Not Panicking Part II

So I left off down in the dumps about my relatively crappy ride on Sunday. I panicked, and threw several fixes at her all at once, and got back on her on Tuesday. I'm not sure if it's the bridle, the ulcer meds, the change in fly boots (and bute to kick the tiny bit of swelling out of the window) or the fly bonnet, but she was back on Tuesday and did some lovely WTC work and we continued to work on bending.

We did some review work on loading, and I got my trailer fixed up as best we could, and I rolled out Thursday afternoon trying to keep my anxiety levels under control for the clinic with Tik Maynard. After being failed by google maps a few times, we finally made it and unloaded at the farm, and I got Arya settled. We walked, and she was rude, but she didn't seem too horribly anxious, despite being alone in the barn.

Our lesson with Tik was bright and early Friday morning, and I got there early and tried to not be too anxious. I don't have media, unfortunately, as I was the media for the rest of the riders, but here are the main take-aways from our lesson. Arya came out very distracted and walking all over me, and Tik took her from me almost immediately.

The main things we worked on were:

1. Sending/change of direction
2. Woahing
3. Backing
4. Crossing front or back feet
5. Being less/non-reactive to the whip as an extention of the arm.

And I got a lot of really good nuggets as he worked with her, as well as watching her improve in her focus and ability to think-before-reacting:

- Start off with super high expectations of the horse, and those expectations go super low the minute the horse starts trying for you.

- Move the feet when distracted (my reaction is to pop the line)

- Using standing still and attention/pets as a reward

- The horse should have 100% of your attention when they're in your space. You can take your mind off them only if they are out of your space (4' radius, Tik parked her out at the end of her line)

- Halting can happen by pulling the head in or by pushing the hind end out. Teach both ways.

- Use your grip on the line as a barometer to relaxation; how hard are you gripping the line, how much force does it take to create a change.

- The stick follows the line of the circle  - open arm, don't point it at her, that will just send her backwards.

- Use body and stick as a right angle to push the front end.

Arya started out very hot and defensive of the stick and wasn't really taking direction; she just wanted to go out on the line and bolt around like she knew what she was doing, gosh. Tik kept her engaged and thinking, and moved her feet in a variety of ways, not just doing one thing at a time. She was nervous about the whip and slowly chilled out reacting to it, which was definitely progress. Tik waived it above his head and would toss it over her neck as she moved, and she slowly got less defensive about it. She still didn't seem to get the whip cue on her hind end meant "move your hip away from me" vs "bolt" so that will be one to work on. I was surprised and excited to see that she can move sideways on the line, and I think the cue Tik used was very clear in body language as to what was desired.  By the end, Arya was much softer through her body and was really trying, and I think it was a positive clinic that left me with some really good tools to develop at home, so that we can travel more and I can re-assert control and feel safe with her more easily.

There was some really positive take-aways for me, mentally, too:

- Everyone, including Tik, thought Arya was very very smart (and also very sensitive). This is going to be a challenge because she is super smart, and being fair to her sensitivity is going to be a bit like the Eddie Izzard joke about shower temperature gauges in this clip:

- Rushing her isn't going to go well. He asked me if I had an agenda or plans with her, and was very happy that I have another horse to ride and have fun with, because that's the program Arya needs; she needs time and patience. I'm willing to give her both, and I'm very happy that this was reinforced for me.

- Tik liked her. Which makes me happy, because I adore her, and I think she's a very magnetic horse. I'm excited to keep working with her and making things better.

Not Panicking

First off, thanks for the links and posts on my Organization post, that I probably have forgotten to reply to... sorry. Life has been life-ing and I have been struggling to keep my head above water.

Morning noodle dog

After nearly a week and a half off riding, I've been working on bringing Arya back. After her first semi-messy ride last Monday, she has had a few really really decent/awesome rides. We rode on Thursday and it was one of those awesome encouraging rides, and then it all came crashing down yesterday. She reverted nearly 100% back to "bad Arya" complete with spinning, threatening to rear and refusing to bend/melting down when I put my leg on. I immediately got off, and tried to work her on the ground to improve her bending, thinking she was stiff or out in her neck or something, and also worked her in the spot of the arena where she had acted up, thinking that because she had spooked there she's just decided she's going to die in that spot.

