Updates

Once again I have not written in a long time. I'm so swamped at work, and when I'm not working, I'm alternating between being happy and depressed about leaving here. To top it all off, I'm battling one of the many colds that are floating around right now. I am hoping to be home in exactly 4 weeks from today. In 3 weeks I'll be done with work so that I have a week to pack up and clean my apartment.

I have an update on Chico's leg abscess. See my original post about it and what the vet said back in November, if you haven't heard about this before.

Post about chicos abscess

Post from the vet

So, it's been draining pus on and off this whole time, since last November. We were pretty sure there's still wood in it, but he was never lame on it and it never seemed infected (he never had a fever). My dad checked it regularily. Since it wasn't an emergency, we were waiting for better weather to do anything about it. We couldn't have the vet out to put him under and open it up in the below zero weather! Well, it finally warmed up, so my dad made an appointment for next week to get it opened to remove the wood we suspect it still there.

Well, today, my dad went up to check on him and saw something dark sticking out of the abscess hole. He grabbed it and pulled out a pointed piece of wood over an inch long!!! He says there is hair stuck in the very pointed tip, as though it was ripped off and pushed into his skin with the stick. Now, I'm only surprised the wood is that big because when I had the vet out to see him right after he was poked by the stick, she probed the wound, said it didn't even go all the way through his skin, and there is no wood in it. And she charged me and arm and a leg! Clearly, it went through the skin, and there was a HUGE peice of wood in it! I'm not sure how she couldn't feel it! It must have also been pretty deep. I'm amazed that it actually managed to work itself out. Our bodies are so amazing! Just over 5 months, and his body finally expelled the stick (it didn't start abscessing until 2 months after the accident). We will still take Chico in to the vet next week just to be sure that there isn't any wood remaining in there. Although, if his body could expell THAT, then I'm not too worried about other tiny pieces!





So, other updates...I've been accepted to vet school! There is only 1 problem and that is that they want me to fulfill my Physics prerequisite before May 31st...which might be impossible, but I'm trying to arrange something. I knew I was missing physics, but I didn't think they'd be so strict on their deadline. Apparently they sent me an email in November telling me that I needed to get physics done (which I could have if I had known then). Unfortunately, I have no record of that email. I think that my email might have lost it...the university uses Windows Live and I've heard other people losing emails. It really sucks, but there's nothing I can do about it. Good news is that I apparently had a very strong application, so if I can't get the physics done in time for this fall, I am almost guaranteed of being accepted next fall. That is quite a relief, although I really just want to get it started now. It's a 4 year program.

no more posts from the past, but now you get posts from the present!

So the last post ended my "Posts from the Past". That was as far as I got in my horse journal. And a few months after that, I started writing in this blog, so that takes over for the journal. So, I guess I'm caught up now! What a daunting process it was to write about all that I've done with the mustangs.

It's so interesting to see how calm and relaxed Catlow was getting toward the end of the journal...because then I went and hauled her and the other two to Wisconsin, and completely upset her. Chico and Cody took the relocating to a new place just fine. They could care less where they are as long as they have eachother. Catlow, however, was not okay with this new place...completely new. New trees, new grasses, new sounds...just altogether, NOT the west where she grew up. I was rather upset that she took it so hard back in November. She took it so hard, that all that trust that she built up in me sort of got buried in her worry. She was no where near calming down even 2 weeks later. Now, they've been in WI for 3 months and my parents say that she seems more relaxed. They don't do anything with the horses except feed them and give them treats. Catlow comes over to get her treats just like the others. I think the couple of months to settle in will have done her good and by the time I get home, she'll be ready to have a refresher and she'll be able to put some trust back in me, since she won't be quite as worried about her surroundings. She was REALLY bad though back in Nov when I took her for a ride. What a backslide she did. I really hope this isn't a permanent thing....

Speaking of getting back to my horses, I am planning to be in Wisconsin by the beginning of April! That leaves me only about 5 weeks left here! I'm excited, but torn too. I have great friends here and I really like this area. But I miss my family and my sister just had a baby!

So, back in December, my mom (who is a computer nut), wired up a web cam in the barn and using her wireless internet, she set it up so that I can access it on a link from here in ID! So, I've been logging in to see my horses most days. It's really cool! I took a few screen captures of them, just because I thought it was so neat. It's pretty much real time, although I know that it is a bit delayed (from the times my dad called me from his cell phone while he was up there and I was watching on the webcam). Here are a few pictures.







The way is looks on the computer screen is much higher resolution than what the screen captures turned out to be.

Now, the unfortunate thing is that my parents sold their house (just the house and 2 acres on the opposite side of the road from the rest of our property), and now they are temporarily renting a place a few miles away. This means that today my mom disconnected her wireless internet....so no more horsecam! I now have to go 5 weeks without even seeing them. I guess I'll have to get my mom to send me some pictures. It is of course, just not the same as being able to walk out into their pasture and touch them, and smell their wonderful horsey scent. I can't wait till to see them...

