Tell me what you see!

Tell me what you see in this video in terms of soundness.



What I see is a horse who has not been this sound since her reinjury back in November '10, 8 months ago. For the first time, I am almost willing to call her "sound." (At least, as of today.) Blowing the suspected adhesion seems to have done her a world of good. The tendon sheath injection was definitely the right way to go. Regular sheath injections will probably be necessary for her if we are to hope for a riding career (competitive or otherwise), but that's fine. Whatever needs to be done to keep her comfortable.


And speaking of all things veterinary, I consulted with Dr. H about the udder today, which was HUGE and lumpy when I arrived at the barn. Her temp was still normal today (100.5), and she still doesn't mind her udder being incessantly poked and prodded. The discharge is still a milky-watery liquid, and it doesn't have thickness/chunks/odor/other nasty things in it (hope you're not eating right now.... mmmm mental image), which is good. We agreed to treat it like a mastitis, and I ran up to the vet office to get 5 days of Uniprim. She definitely won't eat that in her (meager) amount of supplements she gets daily, so I have to shove it down her throat via syringe. I also am trying rubbing castor oil the udder as well, which was suggested to me... it seems like a stupid idea, but I guess if it works, then there you go. If it fails, whatever... I don't expect it to do much anyway. The antibiotics will hopefully knock out the infection, and if I keep emptying out the udder, hopefully we'll clear this up in the next week.

Joys of having a mare! I'd take this udder nonsense over regular sheath cleanings any day though, I will tell you that with NO hesitation!

Marti's Here!

First of all, thanks to everyone to sent their condolances about the horse we lost on Thursday. Not sure that anyone really wants to hear how totally gruesome her death was... but I do sort of want to write about it to get it off my chest, so I might just do it. Thank god Future Hubs spent the night with me last night, or else I might not have been able to sleep at all. The night before I for sure couldn't sleep because of what I saw behind my eyelids whenever I closed them. The barn still reeks of dead horse and her body's been gone for two days. Ugh.

Anyway. On a WAY WAY better note, Marti has arrived safe and sound!




His owner brought him to me on Friday and managed to hold herself together and not cry too hard! She said that this must be what sending your kid off to college feels like. She has had him since he was a weanling, and he is now approaching six, so I agree! We weren't sure what he would think about his new digs, seeing as he has lived at just one barn since he was a baby, but Gogo also lived at the same farm where she was born until she was 5, and she was great when I took her off property. They could not have more different personalities though... he is every bit the timid, lower-ranking gentle giant that she is the overly confident, self-assured bossmare. She has confidence oozing out her ears and you have to make sure she knows her place in the herd - beneath YOU. He desperately looks for a leader and practically begs you to be his.

To our surprise, he walked right off the trailer and hopped right into his stall no problem! Shortly after that, we turned him out in the roundpen, and then let him meet Gogo. She of course gave him the snake eyes, but he immediately backed right down. After a careful introduction, we let them go out together. There was a bit of galloping, which I wasn't too happy about, but it was shortlived and they soon settled in to grazing. They ate their dinner near each other without fuss, and today they spent a large part of their day grazing side by side. Despite how horribly racist Gogo seems to be sometimes, I think she genuinely likes the company, and had been tolerating him REALLY well.

Learning about a new horse is always an interesting and fun process. He is very, very shy around people he doesn't know, but he responds well to me, so I think it will just be a matter of letting him get to know me better before he really trusts me. Besides his lack of confidence and shyness, he does have a few issues to work on - namely being a little hard to catch and skittery about his blanket. His owner says that not long ago he had an incident with his blanket, which involved him taking off with his blanket still half on and tearing it all up. When I went to put his blankie on last night, he bolted backwards and tried to get away. I did have a chain on him, thankfully, so I managed to stop him, but I am sure he would have gotten away from me if he hadn't had one on. He is a BIG boy. As for the catching, it's hit and miss right now. I can get him every time, but it takes a bit of trickery and bribery for the moment. I am sure that once he realizes that I am his friend that he will come to me religiously, but as for now he likes to turn and walk away. If you follow him, he runs every time. But if you pretend to leave, or go take 'his' cookies to Gogo, he comes trotting right back. He just doesn't know or trust me yet, but he will. Regular play and groundwork will make that better.

This first week, I plan on just doing groundwork and some light lunging in order to start the relationship off on the right foot. He has only been ridden once or twice a week for a long time, so he's very out of shape. Today I lunged him in my cavesson - it actually FITS but it is on the last hole of everything - and he was super. I was impressed with his behavior because I brought both him and Gogo over to my house and lunged in my pasture, and he didn't bat an eye. He stood rock solid while I groomed him, and he made me laugh when I put on my Nunn Finer boots that I won with Gogo at Groton House (which also fit!) because he couldn't figure out what the Velcro noise was. I'm not sure that he's ever worn boots before! He was really quite good with the lunging, and stayed right on his circle without pulling. He did stop dead once or twice and looked at me, but he figured out pretty quickly that I'd send him right back out on his way, so he stopped that. He also for the life of him could NOT figure out how to canter. I'm not sure that he knows how to canter on the lunge, so I will have to ask his owner. He clearly knows how to lunge in general though! I don't plan on cantering a big huge youngster like him on the lunge much anyway. He doesn't need it, and it's not good for him. He is not strong enough or balanced enough for that yet. And he is VERY out of shape... our lunge session was for 20 minutes with 6-7 minutes of trot in each direction, and he was very sweaty and puffing at the end of it. I am going to have to hound Stacey and Daun for conditioning tips for the big guys. Metro was a BIG guy but for sure Marti is BIGGER.

I've been nothing but impressed with his demeanor so far. The little issues he has shown me so far are simple and will be easy to correct. His owner made it clear that he can be a little devil sometimes, but that it's all fear based instead of attitude based. I haven't seen that side of him yet, but I am sure I will! I can't wait for it to stay light late into the evening... I want to trailer out and go on some TRAIL RIDES!

Mush Brain

Ever wonder if secretly in the night, aliens come into your room and sometimes replace your brain with tapioca pudding? That's kind of how I felt yesterday.

((Right: The big rig.)) In all seriousness, I am very worn out from my recent hip issue and the subsequent heavy doses of Naproxen and Vicoden I've been on in order to keep it all at bay. I was feeling much better, but had to drive to Vermont yesterday in a small car to pick up the big rig and four horses from the Vermont Summer Festival, and sitting in a car for a long time aggravates the issue. Not only did I have achey hips on the journey, but I also was driving a strange car I knew nothing about, had to leave at 6am, almost ran out of gas, was nearly an hour and a half late upon arrival, killed my cell, was totally panicked about my lateness AND didn't realize at one point that I was speeding because of this and subsequently got pulled over and was given a COURT SUMMONS because I couldn't find the insurance and registration on the vehicle and was going fast enough to be considered reckless (anything over 85 in the entire state of CT is "reckless driving" and the cops in Torrington HATE that). To add insult to injury, our working student gave me a burrito for the road that gave me the worst heartburn of my LIFE. I seriously wanted to DIE. My poor groom was so exhausted that he passed out for the entire four hour drive back to the barn, so it was on me when I realized an hour into the drive that the working student (following us in the small car that I drove up to VT) had forgotten my boss' Yorkie at the showgrounds!! She had to go all the way back to get him. As for me, I had no music and no phone for the entire four hour drive home, and three squealing mares, one poor gelding, and one snoring groom to deal with all the way back. Summary of this story: 6am + stranger's small Subaru + no gas + no gas stations open at 6am in small town + this making me VERY late + speeding + pulled over & given court summons + getting to showgrounds late + four tired horses, three trunks, three saddles, 8 bridles, and god knows what else to be loaded into trailer + burrito of death + major stomachache + four hour trailer ride home with no music, no battery on phone, squealing mares and snoring groom = not the best day of my life.

