Life With One Opposable Thumb

Izzy has gotten dramatically better under saddle, which I'm crediting to the gastroshield we're giving her. She still lacks turnout, but we're working on that.

This morning, I groomed her, put her boots on, and started leading her to the arena to turn her out to play for a while. All was well until she saw something scary, barged into me, and bent my thumb backwards. It hurt so bad I almost cried. (Ok, I did later.) Despite my injured thumb, I still had to get my obnoxious stupid horse out into the arena with all her dancing and barging an everything. It was excruciatingly painful, but we made it. I turned her loose and off she went.

I turned one of our OTTBs out with her to give her someone to play with. That gave me enough time to realize that my thumb wasn't broken, but it still hurt like crazy. It also allowed me to handle a total gentleman of a gelding who is fabulously athletic. Let me tell you, if his owner ever offered to trade, I would take her up on it RIGHT NOW and I don't even like geldings.

Anyways. We have an obvious problem. I am a stickler for good ground manners, and I have worked with Izzy on them since day 1. I use a rope halter with her, though she is also respectful of a flat halter usually. She is good about walking behind me, stopping when I stop, and going when I go. She backs up pretty well and I can do pretty much all of this in a round pen with no halter at all.

That said, when she decides she wants to pay attention to something else, she's just gone. That's when she barges into me, rears up, acts crazy, whatever. What do I do? Today I wanted to beat the snot out of her, but since that would just give her psychological problems on top of what I'm already dealing with (and my thumb hurt a lot), I abstained. I don't know where to go from here. Most of my experience is with sensitive horses who may spook and act stupid but would NEVER run in to something (why I love TBs so very, very much).

So. My options are A) continue what I'm doing and get killed B) invest in a stud chain C) keep doing what I'm doing and hope the problem goes away before I get killed D) ?

Any ideas?

I Have My Horse Back!

The past 4 rides have been lovely. It looks like we were dealing with an ulcer issue and it's cleared up. Yay!

Here's to Improvement!

I did get Izzy turned out to play with another mare this morning. Cathy was turning the other horse out, so I grabbed Izzy and scooted in there, too. I hope that helped... anyways, after letting them run a while, I took Izzy back to her breakfast and finished up my work. (Yay working off board!)

By the time we tacked up to ride, Izzy and I were the only ones there. I like that. I really enjoy riding by myself and just worrying about Izzy and I without having to make sure I'm staying out of other people's way. I lunged Izzy and really just let her do her thing. I didn't ask her to focus and do transitions or anything. She was fine and pretty quiet.

She was reasonable about mounting, and off we went... I'm really trying to mentally relax. Maybe I should take up yoga or something. ;-) Basically, I read an excellent article in Practical Horseman yesterday about using the forward energy of a "naughty" horse and just going with it. So I did. We walked, trotted and cantered. We did lots of transitions. In the canter especially, I worked on doing a small, semi-collected circle, then letting her go forward on a much larger circle, then bringing her back again.

I think that one of our biggest problems is that I really like to ride sensitive horses and Izzy is only just so-so on the sensitive scale. I'm used to just shifting my weight to get a response instead of actually making a move and if something goes wrong, I'm used to just waiting for the horse to come back to me mentally rather than proactively forcing the horse to focus. Since Izzy needs the proactive ride, that's where I'm working on improving.

At least for today, it worked. We had out first good ride since last weekend. Was it the calm atmosphere? My fabulous riding? The ulcer medication? The heat of the day? I have no idea. Probably all of the above, except the fabulousness. It was an ok ride.

Day 2

That's right. Izzy got her second dose of gastro shield today. It's not a product I'm familiar with yet, but the other two horses at the barn who deal with ulcer issues are on it and doing very well. I'm going to do some more research and evaluate it later, but it's at least a stop gap for now. I feel woefully behind. I've barely been online and I'm not riding much. My grandma is not doing very well (she's still on hospice care), so my priorities have been away from the barn.

I did ride Izzy briefly today. We only had time for a half hour lesson, which was about enough for the both of us. She didn't repeat any of her antics from Sunday, but she was far from calm. We just did some walk, trot, canter each way and then called it good. She was quiet(ish), and relatively willing, so I let good enough be good enough and hopped off. I did turn her loose in the arena for a few minutes to let her run when we were done and I won't be able to get out to see her tomorrow.

I do lunge her every time I get her out. At the old place, I only lunged if I felt like I needed it, but I haven't gained that level of confidence with her here yet. Besides, we do not currently have turn out and I think it's vital for her brain to have some exercise that isn't strictly controlled. I'm trying to turn her out in the arena more often, but that's hard to do when other people are riding, obviously.