July 13, 2008

"Post from the Past"

July 13, 2008

I haven’t written in my horse journal in a LONG time. Primarily because I’ve been busy riding my horses! I’ve been riding Catlow a lot since her first trail ride. I never did take her to Katie’s place, but we seemed to be progressing fine without it. She is trusting me more and more every time we ride. She now rarely gets flustered while riding out alone (which is what we usually do). She flexes softly, she stands still and doesn’t raise her head when I move around her (this used to be one of her biggest issues, trusting me).

She accepts bridling calmly and actually drops her head for me and opens her mouth to take the bit. It has taken a while for her to trot calmly and with cadence on the trail, but we are getting there. I was previously leary about cantering on the trail because if it was toward home, she’d rush and attempt to go straight for home and put up a bit of resistance when I asked her to stop, but she’s over that now. We have been working on cantering on the trail and stopping when asked…we’ve also cantered circles in the field a couple of times and she’s doing well, but there is lots of room for improvement. She will even jump stuff unexpectedly while cantering (unexpected to me), I’ll almost fall off, and she’ll keep cantering as though nothing happened while I clamber back into position…it doesn’t freak her out! She did have a panic moment and bucked me off once, but that has been a long time ago now and there were many factors that led to the buck (tractors on two sides of her, letting her walk off without making her wait after mounting, and immediately straightening the saddle which spooked her and caused her to panic). Once I'd fallen off, she skittered away and stood while I jumped up and walked calmly over to her (no running home!) I ride one-handed and she is almost neck-reining at this point. She moves very well off my leg with only the slightest pressure such that sometimes when I am riding her, I feel like we really are moving as one unit across the landscape…just the slightest touch will send her over to go around a certain bush and such.

She does still have some things we are working through. Primarily cantering more slowly, but I really can’t think of any other major issues that I feel really need to be worked on…oh, she does get nervous and jumpy when I blow my nose while on her back…I can do everything else, cough, sneeze, hiss, whistle, yell at the dogs, but the nose blow unnerves her. I think it is really close to the horse/deer alarm call and it also come from right behind her ears.

She is doing so well, that when my parents were here a few days ago, I put my dad up on Catlow and I took both my parents horseback riding into the canyon. My dad rode Catlow, my mom rode Cody (with me leading her), and I rode Chico. Todd considered coming along and riding Pepsi, but I was actually a little relieved that he decided not to because I was concerned that throwing a horse into the mix that they hadn’t spent any time with recently would put the horses on edge and throw off the comfortable ride with their little cohesive herd unit that I was hoping for. Todd asked me if he would rather I have my dad ride Pepsi instead of Catlow (guess he was doubting how good she’d be), but I really thought that Catlow was ready for another rider (experienced rider of course).

Basically, we saddled everyone up,

then I did a little lunging with each one, just to check attitudes, but I didn’t by any means wear them out. Just a few circles each at walk trot and canter.
watching Kara and chico warm up

warming up catlow

Then I explained Catlow’s buttons to my dad. Then I had him mount her and I led her around to get her used to his weight (he’s about 200lbs). She was a little uneasy when he first went to climb on (wanted to side-step away), but settled quickly with me at her head. Daddy said he could feel that she was tight when I was leading her, but he practiced her cues, then got off while I got my mom situated on Cody. My mom has only ever ridden a horse 3 times before this and once was when she was just a kid and the horse took off on her and she fell off and broke her arm. My dad’s grandpa used to buy and sell horses (many with problems), so my dad learned on them and he’s pretty good with horses. But he hadn’t really ridden in a LONG time (probably at least 12 years).

So, Daddy mounted back up (while I watched from atop Chico, kinda really surveying how she acted cuz I thought that would be the test of the situation).


She was awesome and off we went.
So far so good!

I can’t tell you how proud of her I was. She did so good for this being her first time with a new person (who is much heavier than me). My dad said he really liked her and thinks she’s going to be an outstanding horse, more so than Cody or Chico. He said that even though she didn’t know him, she did everything he asked, around bushes, stopped and waited while he took a picture…and he found out how sensitive she is when a couple of times he asked her to speed up a bit and she leapt into the trot. He said he could feel that she was tense at first, but after about 20 minutes into the ride she relaxed. This is heading down into the canyon.

Chico took advantage of the fact that I was busy leading Cody too and I could hardly get him to stop eating. I also discovered that if he and Catlow walk side-by-side, he wants to speed up and get in front of her. That was interesting. Once behind her, he was fine, but at her side I think he’s got a little bit of the competitive dominance thing going with her. Cody was good, but very busy trying to eat all the grass on the side of the trail, so both my mom and I had our hands full.

