Fiddle F*cking with Things that Ain't Broke

If you'll recall, I pulled Butterball's hind shoes in early January. I had major doubts about the farrier I was using and figured there was less to screw up if there weren't shoes involved. We had a mostly great January after that, including joyfully bouncing around Majestic, feeling like we could just pop right over anything I pointed him at. We did have our blip at the horse eating pink roll top, but that felt like green horse + spooky jump + leaning adult ammy rider combo going wrong, as it will sometimes. Then Hillary and I went back to Majestic on Friday. And it wasn't as much rainbows and sunshine as it had been on our prior trip. 

He was a very good boy, but was just kinda weird. Spooky to jumps he has been fine with in the past, including the tires where he said no freaking way about 30 feet out. So basically very not himself. 

We were thinking hind foot soreness was the issue because his hind feet had worn A LOT. I think he definitely CAN go barefoot behind, but he'll need an adjustment period where he only does light work and potentially some hoof boots for the road hacking we do. Fortunately the farrier was coming on Monday. Later that day I also remembered that he had run out of his Relyne GI about a week prior and because I'm an asshole I had not gotten around to ordering more yet. He's not a particularly stereotypically ulcery horse, but he does do a TON of travelling and competing, so I've had him on it since I got him and being off of it coincided with new spooky behavior. Alright, then hind feet? Tummy? Both are fixable, yay!  

I started him on 1/3 tube of GG daily until I could get him back on the Relyne. He had Saturday off, but then Sunday when I groomed him, he had muscle spasms in his epaxials basically any time I touched from mid-barrel up to the muscles themselves. I palpate his back EVERY TIME I ride him and had not gotten any soreness leading up to that day so felt very WTF about everything. He had also just gotten drenched with a slightly chilly rain, so I considered my options. I ended up taking the front shims out of my mattes pad in case that was dumping too much weight on the back part of it. The fitter had told me that the panels were too long for his back but it was probably temporarily fine since I'm not that heavy. Then I tacked him up and we did a nice, loose, stretchy 15 minute ride. After I untacked I palpated all over again and got absolutely no spasms. So whether that was the rain, the shims, or some other freak thing, it seemed better. 

Monday he got his hind shoes back. The farrier barely had any foot to trim, soooo yeah. Not great. We did a little dressaging on Tuesday. Today we headed over to Majestic for the schooling show. Our dressage was... meh. I'm tired of saying the same things about the canter, so see prior posts. I was a bit bummed about the centerlines because I had scribed for this judge a couple of weeks ago and thought I was being SO DEAD ON. Apparently my dead on is to the left. I was very pleased with the final halt though. The day prior it had finally occurred to me to trick train it with the click and treat. We started working on it on our hack so that there was minimal pressure to feel like we ARE WORKING ON HALTING NOW DAMMIT, I'M GOING TO TENSE EVERY PART OF ME AND ATTEMPT TO SHOVE YOU INTO A BOX. I breathed out with a light "wooahh" and then just tried to close my upper thigh and softly halt. If he stayed square and straight he got a click and cookie. If he wiggled into it but halted there was a pat but no treat. This worked like gang busters and honestly worked a bit too well down the centerline which was part of our not getting to G. If I'd found the centerline though and made it to G it would've been a much better halt than any prior test. 

Stadium was an experience. Parts of it were absolutely great. But I forgot that the outside line was a 5 to a 2 and tried to make it a 6 to a 2, which led to a great chip for the 6th stride and then 3 strides in the 2. After that fuckery on my part, he opted out of chipping to the base of the next oxer and ended up stopping, knocking rails, and kneeling in the jump. He paused for two seconds on his knees, I think assessing the situation, and then pulled us back upright. He was actively shaking, so I patted him a few times while they reset the jump. I trimmed the actual crunch into the jump out of the video because nobody needs to see that. We then picked the canter back up and carried on, with one other weird windmill jump. I think that one was him just trying to be careful from a weird spot with a bit of a shake to his confidence. Afterwards, we felt him all over and nothing palpated sore. I added studs since it was wet and I was unclear exactly what the refusal had been about, then headed to warm up. JT instructed that if he felt weird then I was to pull up. But if we were going, I needed to be committed to going. Y'know? Don't half ass it and question every single step leading to bad jumps that knock both of our confidence, but if he's doing weird things then stop. 

