And The Award Goes To...

If it’s not one thing it’s another :( Poor Katai has had more health related issues over the past couple of months than during the entire time I’ve owned her.

The face I get for taking picture and not feeding treats

First was the sore back muscle on the left side which meant a week off. Then the tender feet (I’ve now found spots on her left hind foot where she blew an abscess) for the whole month of February. Next she had the painful ovaries and reactive flail when mounting thing that mean about 4 days off and now, last night she was dripping blood, Luckily it’s not quite as bad as it sounds.

I had noticed on Wednesday that Katai had a small, hard, lump right behind her right leg in her armpit. It’s not under the girth or touched directly by the girth but when she moves it gets pushed back and runs into the girth. On Tuesday she wasn’t uncomfortable at all and it didn’t seem to affect her being ridden. Then on Thursday for drill team I glanced at it, thought it seemed the same as before, and went on with tacking up and riding. This thing was smaller than a penny and just seemed like a small scabbed over scratch or something. Horses get these types of things all the time and I usually don’t worry much about them. I had concerns about the girth but after the successful ride on Tuesday I sort of wrote it off.

For drill team I hopped on and proceeded to warm up first at the walk. Katai seemed like she was a little short in front and I wondered right away about her hooves. We’ve still been having crazy weather and I still wouldn’t be surprised if she abscesses again so I was a little worried. However, she often comes out a little stiff especially since the weather got really cold overnight so I decided to stick with it a little and see how she was doing. I did some trot work with her and she was great! Forward but listening and balancing back on her hind legs rather than running through her front. L even mentioned how good she looked but then I went back to the walk and got the same small steps so I rode over to L and asked her to diagnose what she was seeing. As I rode directly toward her she was watching Katai closely but then I turned to the left and she gasped, you’re pony is bleeding! She said "there’s a lot of blood and it’s dripping.

I freaked out and jumped off and low and behold it’s coming out of the little bump which was now more swollen. I felt like that guy who gallops Black Beauty and ruins her knees in that moment, like I deserve the bad horse owner award. I was horrified and pulled her tack off the second I got her out of the ring. She’d bloodied up her girth fairly well in that area and was fairly bloody. The wound wasn’t actively bleeding though and I’m still not exactly sure what it is. A couple of people from the barn are thinking that she may have a little piece of shavings or hay or something in there and it’s trying to come out, I would agree with the way it looks. I did a hot compress for about 5 minutes last night and Katai was leaning into it so it must have felt good. I also cleaned it up and put antibiotic ointment on it.

Ouch

Tonight I’m going back to check on her and doctor it again. L suggested that I lunge but since it’s near the girth it’s going to need some time to heal before I ride with the saddle again. Depending on how she’s doing tonight I may do some bareback rides but that could be entertaining since it’s been a LONG time since I’ve really ridden bareback and I’m not quite sure what Katai will think since I’ve only ever ridden her bareback at the walk.

Rockstar

On Wednesday this week, after the Katai's scary reaction during my lesson, I just lunged. She seemed like she was moving fairly normal and didn't seem overly sensitive about having her saddle put on. She lunged really well and I used the neck stretcher which is really great for her. She can get above the side reins which completely negates their purpose but the neck stretcher helps her to stretch down and work through her back.

She actually started moving really well after the other resident trainer encouraged me to shorten it just a bit. She was commenting how nice Katai was moving and I agree. She looked amazing! After really poking around at her back and not getting much reaction I was pretty sure I could have climbed on her right then but I really wanted there to be more people around.

So instead, on Thursday for drill team I decided it was time. One of L's other students was there who actually saw the original blow up so I felt better that there was someone who would recognize what was happening. I also dropped my stirrups the minute I was on so that I could get off quickly if needed. Luckily I didn't need to! She was just like her normal stuff and the ride went really, really well. Since the clinic I've had a couple really nice rides and Thursday was no exception.