Needless to say, I did NOT ride when I got home.


That being said, Gogo and I have indeed survived our first week of canterwork, and are neither crippled nor dead! YAY! I am in ultra-paranoia mode, seeing as cantering is where it all went to poopoo last time, but so far, we are ok. In typical fashion, as soon as our canterwork started, the legs all began to fill in the mornings. Of course, right? There's nothing alarming about the fill at this point. It's a little funny looking, but not ugly like it was in the spring when something was really wrong. The right is vaguely warmer every day than the left, which is usually filled and pretty cold, but not hot by any stretch. Both front legs are the same temperature, and are warmer than the left hind but cooler than the right hind. It's kind of weird. The fronts have some fill to them as well, which is why I'm not too worried about it. It is August and the humidity is disgusting. All the horses in the barn who are prone to it have some level of fill in their legs. I'm still keeping a wary eye on it, and am jogging her pretty much daily, just to make sure. Whenever she jogs out, the fill dissapears, which is a really good sign. And she looks really, really, really good when she jogs out - the most important thing.

Last week's schedule went something like this:
Monday and Tuesday: 20 minutes of loose rein walk in straight lines, walking over ground poles. 15 minutes of walk on contact, 30 meter circles and a few small leg yields. 15 minutes of trot in straight lines. During trotwork, Monday: one long side of canter on each lead (actually, more like 1.5 going left on accident... picked up wrong lead!). Tuesday: two long sides canter on each lead. Cooldown: 5 minutes on contact work, 10 minutes loose rein, straight lines.
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: 20 minutes of loose rein walk in straight lines, walking over ground poles. 15 minutes of walk on contact, 30 meter circles and a few small leg yields. 20 minutes of trot in straight lines. During trotwork, Monday: canter one whole time around arena on each leads. Tuesday: canter two times around area on each lead. Friday: instead of during trotwork, add time additionally to trotwork... canter three times around arena on each lead. Cooldown: 5 minutes on contact work, 10 minutes loose rein, straight lines.

I made the very bad mistake of not drugging her on Friday. Three months into the riding portion of rehab, we've come so far that I'm not comfortable weaning her off her 1/4cc of Ace just yet for fear that she's going to do something incredbly stupid and reinjure herself. She had been SO quiet for weeks though that I thought she'd be all right now that she's cantering and getting her energy out, and opted to go without for a day. I was wrong! She was okay during our walk work, and then we moved into the trot.... and the head started to come up... and the snatching at the bit began..... and the teeth gnashing and eyerolling..... and the snorting and prancing..... and the bucking, taking off, and leaping with all four feet off the ground......! Hmmmmm. Oddly enough, I still managed to cross myself and pick up the canter, and she was outstanding in both directions, despite being a little bit more forward than usual. The resulting trot and walk work was also excellent. Needless to say though, I am still going to continue my light sedation routine. I just can't risk it at this point. She's just a little too fresh and we've come so far!

Today, our ride went like this: 20 minutes loose rein walk on straight lines, walk poles. 15 minutes walk on contact, circles and a few shallow leg yields. 20 minutes trot on straight lines. 5-6 minutes canter - 4 times around arena on each lead. Cooldown: 5 minutes walk on contact, 10 minutes loose rein walk on straight lines. She was still kind of obnoxious during her trotwork, occasionally throwing her head straight up in the air in that special way that she does, and I asked the working student to watch her trot in case she was acting out because she was hurting. She said nope, she looked just fine. And she FELT just fine too... I am just such a nervous wreck over the idea that something could go wrong at any moment during this whole rehab nonsense that I can't help but worry. Any little thing might mean something bad, and I can't ignore anything. She continued to feel better and better as we went along, settling into a nice rhythm and quieting down, and we bumped up into canter. She felt great! We went four times around the entire arena on each lead, and even though she thought about fussing for a moment going to the right, she settled into a super canter, even better than the left, straight and strong. When we were cooling out, I still had my mind on her fussiness, and figured I should really get a better look at her from the ground in case I could see something subtle going on. One can't be too careful. I hesitantly broke out the lunge line, and sent her out going left first - all looked good, but I expected it to. If there was going to be anything subtle, it was going to be to the right. I turned her around, sent her out, and she EXPLODED! Thankfully, her bit of gaga rush canter was shortlived, and she settled into a forward trot. Oh my god... she looked AMAZING! Absolutely stunning. I've never seen her so good and loose going to the right.
A hose-off, 20 minutes of grass, 30 minutes of ice, and two trimmed hinds later, the legs were icy cold and staying that way. I wrapped her anyway, just to see if that might help the excess edema in the morning, but I came away from the evening feeling much better than I had all week.

Also, the Princess got ANOTHER new halter.... I need to do another post covering Four Years of Ridiculous Halters.



Amazing. Nameplate and all.... it says Gogo Fatale in large letters with a smaller "Gogo" underneath it, and it also had two rearing horses on either side of the name.... true to form!



One final note: the Millbrook H.T. was last weekend, and I managed to score a Saturday off so we could watch the Advanced XC! Katherine at Grey Brook Eventing was also there with her fabulous mare Kiki, but alas, we did not cross paths. (She came in 2nd in her division with a 26.5!) It was outstanding and I got some pretty good pictures with my little camera:













Buck Davidson and Titanium:



Dude how many horses can that man possibly ride in a day? He didn't run Bobby, much to our dismay, but he still rode THREE other Advanced horses, plus all his other I and P horses, and I'm sure there were lower level ones on top of all that. I guess if you're going to come all the way from Ocala, you go big or go home!

Does that ever make you want to show or what!!

Baby Steps

Hello freak blizzard! We've been assaulted all night and day by a sudden snowstorm (after all that 50-60 degree weather..!) and we now have at least a foot of snow out there, maybe more like 14". This one was definitely the worst I've seen since I've been in CT, and understandably, the horses did not leave the barn today. The wind was howling at a sustained 30 or so miles per hour, and you couldn't walk out the door without being bowled over by a wall of snow. Gogo got two nice handwalks, and instead of jumping her (which had been the original plan before the snowstorm and the episode yesterday), I decided to revisit yesterday's issue. I have a neck stretcher, and I disassembled the rope chambon and created my own new version - it had the nylon crownpiece and the neck stretcher elastic instead of the rope. Then, armed with cookies, I brought her out into the arena and led her around for a few minutes. Once she was quietly walking, I rigged up the chambon very loosely, gave many cookies and much praise, and continued to walk. At some point I tightened the chambon to where it would normally be, gave many more cookies, and continued to walk - I even let her out on the line a little ways and let her continue to walk. She stayed very quiet the entire time, listening very politely to my voice commands. I attempted at some point to quietly lead her from the other side - the right, which is the scary side - and she had a few moments of hesitation, but changed her mind before any serious blowup happened. Baby steps, baby steps! If we have to keep quietly at it like this for however long, then so be it. She was very good about it today, and I think, with lots of cookies and pats, that she'll get over it once again and have her head back on straight.

Now here's the bad news - after yesterday's antics, this shocking lump appeared on her chest:




YIKES! Sorry about the crap pictures - taken in a dark stall under a blankie at nightcheck time. That area is right where the chambon runs between her legs, so it HAD to be from that when she was freaking out. It is very hard and painful to touch, and a little bit warm. Some more drugs and lots of coldhosing and HPQR gel later, and it seems to be smaller but still very obvious. I hope she didn't do any real muscle damage. She's not lame (surprise) but it definitely hurts her when you touch it. I have got to get her over this. I don't want her to hurt herself any more than she already has.

