all roads lead to rome

Happy Friday! We finally — finally — made it out for another lesson with longtime dressage trainer C this week, much rejoicing!! 

For the last couple months we’ve kinda been focusing all our resources on lessons with the new 5* trainer. Not necessarily bc one is better than the other or whatever, but actually bc I kinda wanted to see what would happen if we hunkered down with weekly lessons in one ‘program.’ 

always with the #snacks

Verdict? It turns out, there is no silver bullet, no Disney FastPass. The process takes the time it takes, and no one single method is the only “way.” We are loving the process, tho, the lessons are energizing and productive and I look forward to where they take us.

But ya know, I’ve also always loved riding under the guidance of a variety of perspectives (provided they are complementary v confusing to the horse). So when scheduling conflicts arose this week, I leapt at the opportunity to get back on the books with dressage trainer C, who hasn’t seen Doozy since our ill-fated CT at Thornridge last spring.

farrier used a new substance under the clips this cycle — it hardens like epoxy, tho apparently isn’t sticky and doesn’t need all the same rigmarole. the idea is basically to “minimize the damage” from just being a thoroughbred existing in summertime

And it was honestly a great lesson! Nothing new, nothing “ground breaking” per se, but in a weird way, it feels like with Doozy I’m somehow hearing some of this stuff with new ears. Understanding the mechanics on maybe a deeper level.

Don’t get me wrong, we’re very VERY much still in the kiddy pool haha. But thinking back on my riding history, especially as it pertains to dressage… Well. Realistically Isabel was the first horse I ever tried to do “dressage” with, and let’s be honest here — I really got lucky with her. She was talented and game, and we could be successful even with my limited education. 

it comes in this cool little tube, applied by hand before he fully finishes the shoe with a few more hammers on the clips, clinching the nails, last few rasps etc.

Then with Charlie, obvi we had a few good years of working on continuing that education, pushing our boundaries etc. But frankly, the work never came easily to him. And in his early days I was in such a rush to get him moving up the levels that I definitely skipped a few steps. Then by the end of his riding years, after we’d been through so much together, I was decidedly disinclined to pick on him, push him, or drill him through work he didn’t love.

So, yea. Maybe it makes sense why it feels like I’m still kinda learning some of this stuff “for real” now with Doozy. My sweet young mare whose first and foremost job is to help me continue learning and expanding my education in this lifelong sport.

anyway. back to our scheduled programming: #snax at the trailer, apparently tail-less

In our lessons with Woodge this year, we’ve been laser focused on lateral balance — straightness, suppleness, bend, etc. With my understanding of the approach being to start with outside aids and control the outside shoulder while working on that inside bend. And as such, we work almost entirely on small circles.

In this lesson with trainer C, she wants the same outcome, the same lateral balance and flexibility (bc you can’t have the longitudinal balance without the lateral), but we took a bit more of an ‘inside to out’ approach in this lesson. 

mirror selfies!! this is one indoor i *never* mind

Really really focusing on making sure I could always see an inside eyelash no matter what figure we were riding or where we were on a circle or on the rail or whatever. Again — this isn’t exactly a new directive, but our results this lesson were fantastic. Crazy how continual practice actually moves the needle like that LOL!

We spent almost the entire lesson working on getting that whole-of-body inside bend in both directions, using sweeping circles to find the bend, then straightening onto a quarter line (without losing the bend) and going instantly into a leg yield to the wall. Again and again, rinse repeat.

paying the meter before getting started lol

For my part, I tried to stay very conscious of my posture: sitting tall and with weight traveling long down my inside leg like rebar for Doozy to form around, holding a steady post and hands hopefully not going too wild.

I had a recent discovery about our leg yields too, actually. I want to get super pretzel-y and feel like I’m “doing something” to create the leg yield. But strangely, with Doozy — hell, maybe with every horse and I’m only just now figuring this out lol — it turns out that our best leg yields come with almost the absence of a direct aid. Almost like a quiet opening of the door to the outside, and she goes. 

