyway
But in the meantime... I'm getting the sense that she's maybe a bit superstitious, highly associative. And as such, I don't want to lose sight of my ultimate goal of having a complete, confirmed riding horse who can do all the normal riding horse things more or less independent of environment, circumstance or potential 'triggers.'
just a little loop around!
So my approach right now is to keep the scale fairly micro. Focus on one thing at a time -- the least common denominator. Reduce each process to its absolute simplest form.
Like, Grooming - check, good girl. Done. Hand walking - can go here, can go there, can graze. Must always give to pressure. Can do laps to new and different places - good girl, done.
next up, my other nqr horse!!
At least in this particular example, I'm finding it helpful to step up my own discipline too -- to be really really certain that I always know exactly what I'd like the horse to be doing, and am communicating that as clearly as I can.
Now that we're getting to know each other better, it feels like I need to be more proactive in keeping us on task. Like: walking laps in hand around the dressage ring -- Doozy straight up doesn't love this, gets a bit worked up, and will snort and try to whip around on the line.
But.... lol... She will also stand there easily in hand if I lean over to grab a ground rail from outside the ring, and drag it into position so we can walk over it.
she couldn't believe i'd wear denim in a borrowed saddle.....
On the face of it, these two behaviors seem a bit incongruent, right? Except what I'm finding out is that... the difference is my behavior. When we're just mindlessly walking laps or whatever, to Doozy that's basically the absence of any clear direction or occupying task.
Esp compared to times when I need her to do a certain thing -- like when I'm opening or shutting a gate, turning on lights, picking manure out of the footing, or moving ground poles around. She's stellar for all that. So ya know, maybe it's on me to help keep us a little busier with interesting 'micro tasks' until such a time as we're sound enough for proper riding work.
easy pathway hacks #4lyfe
With that in mind, after a productive hand walk where I made sure to hold myself more accountable... Doozy went back into her stall while Charlie got his turn for a short 'n sweet walk about the farm! His feet are still sore but at least he walks sound now <3
legit just did a couple little laps, maybe took 7min total
Then, right back out with Mondeuse again, and this time with tack. This time focusing more on the fairly basic processes of.... getting on and off the horse. Doozy so far has been exceedingly good at mounting blocks, and the block down in our barn yard is particularly friendly. It's gigantic, super stable, basically a platform. Plus it's got a fence next to it, so the horse naturally just stays in a correct position.
Dismounting is.... eh, not quite so good yet lol. She's clearly used to her jockeys or what have you just jumping off while she keeps motoring forever onward. It's not really a big deal, so I'm not making a big deal about it... But I am starting to communicate to her that, actually, standing is nice too. She won't know if I never tell her, right??
whadddagoooodgurrrrl!!!! such a champion!
For the actual meat of this little "ride," we basically just did a couple laps around the barn and outbuildings, going around in both directions. Past the feed shed where that scary pig lives... "Leaving" the barn yard from all the normal paths, and then "returning" again without rushing.
And none of it was any sort of big deal. Which, obvi, it shouldn't be, lol. She's gone through exactly these same motions quite a few times already, and seems to know the drill.
My hope is frequent low key practice on these 'micro' skills will help us avoid ever associating the little stuff with her bigger triggers --- like going into an arena lol. And, in this way, we can continue developing the shared vocabulary we'll need for me to keep her on task from the saddle too.
Or ya know, lol, maybe it's simpler than that haha. Maybe it's just nice to be able to get on and putz around a little bit on this new horse who is still kinda lame lol. And maybe that's enough in and of itself too, right?? Going through the motions one way or another --- and riding is still riding, no matter how boring LOL.
Horse ownership really is wild, I swear. My company had our first in-person retreat since the before times this week, meaning I was away from Charlie for 3 whole days.
let's start a gross post with an absolutely adorable photo tho <3 <3
In an ideal world, I avoid missing more than 2 days in a row.... For a few reasons if we're being honest. Mostly bc I adore my horse and his company, obviously.
But also... Charlie's farm operates a bit like a co-op masquerading as full-care, with a large decentralized staff composed of both boarders (with varying degrees of experience) working off their board; and an aging weekday staff who have been there forever but don't actually have any personal horses on the farm.
and more cute --- manager mikey keepin an eye on us!