Coming soon: End of February analysis and March goals!

Nathe A Go-Go and the Neverending Lunging Fail

That sounds like a great name for a band.

So remember, my dear readers, when you told me that Gogo would forgive and forget the error in judgement that I made when lunging awhile ago? Well, you were all wrong. That was nearly a month and a half ago, and I've lunged her a handful of times since then in the chambon (once in sidereins) and oh my god. It keeps getting worse... and worse.... and worse.

First, before we get to that nonsense, I have good news! I think we may have a new bit winner! I briefly discussed in my last post how I wanted to give a rubber mullen mouth type bit a try on Gogo, and yesterday Pat loaned me her Nathe loose ring snaffle. Or well, I'm pretty sure it was a Nathe - it could have been an HS Duo, but they're pretty much exactly the same bit, so there you are. Unfortunately the bit in question was like a 5.75" instead of the needed 5", but I figured I would give it a try just to see how she felt about the action and feel of the mouthpiece instead. Right off the bat, she felt more relaxed - like she was just carrying it better in her mouth. She felt completely open to the idea of the right rein, and even foamed up quite a bit. The only thing I felt that she wasn't sure about was the weight - like she wasn't quite sure how to follow the weight of the bit out because there was no real weight to it, but she definitely settled into it and was really quite fantastic by the end. This huuuuge bit was still pulling waaaaay out the left side of her mouth due to its enormity, but I have a solution for it. I hopped online and found, for very very cheap, a Korsteel Flexi Mullen Mouth Eggbutt bit. The funny part is that the cheapest one I could find anywhere came in the color - you guessed it - pale blue. Sweet! Hopefully that will come quickly...

And then today. I seem to have a serious, full-blown training issue on my hands now. Gogo, who once upon a time was the most relaxed, lazy lunger in the world who totally loved her chambon is now a complete trainwreck whenever you go to put it on, every since that bad episode a month and a half ago, and I've really got my work cut out for me. Gogo's big thing is a complete aversion to pressure when she's not relaxed - she completely wigs about it sometimes and just, well, leaves. Such was the case today. I had the broken pieces of my chambon still lying around, and they were in a good enough shape that I thought I would just clip the elastic part to her surcingle and that would be that. Remember now, she first broke the chambon's leather attachment, then she ripped the ring right out of my girth where the attachment goes, and now.... well, you guess it. What's left to break? The leather crownpiece attachment, or more specifically, the metal rollers that the chambon's elastic lines run through. I lunged her loose to warm her up, and then hooked up the chambon and asked her to stand there. She had this weird look in her eye, and I figured something was about to happen, and I was right. I asked her to walk off, and what did she do? Rocket backwards at high speed, immediately breaking the chambon. She's not about to learn that she can just break things when she doesn't want to deal with pressure and leave, so I went and retrieved the rope chambon, which has a nylon crownpiece that cannot possibly be broken. I put that on her, and of course, another immediate blowup. And another. And another. She rockets backwards, sometimes in a rear, sometimes not, head thrown up and mouth agape at the pressure on her poll and mouth, and if she loses her balance, completely sits down. She exploded so violently once that not only did she sit down, but she completely rolled herself over backwards, thus entangling the lungeline in her legs and forcing me to just let go and follow her as she scrambled to her feet and continued to run backwards until she hit the wall. At that point, I was sort of at a loss as to what to do. She was standing there sweating, trembling all over, obviously completely terrified of the pressure even though she's been lunged in this piece of equipment for about a million years with zero problems. I had her put her head down and gave her a cookie when she did it, and that seemed to settle her a little. She eventually was able to walk, trot and canter both directions quietly - she was moving like a million and one bucks too, I wonder if the new joint supplement is doing that or she was just that on edge - although she would not listen for the life of her to my downward transition aids. Both directions, I had to direct her towards the wall, where she promptly and smartly stopped before coming near it, thankfully. I was just finishing up going to the right, totally done and convinced that she was finally okay, and she would not whoa. I mean seriously, she would not. So I directed her into the wall and she stopped. Good girl. She quietly walked off when I asked, but still would not whoa. I directed her into the wall, and she stopped. Good girl. She quietly walked off again, and still would not whoa for a third time. So I gave a very light tug on the lunge line with my voice command. And she freaked out again and went flying backwards for the ninety millionth time! So then we had to start over, from calming down at the trot, to finally getting the walk, and then? A perfect whoa when I asked for it. MARES. I had to hose her off and stand her under the heat lamps and a cooler for over an hour to get her to dry, and I gave her a gram of bute for good measure.

So I don't know. I think the next step is to take the elastic line from the one chambon and attach it to the nylon crownpiece of the other chambon, and see what that does. She definitely is against the non-give of the rope chambon, so the elastic might be slightly more relaxing. I'm terrified that she's going to seriously hurt herself, but she cannot learn that she can just rear and break things and leave. She already knows how to do that through her own trial and error and she's not going to get away with it, because she is definitely the kind of horse who would immediately figure out that if she does something very dramatically like rear or put all her muscle against whatever is putting pressure on her and break it, the pressure goes away and she wins. She is very obviously getting very scared when the pressure DOESN'T go away though, and I don't like that either.

My dear readers, what would YOU do? My ideas at this point are as follows:

1) Don't lunge for a good long while. Sometimes revisiting an issue a long way down the road after other things are improved under saddle (such as dealing with increasing pressures, for instance!) makes the issue suddenly resolve itself. I'm not convinced this is a good option, because the other thing that might happen is that the issue is still totally there, and it was time wasted that could be spent fixing it.
2) Lunge her in something else. I could dig out the Faux-ssoa or some sidereins, and see what happens with those, but I really don't like lunging in equipment like that anymore, not after the (well, former) success I've had with the chambon. I also have horrible images of her getting totally tangled in the Faux-ssoa if she does freak... shudder. Also, this does not address the chambon issue, but it does take the pressure off her poll temporarily. Again, I think it's a bandaid fix.
3) Put the chambon on a few times a week, and work on it quietly and patiently until she quiets down. I figure this is my best bet. Put the chambon on a few times a week and just lead her around, and give her cookies and praise when she's relaxed and okay with the pressure. Then, start to walk her again, quietly, on the lunge with it on. When that's okay, progress from there. Just slowly and steadily try and reintroduce this very scary pressure until she adjusts to it and figures out that it's really not the evil demon she thinks it has turned into.


Mares. Seriously, mares. My horse is a psychopath sometimes. In all honestly, I'm kind of glad she's with me of all people, because I feel like I'm a relatively patient, relatively fearless person who is not intimidated by her boldness and not easily sucked into a fight. If she were with any of the other people at this barn, they would have gotten rid of her long ago for meat. I can see it now - one little fuss, and they'd get off. So she wins... next time, a bigger fuss, they get off faster. Soon, you've got a horse that is rearing in the crossties or right when you go to get on her, because that means she can go back to her stall and eat some hay. She's that kind of horse... too damn smart for her own good.

Damn I love her though.

Back from OH!

The title of this post is a little misleading, actually. I've technically been back from OH since late Saturday night, but I've just been too busy and exhausted to possibly contemplate a post. I'll go over the past few days...

Thursday-Saturday: Gogo had this time off as a mini-vacation. She's not actually had a real break since..... well, it's been a very long time. She's not had more than a few days off at a time since probably last January, simply because she just goes INSANE after having time off. Which leads to...

