Thank you God!

 Today was a good day! A really good day!

 

And honestly... people are going to want to slap me for this, but I LIKE daylight savings change. :) I mean... it's winter.. we lose daylight. Whether it's dark at 5:30 today vs 6:30 today.. it's gonna be dark by 5:30 at some point this winter. And I like being able to wake up in daylight vs cold AND dark. And I like being able to go inside and be done with the day before 9 pm. I like eating dinner before 9:30 pm. I like the forced rest. Ha.. "rest". And sure, once it gets cold, dark, and dreary, I'll not be as happy, but... for now... I like it. And I even got to still sneak in a ride today But yes, I woke up to a nice warming up quickly sunrise. I saw a hawk on my way to work (And in the same spot on my way home!).  I worked on 4 horses at Kristin's and then "adjusted" her long yearling. She was a little too squirrely to really feel so I just motioned what I could and showed her that people aren't always doing rude things to you. She was a pretty good girl. Then Kristin fed me a toaster strudel. Yum. Then I worked on two horses at Anna's and both her and Kristin said nice things to make me feel good about myself. And then I got home in time to sneak in a quick ride. But most importantly... Dan was Sound!!!!! Thank you God! 

 

We got on and rode to the culdesac and up to the arena that way. He felt good. We did a good long walk warm up and then a stretchy trot and I really only felt some very slight aberations when we went from right to tracking left, which is when I had been feeling things before. And it was even more subtle than previously, so... phew! I think we avoided blowing a tendon with all his jigging and piaffing this weekend. Thank you God! 

 

We had a good ride. It was short.. only 25 minutes of work and most of that was walk. I just really wanted to feel him out and make sure he was good before we went XC schooling tomorrow! We did some leg yield and some lengthens and then had a nice canter. We did some canter to walk to canter and then 2 shallow serpentines each way. He was super! After that we headed to the lake for a quick cool down hack and to watch the sunset. And he snacked on the good green grass that was still around. 

So... tomorrow.. saddle fitting bright and early and then XC schooling at Chatt. Yay!!!

 

Cattle Drive!!

 Well.. that did not go how I expected!!! Although in retrospect, I probably should have expected something similar. We still had a blast, but..... 

Missy and I signed up for a Cattle Drive and we were sooooo excited. She wasn't sure how Indi would react to the cows but I figured Dan would be totally fine with them and probably LOVE chasing cows. It seems right up his alley.. making things move and do his bidding. :) Perfect job for him! 

So we hauled 3.5 hours to Smoaks SC Friday afternoon and found the farm. Four J's Ranch. It's a nice place. We got there and they greeted us and told us we could pick a stall. They were nice stalls.. freshly bedded with hooks for buckets and such. Sweet! The stall I picked for Dan had a great view... of a very menacing looking mechanical bull. Ha ha. Poor dude! Sleep well my friend! Hee hee. Missy and I headed out for dinner and then headed to our hotel. It was 25 minutes away but a decent place. 

 

 

It's okay buddy...don't be scared! Hee hee.. But dang, he is creepy!

 

Saturday morning we headed back to the ranch and fed the ponies. Then we took them out for a little grazing and grooming. We were told to be in the saddle ready to ride at 10 am. So we got on about 9:30 and started walking around. They let us in the arena near the cows. And man.. that footing is DEEP! Dan and Indi both looked at the cows and didn't care. They were more interested in the other horses and tractors and wagons. 

The arena was starting to fill up with horses and the footing was so deep and Dan was getting a bit silly, so I opted to take him back out and figured I might trot him around in the parking lot/pasture area to see if that would help settle him. He wasn't being terribly but he had a few scoots in the arena. And the footing is just so much deeper than I'm used to. We were trotting around and Dan was really excited. He was behaving but he was tight and braced. And then some cute little pintaloosa got loose and came running at us. They managed to catch him but that got Dan more amped up. And then he was just building. He wasn't settling. I finally gave up and just walked him and that actually did help a hair. They were calling for us all so we headed back to the arena. 

They had us all in there and I think there was something like roughly 30 horses and they would bring us 100 cows. They had weeded out the sassy cows that might charge us too! Yay for that! They did a quick talk about how to move cows. I LOVED that they followed Temple Grandin's techniques. Super cool. They said basically to stay behind their shoulders unless we wanted to stop the cows and not to cannonball into their grouping. We weren't "chasing" them, we were sending them. Meanwhile, Dan is pacing and walking around the arena, parading in front of all the other good horses who are just lined up on the rail watching and listening. Doh! So they said that we would do 3-5 riders at a time and practice moving the calfs along the arena wall.

Since Dan and I were parading around, we opted to go first. Luckily Missy came and joined me and so did two other guys. I thought we did a pretty good job! Dan and Indi didn't seem to mind the cows and did their jobs. We weren't fast and competitive but we got them moving. The other two guys were a little bit intense and gung ho and did some hooting and hollering and running. That got Dan upset so he did a spin and bolt a hair two or three times. When we finished one of the guys came up to tell me how to ride. Sigh... why do people feel the need to tell me how to ride in situations like this?? Ugh. He was telling me to kick Dan at the girth and not at the flank. Oh... maybe he's right. But still... thanks for the embarassing 5 minute lecture on how to apply my leg. 