Obviously everyone who works there does it bc they love horses. But ya know, sometimes stuff gets missed. Unfortunately, Charlie drew the short straw this week.
I got home from the work trip around 2am, then woke up early to sneak out to the barn asap the next morning and see my poor neglected creature, who would surely feel abandoned and forlorn!
and #short video of charlie keepin an eye on michael too
And predictably.... Yea. Homeboy was crusted in days-old sweat and grime, depressed looking, and itchy as all hell. Which, ahem, was probably directly related to his mangled and raw RH leg, that had very clearly gone a few rounds with high tensile wire fencing.... :(
seriously tho, guys, last chance for cute before it gets... not cute
And ya know. Stuff like this bothers me. I hate seeing my horse in pain... He also obviously did not do this in his stall. And yet, there he was, in his stall, having already been brought in for breakfast that morning from his overnight turn out.
ta da! welcome home, emma!
Did somebody see it but not think it merited attention? Maybe! Or maybe they didn't see it? I dunno. Some of the folks at this farm are pretty old school, they've seen literally everything. So maybe they figured this was a bit like a skinned knee -- ouchy and ugly, but ultimately inconsequential?
ugh poor charlie, fully lacerated the tissue over his cannon :( also peep that persistent non healing wound on his other limb bleh
Which... Idk. I tend to err on the side of overcommunication about the various dings and dents our horses collect -- serious or otherwise. Plus, for better or worse I often medicate liberally. Like, in this scenario with swelling and open wounds around a joint, it'd take heavy convincing for me to NOT start antibiotics. So, in my "ideal world," wounds like this should be observed and communicated. YMMV.
mmm lovely. vet evaluated by testing if the skin would pull apart or flap, which it did not, whew!
It was moot anyway, tho, since I showed up when I did. Plus none of the lacerations looked particularly nasty except the one on the cannon. Tho it also didn't necessarily look fresh enough for stitches? I pulled the horse out to cold hose and investigate, and shot off a photo to my (extremely practical) vet in case she wanted a looksie.
vet was most concerned about the depth of lacerations over the hock joint
She agreed that it didn't look too serious, just ugly, but she did want to take a closer look specifically at the wound depth around Charlie's hock. Considering, ya know.... Joint infections can be life-altering injuries, why risk it? Plus she was already in the neighborhood anyway, nbd.
poor charlie, you're not supposed to have "fat rolls" on your hock :(
So I got to fuss and fawn over Charlie, chiseling him out of his grimy crust and stuffing him full of cookies etc, while we waited for the vet. Then it was a pleasantly brief visit -- he basked in his sedation while she scrubbed everything up and evaluated. And luckily the vet quickly confirmed that everything is superficial except for that cannon wound.
cleaned it out and wrapped it up to help control the expected swelling
Tho she expects that to heal up just fine, too, since the skin didn't seem particularly flappy or like it wanted to pull apart or separate.
I personally am paranoid about it, having seen other folks in blogland really really struggle with healing big cannon lacerations.... So we'll wrap while he's stalled during the day, unwrap for normal overnight turnout, and see how it goes.
i swear this horse takes FOREVER to wake up from sedation
We'll see. The vet also shot him up with some systemic antibiotics -- Gent and Excede -- to be continued for a few days. It's probably overkill given I already had a full bottle of SMZs lol...
But, eh, the dosage is simpler and shorter, and I can do it all myself vs relying on barn staff to correctly administer a 2wk course of SMZs twice daily... Plus, my vet is out of town the next couple of days, and figured it'd be safer to treat proactively vs risk having Charlie blow up when she's not around.
unrelated random wound on other leg that's done a shockingly poor job of healing --- vet advised that i begin treating as if it's a 'summer sore'
She also noticed another little wound on his other hind .... A funny little superficial wound that should have healed just fine, but instead swelled wildly then exploded a week later (pics above). Obvi I've been gone a few days so I wasn't surprised to see it looking... still kinda iffy.
predictable that this hothouse flower couldn't endure 3 days of my absence without literally crawling out of his skin and imploding....
