Going Ons

I'm loving her new halter.
You can't really see it here but it actually has her show name on it!

Things have been happening over here peeps! I’m finally feeling like a real live human again so I’ve been getting back on track with pony things.

The new schedule has been super helpful although I haven’t been able to 100% stick to it yet. I have been doing the most intensive planned days though which has been huge. This past weekend I didn’t go do adventure day on Sunday but did go on Labor Day to “make up for it” so I’m proud of myself for that. I think that the only day I’ve really struggled with is spa day. If it’s nothing other than grooming I’m finding that my motivation just isn’t there so I think I may reschedule a bit or just move to the more intense schedule a bit sooner than planned.

Rides have been going really well! Unfortunately it’s been a looooooong time since I consistently rode even 2 days a week so we’ve both lost a lot of strength and fitness. I’m continuing to work on losing weight and gaining muscle out of the saddle though and with the plan I’ve put into place it seems like Katai is thriving off the work. She’s moving really well and we really did make some progress on random things over the summer even with the lack of work. Relaxation is a big one and she’s traveling much looser and longer from head to tail than she used to. This feels like a huge win for us.

Our second real work day ride was more about endurance than collection and so I added some time to our ride. Total work time under saddle (including walk warm up and cool down) had been right around 20 minutes. This past week we moved that up to 30 by increasing the walk and trot. I still haven’t cantered because now I realized that her saddle is too wide (loss of muscle) and so it is sliding forward badly at the canter. I need to bring my shim pads to the barn as a temporary solution but I keep forgetting. To make up for that and continue to add canter endurance I have been doing a fair amount of canter on the lunge.

Then on Monday’s make up Adventure Day I did some work in hand. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do on the way to the barn but figured I’d either do a low key ride around the barn or some in hand work. It ended up that, for some reason, I was having high anxiety and so was she. Often even if I’m having a high anxiety day when I get to the barn and she’s her normal calm self I can get my anxiousness down but on Monday she was also really anxious. With that I decided that, for multiple reasons, it made the most sense to do ground work.

The best thing about the situation on Monday was that with us both being high anxiety it was a good mini replication of what it would be like at a horse show. I decided to work her in hand around the trailers since that’s an issue typically. Somehow, magically, as I was working with her I ended up finding a tool to resolve a major issue I’ve always had with working her on the ground. For some reason something clicked with me that what’s tough about handling her on the ground is when she crosses in front of my driving line because then I lose the ability to effectively handle her. With that in mind I was holding the coiled up lunge in directly in front of my driving line (dead center in front of my body) and would flap it against the front of my legs if she got too close to crossing that invisible “wall”. This was seriously like a miracle and not only did she get it right away, she also stopped pulling and remained on the side I was trying to lead her on without a bunch of barging and pulling. It’s so simple that I can’t believe that it took me this long to figure it out. At least now we have one more way to effectively communicate with each other.

With that tool I worked on walking towards and away from the parked trailers since when we go to walk away from the trailer she always loses her marbles. Then we also went up to the wash stall and practiced standing in it. Both were productive and I continue to feel like our communication, trust bank, and relationship are improving in leaps and bounds which is paying dividends for everything I’m working on with her. The gains in relationship and trust are the biggest success for us this year and that’s a huge thing.

Wednesday and Thursday:

(Oops, didn't mean to wait that long. I was hoping to get more media but was only partially successful)
I’m writing about both together because Wednesday is also a planned day off so we’ll go through it quick!

Wednesdays are planned to be a chores/food prep/grocery shopping/house cleaning evening together for me and my boyfriend. We do shift this day around sometimes if one of us has set plans on a Wednesday but we try to be really consistent with it. We used to do this on the weekend but we’d keep putting it off until it was Monday morning and having a mid-week check in is pretty nice. My boyfriend climbs and is more of an extrovert than me so does after work happy hours or hangs out with friends in the evenings. I go to the barn 3 evenings a week so it’s nice to actually see each other between the weekend :)

Thursday is currently planned to be a lunge day. There are a few reasons for it to be scheduled this way right now, one of which is that we’re both gaining fitness so a planned lunge day means that Katai is still working but not needing to deal with me on her back. Because she isn’t also trying to balance me or carry me I’ve been focusing on helping her with her balance and endurance. I rotate right now between a lunge work day and a PT lunge. For the work day I’ve been working her with the Vienna reins to make sure she isn’t just locking up through her back and then we do patterns, at least as much as you can do on the lunge. These patterns include spiraling in and out, 10, 15, and 20 meter circles, going down the long side, and just lots of transitions. For all of these things I’m focusing on how she’s using her body and if she drops down into a transition on the forehand we redo it. Sometimes I put down ground poles and walk/trot/canter her over those as well.

