*Head Desk*

I am at a loss. I truly am.

I was undeterred by the brisk and dreary weather and arrived at the barn to work P. Our ride on Friday left a lot to be desired. We keep having bad ride after bad ride after bad ride... I can't even believe how much we've regressed since summer.

P was possibly the easiest horse I have ever started under saddle in my life, especially considering my lack of facilities (an enclosed ring, good footing, level ground, etc.). While she has always been emotional and a little hot by nature, she took riding in stride. She was lazy but willing and practically unflappable. Over the summer I had her cantering in the "ring," correct leads and all. I even had her trotting over some cavallettis and teeny tiny cross rails.

Last November, we were to have our first show under saddle-- a little dressage schooling show. A couple weeks before the show, her behavior started to change a bit. She became more forward and a touch spooky, but she was still her rideable self. I started receiving a bit of resistance from her regarding bending and circles, especially to the left. I just attributed all of this to the change in the weather and to her muscling changing as she became more fit. Nothing usual for a young horse. She was still generally agreeable under saddle.

We did not actually get to "show" at our schooling show. When we arrived, P just lost her mind. She was practically unaware of my presence and hell bent on throwing a tantrum. Now this wasn't P's first show-- I showed her a total of 4 times in hand previously. But it had been awhile since she had been off the farm, and she does have a tendency to panic when she arrives at a new place. This is something that I've been trying to work on more, but it's incredibly hard without a trailer. She was pretty well behaved and level headed at her last show, so I figured she had matured beyond he worst of it.

Hindsight is always 20/20. I really should have scoped out the show ground's facilities better before attending. The classes were not to be held in the indoor as I had believed. Instead they were in an outdoor dressage arena with only a low white chain as a boundary (this I should have assumed, but you know, they had such a nice indoor I figured they'd use that). Plus, the schooling area offered was not enclosed. I walked P around and around the schooling area, but she was boarderline uncontrollable and nothing would relax her. There were too many folks riding to longe her safely. I finally threw a leg up over her, hoping she'd settle once we got to work. I quickly realized there was NO brain between her ears-- I was getting no response when I asked for anything. And a crowded show ground was not the place to have come to Jesus discussion with P. Fearing it would turn disatrous if I pressed forward, I quickly dismounted and was trying to figure out what my next plan of attack would be. I was NOT going to let her get out of this, and I still had 40 minutes before my ride time. We could work through this somehow if I could just decide what would be the best plan of action.

Well the judge's assistant decided my plan of action for me-- she informed me that several riders in front of me had scratched and I was up next. Uh... try to ride a test on a green horse who was in the middle of a panic attack? I don't think so. So unfortunately, I had to scratch as well. But the HECK if I was letting P go home without doing anything. I wanted some sort of productive experience to come out of this show.

I asked the assistant if I could go longe P in the indoor. She said the indoor was off-limits, but I was welcome to use the round pen. Perfect!

Once we started longing in the round pen, P regained her composure. She longed so nicely both directions that I decided, well, I might as well hop on her. And we had a great ride, W/T/C and all. She came out of the round pen like a normal horse and not the fire-breathing dragon of earlier. We watched a little of the show, then headed home. All in all, I thought it was a good learning experience for both of us and a positive experience for her.

However, I don't think P and I have had a truly good ride since the show. We lost a bunch of riding time due to the shorter days, the weather, and the holidays. But everytime I've brought her out since, she's been spooky and explosive in the ring. She's fine when we ride right around the barn, but that's area is so small that we're limited to what we can accomplish. She was going perfectly well in the ring over the summer, I don't understand what happened.

Today was a perfect example of her erradic, explosive tendencies that she has developed lately. Since she has been so distractable and spooky and she is indeed rattling my confidence slightly, I decided today maybe I should longe first today. I hate to become dependant on longing before riding, but if it will help, I'm not going to refuse it.

We get down to the ring and I ask P to walk off to the left. She bursts off at an erradic gallop like she's being attacked. Now I have NEVER done as much as even raise the whip at her. I don't know where or why she has suddenly developed this mentality. It's only when we're in the ring. She's an angel when we longe behind the barn.

