This is my last post.
Radar is fit and raring to go hunting, this Saturday if the weather allows.
Ace is on an upward path to full recovery from his back problems.
In the last two weeks, I have lost most of the pleasure that I used to get out of sharing the life of my horses with people who I do not know in person.
It's time to give it up, and restrict my sharing to people who actually know me, and my boys.
Thank you to everyone who has ever posted ideas and support. Thank you especially to Jean, whose comments were on many days the only thing that let me know that I was not posting into thin air.
Bye folks.
C
Monday, 2 December 2013
Saturday, 30 November 2013
Just perfect timing :-)
The timing of our first trip away from home could not have been more perfect. It has radically increased both Ace's confidence and my own. He even appears to be saying to Radar - nerr, I don't need you to lean on ALL the time you know!
For me, it has confirmed that his really explosive reaction to uncertainty has massively reduced, and that we are more likely to get a shrug than a buck. And that's alowing me to ride him much more positively too.
So this morning he was just perfect. A quick warm under the lights while he ate breakfast and a minutes lunging before I got on. He stood like a rock, and warmed up long and loose in walk, trot and canter all in the first five minutes. His walk was long and free immediately from the off, which is new and really pleasing. So is the drastic reduction in time before he's happy to have the reins picked up and do some real work.
After warming up the trot and canter, he then did a wonderful session of figures of eight in trot without changing the contact through the change of bend. Followed by figures of eight in trot with change through walk and a really forward up transition. Then trot shoulder in, (with a bounce that I have never felt before with such obvious forward three track work), with lengthening again on alternate sides of the arena. Then trot with proper lengthening on each side of the arena, which ended with him begging to be allowed to do it again :-) And finally walk to canter and some 'Ace personal best' canter to walk with the transition coming almost entirely from my seat. He was foot perfect, quiet, unspooky, responsive and every other great adjective under the sun you'd like to use.
And in case that sounds like too much work for a horse in rehab, the entire session including the warmup was less than 30 minutes, he just did everything well almost immediately.
I am now angry that I allowed myself to be made to doubt what I was doing, and by a person who had only ever seen Ace when he was a sick horse as well. But doubt myself I did, which put together with the fact that I set my own rehab program made for a few tough days of feeling like 'the world' was reading my blog just waiting for me to fail.
I defy anyone to have seen the happy horse enjoying his work this morning and tell me that he needs a firmer hand or a more confident rider. I intend to continue to listen to him, since there doesn't appear to be a dishonest or lazy bone in his body. In fact my biggest issue schooling is that once he has done something once, or twice at most, he knows what's required and offers it before it's wanted. It's a great 'problem' to have :-) !!
C
For me, it has confirmed that his really explosive reaction to uncertainty has massively reduced, and that we are more likely to get a shrug than a buck. And that's alowing me to ride him much more positively too.
So this morning he was just perfect. A quick warm under the lights while he ate breakfast and a minutes lunging before I got on. He stood like a rock, and warmed up long and loose in walk, trot and canter all in the first five minutes. His walk was long and free immediately from the off, which is new and really pleasing. So is the drastic reduction in time before he's happy to have the reins picked up and do some real work.
After warming up the trot and canter, he then did a wonderful session of figures of eight in trot without changing the contact through the change of bend. Followed by figures of eight in trot with change through walk and a really forward up transition. Then trot shoulder in, (with a bounce that I have never felt before with such obvious forward three track work), with lengthening again on alternate sides of the arena. Then trot with proper lengthening on each side of the arena, which ended with him begging to be allowed to do it again :-) And finally walk to canter and some 'Ace personal best' canter to walk with the transition coming almost entirely from my seat. He was foot perfect, quiet, unspooky, responsive and every other great adjective under the sun you'd like to use.
And in case that sounds like too much work for a horse in rehab, the entire session including the warmup was less than 30 minutes, he just did everything well almost immediately.
