Sunday Success Stories

(Sunday Success Stories are a new series here at Eventing-A-Gogo. Each week, we feature a reader's own personal journey through overcoming difficulty and adversity, sometimes against all odds, and pulling through no matter what. These stories are about those who never gave up, and who made a difference in the life of an animal who just needed a little love and care in order to turn around and really bloom again. Send your success stories, past or present, to EventingAGogo@gmail.com!)

**NOTE: I hear my Stories are not showing up in Google reader because of the color. Anyone else having this issue?**



This week's Sunday Success Story comes from Tatiana, who blogs over at Bijou's Adventures. Bijou is a TB mare rescued from a starvation situation, a farm that could no longer afford to feed their mares (so they apparently didn't). Bijou came from her old home as a skinny, wild, hotheaded mess, and has transformed under the care of her new mother. Their story is ongoing, and we hope to hear of new updates as they come - perhaps even an upcoming late summer show! Head over to their blog and follow their journey!


Bijou's Adventures

I was heartbroken after I gave Griffin, the huge dark liver chestnut manly man, away to a walking/trail only home. He and I had some true bonding moments, like the first day I brought him home and walked around the track and into the woods with nothing but a halter. He was such a special guy, but just couldn't stand up to the jumping. His knees weren't cut out for that kind of impact.

So began my search. I had been working OTTB's and loving it, so I decided to start there. My problems were many. I didn't have a truck or trailer, I couldn't travel very far because I only had a few days off during the school year, and I wanted to be sure this horse was THE ONE and also 100% sound. I came across a local ad for a group of Thoroughbred mares just about 40 minutes from me. This was an opportunity for sure, not only could I try a few, but I could try them multiple times if needed, and I could use a local vet that I trusted.

I walked onto the property to a whole barn full of emaciated mares. Hip bones, full scapulas, and all the ribs were showing on most of these mares. Turns out this woman had been having trouble paying her bills and just couldn't afford to keep or even feed her broodmare band any more. She was liquidating them before she'd have to pay for more feed. They were all started under saddle, but that was about it. After we had ridden them I'll be honest, there wasn't much of a love at first sight for any of them. They all needed so much help, but who would shine most after some well deserved polishing? I went back later that week to try the bigger of the two again, a bay Thoroughbred with an adorable snip and a name that suited her stereotype, Jane. The mare was so not into it that when my friend reached in to pet her she got ears pinned and a nip!

I took her home a week later on the 14th of November, 2009. She got a new name, one that I hoped she would grow into. Bijou is french for trinket, or be-jewelled treasure. I knew I was asking a lot, but anything was better than Jane.We started having communication problems. She would blow up at what seemed to be nothing. I would walk up to her with a saddle pad that she'd seen eight times before and she'd rear and break away from where she was tied. She would not be caught. Lunging consisted of every shape imaginable (with many about-faces) except for circles. Walking away from the other horses was not ok! I found that her calm demeanor had actually just been a severe lack of calories, and when calories were close at hand, the calm demeanor disappeared and in its place I found exactly what I had not wanted. A plain, hot, spooky, herd-bound, skinny, bay, Thoroughbred mare. There were some second thoughts running through my head, but I didn't want to quit.

We moved to a barn with much better facilities, which gave me more motivation to be a real rider, and not one who just lunges their horse in triangles/parallelograms/serpentines all day. Bijou went out on pasture all day, which made the weight that she desperately needed to gain appear out of nowhere! It also meant that I could stop feeding her grain, which I know now was a huge contributor to her hot-ness. Things were looking up, summer was on the way, and I'd be riding every day until then so I could begin showing. Until I broke my ankle. I tripped and twisted it just bad enough to break it.

I had mostly ignored the groundwork up until this point. I had hoped that just by doing the prep to ride stuff she would get enough of that. When I broke my ankle I had to take 6 weeks off. I came back humbled, weakened, and slightly more timid. I didn't want to get hurt again, so I became hyper-aware of Bijou's body language. It worked. Turns out all the miscommunications were because I wasn't paying enough attention. I could tell when she was tensing up before a blow up, and back off before it happened. We spent hours in the roundpen. Tarps, balloons, feed bags, jackets, saddle pads, whips, astro-turf, and many other spooky items later, I think she finally learned to trust me just as it was time for me to get back in the saddle again.

We're now working calmly under saddle at walk/trot/canter (and even going over bright freshly painted poles!), leaving the herd behind, lunging in round circles, in good muscle tone and weight, and have a shiny coat to boot! I am currently keeping her barefoot, but we might end up wearing some plastic shoes at some point because the ground gets so brittle. I'm still trying to learn all I can about barefoot horses and I have plans to buy or try a bitless bridle. I think we'll even be able to show W/T in August!





(Send your submissions and stories to EventingAGogo@gmail.com! This series is new and can't get underway without YOU! Gogo wants you to!)

