The Fresh Leaps of Go-Mare

(I do apologize for the temporary silence since my past post, but as you know, it is BIRTHDAY MADNESS WEEK so I've been out every single night raising a little hell. I finally had a rest night last night and spend it catching up on some oh-so-needed sleep. Tonight, we head into NYC for a big party and then I get to spend tomorrow sightseeing around the City. How is it that I've been in CT a year but haven't been??)






Spring is doing its very best to come to CT. It was nearly 60 degrees yesterday, and it will be today and tomorrow too. All the horses are feeling serious spring fever, and so am I. Not only has this week been fantastic for birthday celebrations, but it's been an amazing one on the Gogo front as well. She's done more and worked harder this week than she has since the accident, and those legs and her soundness are holding up. Since it's been so warm, the legs do tend to fill in funny, lumpy ways, but they're never unusually warm or big, and they're always variations on the same level of fill - AKA giant, ugly Windpuffs of Doom. Every day my favorite boarder and I run our hands down those legs, and every day find pretty much the same thing. Quite honestly, I think I just have to relearn what is normal for her. The legs will never, ever look normal again. They just won't. It's just a matter now of determining what the new normal is.

I hadn't been on Gogo in three days when I finally got back in the saddle on Thursday. I hadn't wanted to be off of her for that long, but that was just how things worked out last week, so I accepted it as such and moved on. I had a really fantastic dressage-y ride on Friday - finally, we are really approaching "real" dressage work versus just walk trot canter on the bit for X amounts of time. She was a bit fussy and a bit bouncy, but once she settled in, she gave me some really nice moments, including three broken canter circles to the right (she kept breaking at the same spot), and three CONSECUTIVE canter circles to the left! That's way more canter than she's been able to do, and she actually took a contact for part of it and maintained it. And she felt physically capable of it, stronger - like she could have kept going without a problem. I left it as that, did some more trotwork, and let her cruise around on the buckle for awhile. I've not really been able to do that much in the indoor since there are door monsters and a loose rein usually means it takes that much longer to stop her when she flees from the door monster. She's actually been quite good down there, but much like last year in March, she's just done with the indoor. Just... done. Remember when she did this last year? Very similar situation here, except we weren't really backsliding mentally, just physically. (Not anymore!) So my solution to that since it's been so gorgeous outside? RIDE OUTSIDE!
Saturday we hacked. We hacked way further off the property than we'd ever been - hell, it was the first time hacking off the property at all. I've been limiting her to the small hills and trails around our property, but since the grass has been so soft and went, I was unable to ride on it at all. Instead, I decided to challenge her a little with the lower-grade hillwork and try something a little more intense. We hacked for the same period of time plus 5 minutes, same as we always do, but went allll the way up the road on a small but steady incline to the first four-way stop, and back again. She was SO HAPPY! Ears pricked, big march in her step, loop in the reins. It was early - maybe 8:30am - and the sun was glittering through the trees, the weather still chilly. It felt just like old times, and it was beautiful. And I'll be doing it again today. :D

These past two days, I've continued to push, just a little, without actually pushing, if I can explain that. Our enormous and gorgeous outdoor has FINALLY thawed and dried enough for it to be ridden on, but is still a little wet and squashy - think giant turfy sponge - but I've been letting the boarders out there for some limited riding. I also got to ride out, much to my joy (and to Gogo's too), but instead of putting on dressage tack and continuing in that way, I decided to have a little fun. Out came the jump saddle, jacked up stirrups and all! Since the footing is still soft up there - by no means turf-able, just softer than the stuff in the indoor and much wetter - I decided to let her get used to it and buzz around with me in my half-seat versus stress her body our trying to compensate for correctness in new footing while the tendon is still in the final stages healing. And WHEEEEEEE! She was FRESH, but SO good. She had a huge park trot going - you knew she would! - and was shaking her head all over the place, something she never does. She also, of course, had to throw in a little Gogo flavor, and did what the other rider in the ring affectionately called a handstand: a backcracking vertical bronc buck with her head between her knees! She NEVER bucks unless she's feeling ridiculously good and fresh, so I was smiling as she went plunging down the long side from there, striking out with both front legs every canter stride. The other boarder's comment? "That was cute." Oh Gogo. She also displayed her more studdish side, spooking away from something and doing this (which I know because I saw a flash of pastel blue bell boot in front of me!), then did the Execute Stallion Rear Program and bounced up and down, shaking her head and waving her front legs like any colt at play might. She then came down and stood totally immobile with her ears pricked, as if to say, "Sorry mom... just, man! I feel like a woman." Oh Gogo...

Yesterday I continued on the theme of doing-something-productive-without-feeling-like-being-productive, and used my jump tack again, letting her have a looser rein and moving at fair speed around the ring. No smaller circles, no complicated movements, just power and speed. She offered a canter at some point, and I got up in my half seat and let her. And she felt GOOD. She felt SO good. Our outdoor is enormous and she went once, twice, three times around with no problem before I pulled her up. We went the other way and same thing - a big, powerful canter, bigger and stronger than ever, no hesitations anywhere. I know we weren't actually going that fast but to me, it felt like flying. It felt like nothing in the world. She even started to consider breaking a sweat, and so did I, the first time that's happened since September. We finished the ride with a hack on the buckle up the driveway... I haven't been able to let her have such a loose rein outside yet.

Truly a good week. Truly, truly.

As for today, we hack again, and then Gogo get her Rabies and Coggins pulled. I am feeling really paranoid about spring shots this year - who wouldn't after all that reaction nonsense - but we are going to seriously space everything about and take every precaution we can. Yeesh though... not looking forward to it, not at all.