Sunday: I figured it was a very good idea to just lunge in the chambon today instead of getting on, and I was right. I could tell she was on edge and ready to jump out of her skin when I walked into the arena, so I told the other boarder who was riding that she might want to stay down at the other end of the ring for a little while! I walked/trotted her for a few minutes without the chambon, then went to hook it up, and of course, immediate explosion the second she walked off. Or rather, she walked off, and then broke into a trot, and then hit the chambon and lost it. She backpedaled, completely sat down and almost flipped over backwards, then managed to somehow right herself and went galloping off, head in the air and mouth agape at the chambon which was now probably digging into her chest and mouth, poor thing. A few more similarly unnecessary explosions later, she finally settled down, and was fairly good. I wasn't expecting any miracles, given her mild insanity!

Monday: Hack day! Sad to say, this was not the nice relaxing conditioning hack I was hoping it would be. Still fired up from her time off, Gogo was hot and spooky, going so far as to even go leaping across the road when a different colored piece of curb came into view - VERY scary. So I finally had to take up a tighter contact (we had been on a nice loose rein, but apparently that was not the good idea that it usually is) and do the rest of our walking and trotting as real connected work instead of just long rein hack work. Bummer. She was cheerful as all hell back in the barn though, so maybe it did her brain some good.

Tuesday: Today, I was inspired to go outside and ride in the outdoor - the first time I've done that since I've been here. There were still some huge puddles, but those weren't a problem. Our outdoor is in a raised area (so why are there puddles...?), so that two whole sides of it are flanked by hills that fall sharply away, and it is not fenced in, so you kinda need to be careful with volatile bouncy tigger mares like mine, lol. She started off all right, a little kinked in her neck and back right in front of the saddle like she does when she's avoiding work, but she started to develop some swing through her back and all was looking up. And then she did something I don't think she's really ever done before... she grabbed the bit and started leaping and plunging and rearing on purpose, just to be naughty. Not because she didn't understand, not because she was frustrated. She was doing it just to be a wenchy punk. Bad mare!! She wasn't anxious or worried or concerned, she was just... being bad. A few thumps in the ribs got her going forward again after her little balky nonsense, and she then settled in for the rest of a very nice ride. She was still a bit on the forehand by the end of the ride - we never achieved the sort of lightness and freedom in her shoulders that I've been getting as of late - but I figured I wasn't about to push the issue since she was giving me such a nice workout anyway. Not to mention the fact that tons of birds were flying, wind was blowing, Amos was galloping around the field with his tail over his back, cars were zooming in and out, etc. She was focused the whole time, even if she was being kind of a dweeb during the first 20 or so minutes. The remaining hour? Pretty damn good!


Something interesting is happening to my horse - she is shedding out in a very odd way! Check it out - she's growing in what looks to be either more winter coat or perhaps the beginnings of a summer coat (notice how dark she is now, compared to when I first clipped her) and she's shedding.... only around her eyes. She's got raccoon eyes!!

That's her 'stop taking my picture' face. Ignore the sweat marks... this is post-workout. Her neck actually looks kinda.... fat here.


And also, we got the rest of our year-end awards in!!!! These are from Area VIII (for eventing); Gogo was the 5th place BN Horse for 2008, and I was the 4th place Adult BN Rider for 2008, and was Reserve Champion BN Adult Ammy BN Rider for 2008. Awesome!




One final thing: remember my post about Riding the Shod (and Previously Foundered) Horse? I've been riding Rowena (Rena for short) a lot lately, so I thought I would get a picture of her crippled self and her completely terrifying feet up here. She's an upper level schoolmaster - specifically to what level I'm not sure, but I know she was very successful to at least 4th level competition-wise and has her passage and piaffe. She's also totally crippled and I feel kind of like I might break her if I play around with some of the things she knows beyond little bits of lateral work.

Rena...


... and her FEET. Twenty minutes after getting shod. SERIOUSLY.

Wow.



It's been gorgeous here....







Gogo says, you wish you were here too.

Gogo the Lippizaner

I have had a pretty successful week thus far with Gogo. Actually, the week ends here - tomorrow I am headed to Ohio to spend some quality time with the currently far-away fiancee, and I won't be back until Saturday night, so Gogo gets a mini vacation.

Monday's ride was quite excellent. Gogo warmed up relaxed and quiet, and proceeded to give me some excellent trot and canterwork, including some shallow canter loops on the left lead, heading across the short diagonal, and maintaining the counter canter through the corner in a balanced and - dare I use the C word? - collected way. She was giving me the closest thing to collection in the canter that she's ever given me, really sitting down and waiting. Then, of course, going the OTHER way we tried to toss in some awkward flying changes in our shallow loops, and then did a horribly disjointed and awkward unintentional flying change coming across the short diagonal. Well, after that the rest of the ride continued to be very good, but she started clacking her teeth (which she seems to do about mid-ride for various reasons... sometimes tension, sometimes difficult work) NONSTOP for the rest of the ride. The quality of work was very high too, but UGH! That drives me insane. It's not visible unless you're right up next to her, and you can't hear it unless, again, you're right next to her, but I can hear it for sure and I can feel the vibrations coming up through the reins, and it DRIVES ME NUTS. She only does it at the trot, and does it in rhythm with her stride, like she's keeping her own tempo. When she is REALLY tense, she will gnash her teeth at the walk and trot very violently, which usually corresponds to an imminent Gogo Explosion, but something extreme has to be happening (like bears chasing us through the woods) for that kind of mouth action to occur. The rest of the time, pretty quiet mouth. Like during out warmup? Totally quiet mouth, totally relaxed work. The teeth clacking continues for as long as there is contact with her mouth at all once it has started - if you totally drop her, it stops temporarily - and it ONLY starts after something difficult has taken place. And at this point, I don't know what to do about it.

The next day was interesting - had a lesson with Vicki, and she started off HOT TO TROT. Some walkwork helped to quiet her down, and then she was very relaxed and quiet starting out in trot. We started harder work, and she was still excellent - leg yields, lengthenings, shoulder-in to haunches-in, tons of transitions. She was awesome, UNTIL I attempted to come down the quarterline in canter on the right lead. And she tilted in, hit my outside rein, and had a FIT - literally out of absolutely nowhere with NO warning did a serious of HUGE plunging rear-leaps, courbette style! Oooookay, back to canter, let's try that again on the next long side. Same thing, but this time more dramatic - several large rears which culminated in a huge literal courbette (reared and then LEAPED into the air!), then landing and doing a classic Gogo rear-and-pivot-and-shoot-off-180-degree-in-the-other-direction move. This almost took out Ted and Vista, the 84 year-old boarder with the 23 year-old horse, who hapened to be on the rail at this time right next to us. Yikes. I think I almost gave him a heartattack. Right then Gogo, one more time, and this time we will have better balance coming out of the corner. What do you know, a PERFECT quarterline, which we then moved into a few 20-meter stretchy circles where she stretched down and up and down and up again, perfectly. Mares.

"Volatile" I think is the perfect word for her.

And today, I just put her on a lunge line and let her spin in a halter for 20 minutes. Oye.... watching her go on the lunge without tack on is a bit painful, seeing as she inverts like a camel, drags herself around on her forehand (no matter what speed she's going), and goes around with her head so high that her face, at times, is literally parallel with the ceiling. I love my horse SO much, but oooooh she is ugly when she does that. She looks SO good in the barn, and SO good under saddle, and SO good lunging with tack, but without tack? Hmmmmmmm.

Oh Gogo, you are so silly sometimes with your special Lippizan leaps and llama neck.



I will be on a brief hiatus for the next few days, as I said before, so look for me at the end of the weekend. See you then!

PS: Check out this website. I know we just had this discussion about modern vs. classical dressage (and this is leaning towards the classical side for sure), but it had a lot of really awesome images and actual moving illustrations. Really interesting.