How A Helmet Saved My Brains.

Happy National Helmet Awareness Day! In order to stress the serious important of the 'every time, every ride' principle, I want to share with you all the story of how a helmet saved my brains. Especially after what happened, I will never get on a horse without a helmet, nor will I ever handle a dangerous or amped up animal without one either. (One of my favorite teachers at school was in the breeding shed and was knocked senseless when a well-meaning but insufferably klutzy stallion mounted the phantom and clocked her in the head with a hoof. Another place I'll always wear one!) Helmets are like seatbelts. Is there really a good and logical reason NOT to wear them? No. Unless you want to die a horrible, bloody painful death, which is pretty much the only perk I see. I would literally not be here today to tell you this story if it hadn't been for my helmet. It for sure saved my life.

I was fortunate as a kid to have ridden at a barn where it was a set in stone rule that you always wore your helmet, no exceptions, no matter what was going on. I distinctly remember riding off property once with a friend, neither of us with proper headgear, and getting SCREAMED at by my trainer when we returned home some hours later. I never did that again, that's for sure! Time went on and I grew up, had and lost two geldings, and found myself with a little crazy mare named Gogo, rehabbing her brain from her time with the woman who screwed her up so royally. She was very, very claustrophobic of contact, and would rear, panic or bolt whenever the reins got just a hair too tight. I got her back from the Crazy Trainer in late June of 2007 as a manic, frightened mess; by August, I felt as though we might probably be okay at a horse trial (we had done one in early July just for experience, and it wasn't a total disaster. Only partly!). The show was in Pennsylvania, about an hour from where I lived in Ohio, and I planned on trailering in the night before to school at the grounds and stable there. It was my parents' anniversary the day before the show, but they still wanted to come with me and spectate, so they drove the four hours down from Michigan, hopped in the rig with Gogo and I, and continued on with me for another hour to the venue. I had never schooled any of my horses the day before the show at the actual grounds before, and actually never have since, mostly because of my own nerves; I normally give them a day of rest and acclimation instead. For some reason, this particular time I decided to do things differently. We arrived, unloaded our hay, shavings, and buckets, and went back for Gogo. I should have known something was up when I went to unload my horse in the same exact manor as I always had when trailering alone - drop butt bar because she refused to move unless I was at her head, go up front, unhook her from the tie, and unload - and not two seconds after dropping the butt bar, she exploded in the trailer, broke her halter, shot backwards, and rolled over off of the ramp practically into my parents' laps. (For the record, this is the perfect example of how NOT to ever unload your horse! I have since learned my lesson and untie FIRST, ALWAYS. And thankfully, she now backs off quietly if you just tug on her tail.) Hmmm, I thought. That was interesting. But then again, ever since Crazy Trainer, my horse had certainly been freakishly quirky, so I went about my business and started tacking up. My parents left the showgrounds to go find the hotel, promising to return and pick me up whenever I called to say I was done for the evening. I finished tacking, mounted, and headed out to the big field where everyone was riding and warming up in preparation for an early start the next day.

Right from the get go, she was just bad. Just... BAD. She was tense, rushing, gnashing at the bit, spooking at everything, and in general being a holy terror. I don't think she hurt herself in any way after she fell out of the trailer, but I do think it seriously stressed her out, and she wasn't letting go of her anxiety for all the oats in the Quaker factory. I had stayed almost exclusively on one 20 meter circle for the first part of the ride, but became increasingly frustrated with her spookiness and decided to trot to the other end of the field and just let her relax. To my left, I caught out of the corner of my eye a big bay putting on his best National Finals Rodeo impression, launching his rider into the stratosphere before galloping back to the stabling, which was conveniently located right next to the warmup field. I could see the sparks starting to fly from Gogo's rapidly short-circuiting brain, and did my best to steer clear of the rest of the bucking, plunging crowd of horses. I was attempting to trot up a small incline towards one of the dressage arenas, but couldn't quite convince her to steer properly and found myself heading perpendicular to the crest of the hill, travelling horizontally on the incline. Not really a good place to be. There was a pile of something scary at the top of the hill on our right, and she spooked at it. And when I say spooked, I mean completely lost her ever-loving mind. The combination of a highly electric, brand new atmosphere, twenty bucking broncs around her, and the memories of the Crazy Trainer fresh at hand all sent her into a panic, and she bolted. Unfortunately, when she took off, she went shooting and flailing sideways, completely losing her balance as the hill fell away from us and she had nowhere to put her feet. The last thing I remember was watching the saddle coming towards me as she fell, and then nothing.