(Provided, of course, that I’ve got myself seated and balanced where I belong.) 

ooooookay so indoor screenshots from the wall-mounted helmet cam are… not persuasive haha. watch the video if you’re curious

None of this happens in a vacuum, right? Like we have spent the last 3 months working weekly with a trainer to establish clear consistent outside aids with the horse. Both Doozy and I are benefiting very much from that work — esp with consistent supervision and eyes on the ground. 

It makes sense, then, that in this lesson where we worked on refining the inside aids, we’d see the cumulative effort come together into a really nice result with the horse. 

video makes more sense than screenshots i promise

Doozy, for her part, was super for this ride. Really really trying, really staying with me. Even when we started up again after a break for our next little work session — the part recorded in the video above — I felt like our tempo started a bit fast and somewhat less consistent, but it doesn’t look that way at all in the video. 

Well, ok, you can decide for yourself LOL, but I thought she looked super workman like and way steadier than it felt.  

doozy was a very good girl tho <3 <3

That last session of work continued with the same themes — sweeping circles to the quarter line for instant leg yields to the wall, then back onto the circle. Only now we intermixed transitions into and out of canter, a couple times in each direction. 

It was kinda funny to me bc this is almost exactly how I’ve been schooling canter at home — just quick hits a few times in a ride, a circle here, then trot, a circle there, then trot again. Mostly to help Doozy stop anticipating and learn how to trot nicely even after a canter. So it was super helpful to keep this approach going in a lesson too.

lots of pets for a good effort <3

Also just a fun lesson overall, too. Let’s be real, there’s a reason why I’ve been riding with C on and off for ten years at this point (hard to believe, but that’s the truth!).

My absolute favorite era of riding was when I was consistently working with 3 distinct trainers on a routine basis each month. A lot of that was circumstantial + geographical luck (whether I realized it at the time or not), and it’s been extremely difficult to replicate the same alchemy again… But maybe with Doozy there will be a new era upon us? 

crisis averted

For now, at least, it looks like we successfully eradicated Doozy’s emerging skin funk outbreak, whew! Recall I wrote two weeks ago about some early signs of rain rot, including hives and little scabs, bleh…

already a steamy biscuit before we even ride….

Naturally Doozy would try to go bald right before our big show LOL, it’s almost like this horse just *does not want* to be pretty in public haha(sob). Fortunately, tho, it seems like the chlorhexidine rinses cleared things up pretty quickly!

little bald spots prove there WAS some sort of dermatitis infection, but we successfully stopped the spread, whew!

The treatment was: first, bathing with diluted chlorhex, then a day later, a light gloss of MTG over all the likely hot spots. Then for most of the next few days (tho not exactly every day), more rinsing with the diluted chlorhex. Plus plenty of currying to try to rid Doozy’s coat of as much loose hairs as possible. 

bleh she’s got some crud down the backs of her hind legs now, tho

And it seems to have done the trick, at least on the bulk of her body and flanks, etc. Everything is squeaky clean and smooth, for now. Aside from obviously the bug bites and sweaty crusts from all the humidity, bleh. Oh, and another little patch of funk that’s blossoming down her hind legs. It’s always something, amirite? 

Just when you think you’re getting the *whole horse* with whatever treatment tinctures and tonics you’re applying… something crops up in yet another spot.

not gonna argue about the ick tho when the grass is still growing!

Ah well, it’s a good reminder to not get complacent bc with all the rain we’ve been having, presumably there will be more hives still yet to come. Doozy’s moss-like rain rot outbreak last year lasted well through August, so we aren’t exactly out of the woods in that regard yet.

will complain about still needing to ride indoors bc the outdoor arena is too soggy tho

It’s all good, tho. Grooming is one of my favorite horsey activities. And especially with all the heat and humidity and rain, plus with taking it a little easy resting on our laurels after Doozy’s excellent* (*except on paper lol) outing at Loch Moy, it’s been nice to just kinda chill out and enjoy each other’s company.

except… we did a little recon this weekend and decided this paddock will be perfect for outdoor rides (when not already in use for turn out). it’s where the most grass sensitive horses go, too, so presumably won’t be an issue if we leave a few tracks

We’ve done a little hacking here and there, and obvi a few flat schools too… But ugh I am really so tired of riding in the stuffy dusty indoor rings!

