There are certainly some nice things about MN but the weather is not one of them. It is FINALLY nice here! By nice I mean that I wore a sweater to the barn today and it was only 48 to start but warmed up to the 60s later in the day and it was sunny!
This weekend was lovely but that was after a seriously awful week that is really just fully explained with this very popular cartoon by K.C. Green.
I'm not going to go over it in detail but in summary: Moshy got hurt last weekend which resulted in two vet visits this weekend with no answers. We did get x-rays and the next step may be orthopedic surgery. I was also thinking an opportunity may open up that didn't but I didn't find out until on my way to get x-rays for Moshy on Friday. On top of all of that I had a dentist apt for fillings on Wednesday. One hour turned into two and I got so many injections into my lower jaw that it was incredibly bruised and painful until this weekend. With all of that they still couldn't get my tooth numb enough so I have to go back for another 2 hour apt in just over a week.
This weekend though it started to turn better.
How could it not when I get to spend time with this girl <3
First I got to sleep in on Saturday! Then I did a bunch of cleaning and food prep which was sorely needed. In the afternoon when it was warmer I went to the barn. I thought Katai might be spicy because I, I think understandably, hadn't been able to make it to the barn much this past week. However, she was a sweet, well behaved lady and we actually accomplished something for our ride! We did a bunch of great canter, she listened well, and only had one minor melt down. Then this morning I had a lesson with K who had flown in this weekend to teach lessons.
I've been doing training braids so her mane (at least what wasn't rubbed out) is adorably wavy. But then there's that bit at the top that's sticking straight up...
She hadn't seen us in a LONG time so there wasn't anything groundbreaking since she was getting to know us again. However, she did have some great advice and exercises for us which was awesome. Primary though I was really proud of Katai who had almost and hour under saddle (albeit with a lot of walk) and just kept trying to do what we were asking the WHOLE time. She had no melt downs, never said no, and never really got frustrated.
My wraps keep getting neater and neater!
This is big primarily because it's spring, I haven't been riding consistently, and we're both weak. When we were both fit we had weekly hour long lessons and I was riding another 3-4 days a week but right now we are so far from that it's not even funny. With that being said, she barely got sweaty and was never breathing hard. However, I'm fairly certain she's going to be muscle sore so I'm going to use that as an experience to do some low pressure, light, fun things this week. On the schedule are a trail hand walk, a short bareback bitless ride (to try out my new bitless set up!), some grooming, and some work on her feet. With some more slow, consistent fitness work we'll both be back to it soon!
Regular Barn Time:
My goal is to get back to going to the barn 5+ times per week in January pending crazy winter weather
Ride More, Longer, More in Different Gaits:
One thing I've recently diagnosed, actually as I was recapping 2018, is that likely part of what's been tough with pony behavior recently is lack of rides. There isn't much I would have been able to do about it even if I'd been more aware throughout the year but it does help me put the struggle to move to 2nd level into perspective. Therefore in January I want to do the following;
Ride at least 3 times per week, preferably 4
Track my rides on Equilab every single time to diagnose how long I'm spending in the saddle and how long I'm spending in each gait
Likely increase the amount of canter we're doing for every ride
Potentially increase the amount of working walk we're doing for every ride
Likely increase total ride times
I think that the above will help with Katai's current excess energy/behavior as well as help with making more progress on fitness and strength.
Utilize exercises in 55 Corrective Exercises:
This new Jec Ballou book is awesome. Not only are there a bunch of wonderful things to do with your horse in different environments both mounted and unmounted but she has these great sections throughout the book of exercise routines you can use for specific reasons. I plan to start out by going through the high headed posture one since it's something that Katai has been more stuck on since the break and I think that doing these will be valuable. Plus it's a great way to do some helpful in hand stuff and break up riding/lunging.
For example, dressing Katai up in this cute matching set
and wearing something coordinating myself :) Then I just need to get media and I'll be set!
Keep up on grooming Katai/dressing well at the barn:
This is such a mental thing for me. I can get stuck rushing from one thing to the next and trying to take as little time as possible. If instead I take the time to groom well and focus on things like being nicely dressed at the barn vs. looking like a slob I find that I'm much more motivated and feel better about everything.
Blogging/Media:
I put both since I'm always more reluctant to blog if I don't have more pictures or video to share. My goal is to get back to my previous blogging routine of posting about e/o day or 15 times per month. It will be a stretch this month since I'm so out of practice but that's what goals are for right?
Focus on Budget - Reduce Overspending:
I'm really pretty good with money for the most part. My expensive/splurge items are having a horse in the first place and spending money on coffee/eating out/groceries. I don't spend overmuch on rent, I get my hair cut maybe 1-2 times per year, I don't get my nails done or do any other splurge type personal care things. I don't shop for clothes and when I do buy clothes I pretty much shop at thrift stores like ThredUp. I do occasionally splurge on tack but my biggest issue is coffee/eating out so therefore I'd like to do the following for the month of January;
Only purchase "necessary" horse items such as food and supplements, board, and two lessons for the entire month.
Not purchase any coffee from coffee shops - make my own at home
Eat out 2 times or fewer, if I don't get food made I'll purchase something from the grocery store to eat rather than ordering food from a restaurant
So cute and so stained. It was also getting too small for all my stuff
Back when I moved into what I still consider my first "real" boarding situation I had a tack locker that was school sized. I actually sort of liked the set up at that barn with a large room for saddles and personal lockers just for the smaller stuff. Too bad the trainer who owned the place, J, was so awful.
Back when it was much less stained. Also, I know I've mentioned it before but I still miss that pink lined bridle
At any rate at that point I knew that I needed something to hold my brushes that could fit in that space and when I went to the horse expo they had these containers and were able to personalize them. I've used this one ever since which has been about 4.5 years.
