Chahhhhlie (New England's version of "Charlie")

I had a few nice rides on Mr. Charlie this past week, while Lauren was away. The first was spent just with us getting to know each other. I rode again on Friday and things were a little more smooth. He's a big horse, and very long, and trying to keep his front end up (but not TOO far up!) is a lot of work. He tried hard to do what I asked even though it was very hot and buggy, and he still lacks a lot of muscle to hold himself together with.

We dealt with hives throughout the week, but got them under control on Saturday thanks to a moderate dose of Benadryl. I had never given a horse Benadryl before, but the vet recommended 25mg/100 lbs, and said to give Charlie 10 pills. He's probably more than 1000 pounds, but I preferred to play it safe since he's not my horse, and Lauren was away.

Sunday I rode again, and he was slightly sassy. He got a little bit naughty at the canter, kind of light in his front end and I felt like a rear was very close, so I booted him forward and growled, "KNOCK IT OFF!" and he was like, oh shit I had better behave. After that he was very good! As a cool-down, we walked through the XC course and I showed him the "ditch" jump, which is really two logs buried in the ground, with about 6" of space between them. He flat out refused to go anywhere near this and even popped a little rear, so I kicked him forward and made him take two steps towards it, and then patted him and hopped off. I walked him up to it, let him see it, and then he walked right over it like it was no big deal. We walked over it a few times, me leading him on the ground, and then I got back on and rode him over it. He stepped over like it was just a stick on the ground. What a good boy!

One thing that I worked with him on consistently is learning how to stand at the mounting block. I suspect he knows exactly how to do this, but simply chooses not to, so I decided to prove to him that standing there was really the BEST option he had. He is pretty food-motivated so I used treats to do this. I did it in a few different stages:

-teaching him that when I lead him up to the mounting block and ask him to stop, he needs to wait there patiently, even if I stand and have a 10 minute conversation, or send some text messages on my phone, or sing a little song before I decide to get on. If he moved, I corrected him by backing him up next to the mounting block again. After he stood quietly for a few seconds, I praised him and he got a small treat. He got the hang of this pretty fast. "Oh, so if I stand here and do nothing, I get cookies? COOL!!!"

-teaching him to stand as I walk up the steps of the mounting block. There's nothing worse than getting a horse all lined up with the mounting block, getting halfway up the steps, and having them walk off and drag you off the mounting block! He got the hang of this quickly, also.

-teaching him to stand as I get in the saddle. he likes to walk off as soon as the rider's butt sits down on his back, so basically I stood by his side on the mounting block, and gave him a cookie. I got halfway on, and gave him a cookie. I sat on him but did not put my right foot in the stirrup, and gave him a cookie. I put my foot in the stirrup, and gave him a cookie. This way he wasn't in any hurry to go anywhere, because he figured out that the mounting block is cookie central!

-teaching him to stand as I spend time adjusting my stirrups, fiddling with the reins, making sure my helmet is square on my head, etc. by the time I got to this step, he was happy to stand there all day, so we had no problems here.

Now all these cookies made him a little bit greedy, which I didn't hesitate to discourage. He did not get a cookie when he was frisking me for them. He had to stand politely, not beg, and not be obnoxious. Then the cookie came.

He got better and better with this each ride and I hope he retains it for Lauren!

Here are some photos that Kenny took of my first ride on him. He was a bit distracted and I am super out of shape but we did our best!

apparently, it's summertime

I have been working my heinie off at both my regular job and then a bunch of small side jobs. After starting work at 6am on Friday I went straight to Dover to work at their annual tent sale. I was there until 8:30, so that was a long day. I worked another ten hours at Dover on Saturday. It was very hot out in that tent in all its sweaty sauna glory, but I enjoyed helping customers. I always like shopping vicariously through people!

With my earnings from working the tent sale, I bought something I've been pining for for a long time: a Rambo Micklem Competition bridle. It is sooo pretty. Now, I worked at the Dover store when it first opened, and I was part of the crew that put the store together initially. I spent about a week putting bridles together, so I know how all the pieces fit! But a Micklem is a bit...erm...different, and I swear I felt like I had never put a bridle together when I first saw all the pieces of this thing. Luckily, Maddy helped me, and we got it assembled. I put it on Lucy to see how it fits her (it fits perfectly) and she was so confused. I didn't put a saddle on her, of course, and she hasn't been tacked up in a very long time, so she was like, "What the devil is going on here? I thought I was retired!" Since she's been hurt, I haven't bought anything fun, only grain and hay! It has sucked! Boy did I miss shopping for beautiful tack, although I am much less broke than I've been for a long time!

