Cross Country Dreamin'

What Is that Blazing Yellow Thing In the Sky?

2012-02-05T16:40:00.000-08:00

Ah, sunshine. You do my heart good. You make getting out of bed in the morning so much more bearable.

What a weird week, weather wise. It's been sooooo unseasonably warm and dry. Each morning a brilliant sunrise with crystal blue skies greets me. The ponies have been going out all afternoon sans blankets. They say it's weird to be nekkid in February. Ari looks funny out there grazing in the sunshine with her trace clip.

The sun definitely helps my mood, but things in general have been looking up. I have been super busy the last week prepping for my daughter's 5th birthday party. We did a Tangled theme and it turned out fantastic. I found all kinds of cool ideas online and spent many, many hours making the decorations. My daughter loved it and enjoyed her party immensely, despite the horrendous cold and cough she developed a few days before.

I did manage to squeeze one ride in and I am so glad I did. It was probably THE BEST ride I've had with Ari to date. She was so incredibly soft, supple and OBEDIENT. What the what? I know...The pony face was incredibly compliant from start to finish. It was like riding a cloud. We were accomplishing things that were merely a distant dream last year, like shoulder in, haunches in, spiraling in and out, leg yielding and a few halfway decent walk/canter transitions. AND there was even a witness to this miraculous event. The young gal who helps train and exercise my neighbor's horses was there getting ready to work one of the stallions. When Ari and I finally came down from Cloud 9, she even commented on how good our ride was. Insert squeals of delight here!

I love my pony. I love my pony. I love my pony.

On the home front, the newly electrified paddock seems to be doing the trick. No new chewing on the posts. And the Irish Spring soap is keeping them off the grazing boxes. That stuff needs to come with a hazardous materials warning label!

I hope to squeeze in a few more rides this week and maybe a lesson on Friday because then I am heading to New York for a week! A good friend of mine owns a dog who qualified for the Westminster Dog Show so a couple of us are going as his fan club. I cannot tell you how excited I am for this trip. I have wanted to go this dog show ever since the first time I watched it on TV when I was like 7 years old. And being able to go with a great group of friends and cheer on a wonderful dog whom I love like he is my own makes it even more amazing. The dog show is only two days, but we are staying a full week to be able to fit in lots of sight seeing. It should be pretty funny seeing this little ol' country gal from the Northwest to hit the Big Apple. Talk about a country mouse in the city!

So this week will be a little crazing planning all the last minute details for the trip. I ordered a new compact digital camera yesterday because there was no way I was going to lug my big heavy old camera around. Plus camera technology has changed so much since we bought ours. I am super excited to try the new one out.

I also have to start writing detailed instructions for my husband on how to care for the horses, dogs, cats, sheep, chickens, hamster and fish. Poor guy gets to spend the week in my shoes. Ha ha! Maybe I'll get some appreciation when I get back. Nah. Probably not. I only hope the sheep doesn't decide to lamb while I am gone. Not that he can't handle it, but because I would be sad to miss it. I suspect she is getting close. She is bigger than ever and the bulk is definitely moving towards her rear. And her girl sheepie parts look swollen to me. Could be a sign of impending lambs!

Alcatraz

2012-01-25T19:47:00.000-08:00

Well, we now have a nicely electrified fence with two lines running across the top and lines running vertically on every pole in the paddock.

Try to chew that mother f-ers!

In all seriousness, I am extremely indebted to my sweet husband who braved the pouring rain and gusting winds all afternoon yesterday to move and reinstall the electric fence charger and then string all new wire. That meant pounding 3 brand new grounding rods and rigging up a way to keep the box itself dry. I did help him for several hours, but in truth, he did most of the work. I mostly tried to stay out of the way.

Then as if that wasn't enough, being the wuss that I am, I made him test the fence several times to ensure that it was in fact electrified.

Ah, the things we do for love.

So yes, the paddock somewhat resembles a prison yard, but it should curb their chewing. The next step will be to reconfigure the grazing boxes to retrofit them with chew strips all the way around. I am sure now that they can't access the fence, the ponies will focus all their destructive powers on the poor unsuspecting grazing boxes.

Maybe I can make my father-in-law some homemade cookies or a loaf of bread in exchange for his help!

Thank you dear for all your work. I couldn't have done it without you.

Should Have Taken the Ark

2012-01-24T13:55:00.000-08:00

Apparently driving your Civic Hybrid when the roads are flooded is a bad idea. The seals underneath your back seat may fail and you will end up with standing water and soaked foam. Sure fire combination for mold and mildew and a smell that just won't quit.

When we pulled up the seat cushion there were puddles under it and at least an inch of standing water in the trunk under the spare.

Last week when all the snow melted and we were hit with a monsoon, my husband drove our daughter to school. He said the roads were all under water but nothing really deep so he thought it was fine. Apparently it was not.

Now the car is dismantled and we have heaters going to try to dry everything out. Our warranty doesn't cover seals, so no help from the dealership.

Well, at least it wasn't a dead mouse somewhere in the car.

EDIT: husband now says on closer examination there is no evidence of water coming up from underneath so all we can figure is a water bottle fell over in the back seat and it spilled water down the crevice in the seat where the seatbelt comes through the cushion. Let's hope so!

From Bad to Worse

2012-01-23T09:06:00.000-08:00

First off, forgive me if this post is kinda whiny. OK. Not kinda. VERY whiny. I realize that I should be profoundly grateful for all I have: my health, my family, my family's health, my farm, my dogs, my ponies...yadda yadda yadda. And on a deeper level, I am. I realize how incredibly lucky I am. But for today I'm feeling incredibly frustrated and it's making me CRANKY.

My overwhelming bad mood started when I came down with YET ANOTHER cold, complete with totally stopped up nose, tender sinuses and very, very clogged ears. When people talked to me, it sounded like they were standing across the room. It was very distracting and made it hard to concentrate on what they were saying. I could seriously barely hear.

I swear my family has been sick every other week since my daughter started going to petrie dish, uh, pre-school. We have never been sick so much EVER. And we are really anal about hand washing. The moment we pick our daughter up from school, we are literally bathing her in hand sanitizer. Yet, we are constantly sick. My sister tells me it will get better in a few years. That my daughter's immune system will buck up and she'll stop bringing home every bug that she encounters at school. But for now, sheesh! It's enough to make me want to home school.

And was I able to lay on the couch and sniffle in misery? Nope. Had to work and then had a dog show this weekend. I don't get that many chances to go to shows that are close to home, so no way was I going to miss it. The first day our ring time wasn't until midday, so while I was exhausted and unmotivated, at least I could get up an a reasonable hour. The second day? Not so much. A 9:25 am ring time meant I was out of bed at 5 am washing the dog and dragging my ass to the expo center. And no, we didn't even win any points to make it worthwhile. Oh well. Such is the fickle nature of dogs shows.

Me and my girl, Summer, at the show. (I am the one on the left.) Photo taken by my good friend Carolyn.

As if slogging around with head cold induced haze isn't bad enough, the weather lately has been absolute hell. Last week we had a few days of wet, slushy snow. While north of us was getting snowed in, the weather just teased us all week.

Pissy mare on our one day of sort of snow.

Then the snow changed to rain and the flooding began. Thankfully we live on a hill, so no chance of our house flooding. But I was afraid the ponies were going to wash away. Their paddock had several inches of standing water all over it. The hogs fuel was no match for the non stop deluge. The mud started bubbling up all over the place. Now my once mud-free sacrifice paddock is a sloppy mess. There are islands where the hogs fuel was thicker and able to keep the mud down. But the majority of it is yucky and ankle deep. I'm beginning to think there is no such thing as a dry sacrifice paddock in the northwest. It doesn't help that the ponies have taken to galloping like mad from one end of the paddock to the other. Wheeling and turning like cutting horses, they are churning up the already messy footing into a veritable soup of wood chips, mud and manure. Thanks a lot ponies.

Also, my experimental plan of using the Quitt supplement to stop them from chewing? A complete and utter failure. Going to get my money back today. Not only did they not stop chewing, but now they are ripping down the hot wire and playing with it. This morning I found pieces of wire all over the paddock and Ari had a long strand of wire wrapped around her back foot. I nearly had a heart attack. After examining the ponies for injuries (none found, thank god) I removed all the wire. WTF ponies???? Chewing the wire? Seriously?

I called my husband at work and told him in no uncertain terms that we have to fix the electric fence charger NOW. NOW. NOW. NOW. Before my stupid ass ponies kill themselves. (Which, by the way, goes over like a lead balloon when I make calls like that to my husband while he's at work. It usually results in several hang ups...)

I am really at a loss as to what to do here. I can't feed them more because well, they are ponies, and more feed would result in excessive weight gain. I already use the slow feeder boxes. Which does slow them down, but I am already feeding them more than I really want to. I can't use crappier hay because I just can't risk giving it to Ari. I wondered if more exercise would help but it doesn't seem to matter. Days that I ride Ari, I see her chewing just as much as days I don't ride.

I could just say screw it and let them onto the pasture. I know this would solve the chewing problem. But that would only be exchanging one problem for another. Plus, all the hundreds of dollars we invested in fixing the pasture would be down the toilet.

If money were not an object, I would board them. It's what I've done for the last several winters. But right now, it's just not something we can afford. We have multiple expenses that we didn't have in years past so it's simply out of the question.

When my daughter goes to school full time, I will go back to work. Right now I only work enough to pay for my lessons and some of the horse care. I would work more but the problem is my husband's schedule is rotating so my days off are different each week. It's damn near impossible to find a job with that kind of flexibility. Never mind that I haven't had a "real" job in nearly 10 years and the job market is brutal right now.

I just wish there was a simple answer. I want my ponies to be happy and healthy. I try to keep them as natural as possible while balancing the fact that I have a very small farm. Cherry Hill, one of my favorite horse experts and author of Horse Keeping on a Small Acreage, makes it sound so easy. But she never addresses what to do when you have naughty ponies hell bent on destruction.

My husband told me to go pick up a new fence charger and a roll of heavier gauge wire today. We will attempt once again to set up an electric fence. That will help with the chewing as I know they respect the fence when it's hot. I have no idea why the fence stopped working in the first place. And our efforts to resurrect it so far have failed. So here's to hoping that the (10th) time is a charm?

Oh, and another thing that's making me cranky? My car smells like something died in it and I can't find the source of the smell for the life of me! I have emptied the car and checked every where but it still smells like sour milk. Worth crying over? Probably not. But it sure feels like the universe is out to get me!

OK. Enough whining for now. Time to get chores done and head to the farm store for fence supplies. Wish me luck!

Dam Beavers

2012-01-05T08:56:00.001-08:00

No, not the Oregon State Beavers, though speaking of which, GO DUCKS!

Anyway. No, the beavers I am referring to are my stupid ponies who have decided that wood is the tastiest thing in the world. They have been chewing every wood pole in the paddock as well as ripping the crap out of the tops of the slow grazing boxes.

GRRRRRR!

Not only are they destroying the paddock that my husband worked so hard to build (and royally pissing him off in the process) but constant wood chewing can prematurely wear their teeth down or worse, they could colic from ingesting splinters.

I understand that being dry lotted in the Pacific Northwest is no fun for them, but I am totally at a loss as to what else to do to get them to stop. I only have a very small acreage. Our pasture had to be completely tilled and replanted when we moved in a few years ago, so the roots are tenuous at best. Turn out in the wet weather is pretty much impossible, unless I want to throw away all the money we invested in fixing the pasture. Yes, it sucks for the ponies, but they would reduce what little grass is out there to a muddy mess in a matter of days. Which is bad in and of itself, but then we would be left with a dust bowl filled with weeds come summertime. Not good either.

The ponies started chewing their shelter a while back, so we installed anti-chew strips on all the exposed edges and added the slow grazers. That seemed to do the trick for a while. But then I discovered chew marks on one or two of the wooden posts. And then it turned into three or four. And now it's out of control.

I tried the anti-chew sprays that I found at Wilco. Yeah right. That was a total joke. I swear it made them chew faster. Almost like they were saying, "Oh thanks! This post needed a little seasoning."

Then I literally doused every post with the Halt Cribbing stuff upon my neighbor's recommendation. She has beautiful post and rail paddocks and her horses aren't chewing them at all! I asked her what her secret was and she told me to try this stuff.

Well, now their paddock smells like a toxic waste dump and all it did was barely slow them down. That stuff is so nasty and oily. I felt like I was painting the posts with gasoline. When I came inside my clothes reeked of this stuff. Two cycles through the washing machine and I can't get the smell out of my coat. I cannot believe they are STILL chewing. It's ridiculous.

I can't feed them more because I have to feed eastern Oregon hay due to the risk of possum feces in the local hay (number 1 source of EPM parasites). E. Oregon hay is much, much richer, which means the oinkers can't get fed a ton or they blimp out. That's why I was so pleased that the grazing boxes has slowed their hay intake to a trickle. It takes them 3 to 4 hours to eat a flake each. The problem is the time between breakfast and dinner and then the over night hours. I wake up each morning to find even more destruction has occurred.

I know they're bored. I ride Ari as much as I can and work the pony when I can fit him in. They have toys in their paddock.

I have read good things about Quitt, a supplement that is supposed to be guaranteed to stop wood chewing within a week. Of about 75 reviews on Smart Pak, it got a 4 star rating overall. But I think Quitt only works if horses are chewing wood due to a nutritional deficit. I would be very surprised if it works for my ponies, because I am 99.9% sure they are chewing due to boredom. But maybe not. Since it's guaranteed, I am going to check it out at the feed store today. If it's not too much of a pain in the ass to get my money back when it fails to work, I may give it a try.

(Tucker trying to look innocent....Although truthfully I think Ari is responsible for 90% of the damage...)

I'm really at a loss as to what to do here. We could try installing a hot wire running down every post to keep them away from the wood. But we have been having problems getting the fence charger to work for some reason. My husband has been trying to fix it off and on for months now. We have no idea why it's not working. It's still a possibility but not a fun one in any way, shape or form.

Short of putting a muzzle on Ari, I don't have an affordable or reasonable solution. I have already thrown away a lot of money of the stupid sprays and crib halt gunk. My poor grazing boxes aren't going to hold up much longer. I am going to have to ask my father-in-law to build me new tops for them. But we will have to redesign them with anti-chew strips all the way around and with the corner braces underneath the top boards and then add some metal diagonal strips to keep the grid from coming out. They might still chew a little on the spaces between the chew strips, but they won't be able to grab a hold and rip like they are now. I am worried Ari is going to pull one of the corner braces all the way off and then the screws will be exposed. Not good. Not good at all.

Oh, and I can't put any of the nasty tasting stuff, especially the Crib Halt on their grazing boxes because they are not for use anywhere the horse will be eating or drinking. I tried using soap on the boxes because I had read this is a great non-toxic alternative. Um, yeah. It deterred Ari for about half a day. Then I swear she licked all the soap off. Can you say pony stubbornness!?!

If anyone has suggestions of things that have worked for them, I'm all ears!

Mare-Y Christmas

2011-12-21T16:08:00.001-08:00

Construction Zone

2011-12-18T09:46:00.000-08:00

Well, as always, things with the mare are a work in progress. I am happy to report, though, that mostly we are making positive headway. We have good days and not-so-good days, but thankfully most of the bad days seem to be behind us.

My lesson last week wasn't the best. Compared to past lessons, it was still great, but it was a step backwards for sure. Warming up for the lesson, Ari was super relaxed. Walking on the buckle even next to the arena windows and the big scary End Door. For some reason all the horses, even my neighbor's horses who live there, are just sure that there are Big Scary Monsters lurking outside the far end door of the arena. It certainly doesn't help that the pasture right outside that door is heavily wooded and very shadowy. Ari and I have gone round and round about this door. So I was quite happy when she was willingly walking past this door with nary glance outside.

Then I stopped next to the in gate to take my jacket off. We were facing the scary end of the arena. Ari was just standing there with her hip cocked while I had a brief conversation with a gal who was scheduled to have a lesson after mine. Suddenly Ari's head flew up and I felt her whole body tense. She was staring intently at the woods outside the End Door. I followed her gaze and felt my own heart jump a little when I also spotted the man walking between the trees. I don't know who he was or why he was out there, but there was most definitely a large man lurking about in the shadows.

I tried to reassure the mare that it was ok and it was just a person, but she was having none of that nonsense. Her whole body was shaking and she kept snorting loudly as if to say, "See! I told you there were Boogie Men out there!!!"

I tried to work her through it, but things were pretty much over at that point. Ari spent our entire lesson distracted, spooky and tense. She was actually quite hot and over-reactive, which is very unlike her. Using my whip or spurs resulted in her throwing tantrums. At one point she bolted away from the End Door. It was very frustrating to say the least.

The only good that came out of it, was that instead of being afraid, it only made me pissed off that Ari was acting like an idiot. Which is a big change from a year ago. And the few moments that I got her attention, she had LOTS of energy and was really in front of my leg, which was kind of fun.

I also learned that I need to retrain my reaction to her when she acts up. I automatically raise my hands in a defensive position when she spooks and this is completely useless. When Ari is misbehaving, she likes to raise her head really high, shorten her neck and brace. I have absolutely no control when she is like that and raising my hands only compounds the problem. Instead I need to learn to lower my hands and ask her to bend or circle. Low low low is our goal. Low=relaxation for the pony. It's so hard though because it's an ingrained response on my part. But now that I am more aware of it, I can work on it.

After the lesson on Tuesday, mare-face got a few days off and then on Friday we went for a nice long hack. However, I would not categorize our ride as relaxing. But the pony was good and we were able to face some challenges successfully that would have been out of the question a year ago.

Right off the bat, as soon as we crested the first hill leading away from home, we got passed by a giant propane truck. Ari raised her head and tensed a little as the truck rumbled past, but was otherwise good.

Then we had to pass a herd of goats being pastured right next to the road. We have seen the goats before and while Ari always snorts at them suspiciously, she wasn't too horribly concerned about them. That is until a rogue goat that had apparently escaped the fence burst out of the bushes right behind us. Ari jumped, as was to be expected, but stayed calm and didn't do anything stupid.

Then we heard the sounds of large equipment and chainsaws. Ari flinched a little as we approached but stayed calm. Soon enough I saw the source of all the noise: the power company was trimming trees right along the road. They had a man up in a bucket cutting the branches away from the power lines. There was a crew of guys cutting the branches up and sending them through a chipper. Uh-huh. I almost turned around at this point, but decided to give it a try. Luckily, they stopped running the chipper as we approached. Ari was definitely nervous, but she wasn't refusing my cues to keep moving forward. We nearly made it past the work crew with no issues when Ari spotted the giant orange road work sign. Then she skittered sideways and snorted loudly. Oh brother mare! Really? The stationary construction sign is the scariest part of this scenario?

What a silly girl, but I was proud of her anyway. I hoped at this point that the rest of the ride would be more relaxing, but nope. Just around the bend and at the top of the next hill, we encountered a large herd of deer grazing. But it wasn't the deer that made Ari nervous, it was the beat up pick up truck on the side of the road right across from the deer. As we approached I could see that there was a guy in camo with a baseball cap pulled low over his eyes sitting in the truck with his window partially lowered. I thought I could see something sticking out of the truck window. Oh great. Is this guy illegally hunting in our neighborhood? Fearing getting shot or at the very least having him shoot a deer with us 20 feet away, I started yelling "Hello! Hi there!" at the top of my lungs. As we rode past, Ari snorted suspiciously at the truck. The guy eyeballed us from under his hat, but didn't say anything. I just gave him a cheerful wave. I never really saw a gun clearly, so decided not to report him. But it sure was a strange situation!

The rest of the ride did go pretty uneventfully. On the way back, the power company crew was still working. And once again Ari was really sure that construction sign was going to eat her. So I dismounted and led her up to it to allow her to check it out. She was really, really nervous, but not once did she refuse anything I asked of her. What a good girl! I am so happy with the level of trust that has developed between the pony and I.

Thankfully, we were then able to ride the rest of the way home on the buckle. It's funny how we ride the same stretch of neighborhood nearly every week, but each ride is different and full of challenges. And I am happy to say that we are able to meet these challenges without too much difficulty.

I probably won't have another lesson again until January, but in the meantime I hope to get a lot of riding in.

Hope you all have a merry holiday season. See you in the new year!

An Early Christmas Present

2011-12-07T16:58:00.000-08:00

Santa brought me an early present this year: my new clippers. I scored them on ebay for less than half price. They are brand new. The only thing wrong with them is that one of the clasps on the storage container they come in is broken. But it doesn't matter because the other one holds it closed just fine! Yes!

So this is what happens when you let me loose on a hairy pony with new powerful clippers:

I call it a modified dressage trace clip. I always end up clipping her each year. She just gets too darn hairy and then is soaking wet after every ride. I normally just do a trace clip and this is fine with just occasional riding. But this winter we are training harder than ever, so a more drastic approach was needed. However, I have to balance the fact that Ari lives outside 24/7. I have a heavy quilted stable blanket as well as a medium weight waterproof turn out. I know she'll be warm enough, but I hated to take all her natural protection away. So she ended up with combination trace and hunter clip. I kinda like it.

No laughing at the crooked lines. It's darn hard to get straight lines on a live animals with very long hair! It probably would have been easier to do this earlier in the year when her hair wasn't so long, but my old clippers died and I needed to find just the right deal on a new one.

With her saddle on, I think it looks pretty sporty! Ari was really good for her haircut. It actually took me 3 days to finish it. The first two days I ran out of daylight and time. Then today I did all the detail work, smoothed everything out and tried to get all the edges straight.

I took the hair off pretty short, but I figured the Pony will have it all grown back in record time. Those darn Welshies grow truly epic winter coats...

My daughter letting Ari graze for a bit after I was done. The mare likes the Small Human. She always has a treat handy. It's just a matter of time before my daughter steals Ari away from me.

P.S. even though the temps were below freezing, I checked on the mare before bed and she was toasty warm underneath her quilted stable blanket and medium weight turn out.

Perspective

2011-11-24T22:04:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Today was a quiet day here on the farm. My husband had to work today. One of the hazards of being married to a firefighter. So my daughter and I pretty much just stuck close to home and hunkered down against the nasty wind and rains. We made ourselves a plate of munchies and watched movies all day. Then I made turkey and dumplings for dinner. Yum!

Things have been going very well with the mare lately. Our last lesson was not quite as mind blowing, but I came away with a much clearer idea of what I need to do with Ari to get here where we want her to be, both physically and mentally. It's been a bit tough with all the bad weather lately to fit in rides, but I have managed a few. Some were good and some were not-so-good. My ride yesterday was really, really fantastic start to finish, so I can tell my perseverance is paying off. Ari was soft and flexible and really giving from her poll to her tail right from the get go. Good mare!

Since my husband and I only own a small acreage and are a single income family, we keep our horses on a bare bones type set up. This means I do not have an arena to train in. Luckily, about 6 months before we bought our place, a horse enthusiast with a much larger bank account than ourselves, moved in across the way. She bought her 5 acres with a dream of turning it into a premiere dressage facility. Not long after we moved in, my neighbor started construction on a large barn/arena. As soon as we realized that's what was being built, I immediately headed over to introduce myself and offer a plate of homemade cookies. We hit it off immediately and while we live in two completely different worlds, my neighbor and I have become pretty good friends.

So I have been lucky enough to have use of a beautiful indoor arena for the last couple of years. I have always paid my neighbor to help cover the cost of utilities and general wear and tear on the arena. I feel it's the least I can do. And it's still cheaper than boarding and it allows me to keep my mare at home.

This year, however, my neighbor and I have set up something a little different. Instead of paying her, I am helping my neighbor train her new 3 year old filly. She recently purchased this lovely 3/4 Friesian named Arabella.

(Isn't she a doll?)

The only training she had had was halter breaking and picking up her feet. My neighbor decided she just had to have this lovely young prospect, but then realized that she has neither the time nor the knowledge to work with such a greenie. So she asked me if I would help in exchange for using her arena. I agreed and have been working with Bella a few times a week. Turns out, she is a smart little filly and is eager to learn. And it turns out I know a lot more about working with youngsters than I realized.

I don't subscribe to any one particular trainer or method. I think each horse is an individual and therefore requires an individualized approach. But I do use methods that are based on natural horsemanship, basic horse body language and establishing a respectful relationship between horse and handler.

So it's been a very interesting contrast to work with a youngster and then go back and ride Ari. It has, in many ways, given me a new found confidence. When my neighbor and I work with the filly, I find myself suddenly in the teacher role. I am the one calling the shots and it's more than a little weird. I don't consider myself a horse trainer. Sure, I have trained all my own horses to a degree. I even had a 4 year old at one time whom I started under saddle. Sadly, I lost that gelding to colic just after getting on him for the first time.

I have even helped out a few other people with their horses from time to time, but I would not categorize myself as a trainer in the traditional sense of the word. And yet, here I am training this young filly and I must say, doing a darn good job at it! So good, in fact, that my neighbor has offered to pay me to come over once a week and work her Andalusian gelding. The poor guy has stifle and hock issues, so cannot be ridden much. But he needs to be kept in some kind of work so he doesn't lose topline muscle. So my neighbor asked if I would be willing to work him in long lines. I was a bit shocked that she asked me, but am glad to help and am glad for the extra bit of money. It will help off set the cost of my lessons.