Again, I’m grateful to have the option. And also appreciative of having more freedom in those spaces recently — the bustling lesson program’s head trainer moved on earlier this summer, rendering ring traffic suddenly a nonissue!

doesn’t this look pleasantly grass ring-esque??
this might actually be the broadest expanse of flattish ground on the whole farm haha

But I’d still much rather ride outside, all things being equal. Tho we may start experimenting with schooling in the grassy paddocks on occasion. At least, when they don’t have horses in them lol — so probably not on weeknights.

Could be a win-win, too, bc it may help Doozy get more confident and balanced doing proper flat work on (gentle) terrain. I suspect that part of our issues earlier this year at Thornridge and St Augustine related to Doozy feeling increasingly tense in grass warm up fields when she wasn’t super confident in her balance / the footing.

looking forward to a cooler week ahead

The paddocks also have the advantage of maybe feeling quasi-ring-like, since they’re fenced. And ya know. It’s something different. Who doesn’t love a little variety every now and again? 

Right now the forecast looks like maybe more rain right in time for the outdoor arena to have fully dried LOL(sob), so a little creativity may be in order haha.

make good choices out there!

We’ll see, haha. It’s probably still another quiet week ahead of us, a nice little breather. Doozy gets her feet done today — she’s desperately due after only just 4 weeks, another consequence of the frequent rain and growing grass! 

And we’ll probably try to sneak in a lesson at some point (fingers crossed!). But mostly we’re just gonna hang out in cruise control before I leave town for a few days next week. And maybe the outdoor ring will have dried up by the time I get home again…? A girl can dream haha…

the deal with doozy

In my experience, horse people are notoriously cagey and secretive when it comes to broadcasting specific details relating to unsoundness in horses. Probably for good reasons, if we’re being honest. But. Good choices aren’t always my specialty. SO. Let’s get into it lol.

obsessed with the greenery

The briefest history for those of you not following with bated breath on the edges of your seats…: Doozy came up a bit lame in January with suspected bruised feet from nasty ice balls packed into her shoes. That lameness abated, but she’s been intermittently on and off ever since. 

We’ve gone through a litany of theories on potential external causes — a deep slow-healing bruise! poor saddle fit! cracked heels!! — and an initial lameness work up a few weeks ago showed a basically sound horse who flexed negatively, kinda reinforcing our hypotheses about external factors.

omfg RUDE BISCUIT leave that poor pony alone >:(

I’m a firm believer that the simplest solution is often the correct one. Occam’s Razor etc. And I appreciate that my vet has a well established methodology for measured, conservative and incremental interventions. Sometimes “wait and see” is the correct first choice. 

But we’ve waited, and we’ve seen, and now we have the information that the intermittent nature of this NQR-ness persists even with (some) rest. So the next step was to find a way to get the vet and Doozy into the same space at the same time the mare was presenting with lameness, which we accomplished last week.  

Sass Level 5000

Quick note here, guys: While I am committed to documentation and don’t mind transparency, please don’t confuse that with an invitation to provide unpaid / unsolicited counsel. Unless I’ve remitted payment to you for services provided in the last 12 months, I am not your client. 

Plenty of folks had plenty to say about their internet diagnoses for Charlie, as well as my and my vet’s presumed failings at addressing those diagnoses. You were basically all wrong, and all assholes. Those comments did nothing to benefit Charlie, and presumably the satisfaction for telling me that I suck as a horse owner was short lived anyway. So let’s just like. Not, yes? 

Maximum Pest

Ahem. Anyway. Back to the appointment. 

The main benefit of getting the horse and vet in a room together when the horse is actively presenting as lame is that we can do nerve blocks, which basically allow you to isolate areas of the limb incrementally to see at what point the horse goes from jogging lame to jogging sound. Starting from the bottom up, it’s a neat way to zero in on pain sources.

Doozy, naturally, was not the most compliant critter for this. It was hard to tell when the block took effect bc she reacts to being poked on sight. As in, I actually had to cover her literal eyeballs with my hands while my vet crouched on the wrong side, reaching under the mare’s belly to poke the blocked foot to confirm numbness. Ridiculous sensitive creature!

patiently eagerly chaotically awaiting the farrier

Our hope was that the mare would jog sound after blocking the foot. Which… she did not. Except about 10min later, after the block had likely diffused farther up the tissue planes of the leg — then the mare jogged sound. So. That is not explicitly conclusive, tho it tells us that probably our source is somewhere in the neighborhood of the fetlock and down.