He warmed up great, so we headed out on course with her and my friend who had shot his rads in the chase cart. The course was pretty long with an optimum time of 5:09.

1- Honestly this was the weirdest one. He was quite spooky and it took a tap on the shoulder to get him to commit to the jump. 

2- Bench, Canter it, jump it, don't do anything weird 

3- Boathouse that can be quite spooky, but was not for him 

4- Ramp

5- Wagon

6- Water

7- Table

8AB- Brush rails to corner, these were not at all related really

He jumped the SNOT out of this one, but because of the shrubs his front half was immediately cut off, so you get a take off picture

I was unsure of what spot we were getting to this and rode it a bit in the backseat

But at least gave him the reins

9- Chevron

So cute!

10AB- half coffin

11- Roll, shared with BN 

12- Cabin 

13- Cut out cabin

14- More rails

15- Down bank

16- Trakehner

17- Log and box 

After the water the whole course felt pretty great. We did of course chip the final fence, but y'know, other than that... He was responding to my half halts with my body and felt light and pleasant over things. The verdict from JT and my friend was definitely hind feet though, he was reluctant to take the spots where he really had to sit and push. He got his feet packed after and will get Equioxx as well as a few days off. 

The moral of the story is don't screw with things that are working. Keep his hind shoes on, keep him on the Relyne. 

Edited to add these because I don't know when/where else I'll post them, but lookit the speedy pony! Also I posted the heart rate because I found it hilarious it dropped from the start. I wouldn't say I'm nervous before leaving the box, but I guess my heart rate disagrees. I think the low point towards the very end was a glitch. 

Return of the Halo

Butterball and I went through a brief, undocumented time of not having the most perfectly delightful hacks. I didn't write about it because I thought I broke my pony. Retrospectively I think winter weather, an overabundance of trust in the snackamore, and, for once, doing too little, gave the pony poor ideas. Never fear, all is right in the world again, and we are back to tromping around bareback and bitless and having a great time. But we'll tell a story about this winter in case I think I've broken him again next January. 

Our hacks all start by passing a house that is very spooky. As far as I can tell about fifteen people live there with about twenty cats. This may be a slight exaggeration but it's probably pretty close to the truth. 

There's several car ports, a few falling down sheds, and just generally a lot of STUFF. It's all under the shade of some large trees and then there's some smaller shrubbery as well. Basically something is always making sounds or moving in the yard but it's never something that can actually be seen well. Or when something can be seen, it's a cat, small child, or basketball followed by small child that comes TEARING out of the yard straight towards the pony. People frequently come and go and then often hang out partially in their cars, again being audible but not necessarily visible. 

Don't get me wrong, everyone who lives there has been incredibly nice. When they pass me on the road in their cars, they slow way down. And when they're out in the yard, they always say hello and we exchange pleasantries. But their knowledge of the fragile psyche of a prey animal is about zero. Although slightly more than zero now because I chatted with the child with the basketball after jumping off the pony to avoid being spun off the pony. 

When I first got Butterball, I think we lucked out into passing the spooky house when people and cats were mostly not moving around. Also his motivation to care about things drastically decreases when it's 90 degrees. But around the time we had the basketball experience, he also started being worried about stuff in the field on the other side of the road from the house. He's seen a lot of deer and never really cared much. Which makes me think there had to be some sort of predator hanging out in the field for a bit. Black bear would be weird but not unheard of and we certainly have bobcats, so who knows. This meant no side of the road was safe. Throughout all of this and as the weather got notably colder, I kept trying to do my weekly bareback hack in his snackamore. 