So now I find myself at the barn quite a bit. And it's fun. I am really enjoying working with the filly. We just started her on ground driving and long lining. It won't take long at all to have her ready to back. The feelings of success I get from working with Arabella make me even more excited to breed my own youngster. I can't wait to have my own foal to start. Something that I can take full credit for, good or bad.

All this time around other horses has definitely given me some much needed perspective. It makes me appreciate Ari and all she gives to me. And all she has taught me. And it makes me love her even more. She may be a royal pain in the butt at times, but she's a very good mare. And best of all, she's all mine.

I guess you could say I am very thankful to have her in my life.

And for your random viewing pleasure, I have included a pic of my neighbor's new Andalusian stallion, Agosto. Isn't he dreamy? I had never seen a black Andalusian before. He has the sweetest temperament too. Very easy going, yet VERY forward under saddle. He definitely has FEI potential.

Remember that part above where I mentioned that my neighbor and I live in two very different worlds? She paid close to $30,000 for this stallion. GULP. I cannot fathom spending that kind of money for a horse. But he will likely take her to the top levels in dressage. He's really that nice.

Warning: Slow Grazing Ahead

2011-11-12T08:35:00.000-08:00

Here in the Pacific Northwest, keeping horses on a small acreage makes dry lotting the ponies a necessary evil. (Unless you want your pastures to get torn up and grazed down to nothing.) We choose to not stall our ponies and instead let them live in a large turn out with a shelter. We have laid down several thick layers of hogs fuel over the last several years to prevent the turn out from being muddy. Unfortunately the mud here is tenacious and likes to work its way up through the footing, despite our best efforts. It's an on going battle. I abhor mud and muddy ponies.

Another battle we fight a lot around here is the battle of the bulge. Keeping two Welsh ponies fit and trim while on dry lot is a challenge, to say the least. I am riding Ari as often as I can and right now she is looking pretty good. All our hacking over hilly terrain is keeping her waist line in check. My daughter's pony, Tucker, is almost always a round little thing, but I never let him get unhealthy. I only feed grass hay and almost no grain. Just a small handful for each pony in the evening. Mainly just to mix any vitamins or supplements in.

But sadly, the ponies are pretty limited on the amount of hay they get daily due to their easy keeper natures. This has led to quite a bit of boredom. I try to let them out to pasture for part of the day, any day it's not pouring rain, but the ponies were still finding ways to entertain themselves that were not making my husband happy. (Like chewing up the shelter that he worked so hard to build!) So we had to install chew strips on all the exposed wooden surfaces. This curbed the chewing, but I could tell the ponies were still going a little stir crazy.

Then I remembered something I saw on another horse blog a while back. (Maybe Pia's Parade?) Hay feeders that were designed to allow the horse to only get a mouthful at a time. Having tried hay bags in the past with unsatisfactory results, I was searching for something that would be easy to use, allow a natural head-down grazing position and would be pony-proof. I did some googling and came across the Slow Grazers made by a company in Washington. I liked their design but when I contacted them, it quickly became apparent that the cost of these boxes (and the cost of shipping them) would be way more than we can afford on our meager horse budget.

So instead I sent the website for the Slow Grazers to my ever-handy father-in-law and begged and pleaded for him to design a similar box for my ponies. Being the super resourceful guy that he is, he was able to scrounge most of the wood from the local construction scrap piles and build me two beautiful grazing boxes. The only real cost was a few pieces of lumber for the lids, the hinges and the two grates.

Then I got an amazing email from my father-in-law telling me that the new grazing boxes are my birthday present. Yippee! I am so thankful for my in-laws. They are amazing people and I am so glad to have them in my life.

Two days ago, we had an unusually sunny and warm day, so my in-laws made the hour drive to come visit and brought the boxes with them. I couldn't wait to try them out on the ponies.

Getting the boxes ready.

Ari was immediately intrigued by whatever it was they were wheeling over to the paddock. She's such a nosy pony!

Ari checking the box out.

"Hey! There's hay in here!"

Tucker says, "Hey! There's hay in this one too!"

Nom nom nom.

Close up view on the interior of the box. The grate is heavy duty powder coated metal with no exposed edges. It free floats in the box on top of the hay. The ponies can only get a small mouthful at a time. As they eat the hay down, the grate follows the hay down to the bottom. The lid has an over hanging edge so they can't just grab the grate and pull it out.

Very content ponies.

My father-in-law did a fantastic job of building the grazing boxes. So far they are working great. I have noticed a few experimental chew marks on the boxes, so will have to try some anti-chew spray or crib halt or something. I will not be happy if the ponies chew these up.

Better and Better

2011-11-06T08:37:00.000-08:00

The title of this post says it all. Things with Ari just keep getting better. Of course, that makes me incredibly paranoid. I can't help but feel like the other shoe is hanging over my head, ready to drop at a moments notice. My husband shakes his head at me when I tell him this. And he's probably right. But it's just that for the first time in a very long time, I'm having so much fun with my mare.

We had another lesson last Tuesday. It went even better than the first one. Ari was amazing and felt so good. And so fun to ride. Was she perfect? Far from it. But I'm no longer afraid if she acts a little silly. And she's been really willing to go back to work. The week leading up to the lesson we had several phenomenal rides. Lightness like I've never felt before. Our transitions, both up and down, have been getting smoother and smoother. Our contact is getting steadier and more consistent with each ride.

I finished our lesson on Tuesday thinking, "Oh! So this is why people ride dressage!" Sounds silly, but prior to this, I thought dressage was just lots and lots of hard work with little reward. Not that it's not still hard work, but when you start seeing results, it just makes you want to work that much harder!

Then on Friday we went for a long hack. The wineries seem to be mostly done with all the harvesting and so it was much quieter than the last few trail rides. I got a set of Easyboot Epics for Ari's back feet, so we can now boot up all four feet. I had been using just fronts, but they put new gravel on our road a while back and it's very sharp. Ari was having a lot of trouble with ouchiness. The first few steps with the new back boots on were comical. I wish I had had my camera with me. The high stepping was impressive. Luckily, she's a sensible girl, and within a few minutes she was used to the feeling of them.

As we headed down the road, I could tell she had realized that her back feet no longer hurt, because there was a spring in her step that I have never felt before. Her walk was super swingy and long reaching. We did lots of trotting up and down hills. She felt super balanced and strong. We cantered up some of the longer, straighter hills and she felt amazing. I actually laughed out loud. This is what horse ownership is all about! Crisp fall leaves crunching under her hooves as we rhythmically galloped along, perfectly in balance, and feeling like one. I smiled all afternoon after that ride.

I am so lucky to have Ari in my life. She is definitely my once-in-million-years horse.

On another note, I came across this mare on Dreamhorse the other day. If anyone is looking for a beautiful Section D Welsh Cob mare, she looks to be a diamond in the rough.

Her sire is a half brother to my Ari. She has great bloodlines.

She is 8 years old, but was only recently started under saddle. She is supposed to be doing very well and is already doing w/t/c with a great whoa. She's already got trail experience and seems to be very sensible. And she's very reasonably priced too. (Although I just looked her ad again and they increased her price...) I wish I had room for another horse. But then again, this mare probably deserves to be someone's one and only.

How cute is she? I am sure someone will snatch this mare up soon. Ah, to be rich and have unlimited time and resources!

Lesson Recap and The Cold and Flu Season

2011-10-22T08:54:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my daughter starting pre-school a few weeks ago, I have been dodging colds and viruses left and right. I think I liked it better when she didn't have so much contact with the outside world. I think other people are woefully lax about washing their hands and such...it makes me shudder. But I digress.

Tuesday morning I woke up with a horrible sore throat. Oh yay. Lucky me. Despite masses amount of vitamin c, zinc and echinacea, I still got sick. And of course, it hit me on the day of my first lesson in nearly a year. I thought about trying to reschedule for about half a nano second but a quick glance at the calendar revealed I would have to wait another two weeks to fit one in. Guess I was just gonna have to buckle down and power through. Ugh.

The lesson itself went better than I could have ever hoped for. The mare behaved beautifully. My instructor was really good about listening to me explain all the work I have been doing with her the last year and then was able to really build on it. That's what I love about this instructor. He doesn't just have some idea in his head of "this is how the lesson is going to go". Instead he is flexible and really tailors your work to you and your horse. I thought he might "poo-poo" the Clinton Anderson style work I've been using with Ari. But he did quite the opposite. He simply stated, "The modern world calls that 'Natural Horsemanship.' I just call it "horsemanship.'" He went onto explain to me that many classical dressage trainers through out history have used these same basic principles. And then he expanded on how I can incorporate this work into my riding even more. So cool!

He also noted that Ari seemed very different. He noted that her topline and neck were changed. (Thank you hill work!) He also said one of the biggest changes was that I seemed to have "unlocked her mind" as well. Yay! So nice to have someone else confirm that what you have been doing with your horse is the correct path. He commended me for all my hard work (and for not giving up) which made me feel so good.

We didn't really work on anything extraordinary, but the work we did felt so much easier than the last time I took a lesson. Sure, I am out of shape and my cold left me gasping for air at times. But the biggest difference was the lack of resistance from the mare. She was lighter on the bit than she's pretty much ever been. She was responsive to my leg aids. (What a concept! I know...) All in all one of the most positive lessons ever.

After the lesson, I went home and pretty much collapsed. My cold has been kicking my ass all week. Today is the first day I even feel halfway human. I did take Ari for a trail ride on Thursday, but my husband went with me pushing my daughter in the stroller, so Ari was on auto pilot and I just sat there like a lump. It's so funny the way she just falls in line behind my husband and lets him be the "lead horse." She walked the whole way with her nose practically on the ground. Silly mare!

Hopefully I will get over the rest of this cold quickly so I can get back into the arena and continue working on the things we learned in our lesson. We did have several "light bulb" type moments and I want to try to recapture those as soon as possible.

Lessons Again!

2011-10-18T09:01:00.001-07:00

Living smack dab in the middle of wine country can make life very noisy this time of year. We literally have vineyards on all sides of us for miles and they all have their cannons going off 24/7 right now. Yesterday was a beautiful day today so Ari and I put on our brave faces and headed out for a hack. The mare did great. Flinchy and a little jumpy when a cannon went off right next to us, but otherwise she kept her head. I'm so proud of how much she and I trust each other these days. Sooo different from years past.

Later we took Isabel for a short ride on her pony. His only reaction to the loud explosions was to stop and raise his head and look around. Goooood pony!

If they ever need horses for a Civil War re-enactment near us, we're ready!

In other news: I have my first lesson in nearly a year today! (Insert squeals of excitement and nerves here.) I did go and meet the eventing instructor at Pumpkin Ridge Equestrian Center and she was very nice and so was the facility, but my husband and I decided that it was just too far to drive on a regular basis. I looked into a few other instructors and then my neighbor mentioned that her dressage trainer, whom I trained with in the past, was looking to add a couple more students to his schedule.

I really liked working with him before and the idea of not having to haul to lessons was very appealing. I had hoped to find a trainer who could teach jumping lessons too, but that's ok as more dressage will only make the mare and I a better team in the long run. So wish us luck. We had a fantastic dressage school last week. Our first time doing arena work since spring. I think a summer of being a trail horse has left both of us feeling refreshed and ready to buckle down this winter. I hope today's ride is as good!

It's a beautiful day out today. My favorite kind of fall day. Clear, somewhat crisp, with crunchy leaves underfoot. I think I'll go enjoy it now!

Getting Back on the Horse

2011-09-24T08:20:00.001-07:00

I wanna do this again...

I haven't jumped Ari in about 18 months. The last time we went over anything was at the ill-fated Combined Test at Lake Oswego Hunt right before Ari got sick. We went into stadium in first place after dressage and completely blew it. Ari refused the first fence twice and then on the third attempt took a really long distance and did a weird sort of four-footed deer hop which threw me onto her neck and then into the dirt when she bolted. I wasn't hurt, but I was shaken and scared and decided that keeping four on the floor might be more my style. And then Ari got sick and jumping became the furthest thing from my mind. Just keeping her alive was my new focus.

So now it's been a year and a half. Ari made a miraculous recovery and we started riding again. Only Ari's spookiness reached an all time high. Which resulted me falling off her several times in the span of a few weeks, including one time where she bolted/bucked all over the arena until I came off her. Consequently my fear of riding also reached an all time high. I even listed her for sale at one point, but then realized after all the blood, sweat, tears (and dollars) I put into saving her life, I could never ever let her go.

So on my ever-wise husband's suggestion, I spent all last winter revisiting Groundwork 101 with Ari. We needed to make some major adjustments in our relationship. And so adjust we did. And work. And sweat. And cry. And then we had some major break throughs. Slowly I started riding her again. And trusting her again. And she began to trust me. Ari now views me as her leader, not just the giver of food and treats.

We spend this summer just hitting the trails -- something we had never been able to do before. I learned that my mare could be pretty rock steady, even outside the arena walls. I learned to ride on the buckle and not take a death grip on her face, just because she raises her head and pricks her ears. We both learned to enjoy riding again.

But now the old itch to jump is back and trail riding just isn't scratching it. More than that, as I read others blogs about eventing, the long time dream of completing a horse trial keeps bubbling back up.

So what to do? I know I need help to achieve this goal. I need someone to help me regain my confidence when jumping. So I went onto the Flying Changes magazine's online directory and found a USEF certified instructor who teaches at a beautiful barn only about 25 miles from me! I contacted her and we chatted for quite a while on the phone. She does allow haul-ins and her fees are very reasonable. I am going to watch her teach a lesson or two on Tues.

I am so very excited. Not really sure how I plan to pay for lessons, but hopefully I can earn enough at my part time job to pay for a couple a month. I had sold my horse trailer and found a killer deal on a smaller, but immaculately clean one, but all the extra money from the sale had to go toward buying this winter's hay. Stupid hay farmers. The prices this year were absolutely ridiculous. But oh well. The ponies gotta eat. And I refuse to feed crappy local hay. I just won't risk it after everything we went through with Ari. So nothing but the best (and the most possum poop free) for my Mareface.

Here and here are links to the barn and trainer I am going to see next week. Hopefully I will be starting lessons soon and be back to doing this:

Isn't she so cute when she jumps? I do love my pony. I feel very lucky to have her in my life.

Pool Noodles of Death

2011-09-20T15:50:00.000-07:00

Pretty menacing, aren't they? Well, if you ask Ari, they eat horses. She is just sure of it.

I have blogged in a while because, frankly, there hasn't been much blog-worthy going-ons lately. The weather was really, really hot. Then it was cold and rainy. Now we are back to hot again. It makes finding time and motivation to ride difficult. We have still been hitting the trails occasionally and Ari is still being a rock star.

Yesterday, my husband was at work, so riding was out unless I wanted to saddle up my daughter's pony and take her along. I didn't have quite that much motivation, so instead I decided to make it a spa day followed by brushing up on ground work for all the ponies. We started with Tucker and he did great with everything. He is such an awesome pony. I wish Ari had half as much sense as he does. Case in point (and the subject of this post): pool noodles.

While I was lunging Tucker, my daughter started playing with some pool noodles she found in the shop. (Yes, in case you are wondering, we do have a pool. But it is currently drained and waiting for us to win the lottery so we can replace the torn liner.) Seeing a training opportunity, I asked Isabel to bring the noodles over by her pony. Tucker eyeballed them for about half a second and then sighed and licked his lips. Then we proceeded to torture, I mean, train the pony by having my daughter lead Tucker over the noodles. He stepped all over them and could have cared less about them. He is so sensible that way.

After we were done with the pony, it was Ari's turn. After a thorough grooming, bridle path trimming, whisker/beard shave, and tail conditioning, I decided to see what she would do with the pool noodles. Needless to say, she acted like a complete idiot compared to Tucker.

I picked up a noodle and before I even touched her with it, she bolted, hit the end of the rope, tried to run in a circle around me and then slipped in the grass and fell almost completely on her side. I nearly had a heart attack. I did not expect her to react so violently. After checking her whole body for injuries and then re-checking her legs about 20 times for heat or swelling, we moved off the grass and tried again. This time when I picked up the noodle, I was ready for her reaction.

A quick correction with the lead rope, stopped her from bolting, but she did circle around and around me with the whites of her eyes showing. She was shaking from head to tail and blowing like a steam engine. I just kept rubbing the noodle along her side and moving with her until she finally stopped her feet. Every time she stood still, I gave her a break. When she accepted the noodle on one part of her body, I moved to a different part until she accepted that. It took a good 20 to 30 minutes to get her to relax. I also desensitized her to the noodle waving around her, but not touching her.

I was pretty surprised by her reaction, so I decided to test her with a few other "scary" objects to gauge her reaction. True to form, things that normally scare the daylights out of horses, didn't bother her in the least. Tarp? Not scary. Even when I draped it over her head. Plastic bag on the end of a whip? No reaction. Whipping the bag over and under her head? Ho hum.

So maybe she's not as silly as she seems. Or maybe one of her previous owners already worked with her on those things? Probably. Guess I need to spend more time thinking of unusual objects to desensitize her to. Cuz it's fun to scare the crap out of your horse, dontcha know? And you never know when a rogue pack of pool noodles might jump out at you on the trail!

"Nom nom nom. Pool noodles make me hungry."

Trail Pony

2011-08-15T09:06:00.000-07:00

Well, it's looking like Ari will not get bred this year. I finally got video of Edmund, the buckskin stallion in the post below, and to be perfectly honest, his movement was only so-so. Good for a cob, but hard to judge because it seemed to me he was moving in a very guarded fashion. Tail clamped, not stepping under himself, as if he was uncomfortable. Not sure if it's a tack fit issue or chiropractic or what. I am going to ask the owner to take some new video of him so I can re assess his movement. Either way, I am not going to make a snap decision at this point.

This makes me very sad and still somewhat angry that I will now have to wait two years before I will have a foal, but I guess such is life. Patience is definitely not my strong suit though. Sigh.

In the meantime, I will keep shopping around for other stallions. I am not having any luck with Section D cobs. There just aren't that many around. And Ari is closely related to half of them. I am kicking around the idea of a Section C cob. I think breeding a super sporty dressage pony would be fun. I am also ruminating on the idea of breeding her to something warmblood-y. Or a TB. I have seen some really, really cute Welsh/TB crosses. However, there are not many dressage Thoroughbred stallions out there.

The upside is I get to keep riding my mare. And she has continued to be awesome. Probably because we have been doing nothing but hack out. I just can't seem to scrounge up enough motivation to put on breeches and ride in circles in a dusty arena. Ari doesn't seem to mind in the least. When we head out on the trail she is perfectly content to put her head down and go right into "trail pony mode." It's been a really nice change. Especially because she had such limited trail experience when I bought her and previously our trail rides were not nearly as relaxing.

Yesterday my neighbor and I went out for a hack. She rode her 13 year old dressage Andalusian gelding (former stallion.) My husband led the child on her pony behind us. We went about 6 miles total. Ari was perfect the entire ride. My neighbor's gelding was prancy, hot and generally agitated almost the entire ride. It made me appreciate my mare's new found steadiness.

At one point in the ride we came across a flock of giant white geese. My neighbor's gelding just about lost it completely. He flew backwards and was rearing. Ari went on high alert and looked very hard at the geese. She stopped but there was no spooking or carrying on. With only a little prodding from me, she walked calmly past the geese. She watched them the entire time, but kept her head. I was very proud of her. I guess I have myself a good little trail pony for the time being.

Moving Forward

2011-07-31T16:43:00.000-07:00

I have done a lot of thinking about my next move with my mare and have decided to give breeding her this season one last try. If she doesn't settle, then we will try again next spring.

Unfortunately, I will not be breeding her to my original choice of studs. We decided after two dead shipments and one only yielding 20% motility, it was time to cut our losses. Sadly, it got pretty ugly in the end. I ended up having to speak to a lawyer about my rights in this situation. Supposedly a full refund of my stud fee is in the mail. I hate that it came to this, but what was I supposed to do? I am out a lot of money in vet costs at this point. I considered briefly going after the stallion owner for those as well, but decided a full refund was good enough. I want to be done with it and be able to move on.

So, speaking of moving on, here is Ari's new baby daddy:

Introducing Cairngan St. Edmund, LOM (*Scole Flying Scotsman x Cairngan Eluned)

He is a 1996 dun Section D Welsh Cob stallion. To quote from Ed's owner's website, "Ed really has done it all! A multi-supreme champion in-hand, he's also proven he's more than just a "pretty face". Ed has too many ribbons to count and too many championships to list. Ed literally has a blue ribbon in nearly every discipline offered. On the welsh circuit, he's successfully competed in hunters, ridden cob, english, western, driving

, carriage, and trail. What's more is he and I have competed in a national show in all three regions (eastern, central, and western). To my knowledge, he's the only welsh to have done that with one owner in all three regions. He has literally been all over the nation competing in California, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Arizona, Oklahoma, and Ohio...not to mention traveling through all the states in-between.

But it doesn't stop there. Ed is also a very successful combined driving pony with wins all the way up to the advanced level. He is a showcase for the versatility of a welsh cob and a true ambassador for his breed."

I am very excited about breeding Ari to Ed. Plus, being in California, he's much closer to us. Shipping should be no problem being on the same coast and all.

He has many foals who are beautiful solid citizens competing successfully in riding and driving.

For example, here is Larken Aldrydd, a Section D Gelding owned by Deb Hilberg of Sand Hill Welsh.

Or this guy:

Windridge BedazzEd (Cairngan St. Edmund x Windridge Razzle Dazzle), a bay Section C gelding out of a Section A mare.

Ed has 2858 Lifetime Award points with the Welsh Pony and Cob Society, which easily puts him in the top 20, possibly the top 10, of all registered Welsh Ponies competing at recognized shows of any size. (I didn't actually count, but scrolling through the list, he was head and shoulders above most.)

Plus, the best part is Ed's owner, who will be collecting and shipping him, has a MASTERS in Equine Reproduction. The vets in his area often refer stallion owners to him for help. He also uses the highest quality semen extender on the market. It costs him a bit more, but he feels it really yields the best results. Ed has a proven 75% or better motility when chilled and shipped.

So we should be ahead of the game already. I know it's pretty late in the breeding season, but where we live, May-July is the ideal time to have a foal. So if we can get Ari pregnant on her next cycle in a few weeks, we will have a July baby. I don't want to go any later so as I said, if she doesn't take this time, we have to wait for next year. Which will bum me out to no end.

But hey, in the meantime I am enjoying riding my mare again. We went for another awesome 4 mile hack again this morning. Mare-face was really good. We are going to work towards ponying the pony. And then ponying the child. And eventually having the child ride with me on her pony. Should be a blast!

Stallions, Home and Brains?

2011-07-27T18:58:00.000-07:00

Odd title, I know. But it about sums up the last few weeks.

Ari is not pregnant. We found out that the third shipment only had about 20% motility. Not good news. Helluva lot better than the first two shipments, but pretty poor as far as typical cooled shipped semen goes.

Sigh.

Upon my vet's advice, I am asking for a refund of my stud fee and will no longer pursue breeding her to this particular stallion. I have been looking at one or two others and have been in contact with their owners, but it's getting pretty late in the year. If we have a summer like this one, where the weather is mild, I am ok with a July foal. But what if it's 100+ degrees? It could make things hairy with a newborn foal. But then again, I REALLY don't want to wait another year. So not entirely sure what my next step is.

Also, I have not heard back about my stud fee. I have sent several messages and made sure I was very polite in asking for a refund, but still no contact from the stallion owner. I'm really starting to get pissed.

In other news, the mare came home on Monday. We got the fence finished and decided there was no point in waiting to bring her home. I went by myself to get her and she loaded like a champ. Unusual, because it almost always takes a second person to encourage her to step into the trailer.

Yay for a couple of hours a day on pasture.

When we got home, I expected more stress on Ari's part, but she has transitioned seamlessly into our little herd. She clearly remembers being here and she already knows Patches. I let the ponies spend the day in the pasture while Ari was in the adjoining paddock. She and Tucker met through the fence. A few half-hearted squeals on Ari's part and they were good to go. I think she is just so grateful to have friends again. She has been by herself in the dry lot at the barn for months.

The only interesting thing that happened when I let them in together was Ari immediately started squatting, dripping, flagging, etc. Both boys got, ahem, excited and were glued to her rear end. It was totally disgusting. I had to send my daughter into the house to watch TV, before she started asking too many questions. I really didn't want to have to explain the birds and the bees to a four year old!

So I guess she was in heat. Interesting as it has been 4 weeks since the AI. Up to now she has been cycling every 3 weeks. But now that spring's over, I guess it makes sense. At least I know she's on some sort of schedule.

The boys.

Since Ari was settling in so quickly and easily, I decided to take her for a hack up our road. I was curious if her newly laid back attitude would carry over into our riding. When we thought Ari was pregnant, I thought it was hormones making her so nonchalant about everything. Now that I know she's not, I'm really not sure who horse-napped my mare and replaced her with something with a BRAIN. Gasp! She was good on our ride. Like, scary good. We rode for nearly 4 miles, 90% on the buckle. She acted like she's been a trail horse her whole life.

Ohhhhh-kaaaay. Our previous trail rides were nothing like this. Not that I'm complaining or anything. It's just all very strange. And it makes me worry that something is wrong. How's that for neurotic?