Well, I got on and again... naughty. More spinning, more tantrum. I got off again (waiting for a good halt, at least) and felt down her legs, and thought I felt some fluid in her tendons just below her knee. She had been wearing fly boots, and for some reason, they do sometimes bind on the horses, so I decided that we'd try one more time and just walk. So we walked, and she did get better by the end of things, and was willing to bend and not jig/have a tantrum. I don't know what it was; the previous day, my husband and his buddies had shot on the property, but the mares only spooked a bit, trotted a few steps and then settled down and didn't seem to care. I thought I heard fireworks that night, but again... any time I checked on the mares and they didn't seem overly riled up. I figured she either threw herself out of alignment or gave herself ulcers or was being a GIANT baby about a tiny bit of swelling in her leg. That, or she was seriously riled that I changed her regular bridle to the micklem bridle, which really didn't work well with the D ring.

Always with this picture

Either way, it wasn't the ride I wanted to have when we're going to a clinic on Thursday (admittedly, we're probably just going to do groundwork) and I am full of anxiety today. It's another cooler, windy day and unless it gets warm and less windy, I may give her a day off today and try to pack two rides in Tuesday and Wednesday, and hope that we can revert her back to her workable behavior before we leave. Because I'm sensible, I, of course, threw a handful of supplements at her last night (bute, nexium, ulcer/electrolyte pellets) with her grain, and hope that she turns her B tendencies way down in the mean time.

I really don't want a horse that only rides well in tropical weather; it's not going to work out well, when we live in the great cold north. And I really just want things to be fun and keep her moving forward. She's got so much potential, and she is so freaking smart I don't even have words for it. I've missed having a horse this smart and while she isn't giving and forgiving like Bailey... she is a total joy to ride and I'd like to have fun with her.

Fingers crossed we can banish Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde/the devil and find my good, willing horse back before Friday morning. I'm totally not panicking, why?

Attempted Organization Try.... who knows

I've been super busy the last few weeks; we've had grueling heat, tons of rain, a broken tractor, endless lawn to mow...

Memorial day weekend we did fence posts in humid, nineties weather. We had a gas powered auger for the corner posts and a gas powered T post driver, and the work would have gone super quickly except it was stupid, intense hot. I've been trying to clean up and catch up all this week, and discovered a rather annoying hole in my organization scheme;

My med kit is a hot freaking mess.

Admittedly I just threw everything in bins and tried to bring in the freezeable stuff before it froze last fall. And my med kit got savaged by Foxie's and then Arya's injuries, and I didn't really have any interest in organizing once we put Foxie down. So it's badly in need of some organization.

Currently, I have bins with a bunch of stuff standing up or laying on it's side, but nothing has a place, and I have to dig to find shit, which means that generally I don't put the top back on until later and things get lost or dirty or whatever.

So my "organization" is really like... putting a table cloth over a bear to hide it. It's out of sight but still kind of a big deal.

So, brilliant internet friends, how do you organize your med kit and store it? I consider standing wraps to be a part of my med kit most of the time, so I'm hoping I can find some storage that will, at least, hold a set of four and some standing wraps, but I can keep them in their bin (bins are fine for standing wraps)... help?

Arya: May the Second

So when we left off, Arya tried out some magikal tack.

Thursday, 5/17 - Arya got her teeth done, and thus got a day off.

Friday, 5/18 - Arya trotted several circles in a row and even was allowed to canter a lap, though started to get silly towards the end. She goes left really well right now, and I started asking for her to give to the bit using pressure and release. I also continued to focus on applying my leg and calf more. She is feeling more balanced, and seems more and more resigned to her life as a horse being ridden. She still wants to get stuck, and especially going right, wants to counterbend like CRAZY especially when she wants to be bad. She got a little up and did some small spooking at a truck hauling a big empty equipment trailer, that rattled, but was generally quite good.