But eventually he became pretty resistant to leaving the driveway. One ride he was consistently hopping up and down and trying to spin around to head back home. The bitless bridle is great, but when he's being a pill it's actually much worse for both of us (in the way that a more harsh bit used judiciously in educated hands is much better than a snaffle that is hung on). And when I'm bareback I have less of a tendency to kick on. So finally I caved and added the tack back, but he was still very up and agitated passing between the haunted house and the field. It was a constant fight to keep him from jigging and/or spinning to head back home. I clued in one day watching a lesson where they were joking about revoking the horse's decision making ability. I had given my relatively green pony too much responsibility in the face of ALL THE HORSE EATING HELL DEMONS and he had no idea what to do with it. In between directing him forward again or stopping the jigging, I was still trying to walk on a loose rein. But after that lesson I started putting him to work the second I felt him start to tense. If you're not gonna make the right choices, I'll make the choices for us. I think this also helped because if I could get his body in a theoretically relaxed posture and his mind occupied then relaxation of his mind would follow. And wouldn't ya know it, clever pony decided that if the alternative to jigging and trying to spin was leg yields and shoulder in and haunches in, he could in fact walk on a loose rein. 

I also added in cookies, which I'd used for other horses but never for him. I was, and still am, very careful not to give a cookie unless I click, lest I create a pretzel pony who constantly thinks treats are coming from his rider. But when he braves a spooky area or sound calmly, click and cookie! When he is focused on something in the distance, ask for yielding to the rein, click, and cookie! 

The best view! 

Now a few weeks in (and 80 degree weather, so who knows what truly made the difference), I have my super brave, sane, relaxed pony back to take on weekly bareback hacks. On his trot and canter sets (always with tack because I'm not that crazy) this week he braved running dogs, cows, and horses, and never broke stride. He seems joyful heading out the driveway again and even when someone was washing a car in the shadows of the trees out of his sight and then turned on some sort of intermittent power tool, he kept his cool and didn't have to be put to work with lateral work. Good BOY! I would like to think I'm back on track to creating a fearless adventure pony who loves exploring and isn't fussed by much. 

Part of letting him make choices again, we ended up thoroughly in the scraggly little woods by the side of the road. Dunno what he was looking for, but if he's having fun exploring then why not?? 

Adjustability

Butterball and I had a very good, educational lesson on Wednesday. The overall focus was that speed doesn't equal power, and we need to be adjustable and able to add or open up. Initially I was not really understanding the goal. Hadn't we just worked on getting him to leave the ground at the correct spot of his own volition? Why would we encourage shortening at the base. The DUH answer that I realized even as a semi-whined that question was we're not asking him to chip at the base, we're asking him to compress his stride and still be able to jump powerfully and correctly from a shorter stride. I think some of my confusion came from the description of the canter as a "relaxed and soft canter" that made me think I was to pull him down to something that almost caused a break to the trot. Derp. I also spent a lot of the lesson focusing on PRESSING MY DAMN HANDS into his neck. And mostly I succeeded in releasing when I should and staying released. Way to mostly accomplish something they teach kids trotting crossrails! Anyways, back to the interesting part...

I don't even know if it needs saying, but we started by trotting our placing pole exercise back and forth a couple of times. Then we got to work on the meat of the lesson: 

Left a few jumps off of here, but the main exercise is pictured. The bounces were just cavaletti. 

First we did the bounce cavaletti alone. I did smile when I saw them because it was a more aggressive, but shorter version of the bounces I had set up at home a few weeks ago. 

During those I had also learned you need to push and guide, NOT pull your way through them. 

Once we had done the cavaletti on their own twice, we started the exercise (following the dashed blue line in my drawing). Vertical - 5 strides to vertical - right hand 15m circle to cavaletti - back to vertical - 5 strides to oxer. Get turned around, repeat in reverse with a left hand turn through the cavaletti. 