She said the wound's circular shape could suggest it's becoming a summer sore. In other words, it might be contaminated by fly or parasite eggs, which can cause persistent non-healing lesions that are susceptible to infection and drive their hosts mad.
we need to teach mikey how to be a better groom lol
She recommended treating with Quest, even tho Charlie's up to date on his dewormer. One tube as a standard oral dose, and a second to be used topically on the wound itself. So yea... If you're wondering whether my locker looks like a pharmacy rn, the answer is yes lol.
in the meantime, new study material arrived omg!!! i know the text here is small but lmk if you are intensely curious about any of the specific rider exercises listed!
one more of mikey as an apology for all the raw nasties before
So we're at TWO close call injuries from itching on fences... And I'm overit! Generic Zyrtec (cetirizine) pills have been my go to since the puncture, but results are mixed.
My vet reminded me that allergy meds work better as prevention vs cure, so we'll switch a daily dose of hydroxyzine to see if that works better. Bc damn... it's way cheaper than these vet bills!
back out with some of his buddies, relegated to a paddock bc, ahem, he wrecked the friggin pasture fence....
Wish me luck, lol. Anybody else out there ever have to deal with gruesome wire tangle injuries or cannon lacerations? Or summer sores? Or.... a miserably itchy horse bound and determined to literally rip the flesh from his own bones to free him from the madness...???
Happy Thanksgiving!! To my US readers in particular, but honestly -- to everybody, wishing you a wonderful late November week full of thankfulness (and good food!) <3
These last few years of holiday seasons have been.... tumultuous, to say the least.
And actually, this summer -- especially with the emergence of vaccinations etc -- it feels like society is very deliberately trying to put covid and the whole pandemic situation firmly behind us.
And, honestly? I'm HERE for that. Like, obvi the pandemic *is not* over, even as it shifts closer and closer to the (apparently more desirable?) 'endemic' classification. And, at least here in Baltimore, we're still on somewhat strict protocols.
But ya know.... My family and I are vaxxed and mostly boosted -- even the kiddos now too omg!! And we are ready to be together <3
So this holiday, at least for me and my family ---- which you may recall is enormous with many different branches, all of whom I want to see and spend time with ---- actually marks the first proper return to something like "normalcy" for us.
And ooooooh buddy, we are READY!
Obviously every individual community and family may or may not be in a different place right now --- but I hope you're looking forward to a good meal too, at the very least.
Resuming normal traditions for me means that I get *two omg* Thanksgiving meals in *one* day (omg).
And I do mean two haha --- there will be NO saving myself from one to the next. We go hard here, mkay?
So. If you need me, I'll probably be either seated at some ridiculously opulent spread --- or trying to rest up between meals haha. Wishing you all a similarly indulgent return to this wonderful holiday intended to bring everybody together in a spirit of gratitude!
Can I just say for a second how freakin excited I am for daylight savings this weekend? Like.... A lot of things feel like they're getting better after what was undeniably a global shit show from March 2020 through to March 2021 (and it's still not over yet!), and daylight savings feels like a proverbial "light" at the end of the tunnel.
There's a lot of good news happening, and glimmers of hope and relief and all that. Like, my parents and grandfather have all been fully vaccinated --- a huge relief. All that good news combined with warmer weather and the promise of longer days soon are really helping improve my mood right now lol.
lol clearly so gud at #haircare. pictured: mud dreads
Which, it turns out, is a good and welcome thing, bc.... Guys. My mind game is TRASH right now. Absolute garbage, wow.
snip snip, mother fuckers!! lol and yea... quite obviously i didn't even bother to wash the tail before trimming ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Amy and I signed up for Loch Moy's final cross derby of the season, and, frankly I'm lucky Amy was there. Bc it's highly unlikely I would have even ended up going --- the vague feelings of existential doom were that strong.
charlie is so helpful haha -- wondering if Amy needs assistance zipping her vest!