On PT lunge days I lunge her in a halter and focus on really getting her stretching out and down and on really making sure she’s bending. I also usually do a bunch of in hand work before lunging including front leg stretches, carrot stretches, backing with her head lowered, etc. Right now this is a decent amount of the time we’re working together but will continue to be a smaller percentage of the work over the next few weeks. Sometimes I’ll even go back to the in hand work in the middle of when I'm lunging her for a bit if I notice that she’s especially tight somewhere.

The plan is that within the next month or so this will switch to a riding day and it will likely be more of a work day. I need to figure out what exactly I’ll have scheduled that day once I get closer but I will be changing this to a riding day. I will still be doing lunging and stretches etc. but will be moving it to Friday and doing both spa stuff and lunging stuff that day. This will most likely be more of a halter lunge and less of a work lunge at least until she gains a lot more fitness.

Spinning: Lesson Recap? 1/6

Shopping for mirrors for my new apartment.
More on that soon!

Today I had a make up lessons scheduled from last Tuesday. On Tuesday I had decided to reschedule, if possible, since it was extremely cold and was snowing. In addition because of our crazy cold weather and the New Year holiday I hadn't ridden for about 5 days prior so I figured that it would be more productive if I pushed it out a bit.

I rode this week Wednesday and Thursday and then had something scheduled yesterday so I wasn't able to make it to the barn. Both Wednesdays and Thursdays rides were "energetic" but Katai was listening, I felt like I rode well, and we got some things accomplished.

Today though we did not. This is the first day of a nice warm up and starting tomorrow through the end of the 10 day forecast most days will been the 30s which is almost a 50* swing from where we have been. I am THRILLED and was hoping that today, since they highs were actually in the low double digits, would feel warmer. When I got in the car to head to the barn though it was only -11.

Blurry but an accurately adorable representation of their current relationship

When I got to the barn Katai was quite fresh and spooky. She was really crabby for tacking up and then had a big spook as Jane and I walked her into the arena. She was really sassy when I climbed on and kept threatening to rear or buck but after a minute or so she calmed down and just went forward.

We spent a long time at the walk and were really focused on bending. She was doing well and walking nicely so we went to trot. I got all of 6 extremely crabby, humpy, tight, angry steps before I hopped off and called out that I was going to lunge. I almost NEVER feel the need to do that since normally I can more effectively work through it under saddle but I felt like Katai was going to bolt and I am not about trying to ride her through that.

Indeed, once we got the lunge on her and I got her out on the circle she lost it. I have never seen her run so fast. I did what I could to manage it and was glad that Jane was there to help with suggestions. Mainly though we just let her run it out and I just tried to slowly get some control back. There was a lot of running before I was able to get some semblance of her listening to my cues to change gaits.

We changed to the other side and had a minor repeat performance before we found the hamsters again. At that point I was able to cue for and get the gait I wanted and have her mostly maintain it. I swapped back to the starting side just to make sure I could get the same reaction and then we went back to riding.

Old media
More new pictures soon I promise! Right now my phone's been
dying if I take it out my pocket for pictures because of the extreme cold.

Jane mainly had me work in trot and we just focused on getting her loosened up and listening. After that performance the hump in her back was gone and while she was still stressy she was at least listening to me and allowing me to help her stretch and work over her back.

We ended on that note without ever touching the canter under saddle. Honestly it wasn't even frustrating really, just telling of how much energy she has since I haven't been able to ride. I completely accept responsibility for that excess energy and I'm just glad that I'm back to my routine of rides. Jane and I also talked a bit about her current diet. We've just added some more fats and a bit of grain to her ration since she was having a tough time maintaining her weight with the cold weather and increased workload. Jane is wondering if that has something to do with her mental state today and it certainly could. I also just don't think that she's getting enough (a couple of handfuls at each meal if that) to so drastically change her attitude. At this point we're going to assume it was the weather change and the lack of rides and go from there but are ready to make adjustments if needed if this doesn't improve.

Experimentation

Let me out or feed me treats!
Jane and partner spent the past few weekends installing new
bars on the stall doors in the main barn and they look soooo good!

A while ago, before I was derailed by farrier drama and sending my saddle away, I was going to share a bit about a supplement update. In the meantime I’ve had something else come up so I figured I could share both now.

Back when I “self” diagnosed Katai with Ulcers I did a round of treatment with UlcerGuard and started Katai on G.U.T. for maintenance. After the treatment with UlcerGuard all of Katai’s ulcer-like symptoms went away and stayed away but I wasn’t sure if they stayed away because of or despite the G.U.T. since I started that at the same time. My plan in the first place with starting her on the maintenance supplement was to wean her off going into winter (when I felt like there would be less stress) and then put her back on in the spring.

 

Little tough to tell past the cute pony tongue
but this is what they looked like before.