Mostly my mom let me lead, but she did try to steer her around stuff…my mom just doesn’t know enough about horses to get it quite right…and Cody knows enough about people that she knows when she can get away with stuff.
Here we are taking a break at the top of a very steep hill.

Daddy is doing good.

My Mom and I.

I was especially proud that Catlow would stop whenever my Dad asked and calmly wait while he took pictures. Here you can clearly see we got pretty far ahead of her.

My parents are so cute!

And on the way back.


So, it went great! I felt like this was the culmination of all the work I put into my horses, that I could take my parents with me on a ride into the canyon to show them how awesome the trails are around here and also show them this part of my life that is so important to me. I did of course lead my mom, but it was still great! It felt really good.

Chico’s cut has almost completely healed up…there is still just a bit of wound healing left (about ¼ inch wound, but all scabbed over and not open at all). I’ve really gotten into the barefoot trimming thing so I’ve been doing that with all my horses and they are all doing great, but Cody is still quite flat-footed and sensitive over gravel so her boots are a necessity for her.

Other than that, horse things are going well and I really enjoyed going back through and rereading my horse journal…after reading this I can see how far Catlow has really come. I can also see how I paid close attention to details when I began working with her. I think I need to continue to do that with her under saddle as I cue her to improve with cantering, steering, and stopping from a canter under saddle. Sometimes I forget to “train” and just trail ride because it is fun and relaxing, but I need to remember that if I want my horses to improve, I need to push myself beyond my comfort zone and trust my horses as I push them in their training.

I'm an aunty!!!! Again!!!

My youngest sister gave birth today at 5:04 (pacific time) to her third child. Now I have a 6 year old nephew, a 3 year old neice and a brand new nephew! I've seen pictures already, and he's cute...although he has that newborn alien look (sorry, I'm not really a human baby person...only recently, since I became an aunt, have I become interested in kids at all!) I love my neice and nephews. I can't wait to be home in WI to be closer to them. Only 6 more weeks until I move! I'm excited to move, but I can't really plan for it yet because 6 weeks is still a ways away. I don't want to give away my furniture yet! Also, next Monday, the vet school sends out the decision letters by real mail. I'm nervous, but not really yet. I'll be having a heart attack when I see that letter in my mailbox though...until then, none of this will feel real. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

April 11th 2008

"Post from the Past"

April 11th 2008

Today is Friday and I made it out here by 6:30 so it was still light enough to ride. I took Cody out for a trail ride. I put the easy boots on her for our trail ride. Originally I planned to ride down the road, but I wanted to see the creek, so we went down the trail into the canyon. That trail is pretty rocky in some places and the boots did a great job. She didn’t gimp over any of the rocks. I was also impressed with how well they stayed on. They didn’t move an inch, and we went through some really rough stuff…boot-sucking mud, some down trees with lots of branches down, and snow, and up a really steep hillside complete with mud and branches. They were a good purchase. Especially since I can take them off when I am not riding her. Todd's mom had shoes put on two of her horses and it’s so muddy outside right now that she has to keep them in barn so that they don't pull their shoes off in the mud.

On her ride, Cody was a bit barn sour, as usual, but once down the trail, she was better. She was really good about standing patiently beside me while I broke branches down so that we could go under and then over some downed trees. I was very pleased with that. We saw lots of moose poo and moose tracks, but no moose. The creek was very full and the crossing was all blown out. We just looked at it, and then turned around.

After I got back, I grained Chico and put scarlet oil on his cut, then I grained Catlow, saddled her up, and worked with her in the round pen. I pulled the tarp out, and the PVC pipe…I just laid it on the ground in the middle of the round pen. One of the horses reached through the panels and pulled out my stick with the plastic bag on it…they essentially ate the plastic bag off. So, I had her trot and canter around me off the line, then I put her back on the line to do more fine-tuned work. When working free, she is much more in an escaping me mindset, so I prefer to work with her on a line and she reacts better. On the line, we crossed the tarp and the PVC pipe. Then I worked for quite a while teaching her to side-pass over the pipe. At first she didn’t understand at all, and I think she also didn’t want to step over the pipe because it was flustering her brain. She kept trying to back up, then side pass behind it. Whenever she got it wrong (backing up and sidepassing), I kept asking her to move until I did at least get a sidepass out of her, then immediately walked her in a circle and tried again. When she got it close, I let her stop and made a big fuss over her. It didn’t take her very long to get it, and when she did, she started anticipating what I wanted her to do. She knew I was going to ask her to stop while standing over the pipe, then move…usually she wanted to move back first, but she really got it after she tried everything else first. Then I climbed in the saddle, and did some walking around the pen. We practiced steering…she’s getting really good…and walking over the tarp. Then I tried to ask her to sidepass over the PVC pipe and she was awesome! Since she’d already gotten it from the ground, she made the connection under saddle immediately and did it very well. I made a huge fuss over her and gave her treats for that one. I don’t think I could get Cody or Chico to side-pass like that. Each horse that I train gets better and better. I need to go back and retrain the other two now as well. I really can’t wait to take Catlow to Katie’s clinic. It’s going to be so good for her. I can already see that she is trusting me more and more. I do wish that she wouldn’t get high-headed and defensive when I ask her to do things undersaddle. She really only gets that way when she doesn’t understand what I’m asking, or when she thinks I’m being too rough (like when I ask her to trot, because she needs a bit of urging to do it). Perhaps tomorrow evening I’ll ride her out on the trail again.

