In the Arena #154 - Laissez le bons temps rouler!!

Happy Fat Tuesday! Don't know about you all, but I'm giving up complaining about the weather for lent, which doesn't start until tomorrow so.... I AM F*CKING OVER IT!

There - I feel better. Time to catch up.

After the less than encouraging set of x-rays in January, I researched homeopathic remedies for bone growth, and ate those babies by the fistful. At the final appointment (!) Dr. Dreamy cleared my arm for regular activities and raved over the plentiful new bone.

So, the arm is mostly back to normal. There were issues with my hand feeling weak, and with a scary amount of numbness once I ditched the brace, but that's improving daily. The broken arm saga is officially over. Bye-bye Dr. D... parting is such sweet sorrow.

That was right about the time the most recent bout of cold + wind + snow/sleet/freezing rain-fest started. I have (finally) returned to work - weather permitting. I love my job (landscaping) but making a living has been trying lately. Too many days we can't work, and too many when we can work, that are super miserable to spend outdoors.

Yep. That's my girl in a flowery hooded doggy raincoat. SO excited to wear it (not)...

This past Sunday brought a brief visit from the golden orb in the sky - finally time to hop on the pony. First ride since October. I tacked Val up with the bareback pad and scrambled on - admittedly a little apprehensive about putting my full weight on the arm. It felt so good to be on my horse - I threw my arms around his neck and gave him a giant squeezing hug. Thought bubble over Val's head said 'Oh - get on with it lady!'

We happily tooled around the arena, did some circles and turns on the forehand, but mostly - we tested out our new tack acquisition. Val now officially sports a Micklem Competition.

Disclaimer: There is no room in the budget for indulgent tack purchases here. Nor do I believe in changing tack every time you encounter a problem. However, everything I have read - much of it from you my fellow bloggers - suggested that this bridle would be a good fit for Val. I've always thought he had issues with the noseband on his old bridle, and getting him to accept contact has been a struggle. With Smartpak's generous return policy in mind, I went for it.

The Micklem is anatomically designed to be comfortable on the facial nerves, and to stabilize the bit in the horse's mouth. Also, Val has a big tongue and a low palate. All three times he has worn it, he was chewing to beat the band, and made lovely lipstick. The turns on the forehand Sunday were like butter. I'll need a few more rides in it to confirm, but I have high hopes that some of what I assumed was bad riding might have been discomfort. Fingers crossed.

Stay tuned for upcoming posts about this year's garden (theoretically), and a project related to some new additions - coming soon to a farmette near you!

Handsome - even with the yak hair

My favorite view

ummmmm - cookie please!!

 ♥♥♥ (hehe - forelock resembles a toupe)

From the Farmette #9 - State of Emergency...

Our state doesn't do winter weather that well, hence the state of emergency. I think inland received some pretty hefty snow totals, maybe up to a foot. We got sleet, followed by freezing rain and sleet over night. Temps went under freezing just in time to keep the trees and power lines safe. We finished up with a nice coating of snow. Snow that hides a treacherous icy layer underneath. Driving is a super bad idea. So it is an emergency, if you're stupid enough to drive.

There were a few hangups the morning after. The front door barely opened because the saggy, frozen stiff awning was in the way. And then there was locating and excavating frozen poo balls... Val helped on this one.

It wasn't a pretty snow, so there likely won't be too many good photo ops. I'm just happy that all the critters are safe and accounted for, and that we have heat and water. I made a big pot of lentil soup and a pomegranate cheesecake (what - I have to keep up my strength - it's a state of emergency! ;D) yesterday, so we're good to go here in the Shimmy Shack.

They call this mackeral skies... signifies approaching precipitation. Yes. Yes it does.

Snow pix are better when it's sunny...

He literally froze his a$$...

Frozen on the outside...

...but not on the inside. Who doesn't love when the water flows? :D

Hot mashes for breakie ♥

The Big Chill...

Disclaimer: I'm sure that a windchill of 6 degrees sounds positively balmy to some of you. All I can say is - yesterday afternoon it was 70, and this morning when I went out to do morning chores it was 19 - with 35 mph northwest winds.

Jack Russell terrorists reluctantly sported their pink and purple bones fleece jackets and ottbs were cozy under their blankets. Farm women went from breezing around in flip flops and shorts, to remaining toasty layered in silk long underwear. Cats puffed up and snuggled as necessary, and the Shimmy Shack maintained a (barely) tolerable temperature.

Hurry up lady!

Yep - I'm shivering...

Not cold - hungry...