You won't hear from me for a few days since I am off to NYC, and then Friday is my actual BIRTHDAY! Who's excited I'm excited!

The first clovers are coming up, birds are chirping, sun is shining... spring is almost here!!

SNOWMARE!

There is no possible way to properly describe the nasty weather we've had these past few days beyond a few choice words like "UGH" "CACA" and "DEATH". The horses have been stuck inside for days, and thankfully are all outside now getting their bucks out so they can stop attempting to sling all of us into walls. Tuesday, the first round of turnouts got out, but then it started to sleet in a sideways fashion, so everyone else got stuck inside. Wednesday, it continued to sleet/mist/snow/rain all day, so everyone stayed in again. Thursday, it freaking POURED all day long, torrentially so, and so once again, they were all stuck inside and doing all sorts of unpleasant things like colicing and getting cast, I'm fairly convinced, on purpose in order to spite Mother Nature. Unfortunately their colic/cast/rearing/bucking/bolting dances were not enough to appease her, and yesterday the snow came in sideways at 50mph for a large part of the day. We don't have TOO much new accumulation - maybe 10 inches? - but enough to send cars shooting off the road and panicked CT residents to the store to horde food and gas. I was with a few friends of mine last night at someone's house, and on her way home one of the girls flipped her car upside down off the road. O.O That marks the point of the season where I think I am DONE with winter and am quite ready for spring now, thanks!

Despite the snow, the horses really were climbing the walls yesterday, and so I kicked a choice few out into the weather, one of which was Gogo. I'm not doing her any favors by keeping her inside at this point (or myself, because with her high-as-a-kite attitude I might get killed if I don't find an outlet for it), so out she went. The medical turnout is small enough to keep her from doing anything ridiculous, but big enough to let her walk around a little and just be OUT in the fresh air. She definitely appreciated it but came to the gate in two hours and was like, all right bring me in now!




Horses did go on the treadmill as usual....




Here, Rahlo and Gogo demonstrate how even though your treadmill is covered, sideways snow can in fact interrupt your nice stroll.


Under saddle, Gogo has been hit and miss a little, given how hot she's been. Thursday, she was really quite excellent, starting out spooky but really settling in to some decent work at the end. She did about half an hour of walk, and 15 or so minutes of trot before I called it a day. It wasn't without a few reining spins away from the A end of the arena where the Door Monster lives, and a few ridiculous leaps when the other rehab horse in the arena squealed and went leaping around, but once she settled in I was very happy. The interesting thing is that I tried the cyprium eggbutt again, not willing to give up on it, and lo and behold she was fantastic in it! So what changed? Only one thing: I lowered the bit in her mouth. Historically, for whatever reason, when you put any bit Gogo wears at the regular bit-wearing height that you'd expect her to be comfortable in, she fusses. Not really sure why, and we've not found any dental or vet reason for it - she just does. I blogged about it once, talking about how my last boss always wanted to adjust the bit in her mouth and raise it to where it belonged, and we finally tried it one lesson. She held all her tension in her mouth, gnashing away at the bit and being completely resistant... until we lowered it again. Then, she was perfect, as if she was saying "UGH! THANK you, now I can really go on and do real work!" So, thinking back to that, I dropped the bit so it was hanging in her mouth, way lower than I'd ever really expect it to be but keeping in mind the fact that this is Gogo we're talking about here. And tada! No more fussing, no more fighting the bit. She reached for it and was light and responsive, much more so than in the mullen mouth. Hooray!
Yesterday, she was not as good. She fussed a little, threw her head around some, made like she wanted to body slam into something, then settled in to some mediocre work. I wasn't unhappy with it per se, it just wasn't as nice as the day before. Perhaps this was her way of telling me that she was NOT happy to find that she is now required to go down to the Door Monster end of the arena whether or not there is a Door Monster waiting for her down there. Gogo... you are a special girl.

Today I think we will be hacking. All this new snow is so beautiful, and I think it will be good to go along with the way we do things in the summer: two days of dressage, one day of something else, two days of dressage, one day of something else. It's much easier on her brain that way, and quite frankly, mine too.

And OH MY GOD. WHAT IS THAT STRANGE BRIGHT YELLOW ORB IN THE SKY THAT JUST CAME OUT? MY EYES! MY EYES!

The World's Ugliest Tack

First off, I can't say enough thank yous to Bre from G is for Greta. She made my most awesome new banner and I am eternally grateful. IT'S AWESOME ISN'T IT!


I am very happy with Gogo's progress. She's been consistantly going outside like her good old normal self, standing around and eating hay while the other horses run and play like idiots, paying no mind to them or merely casting an ugly look whenever one of them runs too close to her fence and subsequent haypile. Even after being trapped inside for two days (we literally had an ongoing blizzard with 60mph gusts, sideways snow, and negative degree windchills), she went outside yesterday, and when released, she did a tiny hop, all four feet of the ground, and then went and ate her hay quietly for two hours. Nice.
Also due to the horrible weather, I didn't ride her for two days. Our indoor unfortunately had 5 doors, all of which rattle in the wind. I've propped stuff against them but she still had it in her head that horse-eating door monsters were lurking behind every one, something that isn't helped by the fact that our barn cats like to randomly pop over the top of them in front of horses and go streaking across the arena. The horses, of course, are all now quite convinced that we have a horde of cheetahs lurking behind every corner. You've seen the ridiculous video of Gogo reacting to the door moving - that's why I've been lightly sedating her before every ride! Today's ride, though, brought some changes. Today was the first day I didn't drug her in quite some time, and she was excellent. No spooking, even when the door jumped and rattled! This is good progress. I think now that we're up to 40 minutes of work, she's finally relaxing and realizing that we are in fact in a program and she will be able to get her energy out. Or maybe she's just waiting to catch me unawares, I'm not sure.