So, the supplement ran out and I didn’t immediately replace it despite it still sort of being summer. I figured I’d experiment and see if her symptoms came back or stayed away. Like a lot of those things they sort of crept back slowly so I wasn’t aware right away but just prior to the show Katai was back to being girthy, sensitive to touch, and just seemed less like her normal self. Once I realized the pattern (when she almost nipped me as I fastened her girth) I felt so bad! Here I’d found something that worked and then took her off it just to see if it stopped working which made poor Katai uncomfortable.

The good thing is that I know now that I need to keep her on it. I just felt bad that I’d given her the chance to feel icky in the meantime.

The other thing I’ve been experimenting with is my lunging set up.

For a long time I’d used just plain side reins with a stretchy insert. After moving to my previous barn I started to experiment with a neck stretcher since everyone there used one. With normal side reins Katai would always get above the contact and get hollow. She was also clearly tight just in front of the withers and the neck stretcher did WONDERS for that. However, once I started working with Jane she was very against the neck stretcher (and I don’t disagree) so I started looking for something that would provide similar benefit and stumbled upon Vienna reins. They’re said to be really good for horses, like Katai, that get tight in front of their withers. Plus, it didn’t have the poll pressure that Jane disliked.

I loved how they worked with Katai and have used them exclusively for lunging for almost the past year. Just about two months ago I decided to try out side reins again and it didn’t work. Katai went right back to getting above the contact and got really hollow through her back. I put them away and went back to the Vienna reins.

Not sure if I've shown this before but this magnet lives on Katai's stall :)

 Then, fast forward to a couple of weekends ago. Since I don’t have a saddle I decided to lunge. Recently (as many of you have probably noticed) Katai has started to duck slightly behind the contact a bit in tense situations. She isn’t doing this at home but the lack of forward combined with the extra tension at a show or when I'm at the neighbor's arena causes her to go btv which we're actively working to "fix". In the Vienna reins she can go behind the vertical because of the way the action works, however, she really hasn't done that at all. It's something I've watched for because I knew it was a risk but so far she hadn't ever gone btv when I lunged. However, with her tendency to do so under saddle recently increasing I wanted to cut out any chance of that happening when I lunge so I went back to the side reins. 

Low and behold they worked! She was PERFECT and never got tight or above the side reins. She also pushed forward into them, unless I let her get lazy, and just worked so so so well. Really, it's just crazy how quickly they can change and learn things after years of having pretty consistent behaviors.

Upward Trends and Downward Spirals

Recently I've really noticed how some of the things I used to spend a lot of time on are swapping with some of the things I didn't spend as much time on. I just thought it was sort of interesting but if this is boring feel free to skip!

Upward Trends:

Who else thinks that most clipart is funny

• Riding: It's crazy how a year ago I was averaging 3-4 trips to the barn a week and now I'm at 4-6. Prior to a year ago I was likely averaging closer to 2-3 trips to the barn a week which seems insane to me now!
• Grooming: I'll admit that when I was growing up with horses I didn't even pick hooves most of the time (unless we'd just ridden on our gravel road) and typically I probably brushed the dirt off under the saddle and girth. Even as recently as a year ago with Katai I wasn't doing much for grooming and was typically just using a stiff brush to get the dirt off. Now I'm using multiple brushes each time I work with her and brushing every part of her body. I also do more with her mane and tail than I used to.
• Bathing: Sort of in the same bucket as grooming but I'll call this one out separately since it's a bit more work. I can probably count on one hand the number of times that I'd bathed Katai up until this year. Now she's already gotten a few bathes this year and I'm planning at least 1-2 more this month to get her ready for the show. 

Downward Spirals:

For example, who thought of this?

• Shopping: Not that I'm not shopping but I used to spend a decent amount of time admiring things like saddle pads, bridles, halters, polo wraps (things I didn't really need), etc online or shopping at tack shops and now I spending more of that time riding. I think it's a combination of now owning things I really love (so not feeling like I need to shop) and actually spending more of my time riding.
• Cleaning Tack: Again, now that I'm riding more I'm just not feeling like I need to fill my time cleaning tack or doing other horse related things to feel fulfilled :)
• Lunging: I was lunging or grooming for at least 1-2 of my trips to the barn before. Now because I'm more effective riding I ride for most of my trips to the barn. This wouldn't necessarily be the "right" answer for most horses but because Katai can get so locked up through her back it's way more effective for me to ride most of the time.

Overall I feel like because I'm actually riding more and feeling like we're making progress I'm feeling less need to fill my time doing other misc things. I think that those things used to help me feel like a rider when I wasn't actually making progress with my riding. 

Horse Expo Haul and Video

I had a great time this weekend! 

First, the horse expo on Friday was fun. Last year I had high expectations and was disappointed with how little there was to do or shop for now that I have more specialized tack and the expo is at least 80% western focused. This year I had lower expectations and therefore more fun. I also ran into a friend (my landlord from back when I first got Katai), ate some kettle corn, and bought some great stuff at the tack swap.

