NSHA V show part 2
Sunday dawned sunny but chilly. North wind had blown in through the night and the breeze stayed around through the morning. Amber didn’t have her usual tantrum, no doubt learning from Saturday that she wasn’t going anyway but definitely not happy that Whisper was leaving. Whisper though hopped right in the trailer. It’s nice that the show grounds are only about 35 minutes away, so it’s not a huge endeavor for us to haul.
Whisper was a little more lit coming off of the trailer, but after a short walk around and perhaps only a 5 minute lunge, I could tell her eyes were softer, and she was definitely better/not as wide-eyed as she was Saturday. I was a little overzealous in getting ready right away – I should have talked to the office to see what class they were on, but I think it was okay. When I hopped on, Whisper felt almost exactly as she does at home – relaxed and easy. We walked around for a bit before I realized that they only started the reining class and there were about 10 people in the class (approximately 2 minutes each run). My class was directly after reining, but the last thing I wanted to do was overwork Whisper in the warm up, and leave our best work in the warm up ring as well.
So I hopped off, and proceeded to be very pleasantly surprised when Whisper cocked a leg and started to fall asleep. It was almost 9 at that point, her usual nap time, but I was so happy that amidst reiners practicing patterns and whatnot that she was sleeping. Good girl!
I hopped back on 3/4 of the way through the class and did just a bit more warm up. Her left lope was doing well – her right was strung out. Which….eh. As I’ve said I was more concerned with her feeling comfortable at the show, and she was really trying hard to be relaxed and listen to me, so I called it good.
The first class was a walk/jog warm up – a sort of “train” class to warm your horse up but the class doesn’t count for anything. It allows those in canter classes to cross-enter (same rider/horse combo can’t go in “official” walk/jog classes if also entered in canter classes). She was a little fast at the jog, and I hadn’t gotten a chance to ride in or let her see the main ring, so to a judge, her lifting her head to look out of the arena to the street is a problem, but she kept her pace well. I was happy with her. We ended up getting second in the class, so yay! She also didn’t do her nervous tic that she’s done many a previous show – it’s hard to describe. But she’d nod her head very quickly while biting at the bit, and sometimes take the reins out of your hand. None of that happened, so she got many many pets.
Our next class was just an AA lope class, and I was very proud of her. She was actually close to breaking gait a few times! Oddly enough it pleased me lol. Probably because she only breaks if she’s tired or feeling comfortable, but I talked to her a bit through the class and she was so super! Her right lead was strung out still, and we had a bit of a problem steering off the rail (which is something I plan to work on before the next show), but overall I was super pleased with her. Again, no nervous tic, and the judge was nice and gave everyone little pointers before the ring steward called the placings (Whisper better left side, right lead strung out – accurate lol). But we still placed first! Good girl Whisper!
I did a little more work in the warm up ring, then let her chill again. Whisper was really being great and holding it together, trying her best to listen. I knew that right lead REALLY needed to get fixed if we were going to continue doing well in the classes, but I knew the show was not the place to work on it or fix it. I’ve always taken with me a piece of advice Andrea Fappani said in one of his clinics – “If you haven’t fixed something before the show, you aren’t going to fix it AT the show. Better to show off the things you can do well and conserve on the things that aren’t so good.”
Our next class was senior horse, and it was a pretty full class. Whisper was excellent. Her jog was getting better, but her lope was starting to deteriorate a little. She was probably also tired, but as I said she was still trying her little heart out, and keeping it together despite some “OMG” looks she threw to the outside of the ring. The judge actually called for an extended jog, and I laughed at myself because Saturday after the ride I’d looked at my mom and said – “Wouldn’t it be funny if we had to do an extended jog? I haven’t done an extended jog on her in years. Huh.” Well? Extended jog both ways, and I felt like we nailed it. Good girl with her rusty buttons that still work! lol I tried as best as I could to support her at the lope – really keeping my leg on to help but it wasn’t working the best. We ended up in second, with pointers again of her being close to breaking gait and looking like she was slogging in the lope, but there was no way I was disappointed in her. One of the hardest things I had to work through with her was trusting me enough to help her, that my “correction” or “lift” wasn’t punishment in any way. So the fact that she readily accepted my help at a show and really put her trust in me was a win in my book. It’s only February. We have until the end of the show year to continue improving.
Our last class was jackpot. And her jog was the best yet. As she got a little looky again, I gave her a few upward “bumps” instead of the hold I usually do, and she finally seemed to accept that okay, we’re in here to do work. Her left lead was a bit slogging, and I knew she was getting tired, but boy was that sweet mare trying. She was so solid in the walk work too – no anticipation! Which is miracle of miracles for her since anticipation is her middle name haha. She just walked and walked until the judge called for the next gait. Our right lope was definitely more forward, and I preferred it actually to our previous slogging. She was definitely tired, and I knew the right lope was too fast for the judge, but there were no nervous breakdowns or resistance when I reached out to help her back on her butt just a bit. My lift probably cost us a higher place in the class, but she hit that perfect lope I was searching for for a stride or two, then got a bit fast again. But usually she shows a bit of resistance, and I was so happy there was none. We ended up getting third in the class – and winning $20 – but I was still a bit miffed at the placing. The first place horse broke 3 times, which fortunate for the first place winner the judge didn’t see, and Whisper was actually nowhere near breaking gait that whole class. The second place horse (who I’ve known for years and absolutely adore that little Arab gelding) deserved first, but…well, if the judge didn’t see (and did see my corrections), then the judge can only judge what they saw. I think after Whisper doing so well, I thought she deserved better than the placing she got. So pleased that there was no nervous tic again either, but she did want to make friends with every horse there lol. Which is why she is way better suited to these classes than Amber haha.
All in all, it was a good successful day. After that class I did just a little bit more with her canter. I didn’t completely feel okay with leaving the strung out as it was, so I really squeezed her into a good right lead lope, got a couple great strides, did a simple lead change, lifted the left, got a couple great strides and hopped off. I was a little worried that when I hopped off she might remember the nervousness (she wouldn’t stand still and I had to back her a bit while I tried to roll up my chaps), but I think she’ll be okay. She got many many face rubs, girth loosened, and then we took her back to her food. I wanted to let her roll, and it seemed like she might after a second, but she didn’t. I would’ve loved for her to do that, but that’s okay. She was definitely ready to go home, but refused to load for only about a minute. We’ve learned it’s just because she has to pee (she’s done this for years so it strikes me as super funny that she AND Amber do this), and my mom did a great job of just waiting, not looking at her, and Whisper finally hopped in, pooped, and peed a minute later haha. Silly mares!
Amber was very excited to see Whisper when we got home, and Whisper did finally roll in our arena. That was about it for the day!
I did find out that I’d actually won some stuff with Amber from the previous year though! Not only did we do well enough in the buckle series for us to win a buckle, but we managed to get Champion in Ranch Riding, Western Dressage, Western Horsemanship 18 & Over and Reserve Champion in Reining Open. What do you know about that?! Way to go Amber! I was very surprised by the horsemanship and reserve in reining – those were definitely classes I was not expecting to get anything in! I guess it’s because we just were always in them even if we didn’t have the best placings….? lol I got a hay bag, a bag that could probably fit half a bale of hay, and strap to go with it, a hay bag helper (those black things that help keep the bags open so you have more hands) and a plaque! They did spell Amber’s name wrong, so they’re in the process of getting the plaque fixed, but I am tickled pink that Amber and I won a plaque!
It was definitely a tiring day, but I felt so happy with Whisper after the show. Such a trooper, and her attitude was miles different from the last time she was there, and even different from Saturday. I couldn’t be happier. The show brought to light things that I’ll have to work on with Whisper, but all in due time. She’s had the past 2 days off, and we’ll start back with light riding, getting her supple and starting to give her heavier works so she’s fitter for the next show.
All in all – a huge success!
NSHA V show part 1
First show of the season!
Thursday was our last prep ride at home. I felt pretty confident with her paces, and then decided to test a few of her rusty buttons. She surprisingly responded with no more than an “oh sure, I remember that” instead of her usual very quick response. I have a theory about that but I’m going to end up writing a blog post about it after the show because it’s potentially a long winded one. But I am not sure if it’s the bit, other factors, or what, but she was SO SLOW on Thursday. To the point it worried me haha. I’ve been trying to get her to go forward for that clear canter but still rocking, and either I was hard of feeling or she was tired because it was 75 – I am not sure what it was, but I had to really get her forward. It worked mostly. Ish.
Her left was good albeit a teensy bit slow, but after working on her lope we came back and jogged around. It was good to do this sort of “throw it all to her and see what she gives me” type of ride. It gives me new information on what I need to continue to work on not just for showing, but overall for Whisper being able to perform her lope without cheating as she tends to do. It’ll be difficult since as soon as she gets a bit close to the rail she lapses into her old habits. Lots of canter work in her future. Lots of circle work for her. Lots of lateral movement and sticking her back in snaffle. The lateral work helped Amber and I exponentially getting more supple for getting a little straighter at the canter so I’m hoping this will be a good starting point for Whisper.
Either way, for the few classes we signed up for and as it is the first show of the season, this was good. I knew I was going to be a lot more concerned with Whisper’s head space during the show than her pace or even quality of her gaits. She’s excellent at walk and jog, we just have to work a little harder on her lope. Her last show was many years ago, and only once recently did my mom and I take her to a show to just ride around and she was honestly pretty good. I was hoping though that with her more comfortable with her work that she was going to be great Saturday and Sunday.
After Thursday’s ride, I turned Amber out but hopped on her bareback first because she was really jealous that I had Whisper out.
She really enjoyed the walk around the arena. I had wanted to saddle her up, but time just wouldn’t allow it. She was especially loving, probably because she doesn’t want me to get ideas about riding Whisper full time and leaving her out of it. She wants to be out and riding, and a few times when I’ve cantered her she’s shaken her head – her biggest expression of joy under saddle (otherwise I feel it build as we canter and you can feel her go OMG LET’S RUN and that lasts for like 2 laps lol). Other than that, she’s not more comfortable going faster than a walk right now, poor thing.
Friday I worked an all day shift, so no ride time. My mom bathed Whisper and trimmed her up (western pleasure and all that. No whiskers and ear hair allowed! lol). Saturday, we took it easy and arrived at the show grounds around 10:30 to get in our preliminary ride and let Whisper get settled to seeing the place again. Amber threw her regular tantrum as my mom hooked up the truck and trailer, and then proceeded to be very confused that we were loading Whisper into the trailer. But Whisper walked right in and we were on our way!
Getting to the show she was a bit rattled – the announcer startled her a bit, but I worked with her just as I had been, and she came around very quickly. She was definitely calmer around other horses, and it’s quite interesting the difference between Amber and Whisper – Amber likes other horses around but she’d prefer to be by herself. Whisper wants to be near other horses and performs best when there are others with her. Which is absolutely perfect for their disciplines haha.
She was really ready to go when I started to tack her up, and a bit tense and speedy. However, after about 5 minutes, she really started to come around and give me the work that we’ve been doing at home. I was right in that the show definitely perked her up a bit so I actually had a better lope on her. I was expecting her usual, nervous work at the show, but I was really pleasantly surprised how well she settled. She got upset only twice, once from a horse pawing inside a passing trailer, and another time when the other horses were leaving the arena for a class and she couldn’t follow. I was expecting her to be a little worse, and I was so happy with how well she handled it. And only after a minute or so she came right back to me and gave me some great work. Almost borderline too slow, but I was very pleased with where her mind was so I called it a day after about 30 to 40 minutes of light riding, and headed home. I was very hopeful for Sunday after feeling her response Saturday, and I thought we had a great experience to move forward.
Stay tuned for Sunday!
The scoop
That was probably a very poor attempt at a pun because it’s for the dip but that was scooping…. but whatever – on to: THE DIP.
Here it is everyone! Creamy Crab and Artichoke Dip
1 pkg 8 oz crab delights
1 pkg 8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup chopped yellow onion
1 lg can (13.75 oz) artichoke hearts, preferably un-marinated, drained and chopped
1 cup Parmesan cheese
Preheat oven to 375. In mixing bowl, blend together cream cheese and mayo. Stir in remaining ingredients and place mixture into a glass pie plate. Bake uncovered for 15-18 minutes. Serve with crackers or French bread.
