A Real Trail Ride

 Last Wednesday A's vet was out to inject another horse and we had her take a look at Cinder. I had Cinder's hock and stifle x-rays sent over to her and told her that Cinder is out of shape, but has been feeling better since the round of Adequan. Dr. D did a quick physical before we popped Cin on the lounge line and then some flexions. Dr. D felt that currently the stifles were Cinder's biggest issue but over all she's looking good. Being out of shape is not helping things, so our current plan is to get her back in shape while focusing on strengthening the hind end and stifles. 

I'm slowly getting used to the fact that Cinder goes around with her ears forward most of the time and ears pricked is not an indication of an incoming spook

What's good for strengthening stifles and getting a horse back in shape? Hill work! No matter what you're doing at SF, you're going to be doing hill work. The property is on the side of a giant hill (it's not considered a mountain in the PNW if it doesn't have snow on it or if it's not a dormant volcano) with the only flat spots being the barn and arenas. The pastures are sloped, walking from the barn to the arenas or pastures involves hills, and all the trails and XC field are either going up or down. So Cinder will for sure be getting in lots of little hill work. But A wants to get her out for walking hill work 1-2x a week. 

Putting the forest in Sherwood Forest Equestrian Center

In my lesson on Friday, we went for a real trail ride. A has taken Cinder out all over the property, but I've only gone on the short trail we did back in February. This time we set out with A on Froggie and planned to do the whole property. Since I didn't know where we were going, A took the lead and Cinder happily followed. I did have to pull her up a few times, as she kept trying pass Froggie, who at 14.2  takes a much smaller step than 17hand Cin. 

We started in the outdoor and ended at the green pin

The whole loop took about 45minutes and we went up and down some pretty steep grades. Cinder was much better than I was expecting, only spooking a little at some squirrels in the bushes. There was a big tractor parked in the XC field as they were tilling the upper half that both Cin and Froggie were wary of, and Cinder wasn't fond of the cemetery at the top of the field but she didn't do anything naughty.  She did try to convince me she was scared of the bridge we had to cross in the woods, but I knew A had taken her over it before, so I kicked her forward and she went over it. 

Being back in work is exhausting

I was nervous at the start of the ride, but found myself relaxing about halfway in and ended up having a really good time. I'm glad I let A talk me into the trail ride and hopefully soon I'll be brave enough to take her out on my own.

Back to Work

 Cinder had a bit of a rude awakening going to back to work with Trainer A last week. A is riding her twice a week and apparently Cinder found that one day too many. 

Wednesday last week A took her on a trail ride with another client on her horse. They wandered up and down the XC field, and A took the opportunity to take Cinder in the water. They haven't filled the water recently, so it was mostly mud but there was a little water in the center. Cinder didn't realize she was in the mud/water till she was all the way in (too busy trying to make friends with Froggy the other horse), then had a bit of a melt down over the fact she was wet. A said Cin was too tired after going up and down the big hill to throw too much of a tantrum, but she tried. 

The pic I got sent from A after the ride

 Thursday was when the real drama happened. A got to the barn early and decided to ride Cinder first. She started tacking up right when horses started getting turned out and Cinder was very upset she had to work and not go out. And there were horses on the Eurociser which was terrifying, even though she's seen that before.  A said that as soon as she got on, Cinder tried to take over the ride. A said Cin hasn't pulled that move since the first or second month she was under saddle. They had it out and A said they ended up having a nice ride, once Cinder realized who was the boss. 

I had my lesson on Friday and Cinder was foot perfect for me. It was hotter than it has been and she was tired, but still tried hard. We mainly focused on me relaxing and slipping her more rein, trying to get the feel that we need for the under saddle classes. The trot work felt lovely, but Cinder still wants to be a little high headed in the canter. We did canter several laps around the arena in a row both directions, without breaking, which is a big improvement for both of us. I'm getting better at feeling when she's going to break and catching her before she does. We ended the lesson with A saying I look more comfortable and confident on Cinder that she's seen in a long while.

 

 I then proceeded to get sappy and teary eyed, and told A I feel so happy being back in her program, that I can relax because I know she's taking care of Cinder and will help come up with solutions for our problems, that I feel 20 pounds lighter and my anxiety has dropped 100%. So good job me, taking a compliment and turning it awkward. But I am really happy to be back at SF and in A's program. I just wish I had done it sooner.

Barn Tour: SFEC

 It's been a long while since I've seen a barn tour on the blogosphere and now that Cinder is up at SF full time, I figured why not. 

Her stall is directly across from A's tack room and has a tie ring, so I'm probably just going to tack up there instead of hauling my crap down the aisle to the grooming stalls

 

 Cinder hauled up much better this time; no trying to kick her way out of the trailer. I chucked her in her stall while I unloaded the trailer and A finished teaching a lesson, then tacked Cin up and A hopped on. Cinder had been a little off last Thursday (the day before the move) and I of course spiraled and was convinced she was going to be lame forever, but thankfully she only took a couple of off steps and A said she felt good, if not a little out of shape. I let her have Saturday off and rode by Sunday and Monday and she felt great, so fingers crossed whatever was going on Thursday was just a fluke. 

