The Heat is On

Both literally and figuratively! I’m sort of considering this one long off season right now so that we can get stronger and better and be back to showing next year and boy do we ever need it. Both of us are out of shape and a bit fluffier than I’d like (more so me than Katai). Unfortunately it’s also the hottest part of summer and I don’t deal with heat well so that adds some complication, however, I’ve been really solution focused recently so with that here are a few things we’re doing.

Fitness:
For me mostly I’m trying to just get more movement in every day. With my mental health struggles over the past year and being sick so much I went from decently fit to absolute couch potato. Picking back up running was just way too much to face right away so I’m trying to do smaller things like going for a walk on my work breaks. Just going to the barn more is helping since even doing simple tasks like grooming and lunging are better than sitting on the couch watching Netflix :) Even better is when I ride. I’ve also started to do core work outs on a regular basis. I’m hoping to get to a point where once it cools off I can get back into running this fall and then carry it through on the treadmill this winter.

For Katai I had a great step by step plan but then she blew that up when she decided to be a right twat about lunging and then about being ridden and then about lunging and riding. Instead of a couple of easy stretchy days with a slightly harder cardio day she ended up doing an hour ride, then a long mostly canter lunge, and then a 45 minute ride/lunge. Pony mares….

At any rate she got a few days off that turned into several days off with the heat. As soon as I’m not worried that I’ll get heat stroke again (I’ve already had it twice this year) I’ll be getting back to the step by step work outs.

Miss Puppy got stuck and couldn't turn around

Training:
There are a bunch of things that I’ve wanted to do but that I’ve been throwing up barriers about. One is the wash “stall” at this barn. It’s outdoors, near the house so that it can share hot water, and is a concrete slab with a wooden fence on three sides. I like this set up except the wooden fence is SUPER rotted and I absolutely guarantee you that if I tie Katai to it she’ll pull at least hard enough to take down part of the fence (since I can move it around without much effort). Since I can’t have that risk it’s meant that it’s really tough to spray her off or bathe her since she’s really water averse.

However, since it’s hot and she’s getting sweaty I’ve needed to spray her off and I’ve been working on getting her to just relax and not mind so much. She’s still not a huge fan but I’m now able to spray off every part of her while she stands still with her head down on a loose lead. It’s HUGE progress for us and I’m proud of both of us for sticking with it. The real test will come this week when I give her a full bath.

The other is riding outside. Part of the issue is that I’ve boarded places that didn’t have safe space to ride outside or safe trail access. Now that I have that I’ve been working this summer to get her comfortable riding outside. We were doing REALLY well and doing mini trail rides around the property and longer trail rides with a calm friend (the horse not the person since both of us riders have anxiety lol). In the midst of that I started acclimating her to her easy boot gloves since I did some research and found that I could actually use them in an arena setting!! I had been worried about the added bulk but it turns out that barrel racers use these and if they can do those sharp turns at speed it’s probably ok for me to occasionally ride my pony in the arena on 20 meter circles and straight at w/t/c.

I started acclimating her to them on a walking trail ride and then hand walking her in the arena. She had been super calm about riding and working outside (which was frankly kind of shocking after her past behavior) so then I planned a light ride outside. Amazingly there were a couple of people working on dressage at the lower arena so I “joined” them and brought her down there. She was slightly tight when I mounted but after some work on walking and halting she breathed out and was perfect. I planned another longer ride out there, not thinking much about it, and she had a total meltdown. I was proud of myself that I put my trainer hat on and we worked for about an hour mostly riding but with some ground work as well. I was very patient and giving except when she was trying to rear because that is just not allowed. She was REALLY wound up though so ending on a good note meant just getting a decent, but very tight, trot and then a walk that wasn’t jigging as much.

I lunged her the next day and she was still really up but better so I planned another outdoor ride. The day before I’d had food poisoning and still wasn’t feeling 100% but I was just planning on a nice easy ride doing some walk, a little trot, and focusing on relaxation. That was not what Katai had in mind. She had another melt down which resulted in 45 minutes of work some lunging and mostly riding. I also overdid it and then ended up with mild heat stroke for the second time this year :(

At any rate I still had my trainer hat on and we did make progress. That was last weekend and this past week with the heat I didn’t make it out a ton and when I did I was being conservative with my rides. I decided to ride in the indoor to see if she was still as reactive since that might point to pain or discomfort. She hasn’t been uclery and after the first bad ride I palpated her back and couldn’t get a reaction but I figured it was still a good check point. However, we had an excellent, relaxed, flowing ride in the indoor so I’m 100% sure that in the outdoor it’s behavior related. I did a light halter lunge down there a couple of days ago and she was nice and relaxed and much less spooky and reactive so fingers crossed we’re headed in the right direction. At least with the easy boots I’m able to work on this!

I have high hopes that I’ll be able to finish up addressing this major tantrum behavior over the next week as I have time and then we can go back to productive rides that slowly ramp up fitness!

Love

I've always kind of wondered if Katai likes me. Obviously it doesn't really matter but since she's my partner in this dressage journey I'd really like for her to enjoy her time with me. Often when I look at her she'll look a bit crabby so, while she whinnies to me as I drive up and walks up to me in the pasture, I've just assumed that she's not particularly fond of me.