Hacksaw ridges
I believe I have mentioned this before, but just in case I haven’t, I have never body clipped a horse in my life. I don’t even remember seeing a body clipped horse until I was much older. By the time I WAS old enough to pay attention to that sort of thing, I wasn’t doing English anymore and most western people I met never clipped their horses. My eventer friend is bomb at body clipping but….she lives in Washington.
As I mentioned yesterday, it has been hot here. It’s going to be 78 this Friday, and even though Sunday is forecasted for only 58 (WHY the cold day for the show?!) it’s still going to be back in the upper 60s by Wednesday and upper 70s next week. Amber has been sweating, poor thing. She LOVES to sunbathe, but recently, she won’t even nap outside because she’s too hot.
So, I embarked on an “Attempt to body clip your horse for the first time” endeavor and just winged it. Here’s how it went.
Step 1: Draw some semblance of a line. It may change.
Step 2: Proceed to clip. Realize your horse hates all things that may rub/pull on her hair, so you thankfully remember in time to leave her girth area unshaved. Which then looks…..so awkward.
Step 3: But hey, it’s not that bad! For the first time of clipping it’s decent. Especially since as you were clipping pony was leaning into you because she thought OMG SCRATCHES as the clipper blades ran over her fur. So, go on to the next side.
Step 4: Repeat drawing a line, and completely miss it and mess up. But it looks a little better on this side actually! So, cover the mess up with something inventive.
Step 5: You picked a heart cause Valentine’s day was coming up? WHY. You HATE Valentine’s day. Well, at least you love your horse, and she loved the scratches, and the heart is a very sentimental gesture. How fun and cute.
Step 6: Call it good because hey it really doesn’t look that bad, and go ride the other horse, who is NOT happy to be ridden again.
However, Whisper was great! Just a couple things to fine tune before the show and we’re on our way! Also KC over at The Pilgrim Chronicles, when I mentioned if she’d like the recipe for the artichoke and crab dip, said she’d absolutely love it, and since all of my commenters mentioned it, I will dedicate a blog post specifically to the dip! My mom will get me the recipe and I’ll post it for everyone, so give it a try! I’ll post it tomorrow. Happy Hump Day!
The no-prep weekend
I remembered today that I was actually supposed to use last weekend as a prep for Whisper but uhh….I completely forgot that there’s a horse show this coming weekend lol. But I’ll make sure to ride these next few days, and even with a 10 hr shift on Friday, we won’t be showing Saturday – a perfect opportunity to drive down to the show grounds, let her see the sights again and get in a ride as the final prep for Sunday.
So instead of preparing this weekend, we toodled. Amber and I played around, my mom rode, and then Amber got a bath. She was not enthused.
Her tail is getting so long, though; I love it. I also can’t wait to get video/pictures of Whisper with her mane and tail just gorgeous….I’m excited.
Superbowl was a great surprise with the Eagles’ win, but we really didn’t do much. My mom did make us her artichoke and crab dip (which is HEAVEN OMG) and then we could make up nachos with as much cheese as we wanted with salsa, black beans and avocados because superbowl is really about food and commercials.
It’s been hot here. Like in the seventies. I know, I’m so sorry for all of you guys in the cold, but I’m really just amazed that it actually has been so warm. We’re usually in the low 50s for the day and mid 30s at night, but this has been a surprisingly mild winter. Don’t get me wrong I’m absolutely not complaining; I wish I could send some of our warm weather to you guys!
Amber’s abscess FINALLY looks on the mend! She had her last dose of antibiotics over the weekend and I seriously can’t wait. I’m just hoping all her hair grows back! It looks….weird lol. But so far so good!
Cheers to the weekend
Happy Friday everyone!
I hope everyone has some good plans for the weekend. I am not really doing anything superbowl-ish. I mostly watch for the commercials and root for the underdog, so in this case the Eagles. But hopefully it’ll be horsey-filled! What is everyone up to? Are you planning to go to/host a superbowl party or is football something that you are indifferent towards? If you aren’t doing anything superbowl-related, what are you doing instead?
First lesson of the year
After all the shenanigans Amber pulled (my bank account does not thank her), I finally felt like I could do a lesson. So I had my first one of the year yesterday! A lot of the ride I had improved on, and a lot of the ride I needed to re-fix a few things – like my very wandering left hand. Half of the time I don’t know what it does. It just….does.
I was pretty excited when I got there – lots of colorful jumps in the arena! It looked challenging but fun, and I was definitely ready to get going with the lesson by the time I finished tacking up Liam.
The cavaletti oxer started out at their lowest point 9′ apart for a 2 stride trot through or a canter bounce. For the beginning of the lesson, we worked on warming Liam up while working on my timing trotting through the cavaletti. It was really good to reacquaint myself with his movements by Trainer G asking me how many trot strides were between the poles. I haven’t ridden Liam in a while, so it was a relearning curve familiarizing myself with his pace. It was also something new to start learning that Liam likes to go up and get behind, instead of powering over. So I had to time it right with my legs to push him over the cavaletti. He was very very lazy this lesson lol. It was also 70+ degrees, so poor guy was probably very hot. All the horses looked pretty lethargic.
After a couple trot passes we started working on suppling him with serpentines off of the rail. It was good for the both of us – me and my freaking hands wanting to cross the neck (thank you western for continuously making this difficult for me lol) and getting more assertive with Liam with my leg and body, and for him since he likes to be unbent and just going places lol. He has a bad left lean, and it took my brain a bit to reinstall the software if you will that “Uh Mandy this is NOT Amber and he does not just volunteer things with light touches; you have to assert to him that you will make it hard for him not to do it”. Which took up the majority of our serpentines but while not pretty we were eventually getting the job done.
Also because of his lean, I noticed that when I went into 2 point, my brain to leg circuits died and I’d try to correct with my rein and not my leg. So going over cavaletti, in 2 point, hands on either side of mane, correct with leg AND push to get the 2 strides was very difficult for me to do. I usually forgot something in there lol (spoiler: it was my hands). But after once or twice I got it pretty well, and we moved into cantering. I’d start with the bending serpentine again, then in the corner I’d ask for the canter, canter the bounce (I have to admit I remembered STRAIGHT to the fence much better this ride lol), then back to a trot, serpentine, rinse and repeat. Then the bounce became the oxer, and I was pleased I was doing much better with waiting, seeing a stride and supporting with leg. It was by no means perfect, but progress, right? We did that both directions and took a small walk break to let Liam catch his breath.
My biggest issue with jumping (so far) is my difficulty to place/keep my hands on the neck. I think in my effort to have independent hands and not catch Amber in the mouth (since if I do she thinks she’s in trouble) it’s really making my form worse. By not having a place to aim my hands, my body suffers, so I have to throw myself into place. All good things I need to really work on. Maybe on walk days Amber and I can do poles and I’ll do 2 point WITH MY HANDS ON HER NECK. Which may mean I fall forward or off since she carries her head so low HA.
Next we made a bending line between 2 jumps, and really made me plan, aim, and get it done. I had to trot the first jump up, canter and hit my curve. Going from the orange flowers to the purple was okay. I messed up on my line, and my trot in wasn’t great but holy hell it at least felt like less of shitfest than last lesson. We went the other direction, and suddenly from this side those purple flowers were menacing horse eating flowers! Liam practically stopped with a “oh hell no! not the flowers!” and I pulled a “oh hell no Liam! I supported you to this and we had it we are NOT stopping!” And it was super messy but we popped over it and got a slightly better bending line to the orange flowers. First time Liam has stopped with me, but I’d been warned before that he can very randomly be prone to doing so, so at least it wasn’t out of the blue for me.
It was nice to realize that I actually hadn’t lost my “nope we are doing this!” attitude, especially on a horse I don’t know well. With Amber and Whisper I’m so used to toning it down for them and only occasionally having to bring out the determination, and even then it’s light. I have been wondering if at some point I lost that attitude only riding one horse – especially one that over-gives. And while I definitely feel more comfortable on Liam than maybe another horse, it was still nice to know that my gumption is still there – alive and well.
Once we got a better trot approach and a good bending line, Trainer G gave us some fun things: a light rollback turn on a “course” of 4 jumps. It really gave me something to focus on, keeping up in between the jumps, and then continuously attempting to press my hands into Liam’s neck on a short crest release on the landing of the jump. So we cantered to the purple flowers, a bending line to the orange, a quick rollback to then have the challenge of sitting up and waiting for the brown, then heading to the skinny white vertical. It looked something like this:
If that’s confusing for you (it was for me even when I was the one drawing it lol), Trainer G was so great in being willing to film that one. It’s all I got of the ride, but still – media! Youtube was also being very sketch and not loading my video, so if anyone can’t see it please let me know! I’ll try to get it on youtube later.
Even if it was only that video, I am so glad I got it. I could see that I start to let my body fall back away from the horse on landing, so my brain attempting to keep the hands on the neck forced my body to realign itself. Especially on the jump closest to the camera, I can see that by me getting my hands back in front made my weight come forward, back where it should be so that my stability was again in my heels and I was moving with Liam’s motion. It was pretty eye-opening, and I’m more determined than ever now to really start trying to work on getting that better somehow.
By this point poor guy was getting a bit tired.
He was really balky on the next bending line going through, so we stopped, gave him a bit of an extra breather before trying it one last time. We cantered to the orange flowers and then the purple, and had our best bending line yet. I really got him to bend around my inside leg AND we got the lead change and made it very nicely over the purple. As we were making a rollback turn, I could feel that he still had a bit of power left, so I’d jump the white vertical but leave out the brown. I told him to come up to the jump, last one, and he very willingly said yes. Great end to the day! He received many pats and loves.
This ride I felt a little bit more comfortable playing around with Liam and his frame. Amber requires a ratio of 2:1 for leg:hand, and Liam was no different. I just had to figure out how much leg:hand I had to use. Once I got a little firmer in my fingers/arms and felt him resisting, then started to really put on the leg (there could’ve been seat in there – I can’t remember if I did that lol) I could feel that was the right way to go. After trying for a bit here and there every now and then, I started to get a better response from him – especially in the serpentines. And one thing I realized? I love and miss Amber’s buttons haha! Liam is still a good boy, but it really makes me eager to see how Amber would do with all of this.
As a super fun aside to the lesson, I received a generic email from Rob, the owner of Lund Saddlery yesterday. I had pledged to their December kickstarter – and partially kicked myself for buying the snaffle bridle early as they had some great combos for great prices. It ended up working out since I had to have the vet out so many times in January and I was charged in January. I am for sure in no hurry since I am not doing anything with Amber and therefore have plenty of time to try out the rubber reins I will get, but Rob had emailed that they were a little late in getting all the orders out. So, to make up for being late, and to sweeten the pot, Lund was offering up 5 different pieces of tack. I mean, FREE TACK. YES. They had their dressage reins, any type of H/J reins, their 3 pt breastplate, calfskin leathers and their 5 pt breastplate. I was very torn between the calfskin leathers and the 5 pt breastplate. I plan on trying the leathers once I get a dressage saddle, which now won’t be for a long while. I’ve wanted to try a 5 pt breastplate for a bit – I’m pretty sure it’s going to be too much hardware for Amber and I, but I’ve been intrigued with the design. I just really haven’t wanted to put out the money for something that I may or not try and may or may not like. And I’m trying to sell 2 pairs of leathers already, so I didn’t want another pair just sitting around. I’ve been wanting some more Lund strap goods (I think I’m hooked) and the 5 pt would be FREE. So I emailed Rob back, and voila – I have Lund rubber reins and the 5 pt breastplate coming to me. I’m pretty excited. YAY TACK. As I was looking in my room yesterday, I also sadly realized I’m going to need a bin to place all of the nice tack I have that I’m not using: the flash piece to my PS of Sweden bridle; the running attachment to my PS of Sweden breastplate and now the running attachment to the Lund one whenever that comes in; all of my western bridles and bits that are not being used…. I guess the main question is:
Am I now in Tack Ho territory? lol
The wild one
This weekend was a lot a fun. I rode Amber on Saturday, and tried out our new piece of equipment: a hackamore! Amber actually seems to like this better than the halter. I feel that it’s because it leaves her chin alone, and the pull is a little different from the rope halter. I pieced together her Lund bridle and the cob pieces from her PS of Sweden bridle so it’d fit. The nose piece is a little loose so it can relax against her chin, but I think we looked good!
