april showers bring may.... dirtballs

Even tho it's been a surprisingly dry spring so far, our horses are still finding new and creative ways to get absolutely filthy. Charlie's still pretty fuzzy too -- his coat is apparently clinging on until the grass is fully up... So yea every day is groundhog day with grooming this animal. 

it's hard to photograph brown mud on a brown horse, but charlie works hard to help me out lol
(also, yes omg the grass in his winter sacrifice paddock is so pitiful rn...)

And since Charlie's been off for the last few weeks and we haven't been up to literally anything else.... Let's carry on with the recent theme of chatting about products and processes relating to more general care. 

brosef... you, uh.... got something on your face lol

My favorite tool for the dirtball job remains, as always, an old school hard plastic curry comb. Probably 85% of my grooming time is spent using the curry, over every inch of Charlie's body. 

(Including lower limbs.... true story: I've literally never understood why people say you shouldn't use a curry on the lower limbs, am I the only one?? That's legit how I end up discovering most of Charlie's little dings and dents down there anyway....)

ah yes, that static dust that we all know and love....

The curry is great for loosening everything up, including shedding hair, chunks of mud, any sweat crusts, etc etc etc. Plus, in my experience, the curry comb is also the best tool against skin funk and fungus. 

this stuff tho, omg it's like $11 and is absolutely a game changer
i think charlie would rather just get the carrot tho, not gonna lie lol

I used to literally refer to Charlie as a 'veritable botanical garden' when it comes to rain rot etc, esp during periods of shedding or coat growth. But... Honestly aside from the occasional cannon crud, he's been funk-free for a long long time. Probably bc of all the obsessive currying lol...

i know the light is different but it's the same dusty horse, after getting spritzed down.
also... dear lord, that mane....

Only problem is.... ugh, the static dust haze that always seems to cling to winter coats. Sometimes I swear, the longer I curry, the dirtier the horse looks lol. My nice natural bristle body brush does a decent job of swiping off dust and dirt etc, but it can only do so much against static.

pic from back in the day when we were still riding lol. more riding = less grooming, apparently!

Which... Y'all already know about Charlie's struggles and suffering with static electricity. I bought this kid's hair detangler as a way to reduce the zaps (which it does!! tho hand lotion has proven the best weapon in that eternal war lol), but it's GREAT for the dust.

apparently you don't have to be clean to hack out while spring is springing!!!!

I actually use that spray after almost every time I curry the horse these days. It smells nice, makes him look smooth and silky, and seems to actually almost bond with the dust to make it easier to swipe off. Plus it's inexpensive (at least relative to most horse-specific products I see), and made from good safe ingredients being that it's intended for human kiddos.

omg cabbage!

Anything that makes it easier at this point is worth it in my book. Bc oh my god it's every day lol. And there are some days where.... ugh, who can really bother haha. The horse doesn't need to be all that clean for his busy life of eating and going to and from his field anyway, right?

and sheeepies!!!

But since grooming is the only thing we've been doing lately (these trail pics are from a few weeks ago before the hoof soreness, womp), might as well make the drive worth it!! 

ooooh i also chopped off his mane again.... 

Which also explains the motivation for Charlie's recent haircut LOL. Yep I'm still up on my bullshit of blunt cutting his mane with scissors haha.... hahaha. And yep, you can still definitely tell. 

sweet squishy-nosed pony <3

But hey, if you're gonna be lame buddy, you can be a little ugly too haha. Tho I like to think I've gotten kinda good (ish) at the bad way of mane management lol -- I'm trimming it more often now but taking off less length each time. Idk. It'll grow back LOL. 

is this the face of horse ready to make good choices???

Anywaysssss... last I checked, the horse had finally jogged sound. Tho obvi he followed that up with a bashed face and bloody nose, so we let him stay off for a little bit longer just to be safe. 

lolz obviously absolutely not!!

Hopefully tho.... The time is coming soooooon haha. Clearly the horse looks ready to go, right? Brushed and trimmed and apparently bursting with thoroughbred energy lol...

