once again I am a blogger failure

Funny thing is, lots has been going on!! Let's have a catch-up post:

LUCY

Obviously the most important thing here: the Queen Bee. She is doing GREAT. She and Amanda have been trail riding mostly because the weather has been so beautiful and it's hard to resist the trails when the leaves are turning a beautiful golden orange colour, the soft wind is breezing through, the days warm up to the low 60's after a crisp night, and you have all winter long for ring work.

They've been out on a few hacks with various other boarders from the barn, ranging from 45 minutes to over 2 hours. I am beginning to relax a bit regarding Lucy's limits. I figure as long as she is happy, she is probably feeling fine. I am realizing more and more that the old Lucy, the one who threw tantrums regularly, was probably very uncomfortable. We have not seen a single slice of that type of behaviour since she had the time off.

I've let her go without getting blanketed or wearing any sheets because I really wanted her to grow a winter coat. She impressed me with her fuzz and last night was going to dip into the low 30's so for the first time, I put a sheet on her.

FUN

Last weekend I got to go out on a trail ride! Amanda rode Lucy, Maddy rode Brantley, and my barn owner lent me her absolutely gorgeous hunka hunka Dutch Warmblood, Merlot. He is the most polite, handsome, talented, and wonderful boy. I kept looking down at him on our ride and just thinking "I am so lucky!!" We mostly walked that day because Lucy was in raging heat, poor girl, and got a little excited with all the boys around her. She held it together and seemed embarrassed afterward, to be honest.

We were deep in the woods at one point and some guy was walking two humongous Golden Retrievers off leash (of course). They saw the horses and BOOKED it over to us. We were about 50' away from them and they bounded over sticks and bushes and through trees to get to us. They looked like miniature hairy slobbery deer and everyone was like, !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

Merlot spooked first, but quickly recovered without any major incident. Brantley spooked because Merlot spooked behind him, but as fast as he startled, he stopped caring and then stood with a cocked back leg and a bored look on his face lol. Lucy spun to look at them but didn't carry on at all, just stood there on high alert with an extremely worried look! I don't blame any of them for being alarmed -- the dogs scared the crap out of me! You never know if dogs are really going to run all the way up to you (and attack your horse) or if they're just coming over to say hello in a very excited manner. The owner eventually got the dogs' attentions back on him and they headed out of the woods, and we continued on our ride. After that incident, though, all three horses were model citizens. Lucy chilled out and walked on the buckle with happy ears, and the rest of the ride was uneventful.

Also last weekend, I traveled up to Suffolk Downs Racetrack with my friend Claire, and we attended the CANTER New England Showcase. I think I will post another entry about that because I have so many photos!

CAIRO

Awesome as always. Two photos:

ME

I am feeling sooo much better!! I have a good amount of energy during the day but usually by the time I get home from work and the barn, it's 6:30 and I am totally wiped. I am still very behind on design stuff :( :( :(

I've been taking some photos with my new camera and falling in love with it more each time I use it.

I am at 17 weeks now, and Miss Mini Me is doing just fine. I revealed my baby bump for the first time yesterday at work and everyone liked it! It's still pretty small and cute, and isn't affecting my day-to-day life yet.

here, have a crappy cell phone picture!

the next step

One of the toughest parts of bringing Lucy back into work is deciding when she's ready to take it up a notch with what she is doing under saddle. So far there have been no signs of any soreness at all but I am erring on the side of caution because I am well-aware that one instance of overdoing things could set her back quite a bit. At the same time, though, not asking her to do enough could also work against her.

Amanda is now riding her two days a week and I've been thinking about how to design a programme to bring Lu back into fitness while still maintaining her comfort level in her back. I do think that ultimately, Lucy would benefit from working under saddle 4-5 days a week, with 2 or 3 of those rides being w/t and the remainder asking a bit more out of her, like some cantering or working in a baby frame. I could also lunge her in the fauxssoa on the days I want her to work a bit if Amanda is not riding.