I ask her for a walk, no response, I ask again and tug on the longe line, no response. Meanwhile, she's galloping around me on the world's tiniest circle like a panicked fool. I finally have to practically sit on the longe line to get her back down to a walk. She walks, still looking crazed. I praise her copiously for walking. She walks one or two strides then breaks back into a canter. This time, she comes back down to a walk more quickly. I praise her when she's walking and ask her to continue. She walks a few strides, then breaks into a nervous trot. I ask her to walk again... blah blah blah. It probably took over 20 turns before I could get her to walk one complete turn without breaking into a trot or canter.

Once she was walking semi-relaxed, I asked for a trot. I get erradic gallop again. Sigh. I ask her to trot. My request was greated with squealing and kicking in at me. I verbally reprimand her with a growl an "eh eh eh" and send her forward. She takes off bucking and galloping. Then, she FALLS. Not flat on her side, her hind end just slipped out from under her mid-buck. Oh don't worry, she got right up and continued bucking and galloping. She was fine (although I did give her a gram of bute afterwards).

Eventually, she relaxed at the trot. We did several W/T transitions, which she did well. I decided then I might as well actually ASK for a canter, since that's what she obviously wanted to do.

I asked, I got a slightly less crazed gallop. She also kept cross firing and swapping between her left and right lead. We went through the same old battle until she cantered semi-collectedly on her correct lead. We did a few T/C transitions, then switched directions.

Believe it or not, she was perfect longing to the right. Absolutely perfect. It was like night and day difference. Relaxed, correct lead at the canter, everything. I was even able to grab my camera out of my pocket and get a few shots of her. And for the first time EVER, I actually got a fairly good shot of her trotting.

Ignore the glowing eyes from the flash. It really wasn't as dark out as the picture makes it seem. It was just really overcast.

After we W/T/C on the longe line to the right, I decided I still had enough daylight to hop on her. Since she had gotten herself so worked up earlier, I wanted to keep it easy. We walked a little, then trotted both directions on a very large circle around the jump standards in the center of the ring. She was full of piss and vinegar, tail swishing the whole time. She'd speed up to a trot that would put Hambiltonian himself to shame every time we were heading towards the barn, and she was completely ignoring my half halts until we'd start heading away from the barn. She behaved, but she was tense and distracted. The longer we trotted, the more pissy she got. She was also ignoring any lateral cues from my leg. I asked for some W/T transitions to try to soften her a little, and it did help some. I felt like we ended working on as positive of a note as possible considering the situation. Our walk back to the barn on a loose rein was the best part of our entire ride.

I am just so freaking frustrated right now. I don't know what is up with her. I poked and proded her meticulously after our ride and could not find any soreness. She's moving plenty sound. Her diet hasn't changed. Her tack fits. But it seems like every ride goes like this anymore. What happened to my lovely filly from the summer??? Why does she suddenly act like she's an abuse case on the longe line when in the ring? Why has she developed a flat out dangerous spook? I've never had a young horse's attitude change this much without something glaringly physical, which I cannot find on her. She is definitely more resistant to the left, but I'm not sure if it's pain or just her weaker side.

I do think I'm going to have the vet go over her with a fine tooth comb now. I might call the chiropractor, too. We can't keep going like this.

Oh, and the lovely child came in with a ripped blanket today, too. Just to add insult to injury.


It's repairable, that is, if I had someone who could repair blankets...

Terrible, horse-related dreams...

I don't dream a whole lot and I rarely remember my dreams. But I had such a disturbing dream about B last night that I have to share it and get it out of my system.

*Begin dream sequence*

The dream was set at my barn, although in true dream fashion, the place looked absolutely nothing like my barn. It was a farm high atop a hill with a two stall, shedrow style barn and a dirt paddock attached to the front.

I arrive at the barn to find B severely colicing. He was down on the ground, completely washed out, caked in mud and dust, and looked beyond help. Then briefly after I found him, he passed on. Or so I thought...