(topical) drugs of choice

Just about 7 years ago, I learned some hard truths about wound care and management. Isabel and I were a few years into our lease and finally feeling like the pieces were coming together. She was a hardy mare, tho, and I'd never owned before. And let's be real, some stuff you just plain old can't suck out of your thumb. 

heel slice. look closer and you'll see a grab from last year growing out toward the toe

For those who don't remember, Izzy's a chromey red arabian. At that particular moment in time, she had a minor interference wound on an inside hind cannon (right smack in the middle of her fantastic socks). I treated with my absolute favorite liquid bandage spray -- Alushield.

suspicions are that *somebody* was climbing thru the tensile wire reaching for grass

And. Lo and Behold, that entire leg blossomed into a months and months long battle with scratches. Maybe bc red and chromey. Maybe bc some topical sprays have exactly the right characteristics to covertly cultivate some nasty fungus.

some of the blue stuff is from prior treatments

Either way. Right then and there I resolved to avoid EVER using Alushield in skin-funk-prone lower limb areas --- really anything below the knee or hock. Not bc I don't love Alushield (it's legit my liquid bandage of choice for basically everything-not-a-puncture). But... Bc... #NeverAgain.

for real, tho, i hate coronet band wounds

True story, tho. Horses will still wound their lower limbs, regardless of whether you have a solid treatment method lol. So I've kinda been lowkey searching for a new favorite for these types of ouchies. 

locals know that bartville orange sticker lol

A couple trusted barnmates have always sworn by Red-Kote for general wound care (I understand it to be like a wound spray similar in application to the Alushield), and was especially interested when I spied Blu-Kote (same manufacturer) at Bartville a couple weeks ago. 

i've gotten a little nuts about reading labels since izzy's scratches fiasco

The key to this stuff seems to be its fungicidal and drying properties. Which... Naturally, Charlie immediately put to the test by getting hung up in the high tensile fencing back in March. 

No worries -- no serious injuries or lamenesses resulted from that encounter.... But the horse walked away with a very raw pastern and heel area. Not unrelated, those same areas are also often very skin-fungus prone....

tidied up and treated

I was really impressed with this stuff tho. There were maybe two back to back days of more intensive cleansing and rinsing with betadine etc before spraying on a Blu-Kote treatment. 

But... Honestly? After that? The wounds basically immediately looked dry, stable and protected -- and I stopped fussing with them entirely for the rest of their healing process (beyond occasionally testing a scab or two bc #pickersgonnapick).

don't believe that sad pony face --- he recovered fully, much to his chagrin

So it's official. While the Alushield silver spray remains a favorite for generalized bodily dings, dents, scrapes and scratches.... This Blu-Kote stuff pretty immediately secured a permanent spot in my medicine drawer. Specifically for lower limb woes.... but maybe more too! 

Obviously every horse person has their very favorite tinctures and tonics, ointments and oils etc. We all kinda know what we like and gravitate toward prior experience etc. But this was a useful lesson for me that, ya know, there are a LOT of really really fantastic products out there, only a fraction of which I've ever actually used. 

Which leads me to my question to you... Do you use either of these wound care products (Alushield or Blu-Kote)? Have you had similar experiences? Or maybe you have an entirely different roster of go-to products? Have you had to learn the hard way about using a treatment incorrectly? Or do you also have tried 'n true Old Faithfuls that you'll stick to thru thick or thin?? Curious minds want to know lol.

how to take better pictures for the vet

If we've learned anything from the Depp v Heard trial, it's that... omg celebrity tabloid trash trials are hardcore my favorite new reality tv   good clear representative photos can be extremely helpful. 

And, of course. Every horse owner is, at some point or another, tasked with taking said representative photos of some injury or another for consultation with a vet. Right? 

So. Let's talk about what makes a "good" photo for a vet. Step 1: Collect your specimen.

"your WHAT??" -- charles

Step 2: Isolate your area of interest, and focus.

ex: are we trying to take a pic of his knee or his knose ?? this is why focus matters, kids!

Step... the next: Lighting matters. Flash is my #1 favorite for any foto going to a vet. But... Uh, turns out, the sun is still a whole heckuva lot stronger than your puny phone flash. so try not to take backlit pics, yes?

ok so the nose knows, but..... so what?

Quick Reminder: A well composed photograph will always be more effective and visually powerful. If you want your vet to be able to quickly scan an image and provide reliable feedback... Keep your subject centered in the image.

Sir. Please. 