Over the weekend, Amanda rode twice: a 45 minute hour walk-only trail ride on Saturday, and then a 2 hour w/t ride on Monday. Monday's ride was with three other horses and before they all went out, they asked me what I thought Lucy could do in terms of distance/time. I said I didn't feel she would have any problems with a longer ride as long as it's pretty low key; i.e. mostly walking with a bit of trotting here and there. Amanda came back from the ride and said they trotted three times and Lucy was great, except for one point where she very clearly had enough and got a bit annoyed about trotting. Amanda could have gotten after her a bit, but she said she'd rather listen to the horse, and let Lucy walk for a while. After a bit of time allowing her brain to reset on a long rein at the walk, Lucy was happy to go forward again and they trotted with the group.

I've got to say I was totally impressed by the way Amanda handled this. She could have fought with Lucy and made her trot but it would have gotten ugly, I'm sure, and it wouldn't have been productive. Old Lucy looked at each request as an opportunity for a battle and I'd love if New Lucy didn't have that attitude. I was so happy that Amanda listened to Lucy and said "as long as you're going forward, I don't care how fast it is". How awesome is that?!

Upon returning from the trail ride, Amanda applied liniment to Lucy's back and then I checked her later to see if she was sore (she wasn't). I'll check her back again today and she will also have a few days off from riding as an extra precaution. She gets her weekly acupuncture treatment today and we should be in good shape! In retrospect, a 2 hour ride may have been a bit much, but as long as she's not sore from it, I will take it as a sign she's ready for more of a workload.

She has gotten so fuzzy and round, and her dapples have returned! She comes in from her paddock covered in dirt head to toe every day and cleans up all of her hay both in her stall and outside. She is very happy, not worried about anything, and I love everything about the New Lucy. Here she is this weekend:

Proud mom right here

Yesterday was nothing short of glorious. The sun shone brightly and the temps were in the 70's. A light breeze played with the tree tops and the leaves were beginning to change. I thought, "what a perfect day for a trail ride". Saturdays are Amanda's days to ride so I asked around the barn to see if anyone would like to take her out and show her the trails. My barn owner and another boarder said they'd love to, so when Amanda arrived I asked if she wanted to go and she said, sure!

She got Lucy tacked up and I tried to hide how nervous I was. Lucy had gone out on the trails that day we found the lady stuck in the swamp, and I had hand-walked her out there a bit throughout her time off, but I was still worried that she would be spooky and stupid.

Amanda chose to ride in the Western saddle and as the three riders were heading out, I said, "heels down and have fun!" and then spent the entire time they were out on the trails cleaning frantically to keep my mind off of it!

Bottom line is that all three riders returned still in the saddle, horses looked sooo happy and relaxed, and Lucy was a "total superstar"!!! She led, she walked calmly on the buckle, she had happy ears, and she was so happy to be out in the woods again.

Plus, I ended up with a very clean barn! haha.

As much as I wanted to stuff the horse full of cookies for being so good, I realised that this could be my last chance to give her a bath until the Spring, so I was a mean person and bathed her. She was like, I was THAT good and this is the thanks I get?! but she tolerated it well. Then I let her graze for about an hour in the sunshine so she dried off before I turned her out in her (dirt) paddock with a huge pile of hay. She was a very happy horse!

In other news, Kenny surprised me this week with a gorgeous new camera, a Canon 6D, so expect some new and hopefully improved photos! Here's one of Lucy from the other day:

And one of Cairo:

further proof my life is a soap opera

My barn owner told me someone she knew really wanted some saddle time, so A came out on Saturday to meet Lucy and have a little hack around.

Everything went great so to cool off, I said, "Let's go on a walk on the trails!". We set out, and all was quiet. I wanted to show her the trail that leads to a big pond with a nice waterfall, some bridges to cross, and a boat ramp so the horses can walk into the water.

