Happy Halloween

dressage clinic

Celebrating the almighty raspberry leaf.

We had a little dressage clinic at the barn today.
I did not know the instructor and it was a group lesson so really the only thing I hoped for was that Nina would not have a melt down.

She didn't.

She was fine.  OK, we had a few moments.  She refused to trot a few times in her head tossing you-can't-make-me mode, which is always followed by a you can't make me walk cuz I'm trotting moment.   She punched her time clock at 20 minutes, told me she was done.   But this was all WITHOUT the nervous, suicidal energy running underneath that always makes me wonder if she is willing to kill us both to get her own way.   She was just a slightly pissy mare who needs more schooling and much of the time she was perfectly cheerful.   It has to be the raspberry, it is too many consecutive days to be just coincidence.

And we got an exercise to work on to improve the down transitions, which at this point are done solely off the outside rein or, if done with both reins,  involves a lot of grabbing and hanging - her, not me for once.

So the day was a double success.
The raspberry leaf also one of those double edged swords.  I am glad that I found something that works and I feel bad that her resistances may all have been because she has been uncomfortable, maybe all her life and I didn't find this earlier.
On the other hand, that should make me the hero and not somebody to fight with.  Right, Nina?

I think I fixed my horse

It's sort of unbelievable and I have been putting off posting about it because I assumed that I was mistaken anyway.
Here's as short as I can make it.
Nina has always been TENSE.  Even on her best days, she can get into a lovely forward, back swinging trot and still there is an underlying tension.  On her not so good days she gnashes her teeth, pins her ears and glares over her shoulder a lot.  Most of her training issues are described in the last million or so posts so I won't repeat all of them here, just accept that TENSION has been a large part of our training relationship.  Tension that all the saddle fitting, massage, reiki, etc etc etc cannot fix.

A week ago Friday I put red raspberry leaves in her beet pulp and every day since.  I had never tried this because she does not act like the typical Jekyll & Hyde hormonal mare.  But I did a little research a couple of weeks ago and found that it works on all sorts of behavioral problems that apparently are connected to hormones.
So 4 days later I get on Nina and we walk around for an hour, on the buckle, circles and spiral and leg yields (which are worth WWIII) and she is just ambling around with no TENSION, none.
So I assumed she had a tough night and the next day prepared for my mare back.  Nope, did a little work, she was a little pissy about several things but without the underlying tension that makes her hum all the time.
Fast forward to today.  She hasn't been out of her pen for two days because of the weather.  She was higher than a kite and close to crossing the line to rude behavior.  She was spooky and silly, it was cold and windy.  When I got on her she was still silly and spooky but all that tension wasn't there.
She used to radiate a clear message  'I hate you and I am going to kill you.'
then that tapered off to 'I hate this, I hate this'
That is what is gone.  It's hard to explain.  It's not like she suddenly became well trained and perfect but is is like riding a different horse.  It's like everything came down to normal size. 
I'm excited about this.

cold and wet

Our early snowstorm has turned out to be as much cold rain as snow, typical fall.  I have lost one big branch off my big maple tree but otherwise no damage.  I thought the cold and snow would strip the trees but no, they hung onto their branches and now trees all over town are big snow drifts.  We will see tomorrow when it all melts off how much damage was done.

I took Nina her beet pulp and found her cold, wet, spooky and making herself so tall I thought I was going to have to jump up and down to get her halter on her.  I went prepared and threw a cotton sheet on her followed by a waterproof nylon sheet and within about 10 minutes she was warm under the sheets, starting to dry and reduced to her normal height. 
I wish my internal heater was as efficient as a horse's.  Or even burned calories like that.  I could use either one.  
Spring and fall it is hard to keep horses that are confined warm enough without being too warm.  Fortunately, Nina is like me and always cold so she always appreciates a sheet or blanket and rarely gets too warm.
Gradually back into the 70s by the weekend. 

good bye Fugly

I have read Fugly Horse of the Day for years, off and on.  It can go for months without me and then I will follow daily for a while.  While I think that some of the criticisms were mean spirited enough to make you blink, once you heard more it was impossible to not feel that it was justified.

After years of documenting and raging against the stupidity in the horse world the originator of the blog turned it over to a new writer. 

I tried to keep an open mind and read and give the new writer a chance to make her own points in her own way, but I have had enough.

On her personal blog she stood up for the abusive riders in the reining competition in Stockholm that drew the ire of the world.  She didn't say it was good, but maintained that it was the way things are *shrug* and explained that the horses were not actually being hurt.

There have been several digs at training and disciplines other than her own.  Today was the last straw.  Publishing a photo of a horse with a flash noseband so tight that it was an instrument of torture she proceeded to blast the use of any 'noseband' as cruel, lumping them all together and making no distinction about proper use vs. abuse and why there are so many different ones. 
Since I use a "caveson" (or noseband to Western riders) and I have even recommended a figure-8 to a student or two and I have and have not used a flash...... since I understand the use of these pieces of tack and understand how they can also be used to abuse, since I ride in the English disciplines where they are traditional, I think I have had enough of her anti-English riding and have crossed her off my blog list. 

She is entitled to her opinions, I just don't have to support a blog anymore that I have previously promoted to friends and horse lovers.   I wish she had just stuck to her own blog and her own opinions (which I probably would have continued to read, I am not afraid to disagree with someone) and left the famous (or infamous) Fugly blog alone.