Hopefully, tho -- Anybody can keep these quick and easy DIY steps in mind and produce high quality and clear images worthy of sending to your vet. 

Sure.... Maybe we're still wasting our vet's time, obviously. But ya know. At least the vet feels confident about it! 

 

poor baby!

Bc hey, let's be real. A quick photo is better than a farm call fee any time, right? And ain't nobody wanna take a bloody nose for granted. 

(Even if all signs pointed to it being related to the scrape right on top of his face... Homebody probably just banged it on something ugh lol)

"well. that was anticlimactic." -- charlie murray
(also, wowza it took reviewing these pictures to realize how much that brand new halter stretched!)

So. Ahem. Anywayyyyyys lol..... For real tho, Charlie's had a sore hoof for like weeks at this point, but finally FINALLY jogged sound. Here's hoping for more excitement of a better variety soon!

And in the meantime, lemme know if I missed any crucial tips and tricks for taking good pics for your favorite vet!

paper chasin' + racin'

A couple weeks ago, the local 4-H club hosted its first annual paperchase to benefit the organization at our local Ag center -- conveniently next door to the iconic Shawan Downs.

Obviously, we're basically professional paper chase jockeys at this point -- PLUS it's always nice to support the local equestrian community. So obviously we'd go! 

"as far as i'm concerned, we won." charlie, definitely

Originally the plan was to make it a nice low key outing geared toward the members of our group with either less experience, or with horses who maybe aren't otherwise up for much intensity. Tho... That plan kinda fell apart with some unfortunate cancellations and it ended up being just Charlie and Punky.

my attempt at photographically representing charles at his full height, standing on his tippy toes 

Which.... Maybe was a blessing in disguise for our less experienced friends who didn't make it. Bc OH MY DEAR GOD, our horses were kiiiiiiiiinda psychotic. But like. For real tho. 

Idk what it was, but good Sir Charles (who, lest you forget, has been shipping out for lessons and such multiple times a month for the last few months YEARS), stepped off the trailer, looked around, and absolutely lost his shit. 

legit was not a particularly, uh, scenic track around the property....

Maybe bc the whole space and parking and everything was super spread out, with horses visibly moving in the distance in every direction? Who knows. All I know is that Charlie grew about 10 stories tall, and was visibly twitching and tense. 

the course kinda just went around and around and around the two sides of this driveway and all the outbuildings. 

Luckily, tho, he's a good boy and stood (very very tall) for me to get on. And he more or less followed my directions etc. Except, ahem, homeboy straight up jigged for four miles straight. Around a track that honestly wasn't really all that delightful. I'm not sure who planned the event, but they basically just set us out to make the rounds around the property -- circling the out buildings. Going up and down fence lines and tree lines, etc.

two very seasoned TBs who were very ridiculous for what should have been a glorified trail ride lol

It wasn't particularly scenic, and basically at all points you could see horses ahead of you, behind you, and off on other distant parts of the track. 

Now, of course, we're not going to mention that basically ALL those other horses seemed perfectly at ease with their lives lol. Bc Charlie and Punky absolutely were not. Never have I ever been so relieved to finish a paper chase haha omg.... 

basically THIS is where they THOUGHT they were LOL

Honestly it wasn't even really much to write home about... Except y'all already know my intense desire to *document all the things* lol.... Plus, hey lookie -- it's a perfect segue to another recent outing haha. Which... Obviously, clearly our horses just got their calendars confused....

yep, the thundering hooves exactly encapsulates our paper chase experience LOL

Lol for real tho, no we weren't taking our horses to the Manor races, even if that's apparently where their hearts lie. This event was just for us as spectators / tailgaters, obviously!

squint a bit and Monberg Stream (winner of the 2022 Thomas H. Voss Memorial Maiden Timber) kinda looks like how you might imagine Punky describing his own self lol

Idk what it is about the timber racing season in Maryland but it always catches me off guard -- like I don't even hear about it until it's already over. Maybe bc the Maryland Hunt Cup (our season's pinnacle race) is almost always the same weekend as Kentucky?

but oooof, holy moly, all the horses jumped this penultimate timber terribly in this race...

