spin class

Doozy’s recovery from the April Trashcan Incident continues to go as smoothly as any of us could reasonably hope. She’s been very sound, plus the leg has stabilized into normalcy since returning to regular turnout. 

anybody interested in a dozen variations of the same pic???

Building back up to “full work” has been a slow process so far, tho. I feel very tentative, and am especially reluctant to lay out any kind of time frame or expectation, esp re: being “ready” for jumps etc. 

welcome to our farm’s humble round pen. there is a strong history of horses jumping out of it LOL

Mostly because to be perfectly honest, it’s been very challenging to stick with the normal incremental, one-minute-at-a-time progressive plan. 

Where Doozy is concerned, if she can trot, she might as well canter! And where *I* am concerned, when I didn’t feel like cantering was a good or appropriate idea, I therefore concluded that attempting to “just trot” was equally unwise.

doozy is suspicious of the chickens

So we have followed a slightly unconventional path to this point — lots and lots and LOTS of long slow hacks and walking rides, then increasing the small bursts of activity (trot and canter alike) little bits at a time, with as minimal drama as possible.

not, uh, loving the way that saddle is shifting around up there
(in my defense, it’s a loose girth with a riser half pad doing what riser half pads do)

After recommendations from a few different (trusted / solicited / professional) corners, tho, last week we started integrating a little free lunging in the round pen. And it’s been super interesting! (To me, at least LOL…)

“in *my* defense, maybe i’d be quieter if you used quieter tack. just saying!” — doozy, opinionated

I’ve done little bits of ground work somewhat regularly with Doozy ever since bringing her home in 2023, tho with only a very little bit on the lunge. And even then, the purpose has always been communication, aid+response, pressure+release type work rather than just moving her out. 

signs of summer: sweaty soggy everything

And that’s the point of this round pen work too. I’m basically trying to simplify the equation, separate the signal from the noise, so that Doozy and I can communicate more clearly with less chaos and escalation. And, natch, while we’re at it, find a way to start the clock ticking like one would in a more ‘typical’ rehab plan.

another sign of summer: blargh

So far, the basic gist is: getting fully dressed to ride, but then going to the round pen first. We walk a lap or so together to start, during which Doozy is more or less free to stop and smell the roses, gaze longingly out the window, or whatever, ya know? No muss, no fuss. 

same shit, different day. different saddle too, tho!

I eventually peel off toward the center of the pen, encouraging her to keep moving around for the first 5 or so minutes, including practicing a change or two of direction. The practice naturally being as much for me as for her — just figuring it out, together.

roughly 12min out of 16 in our session is spent doing exactly this. boring is our goal!

My interval timer app is programmed to chime after 5 minutes, and then every 2 minutes after that. So more or less, we do our low key wander for the first 5, then maybe more specifically active and continuous walking 2 minutes in each direction, and then it’s trot time!

“fucking chickens tho” — doozy, 100%

My whole goal here is “boring.” I want Doozy to be unhurried and unbothered. Just jog on around. And as such, I am trying to develop (and stick to) a consistent predictable sequence of the absolute minimum aid required to get a response, with a consistent pattern of escalation.

proof: she CAN jiggity jog around like a fat lazy school pony!!

So maybe it starts with a verbal cue — the same one I can use under saddle too — then maybe escalates to a kiss, then a cluck, then maybe tossing the end of the lunge rope onto the ground. And Doozy trots! Lazily!! And then usually breaks back to walk pretty quickly, omg!!

plenty to like in her more normal gait tho!!

And ya know, I let her LOL. Because actually, ymmv, but at this moment in time, I see more value in getting lots of repetitions in asking her to go forward, compared to how our rides have mostly been — ie, constantly trying to slow her down. 

As Sharon White would say, ‘no drama, just clarity!’

lol she practices her own forward and back transitions…

We keep that going for about 2 minutes, then walk quietly and calmly again for two minutes — changing directions etc. Then another 2min cycle of trot, followed by another 2min of walk. Always ending with an intentional active cycle of walk, bc again my whole purpose here is the relaxation first and foremost. 

baaaaaaasically the same thing, right??? hahaha…

We’ll probably increase the number of trot intervals in the round pen too, as well as maybe doing some light experimentation with side reins, but so far we’ve stuck with a simple session of about 15ish minutes, give or take, with 4min total of trot.

“brb, gotta go check on those chickens tho!”