Even while grazing or napping or just hanging out with her new pony buddies. Ari is just being so mellow. It's all very head-scratch inducing.

Oh well. I guess I should quit worrying and enjoy my new riding partner. When and if i decide to breed her again this year, I'll definitely post pics of the new baby daddy. Talk about a frustrating emotional roller coaster. UGH.

"Mom, you worry too much!"

Breaking Up Is Hard to Do

2011-07-12T09:38:00.000-07:00

So after two failed attempts at using A.I. to breed Ari, we finally got a usable shipment and are now playing the waiting game. Next week we will ultra sound to see if we were successful in getting her pregnant! I am feeling hopeful. The vet said he thought we had a fighting chance.

Probably just coincidence, but Ari has been really mellow since the third A.I. I don't know if mares show behavioral changes that quickly, but even on the 4th of July, she was like "Fireworks? What fireworks? Yawn!" So unlike her.

So crossing all my fingers and toes.

The only big news to report at this point is that I finally decided to bring Ari back home. I have been pretty happy with her barn and the BOs but lately it has been less than ideal. Since Ari is such an easy keeper she has been relegated to a dry lot situation. It's nice and big and she can come and go from her stall, but she's all by herself and I feel terrible that she's absolutely destroying the paddock. Because she has grazed it down to bare dirt, she's dusty all the time and her schnoz is constantly covered with dust. Her nostrils are crusty from snuffling around in the dirt all day long.

We tried giving her part time turn out in some of the fields that had been grazed down by the rest of the herd, but even that proved to be too much for her. Also, because the BO has 4 kids and family life that she is trying to balance, I am not entirely sure Ari was being brought in on time. Her weight was creeping up slowly but surely. Then there was the weekend that I was completely tied up with house guests and a dog show. I made the mistake of thinking Ari would be fine if left on the pasture for a few days. WRONG. She ballooned up so fast it was disgusting. I was so embarrassed when my friend came out to the barn with me and Ari looked like a beach ball with legs. Oh mare.

Since Ari is (hopefully) pregnant I won't have too much need of an arena. I plan to keep her in shape during the pregnancy, but will be mainly just hand walking, light lunging and trail riding. Plus, seeing her for an hour a day just isn't enough. I want to be able to keep a closer eye on her, paranoid owner that I am.

Now that we finished the pasture fence, Ari will be able to go out a couple of times a day. She will have the ponies for companionship too. I think once she transitions to be being back home she (and I) will be happier in the long run.

The hardest part was telling the BO. It really felt like I was breaking up with her or something. Which, in a way, I kind of was. She and I had a relationship and now I am severing it. I chickened out and told her in a note that I attached to my last board check. But we have since talked in person and she totally understands even if she is disappointed.

So now we just have to add some finishing touches to the pasture (like the hot wire top line) and we will be ready for the Fatty Princess to come home. Hooray!

Outside!

2011-06-16T09:02:00.001-07:00

Decided the mare beast and I needed a change of pace. She has been doing well in the indoor arena with only minor little hissy fits about the open side of the arena. I know she's not scared anymore but she still tries to get out of work by giving the one side of the arena the hairy eyeball or going along that side counter bent. I just get after her and she usually gives up. Some days all it takes is a growl. Other days it takes many circles practicing our lateral flexion.

When I arrived at the barn the other day, I actually didn't plan to ride. I wasn't even wearing breeches or riding boots. Just jeans and my sh!t kicker boots. But the weather was sunny and almost warm. I mulled over the idea of a ride up the road, but it was just before dinner time and all the surrounding residents were coming home from work. Ari is traffic safe, but many of the drivers are pretty inconsiderate and I just wasn't in the mood to deal with that B.S.

Her barn has a large pasture that surrounds the arena on three sides. A month ago my hubby and I helped the barn owner cross fence that pasture into three smaller ones. It's relatively flat and we've had just enough of a break from the rain that it was mostly dry. The front field was looking mighty inviting, so after a quick brush down, I saddled Ari and took her into the field for a ground work warm up. In the past, she has been very good about working in outdoor environments. In fact, she's usually much less spooky outdoors. Just don't ask her to walk down a road or a trail. That apparently invites all the horse eating boogy monsters to chase her down.

But she's generally pretty good in open spaces. I felt a little ground work review before throwing a leg over would probably be a sensible thing to do, however. She warmed up great with a relaxed attitude and did pretty well paying attention. So I put on her bridle and grabbed my dressage whip.

I won't lie to you. I had some pretty serious butterflies just before hopping on. The field we were riding in is significantly wider and longer than the arena. If she wanted to be naughty and take off, Ari could get some pretty good momentum going before hitting a fence line. She has only ever bolted with me twice. Once at eventing camp when she was the last of the group to go over a hanging log and she took off after the jump to speed back to the group. It scared me but I was fine. The other time was last fall when riding at my neighbor's arena while they were doing construction in the tack room. She spooked and took off with me and dumped me at the arena wall after 1.5 laps around the arena. I landed on my feet but was really shaken up nonetheless.

I didn't really expect her to be bad, but with Ari some days it comes out of nowhere. Instead of letting myself chicken out, I just threw my leg over and tried to think positive thoughts. As soon as my butt settled in the saddle, however, I knew were going to be fine.

Not that Ari was perfect. She threw in one mini bolt where she sped up without being asked and I shut that down immediately by bringing her nose to her hip and making her yield. Then she gave one tiny hop in a corner of the field that is near a scary, darkly treed driveway. I just put her on a circle and made her flex and give repeatedly as we rode closer and closer to the corner.

I am pretty proud of myself for not getting scared anymore at her antics. In the big picture, her naughty behavior is pretty minor. But considering that just a few months ago I was ready to give up riding all together, I think she and I have come pretty far. I love the relationship I have with my mare now. It's really starting to feel like a partnership.

We only rode for about 25 minutes, but we walked, trotted and cantered all over that pasture. I let her have lots of relaxing walk breaks in between asking for impulsion and lightness. She was ignoring my aids a little bit at times. Especially my legs because I was sans spurs and wearing clunky roper boots. But over all I was very please with her. Then just before we called it quits, I had her pick up a canter at the far end of the field and then asked her to gallop the length of the pasture! As soon as she felt me shift into two point, the mare beast really kicked it into high gear. It was exhilarating and I believe I was laughing out loud. What a good girl!

On the breeding front, we do a preg check/follicle check on Monday the 27th, hoping she be ready to breed Tues and Wednesday. Here's to hoping!

More Adorable-ness

2011-06-09T23:11:00.000-07:00

Well, it's not looking like Ari got preggers this time either. We had some trouble with the ice pack the semen shipment came in and both doses were unusable due to overheating. So we wait and try again in about three weeks.

In the meantime, here is an adorable video of my 4 year old daughter riding her pony. Tucker is a Section A Welsh Mountain pony who joined our family back in January. He is the most awesome little pony. There are times I wish he was taller so I could ride him. Isabel will be taking Tucker in the leadline classes at the Oregon Welsh Pony Society Summer Show in a few weeks. I think they will do well and more importantly, have a lot of fun.

We trailered Tucker and our mini horse, Patches, to Ari's barn so they could get their feet trimmed. It was the perfect opportunity for Isabel and Tucker to practice in an arena. They both did great.

The husband and the farrier chatting. I love Tucker's adorable pony butt.

"Who me? Yeah, I am pretty cute."

We Won't Be Changing Her Name To Mary

2011-06-01T15:03:00.000-07:00

No immaculate conceptions here.

Darn the luck.

Knew it was a long shot, but hey, had to hope, right?

I had secretly been hoping that Ari was being so good lately because she was pregnant. She even stood really still for her exam today and the vet said he even started thinking maybe the breeding had took because of how good she was being. But alas, we will try again next week.

The stallion owner got new extender so there won't be a repeat of last time. I am certain we will get her pregnant this time around, but it sure would have been nice to be done with all these appointments. So instead we re check her Friday and aim to breed next Tuesday.

Quillane Apollo and Nicole Graf Ussher - First Place Second level Test 2/ Open Division Dressage at Saratoga 2011

Hurry Up and Wait

2011-06-01T08:59:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting here anxiously waiting for my husband to get home from work this morning so we can head over to the barn and meet the vet for Ari's checkup.

I know it would take a freakin' miracle, but I can't seem to totally squash the tiny part of me that keeps hoping that maybe, just maybe there was one live swimmer in there. I know it's stupid and I am fully prepared to be utterly disappointed when the vet ultrasounds her and finds nothing growing in there. And I can only hope I don't burst into tears. How embarrassing would that be? But that damn spark of hope just won't extinguish. Arrggg.

Let's just hope he finds another one or two really big fat healthy follicles ready to ovulate. That would be perfect. And reasonable.

In the meantime, I am extremely happy to report that we have been having some stellar rides as of late. In fact, Ari has been so good lately it's kind of freaking me out. She is finally behaving like the horse I always wanted her to be (but feared she would never be!)

She has been super forward, willing, obedient and best of all: NOT SPOOKY. It's eerie really. Our ride two days ago was fantastic. She has adjust-ability in all her gaits. She feels soooo much lighter in the bridle. She is accepting the contact and coming onto the bit. She feels strong and much more clear in all her gaits as well. It almost makes me want to show again.

Almost.

I am sort of afraid to jinx things. Why rock the boat when I am finally enjoying riding my horse again? I'll have to mull it over a bit more. Maybe at the end of summer.

Speaking of summer, it's official. We are enduring the worst spring in recorded history for our area. The weather guy made the announcement on the news last night. Something like 4th wettest and 2nd coldest in nearly 100 years of weather history. And we have never had a spring that had this combination of cold and wet EVER. No wonder I am suffering from Seasonal Depression Disorder. Good lord, will we ever get some dry days?

Despite the crappy weather, the grass has certainly been a'growin. My barn owner just shakes her head at my obsession with keeping Ari trim. She has been letting her herd stay on the pasture 24/7 the past few weeks. I personally thing more than a few of her horses are getting dangerously fat. I tried to say something to her, but she just shrugs it off. She is of the opinion that "just a grass belly" isn't harmful to a horse. Yikes!

I have been making Ari rotate between various smaller dry lots and grazed down paddocks to try to keep her from ballooning up. It means she's muddy a lot, thanks to all this lovely wet weather, but so far her weight gain has been reasonable. I would like to see her lose a few pounds, but she's not out of control.

Oh, and we tried a grazing muzzle so she could go back out with her herd mates. Yeah right. She got it off in record time. I don't understand why they can't make a muzzle that actually fits a horse's head correctly. The throat latch on her Best Friends Muzzle appears to be in the totally wrong place in my opinion. It needs to be higher up so that it actually fits under the groove of her jaw to keep her from just rubbing it off. I don't want to make the halter straps any tighter, but the stupid thing is ridiculously easy for her to slip out of.

Well, hubby should be home momentarily. Wish us luck at the appointment! Will post results later today.

Close But No Cigar

2011-05-19T17:02:00.000-07:00

After giving her the prostin shot, Ari finally decided to get with the program. Tuesday late afternoon she was in flaming heat. The geldings in her pasture were glued to her rear end and one was even chasing away all the other horses with teeth and hooves whenever they tried to come near her. I saw Miss Hootchie pants presenting and flagging to anyone who passed by her hiney. I've never seen her do that before! So I knew were on target.

The Equitainer arrived right on schedule with no glitches in the delivery. I met the vet at the barn that afternoon and we proceeded to AI Ari. The vet found she had one enormous follicle ready to ovulate. Her uterine tone and mucus were doing exactly what they were supposed to be doing. The vet confirmed that Ari was indeed a maiden. My hubby and I were a little embarrassed when the vet announced that he had just broke her hymen. I didn't even realize horses had hymens! LOL.

The happy couple.
Yes, I am holding a vial of what you think it is...

The proceedure itself went like clockwork and I was feeling oh-so-positive that night until my phone rang at 9pm. It was the vet calling to tell me that he had found NO LIVE SPERM in the sample we had just insemenated my mare with. WHAT?

How can that be?

Many consulations with the vet, the stallion owner and the stallion owner's vet later, we concluded that the extender she mixed with the semen for transport was somehow spoiled. The stallion owner admitted that it was from last season, but she did check the date and it was supposed to still be good. Guess not.

As you can imagine, I am supremely disappointed and frustrated. But these things happen and we are going to get it straightened out. The stallion owner is assuming full responsibility and has been incredibly awesome about the whole thing. She swears she will make this right and get me my Apollo baby. :-)

So for now, we wait again. In the extremely off chance that there was some live sperm in what we put in Ari, we will preg check in two weeks. It would be a miracle, but it only takes one swimmer to make it happen, right? Assuming she's not in foal, we will do what we did the first time and likely give her the prostin shot so we can make arrangements for another collection and AI.

At least we have a better idea of how she will cycle this time around. And ultimately maybe it's for the better. I am much more comfortable with a May baby than an April one. Especially if next year is as wet as this year!

You Knew It Couldn't Be That Easy

2011-05-17T12:17:00.000-07:00

Well, we had hoped Ari would cycle naturally and magically coincide with the days the stallion owner is able to collect (and that Fed Ex delivers). Alas, that isn't happening. However we are still going to breed her tomorrow and the next day and cross our fingers.

At our check up yesterday, the vet found several follicles that were good sized but there was no evidence of uterine edema. I am not entirely sure what that means, but the vet said she's not doing exactly what she's supposed to be doing. He suggested a shot of Prostin, to stimulate her hormones and make her ovulate. He said in mares who do what Ari is doing, often times the hold on to the follicles for a long time and then suddenly they ovulate without warning and their heat cycle is so short that you end up missing it. The Prostin is pretty reliable in it's timing and will give us a 75% chance or better of getting her bred. The vet said he has had good luck in using the Prostin and if it were his mare, that is what he would do. So, that's what are doing.

The vet is going to come out to the barn to do the A.I. instead of hauling her in. With the price of gas, we really aren't saving all that much by hauling in and it ends up being very stressful for me and the mare. Ari isn't great about hauling and she gets really anxious, which in turn makes me very anxious. I am one of those people who worries the entire time I am hauling. I worry about getting in an accident. I worry about Ari doing something stupid in the trailer. I worry about loading and unloading. It's enough to give me an ulcer! And to make matters worse, yesterday my husband had to work, so I had take Ari to the appointment by myself.

And of course, Ari decided to throw a massive temper tantrum about loading. I HATE horses who won't load. It's a major pet peeve of mine. Ari KNOWS better. I trained her myself to load in my trailer (it's a straight load) so that I would be able to do it alone. The little turkey walked into the trailer the first time I asked, but then she backed out before I could get the ramp up. She did it slowly and it wasn't a big deal (so I thought) but the mare got it into her head that, "Hey. There's no one holding me. I can just leave whenever I want! Sweet." She was such a brat about it. It took 30 minutes of me pushing, pulling, cursing, backing her up and a fair amount of whipping to get her to put more than one hoof on the ramp after that. We were both a sweaty hot mess by the time I finally convinced her that I wasn't kidding and yes, she really did have to get into the trailer. I was so incredibly irritated with her, but I am glad I won that battle.

So needless to say, I am going to just pay the damn farm call fee. I will, however, be doing more training in trailer loading in the near future. I will NOT have a repeat of yesterday. Ugh!

Getting Close!

2011-05-15T21:41:00.000-07:00

Upon her re-check last Thursday, we found that Ari was getting ready to come into heat. She showed good follicle growth. Hooray! Tomorrow I take her back for another ultrasound to see where we are at. The vet is hopeful that she will be close enough that we can get Apollo collected and shipped on Tuesday and do the A.I. on Wednesday. So crossing my fingers that we get this right the first try. I didn't realize how complicated this would be. Hoping the mare cooperates.

In other news, the sun is coming out occasionally and all the rain we've been having has made the pastures explode with spring grass. The individual turn outs at Ari's barn are decimated from a wet, wet winter and the B.O. was dying to get the horses back out on the pasture, but it's a pretty big field and she was concerned about letting them have access to the whole thing. We had been giving all the horses stints of grazing time in a smaller, temporary paddock to allow them to acclimate to the green stuff. But we are being pretty careful, so a dividing fence line was in order. The B.O.'s husband has been really busy at work, so my hubby and I volunteered to help her get the fence up. With the three of us working together it only took a few hours. The horses were SO happy when we were able to let them all out together.

Unfortunately for Miss Ari, she's a real air fern and gets fat just looking at all that grass. She she only gets a few hours on the pasture and then goes back to the turn out or her stall/run. I bought a grazing muzzle for her, but still waiting for it to arrive. Hopefully soon as it's supposed to be nice for the rest of the week and I am sure all the horses will be out all week.

Only a little over a month until my daughter's first Welsh Pony show. We are both very excited. In preparation, she has been riding her pony a lot. She has even started riding him independently some. He is pretty good until he decides to be bad and then he just ignores her. :-) Bad pony! Anyway. Here they are in all their adorable glory:
Gotta love a round Welsh Pony!

An Interesting Ride

2011-05-04T16:46:00.000-07:00

I go back on the mare today for the first time a while. I had been giving her some time off to recover from a snotty nose. She never acted sick (great appetite, no lethargy or fever) but I wanted to let her rest because exercise definitely made the nose worse. Nothing like thick, chunky discharge to slow your horse down. The night before her nose started running, she got out of her paddock and was found stuffing her face full of the super rich green stuff in the back parts of the paddocks. I believe this may have caused her allergies to kick into overdrive. So the barn owner and I have been wetting her hay just in case, even though she never coughed once, and after about 5 days her nose has cleared up. Whew.

So I figured today was a good day to ride. Nearly 70 degrees with very little wind. (About freaking time!) The barn was empty when I got there, so I pumped up the radio and headed out to get Ari. Her paddock mate, the ever placid Appy named Happy, was just hanging out dozing in the sun. My mare? Pacing the fence line, cranky as all get out at the fact that she can SEE all that green grass but not get to it. We discovered that the fence wasn't connected correctly, so it previously wasn't even hot. But it's definitely hot now and it's pissing Ari off. She did, however, stop her pacing to come over to me when she saw me come into the paddock. Good girl. The treats in my pocket help. :-)

We hosed and scraped off the dried mud, tacked up and headed to the arena for our ground work warm up. Ari was alert and somewhat distracted, but wasn't being a total spaz. After about 20 minutes of getting her brain working and body warmed up, I climbed on. The first thing I did was test her flexibility in her neck and poll. She broke at the poll softly with just a finger wiggle. There was only mild resistance when I asked her to bring her head around and touch her side on both sides. No throwing the head up in the middle or locking her jaw, so I was happy with that. We have made so much progress in this area. She used to cause my arm to cramp from having to pull so hard to get her to flex even slightly. I am aiming for even more softness, but for now I am quite pleased with our progress.

When I asked her for a marching walk, she immediately popped her head in the air and started staring at the open arena windows like there are giant horse eating monsters lurking just outside them. It really pisses me off when she does this because she had just been lunged right next to them and was very nearly ignoring them. The moment I climb on her back, she always reverts right back to this avoidance technique. So my response is to put her immediately to work. She's already warmed up thanks to the ground work, so there is no need to walk her a bunch and end up getting into fights with her over her stupid spooking.

So off we trotted and man was she feeling FRESH. More forward than I ever think I have ever felt her. In the two and half years that I have owned this mare, her default mode has always been sluggish and behind my leg (or spooking and scooting). Not today, boy howdy. She was feeling strong. Almost too strong. I let her step into a springing canter because she was wanting to move forward so much. But then I could feel she was just sort of running through my aids, so we cantered some 10 meter circles and this brought her back down a peg or two. She stayed very balanced and centered on those circles, much to my amazement. Her canter quality has improved so much in the last few months. All those roll backs on the lunge line have definitely helped her get back onto her butt and strengthen those haunch muscles.

I brought her back to the trot and we did lots of leg yields and some lengthening work. She broke to the canter a few times, but she did, in fact, show some attempts to lengthen. And she stayed off her forehand while doing it. In the past, any attempts to lengthen resulted in her just pounding her front legs harder into the ground while nose diving.

She was still feeling a bit "up" and distracted so then we did some walk/canter transitions. She got nearly everyone perfect. A few times she cheated and trotted a few steps first and we got one wrong diagonal, but each time I corrected her and she did even better the next time.

Then we ended with some stretchy trot work. Ari really likes this. I worked on keeping a steady, but soft contact with the reins (instead of just throwing them away) and using my legs to keep her from falling in or drifting out on the circle. By the end of her ride, she was really stretching over her back and bouncing right along. I was very happy with our work today. Not bad considering how inconsistent I have been with our rides. Imagine what she could be like if I got off my duff more than once or twice a week?

Since the poor thing got really sweaty, I hosed her down after our ride. It's been too damn cold so far this year to do anything but hose off her legs, so she was really dusty despite my thorough grooming attempts. So it was nice to give her a bath. Then I let her graze while I curried the water off her.

All in all a very good day.

Looks like we will be taking Ari back to the vet next Thursday to see where she is at in her cycle. If she's close, we will give her the hormone shot and breed her the following tues or weds. Turns out the stallion owner will be gone at the end of the month/beginning of next month, so we have to fit the breeding in the week they are home. I am so excited!

Let the Adventure Begin!

2011-05-03T17:11:00.001-07:00

Our pre-breeding vet check today went very smoothly. Ari loaded well and hauled relatively quietly for the 15 minute drive to the vet's office. We decided to save the farm call fee and take advantage of the stocks by bringing her in since we weren't sure how she would do with being palpated. Turns out, if you stuff her face full of gummy, sugary candy orange slices, she could care less what's going at the other end. :-)

The vet gave us the green light to breed her. He agrees that she was probably in heat about a week ago, which is what I suspected since she broke out of her paddock and was courting a gelding.

The impatient, impetuous part of me wants to take her back in in 10 days, shoot her with the hormone to make her ovulate and "get 'er done," as they say. But realistically, do I want a foal born in April, when the weather could potentially still be very, very wet and cold? Sure, the foal will be pampered from Day 1, but why push it when there really is no hurry? It's gonna kill me to wait another month, but in the big picture it will be better.

Speaking of the big picture, since we are potentially adding another equine to our little herd, we dcided to downsize one pony. My daughter doesn't need two ponies and she has been preferring to ride her Welsh pony, so it was decided to rehome our little Shetland, Truman. The Welsh really is a better fit for our family in the long run. Isabel will be able to ride him for the next 7 to 10 years and when she's too big for him, he will become my driving partner.

So today, Truman's new mom picked him up.

Renee has a beautiful farm, is familiar with ponies and will be using Truman to help foster children through rough transitional times, as well as teaching her grandkids to ride. She had a 41 year old Shetland mare that she lost last year. She tells me Truman's face looks a lot like her old mare.

Isabel had to give Truman lots of hugs good bye. She did come with us when we did the home check so she got to see where he will be living. She spent some time playing with a couple of the foster boys. On the way home, in the car, we asked her if it was all right if Truman went to live there and she said, "Yeah, it's OK. Those boys need Truman. And I still have Tucker at home." I was so proud of her at that moment.

She will miss him, I am sure, but this will simplify things around here. I can spent more time doing this with Tucker:

Need to get him to use his topline more and reach for the contact instead of sucking back behind the vertical, but he's only just now getting back into shape. It will come with time. Plus, he's not a huge fan of long lining on a circle. When I switched to ground driving, he did much better and was using his whole body. Guess he's a pony that likes to be going someplace!

So stay tuned until next month when we attempt to A.I. Ari. Whee! What fun.

Big News!

2011-04-28T09:26:00.000-07:00

I am breeding Ari this year!

The stallion I have chosen is last year's National Champion Section D Cob. Myself and the stallion owner are very, very excited to see what this cross will produce! Quillane Apollo is not only beautiful, but more importantly he has an outstanding temperament and work ethic. His foals seem to inherit his phenomenal desire to learn.

Ari is a maiden, so I am somewhat apprehensive about how she will do with all the exams, procedures and of course, the foaling itself.

We have a pre-breeding exam scheduled for next Tuesday. I am crossing my fingers that she will get the all clear and pass with flying colors.

I know there is a lot of debate these days about the pros and cons of breeding, but this is something I am doing for myself. I think my mare is a quality representation of her breed. I am breeding her a stallion with exception type and temperament. I am planning to keep the baby no matter if it's a filly or colt. I will be happy with either.

So let's hope that this:

Plus this:

Will equal this:

2010 Filly by Apollo

Another outstanding example of Apollo's offspring.

This 4 year old colt by Apollo sold for $22,000!

Back In The Saddle (Again)

2011-04-16T23:20:00.000-07:00

Rode the mare beast for the first time in about, oh, three weeks day before yesterday. She was quite good actually. No spooks thanks to about 40 minutes of serious ground work before I threw a leg over. She was not as fluid and flex-y as the last time I rode her, but all things considered I was not unhappy with the ride.

Am thinking of entering her in a dressage show next month. I need something to motivate me to ride. There is a schooling show at the fairgrounds about an hour north of me. Might be fun.

Had one day last week where the weather was decent and Isabel rode her pony Truman. He was a good boy as usual, minus the part where he thought about biting her. I smacked the bejesus out of him for that little stunt. He has never, ever offered to bite before. I mean, I know he's a Shitland pony and all, but I have raised him since he was 5 months old and have never tolerated rude behavior from him. Maybe he got away with something when he was leased out last year...