On Sunday, I helped my hay farmer bale three fields of hay. Maddy was there too, and she told me I'd appreciate the cost of hay a lot more after that. Um, YEAH....that was a lot of work!! $7 a bale doesn't sound so bad now! My responsibilities on Sunday were to throw the hay that had just come in from the field onto the hay elevator so that it could be stacked in the farmer's hay barn. Then I went out and picked weeds out from the next field that we were going to bale. There were three of us picking out weeds and we got a lot of them! Evidently, the weeds, which have a very thick stalk, do not dry out as quickly as the grass does, so one weed can cause a whole bale to go bad.

Then we went back out with the baling machine and as the machine sucked up the hay, made it into a bale, tied the twine, and spit it out the back, I stood on a trailer that was being towed by the baling machine and hooked the bale of hay to bring it onto the trailer to be stacked.

I tried to keep up with drinking enough water but I started to feel very sick after about 4 hours of working out in the sun. I have such a low tolerance for heat and sun, it's ridiculous! I had fun, though, and learned a lot. In exchange for helping out, I got a very good deal on some hay that we pulled fresh out of the fields and brought to the barn. Lucy has been pretty wasteful with her hay in her stall lately but she is cleaning up every spare morsel of this stuff. It has made our hay barn smell amazing. If I were a horse, I'd eat it all, too!

Lauren is away this week and Maddy and I are taking care of Charlie for her. She also said we could ride if we wanted to, so yesterday I rode after work. He is very different to ride compared to Lucy. He is so long and lanky, but he was a very good boy. He had one little spook and it was basically, "oo that's scary! very scary! oo I will just do a little shuffle and then stop! ok, I'm over it!" and that was it. He has had a rearing issue in the past so I was paying attention to his front end most of all, and making sure he was going forward. At one point he started flipping his head and got a little light in the front end, but his front feet never left the ground, I just turned his head toward the inside of the ring and booted him forward. He snapped right out of it, thank goodness! After that, each time he got a little sluggish and started acting distracted, I made sure to urge him forward right away.

Charlie

The other thing I worked on was asking him to stand by the mounting block. Lauren had told me he likes to wander off when you're halfway on, and he tried that on me the first time I went to get on him. He found his rear end parked right back by the mounting block and we tried again. This time he just took one step sideways, so again I got off and moved him back over. The third time he was almost perfect. My mission for this week is to work on that so maybe Lauren can come home to a horse that will stand all day by the mounting block!

Lucy has been doing well. I did a horrible chop-shop job cutting her mane, and I finally mowed down the mohawk bridle path she had going on, so she looks halfway civilized. Her front feet are falling apart, probably from stomping at flies, so I will need to have her feet done already, only 4 weeks into the cycle. It's only going to get worse, too; those huge "B52" flies are starting to come out and those things are awful. They actually take chunks out of the horses. Poor things :(

Here's a photo of Lucy being super sweet with one of the neighbour's children:

Last but not least, I will leave you with a kickass video that's been circulating around over the past few days. If this isn't heart, I don't know what is:

so many cute boys to choose from

The biggest news on the Lucy front is that I groomed her this week. I kid you not, life with a laid up horse is really, really dull. She is filthy all the time. I've given her a few baths and started out grooming her daily but she'd go back out into her paddock and roll immediately, looking at me defiantly like "you just wasted alllll that time". There's no harm in a dirty horse so that's cool, Lucy, you can just look like a ragamuffin.

all clean for .5 seconds, before going back in the dirt paddock and rolling

"I'm gonna roll in the muddiest spot I can find! :D "

Her re-scan on July 1 is getting closer and I am excited and a bit scared to see how her back looks. She usually rests her right hind leg, but as time has progressed and she's had these three-ish months off, she's been resting her left hind leg, also. I've also caught her voluntarily picking up her right lead canter in the paddock, which to me is very encouraging.

Lauren and her horse Charlie joined our little barn family yesterday, after some extensive and bizarre drama at her farm between the barn owner and the barn manager. She chose to get out before it got really messy, no doubt a very wise choice. Maddy and I went and picked Charlie up yesterday and helped Lauren get him settled in. Lucy, of course, was allllll excited about the new arrival. She is such a hussy, but I think her true love is still Brantley.

Maddy and I chose to put Lucy and Brantley out together and opened up the divider between two paddocks, so they can share the bigger space. They are so happy in there. As long as Lucy doesn't become too attached to him to leave, this can be a long-term arrangement. The last thing I want to deal with is a herd bound horse, which is dangerous and not fun for anyone.

checkboxes

On Friday after work I decided to handwalk Lucy down to the trail head behind the barn. I miss trail riding terribly and though I know it wouldn't be smart to dive right back into it before doing more work in the ring first, I don't see the harm in at least walking her around back there so she can get used to the sights and sounds of the woods again.

