I Think I Found the Answer

Energy supplements are off the table. Here's why:

I rode Izzy Friday for a jump school. She was fabulous, as per the usual and I think I'm starting to catch up. She hasn't really wanted to go forward into contact lately, so I rode on a looser rein and just had her go forward, period. It seemed to work reasonably well, though she flipped her nose a couple times in the canter. I didn't worry about it too much--after all, I was intentionally asking her to do something she didn't want to.

Saturday she had off since I was volunteering at a show.

Sunday was the most amazing day we've had all year in terms of weather. Almost 60f, sunny, light breeze. The track is finally dry and had been worked, so I put Izzy jumping tack on her to go do some intervals for the first time this year. Unfortunately (I thought), the barn owners were doing a lot of work with the tractor and they had it right on the spooky road I'd need to go down to get to the track. I figured that spooky road+tractor would be too much for a pony brain, so I took her to the outdoor arena to warm up before we went to the track.

Now, some basic info: my jumping saddle is a collegiate convertible. As in, has a tree. It fits Izzy well enough. It's not perfect, but she seems to think it's ok and since there isn't a saddle fitter within 800 miles of me, I'm letting good enough alone.

She lunged just fine, so I mounted. Her walk was ridiculously slow and behind my leg. More than usual. I tried leg and whip and everything with precious little result. It was stupid walk or break to trot. Fine, I thought, we'll trot. She gave me a nasty head tossing transition to a choppy, ridiculously slow trot. When I asked for more, she started throwing her head and threatening to go up, a threat I always take very seriously from her. I tried a couple different things to get her forward and not-head-tossing. All failed.

Ok, plan B. I dismounted and unsaddled her. Since her saddle fit isn't perfect, I thought perhaps she'd changed shape again and was now uncomfortable. Usually, I'd expect her to start showing that when tacking up, but it was worth a shot. I looked at how the saddle sat on her. To me, it looked the same as before. A little too wide in front, but with shimmed with a pad that has a tiny front lift, fits reasonably well. Huh... We walked back to the barn. I put her jumping saddle up and pulled out our treeless dressage saddle. This is her happy place, so if there's a saddle fit issue, putting it on will correct the behavior.

She was fine. I took her out to the arena and got the exact same response--fine on the lunge, head tossing and rearing threats under saddle. Huh. I checked her back Friday and today and it was totally fine. No knots, no soreness. She's totally sound and even in all four legs. I had a brief chat with two of the other boarders. One mentioned that her horse flips his head when he thinks his browband is too tight. Despite the fact that she's gone in this bridle for over a year, she did just get a new dressage bridle with a roomier browband, so maybe she changed what she likes.

I switch the bridle. She's quite patient about it. Huh. It just doesn't make sense to me. She's been a little fussy about bridling, but I'd attributed that to the cold weather and cold bits of winter.

I decide to wait for Terri (hooray western trainer!) to go out and check our latest configuration. I had two thoughts: 1) she might be able to see a problem I'm not feeling correctly and 2) if Izzy does flip over on me, at least someone will be there to scrape my bloodied corpse off the ground.

As we're waiting, the other boarder and I start talking about Izzy's bit/bridle arrangement. Loose ring, double jointed, copper mouth, comfortably fitted. She walks over and starts feeling along Izzy's face where her teeth lay. Right side: nothing, no reaction. She went to the left side. About halfway up, Izzy opened her mouth and put her head up.

BINGO!

Tooth issues. We tried one more time and got the same reaction. Poor mare... it explains so much. She hasn't wanted to go forward into contact because, well, ouch. She went really nicely in the western tack because there was no contact and a minimalist bridle. She's just been picking at her hay because it hurt to eat. It might even explain some of her explosiveness lately--the only thing she's been eating well (other than treats) is her senior, which is grain based.

Huh. I thought she'd slowed down on eating because it was warmer and she didn't need it to keep warm. I was wrong.

Now I'm setting up a dentist appointment for my horse... it will be sometime after her manicure this afternoon.

The Vice Queen. Sigh.

It warmed up nicely yesterday, so I made it out for a ride. I free-lunged Izzy in the arena because she hadn't gotten out Sunday, thinking she would enjoy a little free time. She mostly ignored and trotted around visiting other horses. Keep this in mind. It's important later on.

She was fine to tack up, but when I put her on the lunge line, she lacked impulsion and seemed more focused on what was going on outside the arena than in. Oddly, there was really nothing going on. I was the only person at the barn. We'll call this clue #2. I just wrote off the laziness to the somewhat-slick footing.

She stood completely quietly at the mounting block. I'm hoping this isn't related to clue #3, which was that she hesitated to walk off when I asked her to, which meant she was ignoring my aids.