From that information, we next moved to getting rads of the coffin and fetlock joints. I should also add — we did another set of lower limb flexions before the nerve block too, all of which were negative. As in, Doozy trotted away after each hyper-flexion the same as before.

incremental steps, y’all. we added hind shoes!

So I guess for those of you who, like myself, are wondering if this dilemma could have been avoided by a pre-purchase exam… I’m honestly not certain. The mare last year was sound. She still today flexes fine. And then we took rads and… Nothing super obvious there either. No chips or anything beyond the wear and tear that is common in racehorses. I doubt I’d have even done x-rays of the fetlocks based on how the horse flexed anyway. 

I bought Doozy for $1,500. This appointment with x-rays and an injection cost $1,200, and we only took pictures of one limb. PPE economics continue to be questionable for cheap horses.

stalkerish barn cats being stalkerish

Anyway, the fetlock had more signs of irregularity than the coffin, and since she still jogged lame after the initial nerve block and didn’t come sound until it had enough time to diffuse (presumably up the tissue planes to the fetlock), we decided to start there with a steroid injection. 

Yes. Injecting a not-quite-7yo horse’s fetlock feels… Not great to me. I don’t like it, not gonna lie. And I’m not totally sure it’s going to do the trick, either. Tho - if it does, and becomes a point of future management, my vet indicated it would be a good candidate for non-steroidal orthobiologics like IRAP. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there, tho.

pls just be pretty sound

We also concluded from the rads that while Doozy’s feet look marvelous and the farrier is doing good things for her heels etc, we may have room to explore options with pads and/or wedges. And adding hind shoes — which was actually already in the plans — was confirmed as a good incremental step for continuing to work the margins. 

With a horse as sensitive as Doozy, she could be a marginal case anyway, ya know? It could be that a few little tweaks can make a big difference. Or at least. I am happy to hope. Regardless. Hind shoes are officially on. Fetlock injection will take time to settle in. So we’ll wait and see what impact these adjustments have, and assess from there.

she’s come so far in the last year and a half, it would be a fucking tragedy to pivot

It’s disheartening to be in this position, not gonna lie. Tho there’s a certain clarity that comes with hardship. Realizing that we may be dealing with something more serious got me thinking bigger picture about the horse, myself and the future. 

A clear next step was learning how/if Doozy could return to the adoption facility… An awareness that was **instantly** drowned by a gut-deep, visceral “But I Don’t Wanna!” 

Guys. I really like this horse. I straight up love the shit out of her. She is the full package. Challenging sure. But in all the right ways, and I can so clearly see a future for us. 

But. Obviously. She has to be sound. And if we can’t get her sound… Well. That doesn’t bode well, right? If we can get her sound, tho… Well, there are questions there too. Particularly around the long term sustainability of that soundness with respect to fairness to the animal. It’s on my mind, have no fear.

My deepest hope is that we are able to get the mare sound with a realistic management plan that feels acceptable. I don’t want to worry that running around novice level eventing would destroy my horse’s prospects for a comfortable life. And I also don’t want to worry about what happens to this silly sensitive creature if she goes back into the OTTB resale pipeline. 

So. We wait and see. And hope. 

wednesday wellness

Happy Wednesday folks! It’s been a week around here, not gonna lie. Life outside of horses has been a bit consuming, so it felt like a good enough time to just let Doozy rest whatever was bugging her after Loch Moy while I did other things.

stabby jabby <3 <3 <3

Tho, naturally, we were already on the books for a visit with my favorite equine wellness professional, who has been treating horses in my care since the Isabel days. 

finally learning to give in to the zonked-ness!

It’s funny bc I still remember her reaction the first time she met Charlie. Not that she said it out loud, but I could sense that she was maybe a little dubious about my choices in getting something so fresh off the track lol. This time around, tho, and obvi amost *ahem* 9 years later, she knows me and my horse keeping habits and is all aboard the Dooz-Cruise.  

started with two here but she twitched one out

And Doozy is obviously a much easier treatment case anyway. Aside from the whole “absolutely indignant about all the stabbing!” thing. She only has 13 race starts under her belt, compared to Charlie’s 33. And consequently seems to have much less generalized wear and tear.

end of the line!