She and I then took a walkabout with my mom and Whisper. She was absolutely excited to go out again and wanted to be the leader the whole time. She was so brave and passed by the goats that really freaked her out:
But Whisper helped her to be brave, even when one popped up onto their platforms and made her plant all four feet when she startled.
She only had a couple moments where her stifle bothered her, but otherwise she felt very happy to be out. Her abscess is doing better – it’s still draining, and I have to express it a bit more, but she’s being a good sport about it. She’s not happy, but she’s at least grudgingly letting me do it. At least she gets her grain directly after to soothe her.
My mom had a really good ride on Whisper on Sunday, and then decided to head out on a trail ride. I decided to let Amber out in the arena to see if she wanted to run and play, and also so that if she did want to go crazy, she could (and not hurt herself like freakin last time). I had thought she was going to be pretty chill – and she was for the first 5 minutes. And then this happened.
This girl can move haha. Have fun with the video! I couldn’t get the part where Whisper and Amber nickered at each other, but it was still cute.
But after that she was calmer. She kept calling, but came over to me for scratches. She was definitely excited to see Whisper again – she didn’t even mind when Whisper gave her a little love nip! Such a silly pony! She got to stay out for a while after, and enjoyed her sun bathing and naps.
Horsey-wise, that was mostly it for the weekend, but the alternator is out in my truck so I’ll need to fix that, and this Wednesday I finally have a lesson! I’m very excited for that – just not quite looking forward to the fact that it may be stirrupless. But hey – stirrupless is a good, impossible difficult exercise to do.
Otherwise, Amber is finally not thinking she’ll starve. I’ve gotten her diet down slowly and now that we aren’t working so hard (or really at all), her metabolism has slowed. I had started to use her 30″ when I got back in the saddle, but shortly thereafter realized she still needed to go back in her 28″. Yay! She unfortunately still looks fat. But I KNOW she’s lost weight. Oh, well. At least she’s an easy keeper?
I hope you guys had a good weekend! What did you all do? Did you get a lot done or did you just have a down time weekend?
Riding + video!
And Amber makes an appearance! She’s pretty much always in here, but Tuesday I rode Whisper, then hopped on Amber. I’ll start with Whisper first.
It really is lovely being on such a subtle ride again. Most of the time you merely have to think turn, or think stop or just think something and Whisper will do it. Which is good and bad haha. When I let her do that, then she tends to anticipate what I’m going to do instead of waiting for me to ask, and then she gets so upset because she got it wrong. So, it’s a fun game of keeping things different for Whisper, while maintaining that something has to move for the cue – legs + voice for forward; rein and/or leg for turning amongst other things. Whisper has a hard time with the waiting game, but she’s also come to trust that when I ask her for something, I in turn will wait for her if I can feel she’s trying to figure things out.
So for such a sensitive horse that really knows her stuff, we mostly work on finesse, with a bit of basics thrown in there. Basics being moving forward into the bridle, reminding her to continue pushing her hocks underneath her. Her right lead canter is more difficult for her – she likes to revert back to tilting her hip in a little too much and letting her nose and shoulders point towards the fence. So it’s just a matter of reminding her to keep her body straight. It feels weird tho – like we’re in slow mo haha. Which I suppose we sort of are.
It’s also fun to play around with bits with her. I can definitely tell that she was schooled in a snaffle and that she absolutely remembers. I’ve been noticing in the videos my mom’s taken for me that Whisper is closer to being too slow than when she’s in a shank bit. She’s in a simple shank, with the same Myler type mouthpiece (it’s just not a Myler) as I use on Amber. In the next few days I’m going to use a soft ported shank on her, to see how she does before going back to what I’ve been using as her schooling bit – the Myler-ish one. And then potentially see which of the shanks work. Whisper is fun to do this with, though. I can find out more about her previous training based on the bit I’m using and her response to it – pretty fascinating to me. Amber, however….yeah, no haha. I’ve attempted to play around with bits for her…. It’s either the Myler or things don’t work so well.
I’ve also got 4 poles set up around the arena to use as exercises and just getting her more comfortable with them. Then I work on the finesse – keep a small bend around my inside leg, don’t look to the outside, sweetie, pace is good, not too flat, let’s lift, oh hey that worked! big improvement honey, I’m so proud – you know, the works haha.
For me, I’m always trying to overpraise her when she doesn’t overreact to something. Since she’s easily worked up, when she chooses to be calm I make sure to pet her. Even if she made a mistake, but through the mistake she’s stayed with me, she gets wither scratches. This has proved to improve her attitude by leaps and bounds. She knows she’s not supposed to step on poles – no horse wants to canter and step on poles purposefully. So I praise her for thinking and relaxing through the mistake, we try again, and when she gets it right she gets to stop and/or gets tons of praise. She did have a moment as you can see in the video where she wheees! over one of the poles, and I bring her to a trot before resuming the canter. At that point I was correcting the quality of her canter, and I think that thought in my mind makes a difference to her. She can tell I’m not attempting to correct her try over the pole, just the fact that she blew past my request to slow down after the pole (she’s so WILD about it isn’t she? lol).
After that, the poles weren’t really a problem. She remained relaxed, and I wanted to let her find her way over them. After a few times where I let her move up to the pole since she was worried, she’s hit it wrong, and after that it’s like she says “okay, I’ll let you help me. please help?” and it’s easier for me to ask for that mini half halt, or just let her keep pace and it works out. But I know not every horse is like that haha.
I worked on her spins a bit – or more like turns. Amber spins AND turns. Whisper just turns. No fast reining moves for this slow poke lol. But I do incorporate certain aspects of teaching and working on spins with Whisper that has made her turns more successful and in turn has improved certain aspects of her lope. With the buttons of hers I’ve been playing with, Whisper has been very trusting, and she gets many face loves after her rides. She’s a cool gal.
Afterwards, I tacked up Amber, and off on a walkabout we went! She was SO EXCITED. She walking so fast lol. She even started jigging, but it was a different jig than before. Before she’d be behind my leg and stop. This time, it felt that if I asked her to go, and slipped into 2 pt, off we’d go towards a cross country course. It was a fun feeling. She was also an angel. Despite her jigging and her being so excited and not having been out in forever, when a big dually truck sped by us, she just shook her head with a few jog steps, and then walked. Such a good pony.
So, since she’s played a bit in the arena during turnout – meaning she loped with a few bucks from one side to the other then called it quits – I decided we’d walk back to the arena and I’d let her lope around a little. She started off on the wrong lead and I wasn’t going to push, but when she tried to switch her leads, I think her hind leg hitched a bit and then she tripped….Oh sweetheart haha. but her ears were forward, and while she didn’t feel her most comfortable, she definitely felt happy. We did a little to the other side, and when she came back to the trot a second time I called it quits since she felt like she was done. I know she misses being ridden, and having a job. I just want this freakin tooth and abscess to heal so we can finally get the arthroscopy done on her stifle.
And speaking of her abscess…. It filled with a bit of puss again. After a chat with the vet, I took a very alcohol soaked needled and poked a hole in the mushiness. Some help and a bit of squishing with a towel, I got a good bit of puss out. Hopefully now that it has 2 parts to drain, it’ll drain a little better. One of the vet assistants was passing my way, so she was able to give me some more antibiotics. So Amber started them this morning, and hopefully this’ll finally kick this. I mean, really, Amber.
Then, Whisper and I had a fun day on Wednesday! She was already turned out, so I just put her bridle on, hopped on, and had a play day with her. She was awesome! I haven’t done a ride with her bridleless and bareback in years! Whisper was amazing, and was so willing to take my direction. I still absolutely love this girl.
Hopefully the video isn’t too long for you guys. Please feel free to fast forward to our bareback ride starting at 7:57 and tackless at 10:38. Whisper doesn’t go that fast lol.
Easy weekends
So, I am a wimp. I really didn’t ride this weekend. It was only 50 during the day with a cold north wind coming in. Which like…I know 50 is warm for you guys. I’m just….a delicate flower haha! Totally joking but after it being mid-high 60s, low 50s with a 20mph wind is very chilly. But I DID have more sister/friend time, saw Star Wars 8, lots of episodes of my fav show, and got more done on my painting. It doesn’t look like much but….I did get a lot done haha.
Amber is doing well, though! Her cut is healing nicely. Today marks the day we stop with the betadine flushing, but keep on with the salt water flush for her mouth and bute 2x a day for only 3 more days! So now I can start putting some Neosporin on her cut, and hopefully it’ll close up nicely!
Her jawbone is still pretty swollen – I’m really hoping that’ll go down and she won’t have this lopsided jaw, but if it stays at least it’ll just be cosmetic. Her nosebands will be even harder to fit, but we’ll take it as it comes!
Because I didn’t ride and didn’t get anything of real consequence – here’s a quick video compilation of my ride on Whisper on Thursday. I’m chatting a lot through the ride explaining to my mom what I’m doing so I just silenced it. Whisper got a little behind and flat in the canter over the pole, but poles and trail brings her a lot of worry. I think they over-drilled her when she was younger, but the whole ride I was so pleased that after every miss with the striding on the poles, she’d only have one over-try before settling and letting me help her just the fraction she needed. Usually when she gets very worried about things it’s so hard for her to settle again, so I was so happy with where her brain was the whole ride.
After I rode, I had my mom hop on and play around with Whisper’s tuned-up buttons, and they looked great! Well on the way to really getting it.
Hopefully, I’ll get a product review in this week but if not, I’ll keep everyone updated on Amber’s progress!
Hopefully a good turn
She’s feeling better! Looking a lot more alert, too. I’ve been disturbing her sleep unfortunately – whenever I come out she’s been lying down! I guess 4:45 is her sleep time lol. So far, she’s doing well. Crossing my fingers she’ll continue to improve over the weekend!
I’m also going to try to get some fun videos of Whisper to put together for you guys. Have a great weekend everyone!
The special one
Amber is special. In many ways. Cute, adorable ways. And not so adorable ways. Because her face just kept swelling until nearly the whole right side of her face looked like she’d been bitten by a poisonous snake. Okay, maybe not that bad, but before it did get so bad I’d called the vet and his soonest appointment was yesterday. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take time off of work to be there (right in the middle of the day), so my mom kindly took over the visit for me. (I have a few bloody pictures in here so if you can’t stand blood just don’t read or bypass the pics!) And what does the vet think? She abscessed underneath where her tooth was pulled. Even the vet said she’s special and weird – the only horse he’s known to do that. And what, per chance, caused this abscess?
After sedation and some poking around, he found an infected piece of bone that her body was obviously trying to push out, but was still attached to the jawbone. Thankfully, he was able to get it off so I won’t have to trailer her down there in a few days. And it’s a super rough, jagged piece of bone, too. That absolutely could not have been very comfortable. Then he made a small incision and drained and flushed the abscess. Poor baby was pretty drugged but she needed to be!
Interestingly enough, he asked about her scar on her jaw. She’s had one ever since I was first assigned to her – miraculously in the exact same spot that was her fractured tooth. Hmm. He theorizes that perhaps that bone fragment was from a previous injury – where her scar was, and that it may have started the process of her fractured tooth, and (where I’m theorizing) potentially when she smacked her leg and perhaps even just lightly hit her face, it caused everything else to snowball from there. I’m glad at least we got down to what it really was. I wonder if perhaps that piece was hiding all along, and only popped up because that tooth was gone and as the body was healing, it thought it was foreign whereas it hadn’t caused a problem before.
I’ll need to flush her abscess 1-2x a day, which I’m totally on board with, of course. I flushed it last night, and goodness if that girl wasn’t a saint – no halter, no moving, she just let me gently stick the syringe full of betadine solution into the incision and flush it out. I think it may have even felt good, because she just stood there and let me do it, then put her face against me afterwards as if to tell me thank you. I swear, this little horse, you guys. She absolutely looks so much better – her eyes were more alert, she was more perky, and she genuinely looked a lot more herself. I woke up early to do so again this morning, and she was again a trooper. I have to admit if I’m going to have a horse that needs vet care like this then I’d get a dozen like her. She makes meds and caring for things like this so easy.