I am now angry that I allowed myself to be made to doubt what I was doing, and by a person who had only ever seen Ace when he was a sick horse as well. But doubt myself I did, which put together with the fact that I set my own rehab program made for a few tough days of feeling like 'the world' was reading my blog just waiting for me to fail.
I defy anyone to have seen the happy horse enjoying his work this morning and tell me that he needs a firmer hand or a more confident rider. I intend to continue to listen to him, since there doesn't appear to be a dishonest or lazy bone in his body. In fact my biggest issue schooling is that once he has done something once, or twice at most, he knows what's required and offers it before it's wanted. It's a great 'problem' to have :-) !!
C
Thursday, 28 November 2013
Ace hasn't read the book
Ace hasn't read the book. Either that, or he read it at four and then spent three years with things hurting every time he tried to do what it said, so now he doesn't believe the book any more. I'm talking about the book that says that all young or unsure horses must be ridden firmly at a particular speed in a partcular direction.
I got on in the middle of the yard and picked up the reins on the buckle, or at least where the buckle would be if they weren't plastic reins without a buckle :-) He walked up the yard, out of the gate and refused to turn left and go down the hill, instead he turned right (which is a very unusual manoeuvre for him) and tried to go up the hill. I turned him back but he would not go home, he tried to turn again and carry on the hack.
What at eye-opener that was! It's not that he doesn't like hacking at all, it's that he doesn't want to go down the hill. The reason for that needs a little more exploration, but there is no way that I would have known it unless I had allowed him to express an opinion and listened to it when he spoke.
I got off and walked him down the hill to watch and see if he had any physical difficulty with it. He didn't appear to. I got on from a bank at the bottom, again took the non-existent buckle in my hand, and off we went for a lovely and completely spook free hack, with a slow stride but a completely free and swinging back. I even had to stop him and turn him to come home again.
He's not confident, he's cautious, but he's a hell of a lot more confident than when I pick up the reins and try to force him to increase the pace. That just raises his fear of pain to levels that he can't tolerate and he tries to go home. Leave him to take the time he needs to assure himself that nothing is hurting, and all the problems disappear.
This, for me, is what riding is all about. It's not about what books say. It's not even always about what knowledgeable people who actually know the horse say. It's about knowing when you need to listen to the horse and when it's just having you on. It's about when things were working and then stop working, going back to what you were doing when they were working and trying to figure out what went wrong.
Ace doesn't have a nasty bone in his body. He's the most forgiving creature I've ever come across. Twice this year alone I have taken the pain away from him only to 'betray' him and let it come back again. Once with the injections and again with the bute. Why should he trust me this time? I know at least two horses with no physical reason for their refusal to be ridden after kissing spines operations. I am so, so lucky that Ace forgave me a third time. What a lovely, lovely boy he is.
I don't doubt that it's going to take a long, long time to despook him in a dressage arena, if it's even possible. And do you know what? I don't care if it isn't possible. If he never believes that an arena can be pain free, I can completely understand where he's coming from. I'll just have fun training him at home and thank my lucky stars to ride such a talented horse on my fabulous arena.
:-)
C
I got on in the middle of the yard and picked up the reins on the buckle, or at least where the buckle would be if they weren't plastic reins without a buckle :-) He walked up the yard, out of the gate and refused to turn left and go down the hill, instead he turned right (which is a very unusual manoeuvre for him) and tried to go up the hill. I turned him back but he would not go home, he tried to turn again and carry on the hack.
What at eye-opener that was! It's not that he doesn't like hacking at all, it's that he doesn't want to go down the hill. The reason for that needs a little more exploration, but there is no way that I would have known it unless I had allowed him to express an opinion and listened to it when he spoke.
I got off and walked him down the hill to watch and see if he had any physical difficulty with it. He didn't appear to. I got on from a bank at the bottom, again took the non-existent buckle in my hand, and off we went for a lovely and completely spook free hack, with a slow stride but a completely free and swinging back. I even had to stop him and turn him to come home again.