It's worked so well that I've never shopped for new ones but I realized that at my current barn where there is no heat I needed to figure out a different method. The problem is that I can't bring any liquids including first aid supplies since I don't want that stuff to sit in my car and freeze. I was carrying a "barn bag" back and forth with me which was basically a canvas tote bag but it was all just dumped in the bottom and it was tough to find what I wanted.
When the black Friday sales started I casually was looking for totes and organizers and found this!
Puppy for scale (she loves posing for pictures hehe)
See I hate the ones with the draw string bag type top. It's clumsy in my opinion and makes it really tough to find what you need. This one unzips at the top and has lots of separate compartments which makes it awesome. I have a tone of stuff in it including all of the first aid stuff I'm likely to need, polo wraps and bandages, brushes, and tack cleaning wipes. Along the outside I have all of my grooming spray and detangled as well as scissors and a few other odds and ends.
Because it has the handy shoulder strap it's easy to carry to work and then the barn each day that I plan to ride and that way I don't have to worry about any of it freezing. Since it zips closed it also keeps the majority of hair and barn smell contained. So far I really like this grooming bag and its working really well for me.
I hate moving Katai. It’s stressful needing to load her when I know she’s not always good and each time it’s a different trailer and a different person waiting on us. I also really hate changing up Katai’s routine and stressing her out. However, there have been good things about moving as much as we have. She’s very flexible with herds of horses (kind of like kids who move around a lot and get used to going to a lot of different schools haha) and I’ve made a whole bunch of amazing horse friends.
I was doing a good job of keeping my stress to a minimum until Saturday morning. Luckily my new trainer (K) was trailering and was planning to be there around 10:45 which gave me some breathing room in the morning to get everything packed, get coffee, and not need to wake up horribly early. I still got to the barn quite early just to make sure I had enough time and got her stall packed up, picked up her extra supplements, and then cleared out my tack locker. I wish I had taken a picture of everything in my SmartCar because it was kind of like a puzzle to get everything to fit well.
K and her mum showed up right on time and I went to collect Katai. I’d been saying my goodbyes but one of the barn workers wanted to say goodbye to Katai before she left so after I caught her I brought her over to say bye to him. The trailer was luckily a three horse slant which I knew would leave ample room. However, it was a step up which she hasn’t been in for a while now and it had a tack space in the back so the entrance was a little tight. All in all though she loaded really well in about 20 minutes. She did pull back several times but I’m getting much better at some of my loading techniques and just kept her facing the trailer the whole time and made her comfortable place right at the entrance and/or inside the trailer. K and her mom were extremely patient and just let me do my thing which I really appreciated!
Once Katai was loaded I realized I’d left her turnout halter up by the gate so I hopped in my car and drove up to the upper barn to get it while they started out with the trailer. The trip ended up being smooth but there was a TON of traffic and especially semi traffic on one of our main three lane highways. I followed a decent distance behind and was really glad it wasn’t a day where I was driving the trailer.
Once we arrived I pulled her out and we brought her over to quarantine which is a roundpen with a shelter. She hung out getting her land legs back and then rolled. She still stresses enough about trailering that she sweats a decent amount and it was also a hot day which didn’t help. I made sure she found the water and K tossed her some hay including some alfalfa which she immediately started scarfing down. At that point I dropped off some of the stuff they needed like her supplements, put her fly mask on, paid K for trailering and then headed out to let her destress.
I headed home, grabbed some amazing vegan food from the Herbivorous Butcher and then spent the rest of my Saturday resting, re-organizing her stuff, and cleaning all of my tack which was sadly overdue for a cleaning. It will live at my apartment now until just before I move when I’ll move it into the new barn.
On Sunday I had planned to head out in the morning but I had a busy day planned already, so a small window to head out to the barn, and then woke up with a really sore and swollen finger which I quickly realized was infected. Bf and I headed to urgent care where I got instructions and some antibiotics and headed home. At that point it was too late to go to the barn so we did our other scheduled things and then I headed out to the barn around 4:00.
It was quickly apparent to me that I’d absolutely made the right decision in moving her closer. The drive felt easy and quick and I wasn’t already tired out by the time I got to the barn.
Katai actually seemed pretty settled which I was really happy to see. She’d also been eating her grain foods and since they’re literally only vitamins they don’t taste amazing so sometimes if she’s stressed she won’t eat them. I groomed her really well and scratched all her itchy places. She was very happy to have me and sort of clingy so I spent quite a bit of time with her. Once she was all clean I put her fly mask back on, put her fly sheet on, fly lotion everywhere, and put her fly boots on so she was all armored up against the bugs. I left for a minute to put the stuff back in my car and when I walked back to say goodbye she gave me this sad little whinny that broke my heart. I’m so looking forward to having her so close and it will be great to use this quarantine time for bonding even if all I want right now is to ride my pony!
One thing that's been amazing to see at the new barn is how much the turnout is helping Katai stay fit and loose.
At the last couple of barns we were fighting a losing battle with her fitness. Two barns ago at least I had an outdoor and a bit of, albeit flat, outdoor space to ride in. At Janes, unless I could con someone into riding down the road with me or if I could work out with the neighbor to ride in the outdoor I had I could only ride in the indoor and both of those were tough to arrange.
On top of that at both of the last barns Katai's turnout was only in a small paddock. She could canter around a bit but it was flat and small and unless she was really motivated to run around there wasn't much real movement.
We win at selfies
Now I have all sorts of outdoor space to ride in even if I never went on the trails since just the space around the arena, near the barns, and down the driveway is safe and roomy for riding. We also have a nice large outdoor that Katai doesn't have meltdowns in (mostly thanks to S2) which helps as well.