Then I grabbed Tucker, the Welsh pony, and gave him a thorough grooming. I thought about harnessing him up and doing more ground driving, but that sounded like way too much work. So instead I hopped on him bare back with just his halter and took him for a short hack. He's such an awesome little pony. He was pretty willing to head down the road, even with his pasture mates calling to him. I only rode him a short distance because I worry that I am too heavy for him. But it was fun, just the same.

Our debut in the lead line classes will be at the Oregon Welsh Pony Society Early Summer shows on June 24th. I can't wait. I hope Isabel has fun. She says she's very excited and wants to win a really big ribbon. (She also says she is going to ride Ari when she grows up...awww...)

Now if only this ridiculously wet spring would end. I don't know how much more of this crappy weather I can take.

It's Been A While

2011-04-04T09:17:00.000-07:00

So I have been seriously slacking on this blog, but quite honestly there hasn't been much to post about lately. Things were going quite well with Ari until she took an unscheduled two week vacation (no fault of her own). We had been continuing her ground work, natural horsemanship style, followed by some really good rides. Ari was finally making the connection between softness on the ground and softness under saddle. We had one particularly spectacular ride where we didn't have *any* bracing or tightness from start to finish. A huge step forward for us. We also finally ventured out of the arena for the first time this spring. Ari was having heart attacks about everything, but she was good and stayed forward yet controlled. I wish she was better about trail riding, but we'll get there again...eventually.

So why the vacation if everything was going so well? It started with the barn owner's heading to Disneyland for spring break. I was in charge of caring for the 10 horses in the barn in exchange for April's board. The first part of the week went alright. Well, other than one mare trying to rush through the gate before I had it all the way open. She ended up wedging herself between the gate and the fence and gave herself an ugly, but thankfully not deep, scratch down her hind leg. I had to hose and doctor the leg for a few days, but no permanent damage done. So the week started out fine, but I had forgotten just how much work turning that many horses in/out and mucking that many stalls is! And since I was going to the barn twice a day now, there wasn't a lot of time or energy left for Ari.

Then midweek I started feeling sick. Really sick. Like, "shoot me now and put me out of my misery" sick. And then I started coughing. And coughing. And coughing so more. And not being able to breathe very well. I protested my sickness for several days and tried to keep going. I thought if maybe I pretended I wasn't sick, it would go away.

I just couldn't be sick that week. I had too many responsibilities! But then my husband had to work several days in a row. And my daughter wasn't feeling well either. I honestly wasn't sure how I was going to make it through the remainder of the week. Thankfully my in-laws are endlessly helpful people and they cleaned all the stalls for me one day. Then one of the other boarders, a middle school student, and her parents helped out. And then to my enormous relief the barn owner and her family came home a day early because the weather was too sucky in California and they weren't having a good time.

So I was relieved of my barn care duties, but the damage was already done. Not resting and giving myself time to heal turned my cold/virus into bronchitis. So I have spent the last week coughing my brains out and literally hardly able to walk across the room. The muscle aches, head aches, fever and nausea are gone, but I have really diminished lung capacity right now and feel a constant tightness in my chest that no amount of coughing seems to be able to relieve. So needless to say, Ari has had yet another week off.

And right now she is a horribly hairy, filthy beast. We have had one of the coldest, wettest springs on record and all the pastures are a muddy mess. But a few days ago, it was nearly 68 degrees out and mostly sunny, so I took Ari's blanket off. I knew it was probably a bad idea, but I really wanted her to be able to soak up some vitamin A. That night when they brought the horses inside, Ari was practically unrecognizable. Oh well. So her blanket's been off since then because I can't put it back on her until I scrape off all the mud and shedding hair. And well, since just getting out of bed these days triggers a wheezing/coughing fit, a thorough grooming of the mare beast is simply out of the question. I feel like such a bad owner. She looks so horribly neglected. I'm sure Ari doesn't care one bit, but it makes me want to cry when I see her looking like something that just came off the range.

So all I can do now is wait for this damn bronchitis to go away. And for the rain to stop. And for my motivation to return. Maybe I will get an Easter miracle and all three will happen at the same time? One can only hope.

I Love My Ponies

2011-02-17T21:12:00.000-08:00

Today was a good day for the ponies. Both the big black one and the new little bay one. To start with, the sun was out after days and days of wet, cold, miserable weather. Just north of us got snow. We just got cold, icky rain.

So when I saw what a nice day it was going to be, I planned to play with the ponies. Also, my new (used) harness arrived for Tucker a few days ago. Since I was stuck indoors thanks to the weather, I used my time to apply several coats of Lexol and Horseman's One Step Leather Cleaner and Conditioner to the harness, since it has been in storage for a long time and was quite dry. I would like to do one or two more applications, but I am very pleased with the harness. It is Amish made and very lovely. The leather is thick, as it should be on a harness, and it is very well made.

I am pleased to report the harness fits Tucker quite well. And he looks very handsome wearing it. Now I just need to save up some $$$ for an easy entry cart.

After harnessing Tucker up, I lunged him in it first. Then I worked my way towards his hip until I was in ground driving position. I did not put the bridle on, as I have not ground driven Tucker before and although it is pretty safe to assume he knows what it's all about given that he had 3 months of driving training and has actually pulled a cart before, I decided to try the halter first in case we ran into difficulties. I like to protect their mouths if at all possible. Turns out Tucker is quite sensitive, even in a regular nylon halter, and steered beautifully even without a bit.

We ground drove around the property for a while and then I decided to hit the open road
.

I plan to use Tucker for driving around our neighborhood and have taken him on some walks previously, so I knew he was pretty brave already. The little man was a total super star. He just marched out like he has been driving all his life. Cars passing us, pasture mates calling to him, barking dogs...nothing bothered him. That is until we got back home and just as I was coming around him to undo the reins, the neighbor's calves decided to frolic and bawl as loud as possible about 15 feet from Tucker and I. He backed up as fast as he could, wide eyed and snorting. But a firm "whoa" from me planted his feet and he allowed me to lead him over to the calves one step at a time. Guess he needs more exposure to small farm animals. On our walks the only other thing that has boogered him was a loan goat buck with huge horns standing in the middle of a pasture. Tucker stopped and STARED at that goat for the longest time with the biggest eyes I have ever seen. Never mind that he didn't bat an eye at the small herd of deer crashing through the forest right next to the road five minutes later. Sheesh! Silly pony.

Next I went to Ari's barn. The poor mare had been cooped up in her stall for days thanks to the poopy weather. I took of her blanket and let her roll and run the kinks out in the arena before cleaning her up and then tacking up. Our new routine consists of saddling up, but not bridling at first. Instead we do 5 to 20 minutes of serious ground work before I even think about getting on. Not just lunging, but all sorts of Clinton Anderson style exercises that make her move her feet, get back on her haunches, warm up her neck with lots of flexing and putting her in a working frame of mind. I love that now I can tell my mare, "Jump!" and she says, "How high?" We still have to work through the "window monsters" but now I can get her over that hump and listening to me in a pretty short amount of time.

Today when I threw my leg over, the mare felt soft and responsive right from the start. We had a really good ride. The best part? I found myself actually focusing on *riding* not just surviving the ride or trying not to throw up from nerves. I worked on my position and posture. I worked on getting Ari soft and bending correctly on the circle. We worked on lengthening and shortening her stride at all three gaits. We even got some lateral work in! All in all our best ride of the year. Hip hip hooray!

Now just for fun, here is a video of Tucker being driven for anyone who has ever wanted to try it. Think of it as your pony driving virtual experience!

Too Much Good Stuff

2011-02-02T01:40:00.000-08:00

It's making me unable to sleep. Too many thoughts swirling around in my brain. Mostly good for a change. In fact, I can't stop grinning and feeling like my happiness is bursting at the seams.

The number one thing on my mind tonight? I'm riding my mare again.

Successfully. Without fear. All my hours on the ground with her in the last few weeks have finally started to pay off. I have gotten back on her 3 times since my last fall and all have been increasingly positive. The first time I got back on, I just basically walked her around for 5 minutes and called it a victory. Then a couple of days ago, I actually *rode* her. And she was good despite a lot of distractions. The BO's teenage daughter was having some sort of meeting or party in the upstairs barn lounge. A pack of teen girls and boys is NOT quiet. Ari was quite sweaty when I got off her, but mostly due to nerves rather than actual work. But still, I walked, trotted and cantered her all over the arena and felt she was listening.

Then tonight, I rode her again and she was FANTASTIC. Rusty as hell (as am I) but she was soft and listening. She sought the contact with my hands. She flexed easily both directions. Very minimal bracing. My equitation, which was shaky to begin with, has gone to crap again, but there were moments when I remembered to look up and sit up, which is a start. I have video of the ride, but it's about as exciting as watching paint dry, so I won't bother posting it.

But I think this picture sums up the way I am feeling: sh!t eating grin all the way!

Today was a good day in many other ways as well. To start with, I woke up to sunshine! Cold, but sunny nonetheless. Then I went for a 4 mile walk by myself. I thought I would be bored, but I put my headphones on and rocked out while booking it to the end of our road and back. Turns out I can power walk the 4 miles nearly as fast as I can run it. Hmmm. Need to run faster I guess.

Then I worked with my daughter and her ponies. (Yes, plural.) :-) We saddled up her Shetland gelding and my husband and I walked her over to our neighbors to say "hi." Both my daughter and the pony did great. Aren't they adorable?

When we got back home, I helped my daughter work on leading her new pony, the Welsh gelding. He is a lot more sensitive than the Shetland and she is having to learn to be the boss of him. Other than her tripping over her own feet, falling down and scaring herself momentarily, she did great. I then took the pony and lunged him for a bit to see where we are at with his voice commands. He doesn't seem to know "canter" but did well with walk, trot and most importantly, "whoa."

I am in the midst of negotiating with a seller in New York for a lovely pony sized harness for Tucker. I hope he is willing to come down to my price or at least close enough that I can justify buying it. It's a very nice leather one, complete with bridle and driving bit. Finding harnesses for 12 hand ponies is harder than one would think.

My afternoon was spent napping while my daughter napped (yes!) and then we headed off to Ari's barn. The mare is always a hairy, muddy mess but she seems really happy there. They get to go out almost every day. The turn outs are getting muddy (unavoidable in Oregon) but the best part is they only have access to less than half the actual turn outs right now, plus an additional pasture that is currently being rested, so come summer time, they will have lots of grazing.

After my amazing ride with the she-beast it was off to Mexican for dinner (yum!)

All in all, one of the best days I have had in a while. I really owe my hubby a HUGE thank you for his patience in all this horsey craziness. He puts up with listening to my whining and crying when things aren't going well, is willing to spend hours at the barn trying to keep our daughter entertained while I ride, offers suggestions (even when I don't want to hear them) and most importantly, he doesn't let me give up. (YES HONEY, YOU CAN DO THE "I TOLD YOU SO" DANCE NOW...)

Wheeee!

New Addition

2011-01-18T19:57:00.001-08:00

Today "Tucker," an 8 year old registered Welsh Mountain Pony, joined our little herd.

He is 12 hands tall and just about the cutest thing ever. For the last four years he was owned by another little girl, but sadly she had outgrown him. It was a very emotional good bye for their family. But a happy day for us.

Too bad it was pouring rain and super yucky out. The ponies don't seem to mind, but I hate how dirty and scraggly they look. So please excuse their grossness in the pictures below.

Tucker will be Isabel's lead line pony in the Welsh breed shows and her move up riding mount when she gets a little bigger. Tucker is also trained to drive, so I am excited to try my hand at carting with him.

Tucker comes from a long and illustrious line of Mountain Ponies. He has excellent blood lines with many full and half siblings doing quite well in the breed ring.

We feel very luck to have had the opportunity to add a pony of Tucker's caliber to our family. We anticipate many, many years of enjoyment out of him.

Tucker also does impressions!

Here he is impersonating his sire, Bengad Lyden:

And now his grandsire, Trefaes Taran:

A little more hairy and out of shape, but the resemblance is most definitely there. I am sure our adventures with Tucker will be featured on this blog regularly. In fact, I need to come up with a new blog name. Since I am no longer dreaming of becoming an eventer and just want to have fun with my Welsh Cob and Welsh Pony...Suggestions are welcome!

Time of Transition

2011-01-16T11:35:00.000-08:00

Haven't blogged in a while. Mostly because there hasn't been any blogworthy going-ons. Last time I posted, I was working on ground driving/long lining Ari. This went well for a while. I even progressed to ground driving her outside around the barn and she did pretty well. She didn't bat an eye at a flapping tarp or the horses running and bucking in the paddocks.

But all this ground driving still wasn't getting to the root of the problem. Ari was still tense and prone to explosions. She was heavy on my hands and stiff as hell. My fear of riding her was growing to exponential proportions. My dear husband offered to come to the barn and ride her to get a sense of what I have been dealing with. And ride her, he did. But she was incredibly stiff and unresponsive. And spooky. Luckily my husband is a braver rider than myself and when she spooked, it didn't rattle him in the least. (Never mind the fact that his long legs damn near touch the ground when he's riding her...) But when he got off her, he assured me that it isn't just me. Ari clearly needs help.

What followed was much discussion, brain storming and gnashing of teeth (on my part). My husband pointed out that years ago when we got our first horses, one of the things we did with them (with much success) was the ground exercises of trainers like Clinton Anderson. Now, I know most of the Natural Horsemanship movement has gotten a bad rap as of late, thanks to people like the Parelli's, but before every Tom, Dick and Harry jumped on the N.H. band wagon there was something to doing ground work to gain "respect and control on the ground" as C. A. puts it. Especially with pushy, bitchy, over reactive mares like mine.

So did I run out and shell out $600 for the latest set of Clinton Anderson DVDs and a Handy Stick? No. OK, well, I seriously thought about it for a short while. But I decided to just go off of what I remember and see where it gets us.

So the last two weeks have been spent putting Ari back into Remedial Ground Work 101.

Is it working? That remains to be seen. No, I haven't gotten back on her yet. Is her ground work improved? Yes! By leaps and bounds. She has gotten really good at disengaging her hind quarters, yielding her forequarters, backing, lunging with rollbacks and flexing her head. She now leads right at my side with her head parallel to my body no matter what speed I walk (or run) without forging ahead or lagging behind.

I can control all four of her feet with just my body language. I can smack the whip as hard as I want right next to her and throw a rope anywhere on her body and Ari hardly flicks an ear.

We get relaxation in the arena far more often that we get tension.

All of this is progress. Most days I look forward to going to the barn. Some days I even feel like I have a partnership again with my mare. Something that has sorely been missing in our relationship.

Are we done? Am I ready to get back on? No. We have more work to do.

Case in point: yesterday Ari bit me on the arm. I was standing in front of her stall talking with a gal that I used to see at our old barn. We were catching up. It was dinner time and Ari was impatient to get out of her stall. It's been raining so she hasn't had any turn out for more than a week. She tried to reach out and lip the other gal's jacket to get my attention. I smacked her hard and growled at her. She retreated to the corner of her stall and turned her butt to me. Then a moment later she was hanging her head back out of her stall door while I continued to talk to this woman. Next thing I know Ari chomps down on my forearm with her entire mouth, HARD. I screamed at her and attempted to smack the bejesus out of her, but she's too quick for me. She's retreated to her run out. I ran into her stall and smacked the crap out of her hind end as she disappeared into her attached paddock.

I immediately grabbed her halter and caught her up. I took her into the arena and schooled the shit out of her, not even pausing to to remove her blanket first. Ari acted like a total snot and didn't want to listen. I schooled her some more. I called my husband and cried into the phone about my bat shit crazy mare. He told me to sack up and school her until I get what I want. So we schooled some more. Finally I ran out of time (we had dinner plans with friends) so I had to quit at a point where I am not totally happy with her attitude, but it was improved.

I found this whole episode completely depressing. The whole point of all my ground exercises with her the last two weeks was to demand respect. And then she bites me. To me that is the ultimate sign of disrespect.

I know horse training isn't linear. It's usually one step forward, two steps back. But still... Very frustrating.

So what now? More ground work I suppose. My plan had been to start working her fully saddled to try to transition her cooperation and respect on the ground to riding. But now? It remains to be seen.

I do have one bright point in this otherwise bleak outlook. A new addition to the family! (No, not of the human variety.) I'll wait until he actually gets here. But for now, here is a sneak peek:

(This is his baby picture.)

Fun With Driving

2010-12-29T10:45:00.001-08:00

Ari in the training surcingle.

Ari has been doing awesome with the long lining and ground driving. She is getting super responsive to my voice commands, lighter in the bridle, more round on the circle and her "whoa" is nearly 100%. I have been asking her to stand at the whoa for longer periods of time to work on her patience. She will stand on a loose rein for nearly a minute now. (Which doesn't sound all that long, but try it with your own horse! It's harder than you think.)

I am thinking even more about teaching Ari to pull a cart. I was able to pick up a used, but very high quality, harness and have been driving Ari in it. She didn't even blink the first time I put it on her. I figured she would react at least a little bit to the crupper, but she was totally fine with it.

So we have been working on finessing our ground driving. Learning to do figure 8's and serpentine's. And as you will see below, driving her over obstacles too. As always, we work on her calmness and focus. I have noticed lately that if I let her focus wander, even a little bit, that's when she wants to start spooking. So I have been a real Nazi lately about her paying attention to ME at all times.

I plan to try her in the blind bridle (the driving bridle with blinkers) to see if it helps her focus. Plus, if I want to drive her for real, she will have to wear the blind bridle. As experienced drivers will tell you, only a fool drives a horse with an open bridle.

If she continues to do well with the blind bridle, I am going to introduce her to a training drag (two 10 long pvc poles connected by a cross piece) to see how she reacts to the feel of the traces and shafts on her sides. (As well as the sound of the drag behind her.) Of course, I will introduce every aspect of the drag incrementally and rope my husband into being my helper.

So if you are really bored, here is a short video of us ground driving in harness. About halfway through I drive her over a wooden bridge both directions. That part is kinda neat.

A Very Pony Christmas

2010-12-20T16:02:00.001-08:00

Patches got a friend for Christmas!

Actually, this is my daughter's Shetland, Truman. He has been leased to a friend for the last year and a half. But he came home today as he has been outgrown by my friend's son and Patches has been lonely since I moved Ari to another barn.

Pony butts!

I have owned Truman since he was a weanling. We actually picked him out from a herd of ponies when he was just a little baby and brought him home when he was 5 months old. I was pregnant with Isabel at the time. As soon as we found out we were having a girl, I told my husband that we had to buy her a pony. I decided getting a weanling and raising and training him myself made the most sense. It was one of the best decisions I have ever made. Truman is a sweet, sweet pony and I know he's kid safe because I made SURE he was that way from day one.

Instant best friends.

Don't you just want to kiss both their little noses?

Isabel is very excited to have "her" pony back. As soon as I unloaded him from the trailer she was begging to ride him. It's supposed to take a break from the rain tomorrow, so I am sure we will be out there bright and early.

First things first, though. A little TLC is needed. He looks pretty rough right now, but soon he'll be shining again.

Gotta love those fuzzy little guys!

Long Lines, Light Bulbs, and Long Term Goals

2010-12-11T09:53:00.000-08:00

(My trainer encouraging Ari to stretch over her back during our long line lesson)

Last night something happened that hasn't happened in quite some time. What is that you ask? Well, I'll tell you! I came home from the barn with a huge grin plastered on my face.

Why? Because I had a really great training session with Ari and felt like we made headway for the first time in quite a while.

I feel like I am finally getting to the root of all our problems instead of simply focusing on fixing the current symptom, like the spooking or bolting.

What it boils down to is obedience and respect. Ari is a fairly dominant personality. She had pushy ground manners when I bought her and while I worked on them some, I often let stuff slide. Stuff that I determined wasn't dangerous, just annoying, like diving for grass when bringing her out of her paddock or turning her head to the side or putting it really low when I am trying to bridle her. Little seemingly innocuous behaviors that all point to one thing: disrespect.

So my new approach with her is to demand respect at all times. Leading, grooming, tacking up, feeding, whenever. I can't let even the little things slide. And funny enough, since I have adopted this new attitude, her's has improved immensely. It's as though she sensed the change in me and has yielded. That's not to say she doesn't test the waters every now and then, but a lot of things have improved greatly.

I have also recently come to the conclusion that one of Ari's biggest problems is that she doesn't have a good "whoa" command. I recently read an article by one of the lesser known natural horsemen (shudder, I know...) that stated that most behavioral problems in horses stem from a lack of a good "whoa" or "go". Bucking and rearing are usually related to the "go" cue and things like spooking and bolting are usually from a lack of "whoa." Can you say "light bulb moment"?

This describes Ari perfectly. When lunging, she often takes 3 to 7 steps to stop after being told "whoa." Or she will stop immediately, but then starts to walk off before being told to. She did the same thing when my trainer was long lining her. At times she was dragging him around the arena instead of stopping when asked. (See Exhibit A) This is also related to her back-up being so sticky. She is very resistant to backing. Or she will back up two steps and then stop and refuse to go any farther.

Which again, is all related to her obedience (or lack there of).

(Exhibit A)

So how do I fix this? Well, since I am reluctant to ride her due to really hurting my back after a fall when she spooked at the arena windows, I am following my trainer's advice and working her in long lines.

We are actually doing both long lining and ground driving. My first couple of attempts at both were clumsy and awkward at best. Ari has been incredibly patient with me while I figure this stuff out. It takes a lot of coordination and strength to manage both lines, not get tangled in them, maintain a steady elastic contact, hold the whip, watch where you are going and keep the horse moving forward briskly with energy!

Our first day ground driving, I discovered Ari is actually quite sensitive and it doesn't take much change in rein pressure to turn her. Which equaled swerving all over the arena like a drunk driver. And lots of crookedness. And going around counter bent. OK. Yes, it was ugly at first.

(Ground driving with my trainer)

But I have been doing a lot of reading and trying to educate myself on how to long line and ground drive correctly. This lead me to a wonderful collection of articles from a place called Axwood Farm. The articles are geared towards training a horse for harness, but the ones about the building blocks and foundation training are perfect for what I am trying to accomplish.

Armed with more knowledge (and a lot of determination) we tried again last night to long line and ground drive and were much more successful! (Hence the sh!t eating grin.) Our ground driving was a thing of beauty. OK, probably not. But I felt like Ari and I were in sync for the first time in a long time. She was focused yet full of energy. We finally achieved straightness and engagement of the hind end. We were making beautiful serpentine's and figure 8's. She didn't even lose focus when the barn owner came in and fed every one dinner. And I didn't trip or get tangled in the lines once!

We still need work on her whoa and her backing, but by the time we finished, she was stopping immediately on a verbal command with little to no rein pressure and stood there expectantly, on the bit, hind end under herself, waiting for my next cue. A lot like what we hope to achieve when we halt and salute at "x" in dressage. Actually, the more I learn about driving, the more I realize it is almost exactly like dressage. It was exhilarating to feel her softness and readiness. Good girl! We ended on a definite high note.

The same article from the natural horsemanship trainer said that most owners fail in training their horses because they don't set specific goals and they don't write them down. So here are my training goals for Ari. I don't have a set time frame for them because at this point, I plan to work on them however long it takes to achieve all of them.

1) Get 100% respect from Ari in all things 100% of the time.

2) Get a reliable "whoa". This means she stops immediately, every time, at the first verbal command. And doesn't move a hoof until I ask her to.

3) Continue long lining and ground driving working towards a soft, elastic contact and getting the correct bend on a circle.

4) Move to ground driving her over obstacles and near "scary" objects without her reacting, spooking or bolting.

5) When the above 4 goals are accomplished, start riding her again.

I am tossing around the idea of a 6th goal: train Ari to pull a cart. This would be a very big undertaking and I am not sure if I have the time, energy, knowledge or motivation, but as nice as she is to ground drive, I think breaking her to harness would be a blast.

The problems I foresee with that idea are 1) lack of cart and harness 2) the cost of acquiring said cart and harness 3) finding a reliable trainer who jives with my goals and training style 4) my gaping lack of knowledge and experience with driving.

Hmmm. Not necessarily insurmountable, but daunting to be sure. But in the meantime, we will march onwards towards our newly specified goals. And hopefully continue it have fun along the way.

(Nicely rounded with my trainer on the lines, but needs more impulsion, in my opinion, to get her to track up better...)

The Language of Long Lining

2010-12-06T08:04:00.000-08:00

I wanted to post this great article on long lining. Why? Well, because we are going to try working Ari in long lines (or sometimes known as ground driving or long reining) to try to break through her mental and physical barriers.

My trainer got on her at my lesson on Friday and after less than 5 minutes of fighting with her, got down and said, "Well, that's getting us no where. Let's try another method." We outfitted her with a surcingle and driving reins and continued with the lesson. Ari was pretty resistant and threw a few hissy fits, but my trainer was persistent and able to somewhat work through some things. Mainly his goal was to get her to relax through her poll, neck, ribcage and hip. All things we have been trying to do under saddle unsuccessfully.

