Jingles

Not of the Christmas kind. I made it out to the barn tonight after not being able to go Wednesday (snowstorm) and Thursday (Thanksgiving) and finally trotted Katai in hand. She was super lame, much like last Wednesday the day before the vet got there.

I texted my vet and we had a phone call this evening and he's worried as am I. We have a plan but it includes a much more extensive vet visit and based on Katai's overall lack of improvement so far I'm getting pretty worried that we're looking at something more serious.

If you could send jingles, prayers, positive thoughts, or whatever that would be very appreciated.

After the vet call I walked next door to the park and watched fireworks to distract myself.
My heart wasn't really in it though

The Challenge of Goals

Tell me about a challenge you set for yourself and accomplished, or set yourself a new challenge and keep us updated!

 

 

I’ve honestly been avoiding this blog hop like the plague. I have issues setting goals, not that I don’t do it or won’t do it but that I’ve learned that I can’t and although that frustrates my type A personality it’s just better this way. I’m a perfectionist and have some OCD tendencies. When I set a goal I do anything to meet it and in the past that has included things like ruining friendships or hurting myself. Because of that I’ve learned to not set big, specific goals. When I was a cellist I pushed myself so hard that at one point I was having up to 3 stress headaches/migraines per week and I developed tendonitis and a shoulder injury, both of which still bother me. It took me almost a year to let that go. Then when I was looking for my current job I had set a goal about when I needed to find something (I beat it by a few months) and again, multiple stress headaches/migraines, two colds, and some weight loss but I met my goal. Riding Dressage is what I do for fun, it’s what I do to get away from the world and to escape some of my perfectionism. I come from a long line of obsessive people, I have multiple relatives (including my mom and sister) that have struggled with eating disorders. I have a different sister who is a professional musician (already successful at a young age in an incredibly competitive career) that has so many injuries that I don’t know how she’s going to be able to continue to retirement. It’s a daily struggle for me to not bring that to my riding.

It is really tough for me not to be able to set goals and succeed but I’ve figured out a workaround. My yearly goals are a good example of this. I set small goals that will slowly work me towards a bigger goal but I don’t get down to specifics and I don’t set dates. Both are extremely important for most goals but so far I have been circling my big goal (and sort of stalking it :-) ). My goal is to keep wearing it down and eventually go in for the kill when I’m pretty much there so that my risk of hurting something/ruining something/breaking myself is at a minimum.

My big goal right now is a Bronze Medal on my pony.

My even bigger goal that I’ve never even mentioned on this blog is to get that accomplished early enough in Katai’s life that we could actually take the next step and start on a Silver Medal but that’s getting ahead of myself.

Regarding the Bronze I obviously haven’t talked about it much on this blog and I haven’t, and won’t set any specific goals or dates about it since based on past events I know that the likelihood of hurting Katai or myself or ruining our relationship over it is just too high. However I have, and will continue, to set small goals that head me in the correct direction.

Things like finding transportation to shows, showing in at least one clinic still this year, continuing to improve me and Katai’s relationship, and continuing to take weekly dressage lessons. They’re small, maybe insignificant seeming, goals but since I’m still aware of where I’d like to be they’ve been working to head me in the right direction over the past couple of years. I mean we went from this

To this

To this

In almost exactly three years which I feel like is a huge success especially without a consistent trainer and on a disaster (said with love) of a pony that I trained myself. So far, in that time frame, I’ve checked off the following list.

Find a good dressage instructor, get Katai used to clippers, get Katai used to trailering, get Katai to go forward off aids, get Katai to accept saddle and bridle, get Katai to accept cross ties, get Katai to pick up all four feet, be able to lead said pony, condition pony, get rid of underneck muscle, teach pony to lunge, get pony out on trail rides, find a place to board with dressage instructor, make sure you can blanket pony, make sure I can fly spray pony, teach pony to wear a fly mask, teach pony to tie to trailer, get pony to stop running me over, get pony used to stall, teach pony to stand still at mounting block, teach pony to wear bit, teach pony to steer, teach pony about leg cues, teach pony about contact, teach pony to stop, teach pony to stop off seat, teach pony about indoor arenas, teach pony to accept treats nicely, get pony to stand for farrier, get pony to stand for vet, teach pony about hoses, teach pony about wash stalls, teach pony about ground poles, teach pony about bridges, teach pony to ride, make sure other people can handle pony, teach pony to not freak out when friend leaves, improve relationship, teach pony to be caught, teach pony not to pull back when tied, teach pony not to rear, teach pony to walk, teach pony to trot, teach pony to canter, teach pony not to counter bend, teach pony to slow down (still in progress :-) ) and of course many more that I can’t think of right now.