Even once we got there, I just had this sorta deep seated feeling of "Nope." Just general bad juju, ya know? And it didn't get any better after we strolled around the arenas eyeballing the courses while Intro ran.
punky looking exceptionally chill! with his green bow on for St Patty's Day <3
We had basically the best ride times in the world --- late enough that Charlie actually got to go out into his field for a little while in the morning, and I didn't have to wake up at any god awful hour. We'd also be riding in the warmest part of the day when footing promised to be the best -- while still promising to be home before dark.
literally jumped these four fences. and like, two warm up jumps. mega intense, yo
So I guess I was kinda surprised my gut would be so fickle and decide to 'nope' out on this day. But. Idk. Barring anybody standing there with an actual cattle prod forcing me to Do The Thing, I just decided to scratch.
will write about an earlier lesson later, but based on charlie's reactivity i decided to add a rein converter, so one rein activates both curb and snaffle -- rather than just having one rein on the curb (or two reins, like i used to do way back in the day). note we also still have the leather curb strap
Which, ya know, I can objectively agree that this is pretty stupid. But whatever, it is what it is. In the meantime, Amy did her schooling round (which was fantastic!) and then her own timed run (also excellent -- tho a little slow from walking in a couple places, plus a rail).
And while we waited around for her results to be tabulated, I started thinking that I wouldn't even do my schooling session either. Like, what's the point, right? Plus, it was looking like we might actually be able to get home in time for the horses to get turned out before PM feeding --- wasn't that more important to me anyway???
chaos!
Amy disagreed with that position tho, and ended up getting her way when the scoring software server went down and they were delayed in posting results. Obvi I'm never one to stand in the way of someone potentially collecting any satin, so we obvi had to wait for the results.
And at this point, the window for getting the horses home in time for turnout closed anyway so... Eh, I got on my freakin horse and rode him around during the schooling session. And it was fine.
this might actually be a new fence for us -- we jumped the BN back in december
I chatted with a few friends and acquaintances as we sorta slowly milled around, and opted to stick in the least busy arenas to just sorta do as we would. Charlie walked trotted and cantered around like he's done this a zillion times before (he has), and then I aimed us at a few jumps.
Like, criminally few jumps. First a tiny little log, then a BN roll top. And, then, a quick serpentine across the big ring catching four of the N fences on course. All of which went exactly like you'd expect them to go for Charlie: perfectly fine.
And ya know, that was it. The schooling session wrapped up and we left the arena to go back to the trailers, untack, and go home (Amy's results had since been posted).
very simple little roll top
I know it sounds so stupid to write it out like this -- to pay money to enter an event, drive all the way out there, and then not even want to ride... But eh, idk, it's just where my mind is right now.
This past year has been such a grind that, for a lot of people, I think, the grittiness reserves are pretty much on empty at this point.
they always park us in so tight at loch moy --- it's a busy place!
I could try to find a million excuses or justifications or rationalizations for why I wasn't feeling it on this day..... We haven't had a truly serious jumping lesson in months.... Haven't had an xc lesson in over a year... It's been cold and wet -- the ground only just this week actually firmed up for riding... Ooh, and I wrecked my ankle *again* by dismounting directly on top of a jump pole bc apparently I'm destined to be crippled for life....
But. Eh. It's hard to tell how much of that is "real" vs just trying to wave away the general slump and stagnation of a year spent in a pandemic. Esp when you compare it to the year prior --- like in 2019 when I took literally every single riding lesson and clinic known to man. I rode with everybody that year, and felt the strongest and most capable in my riding as I had in ages.
On one hand, it's hard to compare my riding now to then. On the other hand, tho, reminding myself how much homework went into that riding helps make me feel like it's completely reasonable that we are where we are right now.
Which, again, "where we are" right now is basically a good place. Charlie's doing really well and is the absolute bestest most reliable packer around novice fences.
So, eh, I'm gonna give myself a pass on the day lol. Basically my plan / hope for the year is to just go out and do ALL the things -- try to make showing feel mundane and routine and normal again, focus on the parts that are the most fun (doing it with friends! riding courses that feel easy!) and not really worry too much about anything else.
the sweetest <3
From that perspective, it was honestly a pretty nice day. Beautiful weather, good horses, incredible facilities -- and the little bit of riding I *did* do was quite pleasant. Good 'nuff for right now haha. I'm satisfied with at least feeling like the general environment is improving.
Anyone else feeling ready for daylight savings, spring, and the promise of an eventual return to normalcy?? I know I'm not the only one still digging out from the mental fallout from all the fuckery of 2020.... Anyone discovered any helpful coping techniques to feel like you're getting your riding back on track?
