Making Strides

Today was a significantly better day on the horse home front in comparison to yesterday. My mother in law took Kiki to the park for a walk in the late morning (something that I very much welcomed because, generally speaking, I get pretty much zero help on the baby front on a regular basis.) During which time Sonj came over and gave me an equitation lesson on Cool.

By “equitation lesson” I mean that I asked her to sit in the middle of my ring and yell at me to do all the things that I don’t have the motivation to do on my own, such as no stirrup work, which she made me do in abundance while Cool and I both complained quietly to ourselves about it. In all seriousness though, she was actually really helpful and I’m almost 98% certain that I won’t be able to walk tomorrow.

I didn’t have plans to ride Johnny today, but I was finished with Cool and the baby-toting party still wasnt back yet so I pulled him out of the field for Sonj to look at. I figured that I had the time and the help, so I might as well use it!

I was very careful to tack Johnny up using ALL his old stuff. It took a little while to find it all, but almost everything of his I had held on to *just in case.* My goal was to make him feel as much “at home” and mentally comfortable as I could....and it did seem to help. After practicing standing at the mounting block, I had Sonj lead him around for a bit with me on his back until he took a big deep breathe and relaxed, then I took the reins and she slowly wandered away from him. After several laps of walk and changing directions, I quietly closed my leg and asked him to trot. Instead of giving me fireworks like yesterday, he stepped off into a quiet trot. Of course, he’s still lame, but he was WAY less lame today than yesterday! We did a few laps each direction and then called it a day.

I was glad to have an extra set of eyes on the ground because I’m feeling more optimistic today about his recovery outcome than I was yesterday. He actually felt pretty good,  considering.

I have tons of pictures to add to these posts but I must be mentally challenged because I’m having a really hard trying to figure out how to upload them here.....🤷🏻‍♀️ Any help would be appreciated!!!

Peace.Love.Ponies.

Struggling

Despite the reoccurring shit show that has been my life the past couple weeks, I FINALLY managed to get some saddle time this week. Monday I rode Cool, who has officially begun his “winter spooking.” Despite him feeling really good and sound undersaddle (yay!) his brain was being stupid and he was completely convinced that the horse trailer next to the pasture WAS GOING TO KILL HIM. You know, since he walks past it every single day for turnout and it hasn’t moved since Johnny came home a week ago. Because of the nonsense (and I was riding alone) I decided that it was best not to canter and instead did some really good, forward trot work.

On Wednesday I had plans to ride Johnny around back behind the barn for a “trail ride,” but instead spent 20 minutes standing the arena (in the misting rain I might add) at the mounting block petting him and repeatedly getting on and off in an attempt to convince him that I was actually NOT planning to kill him when I got on. I’m not really sure what’s happened to him over the last two years, but based on his reactions to many simple things, I can tell you that at least some of it, wasn’t good.

Friday I saddle Cool up again for a quick hack while the baby slept. I’ve been tying to the horse trailer lately and tacking up out by the pasture since the weather has been so nice this week that the horses have spent almost all their time outside. Of course, I already had the bridle on by the time that I realized I had left Cools hoof boots in the barn. We went sans hoof boot for the first time in almost two months and I’m happy to say that he was *almost* sound. Sound enough to ride, but not 100% his usual self. We cantered a couple courses of poles and worked on moving his shoulder and the trot to free us his body movement more. He only tried to dump me off once so all in all, it was a good ride.

