Independence and Assistance

So...  Real talk... Part of this jumping at home thing is making mistakes and then fixing them. I made several mistakes and rode an under powered canter to an end of lesson height jump. Butterball smartly opted no, said he didn't have enough canter to either take the long spot or pat the ground as he'd done for me twice already. But he's an honest dude and opted no at the last second and slid into the fence, scaring both of us a bit. Two days later we came back to fix our mistakes but I rode underpowered to a one stride with an oxer as the out and leaned at the in. He declined. We dropped the oxer to a vertical, re-approached and got it done. 

Looking like he forgives me for my fuck ups as long as there are cookies

We had another at home session a week later where we started out without enough pace, again, but finished up really well. He took me to the gappy spot at one oxer and popped through the two stride like it was NBD. It definitely gave both of us more confidence. 

I did in fact slowly raise these... started over the block jumps then popped the other ones up two holes after we had successfully gone around twice. Laziness in setting jumps doesn't lead to good results it seems...

Honest adult ammy talk... it took some deep breaths to come back out and fix mistakes a few days later. I, again, had that feeling like I was screwing up my perfect pony. Which is a great mindset to get in that leads to tentative riding and no real decisions. Which he just loves... gives him loads of confidence when I sit up there and go "oh SHIT, I dunno!" But it felt like something I had to fix. And we did. By dropping the fences to BN height, getting around confidently, and then moving them back up. And no one is worse for the wear. 

This week, we had our first lesson with a new eventing trainer. We solidly managed to show her all of the things we do wrong on our first trip around. But hey, if we'd come out perfect we wouldn't have learned as much. Her major pointer was to land and accelerate for two strides and then settle in to that pace to the fence. That way you're not screwing with your stride length once you've got your eye on the fence. THAT makes sense. She also had me using a slightly lifting under his belly leg aid to get him to let me access his back. Then from that swingy, powerful canter everything seems just fine. 

We did the shorter course again, which went swimmingly, then added a few fences including a 1 to a 4. I did start to imagine us stopping at the 1 stride, but I took a page from Ms. GY's book and visualized/felt him popping through it just perfectly. Which is exactly what he did. In my joy at the 1 to the 4, I COMPLETELY forgot about the last two jumps, so ignore the canter mess that occurs around the right hand turn in the last course. 

In of the 1 

Out

To the 4

Still jumped it just fine in spite of the multiple leads around the turn 

I am pretty pleased in the video that I'm not throwing away the contact anymore. When I ask him to go forward, I am, for the most part, there for him which keeps him from flattening and keeps that bouncy uphill canter. It feels like the dressage lessons with JV are also unlocking the instant responses, so when we land and I ask him to move forward, the reaction is right there. Pretty cool stuff. 

July Wrap Up

 

Starting the wrap up for July with some updated conformation pictures. Never mind the fact that these were taken in August and post-ride hosing. Not ideal, but y'know, if I was only willing to take them when he was perfectly clean and not sweaty we really wouldn't get any summer shots. I tried, and failed, to remember to take them the day his feet got done. Because I haul out to my friend's place, once he was done I just tossed him straight back on the trailer. Also, on closer inspection, her mats are over sand and not as even as the wood that this spot at Ms. GY's. 

I keep panicking about him gaining weight, so here's our June comparison. Which I think actually does show some weight gain. UGH! He's more dressage horse round right now than svelte event pony. We've still got a couple months of good grass, but it is sooooo sweaty/easy to create rubs right now that I'm reluctant to put his grazing muzzle on him. I need to either do that or submit another insulin level to at least make sure we're not creeping up there. It would be silly to put all this work into his fitness and supplements and such and then let that happen... 

June 

	Butterball
Training rides	3 flat rides with my friend while I was out of town
Lessons	4- 3 dressage + 1 jump
Hacks	3- including 1 pond splash
Jump rides	3
Flat rides	6
Conditioning rides	2
XC school	0
Shows	0

July was a bit slower of a month with 21 rides for pony pants, which may have contributed a bit to the weight gain as well... I'm hoping so since that's easier to up this month vs. putting the muzzle on. I took my annual summer trip to New York with family. My friend came over and rode him a few times while I was gone. We failed to successfully line up with PW much for jump lessons between my travel and the WEC summer series. We had one lesson that we only got 2/3 of the way through before major thunderstorms drove us to cover. 