Ariel view. Not sure exactly where the property lines are as I know there's trails in the woods on the west end of the property, but the black lines are good approximation. The whole property is on a hill, going uphill from the bottom of the pic.

The lower blue building is the indoor, with covered jump storage along the south side. There's also a viewing room with a kitchen and an uncovered viewing platform in the indoor. The middle blue building is the barn, which has two aisle with I think 20 stalls per aisle. It also has 4 tack rooms, three grooming stalls, two wash stalls with hot and cold water, grain room and a laundry room. The smallest blue building is the hay and shavings barn. Above that is the parking lot. 

There's another covered viewing area just off the barn overlooking the outdoor.

The outdoor arena is to the left of the indoor and barn, with a Eurociser in the bottom corner of it. Next to that is a round pen, and then some smaller, single horse paddocks. Above the parking lot are more single horse paddocks, and then the two bigger group turnout fields. There's a smaller one for the mares and a bigger one for the geldings. 

A's tack room. It has a sink with hot and cold water in it. 

Looking down the first aisle from the tack room. There's also a fly spray system in the barn, you can see the blue barrels for it.

Grooming stalls, with the wash stalls across from them. In the background is another one of the tack rooms.

What's in Your Feed Bucket

 I'm jumping on the mini blog hop Moonlit Pastures did and showing what's in my ponies' feed buckets. 

Currently the ponies are out 24/7. Peebs is in a smaller pasture that's half dry lot half short grass. Cinder is out with two other horses on a 2 acre field that's really nice right now. My BO reseeded and fertilized it last fall and we've kept the horses off of it till a few weeks ago. Obviously Cinder's living situation will change next week, but I'll go over what she's currently getting and what she will be getting. 

Peebs would like you to know he doesn't get fed enough

Peebs is the easiest of easy keeps. Which is good, considering he has Leaky Gut Syndrome. I've done a lot of trial and error over the years, but have found that he does best with half hay/half hay pellets. Contrary to most horses, his gut does better with shorter stem fiber vs long stem. He currently gets 1 flake of Timothy and 4 quarts of soaked pellets (I try to do Teff but its been hard to find lately, or super expensive, so I also do Timothy) am and pm. Sometimes I'll give him a little extra hay, like half a flake, midday/early afternoon because I feel guilty.

 I've had him on Assure Guard Gold (the recommended 3/4 scoop twice a day) as a GI support on my vet's recommendation, but over the winter he had a bad Leaky Gut flare and even a double dose of the it didn't help. I was reading a thread on Twitter and someone recommended Tribute Constant Comfort. Tribute isn't sold anywhere near me but I was able to order it on Chewy and it made a huge difference. He gets a cup and a half twice a day. They also make a Constant Comfort mineral block but Chewy has been hit or miss on having it. When they have it in stock, he gets it and one block last about a month. He's also on salt twice a day and MSM once a day. 

Peebs' supplement packs I make up so my BO doesn't have to measure all his various shit

Cinder is currently on just pasture as far as hay goes. During the fall/winter/spring she was on 2 flakes of Timothy in the morning and 1 flake Timothy and 1 flake alfalfa at night, plus being on pasture during the day and her stall opens up to a grass paddock. So she basically had 24/7 access to forage. When she moves to SF, and when she was there in February, she was on 2 flakes of orchard am and pm, and 1 flake alfalfa at night. They're also turned out daily, and fed piles of orchard at lunch outside. Their pastures aren't as lush as our home barn, and I appreciate that they feed as much hay as they do to compensate.

At our home barn, they sometimes get fed in piles at breakfast outside too

 As far as grain, Cinder is currently on Nutrena Safe Choice, but once I'm out of it she'll be switching to Purina Wellsolve. SF provides three different Purina grains so if I'm going to be spending $$ on board, I'm going to take full advantage and use their grain. She currently gets about two cups of the Safe Choice once a day. She's also on a little rice bran as another boarder bought it for her horse but he refused to eat it and she didn't on it to go to waste so she gave it to me. Cinder's also on Platinum Performance and 1 pump of GutX. I'll probably up her to 2 pumps of the GutX this weekend and keep her on it for a few weeks after the move just as a precaution. Cin can be a bit of a picky eater so who knows how long this version of her grain will last.

Pre-Training Trainer Ride

 The university I work for starts summer term today, and with the Juneteenth holiday they gave us Friday off instead of Monday so classes wouldn't be disrupted. Which honestly, doesn't feel ok with me, but whatever. My job requires someone come in every day and this was my holiday to work in our rotation. Thankfully we usually only do the bare minimum on holidays so I was done in about three hours. I had decided to use the rest of my holiday day to haul up for a lesson/trainer ride with Trainer A.

I had thought Cinder was feeling better after her round of Adequan, but wanted a second opinion. And since Cin is moving up to A's July 1st, I figured it would be a good pre-training check in. We got stuck in a major traffic jam on the way up and during our 30mins of stop-and-go traffic Cinder had a huge fit in the trailer. I was half tempted to pull over and see what the hell was wrong, but as soon as we started moving she calmed down. She did unload like a bat out of hell and was pretty worked up as I tacked up at the trailer. 

