An Awesome Day

I was going to title this post an awful day but the more I thought about it the more I realized that it had really been a good day.

Point one: No one died,..... just kidding but it is a good point.

Point Two: No one really got hurt. My arm may beg to differ but its really not a big deal.

Point Three: More went right than went wrong

Point Four: I "cowboy'd up" and did what needed to be done even if I was nervous to do it.

I actually got a video of the whole ride today and am working on downloading a program to edit it so that will be included in a future post but I wanted to share what I could for now.

I had been psyching myself up all day to be ready to get home and ride. I had actually planned on working on getting her to trot but as I fought the wind to get to my car from work it just didn't seem like a good idea. In fact, by the time I got home I had convinced myself that maybe I shouldn't ride at all. My first success was convincing myself to be brave and ride anyway.

There was a lot against me with the Thoroughbreds out in the pasture for the first time, surrounding the arena,  the wind and the fact that I just haven't ridden Katai that much but I can't always just wait to ride untl everything is perfect so I knew I needed to just do it!

She was actually amazingly good except for an interesting moment at the beginning that I will include in the video. She really didn't fall apart until after the ride when I tied up in the barn. She stood well at first but I saw that she had a gouge near her hoof and went to get some first aid supplies. When I got back out she was starting to get crabby about being tied but allowed me to doctor her foot without really loosing it. I got her groomed and went to pick her feet out and she was being a little brat. She would pick them up but flail them around and wasn't holding still for even a micro second. One bad instant with the hoofpick and it was jabbed into my arm. Not awesome

The best thing was that I already had my first aid supplies for her and I use this awesome stuff that is basically Neosporin for horses including the pain relief. I had just brought it out for Katai's injury, remember? I adore this stuff and can now say authoritatively that it does relieve pain.

 Katai was clearly being naughty with her feet but it was at this point that she really fell apart and it was all really on me. I have issues when I hurt myself. The rational normal part of my brain goes "oops I hurt myself. Oh well, no biggie." and I go right back to what I was doing. For some reason though some part of my subconscious starts running in little circles shouting "I'M GOING TO DIE, I'M GOING TO DIE" and I faint and sometimes throw up. Sora knew this and several times ended up standing next to me while I lay on the ground half conscious and I trusted her to do so and not hurt me but I don't trust Katai that way yet. I had picked Katai's other foot and was scolding her for flailing and when I stood up I almost went right back down again. Unfortunately I'm used to this and went to lie on the feed bin until I could recover and Katai decided she couldn't be patient anymore and just lost it. She was rearing, pulling, flailing, dancing, pawing and basically doing everything she could to tell me that she was NOT going to put up with being tied anymore.

For about ten minutes there was nothing I could do unless I wanted to faint under her so I just let her dance. She was tied in a very safe area in a very safe way and although accidents can always happen she was in about as good of place as she could be. Besides, untying her wasn't going to do anything exept teach her that being a nervous wreck was the best way to be untied.

I eventually recovered enough to go check on her, I could hear her the whole time and kind of see her back and head, but I just let her fuss. I finally decided that she was going to be at it all day and I didn't want to leave her and risk having her injure herself so I tried a new tactic. Whenever she reared, pulled back or stood back at the end of the line I tapped her on the butt with a lunge whip while I hid around the corner.

She did quickly give up that stupidity but still wasn't calm enough where I was willing to let her go. She was sweating a bit at this point but nothing alarming. So far my tying tactics have been working and tonight was the first time she's really been naughty in about a month. Originally she didn't even know how to tie and really flipped out when I first expected her to stand still while tied.

She did finally quiet down enough that I untied her and put her back in the pen but it really wasn't the way I wanted to end my day with her. She had mostly been very good and that whole fuss ended up getting her punished and ignored. I know it was necessary but I still don't feel good about it.

I keep reminding myself that I only punished the bad behavior when it occurred, early on when I was was riding and later when she was naughty while being tied, and otherwise was very kind and encouraging. She was rewarded for every good thing she did and even got a treat when she paused for a couple of minutes and stood nice in the middle of her tantrum. However, the perfectionist part of my brain is still upset about the issues more than its happy about the successes.

Happy "pony" Mothers Day!

I actually have pictures for my blog! Katai was excellently well behaved today for my version of "mothers day" :) I love her in her cute pink tack! I have matching bell boots too but it was chilly and windy and I wasn't sure it was the day to introduce new tack.

Just Add Water

You know those toys you used to play with as a kid where you would put them in a bowl of water and they would "magically" increase in size? Well it feels like that is what is happening with Katai.