But we did manage to get in three dressage lessons, and the changes are absolutely amazing. I was cantering around yesterday feeling like it was the easiest thing in the world, which is such a huge change. Our lessons in July focused A LOT on the canter. We started with straightening it, particularly to the left. The next lesson we introduced SLOWING the canter. Which was a gigantic struggle with lots of breaking to trot and making me feel like I couldn't ride my pony. I asked JV if he did training rides. He said he did, but mostly he wanted me to learn how to do it. He cited people asking him to get on to get clean changes. He said it was useful if the horse didn't understand the concept of changes, but not useful in all other cases. He did say perhaps Butterball was unclear on the concept of slowing down the canter, so a training ride might be beneficial.

Then I went out of town and my friend who rides with the same two trainers rode him while I was gone. And when I got back, we had more easily accessible buttons. Our last lesson in July, on the 31st, we ACTUALLY slowed the canter down and I felt much less incompetent. 

Honestly the lessons with JV make me want to focus on dressage the majority of the time. Butterball feels totally happy when ridden in this clear 2+2 = 4 kinda way. Even when we were struggling majorly with slowing down the canter, JV laid it out clearly for me... if he broke to trot, was the trot slower than the canter had been? If so, then pick the canter right back up to correct the break. But if the trot was faster than the canter had been, then SLOW the trot, since SLOW was what we were initially asking for. Anyways, stay tuned for our transition to dressage and trail pony extraordinaire, at least until I look at the costs of USDF showing... 

Even though we didn't get to many jump lessons, now that we're back with Ms. GY, we have the ability to set mini courses at home. Her arena is a bit larger than a standard dressage arena, so it isn't a full, full course, but we can still string 5-6 jumps together in different ways. It is GREAT to have this ability. The decision to move back to her place wasn't without some angst, especially because our former barn owner took such great care of the difficult to care for Goggles, but overall it was the right move for Butterball and me at this point. 

This.. this is why the pony is getting more and more round, but also tell me you don't want to gallop across that field 

Overall July was a productive month for us. Butterball is still sweating and feels great in his work. This time of summer in Florida always feels just focused on maintaining and surviving, so it is great that we've continued to progress in the dressage work. Knocking furiously on wood, we've only had to deal with tiny little patches of rain rot. And his feet look FANTASTIC! At his farrier appointment this week, at four weeks, his farrier gave him an award for most foot grown. And he grows strong, beautiful hoof, even in the WET summer. Thank goodness for pony feet!!! 

I started August going out of town again, but the rest of the month will be pretty focused on getting to Chatt successfully. We are headed to a schooling jumper show Wednesday and then a dressage lesson on Friday. Ms. GY is going to bring her thoroughbred, and I'm so excited to watch their lesson. I'm aiming to keep up weekly trot/canter sets OR pond rides for the remainder of August. Then in September we start our twice weekly conditioning rides for the three day in October. 

Strategies for Staying Cool (plus lesson notes)

(This isn't an actual educational post... I have no strategies for surviving this brutal heat other than acclimatization and trying to ride in close proximity to storms but without getting struck by lightning) 

Monday, Ms. GY and I loaded up BB and her mostly retired dude, one of Butterball's pasture mates, and headed to a pond/lake to the west of us. 

I have zero pics. The phone stayed in the car which was the right choice because Butterball turned full sea horse this trip. The pond wasn't as clear as the one we went to on our first swimming adventure this summer. But it was still very delightful. Butterball is basically a solo trailerer 100% of the time now, so it was interesting to see him travel with Ms. GY's horse. He basically dragged me on to the trailer after her horse and hadn't pooped in the trailer at all after our short 20 minute drive. So I guess there is a small stress component to our solo trips that goes away with a buddy, I'm sorry kiddo. 