After which, naturally, it’s time to ride!! We finish up with the round pen, then transition back out to the outdoor ring just like we would for any normal ride — with the free lunge serving hopefully as both a physical and mental warm up session. 

“CLUCK CLUCK, MOTHER FUCKERS!!!” — doozy, obsessed

And it’s been super interesting to see how Doozy feels after that. Like, her tension is deeply rooted and associative. This has been true for her since the day I brought her home: when she gets somewhere, she expects something to happen. So she gets to the outdoor and immediately anticipates. 

anyway. there’s a point to all this madness:: civilized trotting under saddle

But so far, so good — our rides so far using this new round-pen-integrated approach have been solid, with the mare able to accomplish another couple of 2min intervals at trot even while going large around the full ring. 

I don’t know why exactly she can suddenly maintain her gait after what is an undeniably basic ground work session. And who knows, maybe it isn’t the ground work at all but rather just a coincidence, the natural consequence of getting back into the habit, back in practice? 

“fiiiiine, i guess i can” ….. “but only if there are cookies involved!!” — doozy, negotiating

And sure, she still occasionally sneaks in some canter — but following our lesson with Matt, and also the conversation with Steph, I’ve let her just go with it. Large around the ring tho, rather than the small circles we worked on with Matt. Mostly bc.. Well.. Doozy can canter a very small circle, which… I’d rather not do a ton of at this moment in time. 

But also, more to the underlying point: forward is fine too.

rinse repeat, forever

Which, realistically, is mostly an issue of framing for me, and not the horse. On one hand, yes I want to be careful and conservative while moving Doozy thru this rehab phase. But ultimately the end goal is still to gallop across an open field on a soft contact, right?? 

And Doozy is actually a trained and capable horse at this point too. Chaotic and occasionally unhinged, obvi, but she does actually know things. So I’m feeling hopeful that we might finally be graduating to a more predictable (and measurable) phase of the rehab, finally able to track the minute markers and improve confidence around deciding when to go to the next step. 

Everything will be easier when she’s free to run and jump around like a lunatic haha, but for now it’s one light spin class at a time lol.

my wild orchid

We’re supposedly finally getting a reprieve from the intense heat dome that’s stretched across much of the country this past week… And not a day too soon, either. Endless days of triple digit ‘real feel’ temperatures are exhausting for everybody, bleh.

bunnies. bunnies everywhere

Well. Almost everybody, LOL! 

I like to joke that Doozy is impervious to heat, that she IS the heat, she is one with the hotness haha. The rest of us might be wilted and begging for mercy, but not Doozy!

106*F put the kibbosh on basically all riding tho
(also, feel free to ignore my tire pressure warning, as i do every day!)

Tho a friend was talking about how the orchids she planted outside were thriving and going wild with all the heat and humidity, and I was like, Aha! Maybe that’s the perfect analogy for Doozy!! I mean, we always knew she was a hot house flower anyway, right???

“garçon, my snacks!” — doozy, impatient

Anyway, she might not mind the conditions, but even I have my limits, so it’s been a fairly quiet week around these parts. Not really the worst thing in the world, given her current rehab status. 

Like, sure, I’m still all inspired from a lot of the conversations, feedback, and ideas I got from Windurra camp — and actually a few preliminary sessions prior to the heat dome felt really really promising in terms of getting us back on track on a more traditional rehab schedule. The mare actually trotted 4 whole minutes under saddle with zero shenanigans, no tiny circles required!!

sample serving of purina replenimash came in the windurra camp auditor’s goody bag

But all the same, time is still our best medicine for any sort of recovery, so a week off is just fine.

Tho obvi I’m still out to see Doozy every day just to check on her, scratch her bug bites, and feed her fancy snacks. As one does! That’s perhaps my favorite thing about being a thoroughbred person: it’s easy to just keep plugging her full of foodstuffs without really having to think too deeply about it lol.

doozy was a fan!

Like this fancy Purina RepleniMash that was part of the Windurra Camp swag bag. It’s marketed as basically a wholesome mash with ingredients like electrolytes and their Outlast gastric support product, intended as a supplement to regular feed, or quite literally, to “simply let your friend know you care.” (assuming, hopefully, that your friend isn’t an air fern!)

she’s still loving her triple crown stress free fortified forage too

Does Doozy already get a lot of gastric support from me? Do I already give her electrolytes? Yes and yes lol… But, eh, Doozy thought it was delicious, plus a nice big sloppy mash when it’s a million degrees out seems nice too, so I ordered a bag LOL. 

stübben grooming spray + a baby pelham in their fancy flexible plastic composite

I’ve also been eager to play with some other goodies from the camp swag bag — like this fancy grooming spray from Stübben! It’s different from other grooming sprays I’ve used bc alcohol is a main ingredient, but it’s supposed to make them super shiny and dirt repellent. So we’ll see!!