Something else changed today, just experimentally, and I like how it went. Gogo normally goes in a flash, but she's not really fond of it. She tends to be a bit of a jaw-crosser, primarily working her jaw to the left, which goes along with her general one-sidedness. The interesting thing, however, is that with no noseband at all, she doesn't do this, so it seems less a pain issue and more of a feeling restricted issue. With a noseband, no matter how loose or tight, she tends to 'bounce' her jaw off of it. I rode her without one yesterday just to see how it went (I rode her without one quite a lot in 2008), and as usual, it went fine. However, you need a noseband for dressage - it's not legal without one. She goes well in a figure-8, which helps with the crossing, but I wanted today to try a drop noseband on her to see if it made a difference.



Ewwwww!!! That HAS to be the ugliest thing I've ever seen. It was a little hard to fit because she has THE smallest mouth you've ever seen, and trying to fit the noseband below the bit was hard because there's not much room there! Now, here's the interesting part and I wonder if this isn't the root of the problem - see the weird lumpiness where you'd normally have a halter across the bridge of her nose? That is leftover scarring from where the Crazy Trainer shanked the bejeesus out of her. She had big white scars across her nose when we first got her back, which have thankfully all gone away, but the indents and lumps remain. Perhaps this is some weird residual mental or physical issue? (I'm considering borrowing one of these and seeing if that does anything.) I also wanted to try that bit in particular (a KK Ultra eggbutt) because she likes the stability an eggbutt provides. And actually, she was great. I dunno if the drop was really all that helpful - I think her mouth is just too small and short, it sounded like it was restricting her breathing a little - but the bit is definitely something I'd like to invest in. I'll try the drop for a couple more days and see if there's any difference, but we'll play around with nosebands to see what I want to stick with. The thing that annoys me about the drop? IT'S SO DAMN UGLY! Which is, of course, why it fell out of favor with today's DQs and why the flash became popular instead: drops make heads look plain. I love my dear horse, of course, but she has an exceptionally plain and lumpy head, so I certainly don't want to showcase lumpiness if I don't have to. We'll keep playing around with it and see what happens.


I saw four of my boss' show horses off to Florida this morning at 5am, so after they left, Gogo moved back to the New Barn to her old stall. And promptly, of course, settled in and took a nap:




Mmmmmmmmmmsleepytime. Sleepytime for me too, I'm exhausted, and still very ill. Bleugh.

And the decision is....

Daun just asked about which decision I had made for my only June activity, either Groton House or the Heidi White clinic. I literally had just made the choice about half an hour before she asked about it! And the winner is....

Groton House!

After talking to Anne, the woman whose friend is actually hosting the clinic and who wanted me to do the clinic in the first place, I decided that Groton House would be a better choice. Anne actually prompted me to chose it. The Heidi clinic sounded great, it really did and I'd love to work with her sometime in the future, but the fact still remains that Groton House is amazing, from everything I've heard, and that since I won't be in Area 1 forever and I will be point chasing anyway, the horse trial would be the ideal June activity. I'm really excited - and nervous!! Groton House is no cakewalk, I can tell you that much!

Also on the showing front, I might not have a single show in August... not one. I MIGHT do GMHA at the VERY end of July/start of August, but that's still up in the air because even though I've heard great things about the event, that would be three heavy showing weekends in a row for Gogo, and that's just too much to ask of her, I think. So I dunno what we're doing in August, if anything at all. We'll just have to see.

Today's dressage went fairly well... actually, at the end we had what I would actually be willing to call a collected trot. No, really. She was very light in front, had quite a bit of cadence and a lot of articulation in her hind end joints (as per Vicki who was watching), she had a very light and honest contact, and I felt like I was holding it and maintaining it with my seat and legs alone. She gave me a totally comfortable place to sit, and we moved so easily. It was great, but it took 50 minutes to get to that point. Sigh Gogo! We also practiced our Novice B test, which we are doing at both King Oak and at Mystic. It was going quite well until little Mojo and his mother came into the ring and got in our way. Then our canters weren't quiet so awesome, but oh well. I'll have to really go through and work on what it is exactly that we need to improve upon in this particular test. Making sure we come back after the free walk (which is very early on in the test), right lead canter, and trot-canter transitions... all are important and need a bit more spit and polish. But we're getting there!

I said goodbye to my old saddle today :( But hellooooooooo to $900 bucks! It's helpful, that's for sure! It's time to re-start our Adequan, and switch Gogo back to Gro N' Win cause I hate the Purina ration balancer, but I have no idea where I'm going to find a Buckeye dealer around here. Hmmmm!

Again, with the sleep at the end of the post....



EDIT: I also have one more request of everyone (although now it's 4:00am and I'm trying to wake up...). The number of people following my blog has taken a dramatic upturn, which is awesome! But it also means I haven't been able to visit all the new blogs that belong to all these new followers, because there are so many! So if you frequent this blog a lot, leave a comment with the name of your blog too, if I'm not already following it. I love reading about other people's adventures!

New Saddle Pics!

A few pictures of the new, gorgeous, lovely, amazing saddle:








Not to mention we had a 95% spot on dressage lesson today. After Gogo's small trip to Crazyville, she seems to have rememebered how to lengthen, compress, do lateral work, bend properly, take a half-halt, and reach out well to my hand.