All right, now I really need sleep, because it's almost midnight and I have to be up at 3am. SIGH!

Continual Lunging FAIL

D'oh. Well, for whatever reason I continue to have lunging equipment failure. We had another wardrobe malfunction on Friday when I was lunging in Vicki's chambon. Like I said about it, it is THE most rudumentary chambon I've ever seen - it's just a piece of string with a nylon strap on it. I have to hook it up with double ended snaps to my surcingle! So off we go, we're lunging, we've been lunging for all of five minutes. I dunno if she did this on purpose, because it was hard to tell, but one instant she was trotting along and the next, POP! the ring on my girth that the chambon was attached to suddenly came flying off and cracked her in the face. She proceeded to do Very Big Trot for a few strides before realizing she had no need to be freaked out. It might have been partially torn out last week when she ripped on it freaking out momentarily, I dunno. It sure didn't give last week, but this week? Rrrrrrrrrip.

Well, I had certainly learned my lesson a few weeks ago on how NOT to lunge new-and-improved Volatile Gogo, so I just put her back on the lunge line and let her cruise for a minute. But she is SUCH A LLAMA when she's moving on her own that it just HURT to want her boinging around super inverted, and so I decided to try something I hadn't done in a long time. I dug out some sidereins.

Gogo the llama at Lake Erie, just so you know:



So sidereins. Put them on, walked off, she's cool, moved into trot. AHHH, Gogo said. Very VERY Big Trot and some panicked running at the canter, which is ALL just a leftover from her having such a mental breakdown a few weeks ago. She normally lunges in them just fine, but hangs around behind the vertical and doesn't use her body at all, and therefore I don't normally use them. This time, she was REALLY worried when we started out, I think because she felt trapped for a moment, like she gets sometimes. Then, she settled into them and gave me THE most gorgeous trot and canter - she actually was using her entire body fluidly instead of doing the whole put head down, move legs fast sort of thing that she used to do in sidereins. She had a few moments where she looked worried, but then really just relaxed and really used herself in full. Something else interesting to note - instead of curling behind the vertical or leaning on the sidereins, Gogo actually held herself up actual correct self-carriage. I was impressed... really impressed. I won't be using sidereins often, but it's interesting to note what kind of reaction she had to them. We finished with a nice, steady, relaxed siderein-y trot (had been doing lots of transitions) and called it a night.

Yesterday, I had a lesson, considering the fact that I was supposed to have a lesson on Thursday but it was dangerously cold out and so we all went to Neptune's Diner instead of working (the boss included!) XD She felt a bit tense right from the get go, walk work included. It really felt as though I had, well.. worked her in sidereins. It wasn't that she was doing the whole sidereins curling behind the contact thing... but she was yanking (gently yanking!) on my hands, something she's never done before. Not hard, and not forcefully, but just pushing out against my hands in an unpleasant kind of way. It felt like she was testing sidereins for give. She was also doing the obnoxious thing she does when she is tense and feeling confined - clacking her teeth. It's not really all that visible (doesn't get sneer with her lips like a lot of horses that do this do), but if you're near her you can hear it. Drives me insane, because she doesn't do it when she's totally chilled out and relaxed. We did a lot of walk-trot transitions to start, just trying to give her something simple to focus on, and then we progressed from there to some shoulder-in, very steep leg yields, decent quality trot lengthenings (not as stellar as they have been), fabulous canter lengthenings, focusing less on the technical difficulty of each exercise than the ability to maintain relaxation. By the end, she was suburb, but still not totally without tension - the teeth clacking was still going on. Vicki said she looked excellent and I believe her, but I could still feel that she was holding it somewhere, even if it wasn't visible. We were challenging her though, working her in shoulder-fore or haunches-in through every transition between gaits and within gaits, which were all coming rapid fire. Vicki also had me do something interesting that was instantly successful - I tend to jam downwards a bit with my right heel, which makes my calf come off of her side a little more than it should. Vicki had me think about unweighting my stirrups during each downward transition - making the transition as though I were about to remove my feet from the stirrups, which put my calves on her more during the transitions - and VOILA! Instant amazing transitions. Love that! We also talked a bit about positive and negative tension in horses, and how you physically have to have some sort of muscle tension in your body to do anything at all, simply because engaging a muscle creates tension. Sometimes, Gogo has only positive tension in her body, and some days, like yesterday, Gogo borderlines on negative tension. It's a very fine line to walk. We also ALSO talked about the Comfort Zone, the Achievement Zone, and the Panic Zone. The Comfort Zone is where Gogo is doing exactly what she knows how to do already, and is totally chill about it. Pushing her into the Achievement Zone maintains that steady mental mindset, but goes into more challenging work and learning new things. The Panic Zone is when you push too far into the Achievement Zone and have a meltdown. Gogo's Comfort Zone is fairly small, her Achiement Zone is a very tiny area that you have to be careful to stay in, and her Panic Zone is HUGE. If you push just a little too hard out of the Comfort Zone, you'll zoom right into the Panic Zone. Again with the walking fine lines thing! In all honesty though, that's what makes dressage fun for me. I love being able to try and toe the line where I can, and feeling just when I feel to back off, or just when I can ask for a little more. That developing sense of feel gets deeper and deeper with every ride, and has been gettng deeper and deeper since I was the age of 7 and first getting on a horse for lessons. It never stops developing, and I love that.


Hooray Gogo's new supplements are here! She's officially off Cosequin and Mare Magic (and consequently, Smartpak) for the time being, and is instead on bulk raspberry leaf (which I found for $4.20 a pound.... two pounds of Mare Magic is $55.99. $55.99 vs. $8.40? EASY CHOICE) and ProMotion EQ, the joint supplement I talked about. She just started it on Thursday, so I'll give it a few weeks and keep you updated on what I see and feel.


And what am I doing today you ask? Well, the 95 thousand Pony Club kids are all coming in again for their 9am-4pm clinic, so jumping isn't going to happen. I wanted to go hack out.... and then I had a better idea. It's supposed to be 55 today, which is awesome. There is a beach about an hour away (a real OCEAN beach with real SALT WATER, not just Lake Erie!!) that allows horses on it in the offseason (which is right now). So, that is where we are headed! Oh my god excited. SO excited.

Wild Woman!

It's been one week since our huge distaster on the lunge, and seeing as it's Wednesday and lunge day, I figured it was time to revisit the issue. Since my chambon is obviously broken, I asked if Vicki had one I could borrow, and she did. Well, it's NOT the same as my own - hers is a piece of string with a nylon strap attached to it. That's it. I had to use double-ended snaps to clip it to my surcicle, that's how barebones the whole thing was. But at the same time, I liked how it didn't have any give. Going to the left anyway.

Yes, going to the left Gogo was quite exceptional. She was almost exceptional going to the right too, but given the fact that she didn't go outside today due to the HUGE ICE STORM that dumped sleet on us all day, she was feeling a little uppity and made a huge leap into the canter near the end of the workout, just because she was fresh. (This was the direction she panicked going last week, I might add.) She hit the chambon, which was NOT forgiving like mine is, and totally lost it for a minute - bolted straight backwards with mouth agape against it and almost fell over, then galloped off for a few panicked laps around me before I could drag her into the middle of my circle to stop her (there were no downward transitions in this runaway moment, I just had to figure out a way to stop!). I stopped her, lowered her head, stood there and let her chill out for a few minutes, then walked and trotted again. And we did BIG TROT... big, worried trot. We also did some big, worried canter, but after a few minutes of quiet transitions, she settled into it a little better, and calmed down. I just wanted to make sure she was relaxed and not thinking about last week's incident, or whatever else she was thinking about that was worrying her, and we finally got a few good sneezes and a loose and swinging back, if only for a few ending minutes. Back in the barn, when I went to pick the arena dirt out of her feet, I found that in her moment of panic, she had ripped one of her back ergots clean off... CLEAN OFF! In its place was a big, raw, open fleshy area that was not bloody but definitely oozy. Oh Gogo....