Even better, Katai is in a huge pasture with other horses! She has two palomino friends, that look like twins, and another paint and they all get along really well. The pasture is huge and hilly just like how we kept our horses as I was growing up. Walking to the end to graze on it's own is a good workout and is really helping to keep her muscles loose and definitely adding some fitness. In addition she's been more careful about where she's putting her feet since she can't just drag them along like she could at the last barn.
Plus, S2 is really helping me to work with Katai on getting her to relax the blocked tension she has had. She's always gotten really tight through her shoulders if anything is going on that she's unsure about and also, I'm finding out now, has carried a lot of tension through her hips. Like me with my shoulders I think that she's just been that way for so long that she didn't even know there was a different way to do it until S2 came along and showed her.
I didn't get many pony pictures so her's another puppy picture
It's part of my homework to keep working with her on it but it's also clear how much she's already let go, or will let go if you ask correctly. Her stride, which was already much improved at Jane's, has gotten even more buoyant and loose and it's easier to keep her from getting locked up. I also have tools on the ground so that if she does lock up and threaten to rear I can dismount, address on the ground, and then remount and have a nice soft, loose pony which certainly wasn't the case before.
All of these things led to a really nice ride today where she was right with me, loose, relaxed, pushing from behind and really trying for the whole ride. She, of course, had the wrong answer to things sometimes but now when I ask again differently, or do a minor correction she just melts into it and keeps trying. It was an amazing ride and made watching the rest of the team leave for the show even more bitter sweet. Oh well, soon Katai will be on that trailer too!
At this point Katai and I should be REALLY good at this. Unfortunately the spring weather after being locked up all winter between her barn and her paddock, the lack of trailer loading practice since last summer, and the lack of even much ground work since last fall combined to make for a very fractious beast. That added to my stress which was also made worse by the fact that I was moving Friday evening, had afternoon plans on Saturday, and was flying out on Sunday.
I knew that it was going to be really tight to get to the barn Saturday and Sunday and still be ready to fly out. Luckily this is a short trip and I'll be back on Tuesday morning but the timing just really sucked.
Then, as if I needed more stress, Friday was one of those days where nothing went right. I'd blocked off my calendar at work to leave early which I normally have the ability to do but something came up last minute that I needed to take care of which meant I got to the barn late.
I'll spare you all the little things that went wrong but let's just say it involved nearly running out of gas, almost getting lost, lots of being stuck behind red lights while the trailer wasn't, and a stubborn pony that took almost an hour to load.
In the end Katai got in the box stall on the trailer after trying to load her in the two horse straight load at the back (before I realized there was a box stall option) and she had a nice safe trip. I also made it safely to the barn if a bit later than the trailer, and she settled into her amazingly clean stall to munch on tasty looking hay while shooting angry mare faces at her neighbors.
After getting her settled in at her stall in the upper barn I went to the lounge to do paperwork with S2. Since it was late we decided to try to find space for my tack the next day since they're still over full and don't have a locker for me yet. I checked on Katai one more time to find her still happily eating her hay, drinking her water, and making angry mare faces at her neighbors.
Saturday morning I went out early and had happy tears in my eyes when I saw her out in a huge pasture with other mares, in the warm sun. She looked so happy and ever after our disagreements the prior day she came trotting up to me and walked politely with me to the lower barn for some exposure to the new grooming space. I'll admit that ample peppermints were involved.
She was nervous and stressy standing in the cross ties but perfectly happy to walk nicely around the arena and then acted as ear perking motivation for M's gelding who was getting pictures taken. She always impresses me in situations like that even if I'm slightly dismayed that she still doesn't want to stand nicely in the crossties in a new space. I ran out of time on Saturday to ride but that wasn't a bad thing. She got to stand tied twice and got groomed as well as getting to see the arena so that was good and we were able to find a temporary solution for my saddle, bridle, helmet, and grooming stuff.
Then on Sunday I went out in the morning again and had a tight schedule since I also had to get Veggie dropped off at the sitters and get to the airport by 1:00. I not only made it to the barn and managed to get Katai standing well enough to get her tacked up, I actually rode! I was a short ride but she felt amazing and behaved really well so it made sense to keep it short and sweet. That ride really enforced for me that I made the right decision to move her. After being out in the pasture with the other horses she felt loose and forward. She didn't have the stiffness that we have been dealing with off and on and although she was still a bit tense she was very rideable. I'm really looking forward to having a better baseline of fitness on her as well as the looseness that comes with her being able to be out running around in a huge pasture. Plus hopefully happy pony will be better behaved pony.
I still need to get some more pictures and do a barn tour post but it'll have to wait since I'm in Cleveland tonight and flying back tomorrow. I'm planning to get out the barn tomorrow night after work and I can't wait to see my pony and ride!!
I had a great walk at the Frontenac state park with my family on Thanksgiving :)
I still have so much catch up that I'm going to try to do. Again, sorry for the lack of blogs recently but life has been crazy. Especially since the end of October things have been looking up (other than my back) which is so nice.
Katai has been back to her normal self except that she feels like she's lost some strength which sort of sucks. I'm not sure if she's just that sensitive that any muscle soreness sets us back, or if this is normal, or if it's just that my expectations are growing faster than her strength is increasing. At any rate, Jane isn't at all concerned and again I'm so glad that I have an instructor that I really trust and who's been through all of this in the past.
At any rate, on Tuesday for my lesson we started out with a very stiff pony. Not only had I not been riding as much since my back was hurt but she was also horribly in heat with the additions of two geldings in the barn. Because of that we started off doing a bunch of walk and at the walk we did some turns on the forehand and lateral work. Then once we went to the trot it was all about the lateral work. We did some nose-to-the-wall leg yields as well as some from the center line to the wall. We also worked on shoulder in.