Tho naturally we spent a long time discussing all the highs and lows from this past winter, and my various theories in unpacking Doozy’s nagging complaints. 

mare threw a bit of a tantrum about getting poked lol

Laura found a rib out right in almost the exact location of that squishy bump I’d seen appear under the saddle before we got it reflocked, and agreed that there was some generalized back soreness that tracked with our saddle fit issues. 

“i am immune to your sorcery!” — doozy, quite annoyed by the poking

She also observed that Doozy has a notably long “pain memory” — meaning that she continued to be protective and reactive to that spot even after the adjustment. This, to me, tracks with other aspects of Doozy’s personality — like her sensitivity to even having her hair *snipped with scissors OMG* back when I first got her. 

lol not 2 seconds later

So that, to me, was another good reminder to always first consider pain as a potential source for any strange, unusual, or undesirable behaviors in the mare. Bc apparently trying to push her through pain could lead to long term problematic associations… 

Which obvi is true of any horse. But y’all know how challenging it can be to parse out that slippery gray line between training and wellness issues.

overcome lol

Anyway. Relating to the NQRness, Laura advised that I should try to manufacture an opportunity to get my vet and Doozy in front of each other at the exact moment Doozy is presenting her lameness, since it seems to be a fleeting intermittent thing. Her idea was that we should do a nerve block to either confirm or rule out the foot as a source. 

Tho, not long after, I observed some strange cracking around an old heel grab (from about 7ish weeks ago) that got me wondering….

chaaaaanging gears — that’s kinda ouchy looking, no? an old heel grab is growing out and seems to have split a bit?

I shot the picture off to my vet, who confirmed that Yes, in fact, that probably felt a bit tender and ouchy to the mare. She suggested a soaking protocol, and also that I check in with my farrier about it.

vet recommended hitting it with a solid soaker

The soaking protocol was…. Not gonna lie, kinda challenging. It’s a pretty intense powder that you mix into a solution and then soak for like… 40-60minutes. And guys, I’ve actually never tried to soak one of Doozy’s hooves before…

this product calls for 40-60 minutes of soaking, so i opted for a plastic sleeve

Charlie was always such a perfect gentleman (most of the time, lol), and would more or less acquiesce to standing in a bucket for however long I needed. Which, realistically, was usually just like 20min. 

amazingly, it worked! held in place by a polo wrap and some elastikon

I wasn’t convinced I’d be able to keep Doozy reasonably civil for that long standing in a bucket… Plus I didn’t want to keep reintroducing more dirt and debris into the soaking solution. So I opted to try these crazy plastic sleeve type bags again. 

everything stayed in place for a full 30min before the bag sprung a leak and drained

I’ve only tried this soaking method once before and didn’t have a lot of luck — the more fluid you put into the bag, the farther it collapses down onto the ground… Plus I had what felt like a realistic expectation that Doozy might, hm, lose her shit upon discovering a water balloon attached to her foot lol.

But it actually worked great! Doozy took a few moments to finally put her foot down into the bag and keep it there. Then I quickly wrapped on a polo and secured the bottom with elastikon. And Doozy made me so proud by not being particularly fazed while occasionally stepping around in the crossties, good mare!

hopefully it was enough to clean out any nastiness that got into the split

We had a nice long peaceful grooming session (omg the shedding is intense right now, tho omg) before the bag finally sprung a leak and drained at about the 30min mark. Not quiiiiiite as long as I wanted, but hopefully long enough. 

farrier suggested using Farrier’s Fix for more routine care + maintenance

It honestly doesn’t really look all that terrible as far as hangnails go… And it’s nothing compared to Charlie’s gnarly heel grab injury from last year. So hopefully the soak cleared out any embedded funk, and we can just manage with topical treatments from here out. 

i like that this stuff can get applied the entire hoof, including frog, heels and coronet band

Farrier suggested this Farrier’s Fix oil, which markets itself as a versatile cure-all treatment for whatever ails ya, or your horse’s hoof. I stayed away from the softer tissues immediately post-soak, since the Hoof Soak advised not to rinse afterward and I didn’t want to mix chemicals. But this will be our daily go-to for the heel bulbs, frog, sole and hoof wall going forward. 

here’s a cat as a reward for looking at so many foot pictures LOL

Hopefully that’ll finally do the trick for getting Doozy totally back to full and consistent comfort!! Bc omg it’s already April, how on earth did that even happen??? We got stuff to DO, mare, c’mon!