These moments of hotness, irrationality and flight behavior are really cropping up as of late. In all honesty, I think I really have to be downright honest and blame the Ultium for it. I LOVE how she looks on the Ultium. I LOVE how her topline is filling out. I do NOT love that this is a really high-octane feed and is definitely contributing to her irrational acting out. She's a wild thing and always has been, that's for sure, but she's REALLY been acting out rather violently when something worries her or she doesn't understand something. I mean tonight, just for that brief time, she REALLY blew up. She almost ripped my arm off tearing away from the pressure on her mouth and poll. And she's been HOT lately. REALLY, REALLY HOT. I like the forward energy, I just don't like the explosions that seem to be coming with it.

But here's the other problem. WHAT kind of grain would I switch her to? Do I even want to switch at all? Will she calm down in the summer when it's hotter? Will she be wilder? Is she too fit? Is she not getting enough work? Is it this, is it that? I don't know.


Tomorrow, dressage. Friday, dressage. Saturday, off. Sunday, JUMPIE!


Lazy, lazy lunger.

Feh.

I have so much to write about, but I'm so exhausted. All I can say about today is that sometimes you have a workout so disastrous you just want to go curl up in your bed and cry.

Yeah, it was one of those days. Gogo is amazing, talented, intelligent, brave, and BULLHEADED. And the tough attitude combined with her past history, well.... sometimes her fuses are very short. Our lunge sesson today was going very well until my cheap ass chambon broke. Literally, the leather just ripped apart.. she wasn't even doing anything. Me being stupid and not just calling it quits right then, I rigged up the lunge line in a way that I ALWAYS used to do, so that it runs from the bit back to the surcingle in a siderein kind of way. She, on the other hand, once this setup was complete and she was back out on the circle, completely curled under, then panicked when she pulled away on the circle and the line tightened, so much so that she was bolting and rearing and smashing herself into walls, literally spinning in circles so many times she was almost choking herself with the lunge line. By the time I had calmed her down, and I hate to say it but I kept trying to push her back out onto the circle so she could just chill out and get over it (backfired... only made her more upset, and she repeatedly threw herself around and tangled herself in the lunge line), she and I were both completely lathered in sweat. I finished the session with a long walk, bursting into tears, putting her in the washstall and hosing her off, putting her under a cooler and the heat lamps for over an hour, and begging her forgiveness with lots of hugs and cookies.

She was so upset, and I felt horrible. I still feel horrible. I made myself a stiff drink, chatted with Shannon about the difficulties of an alpha mare with baggage, and took a long hot shower. Now I'm just leaving you with this brief update. I literally have about 80 million things I need to blog about, but I just had to get this out of my system.

I feel horrible. She is the best horse ever, and I wouldn't trade her for the world.

Changes in the schedule!

Oh craps! Well, our event schedule has slightly changed - the Area I Championships this year are NOT at Walkers in October like they were last year; instead, they're at ENYDCTA in mid-July. Mid-July people! That gives us like.... 1.5 seconds to qualify for them. We have two shows scheduled in May (King Oak Farms and Riga Meadow), and the qualifications for Areas are 1st-3rd at one event, so that can be easily done. However, people in Area I are... numerous. And serious about their eventing. Looking at the results from King Oak Farms from last year in May, there were six - count them, SIX - divisions of Open Novice ALONE. With about 20 people in each. That's 120 Novice riders at one show guys. That's insane.
So we'll need to really be on top of things in order to qualify for Areas that fast. Our eventing schedule has therefore changed a little bit:


2009 Eventing Show Schedule:

May:
May 9-10 King Oak Farm H.T. (MA) (Novice)
May 30 Mystic Valley Hunt Club H.T. (CT) (Novice)

June:
Nothing???

July:
July 3-5 Stoneleigh-Burnham School H.T. (MA) (MAYBE... or maybe not)
July 11-12 ENYDCTA/Old Chatham H.T. (NY) (Novice Championship)
July 19 Riga Meadow H.T. (CT) (Novice, or Training??)

August:
August 1-2 Apple Knoll Farm H.T. (MA)(MAYBE... or maybe not)
August 16 Kent School H.T. (CT) (Training)

September:
Sept 9-13 American Eventing Championships! (IL) (Novice)
Sept 26-27 Stoneleigh-Burnham School H.T. (MA) (MAYBE... or maybe not)

October:
October 4 Kent School H.T. (CT) (Training)
October 10-11 Ethel Walker School H.T. (CT) (Training)


Now, this is all very money dependant. If I can find the funds, I'll do what we're ready for. If not, well.... hmmmm. I've already got about $1000 saved for this coming show season alone, but if the AEC entry fee itself is $500, and that doesn't include travel or hotel fees.... hmmmm again. We'll have to see what I can work out. I'm clever, I can come up with something....


Today Gogo was lunged in the chambon, the first work she's had in two days due to this horrible cold snap. Ugh, I HATE the cold! And my horse was a bit on edge after all this cold weather and no turnout, so when I first asked her to trot after warming up at the walk, she exploded forward, hit the chambon really hard, reared, and shot backwards into the wall, where she proceeded to rear again and then stop to face me, snorting in confusion. I moved her back out at a trot, and off she went, totally chill from then on out. Mares.
The bad news is she was doing her weird head/mouth thingy again. She will be totally relaxed otherwise in her body, and then twitch her head, stick her tongue out and dramatically lick the right side of her lips, and mouth at the bit like she wants to spit it out. Maybe when she hit the chambon that hard whatever little irritation she had earlier was re-bothered? I don't know. I lunged her both ways to see if maybe it would go away, and she sneezed really hard a few times, but it didn't seem to totally stop ever. It sucks because the rest of her lunge work was sooooooooooooooooooooooooo good.... sigh. Tomorrow she's going to have a modified jump school - lots of cavalletti and then a hack out, because I see no need to stress out her muscles in this freezing cold weather, especially after a light end to this work week - and then Monday back to work. Shannon and I were talking about freejumping her too... that would be superfun.

Mount Holyoke college has a few schooling jumper shows coming up that I'd like to see if I can go to. They have Thursday afternoon H/J shows, and they have Saturday Sizzler Afternoon Jumper Shows as well. Their next Saturday Sizzler isn't until March, and the next Thursday afternoon show is this coming week (and next week too) so I dunno if I'll be able to get to those. The point of the Thursday afternoon shows is to start late enough to accomodate after school/work situations (3pm), and they said they'll work with your schedule, so maybe! I'd love love love to be able to get out there, so hopefully. I'll just have to ask and see. Here I can do all the gridwork I want in the world, but setting up a full course? Just don't have the space or the jumps for it. Getting her out to Mount Holyoke would be great for her, if nothing more to just get some coursework in.


The final thing I have to write about today is that we had a client get-together today in the apartment and talked about goal setting, and Vicki gave us all packets to work on. They're great! I have a lot of ideas about creating more in-depth blog posts about daily work and daily goals as well as weekly, monthly and yearly goals. Goals are GREAT for me because they give me focus and something to look forward to. I'll have to type some of this up so you can see it (and use it too! Apparently it's Lendon's, but she has said that anybody can use it, so I'll let you use it too when I get it posted!)


Wait, one final final thing: my tats. I've had some interest from people wanting to see them, especially the new Metro one, so of course I will oblige!