Bits of memories still stick with me from the following hours. Witnesses said that my horse did in fact land directly on my head with her torso, and immediately sprang up, standing splay-legged over me, staring down at my lifeless body. Unlike the other horse who had bucked his rider off and then galloped away to the stabling, she stayed glued to me, not moving a muscle or even taking a bite of grass the entire time I was laying on the ground. Bless her heart, she probably thought she killed me. As people ran to my aid, I had a big seizure, and then stayed unconscious for probably ten or more minutes. The TD had a very difficult situation on her hands; when I came to I reportedly refused treatment, even though I very clearly had a serious head injury. While I'm pretty sure you can call an ambulance for someone who might be hemorrhaging from the brain, you can also get all kinds of sued for kidnapping if she person really is okay and is refusing treatment. It was pretty apparent that I had a major head injury. Still, no ambulance was ever called.

I remember opening my eyes and being on my back, seeing through tunnel vision a few concerned faces floating around me, talking in far away tones that didn't make sense. The next thing I remember was sitting upright in a golf cart, looking around in confusion. I wasn't worried about it, but I had absolutely no idea where I was, or why I was there. I remember them asking me that very question, and responding calmly that I didn't know. Apparently, I asked to go see my horse, and they took me there, where I then gave her a flake of hay, but I have no memory of this. I don't know who took her back and untacked her. I actually have no idea how all my stuff got back in my trailer without anything getting left behind either. I was then shuttled to the show office, where I apparently asked again if I could go see my horse and give her hay. They told me repeatedly that she was okay and that I had already given her some hay, but I must have asked that question ten times or more. They asked me where my parents were, and not remembering that they were in fact only a few miles away, I told them that my parents were in Michigan, but couldn't remember their phone numbers. Someone in the office put two and two together, and found the horse trailer with the Michigan plates, digging around in my tackroom until they found my phone. They called "Mom cell" or whatever it was that they got to first, and managed to locate them. I guess once my parents arrived I went to see Gogo again and asked my neighbors to feed her for me, but don't remember any of his. I do remember being in the car going to the hospital, being in a room with South Park on TV, and being wheeled down in a rolling bed to get a CAT scan. My poor parents spent their wedding anniversary with their damaged kid in a hospital room until all hours of the night, begging the nurses to let them have some sort of icky hospital food for dinner since they had had nothing to eat all day. That is so crappy! But think of this, at least they didn't spent their wedding anniversary identifying my bloody, lifeless body in a field at a horseshow. That's what would have happened if I hadn't been wearing my helmet.

The next two weeks are pretty much nonexistent in my memory. Bits and pieces float around, but for the most parts, those are two weeks I'll never really get back. I have no idea how we got my horse home, how I took care of myself (thank you roommates), or how I managed to do anything at all in all honesty. Luckily, while I did have a major concussion, I had no lasting damage beyond my already-ingrained quirkiness which I now have an excuse for. The helmet was structurally intact on the outside, but clearly had served its purpose, so IRH graciously sent me a new one free of charge. I still have and wear that helmet today even though it never quite suited me as perfectly at my original IRH. I would never even think about going without a helmet while riding, even if I was sitting on my horse bareback for a minute and a half. You just never know. Look at Courtney King. And Gogo might have come a million lightyears from the mental trainwreck she was on the day of the accident, but she's still that quirky little nutjob somewhere deep inside. Why would I ever take a chance?


My helmet saved my life and brains. What's your excuse for not protecting yours?

Photo Adventure Fridays

This week's Photo Adventure....





Great Smokey Mountains National Park, Tennessee/North Carolina, USA.
We took a roadtrip in January of '08 from Ohio to Florida during winter break, and this was one of our stops, complete with getting lost on the Blue Ridge Parkway and needing to pull over and pee on the side of the road because there wasn't anywhere you could do that in January on the entire thing. It was awesome.

TROT ON!

She looks so good. Even though the humidity made her have big fat legs today for the first time in awhile. Hopefully tomorrow will all be well again.

Product Review: De-Lyte Bites

A little while ago I was contacted by Heather, one of our readers, about her product De-Lyte Bites, an electrolyte cookie designed to replenish minerals in the hardworking equine athlete. Because Gogo isn't exactly in ridiculous, desperately=-needing-electrolytes hard work, I agreed to take on some samples for a taste test instead. I received several packages of cookies, and distributed them amongst my pickiest eaters. I of course gave Gogo her fair share too, even though she is the equine equivalent to a garbage disposal. I have some fussy eaters in my barn, and was interested to see what I would find!