We moseyed from the dirt road where we parked down to the pond. Both boys snorted at the edge of the water for approximately 10 seconds, then Butterball charged on in. The bottom wasn't completely even and it freaked his friend out a bit, but Butterball didn't seem to care at all. He went in and out on his own the same way as he had at the other lake, even spending a few strides here and there swimming. It was so neat to feel him swim!!! He snorkeled some and pawed, although he did less pawing than last time, I think because he was mostly at least chest deep. At one point he even laid down in about forearm deep water. He looked shocked when I jumped off of him and stood right up again when I slid off. I thought he was going to roll and certainly wasn't going to be on him for that! It definitely seemed to be part of his plan to keep me on for his laying down adventure though LOL. I led him out of the water to a nearby fence blocking off the area around the pond and hopped back on. He headed back in and did some more deep water walking. After about an hour of splashing around and standing we headed out of the pond. Both boys had devoured their open hay bags of orchard on the drive over, but survived the ride home without snax. 

He is SO HAPPY in the water, it is awesome. I did encourage him to try the few strides of swimming the first time, but after that he explored it on his own, just a couple of strides at a time. It seems like GREAT fitness as well, and especially since the underwater treadmill facility is 45 minutes away and $75+ for a 15 minute session, this seems like a major upgrade. The dirt roads leading in to Dinner Pond were nicely hilly... might be a great place to park, do a trot/canter set, and then cool off with a quick dip in the pond in September/October when I could at least not kill both of us in the heat on the unshaded dirt roads. 

His fave water source at home because... Horses

The next morning we were supposed to load up at 6 AM today head down for a lesson with PW. It has been 3+ weeks at this point. But when I woke up from my 4 hours of sleep I just... wasn't feeling it... so I texted PW and went back to bed for another three hours. Thursday we did load up, at a much more reasonable hour given my work schedule, and headed to JV's for a dressage lesson. I did a good job listening to my brain on Tuesday it seemed... I thought I had hooked up the trailer completely the night before, but I missed the essential step of climbing into the truck bed and actually LATCHING THE HITCH and doing up the chains and such, but mostly LATCHING THE HITCH!!! Ooookay. So I did my usual peek in the bed Thursday morning and saw it wasn't latched and fixed it before I moved the trailer... sheesh... 

Fortunately there was a bit of a breeze at JV's and it wasn't quite as hot as it was the previous few days. We had an absolutely AMAZING lesson (with no media). 

• Now that we're consistently getting good reactions and have forward, swinging gaits, we're starting to ask for a bit of collection. Collection at the trot should feel like he's bouncing over trot cavaletti. At this point poles on the ground is okay. Soon we'll want raised poles. 
• Get freely swinging forward first. Then half halt. He needs to react in *that stride*. The rapid reaction makes it much more likely you'll maintain the lift vs slowing down over multiple strides just leading to being on the forehand and going slowly. 
• Once he's slowed, has he maintained impulsion? Ie can I take my leg off and he doesn't peter out and break?
• Don't guard against the break. More applicable with canter than trot... Ask for just as much slow down and don't be afraid to have to correct the mistake of breaking. But if he breaks, is the trot actually slower than the canter was? If yes, then pick the canter right back up. If no, slow the trot then pick the canter back up. 
• It was very helpful to work on collecting the trot before we tried collecting the canter. 
• In the left lead where he wants to throw his outside shoulder right, don't get trapped circling where it is even easier to do that. Go straight, use right leg to move the shoulders. If that doesn't work, counter bend slightly. But don't skip using the leg, he needs to learn to yield to the leg aid. Don't be afraid of getting a flying change when he is getting straighter. 

The energy level Butterball had after this lesson. Pony was TIRED. 

Monday Musings: Gardener vs Architect

I listened to a podcast where an author was interviewed. The author quoted George R.R. Martin who said there were two types of writers: architects or gardeners. Architects outline and plan every single step of the plot ahead of time. By contrast, gardeners allow the story to take on a life of its own and cultivate the best garden that they can from what is growing. I, of course, immediately started thinking about how this translates to horses. 