The 3-day weekend was great – a good hang out with friends and my sister again watching some more comedic movies/shows with lots of wine, beer, popcorn and frozen foods. The best, right? Lots of dog snuggles, too.
It’s been in the high 60s, which is so awesome. I was wearing short sleeves or thin 3/4 shirts when I rode Whisper some as well, and hopped on Amber for a nice ride around the block. We stay to the asphalt or the not-too-rocky area right by the road since that’s easier for her to walk on. I know getting out and seeing the sights with Whisper is certainly better than aimless wanderings inside the arena.
Especially with Whisper around she gets very slow on the walkabout! She cares about a lot less, but is a good buffer when Whisper gets a little unsettled before relaxing again. It’s still pretty quiet here, though, not counting the lovely vet visit haha. At least on the asphalt or just next to the road I feel a lot less of a hitch in Amber’s step, and she stays happy through the whole thing. Many times it’s been a good 20-30 minute walk, which I know is good for her mind and muscles.
I’m also a little glad that because of all this time off, Amber will lose most of her built up muscle. As strange as that sounds, I have worried that her muscle mass was still a bit too heavy for her to really be able to do some of the things, and if we can get everything situated, then we’ll start off at square one building the lean muscles for eventing and not the heavy muscles she had from being ridden on inclines.
Hopefully, though, we have no more tooth problems and are in the clear with that!
Introducing Whisper
I don’t talk about Whisper much because this blog is mostly about my adventures that I drag Amber along with me (although she likes the attention). But, I figured I should formally introduce blogland to Whisper since I’ll be riding her a little more this year, and showing her for my mom. She originated from Tennessee, was trained for A circuit western pleasure, but flunked out of the program. And that allowed us to luck into grabbing her.
Quick Stats:
Registered name: Fistfuls Conclusion (not the most inventive name ever….)
Breeding: Whisper doesn’t have as much Foundation in her as Amber, but her bloodlines go back to Conclusive and Impressive, and on her mom’s side she has a lot of TB hunter blood. I find that very interesting since Whisper is technically 78% Foundation (yup, did the math on her, too haha) and though there’s only a 10% difference between her and Amber, she definitely looks more TB than the typical stocky QH.
Nicknames: Whisp, Whisper-doodle, Doodle-bug, Sweetheart, Honey
Breed: Quarter Horse
Born: March 2002
Favorite things: Alfalfa, grain, face scratches, pawing ever so politely, laying down and napping, turn out, and being ridden
She hates: any type of medication no matter how much molasses, blankets, and being cooped up
When my mom was horse-hunting, she was looking for a very dependable bay gelding. We had been looking at another horse, and when it sold, the lady told us to just hear her out, and contact this guy she knew who had a horse for sale. We almost didn’t look at her because she was a mare. But there she was in these pictures, following this little seven-year-old girl in a giant pasture. So we got videos. She was only four, and the trainer had his seven year old hop on her, and lope her in this huge pasture. We knew we had to snap her up.
Since then she’s been a huge part of the family. My mom adores her to death, and Whisper adores her. Whisper isn’t as open about her personality as Amber is, but I like to think that after all these years, Whisper is learning by watching Amber that it’s okay if she leans into scratches. It’s okay if she wants to press her face to us so we’ll love on her. It’s okay if she wants to be playful on the lunge line. And consequently, she’s teaching Amber to be more vocal – Amber nickers now! – and hopefully a little sweeter though I doubt that’s happening lol. (Unfortunately, Whisper has taught Amber how to paw. Thankfully, since I don’t say anything to Amber about it, she doesn’t do it much)
Whisper was the horse that got me into western, and took me to a lot of shows. I’ve won plaques with her, tons of ribbons, and she’s been an absolute trooper for both my mom and I going to the local shows. She really has influenced my expectations and desires in a horse – a good-brained one, one that is kind, respectful of space. Things that I never knew you could teach a horse, she showed me that you could – putting her head down to bridle, not being girthy, being ground-tied, and so many other things.
Whisper is a very very sensitive mare, and gets offended very easily. Because of that, Whisper tends to get very nervous and she’s also not one to trust easily, either. If you break the tenuous trust she shows you, she doesn’t really come back from that. I’ve been working with her for the past 2 years, helping her re-understand her training and to come trust me more and through that trust my mom better as well. Recently, she’s just started to show improvement, and I know that’s because she really trusts us now not to take advantage of her. So now, if I have to school Whisper a little firmer than normal I will give her that scratch on the wither, or small pat on the butt to “soften the blow” if you will, she absolutely trusts me to correct her, but also that I’ll always come back and be soft with her. After reading so many people’s blogs that have OTTBs or even ones that didn’t race, it has given me a lot of insight actually into how Whisper is and how she thinks. She’s QH, but a lot of her has been influenced by TBs. Since she’s so sensitive, just that bit of reassurance that I’m not upset and that she’s okay really helps her to thrive.
I honestly think that’s why she flunked – she’s not the most trusting or forgiving horse, and since she gets nervous so easily, she doesn’t travel well at all. She internalizes a lot, and it doesn’t show in misbehaving like acting out, she just gets very mouthy, extremely tense, and her brain will go into a place that sometimes you can’t reach. When not given a lot or any reassurance, her attitude quickly goes downhill. And I think her personality type is just not suited to a trainer’s operation, where 1 or 3 people may end up riding her and/or there may be a lot of shows. She likes her one person (my mom), and I think the other reason she and I get along well is because she’s had a relationship with the both of us for almost 12 years. However, that flunking meant we got an absolutely marvelous little mare. Even though she’s actually not that little – she’s at least 15.3.
Being in the backyard seems to suit her (though she’s not fond of not having a horse next to her). Our place is quieter and more peaceful in certain ways, and I feel that with her being more comfortable and seeing us all the time, she’s getting to be more expressive about how she loves on my mom. It’s very sweet.
Unfortunately, she gets a lot of judgment from people when we mention Conclusive or Impressive due to HYPP. She’s double negative, but people still sometimes tend to think she has the plague. They get very nasty about it too, so we don’t say too much to anyone anymore if they ask her breeding. Judgment also comes up a lot because she’s western pleasure trained, even though I’m trying to help her understand a better collected, more natural lope. She’s got an absolute heart of gold, is the perfect match for my ammy mom, and has a lot of talent to do the job my mom wants – a nice, slow, smooth ride. Any time when my mom has been getting back in the saddle after knee replacements or when she hasn’t ridden in a while, Whisper always makes sure my mom is safe. She’s not spooky, and is consistent every day. Plus, she literally has the best smelling nose ever. And it’s smooshy. That’s really all that matters, right?
I do still love to ride her. It’s nice to hop on a horse that’s old enough and trained in 1 thing long enough to where she knows her job. I do “train” with her a bit, but it’s a lot less now, and it’s nice to be able to relax my brain and not think about all the things as I ride her. Just like Amber, she always gives 110%, and desperately wants to please you when you ride. She’s really the horse that instilled my love of mares, and has always reminded me how to be a better, more sympathetic rider. With her, “less is more” is pretty much the answer to everything, and I’m so thankful to have ridden a horse like her since 2006.
Whisper will always technically be my first horse since I am on her papers as part-owner, and I will always have a special place in my heart for her. She’s still going strong, and looks better than ever now, and I know my mom will continue to have a blast with her for a long while!
Just another day
Yesterday was a great day to go riding – and ride we did! Our arena looks like it’s up to heavier rains, so while many places were still damp, the arena got a great and much needed all-around sprinkling. Monday and Tuesday we had a lot of rain, but the most came on Tuesday. Thankfully the majority of rain wasn’t of the flash flood sort, but we still got about an inch and a half which is a lot for us.
Thursday was my usual short work day, so my mom and I headed out to ride. We got Whisper ready first and I had a quick ride on her. We focused once again on reaffirming the basics, which she was much better, and then played around at the jog and canter. She’s lost some tone since she had to be on stall rest for a few months while we figured out the special shoes for her front feet, but she’s always a trier and was no different yesterday.
I’ll need to work on a few more things with her before I decide to show, and I want to play around with some things as well, but we’re getting her back into work again so it’ll just take a bit more time. My mom hopped on her after I did and rode her around some more.
Then I got Amber out! She was reluctant at first, though now I’m pretty sure her protest that time before was because she thought the bit was coming, because since I’ve been using the halter, she’s been totally fine. We started slow, but as we kept walking, I could tell she was getting happier by the second. Her walk once again was purposeful, and her ears were pricked. I asked her to trot a little bit, and she seemed unsure at first, but as we trotted I could feel her relax. Poor thing has missed being ridden so much. We walked after only half a turn, and she was a little sore in her walk after. So we paused, then did a bit more walking.
My mom took Whisper around the block – a perfect time to leave us in the arena since we’re pretty sure that she fractured her tooth because she had a temper tantrum in her stall. She called and called for Whisper, we walked a little fast, but ultimately, she was fine as I knew she’d be and hopefully this taught her to not throw tantrums in her stall. It’s already banged up enough as it is – as is she.
Poor thing is just a ball of hurt right now I think lol. We actually have another appointment for Amber on Tuesday since the swelling is back and she’s not eating like her usual self. I think she got the pack out and perhaps has more food stuck in there because she’s salivating a lot and chews strangely sometimes. Safe to say that while she’s not eating her hay as well, she’s eating money very well haha.
Other than that it’s been quiet. And now, on to a 3 day weekend!
A few new happenings
I do usually do a weekend recap on Mondays, but when you basically do nothing on Friday, nothing on the weekend and then nothing also happens on Monday, I uh……don’t think anyone really wants to read that haha. But I did have something different happen this weekend, and this was it:
I rode Whisper! She’s been a little sore since she took off one of her special shoes because of the fireworks on new year’s, but I just wanted to have a ride and my mom wasn’t going to so I figured why not lol. She was her good, huge-trying usual self – I just focused a lot on purposeful walking with a sprinkling of jog and lope in there. She was great. And I consequently figured out that my mom does want me to show in February. Oh, well, I suppose that could be coming up soon and also means I have to prepare a bit more lol. I didn’t realize I was actually sort of stoked to not show until my mom was telling me all about preparing for it haha.
The nice thing is, we’re only going to the show for 1 day since Whisper is only doing western, and to start her off, we’re only doing a few classes. Because Whisper is an extremely nervous horse in new environments, dislikes showing and decides to internalize EVERYTHING it’s quite difficult to get to her brain when she’s in her funk. I think she just had bad showing experiences (with us included), and she’s not keen on it. So, it’s going to be low key, no big deal, and I think it’s the best way to approach showing with her anyway.
Actually, that’s why I didn’t make any goals for me and Whisper for the year. Whisper is such a sensitive soul that I want to give her all the time she needs. The shows will be no pressure, and a good place to school and gently reintroduce her to the concept that showing isn’t bad. Plus, my biggest goal is to get Whisper calmer and accepting at shows, then to consequently help my mom ride her and show her. As far as blogging, then I’ll have content for you guys! Just be prepared for nothing exciting to happen in the videos lol.
Even though it’s only a week into January, I’ve been really enjoying my goal to live a little more and spend time with friends. I’m worried about Amber, but I’m also realizing that perhaps it’s the absolute best for the both of us to have this break. I no longer have any responsibilities to the local horse club this year besides getting hours/meetings in for year-end awards, and now that I’m not riding in the afternoons or consistently spending countless horsey hours on the weekends, I am really enjoying the free time. I spent a whole day with my sis – we had brunch, went shopping and then binge watched Galavant until super late at night. I haven’t done that in a long while, and my sister and I tend to get so busy that although we live in the same town, we hardly see each other.
I’ve also started up my next DIY projects – I’m finishing my lamp that’s Victorian-inspired to match my other lamp, I’m making myself some Harry Potter themed stirrup covers (let’s hope I can sew semi-embroidery okay and know enough about sewing machines to do it lol), finish my painting, and get back to a few other enjoyable pastimes that I haven’t had the time for much less the headspace. So I’m enjoying it.
