Today is the day

June 1 has arrived, despite my wishes for it not to. Today is the day Lucy is going to her new home with the trainer who will be selling her. I have been super busy getting everything ready, washing all her sheets/blankets/boots, cleaning her tack, organizing my other things, etc. Today I went to the barn bright and early and cleaned her stall, then swept the bedding back and limed the mats. I cleaned her paddock, even though she's turned out in it today and so I'll need to clean it again tonight...but at least I got the bulk of it done. Then I groomed her until she was gleaming, and I pulled her mane. I've got the blisters to prove it! But she looks incredible and I'm happy that everything is clean and ready to go.

I got to ride quite a bit this week and I am grateful to have made those happy memories before she leaves. Natalie, Comic's owner, and I went on a long trail ride a few nights ago and Lucy was a dream to ride. We also jumped everything in the XC area and had a little jump school in the ring. She was excellent for the XC jumps but really kind of a terror for the jumps in the ring. They were tiny because I didn't want to do anything too risky since she was scheduled to be leaving, and I think she just did not take anything seriously. She was very strong and a bit rude...sigh.

Here are some pictures from the past week. I'll update after we move her today. I hope she gets on the trailer and behaves herself!

This was an awesome tight bending line from this x-rail to a vertical with about
five strides between them. She aced it!

Kenny took these beautiful photos for me. The light was exquisite.

I love the halo of light around her ears in this photo

first training session

Last night was Lucy's first training session with Morgan. Morgan has a strong eventing and dressage background and was happy to answer alllll of my questions, and I had a lot of questions! She came highly recommended by a few people who said she was great with TB's. I got a positive vibe from her and was very excited to meet her. Work crawled by at a painfully slow rate yesterday as I waited for freedom so I could get to the barn.

I had planned out my day to give me enough time to groom Lucy to perfection, tack her up, and lunge her to get her nice and warmed up prior to Morgan's arrival. As usual, Lucy made my day a little more interesting, this time by throwing a hind shoe sometime during the afternoon. She just had her feet done on Thursday, too.

I was beside myself when I discovered her missing a shoe just 45 minutes before our appointment and was all ready to call Morgan and cancel. However, someone was looking out for me today because a farrier was over at the other side of the barn shoeing some of the other boarders' horses! I quickly went over, introduced myself, and then politely begged him to tack the shoe back on. 20 minutes and $20 later, the shoe was tacked on and Lucy was ready to go! I brushed her quickly and tacked up just as Morgan arrived. PHEW!

The ride itself went pretty well. I wanted  Lucy to behave herself and at the same time, I needed her to show Morgan what her issues were. She did a bit of both, first acting quite innocent and charming and then getting a bit frisky when things didn't go her way. Morgan sure has her work cut out for her but I really appreciated the way she rode and handled Lucy's stunts, and I asked her to come back for round 2 next week!

Here are some photos, posted with Morgan's permission:

Lucy ended up having to reach pretty deeply into her bag of
avoidance tactics. She tried kicking out, tossing her head, poking her nose
out, poking her nose to the side, bucking, kicking out, hopping around...

Morgan handled it all fairly and gracefully

And eventually, Lucy gave up and just behaved herself.

We talked about what I can work on over the next seven days, and how to handle Lucy when she is bad. Morgan talked me through her thought process and what she was doing with her aids as she rode, which was very helpful.

Morgan did not feel that Lucy was being bad as a result of an injury or unsoundness. Rather, she felt it was most likely a result of her being unbalanced and tight through her body, combined with a big attitude and a preference for doing things *her* way. While I am not opposed to having my vet look at Lucy just to be safe, I don't think I will have them out before Lucy gets her Spring shots in April unless there is a change and of course I will keep an eye on her.

trainer shopping

I posted on a local bulletin board looking for trainer recommendations, and soon my email inbox was overflowing with them. The list included cowboys, eventing trainers, dressage trainers, and hunter trainers.

I've lived in Rhode Island since 2004 and I have a good idea of who's who in the horse community here, but what scared me was not knowing most of the people recommended to me. I started feeling overwhelmed...I mean, how do you pick the right trainer?

I decided to come up with a list of things I was looking for in a trainer:

-Must have worked with/retrained OTTB's in the past
-Must be willing to ride the horse, not just teach me
-Has to be firm but gentle
-I'd like them to be more about the riding than the groundwork, though I do appreciate the value of good groundwork
-My barn owner requires that any trainer be insured
-I don't want to be paying more in travel fees than I am for the training session so I'd prefer someone who is close-ish

After I had narrowed down the list a bit, I emailed a few trainers and explained the situation with Lucy. I included the problems I was having with her, and my short and long term goals. I asked whether they thought they could help, and what their rates were (including travel). I also requested videos of them working with horses, and that's where I'm at now!