The cookies come in an easy to open package, four cookies to a single serving. This makes it easier to space out distribution over the course of a horse's workload - good if you are off to Tevis!:



De-lyte Bites are marketed as a complete and balanced electrolyte supplement. I can't speak for the nutritional information as it isn't clear on the website whether or not these minerals are sodium chloride and potassium chloride (and calcium chloride) or just sodium and potassium (I assume not but it just says 'sodium and potassium' on the website), but I will give one disclaimer: these are not treats for horses with metabolic issues! They have less than half of a teaspoon of molasses in each cookie but that is still too much for a horse with any sort of metabolic problem. There are a lot of sugar-free electrolytes on the market that are more suitable for IR horses and the like... although come to think of it, I'm not sure I know any metabolic horse who is capable of hard enough work to warrent electrolyte supplementation. So maybe this doesn't apply! (Acute laminitis being the exception. Then again.... if your horse is acutely laminitic you probably ain't goin' to the show today!)

My role in this review was to taste test. A product is no good if your horse won't eat it! The cookies are firm with a slight give to them - hard but chewy. Great for storage in your saddle bags on an endurance ride as they won't crumble or break! I even bounced one off the floor, and it sprang off and was fine! Our test subjects for the day were Bella, Pollux, Max the pony, and of course Gogo. Maybe Heather can clarify, but Max is a small/medium, and his requirements are different from a horse like Pollux who is about 1300lbs. Are there different doses for different sized horses and ponies? Different workloads? Something to consider!


Onto the taste testing.... Gogo of course thought they were deeeeelish:



She made 'hey this is very chewy!' faces, but wanted more right away. So she got two ;) Mmmmm!

Pollux, one of our pickier eaters who we suspect had ulcers when he came over from Europe last fall, also thought they were very chewy but definitely tasty (he had dinner on his nosey already):



I think I gave Max a heartattack when I showed up at his stall with a cookie, but I quickly bribed him over and he snarfed it right up:




And last but not least was Bella, another picky eater who also thought they were chewy but tasty:





For more information about supplementing your horse with electrolytes, visit thehorse.com's great article. Electrolyte supplementation is a very tricky business and potentially hazardous if done wrong. Aside from hard working distance horses, the vast majority of riding horses out there don't need anything beyond a little NaCL and KCl for hot days in work. Seek a veterinarian's advice for help determining if your horse is a candidate for extra electrolyte supplementation.


In conclusion, all of the horses that sampled the De-Lyte Bite cookies thought they were chewy but yummy, even the finicky eaters. In terms of helping replenish vital minerals in a hard working endurance/distance athlete, a portable, durable cookie is an excellent choice over annoying and messy pre-dosed syringes. They don't crumble or break, taste great, and are a good value for your money if you need electrolytes on the go. Mmmmm tasty!

Hooves of Steel: The Barefoot Journey, Part II (Gogo's Barefoot Beginnings)

When I first found Gogo, it was very much so a lucky accident. I had spent seven months searching tirelessly for a new horse after I had put Metro down, and had sent out inquiries on over 70 horses, viewed almost 30 videos, and had been to four different states to look at horses, all of which did not work out for one reason or another (yes, failed vettings included). While I was in Pennsylvania at an internship between my sophomore and junior years of college, I just so happened to stumble upon an ad for a mare that was only three miles down the road from where I was. Three miles!! I had just flown to freaking Nebraska to look at a horse for Pete's sake!! She definitely looked promising, and I decided to skip over there and take a look. I liked what I saw - lovely mover, scopey from what I could tell, had the right background, was just the right age. She wasn't exactly a pleasure to ride at that point, and I was pretty sure I was only an afterthought to her, but after trying her a second time, I made my decision. The owner suggested after that ride that I take her on a hack, even though she had a) never been out of a ring before, b) never been alone before, c) I was a totally new rider to her, d) she was totally green, e) it was a hack through a giant cornfield, f) there were ATVs roaring around everywhere, and g) it was REALLY REALLY windy that day. True to her form, the little mare hacked out on the buckle, sighing and stretching down, completely unconcerned that she was alone with a total stranger on her back in a place she'd never been with screaming machinery popping out at her on all sides. That last little bit of the ride sold her for me. She was the one. I hadn't planned on a mare, and I had promised myself I'd never own another bay (boring!), but in my heart I knew. We vetted her out through the insufferably cranky but secretly kind Dr. L, the vet who worked with the farm I was interning at, and I was lucky enough to be present for it at the clinic. I got to further witness her excellent brain at work as she walked calmly into the scary garage-doored clinic entrance and stood without tranq as Dr. L palpated her and did a repro exam (wanted to check for granulosa tumors, a not too uncommon problem that shows up around age 5 or so). We did several hours worth of vetting (and spent almost $1500!!!) but it was worth it. We took radiographs of her front feet and hocks, and the single thing Dr. L pointed out to me as a potential concern was her front feet. "See this?" he said to me, pointing at the digital picture of her left front. "Look at the angle of her coffin bone. It doesn't match her hoof wall. This foot is going to need real support. She might not last because of this, she could go lame at any time. She'll need special shoeing all her life." The little mare was shod in front with pads, and while the farrier that had done her did do a very good job, I could still see something was odd about the foot. Why did the coffin bone angle not match the exterior of the foot? Why did she have pads? The owner told me that her feet had gotten 'out of balance,' and had needed to be worked on by a special guru farrier, but I was never given any details beyond that. After what I had learned about natural hoofcare, and seeing that everything else was sparkling clean on exam, working with the awkward foot was a risk I was willing to take, and a few days later, we purchased her. To my slight dismay, when I arrived at the farm to hand over the check, I saw her shoes had been put back on, but in the few days she hadn't had them on, both front feet had cracked all the way up the toe to the coronet band. "She's always had that," I was told. It was VERY well hidden under the the previous shoeing job. Hmm... this can't be good, I thought. A questionable left front AND two toe cracks to the hairline? Great. Can this mare really go barefoot? Everything I had read said yes, and that these problems could heal themselves, but I was still unsure.