Today was Johnny day since my friend Dee (who was INSTRUMENTAL in Johnny, well you know, living last week) drove up to see him/work with him. As far as I’m concerned, with everything Dee has done for us the last couple weeks, Johnny is just as much hers as mine. (In fact, I made his stall name tags today since we FINALLY got a real stall put up for him. I listed her name along with mine as his owner.). We wanted to play around with saddle fit with him today and had plans to ride him a little but those quickly changed once we got him going. Poor Johnny is a basket case to ride now...I have no idea what’s happened to him but my guess is that he’s been yanked around in too strong a bit and ridden in an ill fitting saddle. His back muscle is non-existent, leaving his spine and a huge pair of shark fin withers vulnerable. I have a feeling that whatever saddle he was ridden in, it was sitting in his withers. In the end, we nixed riding him all together for the next few weeks, save for possible taking him out in the pasture to walk up and down some hills because holy loose stifles. I feel like I’m starting all over again with him...except that he’s significantly older now and phenomenally more lame. It makes me both frustrated, sad and guilty all at the same time that I’ve let so much terrible shit happen to him. Today we ended up just letting him trot around on the lunge line with the saddle on and then added a very loose pair of side reins. He’s quite lame tracking left, especially with pressure on his face. I have the massuse scheduled to come see him on the 10th of this month, and while I know it won’t magically make him better, I’m sure that it will help at least a little. I can’t bring myself to just throw up my hands and retire him...when I look at him, I see a horse that very badly wants to still have a job. It hurts my soul.

For now, he’s tucked into his stall after spending some time in Cool’s back on track hock wraps, with two grams of bute and four standing wraps. Tomorrow I’m (hopefully) having a little eq lesson on Cool with my friend Sonj.

Until next time,

Peace.Love.Ponies.

For The Love of a Horse

I’m sorry that I’ve been MIA this past week but shit, what a week it’s been.

Last Tuesday, I got a call from my neighbor who has Johnny up the road. She was calling to tell me that Johnny had been choking since breakfast that morning (it was now 6:00 in the evening) and that he wasn’t doing well. I suggested that it was time to call the vet, to which she simply stated that she could not afford.

The rest is a phenomenally long story, that at this point, I’m just tired of telling and don’t feel right relaying over the internet, but I will say this: through the help and generosity of some AMAZING friends of mine, Johnny was able to receive medical treatment the following morning, and by that evening he was back at my house, safe and sound and ready to start his long road to recovery.

Over the years, my husband has asked me time and time again why I go out of my way to help people who don’t always seem like they might reciprocate. My answer to him has always been the same; someday I hope, that when I need it most, those people will come through for me.

And they did. Every single one of them.

Keep spreading your goodness throughout this world my friends, karma is a thing. Those people that you helped will be there for you. And I thank God every day that they were, because without them, Johnny would not be here today.

Peace.Love.Ponies.

Progress

Back to back rides on Coolie yesterday and today. Hubs was home early which gave me an opportunity to ride today that I probably wouldn’t have had otherwise. The forecast is also calling for rain the next few days as Hurricane Florence makes its way to our state (which is crazy in itself because I live in OHIO) so I figured that I had better take any chance that I had to get some ride time in on Coolie. Not only does my sanity require adequate horse time, but I’m also working really hard at getting his mind and body healthy. The only way to fix his feet is to ride in his pads and stimulate the parts of his feet that he normally wouldn’t use. The only way to fix his brain for him to realize that riding doesn’t cause pain. And the only way to fix his body is for his brain to stop going into overload and shutting down when he thinks he can’t do something because he’s sore. So really, it all comes back to riding. The more pain free, positive riding experiences we can have, the sooner he can begin to heal.

It was already starting to sprinkle rain drops so I quickly got Cool saddled and booted and headed out to the arena. My plan today was to give Cool a break from going ‘round and ‘round in circles and scatter some poles around the arena to ride like a “jump course.” I really am trying to get better about not boring him to death with “arena work” because it seems like he really gets sour of flatting all the time. Since he’s a pain in the ass about walking with me while I set poles, I tied the reins of his hackamore up over his head and let him trim the grass on the edge of the ring while I went to work setting. I used my four freshly (spray)painted jumper poles and set up a single on the quarter line, a diagonal one stride and a diagonal single. My ring is fairly small, so it’s pretty hard to set poles at much more than three/four strides or so in any given direction. I figured that today I would keep the poles all fairly close towards the center of the ring and give Cool lots of room to turn and make his approach since I was just planning on trotting this “course” today anyway.