April 6th 2008 (evening) - our first trail ride!

"Post from the past"

April 6th 2008 (evening)

This afternoon, I rode Catlow in the round pen again. I tried to get a canter out of her, but I could not get it again today. We did, however, ride over the tarp today. It was no big deal; she walked right over it when I directed her there. She was so calm that after I had trotted her quite a bit in the round pen, I took her outside the barn. I rode her up and down the driveway and around the driveway bushes and such. I also trotted her around the wagon and the tree, and tried to keep her trotting and listening to my cues. Then we weaved our way out the gate (she wouldn't walk in a straight line anyway, so I did serpentines in the direction I wanted to eventually go, and that kept her mind occupied whenever she wanted to think about balking). I really only meant to play around in front of the driveway on the road, but the circumstances were just right (other horses weren't galloping around and freaking her out like yesterday; that's why I took her for a walk instead of trying to ride her). So, we headed off down the road, with me riding her! I stopped at really succulent grass patches and let her graze a bit (it kept her mind interested in being away from the other horses). We went down the trail that leads to the canyon because I wanted to see how the trail was (slightly muddy, but firm in most places). She was on alert and didn't really want to be walking down this trail without other horses, but I kept urging her, talking to her, and having her flex and yield her hindquarters whenever she started thinking about going home. We went all the way to the clearing about halfway down to the bottom of the creek before the trail got too muddy (I didn't want to damage the trail too much). Then we turned around and headed home. Of course, on the way home, she walked at a nice pace and in a straight line, but I would expect that. We periodically stopped and backed then stood calmly for a bit (with ears pricked alert for danger) to make sure she was still listening to me. She was awesome until we got back out into the field and the neighbor kids came tearing down the road on their dirt bikes. Now, Catlow is not afraid of these; they routinely go tearing by her pasture, but she was out in the open in the field and away from the safety of other horses, so she did get a little hyped up, and upset at me continuously moving her one way with bit pressure, then the other way. She was really chewing and gaping at the bit...obviously upset, so I flexed her and yielded her hindquarters (we spun around and around alot even after I stopped cueing!), and as soon as she stopped and flexed we did it the other way, then backed up, then stood still for a bit, then walked on...and that seemed to reset her a bit...she still just wanted to go home, and we did, but she was back under control and not thinking about panicking. Once we got back out on the blacktop, she was incredibly calm, and we continued back home. Then I yelled for Todd to come out and document Catlow's first trail ride.


I am so excited that I actually was able to ride her out. I didn't think I'd feel she was ready for that for a LOOONG time. My goal was to ride her by herself on the trail by summertime, and I just accomplished that today! She can only improve now. I'm also glad that her first ride out was by herself because it gave both of us more confidence, and now I know that she does trust me, so it will be that much easier when I ride with other horses.

So, I just accomplished the big goal I had for this spring. Now I need to reset my goal. I plan to take Catlow to Katie Whetzel's horsemanship clinic on May 3rd (I think Todd can take me with the trailer). I have yet to get a good canter out of her with me on her back (round pen is hard to keep her going), and at Katie's clinic, I can do that in the safety of an arena and under the watchful eyes of an experienced person.

I have 10 followers!

I haven't posted anything from the present in a long time. Today, I noticed that I have 10 followers! How exciting! Thanks to everyone who finds what I write about interesting enough to "follow" me. I'd also like to encourage commentary on my training style and things, as I know I am only just beginning.

I've really been ignoring my blog lately. Part of it is because I really miss my horses and reading my journal makes it worse. But the other reason is that 2 weeks ago, a friend of mine introduced me to knitting, so I started making a scarf, then last week (at our now weekly knitting circle), another friend showed me how to crochet (which I did when I was a kid, but that was a long time ago). So, I started crocheting hats, and I've become obsessed with making them! I think this is my "I miss my horses" new obsession. I've been averaging 1 hat an evening since last week, so I'm up to 7 hats made now! Most of them have already been sent onto friends and family. What fun! In these pictures, the hats are shown in the order I made them, so you can see how my "skill" has progressed. (Please excuse the model...the hats just look better on my head than holding them out or posing them on my knee or something...)