(Left: First day in MI. Below: Unloading off the trailer from PA.) She was by no means a joy at first. She was difficult, headstrong, opinionated, and the complete alpha. But it was clear she'd be an event horse through and through. Within two weeks of her arrival at my home barn in Michigan, I had her hopping up and down off the banks in the jump field like she'd
been doing it all her life. Of course, in doing so, she pulled a shoe coming down off the bank. Hm! Well, I was heading off to school anyway, so we'd see what happened when I got there. I had been in contact with Sherry the Amazing, my soon-to-be barefoot trimmer, for quite some time at that point, asking her a thousand obnoxious questions and telling her that I was interested (although still skeptical) about giving this barefoot hoodoo a try. I contacted her again after Gogo threw the first shoe, letting her know I'd need her a bit sooner! Gogo being who she is, less than a week after she tossed the first shoe, and probably only her second day in the turnouts at college once we returned for the fall semester, she tossed the other one, this time leaving it torqued with pad still intact somewhere on the other side of the paddock.(For the record, I still have these two shoes. One is decorated and hanging in the office at my last job, which I still consider a part of home. The other is in my room, too twisted to do anything with, but still a good desk ornament!)

Sherry came out to meet the both of us for the first time that week, and trimmed Gogo for the first time. I was exceptionally lucky in that she was only slightly tender over gravel for about two days. After that, she marched over any footing I took her over, and I was thrilled. Had it been a harder transition, I might not even be writing all this out. I was so skeptical at that point that I might have gone back to shoes. I was not sold enough on the majik to blindly believe anything. (I have to say, though, over the past three years I've seen some amazing hoof transformations with my own eyes, and I'm now a total believer.) Thankfully, and luckily for everyone involved, the transition was easy and fun. Gogo was almost well-behaved for those first few vital trims, only pulling back and breaking her halter into a thousand pieces once (and then leaving), and throwing Sherry's hoofstand all over the place every five minutes. I spent that first half-year of ownership with Gogo just starting her over and taking my time getting her flatwork and over fences work solid. She went from only having really trotted obstacles to jumping small courses, complete with skinnies, rollbacks, combinations, and gymnastics. She lost her pudginess, and started to gain some muscle. All was going smoothly, Gogo's new barefooted-ness included. She was sound, surefooted, and happy to crunch over gravel. The 'risk foot', you ask? Turns out it was a disguised club foot. As soon as the shoe came off, the foot clubbed right up, right to the angle it wanted to be at. On radiographs now, the hoof wall and coffin bone match each other again. All along, the foot had been forced into a more 'normal' look, when in reality it needed to be a little different in order to be comfortable for her. She has the typical warmblood high-low syndrom, standing perpetually with the club foot back and the other forward. It is a constant uphill battle to keep the heels down on the clubbier foot, and the toe from running forward on the other foot, and in those early days, it wasn't easy. The toe cracks gradually started to come down a little, but never really went away. I wondered if I'd have to fight them forever, or if they'd eventually grow out.

(Gogo's newly deshod feets during a mock foxhunt at college. You can't see it in this picture, but fellow blogger Patricia is riding with me. She also just recently decided to go barefoot with her ex-racehorse Shorty!)


Gogo even went to her first little event, a green beans division at South Farm where the dressage test was walk-trot, the stadium fences were tiny crossrails, and the XC was 6"-12" high, all tiny sticks on the ground. We trotted the entire course, and actually had to walk most of the second half of it because we were too fast! She finished on her dressage score of 39.0 to earn her first ribbon, a 3rd place. Her beautiful bare feet performed fabulously, and I was delighted with how she did. Well, mostly:

(Gogo NOT behaving in the warmup.)