We made it about a hundred feet before we heard a funny noise. Not scary, just odd. It sounded like a wheelbarrow or something, but there was no one around to push it. Izzy completely ignored my aids and spun around to face the noise. I figured that she won't get to do that sort of thing at shows, so I spun her back around to face the way I wanted to go. This might have been clue #4.

Izzy went straight up. Yes. In the air. As in rearing with me again. Sigh. I managed not to pull on her face, but I had missed all four clues leading up to this, so I didn't have time to think and pull her in a circle while sending her forward. Instead, as soon as her front feet hit the ground, I leaped off. I ignored my shaking legs as she reared again and pranced in a circle. I marched her to the fence, grabbed my lunge line and a whip, and IMMEDIATELY, I sent her forward. Fast.

She galloped for a good five minutes one way, then the other. Rearing, especially in this instance, is the ultimate refusal to go forward. It wasn't a reaction to pain, like it was last time. It was her alpha mare side saying, "I will do this and you won't stop me." I realize that I've been lenient with her lately, and not as dominant on the ground as a horse of her makeup requires. After lunging, I got back on her.

Let me clarify something here for any new readers: Izzy's vice is her refusal to go forward. Rearing is an exaggeration of that vice. I'll probably never entirely get the rearing out of her completely, but I can see the warning signs and more than likely prevent her from doing it on all but the rarest occasions. If you have a horse that rears, please, please, please seek professional help. It is an extremely dangerous issue, especially if it is allowed to fester. Oh, and don't ride alone. ;-)

So. I got back on Izzy with one thing in mind: she needs to go forward off my aids. I let her get behind my leg and I put up with her antics instead of applying the proper discipline. At this point, she knew I was PISSED. I had recovered my self possession to the point that I was steady again. I wish someone was there, just in case, but this was an important point to make with Izzy, and I needed to make it now.

She did stand nicely for mounting again, and I rode her forward from there. As in almost rushing forward. Forward from the seat, leg, and whip. We didn't walk, because walk isn't our strongest gait right now and she would have a lot harder time going from a faster gait to rearing than from the walk. I rode for probably 20-30 minutes, doing trot/canter transitions each way. I didn't let her use the footing as an excuse. Anytime she even thought about looking around, I changed the subject. If we were going forward and she looked around, I'd make her go sideways (and forward).

By the time we were done, she was doing quite well. I took her tack off, since it had been a hard day for her, and turned her loose in the arena. She was nice and quiet and followed me around. When I led her back to the hitching post, she just ran into me. Not hard, but she was challenging my status again by getting in my space. Obviously, after her performance under saddle, I couldn't let this happen. I whipped out a rope halter, and we did about five minutes of ground work to enforce the "go when I go, stop when I stop, go backwards when I walk in to you" mentality.

Then I put her away.

This morning, I rode again. It was a short ride, since I bet her rear end is sore from rearing and I don't want to aggravate it and cause a pain issue. Still, we worked on the same thing. Ironically, when I asked for our first canter departure of the day, she bucked. Grrr. This mare has not bucked under saddle before.

If it's not one thing, it's another.

Ok, Now What?

I talked with the masseuse today. She said that Izzy's back is absolutely fine, but her poor lil' bum was sore, most likely from all the rearing she did on Tuesday.

Sigh.

I'm about halfway through Joyce Harman's "Horse's Pain-Free Back and Saddle-Fit Book" that I got at the library last night. It's an excellent book that I highly recommend buying even if you're not having troubles with saddle fit. As a result of my reading, I decided that Izzy's saddle might be sliding forward which jams it into her shoulders. This morning, following advice from the book, I attached the girth to the front two billets instead of the first and third. I also scooted the saddle back when we switched directions lunging. The sweat marks were much more regular when our workout was done.

All that would mean something if her back was sore at all. If it was hurting her, if there was a physical problem, it would show. It doesn't. She's completely relaxed. The masseuse didn't even charge me because there was nothing to really work on. Izzy loves to have her back curried, hard. I even lunged her for about half an hour today, then rode just a tiny bit at the walk, then had the masseuse look at her and still nothing. Izzy was thrilled with all the attention, though. I'll ask Cathy about ulcers and other possible internal causes, but this mare lives out in a pasture with a friend 24/7. She doesn't get worked up about much. Everything I've done with her has been slow and easy, because she's not a terribly quick learner.