He also said he feels a lot of her problems stem from a deep rooted disrespect for her rider/handler. Ari is a dominant mare with a strong stubborn streak. So this doesn't surprise me in the least. He suggested not riding her until we work through her disobedience and not get back on until she is soft and complient in the long lines. Sigh. This could take a while.

So anyway. Here is the article for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!

The Language of Long Lining

By Chris Irwin

PHOTO CAPTION:

You can teach an old horse new tricks! This 17 year old pony mare had a lifelong history of refusing to cross water. Being only 13 hands, Chris was too tall to ride her, so opted to long line her through her issues. Within minutes, the old gray mare was boldly going where she had never wanted to go before.

The fine art of long lining is not just for trainers who start young or problem horses before they mount them for their first ride. Working with the long lines can also be a great rehabilitation exercise for horses recovering from injury that need to be hand walked. Ground driving can also keep our horses in a working frame of mind during the cold winter months because we can wear our warmest boots and Western apparel while driving from the ground, something that is not always feasible from the saddle. Besides that, walking briskly behind a horse is exercise that will keep our blood circulating much better then it does when we're sitting in the saddle. Last, but certainly not least, long lining is a lot of fun!

I teach many of my students long lining because it helps them understand and feel the concept of how to have a horse "in-hand". All too often I find riders who are stuck with the habit of hands that pull (even if only a little) on the reins. We see immediate improvement when these riders climb back in the saddle after 'getting the feel' on the ground with the long lines. Their horses are far more relaxed, moving understand and feel the concept level-headed or well-rounded, and definitely coming through with more engagement from their hindquarters. The horses also have a much more relaxed eye, soft mouth and licking lips, as the hands of the rider discover how to hold a horse with absolutely no backward motion or pull to the reins.

Long lining is the most difficult ground exercise to master with a horse and it is also, by far, the most dangerous. I say this because if a horse is nervous, mischievous, or downright angry and difficult, then it will challenge the contact the driver is creating and look for a gap in the hands on the other end of the lines. This can be dangerous because if your horse finds the slightest opening in the blocking/boundaries that your hands should be proactively creating then, your horse will make an unwanted turn. An unwanted turn when riding is one thing but, when working on long lines this can quickly lead to a horse getting tangled up and/or wrapping his or herself up completely in the lines and this could lead to a very serious wreck with some horses.

How to avoid these gaps? I've used the analogy before that as you face a clock imagine that you and your horse are facing straight up to 12:00 and that is exactly where you want your horse to go. Your right rein should not be used to pull your horse back to 12:00 after it has turned left towards 11:00. Likewise, the left rein is not to pull left to straighten your horse to 12:00 after it veered right to 1:00. Instead, your left rein should proactively block the head and neck of the horse from turning right in the first place.

I say that long lining is the most difficult groundwork exercise with horses to master because it requires that we time the movement of our legs perfectly as we walk along with the stride of our horse. If we walk too quickly the lines go slack and the horse finds the gaps that allow those confusing and potentially dangerous unwanted turns. On the other hand, if we walk too slow, the horse feels too much contact and will not want to move forward into the bit. This results in a horse being either "inverted" (hollow-backed) or "behind the bit". You don't want the horse to feel that you're slamming a door in its face but you also don't want it wandering all over the place and getting itself into trouble. To develop the subtle feel of appropriate contact with the mouth of a horse requires learning how to absorb the forward movement as a horse moves into your hands.

Here's a simple exercise. Push your hands down evenly against the mattress on your bed. No matter how hard or fast you slam your hands into the mattress you'll notice that you don't bang abruptly and painfully into the bed like you would if you tried this against a wall. Instead of a hard resistance there is a give in how the mattress absorbs your push. In this example, your arms and hands are simulating the body of the horse advancing into the hands of the rider/driver which, in this case, is the absorbing restraint of the mattress. Your mattress did not grab or pull you to it in the slightest. Your bed simply absorbed your advance with elasticity and this is what your horse needs from your contact with his or her mouth.

When learning how to long line I suggest you have a friend head your horse with a halter and lead rope over the bridle while you get into position standing behind your horse. Next, take all the slack out of the lines to the point where you can feel the horse and the horse can feel the presence of your hands. If your horse suddenly lifts its head up high, or starts backing up, then this is a sure sign that you went past the point of taking up the slack and the horse has felt you pulling back against its mouth. We want slack out of the lines without crossing that fine line into pulling back. Now, ask your friend to step forward and lead your horse but doing so with a loose lead rope. Now here's the trick: you need to stand still as your horse walks off. This is not as easy as it sounds so I'll repeat do not walk forward with your horse. Instead, simply allow your hands to be relaxed and open so that the horse is pulling the reins/lines through your fingers and out of your hand. Wait until the horse has taken two or three steps and then softly and gradually close your hands on the lines to disallow anymore slipping as you join in with your horse at the walk. Once walking, you will need to find and develop the perfect pace that neither inhibits your horse by walking too slow or allows unwanted turns from gaps as you walk too fast. The idea behind this exercise is to develop a feel for absorbing the forward movement of your horse softly into your hands.

Once your horse is moving, if it is wandering like a drunk and making unwanted turns, then you're most likely walking too fast which creates slack reins and thus, creates gaps in your boundaries from the bit. On the other hand, if your horse is inverted with its head up high, refusing to move forward, or walking sluggishly with its nose behind the vertical or behind the bit, then you are either walking too slowly or you're going fetal and pulling your hands and arms back into your body.

Once we have the movement of the horse absorbed into hands that block unwanted turns then the turns that we do indeed want are easy. To turn a horse right while long lining we simply give or decrease our left rein contact to allow or release a right turn. On the other hand, we decrease a little of our right rein contact to allow a left turn. It's really this simple: A horse in hand turns right by decreasing the block of the left rein and turns left by decreasing the block of the right rein. A word of caution: When people are learning to give or decrease their outside rein of a turn they most often tend to release way too much and cause the horse to overturn and go off track. This then triggers the human reflex to pull and fix or straighten the horse. Remember the physiology of a horse is such that its body and mind are one and the same so once we start pulling on our horses, all kinds of behaviour problems kick in. Simply put, the best behaved horses are most often in the best hands and the most poorly behaved horses are the ones getting pulled on. Hence the old saying "she's in good hands".

Another concern in long lining is the outside rein being held too tight against the outside hip and haunches of the horse. For instance, when giving your right rein to allow a left turn if you do not release enough contact your horse will feel bound and blocked not only in the bridle but also against its right hip. (If you're so inclined to allow the long lines to lay against the hips of the horse.) This is the main reason why horses learning to long line will sometimes refuse to turn. In the higher levels of long lining, you will see masters leave the outside rein against the haunches so that the line itself works like a rider's outside leg to hold the haunches on track, thereby blocking them from falling out of a turn. This is fine for upper-level horses but it can be too jamming for the younger, greener horses, and they will not want to move into the bit if they feel they can't turn because the line on their haunches is in the way. Remember, training before schooling; horses first need to learn how to turn by an outside rein giving before their turns are finished or packaged into the higher levels of more collected gymnastics.

For safety sake, it's a good idea to have a competent friend close by to help in case of an emergency and they should have a sharp, serrated knife with them to cut your horse loose of entangled lines if, God forbid, the worst should happen. Always use cotton or leather lines instead of nylon (to avoid burns to either you or your horse). Always wear gloves, use a D ring or full cheek snaffle instead of leveraged bits, and make sure you are not letting your lines drag behind you on the ground as they can too easily be stepped through/over, and you may find yourself tangled in a dangerous mess.

I would also recommend that you first practice your long lining on your easiest, safest, most reliable and forgiving horses and do so in a small, fully enclosed arena. In fact, as comical as it sounds, the easiest and safest horses to practice on are actually your human friends. Have them play the role of the horse and they can offer you valuable feedback as to whether they feel you pulling, holding too tight, or whether or not, you have gaps in your blocking contact. Once you have learned how to keep your friend and your easier horses between your hands and going exactly where you want, then begin to gradually work your way up to the more challenging horses and more open spaces. Until next month, happy trails and keep your horses in-hand.

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All Is Well, I Assure You and Ari's Baby Daddy

2010-12-02T22:41:00.000-08:00

As one of my astute readers (probably my only reader) noted, yes, I did have a momentary freak out and list my horse for sale on Dreamhorse. Call it a fit of frustration. An emotional reaction to yet another set back in a long list of hurdles I have had to overcome with my mare.

You see I came off Ari again earlier this week, only this time I wasn't so lucky as to land on my feet. In fact, I landed flat on my back and whacked my head pretty hard on the ground. (Yes, I was wearing a helmet, but that didn't stop my from straining my neck and bruising the shit out of my back.)

It was stupid. She was spooking, yet again, at the windows in the arena. That stupid horse is just convinced there are horse eating monsters out there. I was tying to be all romantic and brave and ride her bareback. No saddle + spooky mare = pain.

I went home from the barn incredibly pissed off and hurting so bad that I decided I was done with horses. Done. Period. The End. So onto Dreamhorse she went and that was going to be that.

Except my husband, control freak that he is, knew that in my heart of hearts, I could never sell Ari. He tried to talk me out of it, but instead only made me more solid in my resolve to get rid of her. (I'm kinda donkey-like in that way...)

So instead he came out to the barn with me a few nights ago and decided to show me just how awesome my mare can be. Well, actually, he was probably just trying to one-up me and prove how he is right and I am wrong, but the end result was Ari following him all over the arena, no halter or leadrope in sight. I swear horses know when they are gonna get sold because she was being super duper sweet and lovey dovey.

Someone has left a practice trail bridge in the arena. I bet my hubby that he couldn't get her to walk over it without a halter. So what does she do? The little witch walked right over it like she was some sort of trail goddess who did things like that all the time. Then she walked over it the other direction. Then she backed over it. Rubbing it in a bit? You betcha, but it made my resolve to sell her soften and then pretty much dissolve.

Dammit.

But playing around on trail obstacles doesn't fix Ari's spooking problems and my subsequent crumbling confidence when on her back.

My husband and I talked it over a lot and he was actually pretty helpful in coming up with some new ideas. I am going back to (yet again) ground work 101 until we get her over the window fear. Hubby helped me employ the "treat technique" that worked so well at Inavale eventing camp to get Ari into the water hazard. Every time she sticks her head over the wall out one of the windows in the arena, she gets a cookie. After about 10 minutes of that we could hardly get her away from the windows.

Pig.

I am also starting Ari on Mare Magic to see if we can even out her hormones. My husband was the one who pointed out that her spooky days seem to be cyclical in nature. Duh. Why didn't I think of that? It's been proven that many mares have epic hormonal battles raging inside them for a few days each month and that can make them extra cranky, spooky and unsettled. So just because she isn't one of those squatting, peeing all over the place types, doesn't mean that her heat cycles aren't affecting our riding. Let's hope this stuff works. Many people swear by it.

Tomorrow I am having my trainer ride Ari to see what he thinks is going on with her. It should be very interesting especially since I have to now haul her to the lesson. She should be nice and jacked up for my trainer. Poor guy!

So yes, in case you are wondering, I did pull the ad from Dreamhorse after less than 48 hours. And yes, I am a basket case. What else is new.

Now, for something much happier. Stallions!

Or one stallion to specific.

I have decided on a baby daddy for Ari. Meet Quillane Apollo:

He is a 15.1 hand Section D cob. he has the looks, movement and most importantly, temperament that I want for Ari.

He is clearly trainable and passes all of his best traits onto his foals, as evidenced by the fact that one of his sons just sold for $22,000 as a dressage *prospect*!

He is competing successfully in dressage and combined driving. Apollo's pedigree is built on the tried and true lines of The Parc Stud, The Llanarth Stud and The Nebo Stud.

I could go on and on about all his wonderful qualities. If you want to see lots more of Apollo, he has his own webpage: www.quillaneapollo.com

But I will end with the thing that really sold me on this stallion. Check out this video of him ponying his own son on what is clearly a brisk, blustery day. He never puts a foot out of place and stays completely sane and steady, even when his son tries to get all uppity. Never mind the fact that there are few stallions out there who would pony another horse, much less their own colt! The best part is at the end when Arrow nips Apollo on the nose and Apollo doesn't even bat an eye! Now that's the kind of temperament I want to breed on.

New Plan of Attack

2010-11-28T11:51:00.001-08:00

Bringing Ari home last spring was really great. I am eternally grateful to my husband and father-in-law for all the hard work they put into Ari's paddock and shelter. I fully believe that having her right out my front door contributed to her successful recovery from EPM. Also, the ability to self-rehab after her illness was invaluable. Had she been stuck in a 12 x 12 stall where I could only observe her a few times a day, she may not have had such a successful outcome.

I also really enjoyed being her primary care giver. Seeing her ears perk up and hearing her demanding nickers in the morning always made me smile.

However, the past two weeks Ari has just been standing around getting fat thanks to the horrible winter weather we have been having. First it was a week straight of rain, followed by snow, followed by a deep freeze. YUCK! I just wasn't able to make myself bundle up, scrape the dirt off my horse and make the almost mile long trek to my neighbor's arena. I am only human, after all.

Luckily, I recently landed a part time job. It's only 3 to 4 days a month but it pays well enough that I was able to sweet talk my husband into letting me move Ari to a barn for the winter. I had several options in the area to choose from, but I had some pretty strict criteria. It needed to be close to my house, fit into our budget and most of all: SAFE. You would not believe some of the dumps I saw. I mean, seriously people, do you care about your horses' well being at all?

Then I saw an ad online for a barn that sounded promising. It is less than 4 miles from my house and is a private family facility that rents out a couple of their stalls. Everything was built two years ago and they offer turn out on large pastures. It sounded promising and turns out, it is as nice as advertised and is great fit.

So here is Ari's new temporary home: Cross Creek Farms.

Nice fencing, green pastures and runs off of each stall.

Barn entrance.

Gated entry (with BO's magnificent home in the background.)

Detail on the gate. Cool, huh?

Fabulous HEATED, finished meeting room complete with TV, DVD, and air hockey! There is an arena observation deck just outside the door. Sweet!

Another view of meeting room. It even has a bath, shower and kitchenette. I want to move in!

Hot/cold wash rack.

Light bright arena with sand footing and overhead sprinklers. The windows slide shut so on rainy/windy/cold days the arena is completely enclosed.

Ari's stall is the one in the middle of this pic. There are only 10 stalls with only two other boarders besides myself. The stalls all have 24 foot runs off them, which helps when the weather is too rainy and turn out is not an option. I wish she could go out daily, but at least here she has 3 times the room to move than she did last winter at her old barn.

I gave her a few days to settle in and then went out to ride her yesterday. I was anxious because I hadn't been on her back in more than two weeks, but she was actually quite good. I had all kinds of plans involving lunging her first or maybe letting my hubby get on her first, but in the end, I didn't do any of those things because there were too many other horses in the arena. The local high school equestrian team was having a practice ride that morning, so the arena was pretty busy.

At first, Ari tried to pull her usual stunts: spooking at the windows, throwing her head up to avoid the contact, skittering sideways, etc. But I just employed the techniques that I learned at my last lesson and in no time she was going around relaxed, relatively on the bit and nicely rounded. I was very happy with the ride.

Ari was unusually sweaty when I got off her, especially since we didn't ride all that long, but I think that may have had more to do with mental stress than the physical strain of the ride. It was very hard for her to stay focused with so much going on around her. But she tried very hard and behaved really well.

Here is a short video of our ride:

Lesson 11/12/10

2010-11-15T18:33:00.000-08:00

Due to scheduling conflicts at my neighbor's barn, Ari had not had a lesson in 3 weeks. I would love to say that we got lots and lots of great rides in those weeks and we were ready to make leaps and bounds in our progress, but alas the pony had other ideas.

In the two years that I have owned Ari, we have continually had problems with her being spooky. She seems to go in cycles. She can go for months with nary a foot out of place and then suddenly, WHAM, she's taking off and tossing me into the wall. The last few weeks we have been in one her spooky moods. I don't think she is truly afraid because 1) she is spooking in the EXACT same arena we have been riding in for the last year and 2) because I can take her on trail rides by herself and while she is cautious and "looky" at times, she is pretty brave.

I think this mare has learned over the years with previous owners that she can get out of work by acting spooky. In our lesson, true to form, Ari started acting like a goon and started pulling her spooking crap. So my trainer had me try a different approach to dealing with the spooking. Basically it involved using lateral and vertical flexion to essential capture and shut down the upward movement and energy it takes for her to spook. We essentially used a lot of circling and bending her to keep her focused and calm. We had to over-bend her in the beginning to really get the point across. It was key was to make sure she relaxed BOTH sides of her neck in order for her to become truly submissive. If we didn't, she ends up looking like this:

Which leads to this:

WTF? Are my eyes closed?

So when she did that, we did THIS (a lot):

Which eventually leads back to this:

And the ultimate goal is this:

This lesson was really hard and I was super sore the next day. Ari did not appreciate us thwarting her efforts to get out of work. She did not give up easily and I had to really be firm with her. If I even felt a change in the contact, I was to immediately flex her and move her off my leg. She had to be completely relaxed on both sides of her neck, in the base of her neck and in her poll before I let her straighten. Let me tell you, it was not easy! But I feel like I have a pretty effective tool now to use when she gets high headed and starts thinking about spooking. My long term goal is to be able to just move the rein over a few inches and flex her ever so slightly to remind her to stay relaxed. Sigh. Some day.

And here is a blast from the past. It just goes to show how far Ari has come in the last nine months. This was taken last February.

I can't believe how terrible she looks. Her body condition is awful and she is really lacking that healthy bloom. And look how stiffly she is moving. She has no reach or drive. And this was with a pro dressage trainer riding her! Yikes.

Bumper Sticker Fun

2010-11-08T11:20:00.000-08:00

I have been wanting some Welsh Cob specific bumper stickers, but have been unable to find what I was looking for. It's rare to find anything but Welsh Pony. And even those decals don't look very Welsh to me. More like Shetland Ponies.

So I decided to try my hand at designing my own. The graphic is based on a photo of the famous Cardi that I took at Devonwood summer of 2009.

I really like the way it turned out. Then I uploaded the image to Makestickers.com and designed my own bumper stickers. The oval one is going on my car and the other one on my horse trailer.

Dorky, I know. But what can I say? I'm just nerdy like that. :-)

Redemption

2010-11-03T09:40:00.001-07:00

I'm a little slow in posting this, but it has been a crazy week. First we had out of town guests for 4 days, then we found out our 12 year old dog most likely has cancer. So I've been really busy playing catch up and trying to deal with the emotional roller coaster of diagnosing the one animal who has been in my life longer than any other I've ever had.

When I last posted, Ari dumped me in a fit of truly pony-like behavior. I was dreading getting back on her. But I knew I needed to ride her again before the up coming show. So on Thursday, I took her back over to the arena with the intent of just lunging her. I find that whenever I am having trouble with confidence, going back to basics is always a good idea. So I figured a session from the ground might help our communication.

True to form, she started off with a bit of a 'tude. But I kept insisting that she listen and follow my commands and pretty soon she was licking and chewing and generally behaving. However, she still wanted to be spooky in the far corner of the arena, so I worked her there the most and purposely tried to spook her by jumping up and down and yelling "boo" and stuff like that. That always works like a charm as Ari ends up just getting annoyed by all the crazy actions of her human and forgets that she's supposed to be scared of something.

After our lunging session, I decided to do something I've never done with her before. I borrowed a helmet from my neighbor's tack room and climbed on Ari bareback with just her halter on. I realized that in order for me to ever trust her again, I had to do something drastic. So I hopped on.

At first Ari was pretty hesitant. You could tell she was thinking really hard about why her human was riding her without any tack. But after a short while she relaxed and felt really soft. We rode through our entire dressage test and she was a bit slow, but otherwise perfect. She never even thought about spooking. It was a really magical moment. There is something really cool about feeling your horse move under you in a way that seems to meld you together.

So I went home that day with a big grin on my face. I knew we would be fine at the show. Turns out I was mostly right.

The day of the Honkin' Huge Ribbon show dawned foggy and cold, but at least it wasn't pouring rain. I had done all of my packing and prep work the day before, so the morning of the show we simply loaded up and headed to the fairgrounds. My out of town guests came with me, which was a great help and support.

Ari backed out of the trailer and was a bit "up" but nothing too bad. I expected her to be a lot worse considering she hasn't been off the property in more than 6 months. I groomed her, tacked her up, got dressed and headed to the warm up arena.

We had a very nice warm up. The warm up ring at this fairgrounds is quite small, but at least it's covered and right next to the main arena. Ari was a bit looky, but obedient and felt very soft. We did lots of bending, flexing and worked on our trot/canter/trot transitions. I felt pretty confident as we headed to the big ring for our test.

However, Ari had other ideas. As soon as we entered she immediately started gawking at all the people sitting in the stands. Her head came way up and she started to get really tense.

As we circled just outside of the ring waiting for the judge to ring the bell, Ari was still being very tense and high-headed. She could hear people talking in the show office next to the ring and was still trying to crane her head to look at *everything*. The judge signaled us to start our test and as we headed down the center line, Ari spotted the guy in the corner videoing the tests and decided that he was the scariest thing she had ever seen.

Our halt and salute was actually pretty good. She stepped underneath herself quite nicely and stopped straight. But as we proceeded towards the judge's table (and the camera man of doom) Ari's head came straight up into my lap and she began drifting and contorting herself into something resembling a giant pretzel.

She refused to go into the corner nearest the camera and went along the rail completely counter-bent because she was trying to keep an eye on that guy with the horse-eating contraption. I was very disappointed but tried to just shake it off and keep going with the test. That's the thing I love about dressage: even if you completely blow a movement (or series of movements in this case) you can still score well on other parts of the test.

So we did have some nice moments after that. Our 20 meter trot circles were somewhat inconsistent. But she did pick up her left canter quite nicely. Our first canter circle was actually pretty good. Our second one was ok. She had about 10 seconds somewhere in the middle of the test where she was actually quite nicely rounded, on the bit and connected. But she still refused to bend correctly on the rail closest to the camera man.

We got our worst score ever on the free walk. Instead of stretching down and stepping under herself, like she normally does, Ari took advantage of my long reins to swing her head from side to side like a sight seeing tourist.

Needless to say, our test left a lot of room for improvement. I was happy that she didn't do anything really dumb like spook or bolt. And all things considered, it could have been a lot worse.

I myself need to learn to look up while riding. I have gotten in a very bad habit of looking down at my horse which then pulls my shoulders forward. Ugh! Plus, since Ari was being tense, I was tense and not sitting up with a relaxed long leg like I have been able to do lately.

We somehow managed to score a 60.435 which was good enough for second place in the class. True to their word, we did come home with a "honkin' huge" ribbon.

I have video of my test. Both the pro one given to each competitor and the one my husband took. I'm not going to post it. At least not yet. But I was playing around with stills from the video and managed to capture one of our 10 good seconds.

Please ignore my hideous position. I really need to work on looking up! But I think Ari looks quite lovely.

So then I started looking at past videos and was amazed at the difference. Compare the above still to this one from our schooling show last February!

Almost hard to believe it's the same horse...

So all in all I am quite pleased with the outcome of the show. I now know some of the things I need to work on this winter: taking Ari to new arenas, me looking up while riding, keeping my shoulders back, etc.

Humble Pie

2010-10-29T04:30:00.000-07:00

Tuesday I got served a great big slice of humble pie. I guess my head had been getting too big from all our complete awesomeness lately.

Ari decided it would be fun to dump me on my ass. Literally.

We had been having really wild weather for a couple of days, including thunder and lightening, which we rarely see in these parts of the pacific northwest. It had been raining heavily off and on with really gusty winds. I had given Ari quite a few days off after she worked so hard for me in our lesson the previous Friday. Plus, it was just too dang wet out to venture across the way to the arena.

But seeing as we have a show this weekend, I was really feeling pressured to get a ride in. So I grabbed the horse in between storms, tacked her up and hopped on to ride over to the arena. As soon as I got on her I knew it was going to be an interesting ride. She felt like a ticking time bomb. Her head was in my lap the whole ride over and she was incredibly tense.

As we came up my neighbor's driveway we could heard the sounds of lots of hammering and sawing. A guy was installing new saddle and bridle racks in the tack room just off the arena. As we entered the barn, I saw a table saw and a ladder and other construction type equipment littering the aisle. Ari snorted and rolled her eyes back in her head as we made our way to the arena, but other than not wanting to pass the ladder, she wasn't being too bad.

We tried to warm up with lots of circles and serpentines but Ari wanted nothing to do with all the racket coming from the tack room. It also started dumping rain as soon as we got into the arena. Thankfully my neighbor opted to go with a comp roof instead of the traditional metal, so it isn't particularly loud, just cold and gusty as the wind whipped through the open windows.

Ari tried to duck and dodge and pretty much act like an idiot for most of the first half hour. But I kept with her and kept insisting that she relax and give to me. After a bit it seemed like she was finally getting used to the noise. She was barely flicking an ear at the table saw's obnoxious whining. My husband called to see if we were OK and I talked to him for several minutes while riding her around on the buckle. Ari's head was low and she was seemingly quite relaxed.