On the other hand, she seems to have taken some of Crazyville to heart, seeing as today she violently lunged at a horse I was leading by over her stall gate and sank her teeth into his haunch, then realized I was right there about to yell at her and flew backwards at warp speed, cracking her head on the ceiling on the way back in and skinning a big piece of her face off. Nice.

Life Is Good!

So many good things have happened in the past three days! I have been a bad bad blogger not keeping you up to date on all these recent developments!

Friday was the dressage lesson I already talked about, and later on in the afternoon, I received an e-mail from my mother about saddles. I've been on the hunt since May for a Prestige Eventing saddle in black, and have had no luck finding a nice used one anywhere. Most places online sell them new for $2500, so I was surprised to get this particular e-mail stating that she had found a tack store called Green Valley Tack that sold them new for $2200. I googled them, and was completely thrilled to find that they were in New York, less than two hours away. I decided to give them a call, and asked if they had any in stock. What do you know? They had one on consignment, 17" seat (perfect), 33cm tree (also perfect), and it was IN BLACK! $1900. No freaking way. What are the odds??

So Saturday, first thing in the morning, I headed off to New York. The drive was gorgeous, through the serious boonies of New York, and the tack store itself was very nice. I also got some new Herm Sprenger knob spurs and - gasp - white gloves, because I feel it is time to graduate to them, finally. I also found the saddle on the rack, and wow.... it was in perfect, amazing, gorgeous condition. I mean, flawless. You could see that the billets, which are long by the way and therefore necessitate the use of a short girth, had been used a bit but that was really all. So hooray! I loaded up my prize for a test ride, and off I headed back to Connecticut. Immediately when I arrived, I hooked up my trailer, groomed my pretty mare, loaded her up, and headed out to the Larkin Bridle Trail, a 10-mile trail that was once upon a time an old rail line, but was abandoned in 1947... I think. We're ready to start out conditioning hacks, and with the excellent, slightly giving but still nice and firm and dry stonedust footing on this trail, it was a perfect place to begin. I LOVED the saddle, and she liked it too. The flap is very forward, but it didn't seem to interfere with her shoulder at all, and she was still striding out for all she was worth. This week's conditioning hack began with a warmup of 10 walking minutes, them 10 minutes of nice, forward trot, and then another 1:40 of walk hacking for a total of 2 hours. Next week, we will up the trotting to 15 minutes, and the week after will have 15 minutes again. The following week will have 20, and so on until we work out way up to 25 of nonstop trotting, with the remainder of the 2 hours at the walk. Anyway, oh the saddle! It was SO COMFORTABLE! My only complaint was that the leather was a bit slick, but hey, nothing a good conditioning won't fix! And oh, the trail was just beautiful.






This place was only 20 minutes away. I'll be going back here PLENTY this summer, I can feel it.

Sunday, I decided to give Gogo off instead of jumping. She seemed a bit tired after her workout on Saturday - took TWO lay-down naps in the morning! - so I figured she deserved the rest. She got a nice grooming and handwalking instead, sweet girl.

And yesterday? Oh, lovely mare! After her morning turnout, I brought her in, tacked her up, and set up two simple verticals in the indoor, just to get a feel of the saddle over fences. Talk about SECURE. It has a HUGE knee block and a big thigh block too, and with the long billets there isn't any bulky girth under my leg, so I felt like, aside from the slick leather, I wasn't going ANYWHERE! After warming up over the little vertical (made of blox, I think it was about 2'), Shannon came in and we progressively raised the other vertical. And raised it. And raised it. And Gogo jumped higher, and better. And better. And better. And before we knew it, she was sailing over 3'9" like she had been doing it in her sleep, all her life. I didn't even realize how high it was until I stopped and got a good look at it. "Higher?" Shannon asked. And I declined, only because I didn't want to tempt fate. Next time! ;)

She was THE happiest clam back in the barn. On one of the approaches to the 3'9", her big-strided self made a very interesting judgement call, all on her own. She got a hair closer to it than I think she anticipated, so instead of risking taking the rail down, she took off a hair towards the left of the jump to give her body more room to open up in the air, and then readjusted her straightness on her own on the other side of the fence. She hates a close, chippy spot and that was where she would have ended up taking off from had she stayed perfectly straight, so I accepted that call as a good one. Instead, she made just enough room for her body that the jump itself was excellent. She's a smart one, that silly little mare.

It just felt soooooooooooo easy. She's gonna jump big sticks, I tell you! Big sticks!

And, on top of that, we made an offer of $1800 on the Prestige, and the lady accepted. I am the owner of a beautiful, almost completely brand new Prestige Eventing saddle, only the sexiest saddle EVER MADE! I'll get some better pictures to post tonight because I am DYING to show it off! This also frees me to sell my old County - any takers? ;) - and, if I can get $500 for it... that's the entry fee for the AECs right there. Good news, good news!

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The other two good things that happened? We have a clinic this coming weekend with Sharon Schneideman, and I was thinking about how best to pay for it (dip into my show fund? I didn't want to!) when I was asked the other day if I would trailer a horse going in for a bone scan to the nearby private equine hospital, at the cool charge of $2.00 a mile. Well duh I'll do it! Now the clinic is completely paid for :) And also, I went to the post office at 9pm last night in order to get this into the mailbox for post the first thing this morning:



My entry for King Oak Farms HT!!!!!!! It all begins here!


So the Cliff Notes version of all this:
1) Finally, finally found my new jump saddle, a used Black Prestige Eventing model!
2) Can now sell my old saddle!
3) Just made a chunk of money trailering a horse around and can now pay for this coming weekend's clinic!
4) Had a gorgeous conditioning hack on Saturday, and am really starting to get into our conditioning work now!
5) The entry for our first 2009 event goes out in the mail TODAY!


