Mouthwash A Go-Go

Hmmmmmmm. Well, Gogo's week obviously hasn't been quite the week I had planned for the start of a new year. The week went something like this:

Sunday: Very small jumping exercises: 3 tight bounces (trot in) set at only about a foot high, two canter poles with three strides inbetween them, one tiny 2' vertical with a really, really long approach (worked on putting as many strides as humanly possibly in to it, and halting immediately afterwards quietly). She was very hot, but by the end was well behaved. I was getting sick and was exhausted. Hacked out for a few minutes after the lesson, saw Reba in the field and almost had a heartattack. Think we need to CUT THAT GRAIN. TOO MANY CALORIES.

Monday: I was sick in bed with the flu, or at least we think that's what it was. I literally slept for almost 36 hours nonstop. I didn't even see her at all on Monday!

Tuesday: Given yesterday's unintentional day off and my still being horribly ill (but still working in a cold, damp barn anyway, which is wrong on so many levels), I decided to lunge her in the chambon. Well, her little bits of head fussiness from last week were REALLY violent - she was even trying to strike at her own face with her front legs, and then bolting off, as well as doing the tongue funkiness and the mouth gaping. The lunge was entierly unproductive, and I finally just got one quiet circle out of her and stopped. It wasn't her fault that she was behaving poorly, something was really bothering her.

Wednesday: Tried something to try and determine if it was arena synthetic dustiness or bitting that was bothering her - put her on a lunge line in a halter and lunged her. She was a bit exessively high in her headcarriage (maybe a little moreso than usual) but I saw her twitch her head in a very small way only twice, so....

Thursday: Took a LOVELY walk hack down the road for about 40 minutes... sadly ran out of time for more than that. She was HOT and JOYFULLY WIRED. I mean, I've never seen her marching THAT forward anywhere! She was jittery and jumpy too, but still very well behaved, aside from starting at every little thing there was to start at. We finished the ride with a trot back up the hill to the farm driveway, and that settled her very well. She's just so much fun to hack out.... she's always, always, always under control on a loose rein. She might start at something for a moment when she's feeling this fresh, but she never goes anywhere when startled, and she always just walks on afterwards.

The head weirdness is still unresolved though... she didn't do it ONCE when we were hacking out, and instead of a hackamore I had her regular loose ring in, just to see what she would do. Which makes it look more like it COULD be synthetic dust irritation-ness? But, then again, we didn't do more than walk, and trot for like two minutes.

Well, the plan is I'm going to take a one or two hour hack again today (preferrably two, but it's definitely only 18 degrees out there right now and that's kinda coooooold) just because it's supposed to be a gorgeous day and I think it will be so good for her brain. She was SO HAPPY when we finished with our ride yesterday. She's such an amazing horse to ride out, she really is. Part of me is excited for when she's an oldie retired from competition and regular riding, because she is going to be the best trail horse EVER. And tomorrow, I'm going to ride her in the ring again, just to see if there's any difference in the head stuff. Hopefully, it will have passed on.

About the irritation bits... well, I got in there and got a better look at them, and.... they don't seem to actually be irritations. They're not sores, they're not open or anything, and they DON'T hurt, which is weird. I poked and pressed at them as hard as I could and got nothing out of her, so maybe they're NOT causing this head weirdness after all. Agh. Weird.

I can't decide if I want to body clip her again this weekend, or next. She's got a layer of re-grown in fluff that she pretty much grew in the week after I clipped her for the first time! I want to get a good picture of her after a clip and a clean-up job (not that she's actually dirty) so you can all see her current BCS. I like what the Ultium has done for her, I think. She's put on a good amount of weight... almost too much, really - but her topline looks better than usual. And Gogo, being the Ewe-Necked Wonder really could use all the help she gets with her topline, because proper riding apparently just isn't enough for her. I cut her grain yesterday too, and it pains me to say this, but I have absolutely no idea what the poundage is. I hate not weighing feed. It's meant to be fed in pounds. How on earth can you be accurate with it if you're not going to feed it the way it is supposed to be fed. She was on 4.5 quarts before, which maybe was around 6lbs.... maybe. That was my rough guess, anyway. She's now on 3 quarts.... so who the hell knows what THAT equals? At least I have my security blanket of my ration balancer that she's still on. At least I know she's getting her base of vits and mins.


Quarts = bad.
Not weighing grain = bad.
My hot, high horse on too much Ultium = bad.
Not knowing what the poundage of her daily grain intake is = bad.
Mouth weirdness = bad.
Not getting her proper workouts in this week = bad.

Getting a good snuffle in my hair every time I go over to say hello to her = all worth it.