Back and Better than Before

 Since my last post was almost a month ago, whoops, Cinder has come back, and better than ever. Her grooming aversion is gone, she hasn't tried to kill anyone while getting blanketed/unblanketed, she's put some weight back on, and her flat work is improving by leaps and bounds. She's still grouchy when getting girthed up, but it's getting better and for only being three weeks into her ulcer treatment, I'm not too concerned that it hasn't gone away yet. I did buy a Mattes sheepskin girth from Hufglocken during Black Friday that's supposed to be better contoured for her body shape, so maybe that will help. 

every ride lately has been lovely, but I have no media of said rides

We've really been focusing on moving different parts of her body around, and asking her to take the connection and self carriage to the next level. As Trainer A said in one of my recent lessons, "The buttons are installed, now we're finessing and refining the buttons." In our trot work we go back and forth between shoulder in and haunches in, both down the long sides and on circles, and we've started shortening and lengthening her stride. I'm to focus on shortening her stride with my body, not my hands. The first time we worked on this I was nearly dead by the end of the lesson, but it's gotten easier for both of us and it seems like every ride I have to do less and less to get her to do more. 

she whacked the bottom of her fetlock and it was just swollen enough for me to put wraps on overnight. she was not amused

The biggest improvement has been in the right lead canter. That's always been our trouble direction, and it still is, but we've gotten moments where everything comes together and it's absolutely lovely. A has had me think shoulder fore in the canter, and to be really on Cin about giving to the bit. There were a couple rides where we had some pretty ugly canter before she gave in, but once she does I can soften and just half halt every second or third stride to keep her there. And again, each ride it's getting easier and easier to get her there and she's capable of keeping that canter for longer and longer. I told A in my last lesson that the canter is getting so much fun to ride, even the bad moments because I know we can get this dream canter out of it. I'm pretty sure I look ridiculous riding around with the world's biggest grin of my face. 

Plotting chaos

In the past couple of months, Cinder's turnout group had been frequently rotated, and her stall neighbor had been on stall rest for kicking himself in the leg. He had been getting very bored, and very angry, and kicking the walls a lot which I think caused Cin a lot of stress. But he's back on turnout, and can start under saddle work next week, and Cin's turnout group has stabilized. I think this, in combo with the ulcer meds has really helped. She's out with two other mares, and the three of them have become a giant chaos unit. The three of them are frequently huddled together, and two weeks ago Cinder and Jazzy were in flaming heat and taunting the boys across the fence. There's been two ripped blankets, three pulled bell boots, and one lost shoe in the month they've been out together. But the girls are devoted to each other and I'm happy that Cinder has her BFFs. 

Cinder Progress Report: Keep On Keepin' On

 I got off of work early on Friday to go up and watch Cinder again. Trainer A had said she had been a bit wild earlier in the week, but didn't seem to concerned by it. We had had some really weird weather with some unexpected snow on Tuesday (3" at work, but just a trace amount at my house and at Cinder's barn) and Cinder had moved into a new pasture. A chalked up Cinder's wildness to winter sillies. 

sheeps!

 

The great romance of Cinder and Kiwi has come to an end. The two of them were starting to get annoyingly attached to each other so Kiwi was moved to a different stall and Cinder to a different turnout group. Cinder's new turnout includes some older mares and sheep. Apparently she spent the first day trying to befriend the sheep but they weren't having it. The pasture she's in also has the barn's cross country jumps in it so she's seen them and hopefully once the pasture is dry A can take her over them. 

Cinder was all business under saddle on Friday. Since it was dry the barn had opened up the outdoor dressage court and A rode her out there. She's been ridden out there a handful of times and only once thought about jumping out of the court. Someone slammed a gate and she spooked sideways but kept herself from going over the rails. A has also taken her on her first road hack, walking up and down the gravel road and said she was really good. Cinder had to stop and stare at the neighbors cows, and the water coming out of a culvert into the ditch along the road, but didn't spook at anything and was able to do most of it on a loose rein. 

Cinder keeps looking more and more grown up and I can't believe the difference in her in just a couple of weeks. She's still obviously green, but she's staring to develop some nice rhythm and stretch in her trot. Her canter is still big and ungainly, but she's getting more and more comfortable in it, and her steering at the canter is much more improved. There was one spot in the arena that was a little too wet for her liking and whenever they passed by it she would giraffe her head up and get quick, but a couple of strides later would settle down again. I told her to stop being a princess and that she lives in western Oregon and is going to have learn to deal with wet footing.

In the dressage court. On the other side is the jump arena that gets opened in the spring and a course is set up all spring/summer/fall

 A and I are tentatively planning her first outing in March. A is taking some of her students to an indoor eventing show and Cinder is going to go. Right now A is still deciding weather she wants to actually show her, or just take her to school. A thinks she'll be ready to handle the intro division by then. We'll probably enter the intro, and then see how she handles the atmosphere and schooling. If we have to scratch the actual show, oh well. Just going will be good exposure for her.