About two weeks ago when I went out in the morning to feed Katai it looked like she had put a lot of height on in the rear end area but since it is very uneven where she was standing I wasn't really able to tell. The next day when I brought her in to the barn where we have concrete floors it was apparent that she was in the middle of a huge growth spurt. Her butt was easily more than an inch higher than her front end. She was stuck like that for more than a week but yesterday when I saw her I noticed that she looked more even and indeed she had, overnight, grown more than an inch of wither and is more level across than she has been in awhile even if the rest of her front needs to do some catching up still. Now today she looked butt high again. Oye...

I didn't really think much about it other than to be really excited that she was growing a bit more especially since she will be six this year. She was around 13.1 when I bought her which is right on the low end of what I'm comfortable with since anything smaller than that and I start to look too big. When I measured her during the middle of her growth spurt she was closer to 13.2 hands and now is pushing 13.3 which is absolutely ideal. However, when I lunged her it wasn't just the size that had improved. She has a HUGE, ENORMOUS, BIG GIRL TROT! to go with that extra growth. Her suspension is so much different than when I bought her and her stride was just gorgeous. She was really sitting back and using her hind to propel herself and looked like she was having fun showing off. I was insanely impressed and if cookies were what she was looking for she certainly hit the nail on the head. I'm sure the conditioning I've been doing has something to do with it along with the fact that she trusts me more and is more relaxed and can actually concentrate on her job now.

The other huge improvement is in her feet. She is finally sound in our rocky arena! Her hooves have toughened up a lot compared to when I brought her home and her frogs are looking so much better. We do have a ways to go still which takes me to my next point.

After reading a recent article in EQUUS about how stride effects hooves and after spending a whole night catching up on Rockley Farms blog posts I am more convinced than ever that the cause of Katai's right hoof is her balance/one sidedness.  Just as those sources mentioned her left foot is squashed from extra weight and her right side hoof is more upright and has a very contracted heel. On top of that she is very clearly uncomfortable moving to the right on the lunge and when I first got her she refused for almost a week to even travel that way.

I have been working on this with her but until I read that article last week I was only casually trying to improve her balance going right. Now I am really starting to work her going to that side and I can tell a difference. She is starting to balance better and after warming up and loosening up I'm actually getting some good work to that side. I will be interested to see what changes as she continues to work and improve her flexibility and balance. I am also considering trying to find a chiropractor that would be willing to come out here to the middle of nowhere to work on her since I would not be surprised if that were part of the issue.

Finally, after our nice ride this past week I haven't been able to climb on again. At first I was trying to be nice and not ride her more than necessary in the middle of an unbalanced growth spurt. Secondly, my roommate and her boyfriend are up North camping all weekend and they are my support crew as far as riding safely is concerned. Riding a green horse without having someone on speed dial in case I become injured is not something that I am comfortable with so lunging it will be until Monday.

Summer

Is finally here :)

Katai got to go out in her baby pasture today and she was beautiful to watch running along the fence line and on the hills. She finally settled down to graze and seemed to like that even better.

It was cool to see how independent she is. She would get to the end of her pasture where she couldn't see any other horses and the thoroughbreds started calling her. She just lifted her head, went pffft, literally, and went back to exploring or grazing. It certainly made me laugh.

Before she went out I worked on her hooves since it was another hoofday-tuesday. They are looking good and she was finally being patient while I worked on the back ones which was a huge improvement. I'll have pictures to share, hopefully soon. I also did a bunch of grooming to help with spring coat removal. I got a nice sized pile and should soon be able to build another pony.

Tomorrow should be hooves again but I may lunge instead.

I'm so glad that summer is finally here!!!

Important Details

I finally got something extremely important figured out.

Katai's colors are Navy and Pink!!!

















In other news, the reason the saddle and pad were in the barn today, normally I store them in the house, is because I rode!!! She was excellent and it was her first real ride in her Dressage tack. We were both clean and neat and I would have loved pictures but I figured out after I climbed on that there wasn't anyone around. If I had known that when I went out there I never would have even ridden since I never ride when there isn't someone that can run for help but it all worked out.

Katai did way better than last time I rode and I pushed a little bit more than I have in the past. She is still young enough that she easily feels overfaced and tends to march along as a happy little pony until all of a sudden it gets to be too much and she blows up. I'm starting to find that line where it overwhelms her though which helps alot. The biggest issue is that she still doesn't really want to go forward. She is waaaaayyy freer than she was when I very first tried to ride her and all of the lunging, CA work and ground driving have helped a lot but I still have some work to do.