More puppy pictures!!! She's 8 weeks as of today :)
For the shoulder in we focused on helping me get the timing right to really get her inside leg under. That was partially helping to continue to educate me as a rider and partially setting us up for the canter later.
With all of the lateral work she really loosened up and started to move like her normal self but she never really worked into the HUGE trot that we've been getting recently. Finally we worked on the canter. Our goal was to really get her to step under with her right leg because she's definitely weaker on that leg. To set us up for that we worked on either doing shoulder in or counter bending her to activate that leg and then asking for the transition. Jane also had me ask her to come back to trot as soon as she lost the rhythm which was really tough for me to find. It's funny because I can get the rhythm at the trot but I have a tough time keeping her at the same rhythm sometimes and at the canter I just can't feel it.
Homework is for me to practice feeling/hearing the rhythm of the footfalls and to bring her back as soon as she looses the rhythm. I'm really looking forward to working on this! I feel like it's the next step and I feel like I really know now what I need to work on.
I'm calling this next couple of weeks #summerbootcamp since we have two (now more like 1.5) weeks to really work on things before I'm out of town for 6-11 days for work. Very appropriately we had another lesson on Tuesday.
The previous Sunday we'd had our makeup lesson from the 4th of July Tuesday and then this was my regular lesson. I hadn't ridden on Monday because I needed to do #adult things such as laundry and grocery shopping. Plus it was hot and Katai had a tough ride the day before for my lesson and was going to have a tough ride the next day for another lesson so a day off didn't seem like a bad idea.
My cell phone photo library tells a
story of what I've been doing recently ;)
I always deal with a lot of rush hour traffic and since I'm driving directly North I spend it sitting directly in the hot sun in a car that doesn't have strong enough ac to deal with it. In addition, this week I got to the barn a bit late since I'd forgotten that my normal way to the barn was right through a road closure for construction #summerinMN. Then the detour had a bad car accident that had the road down to one lane and meant more time sitting in the hot sun in my car. By the time I got to the barn I was already hot and crabby and I hate being late so was feeling a bit stressed as well.
After tacking up in record time we got to the arena the bugs were HORRIBLE. I was being eaten alive and I couldn't get more than a few steps of walk from Katai before she was stamping and bitting at them. We didn't walk for too long before we went to trot since that keeps the bugs at bay.
At least better than the fly spray that I'd coated both of us in...
Again we started with getting her moving out around the full arena. After she was moving well Jane had me ask for a lengthening down the long side. At first we just got rushy steps and then Jane asked me to get her more round.
Most of the time pony goes around like this.
Blurry but you can kind of see
She's soft through the poll, has good contact, and is very ridable but not especially round. Typically we're happy with this but on Tuesday at least she was faking the contact and not really through or using her back.
Jane had me get her way more round and get her neck lower (not overbent, just rounder than she was going). She said it may look too round from above since it's not what I'm used to but she wanted her there and for me to keep her there while I did the lengthening. The next long side I started to figure it out and then the second time I tried it that way it felt like magic. She was really pushing, her back was up and she was really carrying me along. We gave her a break and Jane said "well that really opened a can of worms". I looked up at her wondering what the heck I'd missed and she explained that now that we know she can move that way, she needs to do this more of the time.
Veggie had a great time at the doggy daycare lady's house this past weekend.
He's good at supervising the big dogs...
I had a huge smile on my face. Apparently this pony can really move now that she's getting stronger and Jane really didn't expect it. I didn't either haha.
We switched sides and did the same thing. A bit of trial and error later we had a very similar trot on that side and then Jane had us move on to 3 loop serpentines and try to keep/get the same sort of movement. Honestly it was a hot mess. It was a lot for me to keep track of and Katai was trying to just rush through it rather than doing it appropriately. It's new for me to feel that much power from her and to push her appropriately without just making her run. In the end I was at least getting my serpentines right, the bending right, and not letting her rush with bigger movement than normal but we weren't really getting enough trot still. It's going on the list of things to practice.
My 4th of July project was trying to recreate my favorite cookies in vegan form
They turned out better than the original and after this picture was taken I added chocolate frosting on top of the marshmallows.
By that point I was quite hot and getting tired myself and Katai was also feeling pretty done. Because of how much we'd asked at the trot, and how much we'd asked at the canter on Sunday Jane just had us do a bit of easy canter using the full arena and doing some 20 meter circles. We continued to work on getting a nice, slow, steady rhythm and also on trying to get her rounder at the canter. For this Jane had me focus on lifting the inside rein rather than pulling back. It was tricky for me to get the right feel but I started to get it towards the end. By then Katai was DUN done so we did just a tiny bit more stretchy trot and then called it a day.
She got hosed, I got splashed on and drank some water and then got my stuff put away and headed home for the air-conditioning and lots more water. In the end it felt like another amazing lesson even if my evening didn't start out that way. This tiny mare just continues to amaze me and Jane and I just can't wait to see where we go together.
Practice More Lateral Work: Meh, we did start working on shoulder in again and I have been making sure to do lateral work each ride. The problem is that I'll do something like leg yield a couple of times to the right and then because I'm struggling I just switch to the other side. I need to do more (not drill but more) and just keep practicing or I'll never get how to do it.
Continue With Trailer Loading Practice: Meh again. I did some work, then we had horrible heat, then horrible bugs, and then (very unfortunately) Jane's young horse needed veterinary attention and stayed at the clinic for a few days which mean that the trailer stayed there with her. Bugs and heat are excuses but not bad ones and it's been tough to be motivated when I knew it would be over two months until I'm going to show again.
Practice Other Show Skills: We did a bit better here. I've been working with Katai and the wash stall/hose as you've seen. I've also been more consistently working with her with bug lotion, the spray bottle and other gunk. I need to do more work with the bridle number and I need to try a different way of braiding but mostly it's still been tough to be really motivated to do much work with this stuff since I have so much time.