Now here's where all those impossibilities of logic that can only occur in dreams kick in. I had decided in my devestation that I was going to take B's lifeless body, fold it up, and put it in the trunk of my car. You know, my two-door 1996 Saturn SC1 beater car that I drive around everywhere in lieu of my truck. Because of course a dead 1200lb horse would fit in there.

My barn owner and a woman I used to board with were both there help. We folded B's body and were surprised when we managed to fit it in my trunk easily. Then Former Boarder revealed with satisfaction that B fit in the trunk so well because she had removed B's right hind leg below the hock with a hacksaw. Yes, a hacksaw. She gleefully handed me B's now removed leg.

I was outraged and in disbelief-- why would she think to do that to my deceased horse, especially without consulting me?

I shut the trunk of the Saturn, with a three-legged B corpse tucked snugly inside. I'm not sure where exactly I was planning on taking B's body... but my dream-self didn't have much time to ponder that, as suddenly, B was alive! And in my trunk! Still in gastrointestinal distress, and now with a sawed off leg!

I quickly unloaded my elderly, colicing, and now crippled horse back into the paddock and took off in my car down the hill to get the vet.

In reality, I do actually have two vets in the area. There is a mixed-practice vet down the road who I used when I first moved to the area. Then I learned of the existence of a large, equine-specific clinic and started using them. For some reason in my dream-induced logic, I decided to drive and get the former, mixed-practice vet. Proximity, I guess??

I arrived at the vet's office (which of course, looked nothing like the vet's real office) and alerted the receptionist that I had a severely colicing horse who just had his leg sawed off and I needed the vet ASAP. She hemmed and hawed, then excused herself to the back room. When she returned, she presented me with a letter stating that the veterinarian could not offer me any services because I had been remiss in paying him $200 some and change on a previous visit several years earlier.

Again, I was outraged. This had to be a mistake. I had paid off my entire balance in full. And even if by some mix-up I did still owe them money, this was an emergency! My horse was in distress! Couldn't we settle this later? But the receptionist would hear none of it and turned me away.

Hysterical, I started back to the barn. I whipped out my phone and called the large equine practice. They agreed to send their on-call vet out to the farm. Relief!

The on-call vet arrived prompty, but turned out to be a cantankerous letch of an old man who poo-poo'd the severity of the situation and was more interested in hitting on me. He sloppily sutured B's right leg back on without concern. Then, even more grumpy than before since I refused his advances, he left-- no other instruction, no antibiotics, nothing.

B was able to stand up on his newly-reattached leg. His bout of colic seemed to be magically cured. But his leg looked UGLY. Barn Owner and Former Boarder are just amazed, though. "See, everything turned out fine... no worries," they told me. Meanwhile, I'm stressing over the fact that my horse's lower leg is just stiched onto his hock.

For the next several days, B hobbled around the dirt paddock precariously on his bum leg. All seemed to be well, although I was still not understanding how a vet would think he could just suture the leg back on and it would reattach on its own. Then, in true dream fashion, my dream morphed into another plot-line that involved me getting on an airplane with a bunch of folks I haven't seen since high school.

*End dream sequence*

The first thing I did when I woke up this morning was check my cell phone to see if anyone had been trying to call me in the night. Luckily, no one had. Although I am heading out to the barn right now to go hug my horses, especially B.

Just a photo to share...

I have other plans tonight, so I just swung by the barn briefly on my lunch break to take blankets off and reset my feed. I thought this moment was so cute I had to capture it (or at least try):



Yeah, it's crappy cell phone photography and for some reason Blogger wants the picture to require a microscope for viewing. I still thought it was adorable. B & P aren't exactly best buddies-- they have more of a sibling rivalry going on between them. But since I've started this blog, they've been all about having their picture taken together.

Tomorrow, I will ride! Mark my words!