So I think that my goal, for this blog hop, is actually to continue down the path I’m on and not set any one big specific goal but to continue to keep riding fun and relaxed and build that relationship with my wonderful pony :-)

‘Know thyself" - Socrates

Decisions, Decisions

So I have decided to move my pony. It’s been an agonizing decision since I realize that no place will be perfect and there are so many great things about where I’m at now. The main thing that sold it, besides the current barn drama, is that L wants me to move up there. I feel like if your coach encourages you to move to a different barn there is usually a good reason and the fact that she wants me to move to her barn is a complement in many ways. Some of the other things are: better footing, nicer stalls, not being separated from the rest of the barn, better wash stall, better trails, EXCELLENT barn manager. I gave my notice and think I’ll be moving at the end of August/early September. I’m so freaking excited but sort of bummed at the same time. I’ve made some great friendships at my current barn and will miss many things about it. I hate moving and creating all new relationships and putting Katai through that again just isn’t what I want to be doing right now but ultimately I think it’s for the best.

Regarding #mareproblems I’ve got a couple updates. First, it seems I really have been overreacting about this. Several people have told me that they have the same thing happen and that Katai’s isn’t that bad. The rubbing/scalding is isolated to right between her back legs and not really affecting anything else. I caught it earlier this time and was able to keep it to an even smaller area and after the first day of treatment she no longer acted like walking was difficult or painful (and I always need to keep in mind that she can be a baby about these things and certainly isn't a stoic horse). However, what’s still bothering me is that from what I’m hearing most of the time you have to treat and it’s tough to prevent. I did get a couple of suggestions that I’m going to try including changing up her current supplement regime, which was actually sort of already in progress, and the brilliant idea from T (Project Gingersnap) to keep her sprayed with Show Sheen to help keep the gunk from sticking and burning. I’m also going to try to be proactive by coating her in Vaseline or Swat whenever I think there’s a chance she may go into heat such as when I move her to a new barn. She is clearly still tender and doesn’t want me scrubbing it at all but I’m hoping that after another coating of destine soaks in that her skin will be softer and less sore and she’ll let me clean her up with baby wipes at least.

In other updates I get to go to the Dover tent sale this weekend with H and I’m so excited! I have a $50 giftcard for watching my boyfriend’s, mother’s (hereafter referred to as A) dog and I’ve got a few things I need to pick up, including Show Sheen, so it should be a great shopping trip. I’m also excited because A, who’s also an eventer hence the very appropriate Dover giftcard, and I are going to get together to see each other’s horses. I’ve met her horse before but she’s invited me to ride her warmblood/thoroughbred gelding this time and she’s never met my pony but has of course seen tons of pictures. That’s planned for the 23^rd and photos and possibly video will hopefully follow.

Houdini Pony

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this on this blog before or not but Katai is apparently an escape artist. I believe that at the previous barn it was mentioned to me that once or twice they had found Katai in a different pen especially when they were swapping around where horses were located but once they put up a strand of tape that was closer to the ground she stayed where she was supposed to.

At the current barn J had mentioned to me that Katai has been ducking under gates and I was disappointed. It’s just one more thing to have to worry about and it would always be nice if your horse/pony was just a good citizen and didn’t try to wreck anything, escape, or otherwise cause any problems.

On Sunday when I went to ride I noticed that Katai was still in the dry lot all by herself. I was a little concerned but since I knew she had been escaping before I assumed that a student had found her where she wasn’t supposed to be and put her there just to be safe. However, apparently Katai’s previous motivation for getting out was the grass. After she kept sneaking under the gates, which didn’t have the lower strand of tape to keep her in, several times she figured out where the boys are housed. I’m sure I’ve mentioned that Katai is hugely boy crazy. Like seriously nuts over cute guys and most particularly she goes straight for the leader, like Every. Time.

 

J, understandably frustrated, put second lower strands on all of the gates that Katai had access to so that she wouldn’t be able to escape any more but now that Katai had figured out where the boys live she wasn’t going to be deterred. I asked J how she had managed to get over/through/under the new double strand gates and J said that so far no one has seen her do it. Hence pony prison.

 

J brought it up to me by saying “Your pony is incredibly horny”. Hmmm, yeah that doesn’t surprise me. Apparently one of the geldings, named Conquest, who was gelded late is so interested in her that he won’t eat and gets aggressive around the other geldings when she is in their pen. She squeals, flirts, rubs herself on them and basically just makes a fool out of herself.