He's not confident, he's cautious, but he's a hell of a lot more confident than when I pick up the reins and try to force him to increase the pace. That just raises his fear of pain to levels that he can't tolerate and he tries to go home. Leave him to take the time he needs to assure himself that nothing is hurting, and all the problems disappear.
This, for me, is what riding is all about. It's not about what books say. It's not even always about what knowledgeable people who actually know the horse say. It's about knowing when you need to listen to the horse and when it's just having you on. It's about when things were working and then stop working, going back to what you were doing when they were working and trying to figure out what went wrong.
Ace doesn't have a nasty bone in his body. He's the most forgiving creature I've ever come across. Twice this year alone I have taken the pain away from him only to 'betray' him and let it come back again. Once with the injections and again with the bute. Why should he trust me this time? I know at least two horses with no physical reason for their refusal to be ridden after kissing spines operations. I am so, so lucky that Ace forgave me a third time. What a lovely, lovely boy he is.
I don't doubt that it's going to take a long, long time to despook him in a dressage arena, if it's even possible. And do you know what? I don't care if it isn't possible. If he never believes that an arena can be pain free, I can completely understand where he's coming from. I'll just have fun training him at home and thank my lucky stars to ride such a talented horse on my fabulous arena.
:-)
C
Wednesday, 27 November 2013
Milestone; first lesson.
Don't get excited, I've not been yet. It's this afternoon. I'm just posting to share how excited and anxious I am to see how it goes. I won't be working him very hard, but it's our first time away from home, and in a spooky arena that he knows from before and may have some association with pain. A lot feels as if it's hanging on what happens this afternoon. First I'll be schooling Radar this morning, so check back later! About six should do it.
I'm ba-ack!
Well that went better than it might have done. Ace was spooky, but it is an extremely spooky arena with stuff stored behind wire fences, no walls, just a roof and fencing, big mirrors and windows of an office and a bungalow looking directly onto the arena. But he never felt explosive like he always used to when he was at that arena, he just looked, swerved a bit, and carried on.
He did some of his best trot yet, and we even cantered one transition on each rein to finish. I'm chuffed to bits with his progress. He's let me push him to do stuff that he wasn't mentally comfortable with without exploding. He found them physically easy, and then relaxed. He's kept his cool even though it has clearly tired him out mentally to be away from home and asked to work in a strange place.
Here is a minute of video of his most settled trot, to show you how well he is doing. The tail flick he does now is so much reduced in power and so comparatively infrequent, it was clearly a sign of pain all along. And look how straight he is, especially in that right (left as you look at it) front leg. At the moment I am still focussing on keeping him swinging through the back, so no comments on the slow tempo please, it's exactly where he and I want it.
http://youtu.be/X56TvL8yOB0
The bad news is that I haven't found a new trainer. I wasn't happy about a number of things, but taking a non urgent phone call in the middle of 45 minutes that I was paying 50 quid for was the last straw. With the arena hire, because she won't travel to me, it cost me 65 pounds didn't feel like value for money.
We are going to hire the arena a few times over the next three months, because the spooky environment is good for him, and continue the search for a trainer on our wavelength. I think we may end up travelling to Sonia again at this rate, I just can't find anyone who compares.
C
I'm ba-ack!
Well that went better than it might have done. Ace was spooky, but it is an extremely spooky arena with stuff stored behind wire fences, no walls, just a roof and fencing, big mirrors and windows of an office and a bungalow looking directly onto the arena. But he never felt explosive like he always used to when he was at that arena, he just looked, swerved a bit, and carried on.
He did some of his best trot yet, and we even cantered one transition on each rein to finish. I'm chuffed to bits with his progress. He's let me push him to do stuff that he wasn't mentally comfortable with without exploding. He found them physically easy, and then relaxed. He's kept his cool even though it has clearly tired him out mentally to be away from home and asked to work in a strange place.