After that we headed out so that Dan could stop stressing and we could offer them water. Plus... Missy and I were smart and wore our helmets to start but since they were both good, we decided to switch to our cowboy hats instead of our helmets. I Know.. I know... but calcuated risks. 

Great Day

 Dan and I rode today at Ashland with Kelli. He was a super good boy. We warmed up with our pillar work and then some lateral work. Then we did our trots and some cantering. We had some really nice work today. He felt more collected and slow than he has been and he didn't get rushy today. He still struggles with letting go at the base of his neck when he's more collected and not quite as enaged. When I ask him to sit more, he braces. And I'm sure I shorten his neck too in an effort to collect him. But I was trying to send his neck out today. And we were successful at times. It's hard to know if it's fitness/fatigue/laziness/pain. Does he just not want to work that hard so he doesn't? Does he not want to work that hard because it hurts his neck? Hurts his stifle? Or is he just not strong enough yet to carry himself there? I don't know. Kelli agreed that he looked super fancy and lovely but needed to be quicker with his hind end and a bit more engaged to truly and fully come up over his back. So yeah.. but how?! How do I get that? More leg? Or is it just time and strength building? 

 

We did have some really nice trot half passes today. I thought anyways. And we did a few canter shallow loops that went well. He did give me one very quick simple change that almost could have progressed to a flying change. I didn't ask for it, but I told him he was good anyways. And we had one lovely canter to walk. Most of our transitions still need work but we also had one SUPER lovely walk to canter today too! I used Dawn's trick, which is JBH's trick, of "starting the lawnmower". Hee hee.

 

After we ended up going on a hack. We went to the lake and back. Dan went off roading on the way to the lake and ended up almost taking me out with a tree branch and then a spiderweb. Dude! Careful! The heron was at the lake again and was pretty much ignoring us. But once Dan got in the lake and started splashing the heron decided to leave. Then we walked home and Dan stayed on the trails appropriately ;) hee hee.

 

Tomorrow.... we head to the cattle drive!!! We'll stable overnight and be ready for a 9 am start time! I cannot wait!!! I hope Dan has a blast!

And his new 10 year warranty jammies :) 

Yayness

 It's kind of all coming together... shockingly.. it the horse world. The rest of the world drove me bananas today.

But... Dr. Kate can see Dan IN AIKEN next Friday. And I can move my clients that day. That also means we can still do the cattle drive and stableview. And then I finally heard back about the saddle fitter who wants to come Tuesday, which.. is when we had planned to go XC schooling but.. she wants to be there first thing in the am, so.. that should hopefully work. We an go XC schooling after. So... yay for all that. 

Anyways... rode today after a frustrating day. But Dan was super. besides being super distracted at whatever was going on at Jean's gate.. guessing it needed repairs? 

Did the same ride as my lesson but on a smaller scale and with probably less intensity as I didn't have the trainer watching. But got some nice trot half pass and got some nice canters. we even did the left lead counter canter shallow loop without any fussiness or tongue coming out. He did start to get a little quick, so we went to something else and then quit. I'm trying to listen to the fatigue. but yeah... quite a good boy. I didn't feel any soundness issues either. So... I have no clue. Maybe he was sore from Sat? Maybe I am nicer/allow him to cheat when I'm not lessoning... maybe we just didn't get him to the point of fatigue today??

lovely hack home, stopped to chat with the halloween decor.

him and funny snuggled.

oh, and last night.. when i was snuggling with Lyric.. he was watching... maybe jealous???

Fantastic Lesson but....

 Well... I'm not sure what to think! Yesterday was soooo much fun and Dan felt soooo good. I was so optimistic. Sigh.. 

 

Today we had lessons with Kelly at Ashland. I took Lyric first this morning to give Dan a bit more recovery time. Plus, I wanted to make sure I could catch her. ;) I did bemer him this morning though. His back and stifles. We got to Ashland early and I did a little bit of his wither lifts, weight shifts, and pillar work. Then I got on. Kelly was running a bit behind so I was able to do a nice long stretchy warm up. We started off at the walk and got a lot of good stretching into contact. Then we picekd up the trot. He started out okay at first, but then he felt a bit wonky. It felt like hind end. Sort of like a flat tire. Maybe the left hind. He didn't really work out of it, so... we went back to the walk for a bit. Then I picked up the trot again and asked him to do a stretchy canter both ways. After that... he was sound. I didn't really feel it again. I also stopped and waited for Kelly at that point. I told her what I felt but he felt good the whole rest of the ride until the very end. She even said that he looked wonderful and great and she didn't see anything. Which was especially exciting given that he worked as hard as he did yesterday. 