We warmed up fairly quickly since Cool had just come in from turnout and therefore was already pretty loose at the walk. He was a little behind my leg to start but felt sound, and once he realized that we were doing pole work he brightened right up and off he went! We trotted a few single poles to start off and then I put together a little course both directions. As soon as he realized that we were turning these single poles into something that resembled a jump course, Cool was READY to go! He ended up rushing at a couple of the poles and taking a little jump over them to land in canter on the backside. Some people might think that undesirable in a horse but I was pleased as hell that Cool was feeling good enough and happy enough that he WANTED to jump and canter. I worked very hard on keeping with the rhythm of his trot on approach and just going with whatever decision he made, whether it be trot or canter on the backside. This required that I kept my leg soft and that I stayed down in my heel - something that I’ve really been sucking with as of late. Today was better though, so I’m pleased with that! I also made sure to keep my hand low and forward during our ride. I have a terrible habit of raising my hand and pulling a couple strides out. It’s a habit that’s literlly plagued me my whole life but seems exponentially worse when I ride Cool. Overall though, I was really pleased with our ride and after a couple little “courses” and a nice stretchy trot I called it a day and took Cool for a walk over to the apple tree to pick out his post-workout treat 😂 Stupid I know, but it gets him out of the arena and keeps him happy so I’m ok with it. I like to think of it as our little bonding time after working.

So far, the rain has held off so I’ll be headed back outside shortly (the baby is napping YAY) to let the ponies back outside to stretch and walk and enjoy the (MUCH) cooler temps today.

The Coolie today after his rockstar ride 

Until next time!

Peace.Love.Ponies.

Simplicity

After trying several times without success yesterday, I FINALLY got both horses ridden today.

Cool came out of his stall still somewhat sour looking, but seemed to have a much better attitude once he realized that I was going to put his hoof boots on him. I really do think that he likes his special Dr. Schols!
Killian sat ringside in the Pack-N-Play while I rode Cool. He cried for a little while but finally just gave up and sat there playing with some toys and occasionally standing up to watch me. As far as riding goes with Killian awake, I would say it went pretty well!

I had set some trot poles earlier in the morning for my rides - a single pole on the quarter line on one long side of the ring and three trot poles (spaced about 4ft apart) on the other long side quarter line. My plan was to work both horses over them but in reality, I didn't do any thing more then walk over them.

Cool felt good coming out of his stall and he trotted off pretty dang sound in his boots. He was quite lazy at first, which sometimes can be an indication of pain for him, so I warmed up nice and slow with him and was careful not to pull on his face or clamp my legs on his sides (both things he hates and things that I'm working on!) I've been riding him in the hackamore lately and I really think that its been a good thing for him. I will probably continue to ride in it for most of the fall/winter, especially for jumping. We just did a very easy ride today; walk and trot with a few canters each direction (mainly just down the long sides.) To the left today, he did throw the wrong lead then first time I asked him to canter, but then did not give me any trouble again. His canter to the right however was GLORIOUS. Reading back through this blog has really inspired me to re-connect with my equitation roots and be a better, more effective and less obstructive, rider. Lately, I've been working really hard at keeping my leg down and soft around Cool's side. He's so often behind the leg that I've gotten in a terrible habit or raking my heel up against his side and turning my toe out way to far. Its a problem that I've been working in earnest to remedy and I think that Cool is appreciative because he's been much happier under saddle. For the first time in a very long time today I was able to really sit and stay with his canter to the right. It was uphill and energetic! The left lead will require more work since its Cool's bad direction, but I have no doubt that it will iron itself out.

My hoof pad combination is still a solid win as far as Coolie is concerned. He seems pretty happy in his boots and pads! The farrier is coming Thursday to see everyone again for a trim.

After my ride on Cool I took Emmy for a quick spin. She was a little wild for an old lady and most DEFINITELY HATES the hackamore. Guess its just the plain ol' bit for Emmy these days!