I have identified as an eventer ever since I started riding with some seriousness (ie shows, lessons) again after finishing school. But in reality, my day to day rides are basically the same as what I've been doing since I was a teenager: some flat work, some jumping, and a healthy dose of trail riding. And really, Zinger, my first heart horse that I had from the time I was 15 to the time I was 30, was a lot like Butterball in his enjoyment of those various activities. When I first made that comparison, Ryan corrected that Zinger was regal in a way that pony pants himself is not. But they both LOVE getting out on the trails and exploring. Zing and I would wander for hours. In his older years, I would let him dictate the pace and direction. We would walk for 15 minutes sometimes and an hour plus other days. He was also an incredible athlete and had way more jumping talent than I ever used. I used to regret having him during a time in my life where I didn't have the resources I have now to lesson and travel and show. But he was given to my trainer's daughter by an Ocala UL eventer because he had injured a hind suspensory and needed rehab. We did that rehab, and he was very sound the whole time I had him, but probably wouldn't have been sound if we had pushed him harder. So really, he was with me at the perfect time in my life and his life as well. 

Zing out cross country

Pony Club SJ rally 

In my dad's backyard 

Beach pony 

Trail pony extraordinaire 

Winning our BN division at the horse park when he was 22

Playing XC in a field many, many years ago that is now a housing development about 20 minutes from where I currently live 

And Zing honestly set the bar so high that until Butterball, every other horse has failed to measure up in one way or another. Since I started blogging my equine life, I've owned three horses. Yoshi unfortunately could not stay sound enough to jump. And I wanted to jump, so I found him a fantastic flatwork home. Retrospectively, Ben would have been sounder as a flatwork horse in a manicured ring. Or maybe even a jumping horse in a manicured ring. However, his prior/current owner did retire him from manicured ring hunter life because she thought it was too stressful for him and contributing to his ulcers. He did enjoy jumping though. What he did not enjoy was trail riding. He did it solo if I asked because he was a GOOD BOY, but it was not fun. You could basically feel him internally panicking the whole time. He was pretty happy to go out with friends on the trails and drew from their bravery. So I did shape my rides to reflect that. We either ponied him off his BFF or just went with friends. Had I been more of the gardener mentality with him, we would have moved to non-competitive dressage and jumping in an arena with very little travel. 

Goggles potentially could have been the ultimate trifecta for me, he showed a lot of promise on enjoying trail rides. But his management needs along with size made him not a great fit. I couldn't garden those things into anything manageable without having my own place to tailor to him.

So in reality, I think I am closer to the architect side of things. Honestly until the fourth (or so, I didn't go back to count; there are things I love looking back on, but this is not one of them, surprise) time that Ben went lame due to sore feet, it didn't occur to me to look at a different path with him. But in contrast, and maybe this is just some semblance of maturity developing in myself, if Butterball says at a certain point that he doesn't want to play over bigger cross country fences or that the dressage work is getting to be too much pressure mentally, then I would change my goals and routine with him to suit that (with the obvious requisite vet check to make sure there was nothing to address physically). I would gladly continue to event at novice with him for the next 15 years. 

My base requirement moving forward is something that enjoys being out of the ring. Not necessarily from the first venture out, I was willing to help shape Goggles enjoyment in baby steps, but not starting with a horse like Ben who is absolutely never going to give up all of his anxieties to solo hack out. I LOVE the way Butterball's brain processes things. He is not without some spookiness for sure, but give him a few minutes to ponder and examine and some cookies for encouragement and he decides things aren't so bad. And then he REMEMBERS (no offense Ben, but positive reinforcement conditioning to the same jump panel that lived in the same spot forever and ever did get old). 

Some of this comes back to heart horses I think. The horse that you won't move on from no matter what. The ones that encourage "gardening" to grow something beautiful. 

Being Present

Spending 24 hours without my cell phone this week was shockingly delightful. Well, I mean, not really surprising if you look at all the studies on what social media and cellphones do to mental health. 

Picture taken when I showed up to feed breakfast on Wednesday morning before abandoning my phone at the repair place for a battery replacement. I arrived at the barn to feed at 9 AM because I had worked overnight. He'd like everyone to know that 9 AM is a FULL TWO HOURS hours after he usually eats... he was not mad, but was VERY chatty and VERY interested in coming in for breakfast. 

Wednesday afternoon, in the midst of ANOTHER 3-4 inches of rain, I found myself sitting in the barn aisle. I was alternating between watching my pony vigorously remove hay from his very small hole hay net and watching raindrops hit the top of a puddle. It was raining too quickly for me to fully watch the ripples spread, but the pattern was very pleasing. Butterball and I had gotten 6 minutes into a 20 minute trot set when the lightning started. If I'd had my phone, I would have been mindlessly scrolling and missed those moments. 