I'll be using these pictures for awhile :-)

Then on Friday I went out to the barn to ride and was a little worried that she'd be sore or something and I'd have a repeat performance. There's no reason for me to think that but honestly it really shook me up so it will be some time before I stop worrying about it. Of course she was fine and was calm, soft and forward. I had a REALLY nice ride and pony was a rock star. She was nice and connected and listening to my seat. A couple of people at the barn commented about how nicely she was behaving and she really was. She just get so soft, foamy, swingy, and relaxed when I get her connected right at the beginning of the ride and because we start there she just hasn't been rushing the way that she used to. She feels like a different pony but then I also feel like a different rider :-)

I'm hoping to be better about getting pictures and will try to get some at my lesson tomorrow!

Why I Love Drill Team

Despite a lot of positive posts recently I've been having some struggles with my dear pony. Of course that's to be expected and the more we ask the more she will check to see if she really needs to listen or be with the program. Right now our thing is whether she really needs to make reasonable transitions. I'm focused mainly on her walk to trot transition but all of her transitions need work. My main thought process right now is just that we need to do it more :-)

Lately when things seem difficult I've been reminding myself that although my rides with my instructor are better then when I'm on my own, I'm the one that does at least 75% of the work with her which means that I get a decent amount of credit for our awesome progress so far. Of course we'd never be where we are without L (not even close) but it's the daily grind that is a big part of our progress.

However, no matter what the rest of our rides are like I always look forward to drill team. This last Thursday I ended up driving straight from work because I got stuck there late. On the way I picked up some food (we do potluck but most of the time no one brings any vegan food) and then ate and had a glass of wine with the other riders.

After dinner we tacked up and Katai was as happy to see me as I was to see her. We all mounted up and warmed up for a bit and then got to it. Unfortunately with the weather, a couple of lame horses, and some cold/flu going around we've only had three riders the last couple of times which makes it tough to do any of our patterns. However, L always has something great up her sleeve and so we've been doing a couple of exercises where we ride single file. One of these involves looping from front to back and the other involves leg yielding out and then extending the trot to pass and get to the front of the line. This last time we added canter to looping to the back which of course got everyone all fired up.

After one of those I ended up further back than I should have been (poor steering for the win) and so to catch up I decided to play with our lengthening rather then just cantering to the end. It was a long side of the arena and so I balanced her and then pushed out her trot and we FLEW. I could feel her pushing forward from behind and her front legs snapping up and L was jumping up and down and yelling THE PONY'S GOT A MEDIUM!!!

It was seriously awesome!

I'm fairly certain that we'll be doing this soon.

I was so freaking excited :-) We ended up doing one more pass and that time she broke to a canter since, I think, I wasn't doing enough to balance her but I was still grinning from ear to ear. From the sewing machine to this isn't something I ever expected so the slow, currently unrewarding, work at our walk/trot/walk transitions doesn't seem so bad.

Drill Team

Obviously not us...yet

I have to say that I’ve never been particularly enthused about riding in a drill team. I’ve always loved watching drill teams ride but never thought that I would get that much out of it. So when I initially found out that my barn would be forming a drill team on Thursday evenings I didn’t sign up and was just trying to figure out how to schedule my rides around the arena being closed during my normal ride time on Thursdays.

Then I had a lesson with L and she strongly encouraged me to ride. She said that it would be a great thing for Katai and help me to break up my dressage specific rides especially without the ability to trail ride now that it gets dark so early. She said that she knew I would gain things from it too but that mostly it was just a fun time. What finally convinced me was actually the social aspect. Now that I live where I’ve been wanting to live for the past 10 or so years and have big chunks of my life figured out I’ve made it a goal to do more social things and try to make more friends. It was tough when I always sort of felt like I had one foot out the door since I planned on moving but now that I don’t, I need to make this a priority.

So I signed up to ride.

 

Some additional history about drill team is that most of the people at my new barn have moved with the barn manager. She used to manage a huge facility that was very close (within) the twin cities but when the owner of that facility passed away she needed to look for a new location and found this one. Because of this most of these people know each other very well and there are just a few of us that are new to this group. They’ve done drill team for the past several years and so joining this group seemed like a great way to get to know my new barn mates better.
I did my first drill team ride in October and it was amazing!! It was nice to be focused on big things and just let Katai take care of herself. The most rewarding thing for me though was that I finally have a horse that I can do things like this with! I’ve had so many years of green baby horses that to be able to ride in something like a drill team is such a fun and rewarding experience. I feel like I’ve finally got a horse to ride and not just a horse to train.