Everyone is spending tonight out in the pasture. The daytime temps have been in the upper eightys/low nineties (PLUS mega humidity) this past week - its been miserable for my poor ponies and not conducive to much riding for me. I've decided that I am for sure scratching Sweetwater's Combined Test off our schedule for the end of this month. Cool hasn't jumped in forever and with his recent lameness issues I'd rather not push it. Instead, we are taking this month and half of next month to get back to the simple basics of riding. And I'll tell you what, I really feel good doing it.

Peace.Love.Ponies.

Magic "Shoes"

Yesterday I dragged Killian and Cool over to a local boarding barn to give Cool a proper test ride in his new "shoes." My childhood best friend C met me at the barn. She was going to put a ride on another horse in the stable while I rode Cool. We rolled out of our farm ahead of schedule for once, jumped on the highway and made the 25 minute drive (I know, right? Yes that's "local" around here) over to the barn that I boarded Johnny and Emmy at while I was in college.

Cool unloaded surprisingly well. He lived at this barn for a couple years when we first bought him and I periodically haul him there for indoor riding or wash stall use when the weather is bad, but Coolie being Coolie...you just never know what kind of horse is going to unload of the trailer. Hes that horse at horse shows. You know, the one that gets of the trailer screaming and come blowing into the arena to hand walk like he just got shot out of a cannon. The one that's practicing his levade while other horses are quietly loping around on lunge lines. It never fails that at least one person (usually whoever dares to come near him) either makes some type of comment ("Really feeling his oats this morning, eh?") or asks me if I'd like to borrow a lunge line. I just shake my head and laugh and keep levading around the arena. After about 15 minutes of stupid, the Lipizzaner tires himself out and Cool goes back to the trailer for his mid-morning snooze. Its been like this since the beginning of time with him - its just who he is.

Needless to say, I was both pleased and surprised to un-load a lazy horse at the barn yesterday. I turned him out in the arena while I unloaded Killian and my tack, and Cool promptly hung his head over the fence and went to sleep. C arrived shortly after and got a friend's horse ready to ride.

In general one-year-old fashion, Killian refused to sit quietly for anyone but me, so in the end, with daylight fading fast, I took the reins from C's horse and just had her jump on Cool. It seemed like a good idea for me to watch him go anyway, and to have a fresh set of eyes on his back to tell me how it felt in the saddle.

C put him through his paces at the trot both directions of the ring, making a couple nice wide circles and sweeping turns. Cool took a couple bad steps here and there, but overall...dare I say it...he looked pretty damn sound. I was beyond pleased! After a few laps of trot in each direction and darkness creeping over the outdoor arena, I waved C back over to the gate and told her that it was fine to get off. I'm so thrilled with the fact that Cool is sound! And yet terrified to ask too much of him and push him too hard at the same time.

Today, Cool had the day off to rest, but tomorrow my other friend S and I are having a "pony date," and shes offered to video Cool for me. I will try to get some before and after videos posted!

As for me, I'm exhausted and off to bed.

Peace.Love.Ponies.

Getting Back His Dancing Feet

I've been meaning all day to sit down and write this post - it's now 11pm and everyone is asleep, so I finally have time to do it!

Cool's new Easy Boot hoof pads arrived yesterday! If you've read any of my last couple posts, you've probably heard me mention Pete Ramey before. If you have a foundered or navicular horse and are considering trying the barefoot route, Pete is your man. He maintains a website (www.hoofrehab.com) that is so jammed-packed with priceless information you'll be lost for days reading about all of what he does. After which, you will promptly feel like the WORLDS WORST HORSE OWNER because my god it all makes sense and why were you not smart enough to figure this out before?

I could go into detail about "Pete's way" but it would literally take me hours to write and days for you to read, so let me give you my very fancy (not) abridged version of what Mr. Ramey has come up with and applied to (literally) hundreds of "hopelessly lame" horses with success.