We got to the edge of the area where the pond starts, where it is pretty marshy but the water is about 20' from the trail, through a very thick area of brambles, poison ivy, and general ickyness. I would never, ever think to walk through there to get to the water, especially because if you just keep walking down the trail another few hundred feet, you'll find a nice open area with easy water access and no prickly plants.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I heard a very faint "help! help!" coming from the edge of the water in that marshy/prickly/gross part of the pond. A, who was riding, hopped off and I held Lucy while she investigated, because I had shorts on and I'm sorry, but there was no way I was trekking through that mess to figure out what the deal was. I know that's very bad with my EMT license and all, but yeah, waist-high prickly bushes + bare legs do not equal a happy Kate.

Plus A was dressed for the job in her tall boots and long pants, so she clambered through the thicket and discovered a few things:

-the lady was not dying, but was stuck
-alll those sirens we could hear fast approaching were for her
-the fire dept had no idea where she was other than a GPS location they got via the 911 digital system because SHE had no idea where she was
-she had wanted to get close to the water so she climbed through the prickly area (in SHORTS!) and then got stuck up to her knees in cement-like mud that was also very cold
-she had a dog with her who was very chilly
-she had been there for an hour

That was the basic gist of the situation, and realising that I wasn't being a whole lot of help just standing there with a tacked-up horse, I took Lucy to go meet the fire department and explain how to get back to where we were. Luckily for them, there is a cul-de-sac of houses that backs right up to that area of the trail, so they parked their rigs just about 50' away and had easy access to get the rescue equipment to the right spot. The firefighter who saw me walking toward them first said, "Uh oh, it's never a good sign when a riderless horse meets you at a 911 call." I said, "But this actually has nothing to do with the horse!" And we both agreed we were very glad that was the case.

After 45 minutes of removing prickly bushes and small trees with the chain saw, combined with laying plastic back boards out in a chain over the thick mud so that none of the firefighters got stuck in it, combined with pulling the lady out of the mud with a thick rope while wrangling the small dog, everyone was out of the mud/prickles and looking exhausted and very dirty.

Unfortunately at that point, neither A or I had any more time for a trail ride/walk, so we took Lucy back to the barn and both headed out. I had an engagement session to photograph and she had to go to work. Back to normal, I suppose!

Here is a quick shot I took of the scene. The firefighters are looking in the direction where the woman is stuck. Lucy was very patient for all of this and nibbled on grass while the rescue went down. Good girl, Lu.

outbreak

Having a broken horse is really starting to wear on me. The fall weather is beginning to peek through the heat and humidity, and all I want to do is put Lucy back to work. We had the best rides in the early fall and it kills me that she is just standing around doing nothing. Everyone at the barn has been out on the trails and having fun and I just feel sad about the whole thing. I am not sad that they're having fun, of course, but I am sad I can't be out there too!

I actually did get to go on a trail ride last week, on one of the other horses at the barn. I had a great time but wished that I were on Lucy :)

I am not used to chestnut ears pricked in front of me, but this horse was
nothing short of a complete gentleman the entire ride. He is a sweetheart.

I called the vet's office yesterday to ask about another ultrasound appt to check the healing progress in her back. The receptionist looked at the notes from the July 1 visit and said I'd probably be wasting my time and money at this point, because the vet didn't feel she'd be rideable before September or October. I felt very sorry for myself, honestly. If we're already going to be in October, then it will be getting cold fast after that. We all know Lu is not a cold weather horse. I guess I might as well wait until the Spring? Give her an extra six months just to be safe? I don't know.

When I arrived at the barn yesterday after having a sob fest about her state of brokenness, I cleaned Lucy's stall and then went out to her paddock. She usually comes over and says hi, but she stood there awkwardly. Finally she GIMPED over to me. I had to pick my jaw up off the ground. I checked her out and couldn't find anything wrong. No kicks from Brantley, no swelling or heat, no blood. Then I saw she was missing the shoe on her LF. I watched her move in her paddock a bit more and saw she was just ridiculously foot-sore on that left front. Ironically that foot still had the bell boot on it, but the other front foot did not have a bell boot, and DID have a shoe. Weird. At least it's better than a real injury. I hope my farrier can come out in the next day or two!