We were determined to make it to at least one of the races this year, tho -- particularly, those held at the legendary My Lady's Manor estate. And oh man, it was the perfect weekend for it!

they kinda reminded me of this unfortunate bay painted on a clay plate by a local artist that i've had for a few years....

I personally haven't spent much time at these types of events (last time was at Shawan Downs where I basically just posted some pics here; and before that was a blogger meet up at the Gold Cup in Virginia) but.... they're honestly super different from the typical horse trials or FEI events I've attended. 

anywho, tho, yea they all jumped it not great, whoops!

Seems much more geared to the mingling of bougie society, with horses acting as the elegant backdrop rather than the main attraction. Which, ya know haha.... Is it's own special kinda fun, right? Dressing up, competing good-naturedly to see who has the most epic tailgate spread... Ya know, the works!

you best believe where there's screen grabs, there's video!

Plus, obvi, the horses and races DO make for some pretty epic viewing. It's really hard to see the whole race all from one spot -- what with the track being 3 miles long and everything. But we did happen to catch a few influential moments, such as the above. (And have no fear, the jockey walked away while the horse went on to complete the race himself LOL).

it's honestly a pretty bangin way to spend a day!
(also we clearly need a 12yo to help us figure out how to fit 3 people into one selfie!)

Tho let's be real, hangin out at the tailgate eating sandwiches and double triple fisting tasty beverages is always fun, with or without the horses LOL!

this taxidermy fox definitely agrees (?)

SO. With that... It feels like the spring season of a million things to do every weekend has finally commenced haha --- soon to spill into the summer season actually omg!

another lesson

It's been a couple years now since I've considered my horse pretty much "trained." By which I mean: he's reliable, consistent, and capable of "doing the thing" in a predictable and reasonably correct manner. 

Charlie can go long, or go short. He can jump basically any style of jump. Execute just about any imaginable variation of course or grid. He's been there, done that, and has been pretty darn fun along the way. I like it! 

cantering my little pony around

Tho. There are two kinda big caveats to that whole point of view: 

Numero uno: Yes, he's trained. But... "trained" to the maximum of my own abilities. Which you can take to mean whatever you like, but I understand this to mean that I've taught the horse basically everything I know. And we've crossed into the territory where he's kinda figured out everything I *don't* know too haha. 

legit the first oxer we've jumped for this new trainer

In some ways, this means he's gotten better than me. Like his eye is better than mine, he probably reads a distance better than I do. In other ways.... Well, my ability (or lack there of) is more of a limiting factor for him. 

Which is kinda the whole basis of my second caveat: Charlie doesn't have his own discipline. Well, let's be real, NO horse does, right? Horses aren't out there sketching up a calendar for the year, marking down a training plan. Capitalizing on good ground conditions for high intensity cardio, or fitting in the stretching and weight lifting of dressage bc it's important and we have to even if it kinda sucks. 

same warm up fence, just higher and vertical. also a nice example of why oxers are useful for charlie lol

I've made a big deal of "kinda giving up on dressage" for a couple years now, too. Mostly bc.... I kinda suck at it. I have a habit of getting drawn into riding the front of the horse at the expense of... well, everything else. Which, as you might imagine, creates a behind-the-leg horse that isn't super fun to jump. And since Charlie is my jumping horse.... Eh, I've prioritized, right? 

oooh guys, charlie learned a new trick and is pretty into it!

But the pendulum always swings back again. Everything old is new again, and some lessons just don't stay learnt. For right now, that means I'm figuring out that "trained" isn't the same thing as "fit." Charlie KNOWS how to do literally everything I want him to do. Inside and out, front to back. Eyes closed and a hand hoof tied behind his back. 

But physically? Ehhhhhhhhh let's just say his topline needs work, yes? And sadly, it turns out you can't just pay the vet for another injection to build that muscle LOL.

jump 1 on course --- another oxer yay!

I wrote a little bit about my thoughts on that in my last post. And... Ya know. It turns out, hill work and walking probably aren't a silver bullet for a horse that is.... turned out on hills for 12hrs a day. Maybe for a horse that doesn't get as much turn out in as giant of a pasture with as many other horses as Charlie gets, it could be a game changer. Actually -- it WOULD be a game changer for Charlie if this wasn't his lifestyle bc I'm 99.9% positive he would not be a sound horse without it. 