The first few times through I was incapable of getting an even five strides in the line. I either got four smoothly, four with a gap, or five with the last two being dinky little strides. I was simply not half-halting enough early enough. I also did not look soon enough at the cavaletti and had a really rough go the first time, propelled only by the sainthood of my pony. At one point JT looked at me and said "what about this exercise is making you anxious?" which was when I shared by confusion about what we were trying to do. And which is when she explained the goal. And shared the obvious, but apparently needed to be stated fact that "you should be able to do 4 strides or 6 strides in this line and he should still leave the ground nicely." 

Then I had a similar AHA moment to our XC lesson where we discussed that it's not enough to just give lip service to a half halt and kinda sorta make the motions and then go "done half halting now." Nope, you gotta actually half halt enough that something happens. And the something also needs to involve his back coming more up and staying up. THEN we can add and jump nicely still. ooookay. So around the fifth run through I finally got it and we had lovely soft jumps through the exercise.

After that go through we put a course together that we did twice. It started with a long approach to a vertical then bending line to an oxer. I got a short distance to the oxer both times, but it was slightly more even on the second go. It was also the correct short distance for where we were, leaving long would've been leaving looooooooong. Then it was a right hand turn to the three stride line that had an oxer to a swedish oxer. A few lessons ago JT asked if I knew how to jump a swedish oxer. Since I didn't know what she meant I said no. 

Ben sorting it out anyways for me. Can't miss an opportunity to share one of my fave pictures of him

She said to take them slightly on the low side so that it becomes a normal ascending oxer vs. dead in the middle which would be square or to the high side so it is a backwards oxer. Butterball seemed to sort that out on his own without my input a few weeks ago. This time he took it a bit far to a drift left the first time through, but we fixed that on the second go. 

Then it was a left hand curve back around to the two to the one. Pictured is the pink rolltop of death. I very nearly leaned at the roll top the first time through (you would think I would've learned my lesson) but caught myself (I guess I sort of learned the lesson). It made for a kind of awkward trip through, but we smoothed it out the second time. 

If it doesn't make you carsick, here's some windy glasses cam footage of the best go of the exercise and then of the course. I almost took the sound out, but sometimes you can actually hear JT's comments, but mostly it is a lot of wind. 

WW: Three Lakes Pro Pics

Alternate titles of "How Freaking Perfect Can One Pony Be?" Or "Learn to Release FFS!" 

Bonus picture of him waiting expectantly for his post ride treats. He's the cutest! 

Stall Rest... Going Great

Ya'll... I have lucked into a life of few injuries. And I guess thank goodness for that because I don't do well with resting. Please stop reading now if you don't want to hear my SUPER FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS whine. 

Anyways, it's been a little over a WEEK since I sprained my ankle, and I am struggling. The ankle (generously using that term, it was really from digits to mid-calf) blew up like a balloon initially. Now that has subsided and the past two days have been a more concerning swelling - focused right over the probable injured deltoid ligament. Greatttttt. I've been doing some mobility exercises each day and my husband has done a few dolphin stim sessions (like electroacupuncture but without the needles). It will get there, it's just taking longer than I wanted, which, let's be honest, what I wanted was a full recovery in about 24 hours. 

Wednesday I went out and did a jumper show anyways. And it was great. When I missed to a fence and slipped the reins and then felt like I threw them away for the last few fences, Butterball actually jumped beautifully. OOOOOHHHH. I've been doing too much too stiffly with my hands. K. Got it. Next round went better. BUT when I saw the pictures Lisa Madren took along with some of the still shots from the videos, I was leaning right. Now I love me a good lean on the best of days, but I think I was protecting the left ankle. Alright. Not fair to the pony to go jump things while the left ankle doesn't have good mobility and strength. 

When we got home, Butterball flopped down for his midday nap that the trip had RUDELY caused him to miss. I love him. 