With that being said though she was a very good pony. There were no grumpy ears, no shies, and no real attitude. I'm hoping to ride again tomorrow although she does need some more work on her hooves, I got some done yesterday, and more work in the side reins to teach her to work through her back better.

Spoiled Brat

Katai has been waiting out the nasty weather in her stall which seems twice as large with only one pony in it. She's not too happy since she can't see the other horses but she is warm and dry wearing her pretty purple blanket.

The weather is supposed to be much nicer so I'm going to try the week straight of working Katai again. I'm hoping to actually ride her as soon as we get some nice warm, tiring, weather. I also need to do more work on her feet which I can do in cold weather but today I wasn't even able to feel my fingers so that was out. I also need to work out and tan since I was distracted by going to visit my boyfriend last night. Another reason that Katai didn't get worked but he gets to be the priority especially since we have trouble working our schedules out so that we can see each other.

Hopefully more interesting pictures will follow once I'm able to work outside again.

Oh Well

I missed three days now because of the weather. Things were going so well too.

and then we got this....

Four Days

Consistency has always been hard for me when training. I blame it on the artistic mindset that got me through college with a music degree and although I enjoy jumping around and working on different things all the time it's not very helpful when working with horses. Especially young horses...

That is why I decided to work with Katai every single day this week and hopefully this month. That doesn't mean training every day. In fact, on Monday I just groomed her in her pen and fed her an apple core :) yesterday though went really well. She's getting used to coming into the barn and being tied like a big girl and she behaved excellently while being ground driven. I also took her out hand grazing which didn't go so well but it did need to happen.

Today now it was cold and raining so all I did was put her in her stall and give her a nice large armful of hay. I would have groomed her too but she was all wet and shivery so that wouldn't work.

I'm hoping that tomorrow will be nice enough to work with her a little but I'm expecting it probably won't be. Based on how well she did with ground driving I'm planning on riding her on the next warm, tiring :), day. Hopefully that's sooner rather than later.

One Horse Girl

It's so nice to just have one again and I feel like I need to record this so I'm not tempted to purchase another anytime soon. I'm just not in a place in my life right now to be comfortable with having more than one horse. Between renting month to month and not having a ton of disposable income it's just not comfortable having two.

Now if I need to move and start boarding I'll be able to afford to take Katai. I can absolutely afford a pony and a dog even if I have to move or have an emergency but I can't afford to board two.

The best part is that now I have more time to work with my problem child. Katai is really a very good pony and has made a lot of progress just over this winter which impresses me because I didn't have that many days where I could work with her because of the weather. However, with Myshla here it was easy to make excuses and just take Meesh out. She rode so nice and listened well and was easy to trailer so instead of working to train Katai it was all about Meesh. Finally, Katai won't be "easy" for a long time. She is fairly hot for a pony and can be a handful. What she needs is miles, lots of exercise and regular firm but fair handling.

With that said, she is going to be fun and an excellent little dressage pony. I was seeing that even more today now that her feet are feeling better and she was really striding out nice. She has a wonderful, rhythmic relaxed stride that will do wonderful things in a dressage arena. Now I just have to bring her to her full potential :)

All Kinds of Change

Weather: we finally had our first day over 50 degrees since October. It's been sunny and most of our snow is gone. The arena is dry enough that we can do some riding although it does need to be raked and de-rocked again.

Myshla: She found a new home! It's right in the area and they are going to keep me updated on her progress. It is a 4-H home where two teenagers are going to get her tuned up and ready for a kid. She is an awesome pony but they do have their work cut out for them if they want her to be kid ready which I did mention to them. Luckily they do have a couple of small adult friends who may be interested as well. She just left today and was a good girl hopping right on the trailer even if she was very up with the windy day.

Katai: is learning to be a big girl. I decided to work with her every single day for a month as long as the weather cooperates. She's been pretty much left alone all winter and has gotten kinda wild again so regular handling would be good for both of us.

Today after she'd had a chance to calm down I took her out to lunge her. She wore her saddle and bridle and was a really good girl on the lunge despite the windy weather. We have a storm coming in tonight supposedly and all the horses are on edge so I was very proud. Other than dancing a bit when she was tied after I worked her she was excellent. I worked with her a lot on the lunge on her stiff side getting her to flex and bend in the direction she was going. She was more flexible and moving better today than she has in a long time and her feet were doing well too. Proof that the proper trimming does make a huge difference :)

Quiet

This is why I've been quiet recently. That was late last week and now just as it was melting we're getting another snow storm tonight.

The new job has been taking some of my time as well.