Then I watched this video that I took to show Katai's progress with the hose and the wash rack. I can see here how connected she is to me and how, while she is looking for peppermints she's also looking to me for reassurance. So fun to be able to see this and to know that maybe she is sort of fond of me :)

Making a Horse

Hopefully a horse that can show!

I thought it would be interesting to share a little about what I'm focused on for the next couple of months mainly because right now my focus isn't on riding. It's not that we don't need to work on that because of course we do, it's just that with Katai's recent progress and my interest in showing we're riding above where I'd feel comfortable signing up for a show (training levelish). However we've got other things in our way that will prevent us from showing or certainly from having fun showing which is my ultimate goal.

Anyone who's followed this blog is pretty aware of the journey it's taken to get Katai here. Often though I don't think I share how difficult Katai really is (maybe I'm scared after having J tell me to put her on a meat truck). For all that she's amazing, brave, and pretty unflappable under saddle (although she certainly can have massive tantrums when she wants to) she's actually extremely reactive, panicky, stubborn, and a bully. While she is a bully she's also so reactive and inclined to panic that it's really tough to use tools that would work with other horses and tools that I was able to use in the past. It's a really thin line between appropriately correcting her for naughty behavior and pushing her into flight and fight mode where she can't learn and just becomes reactive.

I truly wish that I'd been able to get her earlier in her life and that we'd found Jane earlier because I think both things would have helped. I'm completely aware that I've made mistakes with her but I certainly have tried my best and really tried to learn from my mistakes.

Maybe at our next show she'll only do this
 a few times rather than for the whole show

Jane has been a real turning point though with her message of just letting Katai be right sometimes. I've stopped trying things that have worked for other people (be the leader all the time) and started to just do my own thing (read Jane's thing) with her which is namely, very little "discipline" and lots of soft, gentle patience past the point where most people would be patient. Suddenly, under saddle, she's stopped having tantrums, stopped blowing up, and become much more manageable even when she does get hot. That, of course, doesn't mean no discipline but certainly less than I've been used to. However, I haven't had the opportunity to try this on the ground since in her normal space, with her normal routine she's got absolutely impeccable ground manners (because I care ALOT about her behavior on the ground).

With that in mind, I went to the barn on Sunday with the only item on my agenda being to expose her to the horse trailer for as long as possible. I did what I'm calling "boredom training" and pretty much just stood on the ramp (for about an hour) while she did all of her panicked pony things until eventually she decided to actually walk up the ramp on her own. Literally on her own since I didn't put an ounce of pressure on her or ask her in any way to join me in the trailer.

At least she's been able to practice her Levade?

The issue with trailer loading recently has been that as soon as she sees the trailer she panics. It's not that she doesn't have the skills to load, it's just that there's no successful way to use them when she's in fight and flight mode. On Sunday this meant that when she rammed me into the trailer I gently guided her away and tried to just stay out of her way, when she reared and spun and bolted I got her gently stopped and quietly led her back to the trailer, and when she threw herself sideways off the ramp into me I got out of the way (I'm thinking I'd be a really good dance partner by now lol) and then tried again. Mostly I kept her out of my space when she was calmer by gently flapping the rope at her and when I asked her to move forward I didn't let up the pressure until she gave but other than that I just sort of let her do her thing. All of the whips and stud chains stayed in the barn and she was just in a rope halter and lunge line (so that I had more space to stop her) with leather gloves for me.

Once she stopped panicking she was in the best mental place that she's been. She actually calmed herself down and then I had my pony back. In that mental space when I led her and she ran her shoulder into me I very firmly moved her out of my way and then went back to coaxing and petting and baby talking her.

We also practiced some movements similar to this.
This will come in handy for dressage at some point right?

It was absolutely the most success I've had and the first time that I've had hope that we might accomplish this thing before we're eligible for Century Club awards. If you've been reading my riding blogs since I started with Jane you'll recognize that this is similar to how we started to treat Katai under saddle back in September and I believe it's the reason that we've made most of the progress that we have. I finally decided to try the same thing on the ground and I'm really glad that I did.

I didn't stop there on Sunday though I walked her all over the farm (lots more baby talking and petting and patience), stood by the side of the trailer and simulated how it would be if she were tied there (without the risk of actually tying her), and finally put her in cross ties in the barn and groomed her. She was still pretty up and then when the other horse in the barn left she had a meltdown. I had to use the panic snaps on the cross ties but then I just (gently but firmly) backed her. She'd blow up, I'd back her down the aisle with just light pressure and then stand there and pet her and baby talk to her. More blowing up, back down the isle the other direction and more baby talk, rinse and repeat. Eventually she actually calmed enough that I could put her back in the cross ties. Basically I treated her like she was a weanling. Finally we quit on that good note.

Lots of these to choose from really

Previously this week I'd also used the wash stall at this barn for the first time and had a passaging and panicking pony but handled that the same way, lots of baby talk and pets and we both survived without any incident. I didn't even get my head kicked in when I washed the gunk between her legs and on her udder which is truly a feat and had even Jane impressed because mares.

So, the real goal for the next 1.5 months is lots and lots, and lots of exposure, changes in routine, and trailer boredom training every. single. day. that I'm at the barn