Other than the kettle corn this is the extent of my shopping this year
 $16 for the whole pile of books :)

I believe I've mentioned that I've been trying to collect the library books that I read as a kid. Unfortunately most of them are out of print so even if I knew the names of the books or the authors it still may be tough to find them but since I don't even know that my best bet has been searching through used book stores or (especially) picking up books at this tack swap.

A few years ago at this swap I found my "holly grail".

Complete with dust cover, I have SOOO many amazing memories
of reading through this book as a kid and dreaming of having my own horse some day

Plus it's got a couple really old photos of George Morris!! Pretty cool :)

This time I found the other book I'd been looking for. This was my other favorite when I was growing up. It's back in print but I really wanted the old hard cover version and even better, this was once a library book which makes it even sweeter!

I loved all of the Billy and Blaze books but this is my favorite.

I also had great rides on Friday and Saturday and today Katai got an easier work out on the lunge. She's been very slightly short on her right front. Both Jane and I think it's more muscle soreness (and possibly a bit of Thrush) and nothing more serious and you can see here that it comes and goes a bit but she did pick up the incorrect (left) lead twice and she NEVER does that. Because of that she might get a quiet day or a day off tomorrow rather than another ride.

Otherwise I've been doing a great job with riding at least 4 times a week and have been to the barn 5-6 times a week :)

This video is of Katai lunging and our trailer loading improvement from a couple of weeks ago. This is just a small clip and she was in an out a bunch more times that day. We've practiced once since that day and I'm hoping to put in some more practice this next week as well.

Weekend Update and Trailering Progress

This weekend was amazing!! Like Teresa at Journey with a Dancing Horse I used every minute and spent a lot of time outside.

Starting on Friday evening I got out to the barn and had a great ride. Katai was a little quiet and not especially forward (when I first started looking into Ulcers) which is unusual for her but she had a busy week so that's likely part of it as well. Jane also mentioned that the massage person turned up that Katai had sore hind legs/stifles and we've been working on increasing her cross over and getting her carrying in the canter so it may partially be muscle soreness too.

Plus I made vegan buddha bowls to
celebrate my 2 year vegan anniversary

Then Saturday I had another great ride. Katai was right with me and we played a couple of times with simple changes across the diagonal. She nailed the transitions and I just need to work on being more organized and less flustered but it was fun to try something new.

Finally (for the weekend), Sunday was trailer training day. You've all seen the pictures from my last post but we ended in a decent place with Katai stepping just into the trailer and off the ramp with her front feet. I was really happy with that but especially that she was stepping forward off pressure which she hasn't been the last several times I've needed to trailer her despite a lot of natural horsemanship type techniques. These were the same things that helped me originally train Katai to trailer load (which she used to do beautifully BUT with a ton of tension to the point of shaking sometimes).

Prepping the ingredients for my buddha bowls :)

Since those weren't working and with my change in training methods/mindset since working with Jane I've been trying something different this time. Mostly I'm trying to keep everything as low stress as possible. I'm not escalating at all and my only rules are that she move forward (eventually) off pressure, face the trailer, and that we make at least an inch of progress each day.

Today I brought her back out to the trailer for a continuation of yesterday's training. If anything I focused on using even less pressure than yesterday and I was SO pleased with her! She stayed really calm the whole time, almost no tension other than that she started to paw twice. Plus, she never reared up and when she pulled back and I held pressure she came right forward.

Again I asked with some pressure (barely an ounce) for her to step up into the trailer after me and she came right with me. I did lots of having her stand for a second and then backing her out, praising the heck out of her and then bringing her back in. Today we got all the way in with her back feet just barely staying on the ramp more than twice! SUCH huge progress especially with no blow ups and she was relaxed when we ended.

Then I brought her back to the barn, she walked calmly back, and then I spent the whole rest of the evening at the barn :) I lunged her (and she was great) and she wasn't as stiff or sore as I thought she might be after all of her shenanigans yesterday.  I'm certainly sore, my hands took a beating and typing was sore today at work. Then I tried braiding her!

This was my first try and I think they turned out decently well. I'll try take a bit wider sections of mane next time but otherwise I'm pleased! Also, I wondered if I could get away with using white yarn for that first braid.  The answer is no, no I can't.

Finally I stuffed her with peppermints and lots of pets, cleaned her stall, and headed home.

Bad Influence

Or actually a good influence. After reading a few of Sprinklerbandit's posts about using Vienna reins with Courage I wanted to try them with Katai. I figured that my neck stretcher could probably play double duty and work for Vienna reins as well and I was right, at least for the most part.

Next time I want to add something to make them at least a few inches longer but I went with it this time since they weren't horrible. I was even able to get some video and I think she's looking really good.