So I hung up the phone and said to my silly mare, "OK. Now let's get some real work done." I asked her to pick up the trot. She was apparently still feeling her oats and trotted off very briskly. Which was actually quite nice for change. I even thought to myself, "Well, at least she's in front of my leg today!" We rounded the far corner of the arena and suddenly Ari took the bit in her teeth and took off at a dead gallop.

I screamed WHOA and pulled all the reins with all my might, but this only resulted in her bucking mightily as we careened around the corner. As my life was flashing in front of my eyes, I realized that "Hey, I'm still on top. Maybe I can ride this out." But my naughty, naughty pony had other ideas. When her bucking didn't dislodge me, she cornered hard and headed straight for the wall. OH SHIT.

I knew I was gonna come off at this point. I figured she would either drop her shoulder and turn so hard that I would come off sideways, or she would screech to a halt with her nose to the wall. Thankfully she opted to stop at that point. However, we had too much forward momentum and she ended up launching me over her neck. Somehow I got free of my stirrups and came off cleanly. I remember the wall coming at me at warp speed and somehow I managed to put my hands out and push away from the wall mid flight and land on my feet next to my wild eyed mare. I even still had the reins in my hands.

Shaken, but miraculously unhurt, I stood there quite stunned and unsure of what to do next. My first instinct was to beat the living tar out of my very badly behaved mare. But I was just too shaky, so instead I led her around for a bit while the adrenaline wore off. In retrospect, I am glad I didn't yell and scream and hit her. She just doesn't respond well to that kind of treatment. She shuts down and stonewalls me.

So when my legs stopped feeling like they were made of jelly, I climbed back on her. I knew I had to get back on immediately and make her be respectful and obedient. I put her on a 20 meter circle and we walked, trotted and cantered both directions. Ari felt really hesitant, like she knew she had screwed up BIG TIME and was waiting for me to come down on her, but otherwise she behaved like a perfect angel.

I then dismounted and led my evil pony home. Needless to say I was quite pissed, but in a way this is good. Pissed is better than scared. Pissed means I will be even more determined to school her if she decides to pull another stunt like this in the future. I do feel like a lot of the trust I had built with her is gone, which is incredibly frustrating, but at this point, I am going to try very hard to let it go and move forward. There were a lot of factors which contributed to this incident. Some of which I couldn't control. So we had a bad day. A very bad one, yes, but horses are sentient creatures with opinions and minds of their own. I guess if I want to ride something that will never have a bad day, I should get a bicycle.

Let's hope this was an isolated incident and that our next ride will be better. Cuz it sure as hell can't get much worse!

Phenomenal...

2010-10-24T11:07:00.000-07:00

In a word, the title sums up my dressage lesson on Friday.

It went better than I could have hoped for. After our horrible ride on Tuesday, I was apprehensive and full of doubt. Had I been imagining all the progress we were making? Was I wrong about my awesome new horse?

Turns out I was right and then some! The first thing my trainer commented on was how different Ari is physically. He hasn't seen her since before she got sick last spring and he noted immediately that she has lost all the bad muscling along the bottom of her neck. He pointed out how much thinner her throat latch is and how her neck ties into her shoulder more smoothly. He said those changes are probably why it is so much easier for me to get her to come onto the bit.

As we warmed up, he also noticed how much more relaxed she is and obedient to the aids. It was clear to him that much of her previous tenseness, both physical and mental, was gone!

We didn't do anything spectacular in the lesson itself. Just continued to work on bending her and then bringing her back to straight, going across the diagonal and stretchy trot work. My trainer was amazed at much Ari is working over her back and using her hind end. Nothing like before!

She truly is fun to ride now. I mean, I loved my mare before, but riding her was challenging. I used to be exhausted after a lesson and regularly got off her with my arms and back aching. Not so anymore!

My trainer was very excited at the new and improved Ari. He feels we really have something to work with now. Our goal until the next lesson is to work on consistency. Ari is finally using her body correctly, but since she is still coming back to full strength, she is a bit inconsistent. My trainer feels that with time however, this will correct itself. I think he said something along the line of, "If you think she's fun to ride now, wait until a month from now!" LOL...

The last thing he said to me at the end of our lesson was, "Bravo! You're going to go far with her."

Sweet.

Of course, it's been pouring rain since our lesson so we haven't had a chance to enjoy our new found awesomeness...That's Oregon for ya!

Waiting out the rain storm...

By the Hair of our Chinny Chin Chin...

2010-10-21T20:25:00.000-07:00

Apparently there was a last minute rush of entries for the Honkin' Huge Ribbon show. We mailed our entry in the day before the closing date. We are the very last name on the list of accepted entries! Woot.

Speaking of hairy chins...Ari got a trim job today. She is getting really fuzzy already and her, ahem, "beard" was getting pretty out of control. So out came the clippers and off came her whiskers. I neatened up her ears and her bridle path as well. I leave the hair inside her ears because she lives outside, but I trimmed off all the loooong hairs that were poking out everywhere. She really does have a pretty head...it just gets hidden underneath all the pony coat.

I debated giving her a trace clip since I was already all covered in little black Ari hairs, but opted to do the less obvious strip clip instead. So now she is nekkid just under her neck and on her belly. It should help keep her from overheating but not make her too cold since this will be her first winter not in a stall for quite some time.

I will try to take some pics of her all purtied up tomorrow. Assuming it doesn't dump rain...

My Horse is Such a Pony Sometimes...

2010-10-20T20:15:00.000-07:00

So after having so many good rides in a row these last few weeks, yesterday's ride was a total disaster. She was spooky, distracted and out of tune with me. Add my head cold and tiredness into the mix and it was well...ugly. And of course I had just spent all morning bragging to my husband about how wonderful Ari has been doing so he came over the arena with me armed with the camera, set to capture all this wonderfulness on film.

Um yeah. Not so much.

So I decided to give Ari a break for a couple of days and focus on something other than riding. It occurred to me that since I entered Ari in the dressage show at the end of the month, some trailer loading practice might be in order. Plus, I sold my slant load trailer to help pay for some house repairs, and ended up getting a straight load as a replacement. It's a very nice straight load and it is extra tall and wide (Logan Trojan warmblood model with a ramp) but I really had no idea if Ari would load in it.

I figured better not wait until the morning of the show to find out! So armed with gloves, a whip and pocket full of carrots I spent an hour this afternoon teaching Ari to load herself in the trailer.

She did quite well, all things considered. She was a bit leery of the ramp (it bounces!) but all it took was lots of praise and stuffing carrots in her face to get her to walk in it. Then once she discovered there was hay in the mangers (oh joy!) I couldn't get her to back out! She's such a pony sometimes...

But with more carrot enticement, I finally got her going in, standing quietly while I closed up the back and then backing out politely. What a good girl!

"Are we there yet?"

"Hi Mom!"

In other news, we are scheduled for our first lesson post EPM this Friday. I am nervous yet excited! Should be interesting...

Trail Ride WIN

2010-10-18T09:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I decided Ari needed a break from arena work. The majority of the vineyards close to us seem to be wrapping up their harvest, so the cannons are finally winding down. I threw on her Easy Boot Epics and we headed out for a nice long hack.

I wasn't sure how she was going to act, as we had only just started having success at hacking out when she got sick in the spring. But I decided to just stay very relaxed and roll with the punches.

However, I shouldn't have worried as my super star mare was completely awesome the whole ride. You wouldn't have guessed we hadn't been out on the road in more than six months! She was completely at ease and ambled along, head down and on the buckle as if she'd been a trail horse her whole life. LOL. She did prick her ears occasionally to look things and we discovered once we were about a mile from our house that there was still one vineyard operating their "bird banger." But she only raised her head and flicked her ears at the first couple of ground shaking booms and then proceeded to ignore them after that.

What a good girl!

We did have one moment where she got a little overwhelmed by all our neighbors doing yard work. We had a guy on a very old, very noisy riding lawn mower on one side and directly across the street was another guy operating a large tractor. Both were within 10 feet of the road. Ari stopped and I could sense her trying to decide what to do. She was trembling a bit and on high alert. I could tell her first instinct was to wheel and bolt towards home. But I just petted her neck and gently asked her to keep moving forward. She hesitated for a half second, eyes wide, ears swiveling, but then took one baby step. I praised the crap out of her until she took another step and then another. With me cheering her on the whole way, we successfully tip toed our way past all the scary "monster machinery."

I was very proud of us in that moment. It just proves to me how much she has come to trust me and how much more confidence I have in her and myself.

I was never nervous during our ride. I knew that even if she got spooked by something, it would be no big deal and I would just deal with it if it happened. (Which it never did!)

She did get a little excited when we saw another horse and rider galloping through one of the vineyards on our way home. She picked her head up really high and started to trot but it wasn't a spook, it was more like, "Hey! Lookit! Let's go join 'em!"

I was very proud of my girl yesterday. It was a beautiful afternoon full of sunshine and crunchy leaves under foot. The very best kind of day to go for a ride on your best friend.

Break Her Down to Build Her Up?

2010-10-12T09:18:00.000-07:00

So it's been a while since I posted, but things have been going along just swimmingly! We have only had a few days of rain in the last few weeks, so Ari and I have been making the most of the lovely fall weather. I have been riding her pretty consistently the last couple of weeks and her progress is nothing less than astonishing!

We are up to nearly 45 minutes under saddle and amazingly we are even cantering again. Mostly still walk/trot/suppling work, but about a week ago Ari offered to canter under saddle all on her own. I was riding her in our jumping tack for the first time since before she got sick. My Vision saddle is definitely a very forward flap, so it feels best when I ride in two point. We were trotting around, me in two-point, at a very nice forward pace with lots of energy. I was letting Ari do pretty much whatever she wanted with her head, as long as she stayed forward and straight. Suddenly we rounded a corner and she lifted up into a very lovely canter. It took me a few strides to realized what she had done and my immediate response was to want to sit down and pull her back to the trot. But she felt balanced and seemed comfortable, so I decided to let her go for as long as she wanted and just try to stay in a good two point position. She cantered nearly a full lap around the arena before she broke back to trot. I was amazed at how good it felt. I expected our first time back at the canter to feel rushed and discombobulated! But it wasn't so. She tired pretty quickly, but it was an amazing ride. So now we are incorporating small amounts of canter work into our routine.

So since I started riding Ari again, I have had this eerie sense that someone kidnapped my horse in the middle of the night and replaced her with a horse who is soft, light, and supple! Before Ari got sick, the majority of our rides consisted of me vainly attempted to get her to bend and soften and carry herself. I often ended our rides with my arms and back aching from her leaning so hard on the bit. Occasionally in our lessons we would have these "aha" moments where I would start to feel softness, but truthfully most of the time she was like steering a barge.

But since our triumphant return to the arena, I suddenly have a horse who is no longer resistant. Well, ok, a lot LESS resistant. She feels more balanced and softer and definitely lighter. We achieve connection between her hind legs and front legs pretty regularly. She comes onto the bit nicely and is carrying herself like she never did before!

I happened to be chatting with my trainer last Friday after he finished giving my neighbor a lesson and mentioned to him what had been going on with Ari. He then told me something that caused a big 'ol light bulb to come on over my head. He said he has seen this phenomenon before is horses that were given a long break from work. His reasoning is that when a horse loses muscle tone due to a lay off, they lose not just the good muscles but the bad ones too. Therefore all her stiffness and resistance are gone. It's like starting with a blank slate!

My thinking is that because Ari is naturally pretty balanced and has good basic gaits, all my hand walking, working on the lunge, working over poles and starting her back under saddle with just lots and lots of walking, have resulted in the new and improved horse that I now have the pleasure of owning and riding.

It's crazy how good she feels under saddle right now, however, part of me keeps waiting for the other shoe to drop....

I hope to start lessons again next month. That's my plan anyway. I am also mulling around the idea of entering her in the Honkin' Huge Ribbon Dressage Show being held at the fairgrounds at the end of the month. It's so very close and it's a league show being held by the Oregon Dressage Society, so it's not super formal. And it's the last opportunity for any kind of competition until next spring. I thought it might be a fun way to celebrate Ari's recovery. And come on, who doesn't love Honkin' Huge Ribbons?

We'll see. I have until the 20th to decide. But until then Ari and I will continue to enjoy the sunshine while it lasts. I do wish we didn't live so damn close to so many vineyards. I want to go for a trail ride, but the stupid cannons are going off non stop these days. Ari ignores them while in her paddock, but out on the road she gets a little nervous about them. I don't really blame her. They are LOUD. It feels like we are living in a constant Civil War reenactment...

Good-Bye Tree of Death - We Shall Not Miss You

2010-09-26T08:37:00.000-07:00

Last spring we unthinkingly built Ari's paddock right next to a potentially hazardous tree. The tree was bare of leaves back in February when we brought Ari home and all summer this lovely tree provided nice morning shade with its thick green canopy.

Then, as the weather started turning cooler, the leaves began changing to a lovely bright red color. Hold the phone! What kind of tree is this again? A red maple?

Uh-oh. Not good. Not good at all. For those of you who aren't horse savvy, you have to understand that red maples (Acer Rubrum) are very, very toxic to horses. Oh, the green leaves fresh off the tree are fine. And there is some debate as to whether the fallen, dried leaves are dangerous. But all experts agree that wilted leaves from a fallen tree, or even a fallen branch, will kill a horse in 18 to 24 hours even if they only eat a few mouthfuls. There is something about the wilted leaves that changes their chemical make up and the become extremely toxic. (And they also become really sweet and tasty due to the concentration of the natural sugars in maples leaves...a very deadly combination.)

My hubby was opposed to cutting down this lovely old maple, but I couldn't take the constant stress of worrying about it being right next to the horses.

Patches: Whoa! What happened to that tree?!

Many, many thanks to my father-in-law for all his help. (He looks like he's having fun, though!)

My daughter and one of my Corgis posing with the downed tree.

Here's all that's left of the red maple. A pretty bird house stand. So sorry to kill you Mr. Tree, but we shall not miss you and your deadly leaves.

Humble Beginnings

2010-09-24T09:38:00.000-07:00

I have had Miss Ari for coming up on two years. I remember the first time I went to look at her I thought she was the most beautiful horse I had ever seen. I rode her twice and took my husband to meet her before making the final decision to bring her home. That's one decision I have never regretted.

I was looking through some old pics and videos the other day and came across the first ones I ever took of Ari. Holy cow! I must have had some serious vision to see past all the fuz. Looking at them now she looks like a sadly neglected pony, better suited for roaming the hills of some brutally cold continent, than an eventing/dressage prospect. Watching the video my husband took on my second trial ride, all I can think is "Man that's one out of shape, naughty pony!" She is wiggling all over the place, crooked as all get out and refuses to canter more than two steps. It's quite the comedy of errors! Yet, somehow I just knew this mare was meant to by mine.

Here she is the day I brought her home:

I think she may be part yak!

Thankfully this ugly duckling turned into this beautiful swan. (With the help of a whole lotta elbow grease and some really sharp clippers...)

Somebody Pinch Me

2010-09-19T20:15:00.001-07:00

...cuz I must be dreaming. That's how it feels to finally be riding Ari again. After we came so close to losing her, I didn't want to let myself get to hopeful that she was going to ever be rideable again. I remember sitting down with my husband and watching my poor mare stagger around in her paddock and with all the seriousness in the world discussing whether it was time to let her go. I get all choked up still just thinking about it.

I am so glad we decided to give the EPM meds a shot. I guess we had nothing to lose at that point. What a tragedy that would have been had we not decided to give her another chance.

Today Ari felt FANTASTIC. She was super light and relaxed the entire ride. She was willing to do some baby flexes and come onto the bit a little more. She seems to still remember all the things we were learning right before she got sick. I won't bore you with another video of us just walking around, so here are some stills I captured from it.

I have decided I am in love with my new saddle. I didn't realized how badly my old saddle fit me until today. With the Somer saddle it takes no effort at all to ride in a correct position. Not to say that I don't still need work, but it's light years better than my old position! No more hunchback days for me!

What's weird is somehow Ari seems more mentally mature after her ordeal. I'm not sure how much horses understand when they get sick or injured, but she is less spooky, more affectionate and seems happy to work.

Of course, today we still had this moment:

She spooked a noise outside. But she came right back to me and willingly walked right by the door again immediately and was a perfect angel.

The majority of our ride she was like this:

Very relaxed and happy!

To finish off we practiced a halt at x. Not bad for 6 months off...

BACK IN THE SADDLE!

2010-09-18T08:32:00.000-07:00

Woot! I rode Ari again for the first time since she got sick last spring. It wasn't much, all of five minutes at a slow walk. But you gotta start somewhere, right? I can't describe how unbelievably good it felt to be back on her.

The video is about as exciting as watching paint dry, but I've posted it here for your viewing pleasure anyway. There are a couple of funny moments a few minutes into it.

I can't wait to ride her again. And I love my new dressage saddle. Even just slouching around on her I felt like the saddle put me in a better position. Something my other saddle never did. Amazing how riding in a saddle that is the correct size makes such a big difference!

So without further ado. Here we are:

New Saddle and First Ride (Of Sorts...)

2010-09-07T19:23:00.000-07:00

Check out my new (used) Theo Sommer dressage saddle. I found it on Craigslist. The gal and her daughter drove 2 hours to bring it to my house so I could try it. I guess they really like driving. It was kind of a shot in the dark as all I knew was it was a 17.5" seat and a wide tree. But I had researched them online and knew it would be a pretty good quality saddle.

My bestest horse and dog friend was in town for the weekend, so that was a major bonus as she helped me evaluate the fit. We put it on Ari and I was kinda shocked to find that it actually fits her really well. We tried it with several different pads and girthed it up tight and I still really liked the fit. This one does not have the flared panels, which is what was causing pressure points with the Classic Saddlery dressage I had previously. Plus this one is a smaller seat, which I was hoping would fit me better.

I sat on the saddle on a saddle stand but wasn't really able to get a feel for it. So we put it back on Ari and my friend gave me a pony ride around the yard. It was cheesy and I felt pretty silly being led around, but at the same time I was secretly elated as it was the first time I had been on her back since before she got EPM. YAY!

You could tell Ari was like, "Really? Has it come to this?" but she was a good girl and didn't seem to move any differently with me on her back. I am glad I have lost 50lbs though. I feel like it will be easier for her to continue rehabbing if she isn't having to counter balance my fat butt.

The saddle felt really good and seems to be the right size as my knee was tucked in nicely behind the knee roll. We'll see if I continue to like it as much once I really start riding in it.

My daughter saw me taking pictures of the saddle and wanted to pose with her Princess Ballerina doll. She's such a ham!

I ended up making an offer on the saddle, which she accepted, and I even got her to include two pairs of breeches. One is a white pair of ribbed show breeches and the other pair is pink plaid full seat by Pikeur, which sounds hideous but they are actually super cute. So score for me!

My Trailer Project

2010-08-31T21:21:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday I picked up this super cute 1996 Arrowhead trailer. I have never heard of the brand, but I believe it was made in Idaho. It is not very tall, but is extra wide (6'7") which is perfect for Ari.

As you can see, it needs some TLC. It was stored outside under pine trees all its life. The previous owner did a cursory pressure washing before putting it up for sale, but it really needs some detailing. (All those streaks down the back door are from a bunch of mud and dirt that came loose while I was hauling it home. I guess there was still water somewhere from when it got washed?)

It has a lot of small areas of surface rust from where moisture condensed or pooled. But all the important structural elements like seams or welds are in great shape.

The worse is on the interior roof where condensation caused a lot of rust spots to form. (No it does not have a divider in the horse area, but I never use one with Ari so it's perfect for me.)

It has a nice sized tack room with lots of hooks and two saddle racks. I didn't think to take a before pic, but this is how the tack room looks after 3 hours of scrubbing every surface with C.L.R. There were huge streaks of rust running down the front.

I tackled the worst section of the roof first. Here you can clearly see the contrast. Right side has been cleaned with C.L.R., treated with rust remover, sanded down and then primed and painted. What a world of difference! I am quite pleased with how it turned out.

Sure, it's gonna take me a while to get the whole trailer done, but when you only pay a little over $2000 for it, who can complain?

This trailer is amazingly well constructed and has lots of nice little details that set it apart from other stock trailers I have had. It is sturdy and doesn't rattle like many do. A little more elbow grease and this baby's gonna shine.

Making Progress

2010-08-29T15:31:00.001-07:00

Other than her obvious "hay belly" Ari is starting to look really really good. Her strength and coordination are coming back in leaps and bounds. Woot!

I have been able to work with her more consistently this week now that I am finally over my cold and my back is about 80% better. I still either wrap my back or wear a brace for support. And some days I am pretty dang tired by evening, but it's getting there.

Check out the lovely muscling in her hams. Her work outs are steadily increasing in length and intensity.

Today our workout went like this:

walk over to the arena (10 min warm up up and down a hill)

walk briskly on the wall (5 min each direction)

practice backing in a straight line (5 minutes)

stretching and suppling (5 minutes)

more brisk walking on the wall (5 minutes each direction)

walk home (10 minute cool down)

So our total time was 40 minutes. She still seemed to have energy left when we finished. She still twists her back feet while walking in the arena sand, but it's about half what it was a few weeks ago, so I am hopeful that as she gains even more strength, that will disappear.

Ari was a complete brat while I was tacking her up. She tried to cow kick me while I was wrapping her back legs. I didn't have a crop handy, so she got a boot to the gut for that little stunt. She was also antsy and pooping everywhere. I suspect she thought she was going in the trailer since it's parked outside right next to her cross ties instead of in the shop where it normally is.

"Put the camera down and give me the apple I know you are hiding in your pocket!"

Nom nom nom.

Yes, she's pretty spoiled, but I love her anyway.

Tractor Chicken

2010-08-22T08:21:00.000-07:00

Ari is such a dork. I guess she's just bored with being dry lotted full time and then with me being sick and injured, she hasn't gotten out a lot lately.

Yesterday our wonderful neighbor Wendy loaned us her tractor to use to move the hogs fuel. It saved my hubby's back from hours of manual labor. It wasn't necessarily faster, but we really appreciate her generosity nonetheless.

Since I didn't think Ari would stand tied for that long we decided to try keeping the horses in the paddock while my husband drove in and out with me manning the gate. The first couple of passes the horses were understandably a bit spooked by the tractor and stayed far away from it. I figured after the first couple of times they would calm down and be ok with it.

Watching with great interest.

I was partly right. After the first couple of passes they were no longer afraid of the tractor but then they decided it would be fun to play "chicken" with it.

They would wait at the far end of the paddock until my husband got to within 10 feet or so of them and then they would wheel and race, tails and heads held high, to the far end of the pen as fast as they could run.

Wheee!

It was amusing at first and nice to see Ari moving so well. She was spinnin' and runnin' like a barrel racer.

I knew it was a game because Ari wasn't sweating or even breathing hard. Plus, whenever my husband turned off the tractor to jump down and spread the footing by hand, she and Patches were right there sniffing the tractor from top to bottom.

After a while, however, I realized that Ari was probably going to over do it with this silly game of hers, so I ended up catching the two horses and taking them behind the shop to hand graze while my hubby finished up.

He got about 2/3 of the hogs fuel moved and spread, but will have to do the last 3rd by hand otherwise the pile will get pushed into the neighbor's fence.

Ari sniffing and pawing in the new footing.

I'm not entirely sure Patches understood the game, but whatever Ari does, he does too. So the poor squirt got his exercise too. However, neither of them even broke a sweat, so no real damage done.

I just wanted to share the pics I captured because lately it seems that the only pictures I ever post of the horses is of them standing around stuffing their faces. :-) See? They do move around from time to time!

Time Flies When You're Having...Fun?

2010-08-20T10:12:00.000-07:00

Wow. What happened to summer? It seems like we just got started and now I look out the window and see this:

See them? Look closely.

The leaves are already turning! Arg!

This is so not how I expected my summer to go. I mean everyone has big expectations for summertime. And I didn't truly expect to accomplish everything on my "list" but I sure as heck didn't expect it to be nothing but illness and injury for both me and my horse.

I know we still have quite a few warm sunny days ahead of us and we may yet have another heat wave, but seeing those red leaves peeking out made me feel quite depressed this morning.

Since we know the rainy season will be here before we even realize it, my husband and I have had to start thinking ahead already. Today we had two units of hogs fuel delivered so we can replenish the footing in Ari and Patches's paddock. (And when I say "we" I of course mean, "he" as I am still out of commission...)

When we initially put the footing in the paddock, the fence was not up yet so the delivery truck was able to dump it directly where we wanted it to go. We still had to spread it, but at least it was in the general vicinity of the paddock. This time, since the gate opening is too narrow to accommodate the dump truck, we will have to spread it the old fashioned way: one wheel barrow at a time. My poor hubby.

I am truly lucky to have such a helpful partner. I know not all husbands are as willing to do manual labor to keep their wife (and their wife's animals) happy.

So thank you honey! I owe you big time.

See how big the piles are? Eeek! It's gonna be a slow process. But that is exactly why we are starting now.

Getting Kicked While You're Down

2010-08-19T10:48:00.000-07:00

Just as I was starting to get over my super icky cold, I sprained my sacroiliac joint. I didn't even know that was possible! I was walking back into the house after feeding the horses and the puppy their breakfast 4 days ago when suddenly I couldn't stand up straight. I had pain, weakness, and muscle spasms waaaay low in my back. Like around my pelvis and pubic bone. The pain wrapped around to the front and went down the back of my legs.