In other fun news, EHV-1 (Equine Herpes Virus, or Rhinopneumonitis) has been diagnosed in multiple horses at the same farm just 10 miles or so from where Lucy lives. It's a bit of an odd case. Here is a blurb from the email my vet sent out:

"Interesting features: 5 horses on the affected premises, 2 have remained normal, 2 have mild signs and hopefully will recover, 1 euthanized, none of the horses on the affected (index) premises have been vaccinated for years; none of the horses on the affected premises have left the farm for years; neighbor has three horses and are all clinically normal, all are vaccinated against EHV, and one has gone to events, but not since late June; horses from index premises broke fence last week and had fence line contact with neighbor's horses."

I'm not sure if a horse that has been vaccinated can be an a-symptomatic carrier, and one of the vaccinated horses gave the non-vaccinated horses EHV-1?

Lucy gets vaccinated for EHV-1 every year in late Spring. The vaccine is good for six months and my vet assured me that she would be covered through the fall. Still, this is pretty scary. I really appreciate that my vet's office was so proactive getting the word out to us all.

so this is what it's like to enjoy your horse

Another great ride on Lucy last night! My barn owner, P, and I went for a trail ride. Lucy was so good and we had a nice trot and canter in the field! On the way home, she was happy and relaxed. We even hopped over a little log and she cantered away happily. Then I found myself musing about upcoming schooling events, and I went home and applied for our Area 1 USEA Scholarship. Oh no, here we go again!

On the way back to the barn yesterday, we passed a couple walking whom we had also seen the day before, when she was acting insane. The girl commented, "better today?" and P laughed because I had just finished telling her what a nutter Lucy had been the day before! I said, "see, I wasn't lying!".

Lucy got her first dose of Doxy last night to treat the Lyme, and she gobbled it right up with her dinner. She gets one scoop twice a day, so she'll get it with her breakfast and dinner. Whenever she's on any kind of antibiotic, I also give her probiotics to prevent any digestive issues.

best view

The temperatures fell and we went from 80 degrees to low 50's, and tomorrow we'll be back in the 40's, so she'll probably be WILD again.

Change of Scenery

We've been in pretty serious work mode lately but the weather over the past few days has been so beautiful that I could not resist a trail ride -- or two!

always ready for an adventure!

Kenny comes for a visit on his motorcycle...yes, it was that gorgeous out.

Yesterday it was almost 60 degrees and I decided it was as good a time as any to try a trail ride with Cairo, which we haven't done since late October of last year. It was kind of nervewracking because Cairo had been cooped up in the house due to the rain earlier in the week, and Kenny and I both worked a lot this week. So she was nuts, and Lucy of course was her usual perky self. Did I think to lunge her beforehand? Of course not.

Shortly after we got into the woods, a kid was playing basketball at the end of one of the residential streets that connects to the trails we use. I let Lucy stand and have a good long look at the basketball so she could see the movement and hear the noise. The kid was getting nice consistent baskets but of course (OF COURSE!) as soon as we started to actually walk past her, she threw the basketball and it hit the board behind the hoop with a loud metallic noise that scared the crap out of poor Lucy. At that very second, a jogger was trying to run past us on the trail, so that made things a bit worse. And Cairo thought this was all a very fun game and got so excited that she ran in circles, scooting around with a huge grin on her face.

As this all went down I sat up there in the saddle saying, "woah girl, woah...WOAH!" and bless her heart, Lucy held it together even after a few lofty maneuvers and no one died, not even the jogger.

And that was all within the first five minutes!!

As the ride went on, Lucy stopped prancing everywhere, Cairo stopped scooting around through the leaves like a deer on crack, and I stopped thinking I was going to eat dirt every two minutes. The last 20 minutes or so was very enjoyable and both girls had a nice time.

Cairo says, can you hurry it up? Lucy says, I'm trying!!!
Kate says, that's enough out of both of you!