July Goals:
Ride Longer: As I mentioned in my new and improved 2017 goals, I discovered that I've been averaging around 20-25 minute rides including warmup and cool down. Now that I'm riding more often (4-5 days a week at a minimum up from the 2-3 I was doing) it's time to increase the duration. To accomplish this I'm going to start riding with a timer. I don't need to absolutely hold myself to the time on the timer for every ride (If Katai does really difficult work or does something fantastic I'll end earlier) but at least I'll have more awareness of how often I'm cutting rides short. Both Jane and I want the majority of my rides to be 45ish minutes including warm up and cool down. Of course I'm not just going to start riding her 45 minutes each ride for 4-5 rides per week but we are going to start working our way up there.
Continue Outdoor Rides: Recently I've really been enjoying riding in the grassy area outside the barn since, in part, makes Katai enough more forward that it's easier to work on her canter rather than in the arena where she'd rather quit. I want to continue to ride out there and also start to take her down the road. I may also see if I can ride in the neighbor's arena again as well. I have a good stretch goal for the show in August so I need to put in the work to get there and getting Katai comfortable outside is one big step :)
Practice, Practice, Practice (or Sitting Trot): This goal is about not avoiding what's hard, instead I just need to do more hours of practice so that it becomes easy! Primarily right now that's the lateral work and the sitting trot but of course it could be anything else haha. Sitting trot is harder for me than posting right now and I feel like I'm going to hurt Katai's back so I don't do it. Instead, Jane want's me to do it for 5-10 minutes per ride so that I have plenty of chances to work on it but don't over do it. So far since my last lesson I have practiced it for that amount of time every ride and now I just need to keep it up through the month. If I do that, by August I'll be so much better! Of course this could also include doing more rides outside, trailer loading, lateral work, and practicing our medium gaits.
When I read Emma's post and some of the responses to it I knew that I wanted to do a post about this. It’s something I’ve thought about a lot both from the perspective of what I need and how Katai matches that and from the perspective of what I would do differently “next time”.
However, I sat down to type this up and I struggled. I’ve drafted something at least 3-4 times now but it never really captured how I honestly feel about this and that is that Katai is perfect.
Sure I can wish and dream for something “better”, after all the grass is always greener, but ultimately Katai is the perfect horse for me which made this either the longest post or the shortest post. Instead I’ve decided to share a little about how I got here.
When I chose Katai I was in a very different place. I had found early in life what my limit was and unfortunately ended up with a lot of fear thanks to my first horse. I had conquered maybe 70% of that fear by 2012 when I got my first pony as an adult. Myshla was an incredible pony who was calm, quiet, cute, cuddly, and nearly a perfect kids pony. The only issue is that she was very forward and hadn’t been very well trained so she wasn’t very responsive to halts or half halts which made her feel a bit like a run away. The fact that she was a run away in the body of a small pony/teddy bear made it fun for me to work with her instead of scary.
When I first got her I was finally putting aside peer pressure and getting what I wanted which was a pony. She was the first horse I had after Sora and Sora had taken me on a journey that was way off the beaten path. In many ways Myshla helped me find my way back to riding dressage but even though she did that for me I quickly realized that she wasn’t going to be comfortable as my dressage pony, it just wasn’t her thing and she wasn’t built for it. She was such a perfect kids pony that I decided to find her a home with a kid and find myself a different pony.
Now (while I wouldn’t change this for the world since it would have meant not finding Katai) I maybe would have done things differently but it felt important to have a dressage pony prospect asap. So with my very tiny budget I started looking. I found Katai’s ad but kept convincing myself to skip over it. I’d had my fill of green horses with Sora and Katai was a bit shorter and possibly not as athletic as I wanted. Now I maybe would have kept Myshla for longer and saved up some additional funds but at that time I decided to go check out Katai.
That’s when something really weird happened, I went to see her and didn’t fall in love with her. I actually felt sort of meh about her and while her size felt better than I thought it would (she was at least a couple inches taller than Myshla) and I liked her brain she was also very resistant, scared, reluctant to be caught or handled, and pretty much feral. Even then I had a pretty good picture of my limits and I just wasn’t confident that I’d be able to successfully train her. I still bought her, or actually traded for her, and after one failure and multiple hours got her on the trailer and home where she proceeded to completely ignore all of the electric fencing and escape to the neighbors.
The first two years where really, really tough and I thought a lot about giving up. Ultimately what made me keep her was that there wasn’t going to be a market for a young, untrained pony and I still saw so much potential in her. My budget was still very low at that point so hiring a professional just wasn’t an option. Eventually I got through the worst of it and was able to move her to a dressage barn (with J) which felt like the right track. Now if I could go back and change anything it would just be to not ever bring her to that barn or take lessons on her with J. I learned from J but it caused issues with Katai that we’re still dealing with to this day. Things went backwards for a bit and then we started to make progress again.
Overall it was another 2 years of struggle before things really started to improve significantly with Jane (plus Katai hit that magical age of 8 which I’m sure helped).
However, after 4.5 years of blood, sweat, and tears I can say that my pony is perfect for me.
She’s still tricky, she’s still very forward, still gets tense, still frustrates me, still has meltdowns about things that just shouldn’t be a big deal after 4.5 years but I adore her and she’s good for me. Even though I can think/dream about what’s next and I’m sure Katai won’t be my last pony, I also can’t imagine finding any horse or pony that I would enjoy more than I’m enjoying Katai. Plus, she's still more talented at this dressage thing than I am and I'm still learning from her so it doesn't make sense to look elsewhere even if I weren't completely in love with her.