Sunday, 5/20 - Arya continued her lessons in giving to pressure, not losing one's mind when doing stuff and I also focused more and more on inside leg to outside rein. To the left, she really seems to be getting it, but to the right, she continues to be mentally/physically blocked. She leans hard on my leg and hand and continues to do her super dramatic counterbend when she wants to get shirty. We trotted quite a bit, and did one circle of canter, but again struggled with even a full circle of trot going right. I may stick her on the lunge line again going right and try to see if we can figure out bending right without a person up (thinking lunge line inside, side rein outside... or just breaking her to long line, already).

Thursday, 5/24 - More inside rein to outside leg on this lovely balmy day. Groundwork was obedient, and she cantered without breaking quite well. Once we were riding, going left was really quite good. We trotted and cantered pretty normally and Arya did some chewing and thinking at the trot, and gave me some softening when asked. Good girl! Right continued to be tense, but I didn't feel like she was scheming to buck me off; more that she wanted to rush because she was anxious and felt like she couldn't do what I wanted. We'll probably lunge this weekend as we're fencing pasture and I probably won't have time to ride much.

After Thursday: Arya lunged a bit but basically ended up with a week off due to heat, then several days of thunderstorms, and then I shot a clinic over the three day weekend.

Monday, 6/4 - We're back to the beginning, pretty much. Ground work was obedient and we're mixing in more and more canter, as well as transitions. Once on, left felt like her right side on a good day, and going right was an utter mess. She jigged, threw her head, rooted, counter bent, and tried to rush off into the canter, but she was, surprisingly, manageable, though she couldn't even with my leg, much less contact. Going left improved a lot. I tried to stay steady and just keep asking for what I wanted, and we had two big improvements - several circles of trot that I could actually ride vs manage, and I was able to talk her into bending through her body and giving to the bit at the trot several times. I was thrilled with this, and let her quit and have a bath after that much mental effort. I am excited to get back on and keep working on this new-found talent!

Arya: First half of May Summary

I'm going to try to keep my Arya posts in a more concise format, so here we go! I'll post this after a few more rides so I don't cover my blog with in depth analysis of every ride :) 

Friday 5/4- Arya was obedient for walk and trot and good on the ground. I rode her after Bailey which seemed pretty positive, though she continues to open her mouth whenever I pick up any thought of contact.

Monday 5/7 - Ground work was obedient, but lackluster. She spooked hard at a duck spooking out of the pond and got a bit more "awake" than I prefer, but was pretty obedient doing up and down transitions of gait on the line. We tried out the eggbutt french link snaffle which went over like a lead balloon. She evaded by turning her head strongly out several times, and seemed less offended when I switched her bit back to the "magic" $12 snaffle, but still resistant. She was very wobbly/inconsistent this ride; she wanted to bend out, and was "self punishing" when she got too quick/tried to canter and would crank herself around nose-to-tail before I could initiate shutting her down myself. She also had some leapy/naughty moments but I tried to shut her down with my voice vs my reins, which actually worked; I used the same scold I use when I can see she's thinking about ignoring my direction on the ground and we didn't have any moments that were too hair raising.

Post ride, she had a bath (she doesn't care about baths, which makes her easy, she just mows the grass) and had lots of lovely wild romps after her multiple rolls. She bucked, did Lipizzaner impressions, galloped around farting and bucking, and reared at lot... I guess she needs more work!

Saturday 5/11 - I switched it up and put Arya in the lunging rig with the neck stretcher as "side reins" instead of riding her. I wanted to see how she handled the relatively elastic connection the neck stretcher gave her, and it's clear that she doesn't really get the whole giving to the bit thing yet. She wanted to canter a lot (perhaps running away from the pressure?) and I let her, and while she didn't really get the neck stretcher like I had hoped, I was able to lunge her with the lunge line as an inside rein (run through the bit to her girth) and felt that she was bending and giving more positively.

Wednesday 5/16 - So Arya hasn't gotten a lot of work because I've been super busy with photo work, but I did finally get her out with a whole new outfit. She was wearing a Courbette Galant close contact saddle vs my normal Courbette Vision, and was also wearing her Eponia bridle with a Myler Level 1 Dee vs Bailey's fake Micklem with a $12 weighted loose ring snaffle. I tried the Myler on Bailey first, to get a feel for it, and had a very nice jump session with her. Arya lunged and I felt a bit nervous getting on her after some meh/distracted ground work and having to scoop grain to get her caught (I fed her 1 scoop of her usual 4 when she appeared at the gate after I scooped and dumped the donkey's grain).