(Right: Gogo learns some dressagin' in the fall of 2006. Below: Gogo learns her changes.) And then came New Zealand. I had been planning my amazing endeavor with Nicole for nearly a year, long before I ever got Gogo, and suddenly found that the time had come to leave my mare in training and head halfway across the world for a five-month stint. I was a complete mess, half excited nerves and half severe nausea, completely worried about my horse and not wanting to leave her for such a long time. The trainer I had picked for her was one I liked and thought would be a good match, a woman who specialized in OTTBs and hotter beasts. She was quiet and correct with her animals. Perfect, I thought. Though I was nervous, I shipped her over a few days before my depature and said a tearful goodbye, kissing her sweet nosey and bidding her a fond five-month farewell.


This is what I returned to....





A skinny, dirty, frightened, claustrophobic, damaged, rearing mess.

To be continued!!

End of June Analysis

It's July and it's HOT outside! Gogo has had the past three days off voluntarily while I was resetting my off-kilter schedule and getting everything under control again, but of course now that we are back under saddle, temperatures have spiked into the Hotter Than Hellfire range. Weatherbug is currently telling me that it is a balmy 91 degrees outside, and it's only going to get hotter. Welcome to the dog days of summer! I wish I was eventing right now, that's for sure!

I am happy to report that June was a HUGE success, for all intents and purposes. Every single one of my important goals was met and even surpassed, and the one slightly more frivolous one is also starting to take form as I get more optimistic and hopeful about the upcoming months. During rehab, every day is a new one and you can take nothing for granted, but at this point I am feeling great about where we are, far better than I did the first time around. Gogo is feeling stronger, behaving better, and moving sounder every day. Best of all, her legs look GREAT and I have fantastic news: she's had her wraps totally off for almost TWO WEEKS! (Save for one day when she was very fresh last Thursday, but even then, the legs looked awesome underneath the wraps and were icy cold the following day, all day. Win!) Every day I come in and check her, and every day the legs are cool and pretty tight. They'll never be totally normal again, but compared to how ugly they were during the spring, I am completely impressed and delighted.


June Goals:
1) Continue to build walk work under saddle up to 30 minutes of loose rein walk and 20 minutes of connected walk
Success! Every day, six days a week, Gogo is walking for 30 minutes on a loose rein (and I can let her, I don't have to keep a contact with her like I did over the winter when I trusted her about as far as I could throw her), then working on the bit for 20 at a walk and now 15 at a trot. The schedule is as follows: 25 minutes loose rein, around the rail and across diagonals only, then 15 minutes of walk work on contact, with work on the rail, a couple of large 25-30 meter circles, and a few very shallow leg yields, changing directions often, then 15 minutes of trot work on contact (about a Training level frame or looser), on the rail and across large diagonals only, then 5 minutes of on contact walk work and 5 minutes of loose rein walk to cool out. Total time: 1:05, six days a week, ring work only. The structure this time around is not flexible and does not include any time outside the ring yet. The big difference is that we work every day in the outdoor, where she had a brain and can get some sunshine and a nice sweat going.

2) Take our first TROT STEPS!
Success! Major success! As you just read above, we are all the way up to 15 whole minutes of trot and she feels fantastic, moving better every day!

3) If all goes well, be at about 10 minutes of trot by the end of the month
Success! And a little beyond! We started with 15 minutes on July 1st.

4) Wean off of standing wraps - from every night to every other night, and possibly longer
This one makes me the happiest. In the past two weeks, she's only worn her overnight wraps once, and that was last Thursday when some Bambis in the woods spooked her and she did some Oops Canter. My paranoia had me wrapping her again at night, but it turns out I had nothing to worry about. The legs continue to be tight and cool every day, much more so than during the spring, which makes me think she just needed more time. Time is definitely something I have plenty of now!

5) Start thinking about ideas and plans for the end of the yearSuccess, sorta! I'm getting some good ideas, but have nothing for sure yet because we're not cantering yet. Really, the only 'goals' I have for the end of the year are as follows: Holsteiner approvals if she can be trusted to be turned loose in an arena by the time they come around, hilltopping (maybe even TWICE!), and going on an overnight trail ride. Beyond that, I have no plans. It's pretty clear to me at this point that we won't be eventing at all unless she continues to heal rapidly. In that case, we MIGHT do a single Novice event at the end of October, but I'm not making any plans and it's certainly not high on my priority list. Why fit her up for nothing? It's better to just let her take her time.



July Goals:
1) Go back to Dr. C for our next ultrasound: maybe get cleared for canterwork??
2) Reevaluate her hocks and see where we are with possibly needing to medicate them (or hopefully not)
3) Solidify plans with the AHHA for Holsteiner approvals (send in papers, DNA sample, etc)
4) Continue to keep standing wraps off unless really needed (hard work, acting wild under saddle, etc)
5) MAYBE take our first steps of canter??
6) MAYBE start to hack outside the arena again??
7) MAYBE go out in the medical turnout??

Ok so maybe we have some additions and some extras. But that's all fine and good. We'll see!






It's gorgeous out and I am loving this weather and life too. The world is beautiful today, and Gogo is kicking some trot patoot. What else could I possibly ask for?