I learned a lesson about counting my chickens however - a last walk around next door this evening at dusk (different property, shared well point) revealed that congratulations about winterizing success were premature.

While the well pump short cycled, a geyser of water spewed from the outdoor shower head. Despite wrapped water lines, the lack of a cut off valve led to the the rusty fixture giving way.

B & C's Fake-Ass Plumbing rides again. (that should lead to some interesting traffic) Dad and I were able to cut and plug the lines - disaster averted, unless you consider working on plumbing outdoors in sub-freezing weather after dark disastrous. I'm still cold...

We shall see about the gardens tomorrow. Hoping a blanket of hay leavings mitigated the plummeting temps, but I'm prepared to start over. Our unnaturally mild conditions of late were too good to be true.

Tomorrow is also my (theoretically) last appointment with Dr. Dreamy. Hoping for the all clear so I can return to work, to maintaining my property, to riding my horse...

In the Arena #151 - Ready or not - here we come...

The past several weeks have been overrun with travel preparations. When it wasn't raining that is. Thirteen inches in thirty six hours. Okay - I'm really sorry I complained about how dry it was, how I was tired of having to water the plants, and especially how I couldn't use the arena, because then this happened:

 

I will not walk in the quicksand...

  

Somehow no wires or insulators popped... It's fun to do electric fence repairs in the pouring rain.
Yes - that branch is covered in poison ivy.

Not scared unless it falls on me...

We did get some decent rides in before the deluge. One in particular combined an energetic, attentive horse with a balanced, focused rider. Heavenly. Actual round circles. Really nicely forward + good bend, off of light aids. Best ride all year, and it felt like we might possibly be ready for our clinic. Of course I promptly got dumped the next day following a very lateral duck and spook, the source of which was a total mystery. (wouldn't want to get over confident or anything...) No worse for the wear, I remounted and we continued working.

Loving you despite the sandy helmet...

With no objections to getting wrapped, and after donning his protective headgear, Val self loaded and we hit the road. (love my horse!) I worried that he wasn't eating his hay, because he's such a rubbernecker when we trailer - always looking out the windows - but at our midway stop he'd finished his travel manger and promptly polished off the half bucket of soupy mash I held for him. He only got a little on me. ;D (is it weird that he pees on a moving trailer?)

 

After an uneventful seven hour trip, we arrived at L's farm. Val settled into his accommodations, although sadly for him he's residing in the round pen. Coming from the land of sand and no grass it didn't seem a good idea to go straight on to 24/7 grazing. Poor Val... Maybe to pay me back - he waited several hours before drinking anything. At bed check he pulled his face out of the water bucket to greet me, so all is well.

Saturday is our first mounted lesson + an unmounted bio-mechanics seminar. (!)

In the Arena #141 - I'm on the pavement, thinkin' 'bout the government...

Today is the first day in over a month that life has felt remotely normal.

Twenty four straight hours without extreme, catastrophic or just plain crappy weather will do that for you. A full day of sunshine with nearly no wind and a sound horse to ride will put a smile on your face. A sound horse who's been ridden exactly twice since February 10th.

Just wait... in a few minutes she's forcing Panacur down my throat!

We were on a roll until the series of misfortunes arrived, logging three to four rides a week with progress on forward into contact. Then came a turn on the mystery lameness carousel. Round and round between abscess or shoulder. Soak or no, bute or no. Sound or no. Nothing looked conclusive for over three weeks. Three weeks that insisted on raining (hard) and blowing (super hard) most of the time which made foot soaking and duct tape booting even funner than usual.

My farrier W finally made it out a week ago Friday - eight weeks since the last trim. I walked and trotted Val out for him before the trim. When we got to the LF, the situation became clearer. Under the considerable toe callus was a slim but nasty looking moon shaped bruise just along the white line.

Too long between trims left too long toes, white line stretching and flare. Perhaps the major sh*t fit (that occurred just prior to the lameness) resulted in the bad bruise. Persistently wet conditions didn't help anything. This scenario would explain why the soaking + poulticing + booting lessened the gimping but never produced the pu$$y hole I kept expecting to see.

Conclusions:

From here on out, I will be touching up Val's feet every week or ten days. That way I can do it with the rasp only, and the adjustments will be so minor I won't be freaking out about upsetting the balance or screwing up too bad. W spent an hour with us going over Val's trim with me, and I made myself a cheat sheet from this great barefoot trimming site that It's Quarter's for Me and Memoir's of a Horse Girl have both recommended.

Friday was my first try and I felt good about the results. Val licked and chewed his approval. I will also be taking him out the the paved road for walks on a hard surface several times weekly. The sand arena is doing his feet no good either I'm afraid. At least now we have a plan.