Under saddle, I felt like I had a couple of things changing positively - I felt like I could really have the contact discussion with her and I also felt like I was able to get a bit of lateral flexion through her body by applying my calf and thigh. The saddle rode really comfortably - it's not as forward as my vision, but is larger in the seat, and I felt like I had a really comfortable balance point in it. She wasn't perfect, in any way, but I felt secure and felt like I could actually keep communicating with her when she tried to counter bend, jet off of the circle or get quick. The dee was well received and I was actually able to push the envelope without feeling like she got fried - we worked on giving to the bit with pressure and release, and while she did feel very stuck towards the end and didn't want to go forward (either we trot/canter in a tea cup or we get silly, taking longer steps is FAKE NEWS!) she was still having a good conversation with my hands, especially for her. I may try adding sealtex if she continues to be fussy, but so far... this is a really good bit for her, for ride 1 at least. She had really lovely even sweat marks under the saddle and I'm excited to ride again on Friday!

So it's been half a month... now to do more riding!

Farm Updates: Spring Time

Things are greening up nicely here on the farm, finally, though a month ago I was posting about the feet of snow we were getting!

I'm becoming less and less apprehensive about my slowly dwindling hay supply; the pastures were planted late last year, and the unexpected drop back into winter with all of the snow we still had a few weeks ago left me very worried. Since then we've had lots of warm sun, and honestly, could do with a bit more rain, but the pastures are greening up and evening out (the new planting was done by a local farmer, who, apparently, has no idea what the heck he's doing. We have bald spots all over the hay field and pasture plantings that are NOT winter kill -_-). Over the last week I've been doing some seeding, and as I mentioned in another post, knocking down gopher mounds left in the only pre-existing pasture we have left. 

While I work, the horses nap.

I've also been scheming out the pasture fence, and we have plans to do most of the work Memorial day weekend. I'm still not sure how I feel about the polywire I found as a less-likely-to-cause-rope-burn-or-de-glove-legs alternative to the weirdly expensive polyrope. Most of my fence is a mix of electrobraid (nicer rope type stuff) and polyrope (nasty plastic rope) and I've found it kind of annoying so far; the fence materials are older and thus it's hard to get the charge flowing around all of the pasture and paddock, and they don't seem to stay taught when spliced. If I use splicing hardware, the hardware seems to slip no matter how tight I make it, while if I knot it, it arcs and scorches the braid around it. Clearly we have some fence issues to fix, but I am hoping I am making a decent choice. Polywire doesn't seem any harder to see than the wire and wood post fences my previous boarding barn had, so I am hoping that with a polytape top strand, the fence will be very visible for the horses in the dark and safe for them to go enjoy their grass. As much as I would love to invest in some of the fancier fencing I've found in my searching, cost is a factor so, if anything, we can look into replacing the polywire strands in a few years if it doesn't work well. 

Mud wise, we're basically dried up; the gate area still looks a bit rough despite dragging the paddock and arena last night, but on the whole, it's gone. For those of you who don't remember my rants, the paddock and barn were built on the flow path between two pre-existing ponds, which means that shit tons of water flow across my paddock every spring and after every heavy rain. Last spring I was nearly killing myself trying to wade through knee deep sucking mud to get the horses fed, which resulted in us putting in 150' of drain tile. We still got mud from all the water flowing - which got worse when the water stopped flowing and started sitting - but it was a thousand times better than last year and I think it will only get better as we figure out how to shape the paddock's contour to hurry the water on it's way. 

We have mud and dust at the same time. Yay farm!

I'm also hoping we will be able to get our tractor starting happily again after some maintenance tonight; it was struggling late last fall to start and then the weather went to shit, so we never got the problems fully looked into. We're doing lots of fluid and filter changes and a new battery tonight, to hopefully get the Baby Deere back to work. Hubby and I discussed building compost bins last night, and I'd love to get rid of my manure pile, so fingers crossed! I tidied up the barn some over the weekend, so hopefully the spring cleaning can continue!