Eventually the lightning portion of the storm blew past enough that I felt comfortable that we were most likely not going to get struck by lightning. So we started out again in a light sprinkle to do the remaining 14 minutes of trot and then 3x2min canter. My last two trot/canter sets have been done on the dirt roads around the GY's. There is a 10 acre hay field we can do loops around, but with this much rain, the lime rock/sand roads are actually pretty great for moving out on. The rain keeps the sand not too deep and not too hard. It's really nice to just go straight and not make a million loops around the field. 

Butterball felt absolutely fantastic. Shockingly, the dressage work from the ring is carrying over to everything. When he wanted to bulge away from things after reinforcing the lateral leg aid once, I could just close my leg on the side he was moving towards, and he would straighten up. He was very spritely and forward. When we did the canter work he was really moving out on his own, and I could practice my galloping position with no need to do anything else. When we played with forward and back in the canter/hand gallop he was coming back straight and steady and then moving out easily again from my leg. We were even doing flying changes in straight lines, something we haven't really done before. The first one was unintentional as I unevenly applied leg when sitting down to package him up, but then I realized what I had done and started asking for them intentionally and getting clean changes both directions. COOL!!!!

The roads had quite a few puddles, but rather than slogging through them he actually picked up the pace even more as we charged through one of the larger ones. It was an absolute blast being out there on him feeling him feeling so great.  Lots of pats and carrots for him after an evening ride that was really just pure joy. 

Checking in on Our 2025 Reservations

So... in an interesting turn of Process Goals trumping Outcome Goals, our 2025 Reservations have changed... but our Weekly Reservations have, for the most part, been kept. 

Let's see... 

• January: New dressage trainer. While we now have a new, deeply loved dressage trainer, the dressage trainer we tried out in January didn't end up being the one for us. But JV geographically close as well and is absolutely amazing. 
• February
• Three Lakes at novice did end up being a thing, and also our first time winning a recognized event.
• But a few weeks later at the Majestic schooling show, the wheels started to fall off the bus in a way that kinda ended up being the catalyst for a lot of changes for us. 
• March: Carolina International AND Terranova were no-gos as we worked through residual hind foot soreness.
• April: We did go to Rocking Horse, but things continued to unravel a bit as we had an unattractive but clear stadium round and a stop on XC. This prompted me to add in Ocala Eventing Festival where we had a stop in stadium but a clear XC round. 
• May: Given the way April's reservations panned out, a training move up was clearly not in the cards for May. I did volunteer at the May Majestic, so I was there in a way. Then we buckled down on lessons with a jumper trainer to try to help us create the canter that was missing and causing us problems. We did go to Ocala Summer HT as Area III Champs and competed at Novice. Our jump rounds made it clear that we had started to put the pieces back together again. 

Versus our weekly reservations: 

• Weekly jump lesson ✅
• 1 hour bareback walk hack with terrain questions 🗸
• We have less terrain questions back at the GY's (and by terrain I mean ditches, it is Florida), so this isn't a thing anymore
• But we still walk hack AT LEAST once a week
• Fitness day 🗸
• We've done fitness days once every three weeks or so...
• Part of my reason for slacking was the discovery, that in spite of not being a thoroughbred, he doesn't actually need weekly canter sets to bop around novice just fine.
• This fall though, I'll be more dedicated to this because of our fall reservations... 
• Weekly or every other week dressage lesson ✅
• Dressage school at home  ✅
• Lunge in Equiband 🗸
• This gets a partial check mark because once a week we walk hack in the equiband
• Lunging just... isn't great for us. Even in the equiband, he wants to trail his hind legs out behind and be lazy and I am not skilled enough to correct it. 

Looking ahead to the fall, those weekly reservations still apply, but let's take a look at my fall reservations... 

• August: Bouckaert International - so far this is still my plan. We'll be headed out at novice, but it still is an adventure I want to have 
• September: Stable View Oktoberfest - ditto 
• October: Seizing the day, I plan to go up to Hagyard for the N3D up there. Hence our renewed dedication to conditioning this late summer/fall. My husband agreed to go up with me and I'm excited for this!! Then pony pants gets a break for a few weeks. It will also be a great time of year for trail riding in Florida, so after a couple of weeks OFF, we'll spend a couple of weeks trail riding some fun new places. 