I have been trying to get out and enjoy the outdoors every weekend. Today, I went to Philip's Farm with a couple friends. I had my boys along, and my friend brought her dog. We had a very nice hike (it was so sunny and warm!), and the dogs had a great time running through the snow (although it was very difficult in places where the snow was still deep because it was too soft to walk on top of, but also too hard to sink in consistently, so it was a strange sort of stumbling crawl that we all had to do).

The snow was very deep in places!

A view of Kamiak Butte from Philip's Farm.

This was a picture of my boys that I really liked, but it was a little blurry. With some photo editing, it looks even better than it would have if the picuture was not blurry!

April 6th 2008

"Post from the Past"

April 6th 2008

Wow, I really have not written in a while. I’d like to say that it’s become spring in the time since I last wrote, but really is hasn’t! The weather has been chilly and it has snowed several times! One snow was about 4 inches deep. Sure they melted off quickly, but still, it snowed! I really wish I would have kept up with writing, because as expected, I have forgotten what I’ve been doing lately. A few things stand out in my mind, so I’ll talk about those.

First, Chico’s cut is healing up nicely, although slowly. Here is a picture from last weekend, and also a picture from this weekend.



A couple of weeks ago, I bought some obstacles to use with my horses in the round pen. I bought a tarp, PVC pipe and flower pots to make a jump, a large ball (about 2.5 ft dia.), and some foam tubing (to use as an additional scary object). The night I brought the stuff over, it was really windy, and everyone was acting not like themselves, so I thought it’d be a bad night to try to introduce new objects.

On the weekend (must be last weekend) I decided to work with Cody with the obstacles. She was really good. She jumped the jump cleanly when I sent her over it at first, but after a while she got lazier and lazier, so we worked on something else. The large ball was no big deal at all. Cody was not even remotely worried about it. I even kicked it at her, and she flinched when it hit her in the side, but she wasn’t too worried about it. I could toss it up and bounce it around and she was okay with that. Then I got out the tarp. She wasn’t as comfortable with the tarp, but she did not spook or panic. I ended up laying it over her back and pulled it up around her ears. She stood very still with a little white showing in her eyes. I asked her to move and she walked around me in a circle wearing the tarp. I took it off shortly after that because I could see I was pushing her to the edge of her comfort zone and I didn’t want to cause her to shut off mentally. After that, we went for a bareback ride around the loop, down to the end of the road and back. I had also ridden her the day before with the saddle.

I didn’t work with Catlow much last weekend. I brushed all my horses out really well. They were itchy from starting to really shed out. I came out to work with them last Wednesday and I took Catlow into the round pen to introduce her to the objects. I pulled out the ball and the tarp. Catlow was awesome. I was surprised by how well she handled the potentially scary objects. I fully expected her to spook at least at the tarp, but she was so good. When I pulled the tarp out of the corner, I really shook it good, and she just stood over on the side watching me. I drug it right up beside her and she didn’t move. I spread it out on the ground by the gate, she walked up and sniffed and mouthed at it, then stood next to it rather relaxed because the other horses were standing near the gate. I spent time dragging it on the ground and asking her to follow me. She was very willing. I would pick it up over my head, and shake it, she would stop, but as soon as she felt the leadrope slack pick up, she’d step toward it and continue falling me. Then I dropped it on the ground and asked her to keep walking and step on it. She did. Then I spread it out and spent some time sending her over it. She walked over it so calmly. I was so impressed. I took a little bit of video. Then I picked up the tarp and swung it over her back. She didn’t move an inch while I spread it out over her, pulled it up around her ears. I think that is from being used to wearing a blanket and having it swung up on her. I took pictures. I had Catlow saddled up, but I didn’t bring my good saddle and my old saddle just doesn’t fit any of my horses right, so I didn’t want to climb on board. She did so good, that I just spent time doing ground work with her that day.



Yesterday was Saturday, and I worked with Catlow all afternoon. She was exceptional yesterday. I have concluded that I think she is ready to start riding out on the trail, with another horse. But she might be fine for me to start working her around the place as long as we stay within sight of the house. Then we can gradually build to riding farther as soon as the ground hardens up.

I started with grooming her really well. She is really shedding and the blanket kind of builds shed hair up under it so that it mats in with her hair, and she is obviously itchy. When I hit an itchy spot, she stops munching on her hay, and picks her head up a bit and gets a pensive look on her face while her lower lip twitches just ever so slightly. I have learned that Catlow is a very subtle horse. She reads very subtle cues, so she gets confused easily if I am not being clear, and she expresses her pleasure and comfort in very subtle ways. It’s when she’s confused that she is not so subtle, so it can become easy to only see the bigger reactions, when the subtler ones are always right there under your nose.