 

We had a great lesson. We started off with a nice marching walk. A 2nd level walk. He had to be in front of my leg. Marching!! We had to do a little bit of reminding him. We were laughing though because pretty much as Kelly was saying "make sure that he doesn't suck you in to working harder... he needs to give you the correct answer every time" I just sort of realized that he had sucked me in by giving me JUST enough that he was technically doing what I asked but not quite. Ha ha. He gives me just enough to not make it obvious that he's being disobedient but that doesn't make him have to work as hard. Ha ha. So we had to do a few minutes of getting him to be a bit more obedient. Which honestly, didn't take much today. He was ready to go and felt really good. We worked on getting a nice trot with an even connection. And he was carrying himself. Then we worked on shoulder in on the rail, right out of the corner. I had to ride into my corners and set myself up more as we came out of them, but not ride so hard that I lost his hind end and let it fishtail. Aha! My body position had to stay upright and correct, with my sternum up and out. And I had to not get tight in the pelvis, so sit on my pockets. But we got it. I was proud of both of us actually. I did tend to collapse in my right side though, but when I focused on sinking my weight into my right leg and keeping that leg long, it helped. When we went to the left I had to work a little harder to keep his nose bent to the inside. He wanted to be on four tracks with his body but not bend through his neck and barrel as much. So I had to close the tracks up but ask for more flexion. Aha!! When i could see his inside eyeball, we had it. It was hard but we got it. Going to the right was easier as he wants to naturally bend that way. 

 

Then we went to the canter and worked on our walk to canter departs. NO TALLYHO HOLLY! Ha ha.. Keep my butt in the saddle. No two pointing into the canter. It helped to think about rocking back before I lifted my hip. (Like Dawn's trick about starting the lawnmower with the pull cord). We had some really nice canters today! Nice and collected. At least it felt collected to me. And I was sitting nicely too. But I still had to remember to keep my sternum up and lifted and sit on my pockets. Then we went to do a shallow serpentine. Kelly had me only go to quarterline because she said that it was a good strengthening exercise for him. He was happy to do it but was cheating a little in his form, so... stick with this shallow one for now and do it a few times to help build his strength. Every ride! The shallow serpentine still gives us the benefits of the deep serpentines. And as with all things... doing it correctly is more important than the degree of difficulty. So tracking right, we got it. It was hard, but we were able to do it. Then we went to the left. And that's when things fell apart. We got through one attempt but he cheated and counterbent. When I really held him in the true left bend, he couldn't do it. He got upset and his tongue came out. And then he started to get rushy and quick and animated and bracey. We talked through it. I told her I was panicking because that's his "pain" signal to me. In my mind..that means pain, not just "this is hard". She told me basically to ignore it unless there was a second piece. Like... if he just put his tongue out... ignore and keep riding. If he put his tongue out but was also chomping... or also lame... or also quick and rushing... then that's the signal to back off. So we tried again and his tongue came out again and then he got quick and runny, so.. she heard me and we went back to walk. We gave him a minute to settle down and then we did the exercise at the walk. And he still got worried and his tongue came out. But then he settled down and we were able to accomplish the exercise at the walk. He was just very resistant to maintaining the left flexion. He was happy to swap the flexion and go back to the rail. He was not happy to move his shoulders right while keeping the left flexion. So.... that got me thinking... that was the problem in our shoulder in work too, just not as glaringly so. Is it his neck bothering him? I always thought it was worse on the right because that's where he snatches at, but... maybe he doesn't want to close the cervicals on the left side at his neck base... hence the resistance I felt today. Sigh... So.. now what???!! Oh, and... after we got it at the walk, we picked up the trot and went through it once. We got it, but.. he had multiple lame steps when I first picked him back up. Kelly saw it too. So... okay, but if it's his neck... why is he lame behind again? 

So... we had this amazing wonderful weekend... with an amazing lesson until the very end. And now I'm just... so confused. Do I need to inject his neck? Is that why his tongue is coming out? But why is he lame behind? We already injected his right stifle... is it his left stifle? His hocks? Is he just sore from the day before and the tongue is related to his neck? I feel like when his stifle bothers him... well, it has been his tongue. But usually he stops at the jumps before I noticed the tongue.. And most recently the tongue issue seemed to be related to his neck. ARGH!!!! Maybe I just need to not ask him for that level of collection? Maybe this is his "stop point". He cannot do that level. So far, everytime we get here... we get the tongue. Sadness. Because he's brilliant at it. Well.. I think he's brilliant at it. Sigh... I don't know what to do . I don't know if I should inject his neck and see what we've got. If I should get him worked up again... by another vet? Dr. Barrow? Dr Kate again? Keelin again? Should I just.. back off and accept it. Sigh.. and now... we were planning to do training at Stableview again in two weekends. Now I'm not sure.  Poor Dan. He tries so hard! And he was trying.. he just panicked...  Kelly suggested I inject his neck and see what happens. And I'm guessing that's what I'll do. It hasn't been a year, but I think 9 months. Only 3 months since the serapin, but...9 months since the biologics and steroids. 

After we did a quick trail ride. Just a quick one because Mike was waiting on me for lunch and I was hungry. Plus, we had done a short hack yesterday too. He felt good on the trails, but we only walked.