Of course, the hubby was at work, so I tried my best to just tough it out. I made it through the day by hobbling around bent over at the waist like an old woman, but finally had to admit that I couldn't make it on my own. Josh was able to get someone to come in and cover for him at work so he could come home.

Then I spent the next 4 days flat on my back in bed taking massive amounts of ibuprofen and muscle relaxants.

Talk about frustrating. It brought me to tears that I was so unable to do ANYTHING but lay there. All I could think about was all the chores around the house that weren't getting done. My husband, bless his heart, was running around playing catch up and trying to stay on top of everything, but when he's having to play nursemaid to me, take care of our daughter, keep the house relatively clean and take care of the animals, it was enough to drive a person crazy. Add to that my neurotic, anal nature and it's a wonder he didn't just smother me with a pillow out of frustration.

I guess I could look at it as an exercise in letting go....

Yeah right.

I have a mental list of all the things I am going to do just as soon as my back is better that is a mile long.

So today is the first day that I am able to sit up right for more than 5 minutes without my upper back spasming from trying to compensate for the weakness in my lower back. And I have stopped taking the muscle relaxants.

Unfortunately it's gonna still be quite a while before I am able to do much. AAARRRGGGHHH! Never, ever take your back for granted. Without it, you are pretty much screwed.

Consistency

2010-08-10T20:13:00.000-07:00

Something that seems to be in short supply these days. Sigh. Not for lack of trying. To start with, I have been super sick for the last week. Like flat-on-my-ass, unable to do barely anything, coughing-my-lungs-out kind of sick. I guess it's just a cold, but boy, has it kicked my butt.

Ari enjoying her life of leisure.

Before that the weather was complicating things. It was too darn hot to do anything outside for about a week. Even the evenings were sticky and gross. Also, we had out of town guests and have been caring for some puppies too. Add my husband's work schedule into the mix and before you know it, it's been nearly a week since I've last worked the horse. Thus, we aren't getting very far in our rehab.

I did manage to walk her over to the arena a couple of days ago and she did quite well. We did about 10 minutes of hand walking on the rail and then did about 5 minutes of walking in a 20 meter circle with 4 ground poles at various points. Then we practiced backing straight along the wall once in each direction.

It was a good work out for the horse and even thought I thought I was going to die from exhaustion or from a coughing fit, it was worth it. Plus, on the way home, Ari got a little "up" due to the neighbors standing on their front porch yelling at their dog or something. Her head went to the sky and she was snorting for all she was worth. She knew better than to try to take off, so instead she channeled her energy into a fantastic little piaffe next to me. It was quite stunning actually. And it made me glad to see that she still has the coordination and strength to move like that when she wants to.

She looked a little something like this. (Well, maybe not, but it was darn close...)

So, the bottom line is that I really need to be more consistent in working her. But it's really hard some weeks. I am starting to feel almost human again, so I hope that means I am over the hump and will be healthy again some day soon.

I also haven't been running or doing my pilates, thanks to this stupid cold. I'll bet I've gained back a ton of weight. But then again, maybe not because I haven't been able to smell anything for over a week and food just doesn't taste good, so I haven't been eating all that much.

Back to Work

2010-07-28T21:01:00.001-07:00

As you can see here, Ari has regained her body condition (and then some! LOL) and is starting to muscle up again. We have started going for long walks up the gravel road again now that the size 2 Easy Boots have arrived. Yesterday we did two miles easily and our road is not flat by any means. Lots of long uphills and downhills.

(Yes, her tail is braided. She gets nasty tangles under her tailhead, so I am trying a braid to keep that from happening.)

"Awww Mom. Do we have to?"

So today we tacked up and walked over the arena for some very light lunging and more hand walking.

I like the fit of her new Courbette Vision. I think it will fit even better once she build up her topline again and the saddle breaks in some. I may even have the saddle fitter out again at some point just to make sure we are on track.

"Mom needs to shave my whiskers!"

She was pretty good in the arena. She did spook at the men building paddocks in the pasture just outside. One of them must have dropped something and she used the noise as an excuse to try to pull away and crow hop. Luckily she never really puts her heart into misbehaving, so it's easy for me to pull her head around. She did try to race around me at a gallop a few times and was giving me heart attacks that she was going to slip and fall, but then her lazy nature took over and she came back to a walk. Whew!

Carrick-Bryn Tristan

2010-07-27T04:23:00.000-07:00

When Ari was really sick, my husband and I discussed if it was worth continuing treatment if all we could hope for was for her to pasture sound. We decided it was and at one point, I was desperately hoping she would recover well enough to breed.

Ari is the first mare I have ever owned. I have always been a gelding person. So this is the first time I have ever considered having a foal.

One of my goals of breeding Ari was to get something that would eventually replace her as my eventing partner. I had been shopping for studs who could give the foal some size and athletic ability. I was hoping to end up with something at least 15 hands.

However, the more I researched breeding Ari and what would be involved, the more I came to the conclusion that there are just too darn many risks involved. Plus, you really don't save any money by breeding your own prospect. By the time you figure in stud fees, shipping fees, mare care, vet fees, vaccinations for both mom and baby, etc it adds up to a pretty big number. Sure, there are horses out there that cost quadruple that number and more, but for me and my humble horse-budget, breeding is really kind of cost prohibitive.

So then I started thinking about finding a youngster instead. A weanling or yearling. Something with potential to be a great riding partner. I want brains and temperament as well as ability. I definitely want another Cob.

Doing a search on Dreamhorse for Welsh Cobs, I came across this youngster, Carrick-Bryn Tristan.

He has everything I would want: looks, temperament, size and athleticism.

(Forgive the low quality of the pics. They are stills captured from a low res video off You Tube.)

I think this colt is quite stunning.

He already shows the reach, drive and suspension to be great at dressage.

He looks like he's taking his job very seriously.

Yet he has a playful streak too.

I think he's beautifully balanced for a youngster.

Yum!

This video clip of him demonstrates his lovely steady Cob demeanor. He clearly has a brain.

Tristan's sire: Huber's Tivadar

And his dam: Cwmfelend A Real Model

She looks a lot like Ari.

I would seriously sell everything I have that is worth anything to buy this colt.

(Are you reading this honey???)

He is located in B.C. but I think I could get his breeder to meet me at the border so I would only have to drive about 5 hours to pick him up...

Sigh.

This and That

2010-07-12T10:38:00.000-07:00

As predicted, the horse trailer sold in two days. Yay! The gal that bought it lives one town over from me and works at the hospital. Nice lady.

My new saddle is scheduled for delivery on Thursday. According to the UPS website it is in transit and on-time. I am so excited to get it. Of course, I won't be able to ride in it just yet. But just knowing I have it and it's waiting for me is great.

Patches has a farrier appointment for this afternoon. He is actually a little over due for trimming, but the natural balance guy who did Ari wanted $45 to trim him. Yikes. That seemed excessive for a mini. I have not used the guy who's coming today before. Talking on the phone with him he sounds pretty old school. We'll see. I am going to have him look at Ari to see if he thinks she needs another trim even though it's only been about a month.

Lastly, last night was a very exciting point in Ari's recovery. We walked over to the arena for the first time since before Ari got sick. On the way over she was pretty bug eyed and snorty at everything. But to be fair, everything looks very different since the last time she was walked down the road. All the plants are in full bloom and are MUCH taller. Also, the one of the neighbors installed a satellite dish right next to the road. Apparently it is a horse eating satellite because Ari steered waaaay around it.

Once we got in the arena, Ari tried to explode a few times. She was being really silly and over reacting to every little noise. Some serious backing up (as in back-your-ass-up-NOW-all-the way-across-the-arena-as-fast-as-you-can!) helped remind her that this kind of behavior is unacceptable.

We only did a couple of laps leading around the arena at a walk and then called it a day. She got better after a while and would spook in place but then come back to me quickly. I'm not sure if the extreme spookiness is a by product of the EPM or simply because she's had so much time off. I suspect the latter.

So we are going to continue with our hand walking and start adding some slow lunging. My neighbor came out and was talking with me while I was working with Ari. She said she thought Ari looked great. I think so too. I am impatient to get back on her but am very happy with her progress so far!

So Much Good to Report!

2010-07-08T07:13:00.000-07:00

First off, I am happy to report than Ari has been off all meds for over a week with no signs of relapse. She is practically glowing thanks to all the vitamins she's been on and the eastern OR hay. She continues to self-rehab in the paddock and best of all, her personality is back to normal. I didn't really notice the change until she was done with the prednisolone. But I can tell she's a happy, albeit somewhat bored, girl again. When I clean the paddock she's right under foot now playing with the wheel barrow, the apple picker, my clothing...basically anything she can get her mouth on. She also stands right in between the handles of the wheel barrow so I can't move it without petting her first.

Nom nom nom...

So according to the vet's instructions, Ari is to start back to work slowly. I am so excited about this. Of course, the last few days it's been hotter than hell, so nobody is doing much except hide wherever its coolest.

But I did manage to get one small workout in before the weather change. I walked Ari around the front pasture twice. It was only about 8 minutes of walking, but the it was up and down a slope (good for rebuilding hind quarters). I want to start taking her for walks up the road to get her off the property and remind her how to listen and respond to me when we are not at home, but Ari's feet have grown very tender during her recovery.

"Can we at least wait until I am done with breakfast?"

I plan to use her Easyboots until her feet toughen up again, but the last time I rode her with the boots (a few days before she got sick) one of them came off. I measured her feet and compared them to the sizing chart on the Easy Care website and she actually needs a smaller size. Darn it! So now I have my old boots, which have barely been used, for sale now in hopes of being able to buy her a used pair of size 2 boots. So far no interest though.

"What?!? Ari's going to start leaving me again?"

In other good news, I finally got my dream saddle! I have been longing for a Courbette Vision ever since trying one last September. It was the most comfortable and secure saddle I have ever sat in. I didn't buy the one from the local tack shop because after trying it three different times, I decided it was too big for me and a little too wide for Ari. Since then I have been looking online for another used one, but was having no luck finding the seat and tree size combo I need.

Then low and behold, yesterday I am on eBay just surfing around and I do a search for Courbette Vision. What do you know? A barely used one (less than 10 rides) in the exact size I need. There are already lots of bids on it, but there is also a Buy It Now for a very good price.

I showed it to my husband and began begging in earnest. We don't *really* have the money for a saddle right now, but another one in the size I need may not come along again for a really long time. So we agreed that I could buy it with some of our savings if I sell the horse trailer.

I am certain the trailer will sell fast. It's in such good shape and a lot of people want to be able to pull a horse trailer with a smaller vehicle, which you can do with the Thuro Bilt Spirit.

Lastly, check out the pasture!

It's finally filling in. And this is after mowing it a week ago. The grass was thigh high in places. We mowed to cut down the weeds and allow the grass to grow. The horses eyeball it hungrily all the time. Soon guys. Soon. Now we need to start digging fence post holes. But not in this heat.

Un-Friendly Neighbors

2010-07-05T07:59:00.000-07:00

I really HATE the 4th of July. It's such a stupid holiday. I'm all for celebrating our independence, but why must we do it by getting sloshed and then lighting off explosives? Do we *really* need to reenact the rocket's red glare?

This was our first 4th with Ari at home. Last year she was boarded where I knew she was safely tucked into her stall with a giant fluffy pile of hay to keep her occupied.

Previous years we lived on our old farm where we had a barn with stalls so it was easy to do the same. I only ever worried about idiots shooting their fireworks towards our field and house. Thankfully it was never a problem.

But this year all we have is the paddock for Ari. And as the Great Hot Air Balloon Incident proved, when she is panicked, Ari can work herself into quite a sweat running the length of it. I had no idea how bad the fireworks in our area were going to be, so I decided to stay home while my husband and daughter went to a BBQ at a friend's place. I am soooo glad I did.

As the sun set, the booms and pops started as expected. Most were pretty far away and for the first little bit the horses were completely unfazed. I was on my computer upstairs with the window open keeping an ear on things. Then I heard a bunch of people gathering in my neighbor's back yard. I know the couple that lives there is older and has grown children with grandkids. I wasn't too worried as I know the grandkids are pretty little so I figured their fireworks would be pretty tame.

I started to get a little nervous however, because our property is longer than it is wide, so the neighbor's house and yard is like 100 feet from Ari's paddock. There is a privacy fence and trees and hedges, so we can't actually see them, but they are really quite close.

At first my assumptions were correct. They started lighting off the usual array of smaller, legal fireworks. Some were louder than others but nothing too obnoxious. At first Ari and Patches kept eating and were un fazed. As the fireworks grew more numerous they moved to the far end of the paddock. Eventually they went to stand under the shelter and watch, alert, but still calm.

Then suddenly I see a large firework explode right outside my second story window, about 50 feet in the air with a deafening BOOM which shook the house. WTF??? I run downstairs and as I am running several more clearly less-than-legal fireworks explode way above the trees.

Sure enough the horses are running in a blind panic. The eyes are rolling back in the heads with each explosion and I can see they are freaked out of their minds. I was fine when they were keeping it reasonable and legal, but this was so out of control it was ridiculous.

We have a gate in the fence that separates our two properties, so I marched right into their back yard and informed them that I hated to be a party pooper, but they were scaring the crap out of my horses and if they didn't stop setting off the illegal fireworks I was going to call the cops.

Then I went back to the horses who were still galloping wildly around the paddock and attempted to calm them. Amazingly after a few moments Ari stopped and turned and looked at me. I held out my hand and asked her in a quiet voice to "come here." Very unexpectedly she did walk to me and put her head down and allow me to slip the halter on. She was shaking from head to toe and sweaty, but she stayed by me willingly.

I stood with the horses in the paddock while the neighbors set off a couple more fireworks. However there were no more of the giant illegal ones, so I guess my little outburst got their attention.

Was I a little bitchy about it? Yes! Was I pissed? You bet! Was I going to stand by and let them scare my horses to death and risk injury to my mare after all we have been through? No freakin way.

I understand that most people live out in the country like we do because they want to be left the hell alone and do whatever they please. But this was over the top. The fireworks they were lighting off were only slightly smaller than the professional ones and I was not going stand idly by and let Ari or Patches get hurt so they could act out some childish fantasy of blowing shit up.

So suffice it to say, I will not be borrowing a cup of sugar from those neighbors any time soon.

Trailer Score!

2010-06-27T17:01:00.000-07:00

Check out my new (used) trailer! I found a 2004 Thuro Bilt Spirit for under $3000. It has only been lightly used and has been well maintained. I can't get over how shiny and new it is! This is the newest trailer I have ever owned.

It was a bit of a drive to go get it (central Oregon) but it was a beautiful day and my in-laws were kind enough to loan us their nice Silverado pick up which has a/c and is soooo much more comfortable than Ol' Red.

It is the cheapest model of all the Thuro Bilt trailers, but the horse area is huge! A full 7 feet tall and nearly 7 feet wide.

Oooooh. Shiny!

It really is a tall trailer.

Check out the decal on the spare cover. How perfect is this?

Ari will have plenty of room in here.

The divider is nice and heavy duty. The pad is an awesome touch and it's a slam latch too!

So the only downfall of this trailer is that the tack room is bit of joke. Technically you can walk into it, but you would have to be a contortionist to be able to use for a dressing room. But the cool part is the tack room wall swings, so once I get to a show and unload the horse, I just have to unpin the wall and let it swing open and voila! Instant dressing room.

Lookit how shiny and rust free everything is! I am like a kid with a new toy. I keep walking outside just to look at it. LOL!

So it cost a bit more than we were looking to spend, but it was just too good of deal to pass up. Trailers this nice in this price range don't come along very often. So to make up the difference, Josh will be signing up for OT on Thanksgiving this year, which also happens to be my birthday. When that happens, Josh usually lets me keep the OT $ for a present, but this year I am putting it towards my shiny new trailer.

Fat 'n Sassy

2010-06-24T09:42:00.001-07:00

Ari snoozing after breakfast this morning. I just love how gloriously fat and shiny she looks. And look at her dapples. I don't remember her having those last year. Vitamin e, vegetable oil and wonderfully green eastern Oregon hay will do that. Love me some fat pony...

Patches' nickname is Dyson...

She turned to sun the other side and something across the way caught her attention. I love how she can look so pony-like one moment and the next she looks absolutely elegant. Can you tell I love my mare?

:-)

So Far So Good

2010-06-24T09:21:00.000-07:00

Well, my day started at 5:45 am this morning thanks to the neighbor's two mini donkeys. I was awakened from a dead sleep by loud metalic crashing sounds. My mind immediately went to Ari and I thought, "Oh my God! Ari's fallen down and cast against the wall in the run in!" But as I was trying to get oriented, I heard her neighing repeatedly. Not in a panicked "Help me! I'm stuck!" kind of way, but in her "Get your ass out here and feed me! The sun's been up for a whole two minutes so where the hell is my breakfast?" kind of way.

I went to the window and looked out to try to figure out what exactly all the commotion was. All I saw was Ari was pacing the fence anticipating food. Patches was ok too. So where was all the noise coming from? Then both horses stopped and stared with pricked ears at the run-in shed on the other side of the fence in my neighbor's pasture. CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!

It was definitely coming from the donkeys. I have no idea what they were doing in there. WWF wrestling?

Then it dawned on me. Hey! Look at my mare. She's still upright. She's pacing like a champ with nary a wobble or foot out of place! Hooray!

But no way in hell was I getting up that early so I attempted to go back to sleep. I think I got a whole 20 more minutes before my daughter came downstairs and into my room saying she was hungry.

Sigh.

Oh well. At least it's sunny today. I have been really missing the sunshine. And it makes these early mornings a bit more bearable.

So far Ari looks great this morning. As was to be expected. If she is going to relapse, it will take a little while. And thank goodness our vet was willing to be a little creative! She called the pharmacy back and was able to get us a refill on the generic Marquis. (If anyone asks, Ari is a new breed of Welsh Goat.) So we should have it on hand if/when we see any back sliding. However, I am crossing my fingers and toes that she just continues to get better and better from this point on.

In other news, I sold my horse trailer last night. It made me sad to see it go, as I really liked that trailer, but it will really help our financial situation. Now I just need to find a small trailer to replace it. A simple straight load would be fine, but I won't waste my money on a rust bucket. Ideally, I would love to find a Logan Malibu with a dressing room. Of course, last week there were two in excellent condition that sold in a heart beat. And now? Nadda. Crap trailers galore and nothing I would be caught dead loading my horse into.

Oh well. I will just keep scouring the internet for a screaming good deal. In the meantime, my neighbor said I can borrow her Thuro-Built trailer. It's the SE model and man is it nice! Just like the one I had a few years ago. Perfect for bigger horses. Of course, Ari would look silly in such a big trailer...LOL. But it's very nice to know I have access to a trailer in case of emergency. Thanks Wendy!

Cross Your Fingers

2010-06-23T16:53:00.000-07:00

Tonight is the first time in 6 weeks that Ari will not get any meds.

I am afraid of what I will find in the morning.

I will probably have nightmares all night long.

Come on, mare. You can do this...

Money Grubbing Bastards

2010-06-23T08:32:00.000-07:00

You suck Bayer.

Forcing people to pay for brand name EPM drugs.

How many horses might have lived if you weren't charging an arm and a leg for Marquis and viciously protecting your precious patents.

Ari finished her last dose of the ponazuril last night. Last Friday my vet and I discussed ordering a second treatment and having it on hand for any relapses, since as much as 30% of horses treated for EPM need additional rounds of the drugs. I hadn't gotten confirmation of the prescription refill so I called the pharmacy this morning only to be told there was no refill ordered. I called my vet right away and she informed me that she was told by the pharmacy that they could not give us the generic form of ponazuril due to Bayer holding the rights to it.

My vet was quick to point out that they had already given us one dose and the pharmacist claimed that was a big mistake and they should have never given it to us. Apparently Bayer is threatening legal action against any pharmacy that compounds the generic form of Marquis. What a load of bullshit.

My vet will keep trying other options to find it for us as the brand name drug costs more than 3 times as much.

So...YOU SUCK Bayer.

Sunset on the Farm

2010-06-15T08:25:00.000-07:00

The horses enjoying a mild early summer evening.

Waiting not-so-patiently for me to take her out for her nightly hand-grazing time. Note the fly sheet on the ground and her turn out blanket falling off the gate. She throws her blankets around to get my attention. Bad mare!

Her ground manners are improving quickly. And we are doing little bits of rehab here and there. Last night I didn't do anything but let her eat, as I figured she probably did enough with her early morning antics.

She is still on the panazuril (Marquis) for EPM treatment and Tucoprim to ward off any secondary infections. She is also still getting prednisolone for inflammation. Her current dose is 200mg but we are weaning her off that. I suspect she really doesn't need it anymore, but we are being very cautious and doing a very slow taper just in case. She also gets large doses of vitamin E twice daily along with her multi-vitamin with probiotics and yeast for absorption.

Whatever it is we are doing appears to be working, so cross your fingers for no back-sliding.

The Sound of Thundering Hooves

2010-06-14T18:45:00.000-07:00

Yup. That's what I woke up to this morning just after dawn. My husband had just snuck out to ride his bike to work and I had just fallen back into dreamland when I heard quite the ruckus outside.

Ari and Patches' paddock is less than 50 feet from my first floor bedroom. So when I heard all the noise outside I lifted the shade from the window what did I see? Ari and Patches GALLOPING full tilt from one end of the paddock to the other. Ari was kicking her heels up and bucking and snorting in a way that would make the most seasoned bronc horse proud.

I could tell from their body language that they were running because they were feeling good, not because they were spooked. My husband told me later that when he left, the two of them were trotting around a bit with their heads up and Ari was doing her usual pacing, but nothing alarming.

Apparently a combination of the good weather, the sun coming up and their empty bellies was making them feel very HIGH. Maybe they thought Josh was going to feed them because he had taken care of them when I was in Yakima for the weekend?

Who knows!

At first I just stared in disbelief at my goofy mare running for all she's worth. To see her striding out so effortlessly with total control and coordination made my heart stop. But then of course, she hit the end of the paddock and had to execute a combination skid, halt, whirl and dig. Oh shit. Not good. She ran the length of the paddock and turned on a dime several times before I decided that I needed to put a stop to this. I was too afraid she is going to over do it or hurt herself.

I didn't really want to feed them at 5am and set a precedent, but at the same time I knew food was going to be the only thing that was going to halt their antics. So I threw them a big pile of hay and after checking everyone thoroughly to make sure there were no injuries sustained, I went back to bed for a couple more hours.

Oh mare, you're going to give me an ulcer yet...

Manners? What are those again?

2010-06-13T08:16:00.000-07:00

After having to basically pour the feed into Ari to keep her weight from dropping any further, thanks to the parasites chewing on her brain, she is, I'm afraid, back to diet mode. Since the panazuril started doing its job, Ari has put a significant amount of weight back on. She's building muscle too. All her walking around in her paddock has allowed her to self-rehab.

So a couple of days ago, I felt it was safe to take her out of the paddock to let her graze. I'm sure she appreciated the change in scenery as much or more than the nummy dandelions and clover. When I put the halters on her and Patches, she eyeballed me suspiciously, as we have only been using the halter for meds up to this point. But when she saw the open gate, I darn near water skied behind her and the little guy as they dive bombed for the nearest green stuff.

Apparently I am going to have to "remind" Ari about things like ground manners. When I first bought her, she had a horrible habit of dragging her handler wherever she felt like going. No respect at all. Which is why I switched her to a stiff, cowboy-style rope halter. I have a lovely powder blue nylon halter that looks great on her and I always look longingly in the tack catalogs at those beautiful lined leather halters, but I know Ari has absolutely no respect for those. She can lean and pull on them with no repercussions. Every time I try to use anything but her rope halter, she becomes pushy. So ugly rope halter it is for Miss Bossy Pants.

However this day, rope halter or no, she was so excited to be out that she was completely ignoring me at first. A few quick corrections and she seemed to remember that I was there and did alright for the rest of the time.

Yesterday I took them out to graze for a second time, and again, Ari tried to bulldoze me initially. So this time, I alternating letting them eat and making her do some groundwork exercises. It's good for her mentally and also it's the beginning of her rehab therapy. Walking in large circles, stopping square, backing up a few steps, walking up and down a small incline, etc are all very good for her. She did very well for not having had to do anything but eat, sleep and poop for weeks on end.

She's doing so well, it's hard to remind myself to slow down and not ask for too much. Pushing her limits is good, but it's still so very early in her recovery. She still has several more weeks of meds to get through. But overall, I am starting to be able to see a light at the end of this very dark tunnel we've been in.

A Sad and Unexpected Loss

2010-06-11T19:55:00.000-07:00

For the second time in my life I had to drive home from the Oregon State University large animal hospital with an empty horse trailer.

No, thank god, it wasn't Ari. But it is just as sad. Around 3am on Thursday morning my friend and neighbor Wendy lost her Friesian gelding, Hearke. He was only 8 years old. He had been fighting a fever and infection since Saturday. Wednesday morning he seemed to perk up and they thought he had licked whatever it was. But by Wednesday evening he was crashing.

Wendy called and asked if I could help her haul him down to OSU. She has a horse trailer but no truck. I said yes, of course. By the time we got Hearke loaded and made the trip to Corvallis, it was nearly midnight.