I also felt like it was very beneficial to Katai. Something that she struggles with is allowing me to regulate her speed. She wants to find a speed and settle in. Once she’s done that she can’t be bothered to speed up or slow down but in drill team that is so important! She was actually nearly climbing up the butt of the thoroughbred ahead of us a few times and when I slow her trot much more than that she wants to just walk. This helped me make my intention to her clear enough that I was able to get a more rate-able trot then I have in the past. It definitely still needs work, but it was better than it’s ever been in lessons. I also felt like it was really healthy for her to ride so close to other horses. That’s never been something that I’ve worried about or had any sort of anxiety over since we used to basically act like we were riding horsie bumper cars when I was growing up. Our horses and ponies were always well behaved in close quarters and I remember multiple trail rides where our horses were pretty much joined at the hip and we clinked stirrups for miles. Of course Katai hasn’t had the same experience because I normally ride alone or with one other person in a big ring so it was great for her.

Already planning my outfit

During our first practice, with four horses, we worked on the basics of the of the maneuvers. L is the one that is organizing/coaching our drill team and she knew that I hadn’t done it before so she broke down the movements and put me behind a more experienced rider so basically I just had to follow. I learned to watch where my "partner" was along the other side of the arena so that we met up appropriately, or missed eachother as needed, and other then one mistake where I almost went to the inside instead of the outside it went really well! Now I just need some additional practice on these and to add more maneuvers. Then during our second official practice we had six riders which was ideal! Katai and her roommate are at the end and paired up and they are so cute but sassy with each other that it makes it even more fun :-)

I’ve been looking forward to drill team this week since two Thursdays ago L was busy and unable to coach and then of course last Thursday was Thanksgiving. H is invited to spectate and so I may possibly have photo or video proof that I don't just ride in circles!

For anyone who is considering signing up for drill team I would highly recommend it!

I Have My Pony Back!

I have a whole post typed up about drill team and my amazing day at the Janet Foy clinic today but first of all I need to catch everyone up on what I've been doing recently. 

Two Wednesdays ago, more than a week and a half now, Katai had her feet trimmed and was abnormally sore afterwards. She is often a little tender, especially on concrete, after her feet are trimmed but normally it goes away in a few days and she is still very comfortable on footing.

Unfortunatly that wasn't the case this time and it took her really until today to feel comfortable. I had planned on giving her Wednesday evening off and then riding in drill team that thursday since it's really mostly walk/trot. Unfortunatly that clearly wasn't going to happen so instead I just went out on Saturday and buted her. I also canceled my lesson on Sunday but lunged and she seemed pretty good, just a little short on the front right.

On Monday I tried a ride and attempted to keep it to mostly walk/trot but pony was bursting with energy so we ended up with a little canter. She still felt slightly off but was never at the point where I felt like she was lame or uncomfortable at any gait. 

On Tuesday I had a rescheduled lesson and she was clearly more off then she had been on Monday which made me feel like a bad horse owner. Because of that we just kept it to a walk and worked on flexions at the halt as well as her neck position and balance at the halt and on transitions from halt to walk. This was something that we really needed to work on anyway so it was actually a great lesson! I gave her Wednesday off and then rode in drill team on Thursday and she finally felt pretty good. 

I decided to be cautious and gave her Friday off as well and then rode tonight and she felt great! Again, she was bursting with energy and had forgoten a few things like how to not freak out with contact from my legs so I'm going to post this again just in case she decides to read this blog ;-)

I have a lesson scheduled tomorrow and can't wait to ride!! I'm pretty sure that the pony will be like a stick of dynamite but I'm hoping that my ride tonight took the edge off. Next week I plan to get back to my regular schedule since the only thing I have planned in the evening coincides with her normal day off (Monday). It will be so good to be back at the barn, spending time with my girl on a regular basis :-)