The Forbidden Bromance

Peebs is generally a friendly horse. He tend to like everyone and everything and is happy going up to new horses and saying hi. That said, he can be an asshole and tend to be top dog in herd dynamics. Mainly he wants to play or say hi to the other horses and then is all about grazing and will get pissy when other horses *cough Cinder cough* want to keep playing.

All day, every day

 Blue, a mid-twenties Paint, is the herd boss at TCF.  He was born on a ranch in Colorado, and is the type warhorse who has seen some shit and doesn't put up with anything. He's a pretty benevolent leader, but isn't afraid to lay one on someone *cough Cinder cough* when they need to be put in their place. When he and Peebs were put out together in the big field last summer, there was a brief pissing match, then they seemed to basically ignore each other. Peebs bossed Cinder around while Blue ran herd on Giz (the other retired twentysomething QH) while Scottie floated between the two groups.

Blue acting all tough and Peebs gives no shits

A couple of weeks ago A and I were doing barn chores and moving somethings around and I put Peebs out with just Blue in one of the smaller paddocks. It was the first time they had been out with just the two of them, and the first time out together since Peebs had moved back. There was some initial squealing and striking from Blue but then they seemed to calm down. I went back to cleaning, poking my head out a few times to watch. I have no idea what clicked between the two of them, but they quickly became Bros4Lyfe. They were deeply involved in a game of bitey face and Blue was acting like a three year old instead of a 23 year old. When I went to bring them in for dinner, they took off and wouldn't let me catch them. Peebs is normally first at the gate at dinner time and it took A and I 10 minutes and a bucket of grain before we could catch them. Peebs has never chosen play over food before.

Ok, maybe he gives some shits

They were turned out together with the others later that week, and basically spent all day playing together. They play bite face, squeal, strike, kick, and go after each other. Two blankets have been destroyed in the process and both boys have multiple nicks on them. The day I took these pics Blue, Scottie, and Peebs were out together.  Obviously Blue and Peebs were involved in their own little world while Scottie was standing at the gate imploring me to get him out of there. They had been out for 8 hours and according to A's mom, had been doing that all day.

30 seconds after this they were back to bite face

We've since separated the two of them, since replacing blankets is expensive. And while I don't think they'd intentionally hurt each other, I don't want this game to get any worse.  We're tentatively planning on putting them back together this summer in the big field, once everyone's not wearing blankets anymore. 

Pony Kindergarten

Both ponies have settled into A's barn pretty well by now and we've got a good routine started.  Peebs has obviously been here many times and settles into most places well so I wasn't worried about him. But this would be the first time Cinder would be out with horses other than Peebs (or her mom and another pony at her breeder's) and I was a little worried. It's like dropping you kid off at kindergarten and hoping they play nice with the other kids.

Letting Cin get settled in with Peebs in the drylot at first

Of the four horses at A's, all are gelding and three of them are in their mid to late twenties. Scottie is 14 but acts about 4 with other horses so both A and I were hoping he at Cinder would play together.  And they do.  Scottie tends to be a  bit lower on the totem pole and Cinder, while not yet showing alpha mare tendencies, does push him around a bit. One of the other geldings, Giz, is only turned out at night but he and Cinder are back scratching buddies and get along well.

Red, the oldest on the place at 28 is the one with the broken coffin bone.  He's turned out during the day with Peebs in the dry lot which shares a fence line on two sides with the big pasture.  Red used to be boarded at my old barn and both his owner and I kinda forgot that he sometimes falls hopelessly in love with mares. The first few days Cinder was out Red was frantically pacing the fence line trying to catch her attention and push the other boys away from her.  She couldn't have cared less about him.  We started calling him the creepy old man and told him that toxic masculinity bullshit will not be tolerated at TCF. He does seem to calmed down a bit and isn't quite as frantic when Cinder's close to the fence.

Out with her best bud Scottie

The biggest issue has been between Cinder and Blue.  Blue is the herd leader and doesn't tolerate bullshit. The first few days Cin was out with him, I saw him pin his ears at her and she respectfully stayed out of his way.  But the morning before we left for the horse show A called me that Cinder had jumped the pasture gate destroying it. Blue and Scottie had been down by the gate when she put Cinder out and she had her back turned to them when she heard scrambling and turned around in time to see Cinder's escape.  Cinder hit the metal gate with both her front and hind feet, but landed fine and ran back into the barn and into her stall. The gate sadly died on impact.

RIP gate

We kept Cinder in till A and I got back from the show, and luckily her parents were able to get a new gate and install it that same day. When I went to put Cin out again Blue pinned his ears and snaked his head at her.  Cinder went full on panic and ran back to me clearly terrified of him.  We're assuming Blue must have gotten after her and since Cinder absolutely does not want to touch the hot wire fence she must have jumped to gate to get away from him. So currently Blue is turned out in the smaller field by himself during the day and with Giz at night and Cinder and Scottie are in the big field 24/7. I feel awful that Cin has caused such a ruckus and wrote A's parents a check to replace the gate. And I know part of having horses turned out together is them not getting along and finding the right buddies.  But it feels like I sent my baby away and she got beat up by the school bully.