Don’t get me wrong now! I absolutely without a doubt miss riding Amber. Riding Whisper is nice but it’s not the same. I like riding my horse, the one with all of my buttons, that sometimes I really don’t have to think when I’m riding her. We just….ride. It’s pretty much torture to have to wait before we can figure out her stifle, but so far she’s remaining healthy, and the turnout time has seemed to improve her happiness exponentially as well. She is often found at some point napping flat out. Healing is just slow, unfortunately lol.
Other than that it’s been nice here! We are actually getting rain today; can you believe it?! It really has yet to go below 60* during the day (we’ve maybe had 2 days that were like 55?), so it’s high time for cooler weather. Not that I’m complaining! It can absolutely stay above 60 haha. It’s been super mild this winter.
I’ll be sure to keep you guys updated tho on Amber’s progress and any rides on Whisper. I’ll get an introduction to Whisper together for you guys as well as some more products for more product reviews!
Goals/Plans/Suggestions-ish for 2018
Reading everyone’s goals and ideas for the year (can’t use that dreaded “p” word! lol) has me really stoked. I can’t wait to see how everyone’s year turns out! I’m so excited for you all, and am glad I get to tag along for the journey.
I was originally planning to post this yesterday, but my horse must’ve heard the “p” word that I commented on Emily’s post. Because we had to have the vet out AGAIN because her face swelled sometime mid-morning.
Not bad swelling, only a bit more than has been there in the past few weeks, but she was pretty sensitive. A different vet was still able to travel to our place to see her thankfully because Dr. W was unavailable, and she was great with Amber and seemed to really like her. Verdict is: the packing just came loose and it seemed as if she’d gotten a little food in there. A flush and new packing and she looked good. The only possible unfortunate thing is that perhaps the tooth behind the fractured one may need to be pulled. It too has a bit of degeneration, so a few of the vets are thinking that perhaps because she’s got more swelling that the other tooth is now infected. Ah….let’s hope that’s not it lol. At least the original tooth spot is healing well!
Now that that’s done, we will get back on course with my goals/plans/suggestions-ish for the year haha. Since Amber decided she’d start off the new year with a bang, my suggestions have sort of changed. But not really cause I’m still sort of hoping lol.
Horse goals:
Figure out what’s going on with Amber. Now, this may be a slightly unachievable goal since I know that sometimes things happen with horses and we may never know what’s truly going on. But, I’d like to see and figure out what’s going on in her stifle, and we’ll peel the rest of the layers from there.
Get back to work riding. Yeah this is one of those “if the stars align and it’s only as bad as I’m hoping and not worse and her prognosis is super good” goals haha. For her sake and happiness, I’m desperately hoping it’s not my worst imaginings. For my sake, too let’s be honest lol. But I’d love to get back to riding her.
Keep Amber healthy and happy and healing. At least healthy and healing I can really help out with – I’m just hoping I can also keep her brain happy as we play the waiting game.
Unfortunately, those are my only horsey goals for the year. In the meantime I can ride my mom’s horse and help Whisper and my mom get back to the showing scene. I’m very glad and lucky to have another wonderful horse to ride while Amber’s down for the count, and Whisper, though much different from Amber, is a lot of fun. She’s a more finished ride, but still allows me to train and play around with different fun things I couldn’t yet with Amber – like western riding and lead changes and trail. So you guys may be hearing more about Whisper in the near future!
Personal goals:
I didn’t add these last year, and I’m slightly hesitant to add them this year, but I’m keeping them vague on purpose. As I mentioned before in a post, I don’t have as many other activities or responsibilities pulling my time, energy and brainpower away from the things that really need it, so already I feel a lot more relaxed.
Put even more/better energy into work. While yes, it’s vague, I’d always find myself needing to do so many other things that many times I’d be worried about all the after work things and not what I truly needed to get done at work. I have some great opportunities potentially coming my way, opportunities to move up, so I need to pull myself together and just do it.
To be a better/fitter person/rider: I definitely want to stay fit, but not at the expense of enjoying life. I have ideas of how I’ll stay fit and mixing things up a lot; I’m just not going to specify what since I’m not sure yet. I want to keep up with the 2 pt work I do when I can occasionally mosey around on Amber. Other than that, though, it’s whatever comes up. I hate running (and it really stresses my already weak knees and ankles) and I don’t like just hitting a gym for some weight training, so I’m going to keep it interesting for myself. Plus, food is amazing, and I’m not giving up carbs haha!
Funds permitting, have 2-3 jump lessons a month – or if funds not permitting, at least 1 a month: My vet bills will end up coming up fast. I definitely want at least 1 a month for sure – I know I could handle that. But 2-3 may be beyond my projected budget at the moment, so I’d rather give myself a bit of cushion now and then do more if I can later. Plus life, so yeah haha.
Spend more time with friends: I definitely have some great friends surrounding me – some horsey and some not, so I want to take most of the new free time I have to hang out with my sister and my other friends and really make my relationships count.
So there we go! That’s my plan as of right now for the year. Not much, but I think it’s definitely feasible for me to accomplish and also within reason of everything that’s been going on. I’m still excited for this new year, despite it being a bit up in the air.
Oh, wait I said the “p” word… Amber don’t listen!!
Hello 2018!
It’s officially the 2nd day of 2018, and unfortunately, the end of my time off as well. But Amber and I are enjoying the fine weather, and hanging out! While she’s not sure what to do in turn out, I can tell she enjoys getting out, and I’m glad. I was able to go to a great New Year’s Eve party with a few good friends, played some fun games and toasted to the new year. I’m also excited to start tackling some of my personal goals.
Happy New Year everyone!
Cheers to the new year
Yesterday, I saddled Amber up and decided we were going to do a quick jaunt around outside the arena. She absolutely was so excited. She’d learned I’d use the rope halter from last time, so had no nasty faces as I tacked her up, but was a bit agitated when I put polos on all 4 legs. But when she realized we wouldn’t be going in the arena, she was shaking with excitement. Well, for her anyway, which is just not standing as still as she usually does when I try to tighten up her girth haha.
It was so great to be on her like that again. Not just bareback toodles, but saddling up and going on a purposeful walk-about. The beginning she felt good – even and reaching, if still a little heavy on that leg. Sometimes the leg would bother her, but then she’d seem to walk out of it before it’d bother her again. By the end of 15 minutes she still wanted to go, but I could tell it wasn’t too comfortable for her anymore. So I hopped off, and she had such a pleased expression on her face. I know she certainly missed that!
She was not please – however – for my decision of an impromptu mane/tail wash. Grain plus her apple treats more than made up for it lol.
Today we went on another trail ride with my mom, and she was better, but still a little sore when we were done. I was just so happy that she was so happy to be out doing things. She was an absolute angel even in her halter, and even though I knew she’s generally good about that, I hadn’t ridden her out in a halter in a long time. She was definitely looky, but just so excited to be out there with Whisper.
It feels strange to close out another year. This year has definitely been….different from many in the past for me. But it’s also been a good year, and this time off has been instrumental to me resting and regrouping. I’ve been able to have more time to hang out with friends, deepen relationships with those around me, and have more non-horsey fun. And with a few other responsibilities this year that I won’t have next year, I’ll be able to keep that going, and still have plenty of time with Amber.
There’s been a lot of soul searching this year, a lot of tough decisions, and a lot of waking up out of a “funk” if you will. I will still have tough decisions to make next year, be it personal or for Amber, but I’ve found the excuses I’ve made for myself personally are no longer valid. Time to strap on my Wonder Woman armor, and do it. And I think, in a way, starting this blog and knowing you guys are here with me has been a huge help in a lot of it.
So again, I am so thankful to those of you that have followed me, and I look forward to another year of following all of you guys on your adventures!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
2017 blog stat review
So this isn’t necessarily necessary, but I find these types of things interesting. Mine will probably not be as put together as many people’s, but it’s still interesting information! So let’s see what interests you guys the most, where all my readers come from, and all the other stuff lol.
Top 5 popular posts:
- Review: PS of Sweden Flying Change Bridle: this one is still my top-viewed post with 91 views. That’s a lot! I am glad though that people are finding it and hopefully it’s helping them!
- Review: TSF relief girth: another one for reviews!
- Review: KO trading company western saddle: and another review! Again I’m very glad that people are finding my reviews. That was definitely one of the reasons I started this blog, so I’m happy reviews are the top 3 on the list!
- Jellybean: awww!
- Goals for the rest of the year: this one surprised me! I was not expecting this post to make the top 5.
Okay, guys I hear you! Even down the list, reviews were 3 more placings and vet visits and my least favorite apparel/trend rounded out the top 10. So lots of reviews, a bit more about the Hankie’s Tankie, and a teensy bit about me. I’ll start scrounging around my recent purchases to start getting in more reviews!
Next to referrers. I have to give a huge, ginormous, extremely grateful THANK YOU to Emma at fraidy cat eventing, because I think most of my readers have found my blog through her. So again, a giant THANK YOU out to Emma. After Emma though, we have:
Has anyone else heard of duck duck go? I have not, and it looks like a regular search engine, but the name is still hilarious lol.
So, where are all my readers coming from? This is one of my favorite parts. It is so cool with the internet these days how people from all over the world can come together and have so many things in common (or just one – horses). I absolutely love it.
Wow look at that! That is so amazing to me. I love it! How cool! I am just floored that people from so many places wanted to read my blog – even if it was only once! And even if they accidentally hit a wrong link lol.
I also now have 25 followers (so awesome!) and I’m just so thankful for everyone that even has an interest in reading anything about Amber and I. I truly appreciate you guys that come back and read, even though I haven’t been doing this long. You guys rock!
2017 Goals….and update
Wow. So much has happened already this year. It feels like just yesterday it was the middle of March and I was dying for Rolex to come as fast as possible. This has been a really great year for me, despite Amber’s hip and her knee being injected and the other problems that have popped up.
Just this year:
- I got my first ever English/jump saddle
- I made the trek to Rolex (or not-Rolex)
- The barn got built so now the ponies are at home
- I started my very own blog!
- We showed! (Although that really wasn’t new and Amber was less than enthused lol)
I feel like while it’s been a challenging year in terms of taking up a new discipline (or 3), it’s also been challenging for me personally and getting over several humps for myself as well. However, it’s probably been one of my best years in a while. So, let’s see how I’ve done so far.
Fix my Fixed Elbow and Arm Syndrome. I’m going to cross this one off even though it’s not fully a habit yet. I still tend to chicken-arm it every now and then, but it’s a lot less (at least on the flat; noooooo promises for jumping lol). Progress!- Head over to a friend’s barn and have some super fun on their mini jump course there by late August perhaps September. Yeah, so…..that didn’t happen lol.
Get my position to where I can independently go into correct 2 point without leaning on her neck with my hands. I’ve gotten much stronger now. I’m still relearning jumping, but as far as 2 pt goes, I can do that.
- Get a dressage saddle. Haha. Ah ha ha. Ha ha. Ha. Yeah. Fail.
- Potentially enter a local club’s h/j show. Nope. That didn’t happen, either.
Really work on both of our fitness. We did! We both toned up. (and have since lost that LOL)School a dressage or western dressage show. Or both. We did them both! 2 & 3 times at that!- Get a dressage/
jumping lesson and sign up for the Master Dressage webinar series. Signed up for the Master Dressage series and it’s been very helpful. Loving it so far! Although the jump lesson wasn’t on Amber, I’ve had 2 so far, and am pretty sure that’s where I want be and go back to for a while.
For the first year making goals for myself, I’m glad I did more than half of them. It’s been nice to cross off goals and feel accomplished at the end of the year. We’ve ended 2017 differently than I was hoping or expecting, but that’s horses. Things happen. They aren’t machines and neither are we. It’ll be different coming up with goals for next year since things are a bit up in the air, but I’ll come up with something!
Meanwhile, Amber’s mouth seems to be doing fine. She ended her SMZs on Saturday, but is eating and being a regular chubs on the daily. She still has swelling, but she’s let me push on it a few times and it doesn’t seem to hurt her. Unlike before she doesn’t pull away, and I’m putting a fair amount of pressure on it. So yay! Her recovery seems to be going well so far.