She’s just the perfect mix of bold, funny, spicy, forward, lazy, powerful, intelligent, cute, naughty for me to have fun and feel challenged but not ever feel scared. She also doesn’t have huge movement that makes me feel like I need to spend tons of hours at the gym. I work out to be a better rider for her, but it’s not another full time job. I never climb on her and wonder if she’s going to be naughty but I’m also not bored when I ride and she always challenges me in a good way. I just can't imagine a better pony for me :)
First, as I was typing in the title to this I realized that we're nearly half way through the year. Where has it gone?!? It seems like just yesterday that it was December.
Anyway, back to the lesson recap. My lesson yesterday (which was rescheduled from last Tuesday because of the heat) was amazing! It was another one where all the hard work we've been doing paid off.
To start off we were unsure what Katai's mood would be like since apparently she'd been horrid for Jane that morning. Because of that we started off with an extended warmup with a few laps of the ring at the trot in either direction (after lots of walk) and then circles before we added in serpentines. It paid off and Katai's stride length was great and I was able to keep her really pushing from behind for the most part.
For this lesson Jane was talking about getting and keeping her "soft at the poll" rather than talking specifically about round or bend and it really helped me. I can feel when she get's tight but sometimes I don't do anything about it because everything else is going well. This lesson, by focusing on that feeling rather than some of the pieces that come from it I was able to keep her much softer and more through over her back. We even had some really nice transitions!
I think the tough thing is that I know it's leg before hand and that I need to always push her forward into the contact. The problem is that being a greenie myself when it comes to dressage means that sometimes I'm trying to do that when Katai is so tight through the poll that it doesn't do anything productive and that's when she starts to rush. Being tight through the poll is something that is so normal for Katai that I almost always need to get her to give first and then push her forward with MANY reminders to give along the way. It's not that I can't do that, it's that I didn't always know I was supposed to since to me that's hand/rein first and then pushing forward and that's certainly not what the books/clinicians/experts tell you. At least not in the black and white way that I was thinking about it :)
Next we worked on shoulder in again. It's been awhile since we tackled this (shows and back to basics) so I was pretty rusty. However, the skills I've gained in the meantime were extremely helpful and with some coaching from Jane I was able to much more effectively control the rhythm and be more correct with my rein aids. Well, at least to the right. To the left it was a hot mess that only got slightly better before we quit but we did identify some of what I was doing wrong which means that I know what to work on.
Hanging out with the Vegetable in the backyard enjoying our now beautiful weather :)
Finally we went to canter. To the right Katai did fairly well and had a decently slow rhythm with long strides (this was her tougher side a month ago) but she was struggling to the left. In that direction it was all quick footfalls and rushing. She even got bolty on me once, then broke, and when I asked for canter again all I could get was a trot. Jane got really quiet and I thought I'd really messed up (typically she doesn't get quiet) but once we took a walk break (after I finally got some canter) we talked and apparently it was an AMAZING trot. Jane said that she couldn't believe that Katai could produce that with her tiny body and now if we could only get half that trot for her lengthenings :) At least we know it's in there somewhere!
It was great timing since one of my goals is to continue to practice the shoulder in (and other lateral work) and now I have more things to work on. It was also encouraging that Jane was really happy with my position (overall) and how effective I was with my seat. It wasn't that long ago that I would have been unable to control Katai's rhythm at the trot or canter and this lesson it felt easier and Jane said it looked much better and that she was happy with it. High praise coming from Jane!
I've always kind of wondered if Katai likes me. Obviously it doesn't really matter but since she's my partner in this dressage journey I'd really like for her to enjoy her time with me. Often when I look at her she'll look a bit crabby so, while she whinnies to me as I drive up and walks up to me in the pasture, I've just assumed that she's not particularly fond of me.
Then I watched this video that I took to show Katai's progress with the hose and the wash rack. I can see here how connected she is to me and how, while she is looking for peppermints she's also looking to me for reassurance. So fun to be able to see this and to know that maybe she is sort of fond of me :)
I also got video of our Intro C test from the schooling show over Memorial Day weekend. Fun fact is that my co-worker who was there with friends is holding the video camera and you can see my photographer friend to her right and my Jane to the left. I have such amazing friends :)
I have a huge smile on my face both because I'm sort of stunned with how well the test is going and because for the first time I feel like I have a pony since she is tired and keeps trying to quit on me. Especially on the last center line you can really see her try to stop.
Despite the fact that she keeps trying to stop and interrupting the rhythm I'm really happy with the improvement to her gaits
This weekend has felt a bit bipolar in both my personal and my horse life. I shipped the Vegetable off with my dad yesterday since I'll be traveling this upcoming week so it's been quiet and weird at home without him. I've also started packing and am still doing my best to deal with the stress of this not completely positive last minute trip which will now, most likely, be Tuesday-Friday.
With Mother's Day today I'm sad to not be seeing my mom (other plans, travel, etc.) and since I'll never be a mom to small humans would like to celebrate with my four legged kids. However, with Veggie gone it already feels weird and then I had a scare with Katai yesterday.
So I've mentioned previously that Katai has had some shortness in her right shoulder. It's been off and on and she's always held tension there and she does a really good impression of the Zanyeta stomp when I take up contact if she's tense. Most of the time though she's even and if she's even on the contact and working without tension she's perfect on various footing. However, if there's even a small amount of tension or if we're asking her to take more contact on the right rein she'll have a slight hitch to her gait.
Jane and I did a full lesson where Jane had me work through a few different exercises including counter bending her and changing the bend a lot and she was perfectly even for almost the entire ride. It started cropping up now that Jane's helping me get more even contact on both reins. There's no heat, no swelling, no "off-ness" to any part of her leg or shoulder but she starts to move that way when there's any tension. You can probably see it in the trotting GIF I shared in my last post. When I originally created it I was paying more attention to how active her hind legs were but when I saw how noticeable it is there I thought about pulling it. However, it's an accurate representation of where we are right now.