Here is a minute of video of his most settled trot, to show you how well he is doing. The tail flick he does now is so much reduced in power and so comparatively infrequent, it was clearly a sign of pain all along. And look how straight he is, especially in that right (left as you look at it) front leg. At the moment I am still focussing on keeping him swinging through the back, so no comments on the slow tempo please, it's exactly where he and I want it.
http://youtu.be/X56TvL8yOB0
The bad news is that I haven't found a new trainer. I wasn't happy about a number of things, but taking a non urgent phone call in the middle of 45 minutes that I was paying 50 quid for was the last straw. With the arena hire, because she won't travel to me, it cost me 65 pounds didn't feel like value for money.
We are going to hire the arena a few times over the next three months, because the spooky environment is good for him, and continue the search for a trainer on our wavelength. I think we may end up travelling to Sonia again at this rate, I just can't find anyone who compares.
C
Monday, 25 November 2013
An interesting test
I was riding along this morning in the lovely winter sunshine on a day with no wind, through marvellous countryside that people pay to come on holiday to, on a fabuloous horse, upto have breakfast with a wonderful friend. How much better does life get than that?
I did an interesting experiment with Ace yesterday. I normally stick him under the lights for a few minutes just to settle his mind that his back won't hurt, and I use his comfort blanket., Last night, it was very cold and damp, and I rode him indoors when it was pitch black outside for the first time, with the lights casting a lot of shadow. I didn;t warm him under the lights or put on his comfort blanket.
He was much more tense than the last two times I have ridden him inside. I could feel his suspicion that things would hurt, though I could also feel from his back that they weren't going to. He walked and trotted nicely, and did a couple of walk/canter/walk up the straight side. But when I asked him to canter across the diagonal to do the canter/walk in the middle instead, he bucked and then hopped up and down. It wasn't serious and it was easy enough to sit, and then he stopped and took a deep breath and apologised :-) I carried on in walk for a few minutes, repeated a walk/canter/walk up the long side on each rein and then stopped.
I've been concerned about reoorts from someone who is rehabbing a horse at exactly the same stage as me, and the horse is very unhappy now trot has been introduced. That person also ignored her rehab instructions, and although the horse has more issues than Ace, it is unsettling to hear of one where it isn't going well.
So I was keen to ride Ace out on the arena today and make sure last night was simply because of missing his mental safety net out. I put him under the lights for five minutes while I untacked Radar, and I lunged him for one or two minutes in each direction. I do th is to check the walk overtrack, because if his back is stiff he loses it. And to see that he is not feeling too frisky!
I got on, and realised my girth was not tight, so I did it up on board for the first time since he has been back in work. We walked, we trotted and we cantered and he was absolutely beautiful He started a spook at the shadow of the top of my head appearing on the bank of the arena (it's bare rock and pops up by his side). But he stopped as soon as he started, realising there was nothing to be afraid of.
He takes three walk to trot transitions before he really trusts that he can push forward into the trot, but I've lost all my fear of that transition and just send him on into it until he releases his true movement.
We are now cantering two 30 m circles very happily, still in a low outline but swinging nicely. His tail is rarely flashing and his contact is more consistent than it has been for a long , long time
I couldn't be more pleased with his progress. Checking up the rehab prgram, we will apparently be allowed to canter two weeks tomorrow. Can't wait :-) !!
C
I did an interesting experiment with Ace yesterday. I normally stick him under the lights for a few minutes just to settle his mind that his back won't hurt, and I use his comfort blanket., Last night, it was very cold and damp, and I rode him indoors when it was pitch black outside for the first time, with the lights casting a lot of shadow. I didn;t warm him under the lights or put on his comfort blanket.
He was much more tense than the last two times I have ridden him inside. I could feel his suspicion that things would hurt, though I could also feel from his back that they weren't going to. He walked and trotted nicely, and did a couple of walk/canter/walk up the straight side. But when I asked him to canter across the diagonal to do the canter/walk in the middle instead, he bucked and then hopped up and down. It wasn't serious and it was easy enough to sit, and then he stopped and took a deep breath and apologised :-) I carried on in walk for a few minutes, repeated a walk/canter/walk up the long side on each rein and then stopped.
