vocabulary

I’ve continued to let all the thoughts, ideas, concepts, etc from Windurra camp marinate for the last couple weeks, rolling around in my head sorta like a lapidary machine. Ideally, eventually all the rough edges will grind down into smooth polished gems, right??

i spy with my little eye…. a red horse and her spotted pony friend!

A girl can only hope LOL… But for real, there are ~3 main concepts I’m prioritizing. Bc realistically, I can’t really walk and chew gum at the same time, so I sorta need to keep a relatively narrow focus at any given time. And also, even more realistically, some stuff will just have to wait until we’re farther along in the rehab.

there she is <3 <3

The first big concept is “Composure.” Also known as “not overthinking” and “not getting desperate.” The round pen practice I wrote about last week has been instrumental in implementing this idea, in giving us space and breathing room to get on the same page for a working session with minimal drama.

ooooh we got to share the ring with emotional support barbie dream horse v2.0

For whatever reason, whether it’s truly related or just kinda coincidental (Doozy is, after all, a mercurial changeable critter!), we’ve been basically explosion-free for all our rides since we started with the round pen. Like, the tension is still there, it’s always there, ya know? But we’ve been able to work with it and through it. 

working on square turns and, uh…, “straight” lines LOL — can you tell??

Which takes us to the next big concept we’ve been prioritizing: line of travel and shoulder control. For whatever reason, this is one of those evergreen focal points for me. And apparently one that I’m constantly forgetting and then rediscovering, over and over again.

composed biscuit

There’s something about being really intentional with our line of travel that has something close to a “magic fairy dust” effect on us. Probably bc it forces me to really plug all my aids in, seat and legs first, and ride both sides of the horse evenly from back to front. 

routine maintenance — pretty happy with how her feet are doing!

And goooo figure, Doozy likes being ridden like that LOL. Maybe she has actually read the textbook? 

her tootsie turds!! little rolls of magic cushion for under the leather pads

Part of why she’s been so tricky for me to ride is that it’s literally the riding that increases her tension. My aids increase tension. Touching the reins, using my leg, adjusting my seat — she is sensitive and reactive to all of these things and it is absurdly easy to end up feeling like she’s ping-pong-ing all over the place, bouncing off all the aids.

farrier has this cool epoxy-like stuff that can help secure the clips if the wall got a little crumbly

Except, simultaneously, she also wants and needs direction. As a somewhat insecure horse, she kinda wants me to hold her hand, tell her where to go, maintain a constant “I’m ok, you’re ok!” dialog. And in the absence of any clear direction, she will **absolutely** fill the void herself. Generally with poor choices haha.

she might actually love her farrier more than she loves me — look how serene she is!

Somehow, by focusing on the line of travel, riding back to front, we’re able to maintain the composure, keep the train on the proverbial tracks, and let Doozy settle on the aids, no muss no fuss.

anyway. chickens, bc they is a part of our life now haha

Bc it is only at this point that we can start on the next big concept — all those transitions between and within gait that were such a highlight from the camp sessions. Which, makes sense, right? Like, from an order of operations POV, the composure + riding forward back to front, on the aids, are necessary requirements for the quality of transitions we’re talking about, right?

ooooh and off to the super fancy indoor — complete with the most aggressively powerful fans i’ve ever seen

At least, that’s the way it seems to be working for us. 5* eventer Matt Brown was back again at the lovely local farm up the road from us, so naturally we signed up for another lesson. And somewhat humorously, I reintroduced ourselves to him by saying “We’re the ones with the unhinged flatwork!” and he was like, “Ohhhhh yea” haha. hahahahaha…. What a way to distinguish ourselves LOL…

i swear i don’t set out to intentionally take absurd pictures of my horse. it just always seems to happen like that haha

Except yay, we weren’t unhinged at all, and the lesson picked up exactly where I hoped it would — on that next big focal area of the transitions. Which is somewhat insane actually bc I swear to god I did not even mention wanting to work on that AT ALL. 

But ya know. The basics are the basics for a reason, and that’s right where Matt took us after establishing that we can in fact now trot around on the aids with composure. 

anyway. moving on. breakfast time at the OK Corral!

I don’t necessarily have a ton to write about the lesson itself, bc this isn’t really ground breaking or new information, but it’s exactly the type of supervised practice we’re looking for right now. He provided a really solid framework and guidance on integrating the practice for Doozy, and also suggested adding in yielding the hind quarters to both our in-hand and ridden sessions.

then, drum roll pls!!! back to one of our favorite haunts!!! 