Honestly as I look back over these plans, I am just overjoyed to be doing the things with the BestPonyintheWorld(TM). He is such a cool partner and as long as I feel like he's happy, and I'm a solid partner for him, we could be doing any number of things. And this feeling is what made not moving up to training this spring 1000% the right thing. I am in a looser program than I was in January, basically not a program at all, really, which has its plusses and minuses. But being out of that program has helped with any competitive feelings I was having to move on up. Don't get me wrong, I would love to jog Butterball at a 1* some day. But when that day is or even if it happens at all is less important now. The snackamore hacks; the bouncy, amazing trot we're finding in our dressage lessons; the all day adventures; those are the things that I treasure the most. 

I think, for us at this stage, having loose competition goals is still a good thing. But having the flexibility to adapt and let go of or rework those goals is also a good thing. Overall this spring and summer are definitely the best I've had re horses in a long time. 

Feeding Dollar Bills? Or Maintaining Long-Term Soundness?

Now that Butterball is back at the GY's, I took the move as a time to re-evaluate his current supplements. His base is Purina Enrich Plus, a ration balancer. On top of that, and the topic of this post, he is currently receiving: 

• Purina Outlast: 1 cup twice a day; additional servings given before and after trailering
• He had been on the Relyne GI for a while, but there was a difference when I added in the outlast
• Ingredients: Alfalfa, wheat middlings, seaweed derived calcium, cane molasses, magnesium oxide, citric acid 
• Goal: maintain a happy stomach 
• Cost ~ $1.15/day, depending on how many middle of the day servings he gets
• Relyne GI: 1 pump (30mL) twice a day  
• Ingredients (active): 120mg TBG-136TM Schizophyllan Beta Glucan, 120mg hyaluronic acid
• Goal: maintain a happy stomach 
• Cost: $2.99/day
• Platinum Refresh: 1 scoop twice a day
• Goal: not tempt fate to see if he truly needs a sweating supplement
• Cost: $2.70/day
• Purina Free Balance: 1 tablespoon twice a day
• Vitamin and mineral supplement to balance a forage/pasture based diet
• Goal: maintain electrolyte levels during the never ending summer 
• Cost: $0.17/day 
• Adequan series q6 months 

Our goals with all that: 

• Happy gut
• Happy joints
• Sweating pony 

Happiest pony napping flat in the sand 

He inherited the Relyne. I had Goggles on it and still had two jugs of it when he left, so Butterball has been getting it ever since then. It kept Goggles happy, but given the change I noticed when I put Butterball on the Outlast, I'm not sure it was keeping him totally happy. So once that runs out I likely won't replace it. 

We're probably doing the two most important things for joint and gut health already though - he lives out 20 hours a day and has two friends that he goes out with in the big (8 acre) pasture. So they mosey and graze the majority of the time. 

But now that he is an only child, I want to do all I can to support his overall soundness and longevity. 

What I would like him to be receiving: 

• Collagen - 480-640mg per day 
• A 2009 study in horses compared undenatured type II collagen to glucosamine and chondroitin supplementation in horses with moderate arthritis (visibly lame with joint effusion, decreased range of motion, crepitus within the joint, and increased lameness after flexion). Horses receiving 480 or 640 mg of collagen per day showed a reduction in overall pain and pain on joint manipulation. This reduction was larger than the horses receiving glucosamine and chondroitin (although this also showed a statistically significant benefit over placebo). 
• Application to Butterball: he is not visibly lame and does not have any of the other criteria used to diagnosis OA in the horses in this study. However, there are additional studies like this meta-analysis focused on people that concluded that "hydrolyzed collagen has a positive therapeutic effect on osteoporosis and osteoarthritis with a potential increase in bone mineral density, a protective effect on articular cartilage, and especially in the symptomatic relief of pain." 
• MSM - 10g/day
• Omega-3 fatty acids - 5-10g/day
• Specifically long chain poly unsaturated fatty acids have been shown to decrease the severity of gastric ulcers. 
• There are likely anti-inflammatory benefits for joint health as well 
• Omega-3s are now one of the major things I recommend for dogs with OA, so it makes sense to me that this would translate over to horses 
• Application to Butterball: it seems he needs some gut support based on his response to the Outlast. And as stated several times now, I want to do everything I can to support joint health. 
• Acid buffering similar to Purina Outlast

MadBarn has an article that does a pretty darn good job summarizing the current state of knowledge of joint supplements. 