Enjoy some Prairie Home Companion in the background because that's how we roll :)

Downtime

This winter has been tough for a few reasons but the weather has been nuts! It's been a very cold year overall but there have just been so many crazy temperature swings. On top of that it's either been very cold, highs in the single digits, or when it gets warmer, up into the 20s, we get dumped on with snow. This week was no different and we got around 4-6" of snow Monday-Wednesday. In addition it was still quite cold so none of the salt or chemicals were working which meant the roads were really bad.

Because of that I didn't get to the barn Monday or Tuesday and I was planning to make it there, no matter what, on Wednesday but the roads were still crappy and I was starting to get sick. On Thursday I was feeling really crappy and while I made it through my day at work it wasn't a good day. It was also only about 4* so I just couldn't make myself go to the barn.

Then Friday I felt even worse but I had the day off so I went to the barn in the morning and delivered more supplements for Katai and got her out to stretch her legs for a bit. I just lunged her in her halter without any sort of side reins but she got to w/t/c in each direction for a bit and I also just walked her around the arena so she could put her nose on things and do some exploring. I also did some spa stuff with her and got her tail trimmed, finally, since she had already pulled out a chunk about a week ago. I also cleaned up her back legs a bit (as much as I could with just spot remover) and cleaned and brushed out her mane.

I'm feeling better today and planning to go to the barn again but still not sure if I'll feel up to riding or if I'll just lunge again. I'd been planning on a make up lesson for Tuesday since we canceled because of the snow but both Jane and I are sick so I canceled. I'm still hoping that I can have a lesson tomorrow morning and will post a lesson recap if it happens.

Catch Up: Lesson Recap 10/4 and Other Catch Up



Sorry for the recent lack of posts but something really exciting has been going on in my personal life. I may be a little quieter for a while but should be back in full swing soon! At any rate I want to recap this week’s lesson before I entirely forget what we talked about.

The focus this week again was canter. Later in the lesson Jane said something that made me so happy and that’s that me and Katai’s trot is really good, our walk is mostly controlled (when we don’t have angry mare hormones to deal with), and our leg yields are getting really good so she wants out canter to catch up. This is so, so encouraging for me because we’ve never been at a place where we have such consistently good trot much less actually even having any sort of lateral work at all. With that being said we’ve worked through the worst of the flailing at the canter and it’s starting to get consistent as well. The amount of change in Katai (and let be honest, in my riding) is just amazing to me and I’ve only been at this barn for a month now. I can’t even imagine where we’ll be in the spring!

 

She's just totally amazing

To start off we worked on getting Katai to really bend all through her body on a loose rein and to take the contact down. She tends to be tight through the back and in her neck so this is really good for me to learn. What was really interesting was that after doing this in each direction, when we switched back she did this quick, little shake a few times with her head and neck and swished her tail around a couple of times. She was clearly releasing something and she has NEVER done anything like that before. We did each direction again, got a few more twitches out of her, and then went to trot.

We focused on getting my body in the right place and getting me to bend my knees as I sit. I have ALWAYS struggled with being in a chair seat and now to try to correct that I’m compensating by perching since it feels like that will get my legs more under me. On Tuesday when Jane had me correctly sit back more on my pockets my legs shot out in front of me again so we focused on that for a while. As that was getting better she had me do some leg yield down the center line and really focus on staying behind the movement and not trying to ride too much when I feel Katai quitting. I need more practice with this but it got a lot better during this lesson! Then we took a walk break and Jane helped me re-arrange my body again before we went into canter. 

It really is getting to be fall!
This tree is outside my work and it's so pretty

Katai did really well going to the right (my tough side) and we discovered that I’m turning my right toe out and squeezing with the back of my calf rather than the inside. We think it’s a flexibility thing and I also think it’s a strength thing. I’m going to work on that. When we switched to go in the other direction Katai just refused. No, this is hard work I don’t want to don’t make me I’m done I want my dinner please thank you. So, I picked up a dressage whip for the first time in a long time just to help reinforce my forward leg aid since pony was being very ponyish and just stopping and digging her heels in. She wasn’t happy about it but when I asked gently with the whip she did go forward and we got some great canter in that direction.

After a little trot break we went back to canter again. Just like T, we’re at a place where we just need to canter so we’re really working on doing it a lot, for short sections of the ride. Once I had the dressage whip I only needed to use it a couple more times and then Katai got the memo and started to just listen to my leg.

Being a dressage pony is hard work!

Just like last week I decided to lunge on Wednesday since it’s a good way to give her a lighter day but still get her moving so she doesn’t get too stiff. Jane came and watched for a bit again and really likes this as part of my riding schedule so Wednesday Lunging Day is officially a thing now. Katai was quite stiff to start off, she had gotten a good workout the day before, and was a little crabby. I let her take her time moving slowly and gradually as she softened up we went back to the canter on the lunge, in side reins.