Blanketing pet peeve

I've been trying to stay away from excessive negativity in my blogs, but a boarder committed one of my biggest pet peeves tonight. In this instance, it almost ended with someone getting hurt. Ok, maybe I'm being a little melodramatic, but really, injuries could have happened.

Pet peeve-committing boarder is a good horse person. She was in a rush to get home after riding. Her horse was in a stall eating her grain when the boarder threw the blanket over her horse. She then proceeded to tug the blanket forward to buckle the front. Against the lay of the hair. And the mare just FREAKED.

Boarder was luckily able to jump out of the way just before the mare knocked her over.

Is it wrong that my first response (after I realized no one was hurt), was, "You go mare! Way to tell her you hate that!"

Maybe that's not quite a normal response on my part... No?

But don't you all remember petting your first puppy or kitty? Or learning how to brush a horse? Or how to place a saddle pad? You always go with the lay of the hair. Against the hair is uncomfortable for the animal. Especially when you vigorously tug a heavy turnout blanket forward, making every hair on the horse's body stand on end.

*Little rant over* It felt good to get that off my chest. Now I'll step down off my soapbox.

In other news, B & P have been happily enjoying the sub-freezing temps here. They get to hang out in their snuggly blankets, stuff their faces with hay, and only come inside to be groomed and receive tasty bran mashes. I almost hate to tell them that the weather is about to break, just in time for the weekend. Woohoo!

Warm weather teaser

Yesterday was gorgeous-- sunny and close to 50F. After a week of below freezing temps, I was ready to bust out the shades and shorts. The ponies were able to get a break from their blankets for the afternoon:

Blurry pic of P... from my cell phone since I forgot my camera.

B... he's standing in a rut. Terribly unflattering, but I'll post it anyway.

The footing was still treacherous. The top was thawing and muddy, but the ground was still frozen underneath (Another potential name for my blog-- "Footing Isn't My Friend," since that's all I blog about 3/4 of the time). I took B for a little hack around the farm, but I opted just to longe P.

Another terribly unflattering picture, but hey, it's all I got.

After the sun went down, the wind picked up and brought back our miserable, unseasonably cold weather. Blah blah blah. Today I just groomed the ponies and fed them their hot, sloppy, alfalfa cube/bran mashes.

I am completely over winter. Is it spring yet???

Top Chef-- pony style

I became awash with inspiration in the grocery store today. The ponies deserve a treat for putting up with this cold snap. Especially B-- he has begrudgingly tolerated the soaked alfalfa cubes that I've been practically force feeding to him. I can at least try to dress the meal up a bit.

The ingredients (seriously, this cost me less than $10):

• 0.5lb alfalfa cubes, soaked
• ~3 cups of wheat bran
• ~0.25 cup whole flax seed
• 1 carrot
  
• Handful of peppermints
• Molasses drizzled to taste

The (almost) finished product, pre-hot water:

Overall, I think the concoction was a success. The pony food critics gave it two figurative hooves up. Although the pony food critics aren't very critical.

Nom nom nom

Just let me lick the bucket one more time!

Baby it's cold outside...

The anonymous ponies are bundled up and snug in the barn with huge piles of hay in front of them. We're having one heck of a cold snap. Tonight's forecasted low is supposed to be somewhere between 0 and 2 degrees Fahrenheit. Positively balmy, right? In comparison, the average low temperature for January in these parts is about 28 degrees. (Thank you accuweather.com)

There was an interesting discussion the other day at the Chronicle of the Horse about soaked feeds and water intake. Like so many other horse owners, I always feel better giving my horses some sort of wet meal when the weather gets like this. I was under the pretense that I was surreptitiously sneaking extra water into them. In all actuality, they're more than likely not getting anything "extra." Several sources cited that feeding a wet meal just proportionally decreases oral water intake, since they already have sufficient water absorbed in the intestines. And here all the conscientious horse owners of the world thought we were outsmarting our horses. Regardless, my ponies still got their soaked alfalfa cubes tonight, with some e-lytes. I'll outsmart you guys yet...

And now, a random picture of B to remind us of warmer days: