Through the Ringer

Yikes, I was doing better with posting for a while and now it’s been almost a month again. There’s a reason for that but I’m not happy about it. Basically ever since we’ve moved Katai has had random stuff going on. None of it seems to really be related, none of it seems to point to needing the vet, and none of it is easily addressed. Mostly I think she’s, as I’ve mentioned before, a very sensitive flower that’s dealing with a lot of change at the same time and I feel really awful and guilty about that but at this point it is what it is. Everything from a few massive heat cycles, being tired out, muscle stiffness, sore feet, an ulcer flare, not getting enough magnesium so being a hellion, etc. Below is a timeline if you want to read a bunch of boring stuff about pony’s slight offness.

-The week after I got back from the cabin I was only able to get myself to go out and give her supplements a few times throughout the rest of the week. Then the Saturday after (10/5) she was on fire! She felt great and we had a great, if slightly short, ride. I was happy and feeling like she was adjusting finally after being pretty tired and muscle sore for the 3 weeks or so after she moved.

Tiny dog is judging me for disturbing her

-The following week on Tuesday I lunged her in the Vienna reins and she was good but sluggish which is very unlike her. This has been the theme since she’s been on pasture board and I suspect she’s just using a lot of energy in running around when she would have been in a stall before. She’s definitely building muscle and I love that but it’s also tough waiting for her to adjust and get used to having all that additional time to use up energy.

-Wednesday and Thursday that week I did a couple of light rides and had a couple of fellow boarders watch because she was short in her stride but not off and still lethargic. Both fellow boarders agreed that she wasn’t off (evenly short) and basically seemed to think I was making a mountain out of a mole hill. Since I know I’m a bit of a pony hypochondriac I felt better and decided to give her the weekend off.

At least I'm loving my new tack set up?

- On Monday I was going to go out but I got stuck at work really late so she ended up with 3 days off. Then on Tuesday she was lethargic again but I did more of a ride and worked really hard on trying to loosen up muscles to see if it’s just that she was really tight. She did actually make progress! I got lots of snorts and sighs and by the end she had a more normal stride length for how she’s been going recently. She also just felt much looser and more forward. I was really encouraged!

- Wednesday I went out and had a plan to do similar work but when I touched her girth to tighten it (didn’t even get the buckle undone to tighten) she had a massive girthy, pain response. I tried the other side and got a similar response. She’s not a girthy pony, and hadn’t had a girthy response the day before, so it was pretty clear she was having a bad ulcer response suddenly. Strangely(?) enough most of the horses at the barn seem to be having an ulcer issue right now. I’m not sure if it’s just the weather change, or the change from grass to just hay, or something about the hay but it seems to be the norm. That makes me feel a bit better but I also hate seeing her uncomfortable.

-The rest of the week I’ve been out basically treating her for ulcers, putting thrush meds in her feet, and doing blanket changes as needed. S he’s still been tight and lethargic so I’m still not sure what’s going on there but again, no one other than me seems to even notice so maybe I’m just worried about nothing.

Grrr, I really wish they could tell us what’s going on. She’s also either been sore muscle wise or had sore feet off and on. The high anxiety, panicky part of me is worried that she’s having a laminitis flair because of the tiny amount of grass she can get but she hasn’t had an increased pulse or heat in her feet. It has been SUPER rainy though so I suspect she’s just got tender footsies from standing in the muck and rain 24/7. Hopefully she’s not brewing an abscess.

At the cabin, boyfriend is good at helping his grandma <3

I’m getting out there about 4-6 days a week right now to make sure she’s getting supplements, meds, etc. which is tough because as this is happening I’m also dealing with some bad depression. You know what could help that? Having a pony who feels happy, comfortable, and sound and being able to ride and get that form of exercise.

Honestly? I’m really, really, really, really tired of dealing with all of this. I feel like this sort of thing is made worse because of how sensitive she is and yet I wouldn’t ask for her to hide any of this. I just hate having this sort of domino, one thing after another, sort of situation that feels like it’s been going on low key since I was still boarding at Jane’s. Can’t the universe just give us a break and a month where things just smooth out, we can make some progress, and we’re both feeling ok?

I know it’s not fair for her, as another being who’s dealing with her own crap, but I just want this part of my life to be working well right now and to be my rock while I’m dealing with mental health stuff as the season changes.

Stuck

The catalyst for all of this

Last year around this time I posted looking for advice about memberships needed to show and you guys were so kind and helpful. Recently I've been chewing over a more difficult, long term problem and realized that maybe what I need is some fresh perspective.

For the past 20 years I've been lucky enough to own horses and unlucky enough to have no way to transport them. I've never had the use of or owned a trailer in that time and while my friends recently have been amazing and offered to help out it's always fallen through for one reason or another (Katai's lack of willingness to load, family plans, emergencies, etc)

One of the few times recently that plans
didn't fall through and we had SO MUCH FUN!!!

I've never been able to plan a show schedule, plan for clinics I want to go to, or go on trail rides off property. Last year I planned for a trailer and that fell through. This year I was even more certain it would happen and now it's likely fallen through again since I needed to replace my car. At this point I have limited availability (maybe 4 times per year?) to show and no ability to ride outside of the arena except for another arena sized area in the grass near the barn.

I'm so sick of being stuck in this same predicament time after time after time.

Katai's vote is for more pasture, more trail rides, and more friends but no trailer
Also more peppermints would be her favorite

In considering this I've looked at how I "keep" horses really holistically which in my case means looking at my boarding situation. In order for me to not need a trailer I'd need the following things.

-Indoor arena (an absolute necessity in this area unless I want to skip riding for at least 5 months out of the year)
-Dressage instruction on site
-Trails of some sort or fairly significant property to ride around
-Friends/fellow boarders/coach who was consistently trailering to shows and welcomed me to tag along with Katai (as well as allowing me time to practice loading her in their trailer)
-Decent distance to drive (my cut off so far has been 40-45 minutes each way)
-Within budget (I could spend a bit more than I do right now but not significantly more like I was at the last barn and this is also a dealbreaker)
-Ability for Katai to get her supplements, at least the Magnesium

I have not found a single barn so far that meets more than a few of the items on the list. J's barn came closest but there was the whole abusive trainer thing.

In addition the things I'd prefer are:
-Plenty of turnout (I don't think Katai gets enough right now)
-Heated barn at least for grooming and tacking up
-Wash stall
-More people to ride with
-Open minded people who want to do things like trail ride, do canter sets, go to clinics unrelated to dressage, and basically just enjoy their horses

Jane's barn also meets four of the top items items but if we were looking at "ruthlessly excluding" that doesn't meet it either and I am getting really bored, tired, and annoyed with only ever being able to ride in the indoor arena. I can't do canter sets, I can't really work on fitness, I can't give Katai new challenges or exposure to the things she'll see at a show. The trailer this year was going to fix all of this but now I'm just trying to re-examin. I REALLY don't want to leave Jane but I have thought of a couple of options.

Hand grazing only has been our jam recently

1. Find pasture board (with an indoor arena) and use the difference between what I pay now and that to buy a trailer. This hasn't been an option because of grass but I could try the Greenguard muzzle and since I'm riding more consistently I may potentially be able to keep Katai's weight down. I could manage without a dressage instructor on site as long as I could trailer to one (Jane) on some sort of regular basis. Also, unless pasture board is really close I'll need them to be able to give Katai her supplements.

2. Find a more active dressage show barn that would trailer me places and potentially meet all of the items above except the distance. I know of two within this category and one that would meet everything except budget which is a huge deal breaker. This way I could skip the truck and trailer (which would be my preference) and have more show/trail ride camaraderie at the same time.

3. ?

So, fellow bloggers, I'm looking for some advice. What would you do? What are deal breakers for you? Please give me blunt and honest feedback. If I'm being a baby for wanting more and you think I should just stick it out and save up for a trailer let me know. If you have advice let me know. I really do want your opinions.

Playing Catchup

Free lunging from the Sunday where I flew out to Seattle

Momentum is an interesting thing. It's not that I don't have information to share, in fact I almost feel like I have too much information to share, it's more that I just haven't been able to convince myself to sit down and write.

Last year I started to really struggle with my seasonal depression but this year I started taking my vitamin D way earlier so I'm actually doing well. Beyond just being tired recovering from my Seattle work trip I'm feeling great.

Last weekend I rode Saturday-Sunday and then gave her Monday off before my lesson on Tuesday. In those days I had a lesson on Sunday and a lesson on Tuesday. The Sunday lesson we worked a bit on canter and some shoulder in.

Tiny dog is a ham and I think he missed me :)

We did two exercises, one was leg yielding to center line away from the long side. Once we hit X we made a 10 meter circle in the direction of the bend and then, figure eight style, changed the bend at X and did another 10 meter circle towards the other long side. Back at X we'd leg yield back towards the original wall we'd started from.

The second was one that we've done before where we'd shoulder in along the long side, midway down the side we'd go across the diagonal, change the bend prior to hitting the wall and cue for canter. In canter we'd do a 20 meter circle at the end of the arena and then go back to trot and do it again. I LOVE this exercise and Katai does too. We did so much better this lesson than we have in the past and the SI was clearly improved.

Little blurry and tough to tell, but that's a hot tub boat on Lake Union

On Tuesday we did a bunch more canter including shallow loops to work on our counter canter going into 20 meter circles where we'd spiral in and out. Going to the left it was pretty funny because she wanted to half pass to the center rather than move straight. Not what we were asking for and we were able to correct it but talk about an over achiever!

We also worked a lot more on SI and it's feeling SO MUCH BETTER!! It's actually starting to flow a bit more and Jane mentioned that she's impressed with our quick improvement. We worked a lot on the concept of me lifting her with my seat to control the sitting trot rather than sitting down into her back to control the sitting trot. Or as Jane says, "bounce her up with your seat". There were magical moments but they didn't last long and it would take me awhile to get it back. When it worked though it really worked so I'm excited to keep working on this.

Someone had asked for a picture of my Ariat coat.
Here it is, courtesy of the AirBnB Bathroom mirror 

In other news I started the first clip of the season today. I got almost all the hair off and got the lines pretty good. Tomorrow I'll just clean everything up. Poor girl is a bit moth eaten tonight and poor Jane probably wondered what I did to her when she saw her at evening feeding. Oh well, I'll finish getting her cleaned up tomorrow. I also got her bridle path cut but I still need to "pull" her mane, do some work on her tail, and I'd like to do one more bath before it gets too cold.

In sad news, her feet are looking pretty thrushy. During most of the year I was keeping up with it but after the past month were I wasn't at the barn as much they've back slid a bit. It will be my focus for this month and hopefully I can get it cleaned up right away!

Hard Work: Lesson Recap 5/2

First off, thank you all so much for your help on my last post! I'm going to go ahead and get Katai her HID this year since that doesn't need to be renewed but otherwise  I'm going to stick to opportunity classes. If for some reason she blows me away at these first two shows I may reconsider but otherwise it will be a nice cost savings.

Then, at some point here I may change the lesson recap posts just because there's enough similar information that I might do every other lesson or something. Not sure if people are enjoying reading them but I'm getting bored writing them ;)

At any rate this lesson felt like a lot of work. I'd skipped a couple of weeks of core workouts and then done one the weekend before this lesson. Then Jane had me work a lot on sitting trot and do a lot of canter AND she was making me use my core correctly... I'm pretty sure that's why I was dying by the end of the lesson. Katai also got a good workout and had slightly sweaty ears and some good sweat on her butt muscles.

The themes were that Jane wanted me to keep the bend and roundness really consistent (certainly not my specialty).

SQUIRREL

and make sure that she really stepped and pushed forward with her hind legs. Typically I can do one or the other but not both however in my lesson this week I was actually getting both as long as Jane didn't want me to do anything else.