Seriously, you know I need a midday siesta...

Okay, so shouldn't go jump things and do two point and all that. But surely I can go trail ride.... so Friday we headed over to San Felasco. 

Getting cleaned up before leaving

I love this area with the quiet cushioned pine needles

DUCK!! There are still SO MANY trees down from Helene

Unfortunately I discovered that even worse than just having my feet in the stirrups and doing things was the motion of picking my stirrup back up after moseying along with my feet out. That mild inversion motion is really unpleasant with injured lateral ligaments. Boo. Butterball was fantastic for the trail ride though, done all in his snackamore. I didn't necessarily have brakes when we trotted and cantered, but I didn't super need them either. 

He was really wanting to spook at each trail sign, so I started a cookie for touching signs reward policy. By the end he was shoving his nose onto them then craning his head around. Hrmmmm that may backfire on me at some point. 

So that is the summary of my week of "recovery". Mostly written because I'm sitting in my house rather than out playing with my pony before work. 

January 2025 Wrap Up

 

	Ben	Butterball
Training rides	0	0
Lessons	0	5- 4 jump, 1 dressage
Hacks	0	2 bareback walk hacks, lots of walk hacks to start flat rides
Ground work, lunge, long line	4- 2 Equiband lunges, 2 ground work sessions	1
Flat rides	0	8
Conditioning rides	0	1
XC school	0	1
Shows	0	0

January was a month of a few big changes/decisions as far as horse keeping goes. Butterball got his hind shoes pulled at the beginning of the month. Then we switched to a new farrier the second week of the month. I consciously decided not to do much with Ben until we got him into his glue on composites in February. Instead we played a little bit on the ground. He LOVES the blocks that I learned from the cowboy who helped with Goggles. Not surprisingly, Ben is very, very in tune with his person, and being told exactly where to place his body and how to follow along brought him a lot of security. We marched all over the spooky parts of the property with him directly in line behind me but at a respectful distance. It was pretty neat. All I had to do was stop and he would immediately halt square behind me. Instead of needing to fully step back, a small pump of both arms backwards would have him backing up directly in line. He's gone over it before, but we marched right over the wooden bridge in line like that with the line loose and me not having to direct him in any way other than walking over it myself. 

He also did have two lunging sessions. One of those sessions I was trotting him through a bounce exercise I had set up for Butterball.  He rightly recognized that the bounces were set to canter and bounced himself through at the canter a few times; it was adorable. 

Ben and Butterball continue to go out during the day with three of the barn owner's horses, two yearling colts and a two year old filly. Occasionally the filly gets sick of the boys, but otherwise they are all pretty delighted to be together. It's really interesting to watch the older horses interact with the yearlings. Occasionally the yearlings get snapped at, but generally the lessons my boys give them are pretty gently reinforced and well received. 

Excuse us, do you happen to have cookies?? 

Butterball had a great month, albeit a slightly easier one than normal. He took the removal of his hind shoes completely in stride. In December we stopped using the Forestier jump saddle and switched him to Goggle's Custom Monte Carlo. He seems much happier, but it still wasn't a perfect fit. At the end of the month we had a saddle fitting with a British Master Saddler who came highly recommended. I ordered a new jump saddle from her and am getting the tree changed in a dressage saddle that I bought from Jen. Come March when the fitter comes back up from Wellington, I'm hoping we will be all set on the saddle front other than annual checks. 

We also met with a new dressage trainer and had one lesson which will hopefully be the start of every other week lessons. Towards the end of the month, in spite of a fall and a sprained ankle, it seemed like everything was clicking for us with some lovely jump schools. 

Looking ahead...

February started with our trip to Three Lakes. We're headed to a Majestic schooling show in the middle of the month. BB is seeing his new farrier for a second time. Ben is getting composites put on and will hopefully TRULY go back to work. 

Love this pony so much!