Then I saddled her up (which she is taking more and more calmly every time…she still picks her head up high and braces herself for something unpleasant). She is getting calmer about bridling, although I still need to work on getting her to drop her head. I led her to the round pen, then I pulled out all my obstacles (ball, jump, tarp). She was unconcerned about them. I used the bag on a stick to move her around and over the jump. I was a little disappointed about how Catlow took the jump. I asked her to trot over it, and she picked her front feet up nice and high, but she consistently knocked it over with her hinds. Maybe the jump was too high, but I expected her to be more mindful of her feet because she’s VERY mindful of them when I am leading her through the woods. When she cantered over the jump, she cleared it cleanly each time. I was pleased with how she did not get worried after she knocked the jump over. It didn’t faze her at all. I worked on lunging and changing directions with the bag on a stick. I am starting to think that the bag on a stick is too much pressure for Catlow, now that she understands what I am asking her to do. I think she has a tendancy to focus on the bag, rather than what my body is telling her. She was anticipating me making her move whenever I backed away from her, so she would start to get anxious and go even though I had not told her where to go, so I spend some time backing up, and standing still. Then I’d approach her again, pet her and back up again. She got more relaxed. I also ditched the bag on a stick because I could see it was making her uptight. Then we worked in sending over the tarp, piece of cake…so I took the tarp and wadded it up and had her walk over it…still piece of cake, so then I slung it over the fence and sent her past it. She was a bit leary of it, but walked right past it. I led her up to it, shook it, she stood and watched, then sniffed it when I backed off the pressure, so then I slung it over her, she was still great. She was really calm after the tarping and such, so I worked with picking her feet up, slapping the stirrups, and asking her to flex to the bridle. Then I mounted and spent time flexing from the saddle. She is really starting to get what the cues mean (squeeze means go forward, she remembers the various leg cues, although she gets them wrong the first time, but if I keep asking and increase the pressure a bit, she realizes that she’s not doing the right thing, so she’ll switch to doing the right thing, then I stop. She is a smart horse and really wants to please, she’s just really green at this stuff. I think she wants to react right away when I ask her something, so sometimes, in her haste, she chooses the wrong answer. So, we worked on each of the various cues, including sidepassing this time. I have to be more consistent, because when I am, she gets it right away, but when I start trying to manipulate her movement with the reins too much, she gets confused and doesn’t understand what I’m asking at all. So, once I figured that out, I tried to really only use the reins to block forward movement (tried not to pull on her mouth at all), and cue her with my leg. She gets it when I do that. She was calm and obedient today, not spooky, so I decided it was time to try to get a canter out of her in the round pen. She is difficult to get to canter anyway, so I anticipated difficulty here. I got her going really at a really fast trot and then tried to urge her forward into the canter, she trotted faster and faster, then she did finally break into a canter stride and I said “good girl!” and she immediately put on the brakes and stopped, because that is my usual expectation when I say that, but wow was it hard to not say that when she actually broke into a canter. Then she started to stop in the same place every time after she would take one canter stride. It was so much work for me to try keep her going, and she was starting to sweat up and breath really hard, so after a while, I decided that I was pleased as long as she sped up when I asked her to go faster, whether or not I got a canter, and also that she didn’t stop unless I asked her to. She does have a very good stop, which I like! She stops reliable when I say “Whoa”. I had been working with her for a couple of hours at this point, so I gave her a drink, and tied her up by the hay, then went a took a break myself.

Then I came back out, put he bridle back on, and took her outside. We walked around the driveway, and we trotted this time (only the second time we’d done this all outside). She was awesome, so we went out of the gate onto the road and just did circles out there. Cody and Chico followed us down the fence. Then the stallion came over on the other side of the driveway and screamed at Cody, Cody started flirting back with him, and Chico jumped in to try to drive Cody away (Chico thinks that he is a little stallion and Cody is his #1 mare). They got all excited and took off galloping back to the barn. When they did that, Catlow got really worried and wanted to run back with them, so I just pulled her head around asking her to stop and flex. We spun around in many many circles, but then she did stop and flex, so at that point, I got off, because I didn’t want to lose control of her while I was on her back…meanwhile, Cody and Chico (and the stallion) continued to gallop back and forth along the fence. I tied the reins up and asked Catlow to lunge around me and back up. She visibly relaxed after that, so I started walking away from the other horses down the road. We ended up going for a walk all the way up to the bend in the road on Dry creek by the wheat field past the neighbor's place. I wanted to keep her calm and eager to be with me, so I made sure to enforce her to walk beside me…when she’s worried, she tends to speed up and try to lead me. I wanted her to see that being out with me can be a pleasant experience, so in addition to working with her and asking her to listen to me and do things, I also would stop by the side of the road and give her a break to eat some of the new green grass. She really liked that, and I think it helped keep her calm and take her focus off the fact that we were going away from everybody (I’ve heard the endurance racer neighbor call grass the green tranquilizer). We even walked past the llama (she could smell him, but couldn’t really see him). She was awesome on our walk today. She stayed fairly calm and relaxed the whole time. I definitely think she is ready to go out on the trail.