We need something more tho. The next step. Which, for right now, for us, for me and my skill level and with the available patience and tolerance of my sweet-but-kinda-sick-of-my-shit OTTB... Means... Ugh. Flatwork. 

fun with fillers

Rather than thinking of our flatwork days as "dressage" rides where we endlessly cycle through 20m circles and test patterns or movements..... I'm trying to be better about shifting more quickly between exercises -- and therefore muscle groups. So, not just trotting straight for 5, 10 or 20min, like one might also do in a "fitness" ride, I want to be better about switching gears. 

And it's all the same usual stuff, too, right? Transitions. Transitions within gait. Transitions between two gaits -- or three gaits! More halts, more rein backs. More lateral work. And all while *round* and *in front of the leg.* Theoretically LOL.

jumping in all sorts of quiet, about to chop in a 3rd without breaking a sweat in this 36' distance....

Again, obviously none of this is new. But it takes some discipline to think it out. Not only to remember and stick to the plan... But to have fun with it and make it fun for Charlie too. 

Like... In the past, when I've thought about rapid fire transitions and shifts between exercises... I maybe focused too heavily on the "rapid fire" part -- at the expense of frazzling and frustrating Charlie when I wanted him to be snappy despite possibly muddled aids from me. So now I'm trying to keep everything smooth and clear. Making sure that -- at all times -- Charlie understands what I'm asking, and understands that he is being good even as I continue asking for more and different things. 

then back around the turn for another 3, but this time over 48' lolz... who said charlie wasn't adjustable?

So far, so good tho. At least, I hope haha. And we got a nice proof of concept in our most recent lesson with trainer-on-trial new trainer Kelly. We shipped out to Tranquillity, and she ran the lesson a bit like a show simulation: everyone warmed up by riding a figure-8 over the same jump over and over again while she built it up in height and width etc. Then we went out and rode the actual course cold. 

On one hand, I feel like Charlie and I have extensive experience with this style of ride, considering we probably competed more than we lessoned last year.... But eh, it was fun. Not perfect, obviously -- Charlie was bored and sassy about all the repetitions over the same one warm-up jump (see the above pic of his "new trick" for reference lol...). Plus we chopped in the add in the 2 stride in and out after I botched a turn on the actual course.... 

link to the course video here

Actually, tho, overall it felt pretty good. The jumps were all somewhere between 2'9 and 3', and were all pretty ho hum. Charlie was in a nice rhythm. Felt close enough to 'in front of my leg' to be good 'nuff. The jumps came up nicely for the most part, and any adjustments otherwise weren't too too dramatic. Ya know. Basically just a solid course. For us, lol. 

And it's cool, ya know? It's kinda crazy to think about, but... where Charlie and I are right now is... Actually somewhat new territory for me. For my entire riding history, I've either been learning to ride on something experienced, been the experienced rider on a horse learning its job, or been trying to move up with a horse I made myself. I've never actually cruised at altitude tho, if that makes sense. 

But that's our goal now. Was actually last year's plan too -- tho first I had to sorta learn how to have fun and be relaxed again after two years working on a failed move up. And it's actually kinda exciting! Kinda nice to just work on the details, just enjoying it and getting better at it. 

rethinking charlie's "fitness" (again)

I'm constantly reevaluating how I think about Charlie's overall health, wellness, and particularly, fitness. Case in point -- I've written about my evolving understanding of conditioning Charlie for sport quite a few times over the years. Long story short: it's complicated. 

Charlie is a large heavy horse with a high mileage body on slightly small feet. Not only is it entirely possible -- it's downright easy to lame this horse through well-intentioned and generally accepted fitness and strength-training routines. 

"conditioning" is basically my favorite excuse for a trail ride with friends haha. long slow miles, amirite ;) 

It isn't enough to read a book on horse fitness and apply those practices directly to Charlie. I learned that lesson the hard way once, and have been a bit gun shy ever since. To the point where.... We've maybe gone too far the other way, with not quite enough baseline fitness and strength training to support Charlie's physical needs. 