I've been concerned about reoorts from someone who is rehabbing a horse at exactly the same stage as me, and the horse is very unhappy now trot has been introduced. That person also ignored her rehab instructions, and although the horse has more issues than Ace, it is unsettling to hear of one where it isn't going well.
So I was keen to ride Ace out on the arena today and make sure last night was simply because of missing his mental safety net out. I put him under the lights for five minutes while I untacked Radar, and I lunged him for one or two minutes in each direction. I do th is to check the walk overtrack, because if his back is stiff he loses it. And to see that he is not feeling too frisky!
I got on, and realised my girth was not tight, so I did it up on board for the first time since he has been back in work. We walked, we trotted and we cantered and he was absolutely beautiful He started a spook at the shadow of the top of my head appearing on the bank of the arena (it's bare rock and pops up by his side). But he stopped as soon as he started, realising there was nothing to be afraid of.
He takes three walk to trot transitions before he really trusts that he can push forward into the trot, but I've lost all my fear of that transition and just send him on into it until he releases his true movement.
We are now cantering two 30 m circles very happily, still in a low outline but swinging nicely. His tail is rarely flashing and his contact is more consistent than it has been for a long , long time
I couldn't be more pleased with his progress. Checking up the rehab prgram, we will apparently be allowed to canter two weeks tomorrow. Can't wait :-) !!
C
Sunday, 24 November 2013
One for the foot geeks.
This is the hole in Radar's sole. It is around about an inch wide, and the black hole at the bottom forms a perfect tube which penetrates right through a centimetre of sole, to an empty void underneath. He did himself a lot of damage with whatever he trod on, and I am exceptionally lucky that he caught it at the edge of his toe, where it didn't come into contact with the pedal bone. We were about an inch away from quite possibly losing him altogether. At the moment, I flush the hole daily with hydrogen peroxide and plug it with half a cotton wool ball. When I am absolutely certain that there can't possibly be any chance of an infection rebuilding, I have some Red Horse paste that a friend has given me to plug it with. It looks a lot more frightening in real life, I must say, because in the photo you can't see the depth of it.
And this tells an interesting story. These ripples occur on only one side of one of Radar's feet, the left hind. It's a foot that he has always grown an extension on the side of. In the early days of barefoot we were taught to take these off. Since then, we realised that for many horses they are diet related, and you need to fix the diet not rasp the hoof wall thin. And for others, like Radar, they are a structural response to a limb which is not perfectly straight.
The more I school Radar, the less of a flange he has on this foot. The lower ripple is when he came back into a lot more work after his summer break to get fit. The higher one was my mistake! I got too handy with the rasp one day, thinking that the flange was going to go anyway, I rasped it off and made his foot look pretty. His response was to put it back double quick, and produce the second ripple. I won't be making that mistake again.
C
Saturday, 23 November 2013
Well would you believe it!?!?!?
That Radar chose today, a wonderful day weatherwise for hunting, to stonk across a rubble car park without the slightest sign of any pain! Toad!!!! It was a meet so close to home, too :-( Oh well, better safe than sorry I guess ...
But you'd believe it, wouldn't you - cos that's horses for you :-)
You won't believe the next bit though. I have been mulling over why Ace was happy to hack when he started his rehab and isn't now. Two things have changed. The first is that I was hacking every other day and now I am doing one in three. I don't think that would have made this much difference.
The second is that I started by letting him go along with his nose on the floor and a stretched back and completely unrestrained, just to make sure he was pain free. And now I have picked him up and I am telling him to move faster and do things my way.
So today, just for the hell of it, I got on and picked up the reins on the buckle. I had the gate to the road open, but I also had the three gates to the arena open, so that if he turned back, I could ride him forward straight onto the arena and pretend that's what we wanted all along.
So what happened?