I could tell he was in a bad way by the vets' reactions. He was extremely lethargic and dehydrated. They attempted to get fluids into him, but it didn't seem to be helping. Wendy's local vet had done a belly tap and found him to filled with infected material. He drained gallons and gallons of vile liquid from this poor gelding.

OSU did an ultrasound and found portions of his small intestines were extremely thickened and immobile. Not a good thing. They suspected these portions were dead/dying and that's what was causing his horrible infection. Wendy and her husband Steve wrestled with whether or not they should attempt surgery. Their insurance would cover it, but Hearke was very, very weak. As they were attempted to make a decision, the vet's informed them that Hearke was going into kidney failure.

They decided at that point that euthanasia was the most humane option. Even though I didn't spend a lot of time with Hearke, I knew he was Wendy's heart horse. She had owned him since he was 2 years old. He loved to give her "hugs" with his enormous head and would massage her back with his lips if she scratched his withers.

I said my own good-bye to him before going out to wait in the truck to give Wendy and Steve some privacy. I kissed him on the nose and told him to play nice with Dream, my own gelding whom I lost to colic a few years ago.

The vet students braided several sections of Hearke's mane and tail with pretty ribbons for Wendy to take home in remembrance.

It was a very, very long drive home. Poor Wendy was absolutely exhausted both emotionally and physically. She dozed most of the way home. I am sure she is still reeling from this completely unexpected loss. I feel for her.

The other time I had to drive home from OSU with an empty trailer was when Dream died. It is a horrible feeling.

So Wendy, sending hugs your way. I hope you find some peace in all this.

Hey! Hay!

2010-06-08T16:11:00.000-07:00

Since I am now fairly convinced that Ari has EPM, I have been trying to learn all I can about it. And one thing I learned is that the opossum is the definitive carrier of the protozoa that attack the horse's central nervous system. That means that any area where opossums are found is prone to exposure and the most common means of transmission to horses is ingesting them in contaminated feed or hay.

I feed pelleted, bagged grain that is stored in metal containers in my closed shop (with barn cats), so it is unlikely that opossum have had a chance to poop in my grain. However, the hay I was feeding Ari came from a local farm here in the Willamette Valley, which is major opossum country.

I admit, we bought the hay because it was cheap and close by. But at the time I wasn't worried about it. I was more concerned with being able to free feed Ari and Patches since they were going to be dry-lotted for several months. I was actually kind of happy the hay was crappy. However, looking back now, and realizing that the hay was over a year old and stored in an open sided barn, it was probably riddled with opossum droppings.

Of course, the vets say you can never track down the source of EPM. But it really bothers me that Ari's symptoms appeared 10 days after we started feeding this hay. So, to ease my mind, we burned all our hay. I couldn't in good conscience give it to anyone else, so we just had a bonfire to get rid of it (and the potential protozoa living in it.)

I have since switched the horses to eastern Oregon grass hay. There are few, if any, opossums in the eastern part of the state. The weather and climate are not suited for them. So, I feel safer feeding hay from eastern Oregon. True, it's richer and I may have to feed less, but it's worth the peace of mind.

And Ari and Patches aren't complaining, that's for sure.

Ari continues to look great today. And she's clearly feeling better and better. This morning she and Patches escaped again. Thankfully my husband gets up at 5am to ride his bike to work and found them just after they had gotten out. It was still pretty nerve racking to have him wake me from a dead sleep with, "Get up! I need your help with the horses!" My mind immediately started playing horrific scenarios in the few seconds it took my husband to explain that the horses were in the yard again. Whew!

Not entirely sure how they got out, but now we have a pad lock on the latch to prevent any further mischief. Baaaaad ponies!

Small Victories

2010-06-07T16:32:00.000-07:00

So it's been a little while since my last post and a lot has happened between then and now. Let's see. When I last posted Ari was showing slow, but steady improvement. We were getting ready to reduce her dose of the Prednisolone.

Ari had several good days in a row but then suddenly things took a nose dive. Around day 9 of her EPM treatment, but before we reduced the steroid levels, she started back sliding, badly. The next day she was even worse. She was wobbly even when standing still, stumbling, tripping and laying down a lot.

While this was incredibly hard to stomach, in a way it was good because the timing was exactly right for the EPM "die off". We crossed our fingers and waited. It was all we could do. This was either the beginning of the end or the beginning of her recovery. If it was something other than EPM, such as a tumor, she would just spiral out of control and we would probably eventually have to put her down.

Since sitting around watching the horse was only making me sick, I decided to go do other things. Friday night I went to a meeting of natural horsemanship based dressage riders with my neighbor Wendy. They were all very nice ladies and I had a good time talking horses and dressage. (Although I did burst into tears at one point when one of the ladies asked me about my horse...)

Then I decided to take a short road trip to Yakima, WA to help evaluate a friend's litter of puppies. There's nothing like small, warm furry bodies and puppy breath to make you feel better. My friend Mandy was going to be there too, so we decided to stay over night and make a party out of it. In actuality, we were all so tired from the day that there was no real partying. We just went out to dinner, had some drinks and talked dogs all night long.

On Saturday morning, after several really bad days in a row, suddenly Ari rallied. When I went to feed her breakfast, she looked really good. Like miraculously good. And she clearly was feeling better.

When I walked into the paddock to retrieve the feed pans so I could give her and Patches their morning grain, I made the mistake of not latching the gate all the way behind me. Miss Sneaky Pants then proceeded to push the gate all the way open with her nose and she and the little guy made a break for the lawn. They both trotted merrily around tails in the air, snatching big mouthfuls of the super green grass for several minutes before Josh and I could catch them.

I couldn't be mad at her, although I should have been. Clearly, she was feeling up to her old tricks.

When I left at lunchtime for Yakima, Ari was still improving. The next morning, she had a small set back but then rallied again in the afternoon. By the time I got home at dinner time that day, she was looking great.

Today, she looks even better. And today we had a major victory: I was able to pick her feet for the first time in nearly a month. Prior to today, it was impossible for her to balance on three legs. Even to cock a hip and rest. She would try but immediately lose her balance.

Today, not only did I clean her feet, but I have observed her cocking her hip for up to 10-15 seconds at a time, which doesn't sound like much, but it's a definite improvement!

We still are unsure which of her various meds are doing the trick, but quite honestly I don't care. The bottom line is right now she looks great. Of course, I am always waiting for the bottom to fall out. I could wake up tomorrow morning and she could be back to stumbling and swaying like a drunk at closing time.

So for now, I am celebrating the small victories and relishing seeing my horse looking happier than she has in weeks.

Today we finally got some really nice warm, sunny weather. I snapped some photos her Her Majesty enjoying her lunch. Look how shiny and healthy she looks. And she is finally putting some weight back on!

Cute ponies.

Just because he's adorable!

See how glossy she's looking? And she's almost shed out.

Scratching an itch with no loss of balance. Another small victory.

Back In the Saddle Again

2010-06-01T08:21:00.000-07:00

Alas, no, not on Ari.

My friend and neighbor Wendy invited me to come over and ride her Andalusian gelding Primero. He is a super cute gray guy who was previously doing 3rd level dressage. Then he injured his suspensory and had about a year off to heal. They have been slowly bringing him back into work. So Wendy has offered to let me ride him every once in a while just to get some "saddle time".

It felt good to be back on a horse, even if it's not my own. Primero was very fun to ride. VERY different from Ari. Super light in the bridle and collects very easily. Kinda wiggly between your legs, but very responsive to the aids. His trot is fantastic to ride! Both Wendy and Primero were very tolerant of my rustiness. It's always hard to get on a new horse, especially one so different from what you are used to riding and after a 2 week break.

I have been trying not to make myself sick with worry over Ari. She has not had any back sliding in the last couple of days and seems to be doing well on the Prednisolone. I think I see little moments of improvement, but it's so hard to say. I *want* her to get better, so maybe I am only seeing what I want to see?

However, Josh says that last night when I was at Wendy's riding, Ari actually trotted across her paddock. He claims it looked very smooth and coordinated. I wish I had seen it. Being that my husband isn't a "horse person" I wonder just how good the trot really was. The last time she trotted (about a week ago) her front end and back end were completely out of sync...

I can tell she is still feeling ok. Appetite and attitude are pretty normal. You should have seen the look on Ari's face when I headed over to my neighbor's to ride. She saw me in riding clothes and she got the perkiest look on her face and immediately walked away from her dinner to come over to the gate and look at me with huge expectations. Her ears were really far forward and her eyes were very bright. I felt really bad when all I could do was give her a pat and a handful of grass. Poor girl.

Thank you to all my family and friends who have been so supportive through the last few weeks. I hope to have more good news to report soon.

Stop this ride I want to get off...

2010-05-30T09:03:00.000-07:00

Dealing with a horse with an undiagnosed neurological problem is a complete roller coaster, both mentally and physically.

In my last post, Ari was showing improvement. I was feeling a tiny bit hopeful. However, the next day she was not as good. Not the worst she's been, by far, but definitely a little back slide.

Per my vet's instructions, I gave Ari 500mg of prednisone around 10am. However, just because I am that kind of person, I did a google search for horses and prednisone and to my dismay, the first 5 web pages that came up were all about how prednisone is ineffective in horses!

Here is some of what I found:

Prednisone (Oral) Ineffective in Horses

Prednisone per os is likely to have limited efficacy in horses.

Prednisone for Veterinary Use

So what the hell? After all we have been through I am not about to give my horse a med that may not effectively control her inflammation. Josh immediately began making phone calls. The vets were not happy to hear from us, but we insisted and were able to get a prescription for prednisolone. We had to drive to the Loyd Center Pharmacy in Portland to get it, as they are the only ones who could make it for us. Thankfully they are open on Saturdays and were able to get it done for us.

When we got home we immediately gave her the prednisolone and crossed our fingers that she wouldn't backslide anymore.

This morning Ari seems to be stable. About the same as yesterday, if not slightly improved. Her ataxia at this point would probably be somewhere between a grade 1 or 2. If she were to be able to maintain where she is at once she is weaned off all the drugs, I would be happy with the outcome. She is comfortably safe to be a pasture pet and possibly a broodmare. With rehab she might even be rideable again in 6 months to a year.

But....so far she has not been able to maintain without the meds. True, we have only attempted to wean her off them once since coming home, but right now it's a total crap shoot. We will keep her on 500 mg of the prednisolone for another 4 days, then cut her back to 400mg for 5 days and then go from there. By that time she should be past the time frame for the "die off" if it is EPM and should be safe to continue weaning her off the anti-inflammatories.

I guess only time will tell.

This is pretty typical of her stance these days. She was not cow hocked before. But I often see her standing with her back legs very close together and her front feet wide to brace herself. This morning, however, she stood pretty normal most of the time I was observing her.

Look at how much muscle she has lost on her topline and haunches. Especially of the back of her hindquarters. The point of her hip was never that prominent before.

Sigh...

I really hope we resolve this soon.

WTF?

2010-05-28T20:23:00.000-07:00

The title of this post pretty much sums up our feelings right now. Ari is, for the moment, doing much better. Almost better than she has done since coming home. Her coordination is improved. The spasticity and jerkiness is nearly gone. Other than being very tired, Ari has improved dramatically since yesterday.

I had nightmares all night and woke up this morning expecting to find my horse lurching about her paddock, completely out of control and needing to be put down.

Thankfully, all I saw when I went outside to feed was a pacing mare anticipating her breakfast. She was moving slower than is normal for her, but it was undeniable that there had been a change for the better overnight!

So the million dollar question (or questions) is/are: what brought about this change and how long will it last?

It's seems awfully quick to be the Marquis. Although I have read about other people's experiences with treating EPM and some did notice remarkable improvement in the first week. So it's possible.

Is it the antibiotics? Is it the vitamin E? The high doses of dexamethasone?

Or all of the above?

We will never be sure. All I know is I plan to continue giving her all of them for at least a month! I'm not taking any chances. It won't hurt her and if it's working, I'm all for it.

Tomorrow we switch from the dex to prednisone, per the vet's instructions. I am fearful that any change in our regimen is going to cause back sliding.

I know with any neurological conditions in horses, the recovery tends to be one step forward and two steps backwards. So for now, I am holding my breath and hoping Ari continues on this positive trend.

In the meantime, the cost for the additional meds is stacking up, so I am sadly offering my horse trailer for sale. It's a 1996 Trails West Santa Fe two horse slant in excellent condition. If anyone knows of someone looking for a great trailer, send them my way and I'll make them a heck of a deal.

EPM or Something More Sinister?

2010-05-28T07:00:00.000-07:00

Just when we thought she was on the road to recovery, Ari has taken a turn for the worse. She stopped responding to the low doses of the steroids and her neurological symptoms returned and began worsening. She is back up to 40mg of the dexamethasone (the most she ever had at OSU) and is barely staying stable. So far, we seemed to have stopped the downward spiral, but she isn't improving which isn't a good sign.

Where does that leave us?

Our options include calling it quits and euthanizing her. Which I am sad to say, Josh and I had to have a serious discussion about. It was hard, but we do have limits, especially financially. However, since she is still eating and functioning fairly well despite the deficits, we do not feel we are at that point yet.

We could trailer her back to OSU and have x-rays and CT scans done to try to determine if she has a fracture, tumor, lesion, etc. However, there are very few good outcomes of doing this. Most of the things they would find are not operable. And the few that are, are financially out of the realm of possibility for us. (As in $10K + just for cutting her open.) So we decided against this option. No point and too much stress for Ari.

So that leaves us with our last option, which is to throw a bunch of different drugs at her and see if she responds medically. It's always possible that one of the blood tests was a false negative. We are fairly certain she does not have a virus like herpes and West Nile due to all the steroids she has been on. If she had a virus, she would be dead by this point because the steroids depress her immune system, which would allow a virus to run rampant.

However, EPM is not out of the realm of possibility. Her symptoms certainly all point to it. My vet keeps cautioning that EPM and most other neurological conditions in horses all mimic each other, so I shouldn't get caught up in her symptoms. But, there have been cases of horses testing negative for EPM when in fact they have it due to testing to soon after exposure. The horses did not have enough time to develop antibodies, so nothing showed up in the blood work. Ari was never treated with anti-protozaols at OSU due to cost. The treatment is very expensive so they opted not to give it to her since her test had been negative. So, who knows? Maybe she has had EPM all along and maybe it will work.

So that is what we are choosing to do. Yes, it's a crap shoot. Yes, it's a shot gun effort. But we are running out of options.

Yesterday we started Ari on Marquis, the anti-protozoal drug used to treat EPM. She is also on Tucoprim, an antibiotic, to treat any possible secondary bacterial infections and also, some vets have seen it help treat EPM. She is getting 10,000 i/u vitamin E daily as well. This has been proven to help with healing her damaged nerves.

Now we wait and see. Some horses with EPM respond favorably right away. Some take longer. Almost all experience a big relapse during what is referred to as the "die off" when the protozoa in her system die and "clog" her nerve pathways, causing a sometimes severe increase in her neurological symptoms. So that means it will most certainly get worse before it gets better. Assuming that's what she has.

If she doesn't respond, well then we are looking at something much more sinister. She could just need more time. And we will give it to her as long as we can. If she gets ataxic to the point of being a danger to herself or if she stops eating or goes down and can't get up, then we will have to do the hard thing and let her go. I won't let her suffer. As much as it will hurt me, part of being a responsible owner is knowing when to let them go.

I just hope I won't have to make that decision anytime soon.

Good News/Bad News

2010-05-25T14:07:00.000-07:00

The good news is, the last of the tests we were waiting on came back negative. So it's definitely not herpes virus or EPM.

The bad news is, we have no idea what it is. Head trauma is now the number one suspect. However, there was no evidence of anything out of the ordinary. Her paddock was fine. No dig marks or skid marks in the footing. No hair or dirt marks on her shelter. No external wounds on the horse.

So what the hell happened?

Vet says to keep her on the 12mg Dexamethasone until Thursday and then try tapering to 8mg again. Keep a close eye on her. If she backslides again, bump the dose back up and call them. Of course they are pushing for head x rays and CT scans and MRI's, but not only is that expensive, it will just be stressful for Ari. She hates vets. She hates trailer rides. And I'm sure returning to the hospital is not high on her list.

So for now we keep waiting. And crossing our fingers.

Ah, mare. You're killing me...

A Rare, but Welcome Sight

2010-05-24T08:23:00.001-07:00

Ari rarely lays down during the day. I can only think of one other time I have seen her napping in the daylight hours. Patches lays down and sleeps nearly every day, sometimes twice a day. But Ari always stays on her feet while she dozes. The vets were worried when she was in the hospital because she wasn't laying down. Silly mare.

However, yesterday, while I myself was catching a quick afternoon snooze, my husband snapped these photos. I am very glad to see she is resting. Ari has actually been quite good about taking it easy since she got home. The vets wanted her on strict stall rest, but knowing my mare, I can guarantee you locking her in a stall would be anything but restful.

Patches is never far from "his woman."

Nothing like a good nap followed by a good roll.

Shaking off after rolling. Her tail cracks me up in this pic. It's all kinky...

"Outta my way shrimp!"

I'm glad to see her doing normal stuff again. She seems to be doing well on her current dose of steroids. Cross your fingers that she continues to improve when we attempt to taper again.

Set Backs and Revelations

2010-05-22T19:14:00.000-07:00

I am exhausted. I have been living on pins and needles for the last three days. I obsessively check and re-check on Ari. I analyze her every step, watching and waiting for her to back slide. And today my worst fears came true.

When I went to feed breakfast, Ari did not urinate like normal and I noticed that her turns were a lot more "herky-jerky." As the morning progressed, she seemed less and less confident about her steps. I went out to groom her just before lunch. When I was finished she walked about 5 steps away from me and then out of the blue staggered hard to the right.

My heart dropped to my feet.

I began watching her every move and she was definitely back sliding. Josh watched her for a while too and we both saw her stumble after attempting to bite a fly on her side.

Shit.

We called the OSU hospital and were able to talk with Dr. Duncan. Her feeling was that maybe the taper for her steroids was too steep. I had cut her dose from 12mg to 8mg last night, per her discharge instructions. So the doc advised us to give her a 12mg dose asap and call her back in an hour or two.

So we did and then settled into wait. Well, Josh went about doing yard work and I sat on the couch were I can see the paddock from the picture window. And I watched. And waited. And worried.

Then suddenly after an hour or two I witnessed Ari make two completely smooth turns in the paddock by spinning on her hind foot and crossing over with the other foot with nary a wobble. Suddenly she looked a whole lot more comfortable.

Whew.

Apparently Ari needs the 12mg dose at this point to keep the inflammation down. The vet said this is actually a pretty low dose and we can give it to her safely for weeks if we have to.

The only problem with our new plan of attack was that I did not have enough meds left for even one more dose. So a couple of phone calls later there was a refill waiting for me at my local vet office.

However, in the process of obtaining the refill I made a startling and scary discovery. I was chatting briefly with my local vet about how Ari was doing and whatnot. My vet says, "I am really glad you guys chose to take her down to OSU. Especially after I heard about her going blind."

Hang on. Hold the phone! What?

Ari went blind?

I just sort of did the "Uh-huh. OK. Thanks. Bye" thing to the vet and hung up. Then I looked at my husband who was innocently weeding the rose beds. He looked up at me. "What?" he asked.

I informed him that the vet had just said something very strange about Ari. My husband gulped. Then went on to explain that yes, he knew about her going blind, but had chosen to not tell me because he didn't think I could handle it at the time. He claimed he was protecting me.

I believe him.

However, I am still somewhat pissed about it. Josh says he was going to tell me today, actually, but then Ari was back sliding and I was too emotional about it...

Huh.

What a very scary thing to find out. I guess the swelling in her brain got so bad it was pressing on her optic nerves and she went temporarily blind. That was when they called us Friday night and said we needed to push the steroids or we were going to lose her. Boy, they weren't kidding.

In a way, I am glad I didn't know about that part. It would have just sent me over the edge with worry. But still...

I don't like that my husband and the vets were keeping information from me. Oh well. The bottom line is she DID respond to the steroids. And she responded BETTER than they had even dared to hope for. Her eye sight is fine now, as far as I can tell.

We will keep her on the current dose for a few more days and then attempt to taper again. Monday afternoon we will get the results of the EHV anti-bodies test. If that comes back negative we are most likely looking at a head trauma situation.

I hate waiting. The not knowing is killing me...

Normalcy

2010-05-20T08:16:00.000-07:00

It sure was good to walk outside this morning and hear Her Royal Highness demanding breakfast.

She looks good this morning.

True to our normal routine before her trip to the vet, Ari walked over to the corner of the paddock and peed while waiting for me to bring the hay. No tripping or stumbling whatsoever.

I checked on her several times last night, being the paranoid horse-mom that I am. Most of the time she and Patches were hiding under the shelter as it was pouring rain. When I checked at 5am (just after sunrise) she was pacing the fence line but not too quickly and she didn't seem upset, just bored and anticipating breakfast. At 7am when I got up to feed them, she and Patches were hoovering up the scraps from last night's dinner and they both looked perfectly calm.

Her manure is still very loose but the vet said this may persist for a few days. They think it's from stress. I think it's also from the meds, personally.

I spoke with Miriah, the equine body works person in Canby last night and asked her advice on the best way to rehab Ari. She said the paddock is fine (as opposed to the vet-recommended stall rest) as long as Ari is truly resting. If she is moving around too much or being silly, she recommended cutting the paddock down to a smaller size. She says for the first week I should just let Ari detox, both mentally and physically from her ordeal. Just spend time with her. Brush her. Do relaxing things. Then after a week or two, start incorporating hand walking. She said she would be more than happy to chat with me again after a few weeks and she can give me more specific rehabbing exercises. Very nice woman.

I plan to go shopping for some anti-oxidant supplements today. I read many articles that claim vitamin E is very helpful in recovery for muscles and nerves. She has some in her feed, as well as lysine (for calming) and pro-biotics for digestion. Miriah suggested I look into some herbs for support as well.

So we seem to be on our way. Now if only I could shake this feeling of waiting for the other shoe to drop...

Home

2010-05-19T22:27:00.000-07:00

First time out of the isolation stall. Thomas is the vet student who worked Ari's case the entire time she was there. He was also responsible for the majority of her care.

Thomas and Dr. Duncan, one several vets who saved Ari's life.

Home at last.

Reunited.

Am I home for good?

Contemplation.

The note Thomas taped to the Altoids we left for Ari when we visited.

For any visitors to this blog who may have missed it, Ari spent five days in the ICU at the Oregon State University large animal hospital. She suffered sudden onset ataxia in all four limbs. The cause is still undetermined. We are waiting for more test results. Ari nearly died.

Catching Up

2010-05-13T08:45:00.000-07:00

Ugh. I have been fighting a virus all week, complete with exhaustion, malaise, headache, body aches, chills, sore throat, congestion, etc, etc, etc. The crap in my throat and sinuses is finally breaking loose, so I hope that means I am on the tail end of this. Advil and Tylenol have been my best friends all week.

Luckily, it hasn't been one of those viruses that keeps you in bed. In fact, most days I feel better once I get up and get moving.

I haven't had much luck in the saddle search. I ended up deciding against the Tony Slatter dressage saddle. It fit me great, but was too wide for Ari. Even with a pad and half pad, by the end of my lesson last Friday it was sitting down all the way on her withers. Ouch! Not good.

I have ridden a couple of times in my current dressage saddle since the saddle fitting and I still like it very much. It may be a tad big for me, but now that the flocking has been adjusted it fits Ari fine as long as I use the half pad, and I feel like I ride ok in it, despite Casey Hineline's thinly veiled criticism. My riding was crap that day because she was making me nervous and I didn't have any warm up at all. Which meant that Ari was stiff and unfocused.

So for now, I still have my dressage saddle listed for sale. I am getting some interest but only one serious person. She has a med tree County dressage and needs a wide. She contacted me wanting to know if I was interested in a trade. I told her it depends on a lot of factors (what model County, her asking price, the fit for both me and Ari, etc.) She will be at Devonwood this weekend for the Heart of the Valley dressage show, so she is going to swing by on Saturday so we can compare saddles.

I also tried another jump saddle this week. It was a medium tree, 17" Dover Circuit Elite. The fit on Ari was great! I was surprised that the medium fit her so well. Unfortunately, the saddle was too small for me. When I shortened my stirrups to jumping length, my knee was poking out in front of the flap. Apparently I need at least a 17.5" seat and a longer or more forward flap. Plus, the Circuit saddle had the same problem as the Bates saddle: the balance was too far back and was forcing me into a "chair seat." Annoying to say the least.

I have found a beautiful Stubben jump saddle that I am dying to try, but it is not anywhere near me and when I asked the gal selling it if she would consider a trial, she stopped responding to my emails. Bummer. It is practically new Stubben Status S. It looks amazing. VTO saddlery sells them and they give it two thumbs up. It is supposed to be one of Stubben's best made saddles. Oh well.

In other news, I entered the schooling show at Crescendo Farms this weekend. We are riding Training Level Test 1 and Test 4. I am actually pretty excited. Should be fun. And no stress this time. My biggest goal is to stay relaxed and try to enjoy myself.