The new M (and the older Q that I got when I was 20 for Quincy):

They look a little funny right now because the Q was just touched up yesterday and they both have goo on them, lol. Also, my skin is very red and irritated and you can see where the tape from the bandages was... haha.

The oldest of my tatts, my tribal that I got when I turned 18:

Man I was tan here.

A kind of artsy naked shot of my top back ink and my lower tramp stamp, which is the Trakehner brand which I got at the age of 20 (although upside down in this pic):


And the second most recent ink, my favorite silver fern done on my left outside hip when I was 22 and studying abroad in NZ:

This one is amazing because I went to a place called Powerhouse, which is a very awesome almost exclusively freehand studio in Palmie. I had a design, and my guy was like well that is very cool, but how about I make it cooler? And off he went with his marker, and drew up this fancy design on my hip that made sense in his head but not in mine (hard to tell what it was going to be). I trusted him and let him just create his own personal individual artwork on my hip, and when he was finished I was just floored. This pic is a little bit red and swollen because it was about 5 minutes after it was finished, but you can tell just how awesome and well done it is. Totally freaking sweet.



Also, when I was in NZ and not around horses all that much, I actually had time to do things like not wear barn clothes all day and get to do crazy fancy things with body modification and hair:



Alas, when I said goodbye to that lip ring, I said goodbye to a huge level of my indie sweetness. I hated to take it out, but lip rings and dirty barns and sweat and filth = infections and chronic pain, so there you are.

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.

It's Gonna Be A Happy New Year

My dear readers, 2009 is fast approaching. Only a few short hours and this wretched year will finally be over and done with, and I can kick it the hell out the door and welcome in 2009 with open arms. 2008 had some really incredible, shining moments.... but the rest of it was rather horrible. Everything with Gogo was just AWESOME though. And getting engaged was awesome. And going to Costa Rica was awesome. And graduating and getting the HELL out of college was awesome. But pretty much all of my final semester as a college kid? Awful. Last summer, aside from riding/barning/showing? Awful. This fall? Awful. Weeks and months of dragging misery punctuated with shining moments of sheer joy and pure genious.

And Gogo. Oh, Gogo. We had a really good year, and that made it all worthwhile. Last December I decided that I was going to the AECs come hell or high water, and I was going to top 10 in my division. All my thoughts were bent on that one goal, and everything I did from January 1st on was geared towards attaining it. And it just goes to show that with a little luck and a LOT of hard work, it can be done.

January was our 'starting over' period. Gogo had three weeks off over holiday break, which was supposed to be five but she literally was dismantling the barn piece by piece with boredom, so we went back to work early. Tons of lunging in the Faux-ssoa, lots of gentle under saddle work, continuing to soothe all the mental issues the nutso trainer lady had given her in 2007. She really started to change early on in the year, and February was filled with much of the same trust-building, including our first ever jumper shows (got only 5th places at both of them!) and weekly jumping lessons with my all-time favorite jumping instructor, Bud. Gogo jumped her first ever 3'6" fence in February, and we were ready for more in March. Our first rated dressage show of the year was also in March, where we made our First Level debut (went out at Training 3-4 and First 1-2) - and won our first ever First Level class with a 69.66%, which also earned us our first ever Reserve Champion ribbon! Our judge at that show was none other than the legendary Marilyn Payne who also judged the eventing dressage at the Olympics this past summer... and if an Olympic judge is giving me neary 70% then I must have been doing SOMETHING right! (She just RAVED about Gogo.... so proud!!) We also, in March, even tried our hand at rated hunters - and what do you know, we actually placed. April came the crown jewel of dressage shows in our area, the Lake Erie College Dressage Prix de Villes, a team competition which we were SUPPOSED to have all in the bag.... but Gogo was in violent heat due to a stallion being in the barn, and it ended up being, well... kinda scary! But the rest of the time, she was just awesome. In May I went to Costa Rica for three weeks, and came back to find that my horse had lost a lot of weight and condition (I later learned it was the barn manager starving her, but I didn't know this at the time). We started in on a long journey of trying to find decent barns and getting our conditioning back... her dressage suffered and it wasn't easy getting it back. June brought Gogo's 7th birthday! and our first combined test, at Novice, where we won with a 26.0 on our dressage score. It also brought our first real event of the season, the Encore H.T., where we were in first after dressage with a 38.5 (I know, right?) in a total DOWNPOUR, complete with thunder and some lightning. We had one rail in stadium which dropped us down to 3rd, but that still was our first qualifying score. July brought the South Farm H.T. and our first ever WIN at an event - a 26.6, with an amazing dressage score of 22.6!! We had another rail though, and I was starting to look for problems. We took her in July to the Equine Specialty hospital, where we was scoped (no ulcers, just the barn manager starving her!) and she was also diagnosed with the very mild beginnings of hock arthritis in her right hock. D'OH! We started her on Cosequin and Adequan, and still been doing the trick several months later! We also had lots of fun trail riding, including one epic journey into the nearby local town to ride through the drive-thru at Wendy's.... mmm chocolate frosty! August brought three more horse shows, Hunters Run H.T. (our second 1st place on our dressage score of 33.0!), Erie Hunt & Saddle H.T. (2nd place, 32.5, less than half a point behind the leader, on our dressage score), and the South Farm Beginner Novice Area Championships, where we WERE in 1st place after dressage with a score of 28.5, until Cracker McNutsopony had a wild runout on x-country for the first time.... BLAH! Gogo also went swimming for the first time :) September arrived, and we were finally ready - the AECs were here, and we had worked very hard all year long for this moment in time. Our dressage was a bit wild (7, 7, 7, 2, 7....) but we still managed a score of 33.0 somehow, putting us tied for 9th. After THE most amazing x-country run ever (over a very challenging course), we moved up to 7th, and after a lovely clear staidum round, we moved up to 6th (and into the prizes!) It was INCREDIBLE and I can't wait to go again this coming year. Just think about how awesome our score would have been without that 2! We moved back to Michigan in early October in order to actually find me a REAL job instead of just playing horseshow all the time, and much of October was spent doing dressage, hillwork, and jumping - I was at my friend Danielle's facility, and it was just lovely (AND they actually fed my horse... you'd think feeding horses with pre-measured grains would be easy, but no, the other two barns couldn't/wouldn't....) and it was a bummer to leave it. November brought a move to Connecticut, and this past December has been spent doing lots of quality dressage work with Vicki, as well as jumping and lunging in the chambon. Can't wait for this weather to get better!!!

Well, that was really long. I have more to blog about that is relevant to actual current riding events, but as for now, I need to go plan out my New Year's fiesta... if there is one at all!

From Gogo and I:
HAPPY NEW YEAR and may all your 2009 riding hopes/goals/dreams come true!

Gogo and the Vacuum

Actually, that title is way more exciting than the actual event. Gogo had never before seen a horsey vacuum, so I pulled ours (the barn's) out yesterday after she rolled in the mud to see what she would do. As expected, she did not look at it when it rolled out, nor did she care about the actual hose. She did not even notice when I turned the thing on, and she didn't even care when I started sucking the dirt out of her skin. Didn't move a muscle, or even notice what I was doing. I even vacuumed her head, ears and cheeks and forehead and all. I love my horse.