Besides, you know, possibly a nap:



Mmmmmmmmmmmmm nap.

Sunday Success Stories

((Quelle horreur!! You say I haven't done my End of June Analysis yet?? Nor have I finished my next post on Gogo's feet?? O what a world!! Don't worry, it will be soon!))

(Sunday Success Stories are a new series here at Eventing-A-Gogo. Each week, we feature a reader's own personal journey through overcoming difficulty and adversity, sometimes against all odds, and pulling through no matter what. These stories are about those who never gave up, and who made a difference in the life of an animal who just needed a little love and care in order to turn around and really bloom again. Send your success stories, past or present, to EventingAGogo@gmail.com!)


This week's Sunday Success Story comes from our Abbie, who blogs over at The Chronicles of Ernest. Ernie is an elderly ex-racehorse who sounds like he can't be told his real age! Through their ten years of companionship, they've experiences all the ups and downs you could think of, including a day in winter when Ernie went missing! Like Abbie, I too got the giveaway throw-away beast that nobody wanted (Quincy), and it turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to me. I'm definitely looking forward to spending some time reading and getting to know Ernie a little more.



The Chronicles of Ernest

Were you to ask your typical horse-crazy kid what their first horse was, the answer is usually one of three things: a pony, a former school/lesson horse or a dead-broke packer. The answer is rarely (OK, never) "that crazy old Thoroughbred gelding from the back pasture". Take a guess at which one I ended up with.

Ernie is a 29-going-on-4 year old former TB racehorse. When I say former racehorse, I mean he was an absolute racing fail. If his racing name, "Crohn of My Own" isn't bad enough, try this one: of a whopping three races entered, he was DQ'ed from one for busting through the gate, walked off the trailer lame and scratched from another, and acted so wired at the other that the trainer threw in the towel and retired him altogether. From there he went to a big H/J training farm in Maryland where he was to be turned into a jumper, which turned out to be another miserable fail when the trainer found out he hated to jump. From there spans a period of over a decade years during which I know nothing about where he was, what he was used for, or who owned him. All attempts to contact former owners listed on the back of his Jockey registrations papers have failed. I met him in the fall of 2000 after I began taking lessons at a H/J barn a few miles from my house. The barn owner had bought him thinking he'd be a good modified equitation lesson horse, and had gotten an old, angry, beat up horse with no real trust in people.

I was never really supposed to buy a horse, especially being a kid and not terribly learned in the saddle. However, Ernie was the perfect price: free. After leasing him for two years, I was in love. He was (and still is) everything most people hate about Thoroughbreds: nervous, anxiety-prone, terribly herd-bound, a chronic weaver when stalled or upset, and with a questionable history, the combination of which make for a horrible sale possibility. I told Wanda, the barn owner at the time (who is now my boss and dear friend) to make up a contract. The sale agreement said the price was $1: to this day Wanda jokes that she never did get her dollar.

As for the riding, it was always interesting, and still is. I started as a green rider on a highly strung and unhappy animal. Ernie came with an extremely cold back, all sorts of cervical/vertebral issues in his neck, hips that went out with the slightest jump sideways and no real muscle tone to speak of. He rode with his head up, back out, ears pinned and short strides. I began work with a dressage instructor, and slowly but surely we convinced him that it was okay to relax, and began the slow, long journey towards a proper rehab. We've had our ups and downs since then: in the ten years or so I've known/owned Ernie, he's torn his RH suspensory twice, faced full retirement once, gone missing for nearly a full day in early winter, put the barn through his head (quite literally: he drove a shard of wood into the fat pad above his eye, and somehow suffered no damage to anything), and pulled countless shoes. However, he's still in work 3-4 days a week playing lightly with 1st and 2nd level dressage.

At almost 30, Ernie is as feisty as he was when I first met him, but he's learned to trust me and my judgment. We've grown like an old married couple; we know what buttons to push (and which ones not to), we put up with each others bad habits, and I am humbly reminded every day that I am only human. Ernie has in every way earned his status as my life-er horse; I made a promise to him when we found him after he'd busted through a barbed wire fence last November and gone missing that he would be with me until the day he decided to leave this world. I pray every day that he stays with me many more years.






(Send your submissions and stories to EventingAGogo@gmail.com! This series is new and can't get underway without YOU! Gogo wants you to!)

Photo Adventure Fridays

This week's Photo Adventure...







Aoraki/Mt. Cook National Park, South Island, NZ.
Where Nicole and I went tramping on our Easter holiday, amongst other places. It was f-ing amazing, to put it politely!