He walked out of the gate into the road. I gave him a neck rein and body aid to turn left down the hill, and instead of that he turned left and continued the turn sharply.. Just as I thought that he was going to go back down into the yard, he turned even more and continued up the hill away from home and broke into a trot.
Pretty shocked at this point, we continued a long reined hack up to the other side of the A537 and then back down again. He was calm, curious, cautious and lovely. He stopped whenever I wanted with a western rein aid of lifting the hands higher without taking contact with the mouth (both my horses seem to know this instinctively, I have not actively taught them it).
He waited at the junction of the main road until it was clear. He pulled in to let a car pass him in a very narrow spot. He looked at some sheep that ran towards him, prepared to spin if he needed to, and I held my nerve and did not pick up the reins and he stayed calm and carried on walking.
He's not marching anywhere, but he is swinging along with a loose back, and that's all I ask for. I'll be trying the same approach again, obviously, but first we need to do flexion tests on his hocks, because reluctance to walk downhill is often the very first sign of trouble with the hock joints. I don't expect it to show anything, but we must rule it out, since it's so easy to do.
Now tell me you would have expected me to write this today!
C
ps some of you have been kind enough to write to me saying how much you have learned from reading my blog. Please don't learn too much from this one. It is not a sensible way to teach a reluctant horse to hack, and with the wrong one it could end in disaster. It's a weapon of last resort only :-)
pps those of you with a good memory may recall that this non-confrontational non-controlling approach to spooking at the dressage letters also resulted in our first point at elementary. It will be something to bear in mind when we compete again if he continues to spook at dressage letters. Ace is very mare-like in the way he has to be negotiated with and not dictated to. I wonder if he's gay :-) ???
But you'd believe it, wouldn't you - cos that's horses for you :-)
You won't believe the next bit though. I have been mulling over why Ace was happy to hack when he started his rehab and isn't now. Two things have changed. The first is that I was hacking every other day and now I am doing one in three. I don't think that would have made this much difference.
The second is that I started by letting him go along with his nose on the floor and a stretched back and completely unrestrained, just to make sure he was pain free. And now I have picked him up and I am telling him to move faster and do things my way.
So today, just for the hell of it, I got on and picked up the reins on the buckle. I had the gate to the road open, but I also had the three gates to the arena open, so that if he turned back, I could ride him forward straight onto the arena and pretend that's what we wanted all along.
So what happened?
He walked out of the gate into the road. I gave him a neck rein and body aid to turn left down the hill, and instead of that he turned left and continued the turn sharply.. Just as I thought that he was going to go back down into the yard, he turned even more and continued up the hill away from home and broke into a trot.
Pretty shocked at this point, we continued a long reined hack up to the other side of the A537 and then back down again. He was calm, curious, cautious and lovely. He stopped whenever I wanted with a western rein aid of lifting the hands higher without taking contact with the mouth (both my horses seem to know this instinctively, I have not actively taught them it).
He waited at the junction of the main road until it was clear. He pulled in to let a car pass him in a very narrow spot. He looked at some sheep that ran towards him, prepared to spin if he needed to, and I held my nerve and did not pick up the reins and he stayed calm and carried on walking.
He's not marching anywhere, but he is swinging along with a loose back, and that's all I ask for. I'll be trying the same approach again, obviously, but first we need to do flexion tests on his hocks, because reluctance to walk downhill is often the very first sign of trouble with the hock joints. I don't expect it to show anything, but we must rule it out, since it's so easy to do.
Now tell me you would have expected me to write this today!
C
ps some of you have been kind enough to write to me saying how much you have learned from reading my blog. Please don't learn too much from this one. It is not a sensible way to teach a reluctant horse to hack, and with the wrong one it could end in disaster. It's a weapon of last resort only :-)
pps those of you with a good memory may recall that this non-confrontational non-controlling approach to spooking at the dressage letters also resulted in our first point at elementary. It will be something to bear in mind when we compete again if he continues to spook at dressage letters. Ace is very mare-like in the way he has to be negotiated with and not dictated to. I wonder if he's gay :-) ???
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