In Pete's philosophy (we're gonna call that PP for the sake of me not having to keep spelling 'philosophy') all of the problems with the horses foot start long before he ever takes a lame step. The biggest disservice that we ever do to our horses is to not allow the hoof to develop properly from the time the horse is young. We shoe young horses too early, we keep them on soft footing, and we never allow the hoof capsule and all of the internal structures to be exposed to the pressures necessary for developing a structurally sound foot. Because of this, the horse becomes sore, so we further protect the foot with pads, etc. and the vicious cycle continues. The internal structures of the foot never properly develop for the type of work that we ask the horse to do. We leave our horses heels too long, and their feet too stood up, forcing them to land "toe first" (from the perspective of the internal structures of the foot, the bones, ligaments, etc.) The back part of the foot (the heels) fall out of use and become even more sore, so we add wedges and more pads to make the horse comfortable, even further damaging the internal structures (I could go on, but you get the idea).

Sometimes though, the horse stops using the back of the foot due to conformation, mechanical issues, or even a soft tissue injury that goes unnoticed. Whatever it is that makes the horse "heel sore" starts the process of the toe first landing. The more we try to raise the heels of the horse though "corrective shoeing" the more we actual damage the internal structures of the foot, After a while, the horse can no longer be made comfortable and is put down. (Click HERE to read the full article, I really don't do it justice)

In PP, Mr. Ramey works to bring the horses heels (and sometimes the frogs) BACK into their proper function through a combination of hoof boots and pads while the horse is ridden  (read more about this by clicking HERE) The idea of the pad is to gently stimulate the "damage" areas of the foot through a system of pressure/release as the horse walks, not just constant pressure as with a wedge shoe. In Pete's mind, the reason that horses become "pasture sound" but are lame with a rider up, is because the horse's hoof gets a chance to heal in when the horse is left alone in the pasture. The problem is that the concussion put on the foot in the arena (or when ridden) is totally different then the concussion and vibration that the foot receives as the horse meanders around all day. PP is that, if you want the horse sound for riding, you have to heal the horse while its being ridden.

(There are also a whole slew of articles on this site regarding feeding practices and how they affect the health of the horse's foot - do yourself a favor and read those too. Actually, just read the whole site and thank me later)

So, I did as my guru Petey said, and I ordered two sets of hoof boot pads from Easy Boot Inc. Cool does not have Easy Boots, he wears Cavallo boots, but I figured that a pad was a pad so I took a chance for $14.99.

Next came the daunting process of figuring out just what pad combination he needed. Since I am no Pete Ramey, just a young adult fumbling through this on her own with the help of an iPad and a website, I wasn't really sure how to go about this, and I wasnt 100% sure what I was supposed to even be looking for. Was my horse supposed to magically become sound? (P.S. he's been lame for the last month)Was he supposed to just look better? Would nothing actually change except the mechanics of his stride?

I started with a soft density full pad. I duct taped the entire thing inside his hoof boot, put it on him, and held my breath. We jogged off across the grass, me dragging a reluctant Cool behind me....still lame.

My next idea was to try just a frog pad. Using the extra material from trimming the full pad down to size, I cut two frog shaped pads, took a roll of duct tape, and taped them to Cool's feet over his frog. (Good ol' Petey says that some horses need more frog stimulation/cushion depending on how their feet are shaped)
Cool tripped walking back out of the barn. Great.... I thought to myself, this is already a lost cause. 

Except that then I asked Cool to trot. And he about RAN ME OVER. All of the sudden, my horse was plowing past me and I found myself digging my heels into the ground and calling for him to PLEASE SLOW DOWN. Actually, come to think of it, he didnt look half bad running past me either.

I took him back to the barn and stopped to think. Untaping the frog pads from his feet, I retaped them ON TOP of the full pads that were already in his boots, slid the boots on, and went back into the grass for a trot.

The second I clucked to Cool he EXPLODED. And I mean exploded. Neck arched, prancing, blowing and all but leaping on the end of the lead. My god horse...two hoof pads ago I had to DRAG you out of the barn! I took him into the arena and jogged him on the sand.