So. Now what? She hasn't given me any trouble mounting since Tuesday, but I've only been on her twice, both times after a very long period on the lunge. I don't want to cause her pain, but she's not in pain. The masseuse did mention that she might be cold-backed, and gave me something to do before I saddle her that should help. I dunno. It's starting to look almost like Izzy's tried to revert back to her days with her previous owner, where she learned some cool tricks about scaring people. She's a smart girl, and she learned that when she was naughty, she didn't have to work. She'd never done that for me, but it could be that I was starting to push her a little and she wanted to scare me in to backing off.

Is that so unreasonable? I guess I'll try for a more normal ride tomorrow. Cross your fingers.

Oh my god. OhmygodOhmygodOhmygod!!

The title is simply what a fellow boarder said this morning. It precisely describes how I felt for a few seconds.

Everything started out normally. I got Izzy ready, trying to keep in mind some of the concepts discussed in "The Horse Behavior Problem Solver" by Jessica Jahiel. It's a new book I'm reading through. Izzy did just fine on the lunge line; just went along like she was supposed to. She was a little lazy, but that's normal for her.

She's been a little fussy about standing by the mounting block lately. She would walk up to within a few feet of it, then just stop. I wrote it off to her knowing that she was supposed to stop somewhere and just wanting to stop on her terms. It's something we've been working on. So when she was fussy today, I didn't think any more of it than I usually do. She doesn't like to line up right, then doesn't want to step over. As usual, I just made a mental note that we need to continue working on ground work to get her to listen to my aids more.

When I mounted, she immediately tried to walk forward. I stopped her, albeit more with rein than with my seat. I was a bit annoyed. She knows to stand, but she's rather pushy, due to being spoiled by her previous owner. As I fumbled for my right stirrup, she flipped her head once, something she does usually when I've stymied her attempt to get away with something. Before my foot was even fully in the right stirrup, Izzy's barrel rose under me. This is where I insert the "Oh my god. OhmygodOhmygodOhmygod!!"

My initial reaction lasted about .1 seconds. It's the same feeling as when I know I've done something wrong and I'm falling. There is a brief moment of terror, and then I try to figure out what to do. I've been reading a little bit about rearing lately, but I've never, ever been on a rearing horse before. I knew immediately that the worst possible thing Izzy could do would be fall over back wards with me. She landed her first rear, then immediately when up again.

For some reason, I didn't have a hold of the reins to turn her and send her forward. I don't remember dropping them, but I must have. I think it's better that way. I hadn't mentally prepared for a situation like this, and I might have pulled back, even though I know that's the worst possible thing to do. As she went up for the second time, I noticed that I had a strangle hold on the neckstrap that I've put on her every single time I've ridden her. Thank God.

She went up a second time, then a third time. The rears didn't seem incredibly high to me, but it was kind of hard to judge from my angle. It was enough that I had absolutely no control. As she went up the fourth time, I realized that my left foot was quite steadily in my stirrup. Without further ado, I demonstrated an emergency dismount to make the ex-pony-clubber in me proud. I nearly landed on my feet, too. That would have been incredible.

As I collapsed in a heap near the rail, Izzy turned and trotted off to visit the horse on the far side of the arena. My first thought was, "Oh crap, I hope she doesn't break the reins," as she lowered her head to snatch some of his hay. I wasn't even really shook up, and I doubt I'll be sore tomorrow.

Cathy (my trainer) was in the arena and witnessed most of this. As I led Izzy back from the other horse and his hay, we consulted. She is a hard horse to rattle. Aside from the occasional spook, she's really not too bothered. Clearly, she wasn't overly bothered by this, either. That's a little unfortunate, as it means she might try again. We think the reason was actually from yesterday; while at our "show" we sat on our horses and judged each other for 25-30 minutes. That's not an extraordinary amount of time, but Izzy's back is probably a little bit sore because she's not used to having me just sit on her. Our theory is a combination of back pain and attitude.

As such, I lunged her again for 20 minutes or so, dealing with the attitude problems that came up by continuing to send her forward instead of letting her let me know when she wanted to be done. I then had Cathy stand by while I mounted Izzy from a block in the middle of the arena. I wanted her right there to yell at me if something went wrong, and she thought it would be best if Izzy was not restrained. I also didn't want the option of landing on the fence, as last time we were perilously close to it.

I understand that it's not a good idea to mount a horse with a sore back. If she were Cassie, or another older, seasoned horse, then I wouldn't even have attempted it. I would simply have listened to what they were trying to tell me and put them away with a nice scoop of grain mixed with anti-inflammatory and some rest. Because Izzy is still early in her education, however, and because she's used to being able to push people around, I thought it was important to make sure she understood that rearing is not acceptable. I stood on the block and rubbed her hips and shoulders just like I was mounting a baby for the first time. She was quiet, so I got on. When I had both stirrups, we walked off. We did a 10m circle each way, and then I got off. I immediately pulled her saddle off. Cathy checked her and said her back was a little sore, but nothing that should have prompted so dramatic a response.