Our ride yesterday was not quite as good as our ride the day before. She had a few hissies for no apparent reason, and I got a little up in her face about it, but once again, when I finally let go and pushed her forward, she stretched right out. Well, in the walk and canter anyway... the trot was a little bit more hit and miss. We had some awesome leg yields, some great counter-canter serpentines, some really nice canter lengthenings, and fewer transitions than we should have done - transitions REALLY help her. Actually, today I wanted to take her out on a long walk hack but it was very dark by the time we finished work, so instead I lunged her again in the chambon. She was AWESOME! We went right first, her soft way, and did a million transitions - boy, do they ever make a difference in her. She goes SO much more forward, she comes well over her back, and she listens. If you just let her trot or canter around for a long time, she sort of drags around after awhile, looking to get out of work, but with a ton of transitions they is always forward and attentive, waiting for the second I ask her to change what she's doing. Going left is a slightly different strategy - I want her to do longer trots and canters without so many transitions, mostly because the forward and the STRETCH I was getting out of her today was better than any she's ever given me with the chambon before. It was AWESOME!

This strategy of two days dressage, one day something else, two days dressage, etc, works out very well for us.

It's been sleeting alllllll day.....

... although it did snow a little bit. Apparently their first snow here... which means I brought it with me from the great glove state.

Gogo's had her week off, and it feels like we're getting a brand new, fresh start. I felt this way last year when I gave her a brief winter holiday and then got myself into gear for the new year. I really like it! I lunged her today in the chambon, and man she was FORWARD! I loved it! Usually you have to give her reminders to keep going forward and using herself, but today she was trotting around like a million bucks and it felt great to just stand back and watch her go. She was moving GREAT. I also finally got out the hole punch and punched about a zillion holes in my chambon.... nope, even on the top hole it was STILL too long! Alas, I still had to tie knots in it, how ghetto.

But yeah... it really felt great. It's kind of hard being at a new barn - everyone does things a little differently at each barn, and every barn has their own little cult thing they do that YOU are the outcast if you come in and do it differently. Here, they have a really ridiculous blanketing schedule (and I thought I was crazy about blanketing), and I don't have the same kinds of blankets they do, so I feel a bit weird about her currently wearing her turnout sheet INDOORS... which I have to say, to be fair to myself, is only because the stable sheet I ordered her never came in on time. Also, everyone here wears shoes, and has some big name fancy farrier doing the horses. The typical reaction to a healthy bare foot is "Oh my GOD! Those heels are so low, those feet are so SHORT! Isn't she CRIPPLED??" and I feel fine explaining all about this to normal folk, but to my employer? If she asks about it, I'm going to feel a bit awkward. She's the one that's supposed to be teaching ME stuff. Hopefully Gogo will be prancing around in front of Vicki the way she was for me today in the arena, and she'll go oooooooo that horse NEVER will need shoes!

Ohhhh the stigmas of being in a barn full of DQs. I've yet to directly be scolded for my odd ways but I'm sure it will come. Hopefully it won't be too awkward. Once I'm here for a bit longer I'm sure it will be fine.

Chambon A Go-Go

I think I want to talk for a minute about lunging, and specifically lunging Gogo. When I got her, she kind of knew how to lunge.... sort of. Meaning, you put her on a lunge line and off she goes running, and then if you wanted her to stop she'd slam on the brakes, spin in towards you, and come walking in. OH NO-NO. Don't think so kiddo! It didn't take long for her to learn her voice commands but boy, she did NOT get the idea of halting for a long time. I had to actually get my roommate Nicole to walk on the outside of the lunge with her, and halt her when I said "whoa." I did this for about 10 minutes once, and then the next time I went to lunge her hey presto! It had finally clicked in her brain and I didn't need to school it again, who knew.

Well. In comes crazy trainer lady who excessively lunged my horse to death and claimed she "had to teach her all her voice commands because she didn't know anything except to run." Hmmmmmmm that's not the Gogo I remember.... anyway, so now we had some lunging issues. I tried lots of things, and some of them helped.

Sidereins: I had issues with sidereins from day one, seeing as before I got her Gogo had already learned to curl her neck away from contact. She never really reached out for them, and I guess most horses wouldn't. Sidereins have a time and a place, and they just aren't really with my horse. I used to occasionally lunge her with sidereins before I got on, and I sort of imaged it helped her accept my contact a little, when she would go around fighting me for an hour before she finally released.



Neck Stretcher: Well, at the time I thought this was a godsend, and I think it might have been a good thing for at least me, at least temporarily. When she was wearing it I stopped thinking about her head so much, and was able to fully focus on riding her back to front instead of worrying about whatever she was doing with her head (a huge problem of mine.... one I am still trying to overcome). HOWEVER, the problem still remains that the horse can't really stretch forward and out with this.


Breaking at the 3rd vertebra.

Pessoa: Or well, I used the Faux-ssoa... the Scheniders version that I got for $25 instead of $150! I used it a lot last winter, and since that time up until recently was using it and it alone for lunging.
From Sustainable Dressage, which is a very informative site:
"During the Pessoas' total reign in showjumping in the 80's and 90's many "inventions" came from their barn. One was the Pessoa Gag Bit, which I speak of elsewhere, which is a combination of a driving bit and an elevator gag, and then the Pessoa Training System used for lungeing. This system is supposed to get the horse to stretch down AND engage the hindlegs forward, and thus be good for the back. I have seen it at work several times, and whilst it does get the horse to lower his head on the lunge, the most glaring effect of this contraption is that it succeeds in jabbing the horse in the mouth with each push of the hindlegs. It has a semi-intricate pulley system that via a lunge-girth connects the gaskins with the mouth. I guess the rope is supposed to encourage the horse to grasp forward with the hindlegs as it tightens around the hindleg and at the same time limit the height of the head. But which is more sensitive - the skin on the hocks or the mouth!? The horse will be encouraged to roll down but not stretch to the bit, because the bit jabs at the mouth with each step. Now this is mechanical if anything! I have also never seen any horse truly engage in this "system", only go on the forehand and curl behind the bit. It can be adjusted lower (for more stretch) and higher (for collection) but it seems to have very little such effect."
And when I thought about it, wow, that makes sense. And when you look at a picture of it last January....



Hmmmm. Well that's not very classical is it?

Which got me to thinking.... if she's not a candidate for sidereins, the Pessoa is just a bad idea, and the neck stretcher doesn't allow her to stretch OUT... what will?

I found the answer:
Chambon: Of all the lunging tools, I think this is really Gogo's best option for now. "Out of all these things, the chambon is the only one which really works satisfactorily in its true context - lungeing. The chambon is the only device that lets the horse stretch fully forward-down-OUT." And this is exactly what Gogo needs.
"The function is as such:
As the horse lifts his head and pokes his nose, tensing his back, the device applies because the strings are pulled taut. The distance to the raised head (poll) becomes longer than in a relaxed state, and the poking nose uses up its share of the string as well. So the string pulls on the mouth, but not only that. It presses the crown piece down. Any attempt in the right direction is rewarded instantly. If the nose is dropped there is a release, and especially, if the poll is lowered there is a release. In a full stretch forward-down-out the distance from girth to poll to mouth is still shorter than when the horse has inverted. The device is slack."
A device where she can stretch forward and out, releasing those tense back muscles. Huzzah! Here's another great website on it:

http://www.classicaldressage.co.uk/html/the_chambon.html
I'm hoping that judicious use of this tool will help her on days between harder dressage work when I want to release, relax and strengthen her back and topline. Given her history, she automatically wants to be a little behind the vertical, and I've found this is eliminating that problem on the lunge. It's certainly not a cure-all, but it's one more thing I can add to my classical-y dressage toolbox.

And here's Gogo after lunging playtime:



She had never seen a tarp before this day, I realized, so I thought I would see what she would do with it. In usual Gogo fashion, she didn't even bat an eye at it, walking over it or wearing it. I even put it on her head and she just lowered her head and sighed like, "Oh mother. Can you please stop humiliating me now?"