Which, naturally set us up perfectly for Doozy’s grand return to our erstwhile regularly scheduled dressage lessons with Trainer C! Wherein we picked up on all these various threads to put together a lovely (and carefully measured) little w-t-c session with Doozy on her absolute best behavior.

there’s still a fair amount of recovery ahead of us, but it’s exciting to keep moving along!

It was like she knew exactly where we were, and why, and was honest to god happy for it. Happy to see Trainer C, happy to be working in a lesson where she already knows all the answers and can show us all how smart she is… Happy for the familiar routine.

the happiest biscuit to be doing activities again <3 <3

I swear, this horse loves going places and doing things. She gets so much confidence from routine outings that it can have a bit of a snowball effect, with rides at home getting better and more “boring” after she’s been out in the world lol. 

Even so, “composure” will be our vocabulary word-of-the-day for… the foreseeable future lol. But I’m hopeful that maybe, at last, after all this time, we’re finally developing a sort of rubric / methodology / repeatable framework for bringing some order to the chaos. Maybe. Haha…

reunited just in time!

I don’t think winter is fully done with us yet… but hot damn, it’s been LOVELY this week!

casually watching me search fruitlessly for her lost shoe. no doubt she knows exactly where it is, too…
also omg her nostrils… she is so extra lol 

Like, all my windows at home wide open type lovely. Warm, sunny, mild, all the nice things! And the horses are definitely appreciating it too! 

casually considering a little light dog-icide

And even better — my farrier was able to swing by and set a new shoe on Doozy’s stricken limb, hallelujah! I still have so much PTSD from Charlie’s foot-related fragility that it’s hard for me to relax again until the horse is fully shod and demonstrably comfortable. 

“i’ll let you live this time, but i have my eye on you!” — doozy, no doubt

Doozy, it should be noted, however, does not share my PTSD. And it was so nice out after her shoe was reset, and so many people were out and riding, it honestly felt like it’d be a crime to NOT throw on some tack and swing a leg over, ya know?

omg finally — our first hack of 2026!

I had intentions of meandering up the hill to the indoor where a few friends were already mid ride, but Doozy had other ideas haha. She set off on a marching pace straight down the lane toward the back hay fields. And who am I to deny her???

presumably the woods are still slippy sloppy mud, but the fields were perfect!

Honestly can’t remember the last time we hacked out, actually. The farm is so hilly and it’s been so snowy and icy and wet for so long… It’s probably been at least December, but maybe actually maybe even November since we’ve been out there…

it was legit almost 80*F out too, omg

Doozy clearly missed it tho, and was happy to wander around the hills, grabbing occasional bites of grass bc she’s obviously spoiled rotten haha. 

all these shrubs are gonna start sprouting buds any day now

I’m not getting my hopes all the way up yet, but it also looks like the outdoor ring might finally be opening for the season too!!

happy hacking <3 <3 <3

Obvi I’m beyond grateful to have indoor riding spaces, it’s made all the difference with keeping us on a more or less even keel this winter… But I also won’t be sad if we don’t have to ride inside again for the foreseeable future LOL!

oooh and a quick little bridle tag DIY mod!

Especially as we start thinking about gearing up for the season ahead, it’ll be good to be more out in the open, moving about in wide open spaces while staying accountable for our pace and balance without the passive influence of solid walls lol.

sure, i could have just bought a new number holder that was designed with a pin… 

I’ve also started doing a little light inventory work of all the various pieces of equipment that scattered every which way over the off season. In particular, Doozy became increasingly funny about things touching her ears last year. Her hair is a primary annoyance… but we also had some issues with my bridle tag too. 

So my hope is that a little light modification will transform it semi-permanently into a saddle pad number holder instead. Repurposing > buying new (if it works lol).

but eh, this’ll do! probably!

It’s also maybe time to shake out all the show clothes, do a little laundry, see what’s what. See if anything needs any attention or fixing / cleaning up before going out in public again. Not that I’m exactly a shining example of style and grooming, let’s be real (lol), but you know how it is. 

Spring cleaning season is officially upon us, as far as I’m concerned! Anybody else feeling the same?

a sticky situation

Poor Ms Doozy was left all alone for a few days while I was out of town for work. The sadness, my friends, it was extreme.

the saddest biscuit

I’d let her have the couple days prior to my trip off from riding too bc honestly it was just sorta like, ‘eh, what’s the point?’ when I really had some other stuff to get done anyway.

poor thing, living in such squalor, brutally exposed to the warm spring sun… truly. she’d MUCH rather be working, but — *alas!* — she lost a shoe in the muck. what a shame, eh?