Tra La La Boom Di-Ay

It's hot. It's so, so, SO hot. Yesterday we finally got our first break in almost two weeks from the ridiculous heat and humidity - almost 100 degrees with 85+ percent nasty sweat factor! - and I've literally spent the past two weeks constantly sticky and wet. I've been moving like a slug, dragging my way through the daily heat and moisture, coming home every day and falling into the pool with a beer in hand for a few minutes before I have to get up and do some other busy work. Despite the disgusting weather, I've spent almost every waking moment outside, much as I do every summer, and I've been loving it. Unfortunately it keeps me away from the computer and my blogging duties, but that's all right. After working impossibly hard all day every day, I feel as though I deserve as much relaxation as I can possibly squeeze in to my ridiculously tight schedule. I don't sleep enough, I don't eat well enough, and I am perpetually exhausted, but I'm not quite sure what to do about it. It's very hard to come home at the end of a 10 or 12 hour workday and still have things I want and need to do and get them done before, you know, midnight or 1am... and then wake up at 4:30 in the morning to start all over. I've actually slept past \six daily alarms (on average) for over two weeks now, never actually getting up when I intend to. It's very frustrating for me (and gives me morning headaches), but I do know what honestly needs to be done. I need protein, and I need more sleep. I also need 12 more hours in my day in order to get anything done. I rarely, and that pretty much means never, get everything I need to in a day done.

Vent over. As an overly ambitious 25 year old, I assume that is how life is supposed to be.


In other news, the honey and I went up to Groton House last weekend to watch some XC action:



Which was awesome! But also horribly depressing. Groton House was supposed to be our first event of the year, our big comeback... obviously that didn't happen. But if you are interested in seeing how it might have gone this year, you can check out last year's Groton House dressage, XC, and stadium posts. It was definitely the highlight of the season, and it felt great to go up there again, even if it was just to watch. Aaaah, next year.... next year.


I've also been doing a little bit of general cleaning and organizing this month, mostly fixing up the gigantic messes that are my trailer, locker, and brush box. My trailer took several hours but it is so super organized right now!! Although I suppose from the picture on the left, it still looks ridiculous. Is that a western trail saddle I see?? Maybe! ;) I also managed to score a lucky find on the side of the road one day: a crappy piece of cardboard furniture for free, which I then took and put in my trailer for storage use! See how neatly labeled everything is? I win!


I also spent some time yesterday cleaning out my brush box. Ewwwwww.... what's that I see? Creeping old candy wrappers, spilled liniment and Showsheen creating some sort of weird liquid monster, old needles, and *gasp* ruined cookies!?



All together now: Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!


Aaaaah that's better.


And of course I had to clean out all the brushes. I also realized I have a million old ones in there that I don't use, so I removed all the old uckies and put them in my trailer for backups. Left is the Dream Team.... right are the Losers about to take the Walk of Shame to the horse trailer. So long suckas!!



Trotting is going super well. She's feeling stronger every day, and as of today, we start trotting for 15 minutes, and can finally add huge walking circles to our work. We've spent the past week doing 25 minutes of on the buckle walking warmup, staying on the rail or crossing the diagonal in straight lines only, and walking over poles:




Then at 25 minutes, we pick up the reins and do 15 minutes of connected work, including very tiny bits of lateral work (i.e. small, shallow leg yields only, as per vet instruction), still staying on straight lines only.


Then, we trot for 10 minutes! Same rules still apply, straight lines and crossing the diagonal only. As our arena is so big, I feel comfortable enough trotting through the corners so long as she stays balanced. In the indoor, if you remember, I was circling a lot (it's a lot smaller and has demons at one end), and that probably wasn't very helpful. The outdoor is much easier for rehab work, and keeps her brain fresh.




Yay trot! We then go back to 5 more minutes of connected walk work, then 5 minutes on a loose rein, and call it a day. Total times: 30 minutes on the buckle with poles, 20 minutes connected walk work with small leg yields, 10 minutes trot work. Total collective time: 1 hour. As of today, it will be 15 minutes of trot, so we will be up to 1:05. As of next week when we bump up to 20 minutes, it will be 1:10. Then it's back to the vet for a checkup!


Speaking of all things BAMF, check out my amazingly awesome new helmet:




Love it!! It was a Christmas present that finally just now got ordered. I wasn't sure that the Charles Owen would a) fit my head properly, or b) not look like a mushroom (but I have a small head so it kind of works out), but I am happy to report that everything is snug and great. My old International, the one the company sent me to replace the one that got cracked when Gogo fell on my head in 2007, just didn't quite fit me the way the original IRH did, and I've been wanting a new helmet ever since that time. I finally have it! Hooray!


Gogo also had her feet done on Monday, which deserves a complete post on its own. I meant to write about it here, but I got so caught up in writing around all these other awesome things that I just don't have room! It's a total struggle to maintain good rock-crunchers while on stall rest, but somehow I am making it work. It ain't easy though, that is for sure.

Yay trot! Yay July! Yay life!