I want to assure you that I'm not neglecting getting a vet to look at her, if this doesn't resolve itself soon or if it changes, or starts to be more prevalent I'll of course call out the vet and do whatever they think is needed. I have the funds set aside to do it so it's not a big deal but after extensively looking at it Jane and I both feel that it's more of a "rein lameness" than anything else.
With that being said I took her over to the other barn yesterday with just a lunge line and rope halter. This barn is a PERFECT desensitization opportunity. The women who owns it has a pet potbelly pig right up against the arena along with two mini ponies in the next pen over. She's also got three, large rambunctious dogs, a rambunctious kid, multiple other horses, and jumps and standards all over in and near the arena. Basically a whole lot of things that Katai has no familiarity with.
When I got Katai there, while I was incredibly impressed at how well she was handling it, as you can imagine there was A LOT of tension. I just asked for a bit of lunging with lots of changes of direction but she was clearly uneven and this is the first time that I've lunged her where it was noticeable without side reins. I didn't do much and then took her back to our barn. Groomed her, left her, and spent the rest of the evening freaking out. Everything from retirement, to shoulder x-rays, to minor muscle tension, to calling the chiro ran through my head for about 5 hours.
I finally talked myself off the ledge and decided to have Jane look at her this morning prior to heading back over to the other arena for a ride. If Jane thought that anything was wrong I'd call off the ride and figure out with her what to do. If not, I'd go ahead and ride.
I got there and saw that Jane was videotaping her (AMAZING) young horse who was having a trainer ride outside. I watched (with my jaw hanging open) for a few minutes and let her know that I'd like to have her watch the pony trot on a lunge. She agreed but also told me that she still didn't think Katai was off. Apparently she'd been running around and Jane has already diagnosed that tension is what's causing the unevenness and she already knew that Katai was tense when I was at the neighbors.
I got Katai out (honestly all ready to prove her wrong and send us into emergency lame horse crisis mode) and brought her into the arena and started trotting her on the lunge and couldn't find even a speck of lameness. None, zilch, and I was LOOKING for it. I was so ready for her to be off that I changed directions with her a few times and even had her canter just to try to prompt it but still nothing. Then Jane showed up, also pronounced her completely sound (probably feeling like I'm some sort of hypochondriac) and reminded me how that tension would have caused her to be off just as we've talked about in the past.
I was SOOO relieved and tacked the pony up to head over to the other barn. I crossed my fingers that I'd make it out alive but I also had so much hope that she'd be good after all of our recent practice.
Long story short it went SO well! I was able to get some video which I've posted below! I pretty much just cut out mounting (and a bit of the end after I dismounted since I was trying to get a melted peppermint out of a wrapper and even I lost patience watching it) although I wish it had been in frame.
This arena belongs to the women on the right with the exceptionally tall horse and her mounting block reflects that. I had to slowly lower myself onto my pony's back since the top of the mounting block was higher than the bottom of my saddle flap #ponyproblems.
As you can see in the video she still is tight in that shoulder at points, however, for her first ride in a new space I feel like she did well and it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. She'll get four days off next week while I'm out of town so I'm curious to see if that changes anything. If it really is just her holding tension it shouldn't but I'm curious. We really did ride for just about 10 minutes since my boy doesn't do well with quick temperature changes and this was the first 80 degree day we've had. Even with this I had a headache but much more and I would have ended up with an all day migraine. I'm planning to ride over there again next weekend so I'll work more then. Also, yeah I know that I mirrored our test and went right instead of left. I started off without room to go left when I started and since it was more about being able to cue for things at specific points I just went with it.
Finally, once I got back today I finally got to see Jane ride. Normally our schedules don't align so while I've known she's an accomplished rider I haven't quite known what to expect. Some people are better teachers than riders but I was blown away today watching Jane ride. She's not a young women and her horse is in her 20s and a true definition of a school master (at one point the mare decided to try to take over and do a canter pirouette :) and Jane rides like this.
Alois Podhajsky
and reminded me of this book
It was amazing to watch, like watching a true master. The amount of core strength and how invisible her aids are were just outstanding to me. I've seen some amazing riders but never expected to find that in my instructor and because she hasn't shown much, there aren't many scores out there for her so I just had no idea really. It totally impressed and blew me away and while I've clearly always had so much respect and trust in Jane seeing her ride herself just brought it to the next level.
We also rescheduled my Tuesday lesson to Monday so I'll have more to share soon!
This weekend when I saw Jane she asked if I'd be at the barn on Monday and when I let her know that I would she said that she wanted to help me review the tests.
I think that it was both so that we could make sure that we'd decided on the correct tests and so that we can see what I need to work on. It was great for both!
We started with the warmup. Jane wanted me to warm up the way I thought I should and just watched quietly and occasionally gave me suggestions. I was pretty proud that she only spoke up a couple of times but mostly I was able to put together an effective warmup. How it will work at the show we just won't know until we've tried it out but I was happy that I didn't just ride around like a headless chicken.
We've come so far!
After that we took a walk break, reviewed the few things that Jane wants me to do differently which are mainly more transitions and trying to get a longer stride, and then went to training level test 1. Jane called it for me since I don't have it memorized yet and called out a few things. The main thing that I was disappointed about is that I reverted to posting too quickly as soon as I started concentrating on the test but even with that there was some improvement and with some coaching from Jane I was able to get it under control. The other things that we discussed after are that I need to make sure I'm strong enough with my right leg at the halt, we need to practice our walk a bit more, and I need to make sure I support with my outside rein more at the canter.
Oh, and maybe practice my braiding
I also need to practice turning down the centerline since I overshoot EVERY SINGLE TIME. You'd think I'd have this figured out by now and I ride a small pony so I have no excuse but it just seems like it comes up so quick!