Well, she was a complete and utter fruit bat, spooking and snorting at things that did not exist, looking freaked out and bug-eyed half the time:

So I imagine we will need to do that a few more times before I can even think of riding her out there, and then for the first few rides I am going to ask Kenny to walk with us, then probably ask a friend to ride out with us.

hanging out with her hay net that is almost the size of her!

 The last thing I wanted to do for Lucy before getting too far under saddle with her after her accident was to have a chiropractor look at her. I was concerned about her hind end from her fall on the road when she got loose. While she hasn't shown any additional warning signs of being uncomfortable, I would rather be overcautious than not cautious enough so I had her adjusted this morning. As I expected, she is still body sore but the chiro said not to keep her out of work. Her turnout area is so small that she doesn't move around much during the day, and standing around in the cold air won't help her muscles at all. I was told to do lots of lateral work with her (haunches in, bending circles, serpentines, asking her to step sideways under herself with her hind end, etc). I also am supposed to back her up to get her to stretch her hind end under herself, and walk/trot over poles to get her to pick her hind legs up and stretch out her SI area.

She also got her feet done this weekend. Her hind feet look atrocious from not having shoes on. We already found out over the summer that she just cannot handle being barefoot, but after her accident she could not hold her hind leg up to be shod because of all of her painful road rash, so I was forced to keep her barefoot. Her feet held up well for the first few weeks but then we got snow, and standing around in all the moisture really did a number on those hind hooves. It's nothing we haven't come back from before, though! I am just glad she healed up so well and had no problems standing to be shod.

On Saturday, I went and visited Lauren and her horse Charlie. Charlie has turned into a bit of a brute since moving up to New England and Lauren has her hands full. Maddy and I are going to visit again next weekend and help her work through some of his naughtiness. You can read more about the visit on Lauren's blog, but here's a little teaser of what went down:

 

Tonight I had a pretty good ride on Lucy, who had two days off and was feeling fresh. I rode in the western saddle and a rope halter bridle again, and Maddy helped me work with her a bit. We tried a new tactic to work on her little outbursts in hopes of making her into a self-sustaining horse. When she threw a tantrum, sped up, broke her gait, etc, I was supposed to sit on my butt in the saddle, reach down and pull the outside rein so that she turned into the wall of the indoor, push her over with my inside leg, push her around with my outside leg, switch direction, and walk off like nothing ever happened. It worked pretty well because she was never able to get any momentum. The idea is for the horse to be able to go around the ring on a loose rein, and both self-regulate their speed without changing anything, and also not take advantage of the "freedom". The changing of directions works like a reset button. Ideally if we were cantering along and she was bad, then we would change directions and canter off immediately, but to start we are just keeping it simple and walking off from the spin.

happy/sad

Over the past month and a half, a big change has been brewing: Lauren found a horse that she fell in love with and ended up agreeing to take on as her own.

Lauren and Charlie

We drove down to Pennyslvania this past weekend to pick him up, and he is now safely at his new barn with Lauren. She opted not to board at the same barn as me because she recently moved and it was almost an hour's drive for her, but she isn't far away and I plan on going to visit soon.

So of course I am thrilled for her because I know exactly what it's like to be in her shoes as the perpetual leaser and to really want your own horse. However, I am really going to miss her! I am sure Lucy will too.

She started a blog for her new horse, named Charlie, which you can read here. I told her I would pimp it out for her, so make sure to add it to your reading list so you can keep up with their progress. Charlie is a 5 year old Irish TB gelding. He is a real sweetheart and I know he couldn't have gotten a better home. He is very green and has a lot to learn, but he has a willing attitude and zero soundness or health issues, so the sky is the limit!

someone is feeling good!

Here are Lauren and Lucy rocking out today:

Lucy thinks this is SO much fun.

Lucy was quite peppy, but as usual, Lauren reeled her in just enough and they had a great ride.