She started off a bit sluggish but really started to get it and maintain her own, slow momentum after a bit. After a trot break and some walk we switched to the other side and did a bit more. I stopped before she got too tired and when we went over to talk with Jane, Jane mentioned that Katai’s eyes were so much softer and she was quiet and relaxed. She’s really appreciating our new routine and I’m learning how to help with that relaxation which is amazing! I plan to ride tonight, Saturday, and Sunday and can’t wait to see my amazing mare 

Sound Decisions: Lesson Recap 4/17

First of all I have to report that I still didn’t really work Katai 5 days this week. I started off strong with a walk ride on Monday because I had plans on Tuesday evening. Then on Wednesday I took Katai to the outdoor arena where she crazily lunged herself. On Thursday I had a great ride with no attitude where we accomplished a lot and then on Friday I went out to the barn because Katai was having her feet trimmed by the new farrier.

I love him!

It’s one of those "hindsight is always perfect" moments where I wonder why I didn’t switch farriers earlier. He and I laughed a bit at how it looked like she was standing on peg legs (gallows humor) and then he gave her a great, balanced, reasonable trim. I thought he might bring up shoeing her but he didn’t. I had my fingers crossed that she wouldn’t be too sore.

Katai's feet have been like B and now both are more like A.

On Saturday I went out to the barn mainly so that I could cancel with L if she was really bad and was extremely pleased (really that doesn’t even capture how ecstatic I was) when she was able to walk on concrete! I could tell that she was just slightly hesitant but compared to her last few trims it was a HUGE improvement. However, the farrier had changed her angles enough, especially on her right front, that I didn’t want to push her and risk injuring her. Instead she got pampered and then we went for a trail walk around the outdoor pastures and paddocks with a little hand grazing for good measure. It still felt productive since I’m hoping to start riding out her there again soon and she behaved really well.

Based on how sound she was I decided to go ahead with my lesson but to take things a little easy.

On Sunday she was just very, very slightly puffy right above her fetlock joint on her right front. You couldn’t see it but I know her legs really well and I could feel it. I mentioned it to L off the bat and she agreed that Katai was just very slightly hesitant on that leg. Because of that we did a lot of walk and then decided to try a little trot where L pronounced her "sounder than at the walk". Along with her new angles we’ve had a crazy temperature switch. Last week it was averaging in the mid 40s and this week it’s been averaging in the mid 70s. That’s a huge difference for the horses and they’ve all been sluggish and hot. On top of that we’ve been getting air pollutant warnings so L was having all of her students take it a little easy. With that in mind we did some trot work on shallow serpentines (I needed more work than Katai did) and after a few amazing accomplishments in each direction and lots of walk breaks we called it after about 30 minutes of a normally 45 minute lesson.

Making show plans...

Katai was an ANGEL the whole time. Even with the heat and everything else she had to be fussy about she just did exactly what we asked which made it an even better idea to quit early. She seriously gave me everything I asked for and never once said no which is such an amazing thing for this pony. I’m still walking on air today about how well this weekend went and I can’t wait to ride tomorrow!

Spinning Like a Top

Our weather is finally turning nice!! It made it to the low 70s today and that was a great reason to get Katai outside for the first time since last fall. I have taken her out for a couple of walks and some time to hand graze but otherwise she hasn't been out since last year.

The goal for the next few weeks is to get Katai outside as much as I possibly can so that at least that part of the show at the end of May won't be too odd for her. I'm getting her out every day that the weather holds whether it's to ride or just to take her for a walk.

I felt like we had a 50-50 chance tonight whether she would be calm and normal or completely lose her mind. Spoiler alert...

It was the latter

During grooming she was really quiet and sleepy. I'm so happy to say that this no treats thing is working really well and she's quiet and pleasant and seems to enjoy my company. Katai was also really quiet and reasonable about walking to the arena which would have really made her hot in the past. I was still sort of thinking that there might be a chance that she would be calm and reasonable but when I got her in the arena on the lunge line she went right into a canter.

I could tell by her glazed over eyes that there was going to be no reasoning with her so I decided to just let her run it out. I tried to gently re-direct a few times but mostly just moved her around the arena and left her as far out on the line as I could so that she could make nice large circles. Eventually she calmed down and I was able to get her to make some walk/trot transitions. Finally I got her switched to go in the opposite direction and she got herself going again.

Eventually she wore herself out in that direction too and after a couple more walk/trot/walk/halt transitions I called it a day. She had run hard enough that she got herself slightly sweaty but nothing bad. I could tell that she didn't have much energy left but I have the feeling that she just needed this and that next time she'll be her normal calm self.

Honestly I was just really happy with how I handled it. I never got frustrated or tried to make something happen that just wasn't going to happen tonight. I was just calm and relaxed and let her do what she needed to and in the end that meant that her running didn't last as long as it likely would have and we had a nice calm walk back to the barn. I'm proud of myself for not getting wound up because even a few months ago that's what would have happened.