Life is good.

Today's the Day!

Yesterday's a little bit of this an' a little bit of that did not go over all that well. Gogo continued to be stiff, resistant, and crooked throughout the first part of our lesson, and I figured out why at some point - it wasn't that I had Vicki's saddle or that I had raised the bit a hole (although we did lower it again), it was because I was grumping about saddles and worrying about whether or not I was going to need a new one and where was that money going to come from and and and, and I wasn't letting my inner zen take over and just block everything out to focus on her. Once again, I laughed at something somebody said at some point, and I had an instantly rideable horse, complete with fluid, supple lateral work, transitions, serpentines, circles of any size, you name it. She's SO in tune to whatever I'm doing and thinking that I really need to be fair and let it all go as soon as I walk into the barn. I think how I act before I get on probably has something to do with it too. Gogo, my personal barometer... ;) I think for Monday, if I don't revisit the lunging thing, I'll ride her in my saddle and THIS CRAZY BIT:

WHOA IT'S LIGHT BLUE AMAZING. Even if it doesn't work out on the flat you can be DAMN SURE I'll find SOME use for it, even if it's just hacking around!

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And today's the day!! Our first little show of the season. I spent the afternoon yesterday clipping her bridlepath (which is a bit sad because I overclipped last time, and now need to leave a section of mohawk there.... sigh!), socks, and whiskers, trimming and banging her tail, bathing (which she was just thrilled about), cleaning tack, cleaning out the trailer, trimming her feet, and getting all my schooling show attire out (tan britches, black turtleneck, and tall boots pretty much is the extent of that).





Look at those popeyes in the bathing picture. I think she could hear somebody galloping around in the arena and it was freaking her out a bit. In her stall, she looks ridiculous - she has on a navy blue full body Sleazy, a maroon head and neck Sleazy, and Shannon's green and gold stable blanket complete with monogram (her stable blanket needed a wash... BADLY! The bottom picture is her RF post trim. Really, there's nothing to take off this foot, it maintains so well on its own. I just took the wall down a hair and rolled the edge, and that was pretty much it on all fours. Her bars are all self-maintaining too, right where they should be. The bars on her LF grew out quite a lot a few trims ago, even though they hadn't been touched the trim before, but when I took them down, down they stayed and they've been down ever since. Easy feet!

Now, off to the barn for a nice early handwalk. Wish us luck, we'll post results later!

A little bit of this an' a little bit of that

I've been back on Gogo since Tuesday doing dressae work. I wrote about that nice little ride on Tuesday, and since then we've been doing some experimentation, in very small increments. Unfortunately for me, I don't think Gogo really feels all that different after her chiro work. In fact, I think if anything she is feeling more defensive in her body. Vicki, I think, thought that since the work was so major, there was going to be a vast improvement in my horse right away - and there wasn't. She also said that sometimes it takes a horse up to two weeks to actually start to feel better and use their body in increasingly efficient ways. I kind of don't think this is going to be the case with Gogo. Oh well, at least we're eliminating the physical part of it.

On Tuesday, I tried her in my Prestige and in the new KK Ultra bit (not actually new, but borrowed from the retired horse). That's a very minor change from the knock-off KK that I have - mine is a 14mm, Theo's is a 16mm. She liked it, that's for sure. On Wednesday, I decided to try Vicki's Custom Saddlery saddle, which I usually ride Rena in and quite like. We also had a different saddle fitter take a peek at my saddle - he said it's a hair too wide, which the other saddle fitter lady didn't mention a word about. He suggested a fancy expensive new Prolite pad with shims, but when I brought out my Supracor and showed him that, he went, well this actually works a lot better, so why am I even showing you this other pad? The complaint Vicki makes about my saddle is that is moves a little in back, and that it might be twisting slightly to the left. But was that Gogo or was that the saddle? So out came Vicki's saddle. Perhaps Gogo was feeling a little too good that day, but this is what I seemed to notice - walk and trot were EXCELLENT, completely amazing, but the canter? Explosive, humpbacked, head in the air, running nonsense. Hmmmmmmmmmm. I also made an effort to check the saddle that never moves in the mirror when I was walking, trotting, cantering by - what do you know, IT MOVED IN BACK. So that means it's Gogo, not so much the saddle. The Prestige does move more, but I really do think that it really is designed to do that, so I dunno. The other thing about twisting to the left? Vicki's saddle made me sit SO CROOKED to the left... so again, I think Gogo is pushing me over there, because I don't do that on other horses! Try a little bit of this, try a little bit of that. Gogo WAS totally wonderful at the walk and trot though, right away, so I think I might try it again today on her.

Yesterday it was back to my saddle and the KK Ultra. Well, we started off well, and continued to get steadily better and better - except we were still doing the teeth champ. I think at this point, I just need to ignore it and work on improving everything else. Something we were doing made it actually stop for a little while - we were working on trot-halt-walk-halt-trot-halt-trot-halt etc etc, rapid fire transitions, all while doing leg yields - all those transitions during leg yields. When I wasn't halting, I was giving halt-halts every few strides, and pushing her on, then half-halting again, then pushing her on. She stopped champing, rebalanced herself completely and started really thinking about what I was asking her to do. And she was EXCELLENT, I might add. I think I figured out that when she does it, for the most part, it's when she takes the contact out, gets heavier on the forehand, and leans a bit on the bit. Imagine that's you - now you have a piece of metal pulling at both sides of your mouth. I know if it were me and I was a neurotic mare, I'd lean on that piece of metal and bounce my jaw against it too. Interesting. Vicki also thinks that this new bit is too low, even though we had the other bit at this same level in her mouth and when we tried to raise it because it was also too low, she held all her tension in her mouth until we lowered it back down a hole. Then she was totally perfect. Sighhhh!