So yea. If you need me, I’ll be fussing over my horse’s feet and hoping for a full return to riding asap. Wish us luck!

ain't easy being breezy

It's been a fairly quiet week around here. Mostly just hacking and light flat schools, after a series of scheduling snafus meant the horse was wayy overdue for a trim... womp.

unrelated photo from a little former barn mate reunion trip to a lovely local winery last week!

But hacking with friends is always lovely, esp this time of year! It was downright crispy over the weekend too!!! Tho stubbornly back into the 80s by midweek...

wandering in the woods!

And we got a few productive things checked off the list anyway --- first up, Doozy's saddle got a ~5 month check-up. Recall I picked up a lovely County monoflap last April. Doozy has obviously changed in weight and muscling significantly since then, so it was time for a reflock. 

hills were happy after a little rain

Then it was off again to another clinic ride!! Doozy travelled well and warmed up nicely, but was jussssst a tad spicy for this lesson. She's in season and feeling a little bit tight and distracted, and just everything is a little less accessible. 

related pic: bounces!

Plus, obvi, the last time she jumped was basically when she won the olympics got around the .70m at the local jumper show. So naturally she was **quite** impressed with herself and eager to pick up where we left off! 

 

bouncing the other way!

Which made for a slightly harder lesson for me, but ya know. This is the work. In particular, Dom observed that we were struggling quite a bit with the mare wanting to push out with her right shoulder, and collapse her neck to the left. This is not a new problem for us, per se, but I still don't quite have a grip on it. 

it was a hard lesson but this was a bright spot <3

So we worked through some turning exercises --- starting with a simple x-rail across the short end, and doing a figure eight over it until we could land in a somewhat civilized fashion. 

Then we put it together with a line of bounces: come down the bounce line, take the long route around to the earlier x-rail, then turn back immediately to the bounces. And then add a long straight outside line on at the end (omg). 

oh lawd, not gonna lie it was hard for me to trust letting her roll down this line!

Doozy really struggled with straightness in this ride, and it seems like my habit is to immediately try to ride the .... wrong side of her. Dom wanted my hands lower, and to really feel like I could push the right shoulder more to the left, and have more right bend. Particularly when tracking right, he wanted me sitting more to the left, and wanted me to be a bit more committed to getting my right leg onto the horse without her zipping off. 

she did it just fine tho <3

Interestingly, it'll surprise basically nobody to know that this is almost exactly what we've been working on in our dressage lessons too. Turns out it's just hard, I guess!

finishing with better flatwork than we started with

Anyway, Doozy kinda knocked me over with a feather when, after struggling through all the exercises, she somehow put together a pleasant final trip (in the video below!!).

trying to reinforce the learnings

Like obvi not perfect, but we were able to proceed directly from one exercise element to the next mostly without circling in between. Particularly she was able to land from the end jump and turn (still cantering!) toward the bounce line, which she did handily! Good girl!!

uh-oh, spaghettio! 

The outside line was still a bit hairy, tho. Not gonna lie. I have a hard time letting her roll on the true stride, vs wanting to bring her way back for the add. But we got it done fine enough, and then finished by reestablishing the flatwork just to help both of us really understand the homework. 

ugh, that last step's a doozy tho!

Bc it really does just boil down to flatwork, right? I'm so pleased with how well this mare is figuring things out, but it's still just not easy. We'll get there tho!

link to video here

Well. Eventually lol, poor mare pulled a shoe right as we were easing into walk and stepped on the clip, UGH! Hopefully by the time you read this she'll be reset and right as rain, but ugh it's so hard to stick to a program when we keep having issues like this!

anyway. praying mantis!

Oh well. That's horses, amirite. Anybody else having trouble keeping their shoes tied???