There's obviously no shortage of research (and opinions) in this field, but I recently got a fresh perspective from a long distance runner, of all places. His approach to fitness and conditioning is basically, "everything I do in the gym is intended to support my goal of running." Meaning, he's not there for the #gainz, not there to increase mass. Only to support his running goals. 

brief interruption for a shoe update: leather pads are officially on, and we're *still* growing out that overreach crack from last year

Obviously that's obvious, but then he kinda veered off in a different direction than I expected, observing that runners tend to over-develop some areas of musculature (hamstrings) while under-developing others (glutes). And that he uses his gym time and strength training to counteract these musculature imbalances. 

His point was that these imbalances are ultimately unsustainable and will eventually lead to injury. And since he can't run if he's injured, he prioritizes "injury prevention" as his number one objective in strength training. Anything else -- specific exercises to improve stamina or quickness or whatever to improve competitiveness -- is secondary to this pursuit of risk mitigation. 

obviously gotta give this ridiculous wannabe mountain goat the footwear he craves omg

Now. I've never really been what you might call "an athlete" (har har). I didn't play sports in high school or college, never had any sort of coach work me through a routine or regimen. So for those of you who have had that experience, this might not be anything new to you. But... To me, it seems like a really important distinction. 

switching gears again to some snaps from charlie's chiro / acupuncture appt this week

Horseback riders always talk about how "dressage improves the jumping," by getting horses more off the forehand, or more adjustable, or whatever. That, doing *this* set of exercises will improve your ability to execute in *that* arena. Or we always hear about how dressage is kinda the "weight lifting" (or anaerobic exercising) complement to the "cardio" of trot or gallop sets. 

he gets basically the same spots jabbed every time but the urge to document is strong lol

All of that makes sense to me and whatnot, but it's easy to miss that foundational point of "balance." Of ensuring that muscles developed through one type of work (running) are physically balanced and stabilized on the body. Not bc it makes you better or faster or whatever (tho, it probably does), but bc *this* is our basic protection against injury.

That approach to conditioning is, to me, very attractive. To the point where literally the most expensive lesson I've ever taken in my riding life (which, notably, includes lessons with various Olympians and 5* riders...) was a "Solutions for Soundness" clinic that was basically billed to be this exact sort of experience. 

bonus shot of charlie's puffy fetlock bc he got caught up in something and dinged up the ankle, ooh ooh and *also* added a NEW overreach before the old one had even finished growing out! 

The idea was an experienced riding coach and an equine sports massage expert would tag team the lesson to identify specific exercises to improve conditioning and promote soundness in the horse. Sadly the *execution* of that idea was... er, underwhelming lol, so I kinda put the whole thing behind me and moved on, with the exception being that it was the genesis of my idea to ride with a metronome. 

flashback to 2019 lol

But ya know. Everything old is new again, right? And spring time is my favorite time to take a fresh look at Charlie's overall health picture and make sure it aligns with my ideas and goals and dreams for the year ahead. 

and back again to today. goddamn charlie LOVES this practitioner tho. that is the face of a horse who is focusing every last shred of his attention on that pink-sleeved hand in the background

Step 1 was going down the laundry list of "housekeeping" items for Charlie, inserting literally *ALL* the quarters into the machine.... We slapped the leather shoe pads back on this past cycle. The horse got his hocks freshly lubed. We followed that up with a visit from his favorite chiro / acupuncturist to help work out and release any lingering compensation issues from the hocks. Plus, I picked up a box of Adequan for good measure. 

time to go back to work, sir! 
also his dweeby forelock center part will never not kill me <3 <3 <3

And? Guys. The horse feels good. It's almost like he's going out of his way to show that issues we had under saddle were 100% related to his physical condition. And now that his hocks are taken care of, he's back to stretching and swinging, back to drama free left lead departs, and even volunteering lead changes despite the fact that we normally never practice them.

So the next step is making sure the work we do is additive to Charlie's condition vs corrosive. Which, it turns out, is not quite as easy as writing a check to the vet to stick a needle in it. 

I've basically got a sense of some of the work we'll do to try to improve the overall balance of Charlie's musculature. Namely -- just more of the same that we worked on with Molly. And I'll probably start riding with a metronome again since that was super helpful to work on rhythm. 

But... idk, what all do you do to build up hind end strength? Anything glutes-specific? I know there isn't like, a magic bullet or anything (I wish... ugh), but anything reasonably fun and not too likely to piss the pony off is worth a try!