Here is some video:



And here are Kenny and Lucy, being equally badass, considering he has ridden once, maybe twice this year:



So all around great riding, and I was so happy and impressed with how well Lucy did with Kenny. I also think it's adorable he sings country songs to her.

ask and you shall receive

One thing Lucy "said" to me the other night was that she loves trail rides the most, especially when she can jump things out in the woods and the fields. Lauren rode today and it was an all-about-Lucy day, so they went on a long trail ride, through the woods and fields, galloping around and jumping logs. I met them out in the field and played paparazzi. There was a look of pure joy on Lucy's face that you can't deny. She had such a great time! Lauren seemed to enjoy herself, too :D

they showed up in their supercool fly mask

brave Lauren used the snaffle :)

"and then we're gonna run that way, and that way, and THAT way!"

all business

I really love this shot

cantering downhill is harder than it looks!

look at her face, she is just so happy

Lucy was executing the most perfect lead changes as they galloped around
in a figure 8 :)

and here is the "leaping over things in the field" portion of the photos

caught in the deluge

I grew up in the Cotswold region of the UK, where random rainshowers are more or less everyday occurrences. I remember when I was a kid, my mum had a tea party in the back garden and we were out enjoying the sun, tiny tea sandwiches and ornate china tea cups set up around quaint tables, when all of a sudden, the skies opened up and it was pouring. Our British friends quickly and efficiently swept up the food and the china and moved the party indoors, and life continued as if nothing was awry.

The weather here has been very similar to British weather lately. One minute it's raining. Then it's sunny. Then it's raining AND sunny! Then back to rain. Black clouds fill the sky, then they're gone and the sun is out again.

It has been like this all week.

Lauren and I decided to go for a trail ride today. The weather called for sun in the morning and early afternoon, then rain toward the evening. We met at the barn at noon and it was sunny, warm (almost hot), and there wasn't a dark cloud to be found. She tacked up Lucy and I tacked up Brantley, and we headed out with Cairo alongside us. It was a gorgeous day and we were in high spirits.

Brantley is doing very well on his trail rides, but we had done mostly walking and just tiny bits of trotting. Today I decided we'd trot some more, and maybe even try a little canter if he behaved. We trotted the whole way out and were about 2 miles from the barn, exploring some small trails off the main field, when I felt a few drops of rain. I looked up and the sky was BLACK.

Cairo watches the rain roll in.

Both Lauren and I were like, where did this come from? Lucy is not a fan of rain, my dog refuses to go outside if she detects even the smallest drop, and I had no idea what Brantley was going to be like. We tried to wait it out in the forest but it started raining so hard that even the trees weren't stopping the drops from splashing down on us. We decided we had better start moving toward home before the horses got upset, so we went through the woods as far as we could, then through the field a bit, then back on the main trail toward home. Lucy and Lauren trotted ahead of Brantley and I, but Lucy's trot is so huge that Brantley picked up a little canter, and he was great! We ended up cantering most of the way home. Lucy was on her BEST behaviour and was really great about the rain, even though I know she doesn't like it. Cairo happily loped alongside the horses and didn't seem too bothered by the weather, though she did have a "let's just make it home in one piece" look of determination on her little face.

We trotted right up to the barn as it rained harder and harder, dismounted, got inside, and the sun came out.

Both horses looked at us like, REALLY?!

They got lots of carrots, a good rub down, and then they went outside in the sunshine to have some hay in their paddocks.

shelter from the storm! wait, what storm? it's sunny!

Brantley and I celebrating our survival! Haha.

We were soaking wet but both Lauren and I were like, that was AWESOME. Cantering down the entire length of the trail through the deluge, the horses hooves splashing through the accumulating puddles and their heads down against the rain was really, really cool.

down to the boat launch

There is a lovely boat launch just a 20 minute walk through the trails from my barn. We go there often on trail rides but now that the weather has picked up, it's hot enough to actually go *in* the water.

Since Lucy has shown lots of interest in going deeper in the water when we've gone to the beach, Lauren and I thought she might go swimming off the boat launch. She was not as confident as she is at the beach, though. It could have been because the boat launch is slatted concrete and she may not have felt comfortable with the footing, or it could be that the boat launch ends somewhat abruptly and there seems to be a 6" drop off the last section down to the bottom of the lake. Lauren got her to put her hind feet down on the lake bottom, but not her front feet. Oh well, maybe another time!

I rode Brantley, the horse we recently re-started under saddle, and he did great. He's been going out on short trail rides and gets more and more confident each time.

down the trail toward the boat launch. Kenny met us there to take photos.
Cairo had just spotted him here and was about to make a beeline for him!

Brantley was so good - he went right in the water.

typical!

she was standing off the edge of the boat ramp here, so you can see how
low her hind end is compared to her front end.

Cairo offers some assistance. Lucy is skeptical.

Cairo decides not to mess with the horse!

I have been so frustrated by Lucy's weight lately. That horse is like a
bottomless pit. I just increased her grain yesterday and I really hope
her metabolism slows down at some point :(

Cairo met a small Dachsund puppy and made friends.

"you're sooooo big!"

Brantley's sweet face