The plan for tomorrow is to ride inside but take her outside for a walk after. I'm fairly certain that Katai will be stiff, sore, and a little tired after her run today so I won't be too surprised if I get some fireworks. Hopefully though I can get some pictures!

Update - With Pictures as promised!

Things have been great!

No things have been better than great things have been awesome!!!

I finally have a saddle. As of tonight it is trainer approved and ready to be added to the credit card tomorrow. I'm stoked! Well not about the credit card thing but about finally having something to ride in. It's been over a month since I've been able to be able to plan to go to the barn and ride because I've needed to borrow J's County which she 1. is understandably reluctant to let students use and 2. uses on some of the lesson horses when she has to. 

Here is the glorious thing.

It's a Passier Vector which I'd never heard of before and seems to be fairly rare. It has a medium tree, 17" seat, upswept panels that keep it short enough for Katai's back. It also, oddly enough, has foam panels which I'm happy about in this case since this is the only saddle that has fit and foam is soft and supposed to hold up better than wool. Of course it can't be adjusted but this is a bargain basement saddle so if/when Katai outgrows it I'm not too worried about passing it along and buying something else.

Soooooo happy!

I also had my lesson tonight and Katai, who's been behaving absolutly beautifully, had an off night. However, it was a great reminder of just how far we've come as well as just how good she is. We had a couple minor dissagreements but she never did anything dangerous and worked fairly well over all. It was dissapointing to have J see her the worst she's been in awhile but she seemed to believe me that she'd been better and she has finally approved me starting to trot her so she must have been happy overall.

I did manage to find someone to take some pictures while J was lunging and they aren't great but at least you can see Katai. I know I'm lacking in the picture department so here you go!

I love this picture! I just wish it weren't as blurry.

and an even blurrier picture but you can kind of see how nice she is moving in this one. I love the pink blur of her boots :)

Now to just get her to carry herself like that when I'm riding her!

Saddle Fitting Purgatory

We haven't killed each other yet. In fact things are going pretty darn well with both the crossties and training. I've had two lessons with J where we worked with Katai now and I've been extremely proud of my pony. The gaps in training that she's found are things that I guess I knew I was being lazy about and just needed a third party to remind me of. One of those is that Katai is horrible, and has been horrible, about standing still. Trying to do anything like tighten a girth, or adjust a bridle is almost impossible and frustrating and while I tried for awhile to correct that I think I finally just sort of gave up on it. I've been reinforcing that she needs to STAND still now though and it is getting better.

In our first lesson we worked on leading as a step towards properly lunging which is something I've never been taught. I just copied what I saw people doing when they lunged their horse and eventually figured it out through trial and error. J had me start by leading, while facing out, Katai around the track of the arena. Every time she tried to budge her shoulder in or leave the track she got a correction and as long as she was walking nicely on the track we left her alone. As J mentioned several times she is extremely smart and figured it out pretty quick so at my next lesson we progressed to lunging her with sidereins. Again I was so proud of my pony! J was expecting to have trouble with her but she was a little saint and did it just like I'd taught her to listening to voice commands and our body positioning.

Other than the fact that I really did need to learn this and have already seen differences in Katai since J started teaching me how to work with her correctly, I haven't been riding because J pronounced both of my saddles "hopeless, don't even try to ride in them. Put them up for sale immediately." I was pretty sure that was going to be the case so I was prepared but what I wasn't prepared for was that she said I needed to start looking at close contact saddles. It was honestly kind of a painfull thing for me to hear. I LIKE dressage saddles. They are comfortable and put you in the correct place for dressage. However, I have spent more of my time riding in a close contact saddle than a dressage saddle and I've actually been wanting one again for going out on hacks since I like to be able to get off of my horse's back when cantering and like being able to vary my position more than you can in a dressage saddle. I didn't want to have one as my main saddle. The more I thought about it though the more I realized that I'm not only lucky to have an instructor that puts Katai's comfort above all else but that she is comfortable and flexible enough to go with a close contact when a dressage saddle isn't working. Mostly I was happy to finally have someone tell me what I needed so that it wouldn't all be on my shoulders and I was looking forward to finally being out a saddle fitting purgatory.

I am so lucky to have a great local tack shop that's only about 15 minutes away from my house that has an excellent saddle trial program as well as TONS of saddles! Over the past couple of days I picked up and tried over 8 saddles to finally end up with these.

The dressage saddle at the end is one of mine that is for sale but the other three are a Collegiate Event, a Beval, and an Albion. They will be coming with to my lesson on Thursday for saddle tryouts with J. It is really very odd to see all those CCs and APs in my apartment when its normally all dressage saddles. We are going to be stylin too with our pink lined black bridle, black stirrup leathers, black stirrups and brown saddle :-)

I've riden her now in both the Albion, on Saturday, and the Beval, on Sunday, and while I prefer the Beval I do really like both of them. It is so weird to be riding in a CC again though! 