And then naturally, the weather warmed up, the horses were all kicked out to frolic in the mud, and roll and roll and roll around, scratching that spring shedding itch… Truly. A difficult life!

there’s zero chance this survives the mud lol, but it’ll protect her from rubs while stalled

Sweet princess managed to survive all that catastrophe with heroic stoicism, however. And was hale and hearty when I finally got home and saddled up for our first ride back. And naturally she was a perfect princess for that ride too! Perhaps the first time I’ve EVER been able to say that about Doozy after so many days in a row off work lol…

bright eyed biscuit legit lives for being fussed over lol

But, much to Doozy’s intense dismay (obviously!) she was not able to repeat the achievement, having subsequently lost a shoe to the deep sticky mud the very next day. 

it’s soft enough outside she doesn’t really need the cloud boot, but hopefully by wearing it while stalled we’ll reduce the chance of her getting sore?

Clearly her regret was palpable… Especially after the clocks changed this weekend and the barn decided to let the horses have extended turnout hours… Obvi she would have much rather been working!

lol she’s already bored tho, and getting ready to spook herself touching the trash can ha

But no. Circumstances being what they were, we couldn’t possibly run the risk of bruising her delicate tootsies. Siiiiigh, such a shame.

 

anyway. unrideable horses must suffer the consequences. and suffer for their beauty, ahem.

Tho. Joke’s on Doozy, I guess, bc in Emma’s world, horses that can’t work might find themselves subject to other, ahem, indignities. 

snip snip, mother fuckers!

Like, say, whatever the opposite is of “world class grooming” haha… hahahaha.

washed a winter’s worth of grime out of the tail, and gave that a tidy little trim too!

Tho before you get too worried for Doozy’s overall safety and wellbeing, I will say we’ve been having pretty decent luck keeping her mane in order with the solo comb pulling method (basically where you tease up the hair as if you were pulling, but then snip the solo comb as close the root as possible).

“bitch did you just cut me?” — doozy, aghast

Her bridle path is still a scissor job, tho. And, ahem, a pretty bad job at that. Bc with Doozy, you really only get ONE snip. So, uh, make it count? 

This horse, I swear. You can practically hear her whining, “but my hair hurts!!” with every little snip. Her chiro / acupuncturist once observed that Doozy has a ‘long pain memory,’ and it really makes ya wonder what they must have done to keep her trimmed up on the track. 

“whatever, so long as there’s #snax”

And so it goes, tho, amirite? I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to get the shoe reset asap. But in the meantime, I’ll probably keep her in the cloud boot at least overnights in the stall to provide relief from any soreness. Presumably the boot wouldn’t stand a chance against the same mud that claimed a shoe, right? We’ll see, tho. Cross your fingers for us!

anyway. enjoy some mountains, pic snapped from the window of my uber bc i just had time for meetings while traveling, womp

And in the meantime, if temps stay so warm and pleasant, Ms Thing might find herself subject to an actual first full bath of the season!! 

We’ll see, tho, let’s not get too crazy haha, it’s still early days of March! Happy daylight savings, friends!

happy feet

It was exactly this time last year, under extremely similar circumstances — extended periods of frozen ground and exclusively indoor-only riding — that we first observed a strange mystery NQR-ness in Doozy. It started off as a suspected bruise, but kinda spiraled from there.

happiest hand grazer <3

My immensely practical vet has an established method (almost, perhaps, scientific?? lol) for assessing this sort of thing, including evaluating and eliminating normal / common causes and solutions first before proceeding with more complex diagnostics. 

As such, over the next ~4 months we did a bute test, took time off, reintroduced work while limiting tight turns or small circles (tricky to do in a narrow indoor while sharing space), did multiple lameness exams with flexion tests, nerve blocks, rads… injected a fetlock, added hind shoes, put the mare on equioxx…. 

“but wait, wtf is that??”

And probably other stuff I’m forgetting too… Alongside, naturally, typical holistic wellness type activities like chiro / acupuncture, magna wave and saddle fittings. 

Throughout it all, the NQR-ness would come and go somewhat mysteriously. Either there or not there. Never getting worse. Not increasing over the course of a ride, nor would Doozy ‘work out of it.’ She was either taking lame steps, or not. Until, eventually, it disappeared entirely by mid spring and the mare remained consistently reliably sound ever after. 

friggin cats gettin their paw prints everywhere!