I haven’t been blogging much since there’s just not really much for me to talk about, unfortunately. My plans to assess Amber and tack her up and feel like we’re riding even though we’re not haven’t happened. I’ve turned her out a lot and then hopped on without tack to just mosey – she’s unfortunately not up for much else. I did try one day, and not only was her trot atrocious, when she walked she was no doubt bobbing her head and neck to help pull that leg forward. She still wants to play, and I can tell she wants to ride, but the other day she gave me the first negative reaction I’ve ever gotten from her when I put on her saddle. She seemed a little irritated even after that, so I’ve been wondering if perhaps she was expecting the bridle after the saddle since she seemed a little confused when I just left her rope halter on. We’ll try again soon and see how that turns out.
So poor girl wants to be out and ride, she just is hurting. It’s difficult to wait, because I want her to feel better! But I want to make sure she’s nearly recovered from her tooth before she has to go back to the vet. The last thing we want is an infection! Right now though she sort of enjoys her turnout time, but only if there’s food down lol. Otherwise she’s an idiot and stands at the gate haha! I do wish we had grass pastures, but unfortunately not. So she gets grass hay scattered around the arena lol.
Otherwise Christmas was great! We went to my sister and her boyfriend’s house for Christmas lunch/dinner, and got to exchange more gifts which was fun. I got almost my whole family Hamer & Clay gifts for Christmas this year. I got my mom one of her and Whisper, and my sisters one of their dogs. They were a hit! Definitely using Kelsey again – especially for a few of my own! I got luggage, bakeware and a dachshund sweater – all things that were needed lol.
I hope everyone had a good Christmas!
Dashing through the not-snow to Christmas
So today officially starts my vacation! I’m off work until the 2nd, so I have plenty of time now to catch up on all the things I haven’t done yet. Like cleaning. And riding a little more. Or at least bareback rides. I wanted to ride Wednesday but the winds were gusting up to 50mph. It’s the time of year for Vegas to be windy, but at least it’s not frigid here, too. It did actually get pretty low last night – 30 degrees! Amber still has very little winter coat, so she got her heavier blanket last night.
Her check up for her tooth is in about 5-6 weeks. She looks good – she’s eating well, still slurping up her grain with 15 SMZs in it which makes me infinitely happy. She’s been head shy though, and a bit stand off-ish. I completely understand why, especially if they were spending the better part of an hour getting her tooth out and she wasn’t completely anesthetized. But she’s definitely more like herself now; I think she’s just still mad at me for not only leaving her at the vet to get that done but also for not being able to spend much time with her recently. She still demands her scratches and blanket treats, though, so she’s not really hurting for attention. She’ll eventually not be mad at me lol.
But she has been dashing, a bit literally, around. My friend visiting made an interesting point – her OTTB had ended up needing a year to just be a horse. A 7 yr old turning 3. Which, after racing for so long, I agreed with her that “turning 3” wasn’t bad – in certain ways he still had a baby brain. But what really struck me was that she said she tried riding him, but he would keep injuring himself. And I wonder about Amber. She’s moved a lot in her life, following me from Colorado to Vegas for a year then to Texas for a year before having to move back to Vegas and subsequently 3 different barns. Not counting the year and a half that she was injured and I didn’t ride her, she’s been in work since she was about a year and a half. She hated the last barn (and I think she hated everything about it) and I almost never turned her out because the ground was so hard and slick and she’d slip constantly. I was so afraid she’d injure something. Now, after one last move for a long while, she’s super comfortable at our place, and loves the arena. I’ve asked my mom to turn her out a few times, and when she has, Amber has finally done what I’ve wanted to see her do for a while – run and jump and buck and play and have a blast. Dashing through the sand and enjoying being a horse that is so excited about the cooler weather.
Interestingly enough, in all the videos my mom has sent me, her stifle actually hasn’t looked bad. A bit short here and there, but not like before. She’s also had “injuries” in the past few months – all very close together, and I wonder if she needs to be a horse again. If I need to turn her out every day and let her play, then just start by doing very simple rides – no frame, no expectations, just w/t/c and have fun. All with a neck rope, btw, no bit. Perhaps as excited as I am to get into eventing, she’s trying to tell me she needs a break. Which is fine with me. We’ll go back to when our days were low key, calm hacks, but we’d just ride and do something. Perhaps she needs that, and perhaps I do, too.
So that’s my plan for my time off. Spending time with my pony. Sitting out there on the mounting block as I watch her play and run and then letting her stay out there and lay flat out napping in the sun. Then go out there, tack up (or no tack) and just go w/t/c or wherever we want. I’m just so glad that in turning her out, she actually does want to run and play. She hasn’t done that in a while, and I’ve always desired her to be a horse above all else, and a competition partner next. So we’ll see how this ends up.
I’m going to ride a bit – easy things, but to assess how she does and get more information while her jaw heals before she goes in for the arthroscopy. But we’ll see how taking things easy goes. She’s doing well – fat and happy and still loving food. She unfortunately doesn’t get anything for Christmas except a pulled tooth, but shhhh don’t tell her lol.
Probably the only thing I’ll get for myself this Christmas is the helmet cam. I’m hoping the Cambox goes on a Christmas sale, but we’ll see. I unfortunately got all turned around on the Black Friday sale so I missed out, but I’d like this cam to help with my lessons. It’ll be from my perspective instead of a full visual for me to see, but I’ll still be able to catch Trainer G’s words and mine to rewatch and listen to. Also media for you guys lol.
What about you? What did you guys get your horses for Christmas? Did you get yourself anything for Christmas?
Merry Christmas everyone!
Weekend recap: jump lesson
So Friday after dropping Amber off at the vet, I headed ten minutes down the street to Trainer G’s place. I was able to ride Liam again, which was a blast but he REALLY made me work for it that day. It was because I didn’t start the ride with a whip lol. Lazy ole man who pretends not to want to work but looooves to jump lol.
Trainer G set up a lot more jumps that day (okay only 2 more but it felt like a lot lol) and was a little harder on me with more expectation which I was happy about. Get me in there and let’s dig up what really needs work! You know what didn’t come up? The left hand being weird! Yay! But you know what did come up? My right hand being weird. Ugh. Hold on, I just gotta fix all my parts individually…..
But it was a very fun lesson while still being very challenging and really making me think – like a lot. I’m good at multi-tasking but then she added in counting strides and I was lost for a few sets until I got it back together haha. Which is funny because it’s one reason why rundowns to sliding stops were so difficult for me because I’d count strides and the horses could feel it.
We started off with leg yields, and it’s definitely different coming from western to english. The same phrase could mean two different things, and Trainer G seems to understand well that for me I know how to do what she wants me to do, but I just have to familiarize myself again with the english meanings. Liam was definitely not in the mood to do flatwork, not with the jumps there, but I was able to get some good moves.
The exercise for the rest of the lesson was bending lines and coming out of the corners. I was okay on the bending lines, but she’d have me trot that first fence and good lord I was a fail at that like the whole lesson. Every time I’d feel Liam stall in front of the jump so I’d end up leading with my shoulders to help him over the jump and then felt like I had to really get him moving to get the good canter and strides to the next fence. There was only one instance where we got a very good, forward 6 bending line that actually felt really good – other than that we hit the seven strides.
I did a number of bending lines – the crossrail to the peach, then to the blue. The crossrail to blue and then peach. Then all together (crossrail to vertical, to vertical to crossrail). I was meh at this. My bending lines were actually okay, but I didn’t feel as attacking or fluid to the jumps as I’d felt the first lesson. Which I know happens all the time! But one thing I do to get Liam going is dig in my seat – really rely on that and let my heels creep up as I squeeze him viciously. Which is…not good lol. Which is so funny to me because Amber needs none of that haha! So it’s good for me to be doing this on Liam.
A couple times I felt the exercise was good and I did well. Then we switched it up and she had me jump the crossrail to the coop and then a nice arcing turn to the peach (or turning right to do the blue). While the first attempt felt messy, I definitely think it was a moment of progress for me. I was only 13 when I quit jumping, so I don’t remember actively pushing horses to jumps or really making the decisions on a course. I just steered. But Liam smacked his hind feet good on the landing after the coop and lost his footing a bit, but I kept him going, circled to the left, and just as we reach center he hit a weird patch of dirt and his hind legs slipped again. I wasn’t able to completely judge the distance, but after pushing him through the rough patch I could see that to continue pushing would be way too long. So I sort of muddled a slow-down, which I think I just sat up a bit and quieted my seat but I can’t be completely sure. Either way I did something and we ended up at the base and hopped over it well.
I’m used to just letting horses jump. It’s what I’ve known and done. Air Myles would always just take me to the jumps, and I think Liam is so good for me because while he’ll jump anything, I have to be proactive, I have to tell him we are doing this. I still don’t completely make decisions and just kind of let him jump, but it is my second lesson lol. Baby steps! So for my brain to be able to take that info and so so quickly make a decision – even if I muddled through it – I think is definitely my favorite moment of the day. It’s a start, and that’s what’s important.
Because then Trainer G said the dreaded words – next lesson is no stirrups. Oi. I will die. But when she said that and I immediately said “okay, yeah, sure” she laughed. Yes, I will die lol. But I know I need it. She said it’ll help me get everything sorted a little better so I didn’t have the crutch of stirrups. While I my poor legs are not happy, I know that she’s totally right. It’ll really help my position and I do look forward to it.
So, I’m hoping for another lesson after Christmas – I have that whole week off so I’m planning on nice long walks with Amber and hopefully another lesson!
Weekend Recap: the vet visit
So, I’m sorry, guys. I totally left you hanging for the weekend. Truth is since Thursday morning I’ve been going nonstop and there really has been no time for blogging, so I’m going to try to catch up with next week. As I mentioned before I had friends come to town, so they wanted the Vegas experience, and seeing as I’ve never actually done that, these were the friends that I’d count on to party with no matter what.
But first – Amber’s vet visit! My lesson was cancelled for Thursday morning since the infernal wind decided to come back, but luckily we were able to reschedule for Friday. Amber’s vet visit went well, and it also didn’t. Luckily, the weird bump on her chin was pretty easy to figure out – she had an abscess in the root of her tooth. It looked like there was some root degeneration that seemed to be the cause, and while there were other things we could do, it wouldn’t help the abscess stay away. So I concurred with the vet to have the tooth pulled.
He blocked her stifle to ensure that indeed it was the stifle giving her the problem, and it was definitely her stifle that was still bothering her. He gave me a few options, one being arthroscopy to actually go in live and see the joint and see if there’s anything else going on in there since she didn’t respond well to the initial injection. There could be fraying in the joint which is causing discomfort and they can clean that up in arthroscopy (which I’m secretly hoping is all that’s seriously wrong with it), and she and I have had success with arthroscopy, so I wanted to go with that option. That will be in January though.
He took a look at the swelling on her knee, and thankfully the actual tendon looked absolutely fine. It was only the sheath that filled with swelling. He suggested it seemed like some trauma had befallen it, but wasn’t too sure, but to just let it take care of itself. We made a plan to bring Amber back on Friday for her tooth extraction which coincided perfectly with my lesson. So poor thing got dragged up to the vet again. She wasn’t too happy with me. More so for the fact that mother left me there; how dare she lol. But they were able to get the tooth out successfully without too much trouble.
So, what caused the abscessing? Yeah, not normal tooth degeneration. Nope. No, she FRACTURED the root of her tooth. Enough so that the nerve was most likely exposed and causing her a lot of pain. I am legit amazed that she never once refused the bit or contact when I rode her and that lump was bigger. All she did was a slight ouchie when I put on her halter.
Coincidentally, my mom noticed that Amber no longer threw a fit when Whisper would leave her to go out on trail. Not so coincidentally (I know, I’m sorry; I keep saying that word lol) that happened on Monday when my mom heard the giant bang but hadn’t seen what happened, and then Tuesday is when I noticed the lump on her leg. The tooth bump popped up around the exact same time. Pretty sure that supports my theory of she did something traumatic to herself SOMEHOW. I never know how she manages to do this to herself. But for her to swell up and be hot it has to be something very ouchie.