Yesterday I had a pretty decent ride, with zero tantrums from Lucy. I thought back to some of the lessons I had taken on her in the past, and one trainer always said to add leg every time I wanted to pull. Yesterday I said a little prayer and added leg every time she got fast. I kept my contact through the bridle light and steady, and asked her to move up into it, instead of trying to run through it. This worked very well and we had a lovely trot in both directions, and then she offered up a little canter to the right and was very good! She still felt quick and rigid, but not as bad as the day we took that video, and there were a few moments where she carried her own front end instead of me having to hold it up. This all made me feel encouraged and happy, though I will still enlist the help of a trainer to make sure these "good" rides keep happening!

when bad horses get expensive presents

After last weekend's excessively fun rides, I went and spent a lot of money on a beautiful brand new heavy weight Weatherbeeta Freestyle blanket, complete with the detachable neck. I ordered it through my local Dover store because surprisingly, they had the best price on it, but they had to ship it from their warehouse so it did not get here until this weekend. As I was standing at the counter in Dover, signing the credit card receipt, I thought "my horse is so good, she deserves it!"

Ha. HAHAHAHA.

Wouldn't you know, she was a complete and unholy TERROR this week. She had the first part of the week off because I was dealing with some personal stuff (a friend passed away Sunday night) and on Wednesday I went out there and lunged her first, and then rode. Kenny wanted to ride her but I wanted to get on first to make sure she had a brain, which she did not. I did the best I could but here is some video to give you an idea of what I was working with:





The idea of going from one jump right to the next was to make her think about what's coming up, instead of thinking about throwing a fit. It worked very well.

On Thursday night, I went to work with her again, this time keeping it to ground work. She was outlandishly bad right from the start, at one point rearing straight up in the air. She had the full 21' of lunge line at the time, but as soon as I got her back down to earth I took away most of the length of the line, so she only had about 10' to work with. Gradually she stopped breathing fire and started to listen, and then I felt comfortable giving her more line. By the end of it she was cantering softly around in both directions, and then we did some work disengaging the hind quarters, backing up with her head low, and some stretches. That evening, I got a call to tell me the new blanket was in, so I picked up this lovely new blanket and gave it to a horse that I really did not like very much at the moment! Spoiled mare.

Last night I tried riding again and while she was not quite as bad as she was on Wednesday under saddle, she was still pretty fired up.

So today I sent out some emails to local trainers to see if I could find someone to come and help me out a bit. I feel like I am at the end of my rope, both in ability and patience. I do think that this week, she was a gigantic cow. We'll see if I get any replies. I really hope to figure out how to do a better job with her.

Today I went and picked up a big load of hay with Maddy and Kenny, and that is probably the last present Lucy will get for a while, or at least until she starts behaving herself again.

Here are some photos of Lucy modeling her new blanket:

Restructuring

Lucy's had an easy week and I have been a bit quiet because there has been some major drama, which resulted in some large changes at the barn where I keep Lucy. I was given the option to leave with a large group but at the last second chose to stay. Lucy is happy where she is and so am I, and the barn has everything I ever wanted in a barn and is very convenient for me to get to. The future may hold some changes for Lucy and I but for now we will stay put.

The biggest change is that G is no longer around, and I am now trainerless. This sucks because I was really looking forward to having more lessons from her, especially now that the canter is coming along. I guess I need to consider finding a new trainer, which I am not looking forward to...sigh.

Since I was part of the now defunct co-op, I'm having to go out every day and clean her stall, but I kind of like being in charge of everything. I also increased her hay to two flakes in the AM and four at night, with one flake for lunch. Hopefully she'll fill out over the last sets of ribs, towards her hind end, where hay really counts more than grain for weight.

I noticed a hard, small lump on her right front leg, just below the front of the knee in the middle of her leg. It's cold, there's no swelling or heat, and she doesn't react to me poking and prodding so I am going to leave it alone for now. She's completely sound (phew!) and has no problem playing like any normal 3yo in the indoor. I have no idea what this would be...she may have whacked herself on something but there is no tenderness or swelling, so I don't think that's the case. It's not the right place for a splint to be an issue. Any other ideas?

In the coming week I am hoping that things will be much more low-key! Lucy has a chiro appt on Tuesday first thing in the morning. I suspect a lot of the issues that were addressed during her first chiro appt are starting to reappear, especially in the hind end, so hopefully with a second treatment she will be feeling great again.

Along with horse drama, I also found out that my car is completely toast so next week I guess I get to go car shopping...delightful. I really hate car shopping, especially when it's not my idea! Silly car. So this has been a long and very stressful week for me.