After another walk break we did training level test 2. When we first got to the arena and I started riding it began raining pretty hard but through my warmup it slowly let up. However, as we started training 2 and Jane started calling the test to me it started pouring really hard and that was accompanied by thunder and lightening. It was a really great test for me to make sure I had a rideable pony in a more stressful situation but it also meant that I struggled to hear the test and we had a couple of errors. Also, because I hadn't even looked at the test I was coming at it completely blind which made it tough to bridge the gaps in hearing my next direction. We schooled a few things as we went but overall it was good.
More early feral pony :)
Both Jane and I were REALLY happy with how it went. I have some homework but nothing really big and I've got about three more weeks to nail down those few things before the show. Jane also had the great idea of checking with a neighbor who has an outdoor arena to see if I could ride over there and she was fine with that! I'll be headed over there this weekend probably to give Katai some experience riding in a different, and outdoor, space. With that and continuing to practice trailer loading I think we're going to be in a really good place for our first shows this year!
Apparently I had some sort of weird premonition about working on the simple changes through trot on the diagonal because that's one of the things that we worked on with Katai in my lesson this week.
All our crazy weather caused this humidity cloud inside the arena the other night
We started off with a slightly stiff pony so our main priority was getting her loosened up through her shoulders. We did some leg yield at the walk (I'm STILL on the struggle bus with these) and then did some work at the trot. We didn't do much before we went to canter since we're still trying to mix things up with Katai and the last couple of times we've ended with canter.
We did a lot of canter in this lesson and Katai just kept right on going! She only broke once and then when I cued for her to pick it back up she went right into it. We started with some 20 meter circles and spirals in. Then Jane had me do some simple changes (very simple ;) since we trotted almost all the way across the diagonal).
On our way to this ;)
Katai did SOOO well! I was able to get her to pick up the canter at the letter Jane wanted with very few extra trot steps and she never once got sassy or picked up the wrong lead. She did get more forward and started rushing a bit but with some help from Jane and better riding from me we got it contained and just had more energy which was good. Then we went straight to counter canter and again Katai kept right on going and let me figure things out without ever saying no or putting a foot wrong. We did some shallow serpentines in each direction, I did better going to the right so I have my homework, and then she got a well deserved walk break.
My tiny dog is even cuter when he's sun bathing
I was already SOOO proud of her but then we went to sitting trot and did some shoulder in. We finally NAILED it in both directions. We had everything right, she wasn't fighting me, I kept her round and forward, and didn't flop all over the place. IT WAS AWESOME.
Finally we did some stretchy trot and quit. It was a fairly short lesson since we spent so much time at the canter and knew that she'd be a tired pony but it felt great.
Recently Katai has been crabbier than normal. Maybe not even crabbier as much as more consistently crabby. When I was riding a lot earlier in the year I was contributing it to the increase in her workload and likely some sore muscles. Then we had #mareproblems so she had that reason and a week off, then a week off when I traveled for work, Then almost a week off when I was in Omaha, and now less work since I've been having trouble getting to the barn.
Last Saturday she got shots so I knew she wouldn't be feeling her best, then she got a massage which could have made her feel a bit tender, and finally got her hooves trimmed so that could have made her feel a bit off as well. She got a quiet week but I rode (just a nice light training ride) yesterday and today (slightly more work but still I kept it short).
Pretty cool that this is now a less than stellar ride. Also, you can clearly tell that she's thinner than she's been recently. Not unhealthy skinny, I can just barely feel her last two ribs, but still it's a big change from before.
I was hoping she'd feel different, and there are some differences, but she pretty much seems to be sensitive in the same places. Namely she's been crabby, not as forward as normal, doesn't want me to touch her near her flank, has become girthy, and has actually lost weight to the point that she is right on the edge of her ideal weight. This is a BIG change since she's always been an extremely easy keeper and she's certainly getting enough hay and the hay is great quality. She has been getting worked more so I'm thinking of adding some additional calories but it also could be a symptom
Tonight I did some digging/research and I'm fairly certain that she's got ulcers. The statistics would support it with 60%-90% of performance horses having ulcers. Also, I've always sort of wondered since she's just a horse that stresses easily and likes her routine. Now she's also living in a stall and has her own private paddock so she's not around other horses much and doesn't get much movement. In addition, all that time where I wasn't working here meant she was moving even less than normal, we gave her some bute after she had her shots, and she had a crazy week this past week where we certainly weren't letting her follow her normal routine so her stomach might really be bothering her.
She really just wanted to retract her neck but I'm really happy with the amount of crossover that we've been getting!
At this point with all of this adding up I've gone ahead and ordered some UlcerGuard. I'm going to give her that over the four days and if I notice a difference I'm going to add a supplement to support her gut. If I don't notice a difference I'm going to call the vet and have her tested for Lyme disease since that's the other most likely option.
I'm really hoping it's not Lyme but I also think it's unlikely. Not that it couldn't happen but I've NEVER pulled a single tick off of her. In addition I've seen horses with Lyme and they are extremely sensitive to being touched to the point of kicking their people, rearing, biting, and flipping out completely. Katai is a very sensitive flower so if she were feeling anything like that she likely wouldn't even be letting me touch her but she's been enjoying her grooming on most of her body.
Bit of a head tilt here, mare was definitely still a bit stiff. Chiro may also be in order
I found some additional info on Vitamin E deficiency and Selenium deficiency but neither of those match as closely and when I checked her vitamin supplement it actually contains a decent amount of both so I think that's unlikely.
She's also due to be dewormed and apparently that's something that can occasionally cause similar symptoms so I'm going to get that taken care of as well.
At any rate, I've ordered UlcerGuard, a supplement that supports gut health, and some dewormer for this year and I'll post an update once I receive it later this week and have a chance to try it out.