Good to figure that out, but damn. Thank you mare. She was extremely upset at me when I came to get her. She even turned her head away from me! I’m so sorry, sweetie. But really, you’ll feel better. And I think she does. She’s on some meds for a good week, but this also gives her time to recover from this before I drag her back to the vet to go under anesthesia for her arthroscopy. She’s been sleeping A LOT and laying down which I am so happy about – I bet while she’s still sore, she’s absolutely not in as much pain as that exposed nerve, and she’s catching up on all the sleep she missed, which is probably why she was getting grumpy by the time her vet visit rolled around. She’s eating well, and thankfully lapping up all her grain – even with a gram of bute and 15 tabs of SMZs. Good girl!
But this obviously sets us back. First with about 5 weeks of tooth recovery, then about 4 weeks of recovery from the arthroscopy, and during those 4 weeks figuring out what to do depending on the prognosis. And Amber may not be up to the challenge of eventing when all is said and done. But I don’t want to give up yet. We’re looking at 2-3 months at least of time off, and then we don’t generally see joint change until 6-9 months away, so I plan to nab some pentosan and start doing that while she’s “off” – I’ll still be riding, we’ll just be walking again. Which we all know she just adores lol. Hopefully, while that may not improve her joint, it’ll stop the degeneration when we go to take a look again in a few months. So, good news and bad news, but as I said I’m still hopeful. I am hoping that a debridement of her joint will be all we’ll need.
I won’t stop taking lessons. Which I see this as a good chance for me to really get back in the swing of jumping and at least be more confident before going at it with her. But geez what a vet visit lol. Up next – the lesson!
Not-so-informative update
I definitely miss time spent with my pony. I’m worried about her, and I want to get her out a bit and walk around on her bareback and continue assessing but I’ve been working long days so it’s definitely difficult. I am taking a few days off since I have an eventer friend visiting Vegas and I wanted to spend time with her so I have a promising 4 day weekend haha. Thankfully, that means I was able to get Amber an appointment on Thursday.
Hopefully all will go well but with the NFR here now the vets are definitely taxed with the influx of horses so I was grateful I could schedule a visit so soon! I was also able to schedule a lesson for Thursday, so hopefully I can drag Amber along to that and then we’ll just be extremely early to the vet appointment haha. But that way I only make 1 trip up north since a trip to the vet or G is 40+ minutes and then hauling a trailer makes that longer. But, the lesson also may need to be cancelled because winds are supposed to be 40+ mph and nobody wants to ride in that so the winds may deter my lesson again. But hopefully I’ll still be able to have one this weekend.
Media will probably (and unfortunately) be scarce for the lesson, but I’m excited to jump again! If I do get to drag Amber along she will probably be very upset about the fact that I’m riding a different horse that’s not her but she’ll live haha.
I’m super nervous but crossing my fingers for a good verdict! It’s been a rollercoaster past few months that’s for sure!
Chillin out
Which means two things – Saturday and Sunday were super chill days, and I had to chill out after Saturday lol.
I think we all get there a lot – what is wrong with my horse and why won’t they tell me what’s wrong and hopefully this is the last of it and omg something is still not right!! be it with injuries or training. And I was no different – worried about my girl after Saturday’s ride.
But I’ve been giving Amber a lot of time, first with the stifle and then with that front leg and she seemed to be doing better. It was hard to tell, though, so Saturday with a plan of still taking it very easy and letting things heal up nicely because sometimes joint injections take longer to really kick in. And boy was she ready. She walking with a purpose, very ready to get the show on the road and get going. So this was a big improvement from the last week so well hey let’s do a teensy bit of trotting and see how you feel before quitting and going on a trail ride with Whisper.
So we trotted, and wow she felt nice. Very smooth. Very into the contact. Switched directions and I tried that left hand exercise G had me doing – holding the rein away from the neck and pushing the shoulder into the outside rein. Huh. Totally opposite western, and it didn’t work the best for lazy ol’ Liam, but holy crap Amber responded perfectly when I did it with her. And the trot felt so promising! And then she took a misstep. And the rhythm was gone. No head bobbing – almost no change of frame – but something absolutely wasn’t right. I walked her immediately, checked out the shadow and sure enough she wasn’t bringing that right hind forward at all. So I walked a little, and she started to feel better after a bit, but I hopped off.
It hadn’t even been 20 minutes, and it broke my heart because she kept nosing me and following every step I took like “but wait, how are we done yet? We shouldn’t be done yet, ma.” And it was very unlike her to stand in an arena and rest the right hind leg almost immediately after stopping. We still took a very easy, short trail ride, and she was so excited and happy for that – I think her brain needed it – but I was worrying the rest of the day.
Sunday I turned her out in the arena and let her wander while I picked up leaves (sometimes neighboring oleander dead leaves blow into the arena). She mostly followed me, but when she didn’t I could just observe her. Most of the time she walked okay if a slight hitch in her step occasionally. She had a few wee! moments and gave a few bucks. She was definitely off the first time she had a few trot steps after the buck, then seemed okay walking. Her second buck she seemed okay, but something is just still not quite right.
So after wracking my brain and trying to think of everything, I’ve been beginning to wonder if it wasn’t her stifle at all that was giving her the problem. After her SI injection, she was feeling marvelous. Leading up to English show day on the 11th she felt fantastic, absolutely superb. Her right lead even was feeling magical. And at that show was when she kicked out. Now we did find things in her stifle which was good to know. But I’m wondering if she pulled/tore/strained a ligament or muscle in that area when she kicked out. With rest, she gets better. A nice walk/trot ride Tuesday, a canter one Wednesday and she was still kind of flat and iffy, 2 days off and then feeling great before it goes bad again….I’m thinking it’s something like that. Also, considering how well she responded to her knee and SI injections, I find it puzzling that her stifle would still be this bad after almost 4 weeks if that were the true problem.
This poor vet lol. He got saddled with me when he did such a great job on her SI and his assistant ended up being awesome and is now my instructor lol. So I’m hoping I can schedule an appointment here soon and hopefully ultrasound the area (though that might be really difficult), and then check out that crazy lump on her foreleg that’s still there. The only silver lining I can see is that I’m REALLY getting to know my vets haha!
Amber update and lesson!
Amber was really good Wednesday. She still felt kinda stiff and just a little blah, so I think that right front leg is still bothering her a bit. I do think her stifle is feeling better, though. My mom got some good video so I could assess what she looked like, and she’s pulling that right hind up which is excellent. But it does seemed marred by her right front potentially still being sore. The video allowed for some super cool shots, though.
It was such a blast to really ride her again, though I’ve forgotten how to dressage lol. I was leaning forward and my lower leg was slipping forward so I think we had more of a hunter ride, but I was super pleased with how she actually really seemed to want to hunt the bit down into my hands, but still holding herself just off of it for a bit of self carriage. She was so consistent with it, too.
I think with the shows and going back and forth english to western, I think she was expecting that as soon as she was really learning the concept of dressage and what I wanted then we’d switch to western. And I think that has something to do with the change of pace I’ve been seeing in her the past few rides. Because really while she’d ideally like to not work too hard, she truly enjoys being ridden and being taught new things and getting praised, so I know it isn’t because she’s just being lazy. She feels more content in the work, and while not as “on it” as in past rides, she felt a lot more confident with things and understanding that when I praise her to just wait for me a bit. The canter WILL come haha.
Yesterday I thought my eyes were crazy but there is a growing lump on her lower jaw – the right side. So I’m thinking that when she smacked her right front, she must’ve smacked her jaw somehow. They popped up around the same time. I’m also really confused because that swelling on the leg hasn’t gone down. And I ice it, and she was on bute for 3 days but been off it ever since so…..? Ugh, this horse. But I think after working hard for that buckle in all 3 shows, it’s okay we’re mucking through a few things now. I think the rest is needed, and I always love just being on her.
Well, on a super fun note – I had my first lesson in 13 years! It was actually super cool to see the footage. While I’m out of shape and lost my eye for distance, it’s good to see my muscle memory trying to remember how to jump haha. I rode her old schoolmaster Liam, who is an opinionated, super lazy guy. I love him.
He was an absolute saint, bailing me out with 2 near falls for me (which I’m so sad my mom didn’t get those on camera!), taking the long distances I put him to, bailing me when I couldn’t make a stride decision, and showing me some sass on our lead changes. He required so much more leg than Amber, and it was learning curve at first because “what do you mean I need to keep his pace going? Amber just….goes” haha. With a few pointed whip taps and lots of spur, though, he was up and going. I was so glad he wasn’t bouncier – I would not have been able to sit that! lol. But he was the perfect saint, and I trusted him from the beginning.
We did walk/trot work first, Trainer G first assessing how I rode and what were my issues. She immediately latched on to my left hand – which really does need a lot of help! It likes to do random things by itself lol. Also that my left heel likes to stay up after I use my spur. I’ve been trying to fix that since Amber rides so much better when I lengthen my left leg, but second set of eyes is best! Then we moved on to canter work, the work getting more challenging as I passed initial exercises. Her 3 main thoughts for my lesson was position, track and pace. And I did okay on body position and the horse’s track, buuuuut was lax on pace haha.
My fails were trotting the fences – that’s so hard! My biggest fail one was when I got too in my head with “crap I stopped riding right before the jump and didn’t help him at all – my mind just went blank and I just need to help him and ride him” and he took off early, left me behind so he pulled me forward when my arms didn’t reach far enough, tripped on landing, sending me forward and the only thing that saved me was his big thick neck going up like “the fuck are you doing, lady?!” lol. I even managed an “oh shit!” as his neck hit my chest lol. So Trainer G (I like saying that!) brought me in to ask what happened, agreed with where I’d made the mistakes, but it was so nice because I never once felt like I was really being criticized and I didn’t feel like a huge failure and frustrated after that near fall, just laughed it off and came back ready to try again. Which speaks volumes that for such a new situation I felt very comfortable with G and also that I’m growing as a rider and being able to put mistakes behind me and try again without holding on to that mistake. Win!
My favorite part of the whole ride was actually when Trainer G said “I don’t know who made that decision but it was the right one.” Hahaha! It was mostly Liam. For sure. Going to the jump I was trying to rate him a bit unsuccessfully, half heartedly attempted to slow the pace a bit, but then gave up and he was gracious enough to chip in a stride and save my butt haha! He got so many pats that ride for putting up with me lol. The last set was absolutely the best, rounding off the jumps at around 2’3″ or maybe 2’6″. We didn’t measure lol. But it was good to know height since they didn’t look overly big to me (could be that I trust Liam completely lol) and also I think that’s around BN height and I think Amber could do that.
But the ride was an absolute blast, and I really loved riding with Trainer G. We seemed to get along really well, and all my fears of berating trainers and ones who may treat me like a kid were gone. Which is why I picked her in the first place since I got a really great feeling from G when I first met her. So, success! I have the 14th off and she’ll be gone this weekend, so I’m definitely scheduling another lesson soon! And in the meantime waiting until I can haul Amber up there!
The food life
So I got my lesson rescheduled to Thursday afternoon – yay! I’m very excited, and plan to pack all that is needed so I can leave straight from work to get up there to have time to acquaint myself with the lesson horse and have time to groom and tack up. It took me a while (honestly I was kinda embarrassed) to remember that “uhh, Mandy, the lesson is AT a certain time. That means you must be EARLY to TACK THE FREAKING HORSE. Remember?” Well, I almost didn’t haha. After 13 years of no lessons there will probably be other things I’ve forgotten, but as of yet I haven’t thought of them.
I do feel bad for my pony – because it’s gotten colder I’ve fed her about the same, but her work no longer reflects the food she’s given. Which….is my fault. But, really guys me and my horse match so much. We love food. We just do. I mean, I mostly try to eat at least healthily – I have Blue Apron delivered to my house for dinners and lunch if extra – but recently I’ve noticed the lack of riding and eating more than usual has caught up to the both of us.
I’ve had pizza for like lunch and dinner for 3 days in a row, then I had sushi, that huge meal for the Christmas party, lots of cheese and quiches, and more pizza. Needless to say, this is my reaction every time someone talks about dieting or “oh I’ve had plenty of desserts today”. Because really, there’s no such thing as too many desserts. Or cheese. Or just food in general.