From baby horse having a tantrum to respectable hunter in 30 minutes

 

A saw Cin having her fit at the trailer and wisely grabbed her helmet to ride her first. I ran to the restroom while A got on and came down to the ring to see them attempting to trot. Cinder was flinging her head around like she was possessed. A just gave in and let her canter it out for a few laps each way and Cinder settled down. They did a little more trot and canter work before A pointed Cinder at the fences set up. 

First time seeing the astroturf rails? No problem

If I hadn't know that Cinder has only jumped twice since February, I wouldn't have guess it. She hopped around everything like no big deal, only jumping big at a square oxer that she didn't realize was an oxer till she was over it. She got funky distances but figured it out; she hit rails but didn't react; she acted like a pro and I was so proud of her. A said she felt great, and that she loves Cinder and is so happy we're coming back. 

I lunged her on Sunday and we had a cuddle session in the arena afterwards

 

We then switched and I had a little trot and canter lesson. Mainly it was A reminding me to relax my arms and not hang on her face. But we got some good stretchy trot and it felt like I had my horse back, something I realized I hadn't truly felt since February. Cinder was definitely tired and traveled home without attempting to kick a hole in my trailer.

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Plans Made

 When we left off last week I was planning on heading up to watch one of our local schooling shows and do some recon on trainers. Well, thanks to an unseasonably late atmospheric river, the show as cancelled. It's been the wettest April/May/June on record and all the stalls, the warmup, and the lunging arenas at the show were completely flooded. Show management also pushed back the start of the rated show this week a day due to how wet everything was. 

But Trainer M wasn't deterred and decided to host an in-barn show for her clients, and two outside riders who wanted off property schooling miles, and basically put together a show in 24 hours. M is the one who hosts the show series we did last fall, and the one this spring, so she had almost everything ready to go. I messaged her asking if she needed help running it and volunteered myself. She happily accepted and I became the office lady. 

My station for the morning

It was fun seeing all the lesson kids getting ready and I was able to put names to faces, both human and equine. I got a close up look at how M runs her program, how the two assistant trainers work, and I was able to snoop around the barn more. When I introduced myself to people, most of them remembered Cinder and loved her. I felt very welcomed by everyone.

I was pretty happy with most of what I saw during the day, but there were a few things that pinged my spidey senses. I know there's going to pro and cons with every program, and nothing will 100% mesh with what I want, but for the most part I agreed with what I saw and heard during the day. Unfortunately M still hasn't said anything about when/if a stall will be open, and looking ahead she's gone most of the month of July at shows. I really don't want to wait till August to put Cinder in training.

Splitting up my shit is hard

 So, July 1st Cinder is moving back to SF and going into training with Trainer A. I like A's riding style a bit better than M's and I think Cinder will do better there. My tentative plan, that A's on board with, is to haul over to M's once or twice a month for lessons and then show at the h/j shows with M. We'll see how it goes but I'm really excited to be back with A and she's really happy to have us back as well. 

Holding Pattern

 Not much is going on over here. Cinder finished her round of Adequan yesterday. I've put a couple of easy rides on her to gauge how she's feeling, but honestly, my mental and emotional state is pretty shitty right now and I don't trust myself to assess her soundness. She did feel more even behind, but still has some anxiety picking up the canter. But the canter work itself was really nice. So 🤷

She has been working on her hunter bod with help from the spring grass.

I will say this downtime has been good for her body. Cin's always been a bit of a string bean, and I was told her siblings were similar till around 6 when they all chunked out. Cinder's bulking up happened this spring and she's gone from wearing a 50" girth in March to a 54" now. I barley had time to break in the 52" I bought her. She's also in a warmblood sized fly mask now because the regular size was too tight across her jaw. I had to let her throat latch out a hole from where it used to be. Apparently the only part of her head growing is her cheeks. I've told her that between a new saddle, vet bills, and new girths, she's not allowed to grow out of anything else she wears for at least a year, if ever. 

First ride back in 3 weeks and she was almost asleep

 

Our trainer situation is still up in the air. I haven't heard back from Trainer M on when/if a stall will be open, but we do have a lesson tentatively scheduled in two weeks. She's at a show this weekend and next week. I do plan on going up to the show this weekend and doing a little recon watching her and other trainers. I also have a lesson planned for next weekend with Trainer A. She knows Cinder better than anyone, so if Cin is still having any soundness issues she'd find them. And honestly, part of me still wants to be in her program, even if I'm the hunter in a barn full of eventers. 

Peebs is still the best boy ever. We've been doing some bareback walks once or twice a month and he's been great. He's back in the bigger paddock 24/7 and thankfully hasn't gotten too fat. He's the easiest of easy keepers and I was worried he'd gain too much weight being on grass and out of work. I do plan to do at least once a week walks with him once Cinder is in training, just to help keep his weight down and so I can ride one more day a week.