First Rides Post Injections

Peebs was cleared to ride last Wednesday, 4 days after his injections.  Unfortunately that was farrier day, and after holding him and Cinder for the farrier in 36* I was too frozen to ride. So Peebs got a light lunge and I bumped our first ride back to Thursday.

Missed that view

We had a nice long walk warm-up, with lots of lateral work because someone was feeling a bit fresh and needed to engage his brain. We did about 30 mins of walk-trot, mostly walk, and the whole time I was second and third guessing myself about his soundness. He did feel stiff, but it was more of the "its cold and I haven't loosened up yet" type of stiffness than the "I'm lame" type.  Peebs did get a lunge before we rode Friday, and felt much better.

Used to be terrified of puddles.  No fucks given Saturday

Saturday I hauled him over to friend A's to ride and spend the night as we were having lessons on Sunday. I had to work last weekend and wouldn't have time to work and haul over before my lesson so A was kind enough to let Peebs spend the night. It has snowed and rained Friday and A's arena was wet and a bit deep in spots, but it worked great for us.  The footing was just deep enough to make Peebs work a bit harder and tire him out, but not deep enough to be unsafe. Also, he apparently has gotten over his phobia of puddles, splashing through them without a care in the world and standing in one so I could get a pic.

We kept the jumps small for our lesson Sunday, mostly trotting cross rails. Peebs still wanted to get crooked and bulge right while tracking left cantering away from some of the jumps but it was better than our last few jump sessions.  My instructions was to disengage during those moments, let him be, then continue on like normal.  My normal reaction is to ride hard and try and correct him which usually makes him more upset, so trying the less is more approach is hard for me.  But I did it and we had some decent rounds.  We managed to string together a little trot course including cantering through a line on the left lead without incident.

BFF for lyfe!!

My original plan was to take Peebs home Sunday after lessons, but the weather was supposed to be nice Monday and A offered to let me stay another day to take advantage of her arena. She also wanted to use Peebs for an experiment. Her gelding Scottie can be a little herd bound when turned out with other horses so he's been on solo turnout for a while now.  She wants to try him back with other horses and since he and Peebs are BFFs we put them out together. Scottie really wanted to play with Peebs, but Peebs was more interested in eating.

When I got to A's Monday and took Peebs out of the paddock he and Scottie called to each other once, then both seemed fine.  In the past Scottie would call and pace almost nonstop but the couple of times I checked on him he wasn't pacing and seemed fine alone.  Hopefully he can start getting turned out with buddies again.

It felt like spring for a day

I'm so happy A let me stay for an extra day because Monday afternoon was perfect!  It was 60* and sunny and felt like spring might actually be on it's way. I took advantage of the jumps being up and did the same course we had done the day before then put a couple of the fences up to verticals.  We still didn't have issues cantering through the line, but Peebs wanted to get crooked cantering to singles so we went back to trotting.  Cantering off the right is fine, so we did some fences that way.  We have another lesson at A's this weekend and I have a couple ideas I want to bonce off my trainer about our left lead issues.

Always Learning

Its been a month since we moved and not only am I a lot happier, both the ponies and I have learned a lot.  Like Cinder learned how to open the window in her stall, and that she can reach the latch for Peebs' stall from it and she learned how to open that too.  So far she hasn't learned how to open the snap I've put on the latch.

Don't let the innocent face fool you

I got her a hybrid halter and have started doing more ground work with her.  She wasn't bad, per se, but if she did get naughty, I didn't have much control with either the regular halter or rope halter I had.  And I couldn't find a stud chain small enough for her regular halter.  So the hybrid halter with knots was perfect.  She's learned how to pick up her feet while in the cross ties and that holding her hind feet up for more than 10 seconds won't kill her.  The ponies got their feet done last week and she got a "much improved" from the farrier. I've also started working with her and the clippers again and have pulled a little bit of her mane.  She was pretty sure that was the end of the world until I stuffed her face with cookies.  Then it was tolerable.

Peebs has made new friends (but that's not something new).  We've been turning him out to play with Helix, a 7yr old mustang.  Both boys tend to play hard, so there was some concern about them inflicting serious bodily harm on each other, but so far so good. Helix likes to be alpha, but Peebs doesn't really care as long as he can chew on his buddy. Helix seems fine with it, but will occasionally rear and strike at Peebs, who doesn't give a shit.  I wanted to start putting my ponies out with other horses so they don't become too attached to each other.  They were the only horses in the barn for a couple of weeks while everything was getting finished, and I was afraid of them getting too attached to each other. It doesn't seem like that's happened, thank god! No clingy herd bound ponies for me!

I've also learned that riding in a flat arena is awesome!  Old barn's outdoor was on a bit of a slope for drainage, and I didn't really realize how much it affected my riding.  You were constantly going either uphill or downhill and now that I'm on a flat arena it's so much easier to find the right balance with Peebs.  When we used to jump, we pretty much always did lines going uphill, so only in one direction, and now we're going back and forth in the lines and can school a lot more. And when Peebs gets strung out and heavy on the forehand, it doesn't feel like he's going to fall on his face going downhill, because there is no downhill!  I love it!