But, Amber’s got her hay belly back, so it’s going to be fun the both of us getting in better shape lol not. I need to do more 2pt and just riding in general if I want to keep up with all that food I’m eating too. Hence a ride yesterday. I started it with 2pt because if I don’t my legs are too tired. I’m doing 5 minutes every ride to start with since I also need to get stronger for jumping. Soon, I’ll probably up that to trotting 5 minutes instead of walking, but baby steps lol.
Amber was great. She was absolutely ready to go by the time I hopped on. She looked not so ecstatic when I was tacking her up, but she felt good walking out for our 5 minute 2pt warm up. She felt very nice in the trot, settling in to a nice stretchy trot before she seemed ready for a little more contact. She was a little lower headed and shouldered than I’d like, but she was actually super consistent in the contact, really willing to really try to work from behind so I let it go and gave her lots of quick scratches as we trotted.
At one point she seemed a little close to how she’d been when she hurt her front leg, but this time she wasn’t tensing a lot – she was just being a little too resistant when I’d try to even up her left shoulder. After a subtle reminder from the spur, she tried, and when I praised her she settled. She definitely was expecting me to ask her canter, but I just asked her to move her haunches and she was right on it. A little switch of direction, some more walk and trot, then asked her to canter on her right lead. The transition wasn’t beautiful by any means, but she was nice and relaxed.
Her right lead felt really nice. I could tell that one long side that she was still tilting her hip to the inside so I just decided to see if it’d work and asked Amber to do a very mild haunches out. I could feel her confusion for a moment before she guessed if haunches out was what I wanted, and I praised her and could immediately feel her canter get better. I can’t quite describe it, but it felt great. So we quit there!
Today, I plan for another ride, and then Thursday lesson! Now the wind needs to stay away….
When the wind blows
Everything away, including my lesson. I was very disappointed. The lady did have Sunday open, but by the time we rushed in the car to drive up there because the wind had died down….. It started back up again. So the lesson was cancelled, which was probably for the best anyway. It’s not fun to ride in sustained 20-30 mph winds with gusts up to 50 mph. So boo no lesson, but we’re planning another one when our schedules sync so I’m excited.
There are many days where I wish I didn’t work in an office, or that my job was a little more exciting, but the people are why it’s seriously the best job. Because honestly, my Friday consisted of wrapping presents for our Christmas party and figuring out our new office buddy – Poo-nicorn.
Yup. That’s what I did Friday. Wrapped presents and then a coworker and I bought 3 new Poo-nicorns. One for her, one for me, and one for my boss’s daughter. I mean, isn’t that just the funniest thing you’ve ever seen? We had this huge discussion on the Poo-nicorn, too – we are now the Poo-nicorn Tribe, we are going to get shirts with Poo-nicorn on it and the back will say “it’s hard to be unhappy when you’re farting rainbows”, and we are making Poo-nicorn his own Instagram page. Definitely best. Friday. Ever haha.
Saturday was a good ride day. Amber and I only did walk/trot, but I was super pleased with her. She’s been doing very well, but it’s a little hard because I think the fact that she bucked and smacked her front leg hasn’t helped the stifle recovery as much as we’d like. But, we’ve been playing with haunches out/in and a teensy bit of shoulder work at the walk so that we’re not UBER BORING since Amber thinks walking just to walk around in an arena is silly lol. So, I figured it was time to start working on haunches in/out at the trot. She has a tendency to tilt her butt to the right both ways – which I think is latent from my riding since she’s never been ridden by other people – but I’ve been working on getting my hips as even as I can and it’s helped her right canter a lot and I think it’s all coming together to help the both of us have a better ride.
I do think she felt much better that ride. There was no rushing, and the few times that she thought perhaps I’d ask for one thing (canter), but I just said “easy” and kept the pressure, and it took her a second but then she went I know this! and really tried to perform it. We practiced on the straight first, letting her get used to the feeling – especially down one long side where she really tends to tilt her hip inside so we practiced pushing it out. Going into a circle was much harder for her, but she was on it and kept her shoulders pretty straight as I pushed her hip out and then in, then matched her shoulders to her hip track. To the right she was a bit sticky (I’m not too surprised) and I think that was mostly just a lack of understanding until the light bulb clicked, but to the left she felt confident and knew what I wanted the first time.
We did all of the 30 minute ride in a stretchy trot, just asking her to reach down a little, but still maintain some energy and getting back into the lift I’d like. As the injections really take effect, I think doing this work is helping her realize that she really is more supple, it’s easier for her to do these things, and that I will help her as much as I can to be confident in what I’m asking. She was definitely much calmer this ride, and I think it’s becoming easier and clearer for me to recognize the difference from her being excited to go and her going faster because she’s uncomfortable.
For the rest of the afternoon my friend and I hung around, visited my sister, and watched some Netflix before getting ready for the party. It was a blast. And unfortunately, I was a bad blogger and didn’t get pictures of hardly anything there. As for the menu, course 1 was lobster bisque or veggie soup (3 guesses which one I picked) accompanied by rolls, then course 2 a house or Caesar salad (I chose the Caesar), and then course 3 you could choose the steak with cheesy potatoes, the salmon with cheesy potatoes or the grilled chicken. Again, 3 guesses which one I chose (omg YES steak lol)
The party was at the very top of the Stratosphere, so you could occasionally feel the rides bumping around (ps I did NOT go on those rides. Heck no. Nothing is slingshotting me off the side of a giant tower). But it was a good party, I helped give out all the presents and definitely enjoyed my 2 free drink tickets. And I had to very quickly eat my dessert since I handed out presents at that time and we had to get out in 10 minutes of me finishing. So, here’s a picture of my half-eaten dessert lol. It involved a very good cake pop, some delicious mousse, and my fav – blueberries and raspberries topped with cream and served in a white chocolate bowl. So yummy!
By 8 am Sunday the wind was horrible and no one really wanted to be out in that so Amber didn’t get out nor did I have my lesson. But I worked later this morning, so I had time to get Amber out and at least lunge her. She had a blast, ran a bit too fast (I still worry about the leg, the knee, the stifle, the SI – stop giving me a heart attack, Amber!), but otherwise walked and jogged fine after she had fun running around so that eased the worry a bit lol. She’s still looking good, and I’m excited to get her out all this week. The swelling on her front leg has yet to go down even though I’ve iced it and gave her bute for a few days, so that puzzles me, but it’s feeling harder so I’m still thinking she has a bad muscle bruise.
She also thought she was sooooo sassy again when we started lunging. Then she REALLY gets into it, but at first, it’s like she has to work herself into it lol. And then she was like “it’s 40 degrees and breezy and omg I AM RUNNING HOW AMAZING” lol. But like I said, she looked okay, so we’ll continue the gradual work back into fitness and hopefully jumping her soon and not just a lesson horse!
Getting to it
Amber continues to be a little ouchy on her leg, and was still a little down yesterday, but either she’s forgiven me for leaving or is just hurting a little still when she moves but she’s herself on everything else. So, good and bad.
My friend is moving to town and come in yesterday, so we had some great sushi (which I unfortunately didn’t get any pictures of) but it meant I didn’t have too much time if I wanted to ride, which I decided I didn’t since Amber did seem uncomfortable. But I did have to get her out because girl has packed on a belly again. Whoops lol.
So I lunged her. Amber tends to lunge herself – she listens very well to voice cues and I usually let her play as much as she wants both directions, and then when she’s done she stops and comes into me. I could tell she still wasn’t feeling all herself, but she was shaking her head before cantering so I knew she felt excited and wanted to play a bit. She had a buck each way, much head shaking, and then turned to face me and stuck her face in my stomach to let me know she was done. She thought she was sooooooo sassy lol.
It’s a little hard to see how her stifle is doing because her right front leg is still ouchy, but over all I think it feels better. It looks like she’s more okay with bringing it forward and it doesn’t hurt much if at all. So yay a plus!
This weekend may not involve much horses (I hope it will, though!) but I will hopefully be taking my first lesson since I was 13! (I am usually THAT PERSON that thinks they texted someone and hasn’t actually texted them lol) So I’ve contacted the lady and hopefully I can get a lesson. I really want to start into that and get to it, even if Miss Thang has other ideas lol. I also have my company Christmas party over the weekend, so I will try to be a good blogger and gets pics of the food and the view from the top of the Stratosphere. The rollercoaster on the top WILL NOT get ANY pictures because I hate heights and I’d die if I went on that ride. Just NO lol.
So, cross your fingers I’ll nab a lesson, and have a good weekend everyone!
Day 30: Your future with horses (and rides!-ish)
Last one everyone! The future with horses.
I think it is absolutely safe to say that for as long as I can ride and have some type of money, horses are going to be a part of me. They are just a huge aspect of my life and I love them dearly, so I’m going to have a future with horses. Now what that future will be exactly I’m not sure. I have a feeling after Amber may not be able to event anymore that I’ll step away from eventing for a bit until perhaps I can nab another horse and then go for it again. Either way, Amber will be with me and I’ll do whatever she can do.
Although to be quite honest I probably won’t get a second horse for a while. Because little girl gets SO JEALOUS if I even touch another horse and she would get so mad at me when she’d be in a pasture by an arena and see me riding other horses. She’s so funny lol.
So there you have it. If I can even just afford lessons but not a horse when I’m 70, so be it lol. But for now, Amber and I will enjoy eventing, I’d love to start competing next year, and I can’t wait to go on the journey and see what the future will hold.
As for Amber, we FINALLY had our official ride on Tuesday since her injection and the show. I feel like I haven’t been riding in FOREVER, and turns out I sort of haven’t lol. I counted back and we had our last official ride on the 12th so it’s been a good 2 and 1/2 weeks. And as I’m brushing her off I see this:
Here’s the left knee for comparison.
I mean, REALLY mare.
Our hack Sunday hadn’t completely felt like her usual self, but still good even if we had a bit of a rough patch in there, but when I hopped on Tuesday, she really didn’t feel like herself. Just sort of….down. And what was she doing? Nothing. I know. Soooo descriptive. But really. Usually she’s bugging me a bit, nosing me as I pass her face or at least moving her feet a bit, and she was just…still. Plus, she liked her scratches, just didn’t seem as into it as before. I’d mashed on that bit on swelling pretty good beforehand, and she wasn’t off and she wasn’t touchy on it, so I still hopped on.
She felt fine at the walk, but when I got to the trot she felt very flat. So I thought of a few things, like if she didn’t want to work, was not feeling well, or if it was the leg, went down to the walk and then trotted again. She was good, wanting to go into the contact so we cantered a teensy bit, and it was so crazy because I could feel her picking up that right hind. Never felt that before.
I had my mom come out to take a video, and once we trotted again, she was sort of all over the place. Both shoulders were falling, she wanted nothing to do with contact, and was quick stepping and felt a bit worried. Like she had when her hip was really hurting her. And before the stifle injection. Hmm.
So I let go of the reins and let her canter to the right a bit, then picked up the reins and I could feel her really trying to tuck her butt, and it felt much easier for her. So we walked, and yep she felt uncomfortable. I was happy the stifle injection seemed to work very well, but she was obviously in discomfort. So I walked a teensy bit more and hopped off. I was happy tho to see in the video that she was picking up that right hind nicely instead of dragging it a bit like she had before.
So, what the hell did she do? Well, we think that she might have banged her leg somehow. Probably early Tuesday because the bump was warm to the touch, but just felt filled with edema. And I think if she’d injured soft tissue she’d have been a little more lame. So perhaps a muscle bruise? I dunno. So I iced her up.
She was not amused lol.
She liked the addition of grain + bute tho lol.
I met up with a friend on Wednesday, so that shortened my ride time, but I decided to leave it and not ride. However, when I went out to see her she looked/felt much more herself. It’s so great to be able to be able to notice when she’s not herself. Wednesday she looked like she had her usual energy back up, that excited light to her eyes and was also uber excited to see me again. The bump was not hot at all, but a little harder this time, and she still seemed a might bit uncomfortable on it. So my rides are postponed AGAIN but like I said I’m not in a rush. Just PLEASE stop hurting yourself horse. I’d appreciate that.
If you'd like to follow me on Instagram, please scan the QR code!
The Horses and Hound(s)
Fav Photos
Fav Photos
Horses, Hounds, and Handmade Bounds 