So today, we're going back in the other saddle and the KK. We're going to keep trying all these different combinations - different saddle, different bit, raising the bit, etc etc etc. - until we find the perfect combination. We'll see how she goes in Vicki's saddle today, whether or not there is a noticable difference. I REALLY don't have the money to get a new custom saddle right now... or ever, probably. And I love love love love love my Prestige too, and I REALLY don't think she's all that adverse to it.

[Insert neurotic twitch] off to my lesson.

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.

Patience, young grasshopper.

Oh yes, the title says it all. The current theme of my training is just exactly what you think it is: patience. The focus is on patience for myself, which in turn will instill patience in my young ward. We've come far in the past few months, and I am not about to let a few days of bad training erase all of that. So after the not-so-good ride on Tuesday and the really, REALLY awful ride on Wednesday (which actually was pretty good at the end, but...), I decided to drop the pressure way down and just do something relaxing on Thursday. So, during our lesson, we walked. We walked for an entire hour, just doing circles. That's all. And at the very, very end, we trotted for about 10 minutes. Nice, relaxed, stretchy trot. She started her champing nonsense about halfway through the walking - it's unusual, you can only see it on one side of her face. You could probably rip all you wanted on the left side of her face, but take a little bit more contact on the right side, which is her softer side? Gnashing at the bit when she's nervous. When we were walking, we'd halt. Gnash, gnash, then she's stop. Big pats. Relax. Then some more gnash, gnash... and stop. Big pats. Finally, she started to do it less and less. At the end, her mouth was quiet, and her transitions and demeanor were too. I stopped and got off, and she got today off to let that lesson settle into her head a little bit.

I wonder if she'd like a rubber/plastic type flexible mullen mouth bit. When she gets heavy on the left side, the bit can get pulled pretty far out of her mouth, and I wonder if then it doesn't pinch her when I take back on the right side, which then causes the gnashing. I think I'll see if I can dig one up tomorrow and give it a try. Who knows? Could be great, could be terrible.


I thought tonght that I'd discuss something interesting that I learned in my last equine business class. It's called a SWOT analysis, which is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. What you do is take whatever it is that needs an analysis (like your business for example, or in this case, my horse) and do an unbiased evaluation of the strengths of the thing, weaknesses of the thing, opportunities for the thing and whatever threatens the success of the thing. Here is a more detailed description of what a SWOT analysis is. I did one for Gogo last year, and have a new and updated one for this spring.


SWOT Analysis for Gogo Fatale February 2009

STRENGTHS:
Dressage getting steadily better, rapidly improved in the past few months
Solidly working all 1st level movements with relative success and progression
Building 2nd level movements (renvers, travers, walk-canter-walk, collection, medium gaits, etc)
Extremely brave
Hardly ever phased by anything
Willing to jump almost anything; gutsy
Exceedingly scopey jumper
Attractive mover with three lovely gaits and a huge natural gallop
Getting a solid foundation of dressage put upon her
Has the speed and scope for mid to upper levels of eventing
Barefoot, great feet
Very athletic and catty jumper
Easy keeper with a fairly level head; doesn’t worry
Easy to take to shows and in general off property
Very sound (mild arthritic changes in hocks, have not bothered here since last July)
Always places very well at shows – getting more and more mature
Gets fit VERY easily
SMART!

WEAKNESSES:
Fussy about contact sometimes - can get claustrophobic, champy with mouth
Neck a bit poorly set on – sometimes makes dressage work a challenge
Occasionally has 'mare days' and setbacks – but not as often as she used to
Moody sometimes – opinionated!
Can get hot, especially as of late
Sometimes green cross-country
Easy to get into dressage arguments with; holds grudges about fights
Gets very strong when jumping outside of an arena sometimes
Sometimes TOO smart for her own good... Gets mischievous when out of work
Hock arthritis already beginning, but not very advanced as of yet
Gets tense during dressage sometimes – hard to keep progressing
Prone to explosions when confused

OPPROTUNITIES:
Rated events
Rated dressage shows
Local jumper shows
Local clinics
Local instructors
Vicki (current dressage coach)
Auditing lessons/clinics
Reading material
Cross-country schooling whenever possible
Indoor arena to work with during wintertime
Ability to earn money – pay for shows, travel

THREATS:
Natural disasters
Weather-related events (floods, tornados, blizzards, etc)
Bad weather at shows – risk of slipping, falling, injuries
Other competitors with similarly talented horses
Seasoned horses/riders
Poor arena footing (currently NOT a threat! :D)
Equine sickness – infectious/non-infectious illness, physical trauma, etc.
Lameness/injury – esp. worried about hocks
Intelligence/bully attitude working against her – damaging
Lack of funds


I encourage everybody to do it for their own horse too, and then take a good look at it. Watch out for the things that are threatening, and have a plan and be prepared for them; have your eye out for opportunities and make sure to jump on them; enhance your strengths and make them even stronger; hone in on your weaknesses and work on fixing, minimizing or eliminating them.

As for tomorrow's dressage lesson? We'll be zoning in on our recent dressage weaknesses, namely the hotness and the tendancy to get nervous when she doesn't understand something. We'll just take things as slowly as we need to for now. For our Novice tests, we don't have to do anything more complicated than w/t/c, some two-loop serpentines, some diagonals, and some 20-meter circles. If that's what we need to work on for a little bit before we re-progress on to our more complicated 1st/2nd level work, then so be it.