March 22nd, 2008

"Post from the past"

March 22nd, 2008

This week, we’ve been putting scarlet oil and granulex on Chico’s cut. It has really changed, and not necessarily for the better. The stitches have all pulled through the skin, so that the cut has opened back up. The very edges did hold together, but the wound is opened back up exposing the muscle beneath. The stitches in the muscle are now visible, and it’s awesome to see that the muscle has healed back together. You can’t even tell that there was a tear there. The one good thing is that the skin around the edges of the cut do look like they are starting to heal. After the picture, I pulled the stitches out and they slid out easily. I think that the scarlet oil and the granulex are helping, but it sure looks awful. I’m not so worried about it though because it’s not infected, and there are no flies to worry about, and I watched Houston Animal Cops tonight and they showed a horse with a huge wound in its neck from a stallion bite…huge wound with maggots in it, and that healed up great. There was just a dip in the muscle in the neck and a T-shaped scar. Most of the skin had hair except for the thin line of the T. So, I’m not so worried about Chico’s wound. It’ll heal up. It just looks really ugly right now.



I also trimmed up Chico’s front hooves using the rasp and my new hoof stand (got it on Ebay for $65…it’s really well-made). His front hooves were really unbalanced in the beginning of the year (uneven wear on snow). They were shorter on the inside than the outside. They are now coming close to being balanced. I also trimmed his left back hoof, but I decided not to finish his right back because it was hurting him to hold his hoof up like that…my leg was rubbing on his wound. Amazingly, he doesn’t gimp on that leg at all. He walks almost completely normal. The initial extreme lameness was due to inflammation in the muscle. He was on bute the first 2 weeks, and since then has not been on it and not shown any lameness. That’s why I felt it was okay to trim his hooves up, even the off back hoof, which meant he was standing with all his weight on his injured leg.

I saddled Catlow up after I put Chico away. She is getting fairly comfortable with being saddled. She took the bit much better today, but she did try to back up. I just repeatedly asked her to lower her head, and retreated when she let me hold the bridle up over her head. In the round pen, I worked her off the lead line. I wanted her to get a chance to feel the reins flopping all around her face because it seemed to bother her last time. She did pretty well this time. I also got a lot of cantering out of her. I think she’s getting more muscle and more confidence about moving out. I mounted her, then we did walk and turn and walk and trot for quite a while in the round pen. She did pretty well. There was no spooking today. She was also much better at moving forward off leg cues, although the very first time I asked her, she did try backing up first. I also got a couple rounds of trotting, but we really need to work on getting her to continue trotting until I ask her to stop. She’s really bad about trotting a few strides, then putting on the breaks. She did so well in the round pen that I decided to ride her outside around in the driveway. First I led her down to the end of the driveway and back twice, to expose her to everything, then I mounted her up near the barn, spent some time flexing her (she’s getting really soft), then we started down the driveway. I walked her in serpentines to get her steering and listening to me, then we did figure eights and walked circles around the spruce tree and the wagon. She spooked at Todd's dad when he was getting stuff out of the car, but she only panicked a bit and it was not out of control (just skittering and then freezing)…she needs to learn how to spook and know she’ll be okay, so it was overall really good for her. We did not trot in the driveway, but that will come later. She was really calm afterward when I was unsaddling her. I was thinking about taking her for a walk after that, but I’d worked her for a while, and I wanted to end on a good note (I was hoping that she’d trust me more when on the walk now, but I wasn’t sure). She is such a pretty horse.


I rode Cody after I worked Catlow. We went out to the neighbor's field to see how wet it was…it was good on the edges, but I didn’t want to mark up their field, so I decided to go down the road and up the trail that goes behind the property. The trail was pretty good, but when we got to the top, the snow was really deep, almost unpassable, so we turned around, then went down Dry Creek Road. We went up a side trail just before the creek. The side trail was great, and Cody does so much better on trails where there is more to keep her occupied. I was beginning to get irritated with her because she wanted to turn around all the time. I also discovered that if I keep contact on her mouth, she stays soft and more focused on me. It was fun. I’d like to try dressage with her….I bet she could be a pretty dressage horse. She was also having explosive green poos with undigested grass in them. I’m worried that she may colic again. I’m going to give her some yogurt tomorrow, and I think I might look into buying some good grass hay for a while…at least a few bales. They are still on the crappy hay that I think caused her to colic last year. I really don’t want to treat a colicky horse again. It was awful and expensive last time.