Now, on to the other ongoing misfortunes.

 

 

The accessibility of our little island has been severely compromised. Repeatedly. There have been numerous days every week this past month where the road north has been closed. Until two weeks ago the ferry off the south end hadn't run for months as the channel filled in. In other words, we can't reliably come and go. Neither can the mail, delivery trucks, tourists, the farrier...

I have had plans for a month to get my first lesson in over a year and a half today... There were technically a few windows this weekend where you could drive through ocean tide between waves. We're calling it the Soundside 500. So not funny.

Next post will positively highlight our most recent rides and my discovery of viewing ride videos frame by frame (!)  In the meantime the struggle to maintain a positive attitude continues...

[P.S. - Full disclosure - in the last post, the photos of the out of control horse were not of Val, they were lifted from google images. I was far too busy hanging on to him to whip out the iphone that day]

Update from the land of perpetual gimpyness...

Still performing twice daily inspections, pokings, and proddings. Still no heat, swelling or favoring. Still bearing weight on all feet evenly. Still scratching my head...

Also still bobbing, although it seems that the bobbing is worse as movement begins, and levels off after he's been walking for a while.

During our all too brief break from chilly rain and wind yesterday, I gave Val a massage. As he stood out in the warm sun (not haltered or tied) I systematically followed his hip and shoulder muscles from bottom to top, somewhat forcefully. Val stretched his neck, stuck out his tongue, yawned and chewed his way through the entire procedure. (he is a bit of a massage slut) Until I hit a certain muscle group that is. Then he slowly reached his head around and grabbed me with his mouth. With his teeth actually, but very gently. I worked on that spot a few more times and got the same reaction.

I've formulated a theory. I also took some video of the gimpyness, which is posted below. Keeping my conclusions to myself, so as not to influence anyone else's conclusions, should they have any, and want to share. Will reveal in a later post.

For those of our readers who haven't been following long enough to catch any of my "how inconvenient it is to live on a very remote island" rants - here's the deal - 'cause I don't want you thinking "why the heck doesn't she just take that horse to the flipping vet already".

When you can use our road off the island, not 100% of the time since hurricane Sandy, it's a 3 1/2 hour trip to the nearest equine vet. There would be no question if we had a medical emergency. A vague, hard to pinpoint without tons of possibly inconclusive tests situation... not so much. Not yet anyway.

I have consulted with my farrier (thank a million W). He thankfully agrees with my course of action so far, and will be here at the end of the month in person. He really made me feel better. I am fine with however much time it will take Val to heal, I just don't want to miss the opportunity if there is something else I can do, but just don't know to do it.

No bute in case it is a sneaky not that painful abscess brewing
Continue monitoring for heat, swelling, etc.
Keep him quiet - easy - he naps twice daily, it's been stand around and eat hay weather anyway
Handwalking + massages

Here's the video - apologies for the shakiness. I had a hard time outrunning Val backwards so I could keep more than his big 'ol loveable head in the frame.

In the Arena # 139 - When the cat's away, the mouse will play...

The weather has gone to crazy town.

January in a nutshell:
Several days of 70's - perfect, springlike, must ride, followed by some 50 mph winds and temps suddenly dropping into the twenties. Rinse and repeat. Not complaining about the June-uary days, or even January appropriate weather, but the ping-ponging makes for scary horse-keeping.

I've upped Val's salt ration overnight (when I can dole it out into his mash) to keep him drinking. He's been shedding up a storm (no lip gloss, no fleece, no lip gloss, no fleece...) for the last two weeks, so blankets must come out during the cold spells. It's easy to tell when he agrees with the choice to wear his clothing, because he puts his head through the neck hole voluntarily, and even cooperates when his head gets stuck because it's dark and I'm fumbling.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

So - there was this Jane Savoie online clinic a while back. I might have mentioned planning on posting about it.. a few times. I took pages of notes. Full of great suggestions about how to structure your schooling sessions - checking your position, confirming go and whoa, and connecting the training scale to the tests. All info especially helpful when you are without a trainer. Too bad I (apparently) threw away my copious notes in a 70 degree day springlike cleaning frenzy. Even dug through the trash to salvage them - no dice.

Instead I'll share these nuggets from her monthly email -

• Discipline is the bridge between dreams and success.

• It’s always about connection, and it’s never NOT about connection.

• First and foremost the horse must be in front of the aids. Then always analyze the quality of the connection.

• There are no problems. Only training for more understanding, more strength, more connection, more collection, or more suppleness.