Such is the way of life with mares, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

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.

She's not emaciated, come on!

Everyone is going to drive me nuts talking about how skinny my horse is. SHE IS NOT TOO SKINNY! There is NOTHING about her that says "skinny" to me right now. Hell, I won't even give her "thin." I'd say she's a 5.5 approaching a 6 on the BCS scale, and I DON'T want her fatter than that!

PEOPLE. FAT HORSES ARE NOT HEALTHY HORSES. Why do so many people equate a wobbling tub of lard on four legs to an athlete? A big, fat horse is going to have a hard time dragging its big, fat self across the diagonal doing tempi changes, and at the end of them it might very well break and be crippled from carrying all that extra weight around.

Yesterday, Gogo was clipped and had a bath (because it was *almost* warm enough to do that... and I'm cruel), and today I took a few conformation pics of her. Now tell me, dear readers, is this an emaciated, starving animal or is this a perfectly healthy, musclar athlete?





Yeah. That's what I thought.
By the way, do I do a DAMN good clip job or what? I made hundreds of dollars last year clipping horses... and then my clippers exploded and I haven't been able to fix them. I used a borrowed pair this time. And just look at how fuzzy her ears are, I love it!


Well at least yesterday Gogo was wonderful under saddle. Vicki had attempted to see what would happen if we raised her bit a hole on her bridle, and Gogo seemed to just be holding all her tension in her mouth for the first half-hour or so of the lesson. I asked Vicki to lower it a hole, and instantly I had a soft, supple, and relaxed horse. Weird how it works that way. We worked on a few nice shoulder-ins, some steeper leg yields, transitions, some canterwork, and near the end, lengthenings. Her lengthenings are getting HUGE.. so huge in fact that Vicki has taken to calling them mediums instead of lengthenings. She also went so far as to call my trot immediately following my lengthenings collected. YAY COLLECTION. The transitions between the two are becoming crisper and more defined, and the trot following the mediums ALWAYS is improved from whatever it was before. We tried something to, a whisper of shoulder-fore going into the mediums, maintaining it through the mediums, and maintaining it through the downward transition, and it really helped, both ways. Vicki said that was the most up she'd seen her in her shoulders to date. Yes!
The interesting thing about Gogo's lengthenings is that when they are done at the right time, meaning when she is totally relaxed, they ALWAYS refresh her and improve her trot and canter, and everything about her becomes freer and fresher. When done at the WRONG time (when she has tension), it causes her to invert, rush, and blow past my half-halts, creating more tension and the desire to rush. So I have to be careful... or else everything falls apart. Just one more reminder that especially with Gogo, everything fails without relaxation.


Today the saddle fitter came, and she took a look at my Prestige. I have a Prestige 2000d which I bought when I first got Gogo. I was lucky enough to find a used one at Rick's Heritage Saddlery (BEST TACK STORE EVER for used saddles, they have HUNDREDS!)for only $900, and it was in AMAZING condition. I was also lucky enough to be living close enough to Rick's to be able to do that! It fit her amazingly when I first got her, mostly because she was morbidly obese, and it still fits well now but not *quite* as. Colleen (the fitter) checked it all out and said it was a hair wide, but that because I use a Supracor pad with it that it shouldn't be a problem. Vicki had originally wanted me to have the saddle looked at because the back of it seemed to be bouncing a little, but Colleen told me some very interesting things about Italian saddles versus German and English made saddles. Prestiges are designed by a man who sees the back of a horse like a clotheline with two pillars of support at each end - if you put something in the middle of the clothesline, it sags, but if you put it closer to a pillar of support, it holds it up much better. Therefore, Prestiges are designed to have more weight distribution over the front end of the saddle. German and English saddles are designed to have even weight distribution throughout the entire panel. She told me that we don't actually know which is the more correct fit, and that every horse is so different anyway that it's more imporant to focus on individual fit as opposed to sticking to a certain school of thought. The back panels of Prestiges are also rounded as opposed to gusseted, which does cause for a little rocking and rolling sometimes - a fact which apparently is not cause for concern. It doesn't seem to bother Gogo any, so there you are I guess. She also found a knot of wool in one of the panels that she went in and pulled out, and found that my used saddle had been reflocked no less than three times, with three different kinds of wool - a huge no-no in the saddle fitting world! My panels thankfully are all still flat and smooth, so it doesn't seem to be causing any problems, but I will keep my eyes out for further issues. The best part - she refused to be paid. "You're a working student," she told me. "I didn't do enough to get paid!"

I also asked her about jumping saddles, and how I had narrowed my choices down to a County or another Prestige. For those of you who don't know, which I assume is all of you, I was promised a new jumping saddle from my parents for my graduation last May. Guess what... no new saddle yet! I think if I pester my mother a little more she'll remember this gift and maybe I can actually get a jump on this. I currently have an ANCIENT County that outdates me by at LEAST 10 or 15 years, and just doesn't fit Gogo all that well. I got it for $600 when I was 17, and I bought it because it was black and I liked black tack, no joke. Colleen told me that she has yet to see a County model that really works with a horse like Gogo who has higher withers, so that solidifies it - we're going with a Prestige Eventing model, in black of course! Problem is finding a used saddle that fits her, fits me, AND comes in black. Can it be done? Well, I got my $3000 other Prestige for $900, so....


One final thing before bedtime - my USEA year end awards arrived today!




I'm ranked as the 4th place 2008 Adult Beginner Novice Rider and the 4th place 2008 Adult Amateur Beginner Novice rider in the entire nation. That's pretty freaking sweet, especially considering I only got points at four shows and still managed it. The people who were in first and second did like, 15 shows, not even kidding you.
I also have awards from Area 8 which will be on their way in February probably. SO AWESOME.