She has tomorrow off. I'm going out Thursday, but I think I'll just do groundwork and some lunging. After that, we'll see about it. I have a friend who used to be a horse masseuse, so maybe I'll see if she'll work on Izzy a little. I have a lot to think about, though. I guess I have to wait and see if her back feeling better will clear up the problem or if she's now learned a cool trick that makes riding not happen. I sure hope not. :-/

Sigh...

I found the trailer I want. It's a white two horse slant with a tack room for $3500. I keep watching trailers on craigslist so that when I'm actually in the market, I'll know what I'll need to spend. This one is perfect (from the description), except that I'm not actually in the market. I have neither a tow vehicle nor $3500. Oh well. Birthday present, anyone? ;-)

There must be something in the water. Both my girls were extremely naughty today. Cassie kept pretending that everything was going to eat her and absolutely wouldn't focus, and Izzy... I don't even know what to say. I'm going to have to call it our worst day ever, at risk of sounding bipolar. I promise, I'm not. She kept rearing on the lunge line (going right and left). I finally quit trying. I just dropped the whip, put her on a like a 5 meter circle, and when she made it twice around without rearing, we stopped. Then I went to ride. I probably shouldn't have. I was already aggravated with her, and there were way too many other boarders capitalizing on the nice weather. There's nothing like trying to ride a young horse with minimal steering around other buffoons when the young horse is already acting up.

There were some positive moments. We started walking over poles. Her steering is getting a little better.

Other than that, she kept hauling on the reins, then leaning through her should, then getting stuck, then not stopping, then tossing her her, then spooking and tripping over herself... It was frustrating.

Nothing like mares.

To fix the problem, I'm going to go out tomorrow and get Izzy out first. I usually have about 20-25 minutes to myself before other people start showing up. I'll turn her out in the arena to run. Then, I'll tack up quickly and try to get some riding in before the arena gets busy. That should alleviate her issues. I'm thinking that even though she lives out in a pasture, she just really needs to blow off some steam. If I lunge her and she starts acting up, I'll just do what I did today: drop the whip, just get around a small circle, and quit. I don't want her to make an issue of it.

Ugh. Cross your fingers.

Back to Square One

There's nothing quite like a horse who's used to being the boss. I've had Izzy for almost 6 months now, and her old habits still shine through.

For example, when I got her, it took us about two months to learn how to lounge properly. During that time, we went through lots of rearing, bucking, and general fussing to get her to behave. Now she acts like a pro; she's quiet and responds to voice commands.

Except sometimes. Today, when we switched sides to go right, she spun around, faced me, and when I tried to tell her to go forward, reared. I really wished someone was there with a camera to document it.

Oh well. Other than that, it was a non-eventful day.

Starting With a Little History

Isadora, "Izzy", is my first horse to really own. She's the first daughter of the lovely TB mare I leased for years and showed in everything. Her father is the Oldenburg Stallion Impressario. I acquired her this February, the result of a trade. I board her out with her mother, as I don't have the space to keep her at home.

She's 6 this summer, but you wouldn't know it be looking at her. Her first owner took her away to a different barn and visited her twice in 5 years. That is actually a blessing in diguise. The mare did receive some training by a cowboy in this period, but it was only 60 days when she was 4 or 5 and she was never taken out of a roundpen.

When her former owner brought her back to our barn, Izzy began to learn some really fun little games. She would rear and strike and act crazy, and her owner would scream and run away. Many of our fellow boarders were introduced to her by helping her owner chase her around the barn as she spooked and bolted. Riding was out of the question, as was lunging, leading, picking up her feet, or anything else she didn't want you to do.

This was the state I acquired her in. I had seen her and admired her, but never attempted to handle her in any way. I didn't want to bond with someone else's horse.

On Sunday, February 1st, I traded Izzy's owner a baby horse I had rights to in exchange for this supposed train wreck of a horse. It was an incredible day.

The first few months I had her were mostly filled with hours of somewhat frustrating groundwork. She had to be convinced, gently but firmly, that she had to do things my way. No more rearing and bolting; now she had to go to work. I finally began to ride her in April, after teaching her to stand, pick up her feet, load in a trailer, lunge quietly, and accept both saddle and bridle without fussing.

I began to ride her more seriously (more than just mounting and dismounting) in May, after school got out. We've taken everything very slowly, because we're building the foundation that all her future training will be built on. Now, however, we're finally ready to start moving forward.