Jane really pushed me to challenge Katai's balance again. First with much steeper leg yields in sitting trot where we did a zig zag from quarter line to quarter line which meant Katai going very sideways with her short little legs. I messed this one up royally before getting a good one. Then we moved on to shoulder fore and shoulder in. Jane wanted me to really focus on keeping her active in the trot and giving her space to move forward with my reins while keeping her round.

It's really tough with Katai because as soon as I use my legs to ask for something she tightens up through her back and completely loses the roundness which is a tough balancing act for someone who's just learning how to do some of these movements. We're getting there though and I'm still feeling steady improvement with each lesson which makes it fun.

Finally we worked on shallow serpentines at the canter. We've worked up to doing them to the center line rather than just the quarter line and as long as I remember not to cross my inside hand across her withers to "help" her get back to the wall we were doing pretty well. We also worked on trying to get some 10 meter circles at the canter. By the point we got to those Katai was already pretty tired so she struggled a bit but I'm so happy with how much longer she's able to maintain a decent canter!

It was a really good lesson even if I did feel exhausted by the end. It certainly made me realize that it's time for me to keep upping my fitness game and to do the same with Katai. I REALLY need to get her comfortable on the quiet(ish) gravel road so that I can get her out and work up to more trot and canter sets. It would be really good for both of us!

A Very Busy Weekend

When your owner gets out of bed and you're not ready yet
I would have liked to join him

I've been quiet because I've been feeling a little like crap all weekend. I think it's partially the weather and I'm wondering if with the recent colder temperatures I might be fighting off a cold.

On Friday I still had some energy and after a couple of days off I made it out to the barn to ride. Katai was sassy but pretty good and her canter transitions were continuing to improve. I had a friend at the barn with me and we tried to get some pictures but the lighting is just too dark so the only pictures we got were really blurry.

On Saturday I did a 5K with my work colleagues. They're amazing and we all just walked, solidarity for those who aren't runners, but it was a great albeit cold way to start the day. Since it was near the barn I had decided to go there next but the walk took a little longer than I expected and I had an apartment viewing scheduled, more on that later, so I was short on time at the barn.

Caught this picture on the way home from getting sushi
'Merica...

I pulled out all of my tack and went to get the pony. Just like what you would expect, she was lit up and didn't want to play along. I tried to put her in the crossties and groom her but she was having none of it so instead of fighting with her I decided to just lunge. She was doing all sort of crazy out of character things so I was really glad I didn't ride. She kicked out multiple times at the line, spooked and bolted twice (which she NEVER does), and did lots of head tossing and porpoising.

I had her do lots of, on cue, trot/canter transitions going in each direction. I didn't have her work that long, just until she was able to settle a little. I walked her for awhile, let her eat some grass and then left.

Don't worry, I was stopped. This is why I've been tired recently,
this picture was taken during the day.

I'm looking at apartments with one of my three roommates. In our current situation our landlord has all of the decision making power as far as who roommates are and this last one isn't someone I'd chose to live with. Since I now know someone in this area that I'd like to live with we're looking at 2 bedroom apartments where hopefully we can save some money and not have random people cycling through without our say. Unfortunately on Saturday the owner didn't show to give us a tour. However, that roommate and I went out for sushi and only got slightly sidetracked at an amazing local farmers market that I'd never been to!

I got tons of cucumbers, tomatoes, kale, and baby bok choi for only $9!!! After putting our amazing groceries away at home we went back out for sushi at our favorite sushi place. It was amazing! My favorite is their sweet potato role but I always love cucumber/avocado roles. Finally we went for groceries and got some coffee. I cleaned and did laundry when I got home so by the time I sat down to watch a movie it was almost time for bed.

Sunday I rode in the morning and although I didn't feel the need to lunge before I rode she was even more sassy than normal. She was full of herself and determined that she gets to make the call on when she's going to canter. I was really proud of how I handled that ride and we ended with some really nice, slow, stretchy trot but it took awhile to get there. Im thinking that she is also struggling with the new, colder, darker weather just like I am.

She got today off and I'm hoping that she feels more like cooperating at my lesson tomorrow!