Tomorrow we have Pony Club kids coming in for a clinic ALLLLLLL DAY... so I won't get to jump until like 5pm. Or I have to do it at 6am... which is just not gonna happen with stalls and turnouts and feeding to do as well, all before 8:00am. Ugh... now I need sleep.

A Big Hodgepodge of Things

There was a whole bunch of stuff I meant to blog about this week but did not, so I'm attempting to get a jump on that and remember all the little blurbs of stuff I had in my head....

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1) Gogo had her 4th trim this week, on Monday specifically. It was nice because I had ridden her out on the pavement, so she wore her feet down a little for me already! It was a hair over two weeks, and I have to say I much prefer the two week schedule to the three week schedule. I'm getting better and better at this! Once again, I didn't ever manage to get any really good pictures, but I have a few decent ones.





It's becoming fairly easy to wield the tools now that I'm building a bit of muscle memory about it. By the way, her cracks look AWESOME. They aren't going anywhere anytime soon, I don't think, but they look very tight right now and as long as I keep touching up the roll there's no reason for me to believe that they won't stay tight. I've been reading about Pete Ramey's special soaks he does for horses with chronic cracks... perhaps I shall look into this more and maybe give it a try. Or maybe try the tea tree oil thing that was suggested to me....


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2) Supplements. Supplements are always an interesting topic to me, as is anything relating to nutrition. Currently, Gogo is getting regular Cosequin and Mare Magic as her two oral supplements, which I get from Smartpak. I LOVE Smartpak, and I'll totally keep using it if my other plans don't work out, but I was thinking about both supplements and wondering if I should change them.
Mare Magic is red raspberry leaf in a pretty package. That's all it is. And it REALLY helps. It's not something that prevents mares from coming into heat. What it DOES do it make her heats much more tolerable and much less crampy for her - she stays loose and giving in her back, whereas before she'd hold a lot of tension just behind the saddle, and it also keeps her head MUCH more level during that 'special' time.. lol. Mare Magic, in monthly Smartpaks, is $10.95 a month. Now, that doesn't sound so bad, right? But think of it this way: the actual bags of Mare Magic are either 8oz ($19.95) or 32oz ($55.95). There are 16oz to a pound, so that's half a pound and two pounds. Online, you can buy bulk red raspberrry lead (the kind you make tea out of) for between $9-10 for a pound. 32oz is supposed to last 240 days... so 16oz would last about four months. Which equates to about $2.50 a month. $2.50 a month or $10.95 a month.... well, that's easy. Buy bulk, screw Mare Magic.
Regular Cosequin is good stuff. It's REALLY good stuff. Now, however, they have a new product on the market called Cosequin ASU, which I keep hearing is a far superior product. Directly from that website: "Cosequin ASU goes above and beyond the traditional glucosamine/chondroitin sulfate products on the market. Cosequin ASU contains NMX1000™* avocado/soybean unsaponifiables (ASU) formulated with FCHG49®* glucosamine hydrochloride and TRH122®* low molecular weight chondroitin sulfate. Plus the addition of high purity MSM! This sets Cosequin ASU apart from any other joint health supplement for horses. And all in a tasty, easy to administer powder!" Cosequin ASU is also more than double the price of regular Cosequin. Hm. The options here are to find it really cheap somewhere and buy it in bulk (not huge amounts of bulk, just enough bulk to save money), OR to try another product I'm interested in: Promotion EQ. Go read that website... does that not sound too good to be true? You get a FULL money back guarantee if you're not satisfied, so what do you have to lose? I recently talked to someone in person who is a total believer - had a very lame mare with stifle issues who had been on Cosequin for many years and was still lame, to the point where they were going to euthanize her. She put her on Promotion EQ, and within a few weeks, the mare was running around the pasture. She no longer drags her toes, and she's not lame (not rideable either, but not in pain). So I'm very interested in that! I don't think it currently comes in Smartpaks though, so that's the other problem. If it doesn't come in Smartpaks, and I'm not going to use Mare Magic anymore, well.... sorry Smartpak.

What I'm going to do I think it order one more Smartpak, and then next month order some Promotion EQ and bulk raspberry leaf. I reaaaaaaaally love the ease of Smartpaks, but..... well......


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3) I am very angry right now at Dover. In November I ordered a sheet for Gogo, and.... well, it's January and no sheet. I finally was like, all right, this is ridiculous, and I hunted for hours to find all the tracking codes and things to see where the package ended up (or didn't end up). THEY SHIPPED IT TO OHIO. IN NOVEMBER. I did NOT put Ohio as my shipping address... I put Michigan!!!!!!!!! So right now Dover is on my shit list, and I shall have to call them and yell at them. On the other hand, isn't that sheet pretty in ice blue?


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4) I cannot wait for the summer months to come. Why? Because there are some awesome clients here who keep saying things like, "oh you want to go conditioning? I know ALL the places to go, I'll totally go with you, I'm not afraid to gallop!" and "Hey want to go swim your horse in the ocean with us? We go every year, it's great!" And one more thing: "Hey, Heidi White is coming for a clinic, want to go with us? You can stable with us for free at my friend's house!" NO WAY! I totally want to go to the Heidi White clinic. I've heard she is refreshing, insightful, kind, and really intelligent, and breaks down exercises carefully so each rider has success at them. The clinic is in June, which works out perfectly because I have no shows at ALL in June... sweet!


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5) Dude. My grandmother called me the other day and was like, "I know you're poor and you want to horseshow. How much money do you want."

AWESOME. More on that later.

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?"