Could it be? Was it true? Did he actually look sound????

This was precisely the point where Killian woke up from his nap and started crying. So the experimenting was done for one day. That night, I took a chance. Cut two more frog pads, taped them to his feet followed by wrapping his hoof with vet wrap, and turned him out.

This morning, he came in for breakfast and looked great walking! I undid his feet to let them breathe and got ready to ride during Killian's nap.

Our "ride" consisted of a nice long walk up and down the hills in the pasture (varied terrain to promote lots of foot twisting and movement) followed by a short walk down the road (frog stimulation) and then two long sides of trot each direction in the sand ring (working the foot). All the while Cool wore his boots with a full and frog pad. He never took a bad step. I would have called that horse 98% cured.

We called it a day after our short "boot session." I have plans tomorrow to haul Cool to a local indoor riding ring with a friend and try these boots out on some "real" footing. I'm also hoping for some video! After our ride, I did remove the boots and turn him out naked...the difference in the way he walked to the pasture was astounding. He looked terrible! Its been so long since I've actually seen him comfortable that I think I've actually forgotten what it looks like! Yikes!

More on this tomorrow....for now, sleep time!

As always,

Peace.Love.Ponies.

New Beginnings

Rock bottom will teach you lessons that mountain tops never will.
[Word  Porn]

Two days ago, I sat quietly in the barn, late at night, sobbing silently into the neck of my oldest, most cherished friend Emmy.

It had been a week from hell. Between lame horses, a non-stop crabbing, crying baby, and feeling like a single mother in the face of my husband working long, late hours, I'd had enough.

Yep, you read that right. I said "baby."
______________________________

Three years ago I sat down and wrote my last post regarding my barefoot journey with both Cool and Johnny. Since then, both horses have come back to fairly successful soundness. Its been a never ending journey with its fair share of ups and downs. Some days are better than others for Cool, but somehow, I do still manage to ride a little.

Two years ago Johnny moved 1.5 miles down the road to my neighbors house. She's loved and trail ridden him ever since then, but just last week, her world came crashing down a little, and there is now a very distinct possibility that Johnny will be coming back to our farm in the next several months. When/if he does, it will be for good this time. I'm never letting him leave again <3 p="">
Two years ago, my husband and I also found out that we were expecting our first child. Killian was born in June 2017 and just celebrated his first birthday a few months ago.
_______________________________

Anyway, there I was, crying into the neck of thirty-one year old Emmy just like I had done so many times before in our relationship. Cool was in the stall next to her, he stuck his head over the divider wall and lipped at my hair, breathing warm muffled breaths into my ear. It was like being surrounded by the arms of my best friends. And in that moment, I suddenly thought about Johnny and I suddenly thought about this blog.

After a while, I wiped the tears away, fed my horses cookies and went back into the house. Killian was sleeping peacefully in his crib and I crept into his room, sat down in the arm chair in the corner and pulled out my phone. I found this blog on the internet and started at the beginning.

It took me two days to read the blog from start to finish. Part of me can't believe that its been almost TEN years since I first put finger tips to computer keys and began documenting my horse journey. I sat up late into the night and read about Johnny, about my college days, my horse shows and IHSA, I laughed. I cried. I cringed a couple times at my own childish stupidity.

But it was exactly what I needed. A trip down memory lane...a reconnection to my past...I'm not exactly sure, but it healed my heart in a way that I can't quiet explain.

Tonight, I put my baby to bed, went out into the barn and hugged and kissed both of my horses. This past year has been all about getting back to the simplicity of what brought me to this point in my life to begin with: my love of horses, but what I really needed, I think, was a swift kick in the pants. I needed my own words to steer me out of the darkness and back into the light.

Sometimes, life gets us down. And that's okay. The most important thing is getting back up. So here I am, picking myself back up off the ground, and looking to the sky. And part of that, is getting back to writing again. So I'm cracking my fingers, shaking off the dust, and getting back at it.

As always,

Peace.Love.Ponies.