• Think of “cooperation” rather than “submission”.

These thoughts dovetail rather handily into this week's ride reports. Both days it was possible to ride this week I rode. Since the boss dad was out of town, I naturally appointed myself the replacement boss. "RP" thought it a fine idea to get the crew started and head back up to the barn. ("RP" rocks)

Ride one:
After a lengthy warmup on the buckle while breathing deeply and rhythmically, the focus was on keeping eyes up and body even. Val started snorting from the beginning of the ride - first time that's ever happened, so I felt I was on the right track.

Once I took up contact, I tried to keep it as light as possible - giving the driving aid when it started to feel heavy. Thumbs on top of the reins. Straight line from the bit to my bent, pointy, heavy, elbows. This must become second nature. My former trainer probably said it to me 175,000 times...

The idea of practicing an actual test has begun to feel possible lately, so there are cones around the perimeter of the arena now. We traveled around doing circles, half circles changing direction or transitions at every cone. By the end of the ride Val gave me turns on the forehand on the buckle, and halts off engaging my core only. Then came the deluge of treats.

Ride two:
Another long warmup. A big shy / duck / scoot over something visible only to non humans got me off center for a bit, but we worked through it pretty quick. I continued asking for things and didn't acknowledge the cause of the incident - easy because it was a mystery.

This ride's focus was a repeat of the previous, but with special attention to getting an immediate response to my leg, backing up with the whip when I didn't. Lots of asking for the trot - wait - no, I changed my mind - got us a bigger, swingier walk and Val paying more attention to me.

We finished off with trotting figure eights and a lengthy cool out as work + unclipped pony = sweatmeister. Two point is definitely on the agenda next ride for sure as my ankles weren't feeling flexible enough for effective posting.

Another something only visible to non-humans moment

Something great has begun to happen over the the past month. My pre-ride anxiety is fading. Or maybe evolving. It seems I'm beginning to navigate the tricky path between fear, caution, anticipation, judgement and accomplishment. Thanks Val!

In the Arena #133 - The swing of things...

A pair of pretty days magically appeared in the midst of our current storm fest (more on that later) so Val and I got back to work in the arena, freshly leveled and dragged.

We warmed up on the buckle using the full arena with zero balky steering moments. A first! All the bareback work must be paying off - keeping me more centered, even and balanced. I know I'll have to bring the saddle back, but for now the bareback pad is my good friend. My frequent uneven / off-to-one-sided-ness usually reflects itself in steering glitches. It feels good to be conquering this posture problem.

We picked up contact smoothly. I focused on keeping my seat bones plugged in, maintaining elastic rein contact through my elbows, supporting Val with inside leg / outside rein and looking up and through his ears. Val listened to my leg, without needing the whip, when I asked for more energy. I engaged my core to ask for the halt.

We utilized the cones, leg yielding through and turning on the forehand around them. The leg yields worked well as long as I remembered to make space for Val to move into with the inside leg and rein. Basically our ride approached softness. I think Val was glad to be back to work. I was thrilled and couldn't wipe the smile off of my face. Dressage!!

 

The next day was more of the same - and equally successful. We even got the beginnings of some bend. I often have a tendency to throw away the inside rein, but with the correct amount of contact we achieved deep corners and lovely accurate circles. My favorite moment was when asking for a more energetic walk, Val offered me a lovely trot transition, (once again) confirming when I don't block my horse with hands or seat he is happy and willing to be forward.

After a scary fall during our work on the canter this spring, I think am sure I've been guilty of giving Val mixed messages - saying one thing with my voice, legs and whip but the opposite with my hands and seat. Hopefully we're turning that around now. The plan is to get our fitness back plus keep moving toward softness, flow and forward.

  

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So far we've kept up our new five day a week schedule. We've practiced grooming and clipping while ground tied. Clicker trained playing touch-it with scary windy stuff, and even done trail walks combined with patience while clearing away fallen limbs. Challenging in light of this crazy weather...

...because, we're on our third nor'easter since the hurricane. It's been blowing 20 - 30 mph for most of the last three weeks. It seems we're paying for the heavenly fall we had prior to Sandy. Latest word is the (paved) road may not be ready until March. Although we can brave driving during low tide only, daylight only, 4WD only - on the sand, if we don't mind driving through some sea water sometimes... when the road is open. I kid you not.

Taken this morning

Coming soon - tour of the farmette + meet the other residents, the long ago promised trim post, updates on the nutrition / medical front... how not to lose your marbles when you're stuck on the island and the wind won't stop blowing...