Oooh and the bit I ordered arrived too. It was not part of the swag bag, tho we did get a nice discount code to use. The baby pelham cheek pieces are apparently among Boyd’s favorites for a variety of reasons, but I’m also really interested in this mouth piece too. 

reader poll: is my bebe kitten already giant? or is this the littlest yeti you’ve ever seen?
(trick question, the answer is yes to both… they grow up so fast!)

Only time will tell if it goes into regular rotation for lessons or shows, or if it’s more of a specialty use bridle, like our hackamore. Time will also tell if this fancy flexible plastic material holds up any better than the rubber nathe Doozy chewed through in just a few short months, too.

“garçon! it’s spa time!!” doozy, itchy, ready for a cool down bath!

Regardless, I’m eager to give it a try, and get back to riding again too. We’re hopefully signing up to lesson with Matt Brown again in the near future, and ideally I’d like to show him a slightly… more civilized version of how we go this time around. 

this stuff usually lives in my trailer for rinsing off after lessons, but it’s the perfect refreshing rinse in these oppressive heat dome conditions

The new approach we started experimenting with prior to the heat dome includes a bit more ground work — a mishmash actually between feedback from Matt in our last lesson and also some pointers from Peter Wylde and Steph Simpson at the Windurra camp. And you already saw a few pictures from Doozy’s first foray into our at-home round pen. 

probably a lot of you are already familiar with this stuff, it’s got great ingredients

None of it is necessarily groundbreaking stuff in the grand scheme of things, probably it looks like exactly the type of routine practice and work that most people do with young or green horses.

kitten is trying to create his own spa day too,
natch by making a mess of my AC tower’s condensation drainage…

I’m learning with Doozy, tho, that so much of our success (or lack thereof) in deploying any given tactic or technique is honestly rooted in my own understanding, framing and approach. That it’s not enough for me to just do it with this horse, but I have to have a really clear sense of why, how, and for what purpose. 

#loveabletrouble

Bc at the end of the day, this horse is too sensitive to distinguish a muddled signal from all my noise, ya know? She hears it all, whether I mean it or not.

We’ll see, tho. Hopefully this week will be a bit more normal conditions, at least normal for July. So probably still moderately malevolent mugginess lol. I’ll take it, tho. We’re officially half way thru the year and I’m eager to keep chipping away at our 2026 goals! 

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!

saddle spam

Happy Labor Day Weekend, folks! It’ll be a quiet one around here — long overdue! Tho naturally I have to have **something** to occupy my attention, so we’re deep into our Veritas Eximo dressage saddle trial!

Isn’t it pretty?? A little worn, sure, but in quite nice condition

Looks pretty good on the horse too — and let’s just pretend this saddle pad is the right shape. As far as I’m concerned, it’s #closeenough

I took legit about 8,000 pics of Doozy just standing here, and she looks kinda silly in 97% of them lol. I swear she is the prettiest little mare, but somehow the camera always catches her mid-expression haha.

It’s a nice saddle, tho. I like it. I think Doozy likes it, tho you know how it is with sensitive red mares… It can be hard to tell. Maybe a smarter person would use that chunk of change and buy a new horse instead of a new saddle. Ahem.

“Excuse me, but *I’m* the star here!!” — doozy, 100%

You know how it is, tho. I like the animal, and I want the full spectrum of tools to get the best out of myself and her. This saddle might just be a big part of that!

Tho. Frankly. I think part of my sorta #yolo attitude right now is just from being a bit tired from a long grind this summer. So realistically I’ll probably extend the trial to give myself a bit more space to decide for sure.

“ffs, are you done yet??” — pushy biscuit

Honestly expecting to roll with the brown bridle for a while tho bc… Eh, we try to keep things fairly consistent in the Land of Dooz. It ain’t exactly the worst picture tho, right?

Well. Ahem. Except our fancy new (consignment) bell boots suddenly rubbed the shit out of Doozy in our ride last night. Christ almighty, poor mare! It’s always gotta be something, amirite??

At least her skin funk cleared up again without evolving into full fledged skin moss omg. Small wins, but we’ll take it!! 

Anyway. That’s it from around these parts, hope y’all have a nice weekend too!