March 17th 2008

"Post from the Past"

March 17th 2008 (St. Patrick’s Day)

Yesterday I cleaned Chico’s wound out, rode Catlow in the round pen, then rode Cody out on the road. Chico’s wound really does not look good. It’s just so open, so I emailed pictures to the Lewiston Vet Clinic. Hopefully they’ll get back to me in the morning tomorrow so that I can take care of it later.

I worked with Catlow in the round pen with lunging quite a bit. She’s getting really good about responding to my requests to move out, speed up, and whoa without getting upset. She stays pretty relaxed. The only time she gets a little uptight is when I ask her to move out and go on the circle. She tends to want to stand there and stare at me, as though she really doesn’t understand what I’m asking, so I just have to continue to ask her to go out, and increase the pressure a little at a time until she finally figures it out and leaves. I think sometimes she is testing me to see if I’m really making her leave. At this point, she’d rather stand there with me and let me pet her, than have me pressure her around the circle. A couple of times she did get flustered at the reins flopping around her chin when she was out cantering on the big circle, and she kind of tried to strike at them. She is definitely a horse that needs to be exposed to everything. I think that she will often take new things as being threatening and scary, so I can’t assume that she’s going to accept something. This was really the first time the reins were flopping around because before they have been tied up through the halter or I was holding them. I can’t be upset that she was worried about them. Now she knows about them, and she’ll get used to them. All in all, she was a little bit jumpier today. She didn’t offer to buck or hop at all with the saddle on, like she did last time, but she was a little more worried than usual. I think that may be because it was kind of windy and the weather was weird. It snowed a couple of times while we were inside the barn.

I worked with her until she was calmly changing directions and starting to move and bend around me on the circle, rather than leaning out away from me. She was a bit winded by then, so I worked with her close up (flexing, yielding fores and hinds). Then I mounted. First we did walk around the pen, then trot. Twice while she was trotting after she passed the opening to the barn, she sped up then kind of bolted forward (spooked at the opening behind her). The first time she did it, it really shook me up because I wasn’t sure how she would react in that situation. I immediately bent her to the inside of the circle and asked her to stop and flex. She could have panicked and bucked me off, but she didn’t. She actually stopped! After that, my adrenaline was going, so I had to calm myself so that I didn’t affect her negatively (she’s really sensitive). But trotting around the circle again, she spooked in the same spot and we did the same thing, I stopped her by flexing and she actually stayed under somewhat control. Then I was determined not to let her do it again because I was concerned that she was using it as an excuse to quit trotting, since it does take quite a bit of motivation to keep her trotting. We trotted a bit more, then I decided to work on stopping, backing, and the ‘go’ cue. She gets the go forward cue (squeeze with both legs) confused with the backing cue (block forward movement with reins, give verbal cue “back”, and ask for motion by alternatingly squeezing the leg and rein cues). She even sometimes was trying to yield her fores or hinds and even sidepass instead of going forward. Probably because we’ve worked from the ground on those other things, so she understands those cues better. So, I worked exclusively on asking her to go forward, then stop on a verbal whoa, then back, then go forward, stop and back. Her first reaction to me squeezing with both legs is to go backward right now, rather than forward. I had to turn up the pressure a bit to get her to understand that was not the correct answer. What worked really well, was if she started to back up when I was squeezing my legs, I’d slap the reins back and forth over her withers or the saddle, just to get some motion behind her and make an unpleasant noise, and she’d start forward when I did that. I was very careful to release all pressure when she did what I wanted, so by the end, she really was picking up the difference between go forward and back up. I think it’s bizarre that she’d rather back up than go forward, but I guess I have always had an issue with getting good forward impulsion from her. But, she’d rather hustle and back across the whole round pen, than go forward…or so it would seem.

She did well, and I think that next time I ride her in the round pen, she’ll have remembered her last lessons and catch on even quicker. I think I need to get that good go forward cue instilled in her before I start asking her to trot. As is now, I feel like I am constantly kicking and urging her forward and she is not really understanding that I’m asking her to keep trotting. She also might be a little lazy.

I rode Cody after working with Catlow. By that time the sun had started peaking through the clouds. I put her new easy boot epics on and we went for a quick ride. We trotted and cantered and then slowed down to a walk. She was much more forward when going away from home today, so I let her walk and relax as long as she was walking at a good pace. We went down to the paved road on the circle, then came back and rode past the red barn on Dry Creek Rd, then turned back. When we got back to the barn, she wanted to duck right into the driveway and not listen to me, so we trotted back and forth and I actually got her to do some rollbacks by turning back toward the house and tapping her with the dressage whip to encourage her to pick up her shoulders.

The easy boots were awesome. They fit her well, and she didn’t gimp on rocks once!