Right before we arrived back at the barn, Lucy was doing her rude "I want to go faster and you're holding me back" head tossing and she managed to get the lunge line, aka the Equine Oh Shit Handle, up over her head and between her ears. She is just about the most ear-shy horse I have ever met and of course this sent her into a panic and she tried to run backward away from the lunge line. Unfortunately for her, it was stuck on her head so this was another time where I was sitting up there trying to calmly tell her to woah, not run the dog over, or fall off the little incline on either side of the trail, or get tossed. Once again, though, she panicked for a few seconds and then stood like a statue so I could reach forward and flip the lunge line off the side of her head.

Bottom line is that "woah" is a very handy tool to install on your horse.

once back at the barn, I tortured her a bit. she was not concerned about the rope on her ears.
good girl!

soaking up the warm sunshine and looking beautiful

Today I worked from home and on my lunch break, Maddy and I went for a little trail ride. After yesterday's glorious warmth and sun, today was a hard pill to swallow: 35 and windy....brrrr! Lucy did very well, though, and we had a lovely trek through the woods.

Back to "real" work tomorrow, both for me in the office and for Lucy in the ring!

snow, and more snow, and more snow, and finally power

We finally got power back this afternoon, after two very cold sub-freezing nights. Last night it was 9 degrees outside and 40 degrees in the house. Yeah, not a great time at all. We had the wood stove going but with no power to run the fan through it, the stove wasn't doing much to heat more than the living room area. We blew up an air mattress using an inverter plugged into Kenny's truck and slept on that in the living room as close as we could safely get to the wood stove. We both had multiple sweatshirts on, two layers of pants, a few pairs of socks, and Cairo had her fleece jacket on and slept buried under the covers with us.

Saturday morning...my car is buried on the left and Kenny's Silverado
(i.e. not a small vehicle!) looks shrimpy on the right

The truck had no problem!

9am on Saturday, no plows in sight. Some roads still aren't plowed.

finally I made it to the barn and the driveway hadn't been plowed. One of the
trees had lost a few big branches that were blocking the driveway. Kenny and
I returned later with a chain saw and moved the branches out of the way
so that the plow could get through.

all the horses were happy to be out once I finally got them out there!

Lucy also had a branch come down in her paddock but the fencing was not compromised at all, and I didn't want to leave them all in just because she had this branch in her paddock. I decided to turn her out and just watch her for a little while to make sure she wasn't going to be stupid with the branch there, and she was fine.

Each morning I was actually excited to get out of bed and get moving, so I could warm up. I did a whole lot of shoveling this weekend! I even dug my elderly neighbour out this morning so I could feel warmer. Kenny and I went driving around in the truck to get the heaters on us. We went to Maddy's house this morning to take a hot shower, which made me feel so much more human. Then we went home and puttered around and then all of a sudden, the power came back on! We had a little dance party.

I had wanted to ride yesterday but by the time I got done shoveling the cars out, clearing the snow from the house, getting to the barn (when there was still a driving ban, by the way), shoveling the barn out,  cutting down the tree blocking the driveway, getting the horses out, and doing the stalls, I was exhausted. I was way too tired to ride, anyway. All of the other rough boarders were snowed in but I didn't mind helping them out. We all pitch in and help each other when we can. That is what makes a rough board barn work!

Today, though, Maddy and I finally got out and enjoyed ourselves! We did a bit of work at the barn and then tacked up and ventured out onto the trails. Lucy was very, very spooky. Lots of snow was falling off the trees and making loud SPLAT noises in the woods, which she did not like at all. I sat several pretty big spooks and went right over her left shoulder when she pulled a quick and dirty spook and spin.

BUT...

I was using the rope halter/longe line set up again today, and it worked PERFECTLY! I executed the most textbook tuck and roll, dropped the reins mid-air, landed lightly in the 2.5 feet of fluffy white snow as Lucy flew backwards for a stride or so, she stopped immediately when she felt the rope halter, and I got up and yelled happily, IT WORKED! Then I asked her to come back to me, which she did happily, and I let her know she was a really good girl.

LOL.

Then Maddy and I cheered and I was absolutely thrilled.

Ahhh we are so weird.