Sweater Weather

It has been insanely warm here lately. Yesterday it almost made it above freezing and today it was all the way up to 40. I was literally in a sweater tonight when I worked with Katai and it was wonderful.

She was pretty keyed up when I started. It seems she's suddenly developed an attachment with one of the geldings in her field. The funny part is that the guy she chose happens to be the only other horse at the barn that is ridden dressage and he's about 17 hands of brown and white paint. They make an interesting couple.

Once I mounted up she was all business just like normal. I've been lunging her beforehand working on trot/canter transitions and today I tried walk/canter transitions. I've been using a very specific cue to get her to move up to a canter for the reason that I knew it would help under saddle. With her workman like attitude tonight I decided to go for it and asked for a canter after we had done a bit of trot work. She sprang right into it and it was a great smooth, balanced canter. I was so proud of her!

 I have been struggling a little on getting any type of consistent contact. She is young and green so it's not something I'm worried about, it will just take some consistency but she is the toughest horse I've worked with in that regard and loves to go around inverted with her head in the air so I've enlisted help. D and I spent some time chatting tonight so I have some ideas and we are going to set up a lesson as soon as we have an idea of what the weather will be like.

I put more mastitis drug in her frogs but this time my phone had died from the cold so I still don't have pictures. Tomorrow I'm going out again to take advantage of the warm weather. I'm hoping that in these next couple of applications I'll start to see some type of change.

Progress

 

Pictures of a very tense, inverted pony mare. Yes there are sidereins but they are long enough that she was actually nibbling on grass at one point before pictures so they are not causing her to carry her head like this. Besides, you can see the tension in her legs and body as well.

Fast forward a few months of proper work, carrot stretches plus ground poles and you get this.

 



Plus, that's in the cold with very little warm up and she is pretty weak still from lack of any real consistent work. I am seriously getting excited about where we can go. Is there a bronze medal in our future?

Really On Our Way

The weather has been so much nicer for the past couple of days and on Thursday I had a wonderful ride on my girl. We did so much trotting that I was actually sore, of course I haven't been riding much recently so that's not saying too much, and Katai didn't put a foot wrong.

The ride started out a little rough. She was slinging her head around and not wanting to listen to my leg but was very forward compared to normal. I actually climbed off to pull the saddle and check her back and girth because I wondered if she was sore. I couldn't find anything even with fairly rough poking at her back and a thorough examination of her girth and all four legs so I decided that she must just be having a "mare day" and climbed back on. We trotted for almost 20 minutes and she was just perfect. I even had really good steering which is usually pretty tough when they first start trotting.

Today I had another great ride on her and we did more trotting. there was someone else riding in the arena which was great experience for her but honestly she didn't seem to really care at all. She still seemed a little down but again I couldn't figure anything out even with an examination from her head to her tail. Apparently she hadn't finished up her hay that morning but she was eating the hay pile where I tied her and I looked at everything from the inside of her mouth to the pulse in her feet and everything seemed normal. I'm hoping she just has a minor but from the weather changes but either way we are going to take it easy tomorrow and I'm just going to groom her, spend some time with her and look her over again.

This evening I bought a couple of dressage books on my kindle. I just started one about early classical training with young horses and I'm really enjoying it. The writer does a TON of lunging in side reins before ever riding and explains why that is preferable and I can really see the benefits. I think I will probably do a review of the book when I am finished with it.

Dressage Pony

I wish I wish I had taken pictures today!! I pulled Katai out between storms after spending the rest of the morning cleaning the barn, groomed her and got her ready to lunge. The place I have been lunging was mucky so I took her further out in the field and lunged her going in both directions.

She was releasing and trotting really nice in both directions so I hooked up the side reins and started her out to the left. I was thinking it would take at least a couple of minutes before she again realized that trotting with her head low was more comfortable but she got it instantly! She was completely awesome so after a couple of minutes I changed directions and sent her to the right and she got it instantly on that side too.

Sue is such an incredible horse. She gets all this stuff so quickly and has just the right amount of spirit and heat to her. To make her fun without being too naughty. I completely adore her and I think she's finally starting to realize it :)

More of the Same

Today I worked more on some of the same stuff that I have been doing all week. For anyone that is familiar with CA's method today was more with with lunging for respect stage one and two. Stage two is fun for me because I can see Katai starting to build strength in the hind end which will be so important for her to be successful at dressage. I'm also starting to get FORWARD!!! When I got her everything was back or plant :P That of course was NOT going to work for any riding much less a dressage horse. Now I just have to point and she goes.

I didn't do carrot stretches today since I always have such a short time on my mornings off. Tomorrow I'm going to enjoy my day off by working on the girl's hooves and doing more carrot stretches. I'm also going to write more about me and my progress in gaining more fitness :)