For feed, Izzy was getting about 3 big meaty flakes of grass alfalfa mix morning and evening, which meant she pretty much had food all the time. She got about 2 cups of grain (mixed corn and something) with a small scoop of vitamins in the morning. We've changed that (starting tomorrow) to a small amount of senior with vitamins, two scoops of gastro shield, and a small scoop of vitamins. I'm thinking the senior might be easier on her stomach than the grain... here's to hope.

Back to the Beginning

So, after a stunning day yesterday, Izzy put in an equally impressive performance today.

Unfortunately, it was impressive in the opposite manner. She spooked. She bolted. She reared. She spun circles. She was awful. Sigh.

At least I stayed on, right? If I had money and ambition, I might look in to getting a western saddle that would make it easier to ride through all this garbage. At least, I keep thinking that. The truth is, I haven't even sat in a western saddle in years, so who even knows if it would be easier?

U gard, here we come.

A Mysteriously Good Day

We rode in a dressage clinic this morning. (Lest you think I have come into money--I worked off the cost with the barn owner, so I'm still broke, just in a good situation.)

Izzy was amazing. I couldn't believe it. We really haven't done "dressage" in a dressage saddle in weeks, maybe since the last clinic. I've been working her and we've had a few good days, but my expectations weren't high. We're starting to ask her for a whole new level of performance and teaching her a new skill set and she did really, really well.

It's not that we're at a really high level; all I'm asking her to do is step up underneath herself, go forward into contact, and actively stretch down. Oh, and steer. And focus. Is that so very much? ;-)

We had moments of excellence and moments of less excellence, but nothing terrible.

The only bad news is that Izzy is ever so slightly off in her right front which is not the one she banged up a couple weeks ago. It's not serious, but it does affect (effect? Jean, help!) how she's working. We focused more on going left so we weren't weighting the right fore too much... Sigh. Always something.

I'm thinking that we might be looking at front shoes after her next trim. The footing at the new place is a lot of sand and road mix, so it's exfoliating her sole really nicely and her feet are developing well and becoming concave (all good), but since she works 6ish days a week on sand, she may just be wearing her feet down. I dunno. That would be a nice, easy fix, so I'm crossing my fingers. I'll consult with my farrier when she comes out next week.

Again a Mixed Message

Izzy was amazing today. Back to her usual, happy, willing, and fun self. I had a blast. When we finished, I turned her out in the arena to run around like a crazy pony. Then she had a blast. It was good.

The sad news is that we won't get to be in the event derby we've been gearing up for because I'm poor. That pretty much sums it up. The entry fee is out of my league and that doesn't begin to count gas, hotel, food, etc. Sigh. I really, really wanted to do it.

Oh well. That just means we'll be more prepared than ever for whatever comes next, right?

Improvement

Tuesday and Wednesday were much better for us. I focused and kept Izzy focused by doing lots and lots of transitions and direction changes. The weather has been miserable (cold, windy and rainy. wtf? this is Idaho) so I haven't ridden a whole lot. Wednesday was our lesson, which went really, really well. We have Izzy jumping the barrel jump pretty reliably. I'm still thinking that for our first upcoming event derby that we'll just stick to the crossrail division, though. I think she's capable of doing the 2'3", but I'm going to keep things low stress.

Sound good? I hope all is well with the rest of you. I've barely been on the internet, so I'm behind again.

Thinking Thoughts

A couple of you have mentioned giving Izzy some U-gard to see if she has ulcers. I've mostly ignored that advice because I've always been able to pinpoint another reason for her acting up. I've been away thinking about her this whole weekend though, and I think it's time I actually looked into it. She has been a bit odd lately. Part of it I'm sure is moving and part is a lack of turnout (grrr), but I think both those things could easily contribute to a stressful situation for her. Tomrrow, I'll begin the hunt for the U gard.

Wish me luck.

Ugh

Today was a turnout day. I rode another horse who tends to be challenging before Izzy because Cathy asked me to give her a bit of a tune up. It was fun and went really well, but the wind is super gusty today, and gusty winds make me cranky. I don't know why. Izzy and the other mare I rode are totally fine in the wind. I just hate my hair blowing all over and feeling like I'm going to blow away.

So. Izzy was a total love when I tacked her up. She was sweet and cuddly and her swollen leg actually looked much better. I took her to the arena and she started spooking at random things on the lunge line. I thought, "Huh. I do not want to deal with this in the mood that I'm in." So I untacked her and let her have a merry time running around the arena in nothing but her boots. Then I caught her and took her lovey-dovey self back to her pen. I'm hoping to squeeze a ride in tomorrow instead... we'll see how it goes.

Like my new layout? I'm still playing with it.