Until. Ahem. Midway through winter, after an extended period of frozen ground and exclusively indoor-only riding for a while now. In a recent ride, Doozy again took a couple of those same exact characteristically NQR steps.

being stalkerish in the hopes of being fed lol

Throughout all our diagnostics last year, my vet never felt like we could fully eliminate the possibility that the main issue was essentially a bruised hoof. My farrier seconded this opinion, with observations of a chronic pressure point in Doozy’s sole, most likely attributed to her imperfect forelimb conformation.*

(*In other words, homegirl has some significant twisting and crookedness in both front legs.)

anyway, onto the real point of the matter:
Doozy’s chronic pressure point, a result of her imperfect forelimb conformation

Doozy’s legs are not straight, and therefore her hooves are… well. Not exactly textbook. But she has a clean, sound way of moving — and my farrier has worked hard to ensure a level even footfall. Rads from last year confirmed that basically everything about the feet are healthy even if the ‘shape’ isn’t classically correct. 

But this little pressure point is basically always there. Well, not always always. It apparently becomes more pronounced in winter. After extended periods of frozen ground, when we’re riding mostly in a narrow indoor whose footing is fine but not exactly the most modern stuff in the world. And when maybe the hoof isn’t growing as fast as it would on summer pasture.

pictured: two imperfect forelimbs. the chronic pressure point is on her medial left front sole, so the hoof on the right side of this picture, on the inside closer to her midline. 

Adding pads was on our list of things to try last year, but with how her shoeing cycle intertwined with our other tests, it was never quite the right time to try. We wanted to do one thing at a time — like adding hind shoes! — to try to see what worked. And obviously, once she became reliably sound by mid spring, there didn’t seem to be much wisdom with continuing to tinker, ya know?

When I felt that funny feeling again tho, literally days before our recent farrier appointment, pads seemed like as good as any place to start. 

oooh Doozy’s gettin her own fancy boat shoes!!

Doozy doesn’t really react to the hoof testers on that pressure point. Which… Realistically she’s probably had that spot, or something like it, for most of her life. And recall, our nerve blocks from last year were inconclusive on whether her discomfort originated in the hoof or higher up. 

farrier likes using R.A.T.E. Hoof Packing under the pads, and generally prefers using natural materials vs synthetics like dental impression (tho it depends on the use case). past farriers have used magic cushion too

But our current hypothesis is that some combination of repeated and cumulative exposure to frozen ground + hard footing + exclusively small turns + limited hoof growth = exacerbation of her existing conformational flaws. 

one shoe!!

Other factors in support of this hypothesis include the intermittency of the NQR-ness, literally from one day to the next. And the fact that whether it presents or not seems to be related to where we are — as in, what ring, what footing. 

two shoes!!

All of this makes me hopeful that adding a little cushion via leather pads can mitigate the issue entirely. Sure, I might be rationalizing the known facts, rearranging them to fit this new narrative. But. Eh. It makes sense to me, my farrier and my vet, and seems like a worthy trial. 

As always, I am NOT a professional on ANY of this stuff. If you have similar concerns or experiences, it’s best to confer with the trusted members of your own team and circle. And also as always, unless I’ve remitted payment to you in the last 12 months, you are not among *my* trusted circle. Feel free to disagree with our approach as you like.

time will tell but i’m optimistic!

Realistically, Doozy is a thoroughbred with generations of human-engineered selective breeding. She’s pretty explicitly far from the typical adaptations you’d see in nature, where “survival of the fittest” drives gene selection. As such, she may require throughout her life various interventions to comfortably live out her days. 

and anyway. cats.

And that’s before we even consider the realities of what she needs to be successful in sport. Which, by “success” I don’t mean actually literally winning, I just mean being comfortable, capable, and resilient to the training, conditioning and exercise of it all. 

Especially with all her extra, errr, expressiveness… It’s integral for my confidence in our approach to training that I can reasonably rule out discomfort as a source of the behaviors we sometimes experience, know what I mean? Ymmv, obvi. 

So I’m honestly pretty excited by this little experiment. There was only one ride where I thought I felt the funny steps, and we basically immediately made this change in shoeing. If the funny steps never reappear again, I’ll be a very happy camper. If not, that’s fine too. Well. Not “fine” but you know what I mean. We’ll try the next thing on the list lol. 

At least we know from last year that… the mare never got “worse,” and in fact eventually became completely 100% better for all of late spring, summer, fall, and early winter. That’s a pretty confidence-inspiring history, so we’ll see what happens!