I wasn't hurt at all and after bushwhacking through some trees to find a good spot to get back on, I was back in the saddle and off we went. Kenny met us in the woods (the trail runs right past my road so he just walked to the end of the road and met us out there) and took some photos, then came back to the barn with us to get some more pictures. So, a huge thanks goes out to him for taking lots of wonderful photos today for us.

she did get a bit excited at times. this was one of them, and she ping-ponged
back and forth across the trail, so excited but not really sure where to go.

forward is always better than ping-ponging, even if she makes nasty faces

back at the barn, in the outdoor ring

this is what it's all about :)

silly moment

and one of Pretty and Maddy - I will leave her to share the rest of her photos
on her blog! :) - click here if you don't already have the link.

The Couch of Death

Maddy and I went on another trail ride today.

Let me pause to recognize a growing trend: newfound confidence on trails = NO MORE RING WORK. Both Lucy and I are happy with this change.

Ok, back to the story.

So we were out traipsing around the woods when we came across a couch. On the side of the trail. In the woods. In the middle of winter. In New England.

Um, weird.

This couch has been there for a month or two but this was the first time Lucy and the roly poly Arab Pretty had seen it. Both horses were beside themselves with fear and each exhibited not-fun reactions, like blowing up backwards, spooking repeatedly, snorting, and generally acting like asses about it.

(For the record, the first time Cairo and I walked past it on a hike, she was like, Huh, there's a couch. Carry on!)

Neither of us could get our horses up close to this thing so Maddy hopped off and lead Pretty up to the couch.

After a minute or so, Pretty seemed to accept the couch so I tried to get Lucy to walk up to it. She carried on being an ass so I also hopped off and lead her up to it. She really, really did not want to get close to this couch but I persuaded her that it wasn't bad, and this is how I did it:



Classy!

Then I put a cookie on the couch and made her eat the cookie off the couch. Obviously, a cookie dispensing couch can't be all THAT evil.

"right there! do you see it?"

after much deliberation, she ate the cookie

This was a day none of us will forget!

solo trail ride

Work has been downright insane lately. These last two weeks have kept me going at such a rate of speed that I don't even have time for lunch some days. Today after work all I wanted to do was go on a trail ride and forget about all the stuff I need to accomplish at work before Friday! I didn't think I'd actually be able to get out on the trails, especially solo, but tacked Lucy up and tried to be optimistic.

Wouldn't you know, that horse was quiet as a mouse on the lunge line, and warmed up great in the ring, so I said why the hell not. Off we went into the wilderness all by ourselves, no roly poly Arab to accompany us ;) Lucy was such a good girl. She spooked a few times, but they were the "pat the ground" spooks, not the big bolting blind panic spooks. I played it as safe as I could and left her rope halter on under her bridle, and attached a 21' lunge line to the halter. I held the looped-up lunge line in my left hand during the whole ride. My plan if I fell off was to let go of the reins but hold the lunge lune, which would give her some space to do her thing if she needed to, but the halter would give me some leverage to hold on so she couldn't run.

Amazing how my way of thinking has developed...it was an unfortunate necessity after November's disaster.

Out on the trails, we passed a young man riding a bike. Lucy gave the whole situation the hairy eyeball, as if she had never seen a guy on a bike before. This man was so nice and considerate, though. He stopped his bicycle, got off, and gave me right of way on the trail so that I could get the horse by him without anyone getting killed. He was so kind. Believe it or not, a lot of people would just keep on trucking by without realizing or caring that they were putting everyone involved in danger. I thanked the man and Lucy even let him pet her.

Today's ride was VASTLY different from last night's ride because last night:

-I rode in the indoor
-I rode BAREBACK
-I almost got bucked off like 50 times
-the first few attempts at a canter were borderline disastrous
-as soon as she pulled the first nanosecond of a dirty move, she got her head whipped around and found her nose squished up against the side of the indoor. when you've got no saddle or stirrups to hold you on the horse, there really is no room for playing nice!

Anyway, it wasn't pretty at first, but I got her to cooperate enough to do a nice little polite canter in both directions and then I cooled her out and got out of there so fast it wasn't even funny ;)