 

The situation is tough on me because since I’m used to keeping my horse(s) on my property and taking care of them myself I feel extremely responsibly for her naughty behavior. Of course there is nothing I can do and I’m paying board to someone to deal with this type of thing. I’m sure Katai isn’t the only pony/horse that’s done things like this and since J has to deal with cribbers, kickers, muzzling the fatties etc. It’s not like this is especially bad and so far Katai hasn’t broken anything, just managed to find a way under or through.

 

On Wednesday I went out to check on Katai's eye and luckily it was almost completely better. I was so relieved and glad I listened to a friend and didn't call the vet right away. Eyes are just something I don't feel like you should take any chances with. Unfortunately on Wednesday I was unable to ride because I was moving my couch to the new apartment and because of Katai's eye and moving and I've been sick as well with some sort of crazy lung cold where I can't stop coughing so I decided to cancel my lesson on Thursday. I was disappointed to do it but between being sick and only having a chance to ride once since my last lesson it really didn't make sense to try to get anything productive done in a lesson. 

Then since I didn't ride Thursday or Friday, I had plans, today I was really ready to see her again. I can't believe how much I missed her and I feel like it was mutual. She came right up to me with her ears pricked and was so quiet and well behaved in the barn even though we were the only ones there. I then proceeded to have the BEST ride on her that I've had. She was ready to go and trotting with rhythm but she listened to every half halt and I was getting some wonderful bend around the circles since she was listening to my leg just beautifully. She even had wonderfully soft white foam.

This pony is really mine and not going anywhere :)

Consistent

1.     Definition of consistent (adj)

Bing Dictionary

con·sis·tent

[ kən sístənt ]

 

1.  coherent: reasonably or logically harmonious

2.  reliable: able to maintain a particular standard or repeat a particular task with minimal variation

3.  with common solutions: having a set of solutions in common, especially for two or more equations or inequalities

 

I have been doing a great job of being consistent in working with Katai. The past few weeks I’ve ridden 4-5 days a week, mostly it’s been 4 days a week, and she has been mostly great. Sunday’s ride was particularly good and while getting her to do things consistently during our ride is still a challenge, hey green baby horse, she has moments where it all comes together.

 

She has gotten really good about reaching into the contact which means I have more control of her balance and I’m able to pick her up from a nice long stretch into a more upright balance where I can start to feel her step under herself and push from behind rather than pulling herself around by her front end. J is also having me work on getting her to crawl at the walk which means that she moves one foot at a time as I ask, extremely slowly. It is a way for me to get control of every foot which J says I need to progress.

 

We are making progress with having her move off my leg as well. In fact she is getting sensitive enough to the leg cues that I need to improve my balance and riding position so that I don’t keep asking her to do things I don’t want. Little bugger just learns way too quickly. I need to get her to slow down to my level :P, in fact, she is almost doing walk pirouettes albeit very babyish ones.

 

Finally, we are working a lot on transitions. She gets really stuck at a certain speed, right now either trot or walk, and then doesn’t want to listen when I ask for either the slower or faster speed. This just needs some fine tuning and relaxed work since if I focus too much on them she gets tense and throws her head.

 

What I find really interesting about all of this is the order that we are teaching Katai different movements/abilities/expectations. In the past trainers that I have would focus on the simple stuff first. Things like walking and trotting patterns would have been the first thing we completed with her and we would have probably been doing things like practicing intro tests and maybe even starting some canter. With J, however, the focus is on correct work first and foremost. Before we ever even walk a circle we need our walk to be correct, our steering to be there, have the ability to stretch down into contact, etc. I am learning SO much so quickly and I can see how if I were just to let her do incorrect work now it would be that much harder to teach her how to do things correctly in the future. Right now because she is so green she just assumes that the correct way is the only way and her muscle memory will capture that correct movement and hopefully retain it so that she always, or almost always, moves in the proper way. If I were to let her bop around a circle like a green horse she would start to assume that was the correct way and in a year, or two, when we decided to teach her to carry herself properly she would be frustrated and confused wondering why we were changing things. I just find it really interesting to see how incredibly good she is at some things already when she’s only been really ridden consistently since late May/early June. I am also soooooo glad that I sought help when I did. I was pretty aware of what I was qualified to teach her and I got it just about right :)

Unfortunately tonight when I went to the barn to ride I noticed right away that something was off about her left eye and when I got closer I saw that it was a little swollen and she obviously didn't want to open it. Luckily Haley was at the barn with me and she has completed four years of vet school recently so I was able to ask her opinion. She suggested I flush it with saline and give it a day to heal before I decide whether to call the vet. I will update tomorrow when I go out and check on her.