A taste of winter...

This is the cottonwood tree at the barn that makes shade for us to sit under and yak while we think about doing something constructive with the horses. Today it was vivid against a bright blue sky. By Wednesday we are supposed to have 12" of snow, which will strip the trees bare. We will have more nice fall days, but without the color show going on around us. As compensation - all the flies and hornets at the barn will drop dead.

It's Sunday...

People who actually have a horse life are off somewhere at horse trials and shows and clinics doing horsey stuff. The rest of us are ..... not.
I hope they do write posts on Monday morning about their adventures for the rest of us.
*sigh* hint hint

I did teach a lesson today and it was a beautiful fall day so I can't feel tooooooo disgruntled.

if your horse was a dog......

What would it be?

a German Shepherd?

a Labrador?



a Poodle?



a Greyhound?



a Blue Heeler?




Nina

feeling better...

This is just a vent about my frustration with Nina - long and rambling. 

I have been so discouraged about Nina.  She was off for so long and then for a couple of weeks she would be fine for 2 days and off for one and repeat.  She has been sound all week this time.

And she has reverted to one of her original resistances, sticking her head between her knees and bracing against the bit.  This was her first big resistance, OK second, I guess rearing trumps rooting.
I just get so tired of feeling like working with her is one step forward and two steps back, every once in a while I get to reverse that.

So I did a little thinking about what is going on.  Some of it is between my ears.  I tend to walk on eggshells when riding her because doing that worked when she was so mixed up and defensive.
Well, she is not mixed up and defensive much any more, I think asshat is a closer description.
So I decided that I might be better off treating her like a naughty two year old under saddle instead of an old wily duck-and-run expert.  That is the part that is hers, she has never learned the basics about being a riding horse and she has resisted learning this stuff all her life.

I decided to try to fix the rooting in the round pen.  I thought I had fixed it under saddle and she had not done it for a long time, but she is still a pro at it.
I took a nylon cord, put a snap at each end ran it from the bit through my grab strap and to the bit.  I made the length long enough that when she carried her head normally there was no tension, but it was too short to stick her head between her knees.  I put this on her two days ago and she fought it for almost two hours.  Not a big hysterical fight, just slow, calculating, using all her strength to pull the damn thing down to the ground.  I had her walk a little and trot a little but mostly I just ignored her and she walked around rooting and shoving, trying to surprise it, trying to force it, trying to paw at it, only rarely picking her head up and relaxing.
This was more than a little discouraging.  When she appeared to have given up I removed the cord and got on, she immediately dropped her head to the ground and stuck it there.  I got off, put the cord back on and another hour passed before she was walking around in a horse shape.

It did occur to me that 'submission to the bridle' was just not in her vocabulary, never has been and until we can agree on that - there is no progress.  No wonder we have been on a roller coaster.  We are at square one.  Only not the square one that I had thought we were at - no ------ way back before that one.
Yesterday she had off.  Today I did it again and in five minutes she was trotting around, carrying herself normally, NO rooting or pulling.  (She doesn't know it but giving in for one day is not success, she is going to spend a lot of time wearing this.)

I got on her, she rooting ONCE about 15 minutes into the ride, I grabbed one rein and hung on and after spinning around a minute she gave up.  No more rooting.

Then she was a tree, unable to move - we have been doing this too.  When I make her move she is spooky and crooked and so uneven that it is like a dingy in a high sea.  If I think about this too much it gets to be intimidating.
So I put on my big girl panties, told myself that I was at a competition and did I want to be the idiot on the bad horse?
I booted her into a joggy, crooked trot and from there into a more forward trot and from there into an actual trot.  She spooked and ran sideways at the poles that we had already trotted over and I growled at her that I was going to kill her and kicked like a six year old on a bad Shetland pony and suddenly I had a nice horse under me, forward, balanced and unbelievably, relaxed.
I worked her for a little while, walked over the the gate, stopped and then just to push a little more - went back to work.  She was fine.

I had a horse when I was 20 that fought me like the devil for the first 10 minutes of every ride and bucked me off a hundred times.  Next to him Nina is a pansy.  I need to make up my mind that she is going to be difficult for the first 10-20 minutes of EVERY ride and just kick her through it and get on with it.  Just because she doesn't act this way for a few days doesn't mean that she is fixed and going to be good from now on.

She trusts me absolutely on the ground and it is because I make her toe the line and I am a good leader and boss.  I have not been consistent about doing the same under saddle.  I think my whiney little voice wants an easier horse to ride.  But this is the one I have.

I feel better about this today, not so much tempted to quit and more sure that I can push her through this juvenile crap and get to where we are doing stuff that even she thinks is fun.
Vent over.

observant

I know that Nina is observant and smart, but sometimes she surprises me and makes me laugh. 
She is often turned out in one of the pens around the arena while I teach lessons.  Tonight I put her out in a pen and taught three lessons.  She trotted and rolled and stood around and slept and watched.  Feeding time was between the second the third lessons and she watched the gator roll by with the hay and feed and yawned. 
After the third lesson I started picking up the standards and poles and as soon as I had put several of them away Nina started pacing in the pen and yelling at me.  She knew I was done and it was time to pay attention to her.   A friend of mine was watching her too and said that it was perfectly clear that Nina could tell that it was her turn. 
When she is not infuriating - she cracks me up!