Arya: Another Ride

Hopefully all of this Arya-centric content isn't getting old - if so, I promise I'll have something else to talk about soon! Yesterday was Arya's 3rd ride back, after a few days off due to busy work weeks. I gave her the rest of the "overnight" tube of Perfect Prep yesterday morning before turning the horses out, and went out after work and dinner to get a ride in before chores. She was a bit of a challenge to catch this time; I stood and scratched and loved on Bailey for quite a while after I ran out of peppermints, and finally was able to work my way down Bailey's body to where Arya had crept up to hide behind her butt, and was able to reach and grab her halter without her trying to leave/flinch/etc. She was a bit sticky to lead and didn't want to cross the remaining mud between the paddock and the gate, but those two things are kind of the norm here, lately.

She stood pretty nicely, and seemed to enjoy being groomed. I also got the clippers out and did her bridle path and neatened up her mane a bit before tacking up. The vet is coming in a few weeks and I'd like her and Bailey to not look homeless in their coggins photos. I still haven't decided what to do with Arya's mane; part of me wants to take it really short, as a) she has a gorgeous hunk of neck and b) she rubs her mane in the same spot as her blanket (and probably her fly sheet) has, and the hair there is super short and sticks up:

WHY

Anyways, she tacked up pretty nicely, and I made one change to her set up after our last ride, and used Bailey's (fake) micklem and simple 14mm single link loose ring instead of Arya's bulkier Eponia bridle, which currently has a fatter copper alloy french link loose ring on it. 

Ground work went really well - she was obedient, and stretched and returned to more relaxed postures more often than she has previously. We did some more standing in our own space vs drawing and pets/treats for breaks, and she seemed to want to be with me a little more than she did last weekend and tried to creep in towards me a few times. She also showed some unprecedented willingness to do walk/trot transitions on the line - I had a "walk" command vs "woah = stop and turn in" command, so I worked on installing some woah/walk voice cues with those transitions. 

Under saddle she still seemed a bit... hesitant? to walk off from the mounting block, but followed her nose when I turned her right away from it and settled in to walking pretty quickly. She tried to rush off a little less -perhaps because I'm starting to relax and not unconsciously death-grip her barrel with my leg. I also felt more confident letting her hang out on a long rein and stretch. We did some trot transitions; to the left she was much more balanced and obedient, while to the right, a trend I noticed a bit last ride, she tends to trip/get unbalanced and then run a bit. I tried to just open my inside hand, drop my outside rein and wait for her to subside while saying "woah" and "walk" vs escalating with her. She has spun down pretty easy, and I get a clear feeling of her downshifting. When she does finally downshift towards the walk, I usually throw the contact at her and try to encourage stretching, and to show her that I'm not going to pull on her face.

Two things that really got me with the ride last night were:

1) that the bending/head turning I noticed last ride seems to be the riding manifestation of her looking away from me when overwhelmed. It was much better in the Micklem - not sure if that was a bit or a contact thing...

and 2) Arya is super sensitive, and quite smart. I continue to be able to throw the contact at her while she downshifts without feeling like I'm going to die (YAY!) and I noticed that I'd start thinking about trotting, picking a spot to ask, balancing, etc and she'd pick up the trot. Clearly she's very aware of my body and the way I telegraph what I'm thinking, which is super cool and also a bit scary, because sometimes I get scared....

But the takeaways from last night were, overall, super positive. I did some saddle measuring and I'm not convinced my vision is comfortable for her, but I'm monitoring the situation and trying to figure out the best way to move forward with saddling her on an extreme budget. I also want to swap her into the micklem, which I think is nice to use because a) it's super easy to put on over a rope halter and b) it's a "quiet" bridle vs my snaffle bridle with a lot of pieces, and it supports the bit in her mouth.

The only question is, what bit to put her into? I feel like the thin weighted snaffle she wore yesterday may have too much motion for her, and want to try something soft and quiet for her - I'm not sure if her tollerance for contact was better yesterday because of mileage, the bit, or the supportive nose band of the bridle.... I have a french link eggbutt snaffle, a fat single link eggbutt, a single link D, a Dr. Bristol (not rotated) baucher and a fulmar single link snaffle.... any thoughts on where you would go from a loose ring?

Mahm you are the most boring