What I ended up ordering: SmartCombo Ulitmate Pellets. I had launched into an extensive internet search, somewhat aided by Perplexity, about where to get bulk glucosamine, collagen, and acid buffering ingredients. I ran into two problems there - making sure I was getting quality ingredients (alibaba bulk glucosamine seemed slightly sketch) - and shipping costs from various suppliers were starting to add up. Ultimately (haha) because of the DVM discount that SmartPak offers, they ended up being the winner here, both in cost and in other ingredients that maaayyyy be helpful.

 

The supplement doesn't contain green lipped mussel nor does it contain enough omega-3s, but it checked every other box. On my quest I discovered that to get the levels of green lipped mussel that have been studied - 25mg/kg of body weight- it is quite expensive, $2.10/day from a reputable source. The studies look pretty good for effects on lame horses, so if that ever became an issue, it would probably be worthwhile, but until then... 

Once the Relyne runs out, I'm going to start supplementing omega-3s in the form of KER EO-3 Oil. I can only ask Ms. GY to top dress so many things on the feed each day though, so that will be a few months. 

What do you all feed your horses? Or are you of the of the opinion that management and training practices are the most important and supplements are an unnecessary expense? 

Property Planning - The Fun Part - Layout

So I alternate between so excited about the idea of having the pony at home and then horrified at the costs of things. But planning the layout is proving to be pretty fun. We're waiting to make final decisions on layout until hurricane season is over. While I know you can bring in dirt, raise things, etc. in my experience it is easier to not fight with the natural low spots on the property. Plus it pisses off the neighbors less... Which we seem to be doing left and right with one making a nasty face and grumbling about "scaring all the game away" when I said "clear a bit to build" was in our plans. And another eyeing my husband, but fortunately missing the deer stand behind us to ask "YOU'RE not hunters, are you?" 

Anyways, old timer neighbors aside (which I get their feelings and we had plenty of nice conversation with those two as well, just a few interesting moments). The property is 9.6 acres, two approximately 4.8 acre parcels together. I'm not sure on the logistics of combining the two lots vs. leaving them separate. If we sold down the road then separate would probably get more money, but combining them would allow us to homestead both and lower taxes. I'm not even sure the county would let us combine them. The nice part of not having money is I have plenty of time to answer these questions. 

Anyways... You can't build buildings within 25' of the property boundaries since it is zoned A1. Right now there is a neighbor to the south with a house. Their house is pretty much in the middle west of their property. The lots to the east are unoccupied, but might not always stay that way. I would like to have as much privacy as possible for the house. 

Equine residents would be one to two horses and one mini-donkey or mini for a companion.

My plan would be to put a two-sided lean to spanning the pasture fences to provide shade. Ideally this would have electric so that an outdoor rated fan could run during the hot afternoons. And potentially this would be set up to be able to be closed so I could confine if needed. Water trough that spans both pastures would also be ideal. I'm going to ride in the pastures for a very long time to come, but eventually a space to put an arena would be great. 

There are no super special trees on the property other than one live oak to the west of the pond. That will certainly stay, but otherwise I'll probably leave trees along the property lines and perhaps a clump in the center of the larger pasture for some shade as well. 

Picture is oriented with north to the top. The blue fingers are the county demarcated possible flood zones. There is an actual "pond" (dry during dry seasons, muddy to holding water during rainy season) in the northwest of the property, the dark area on the picture in the possible flood zone. Ignore the large red border, I can't seem to get that to go away in the picture. 

The small blue area on the right hand side (east) is where we noticed signs of water running during heavy rains; house is dark green square; barn (for equipment, feed, tack, and hay) is light grey border; garden is lime green; red dot is current well (TBD if that is functional still); thick black line is future driveway. You can kind of see the current driveway and mobile home. Mobile home maaaayyyyy be leaving this week with the kindness of strangers. 

Layout 1: 

Layout 2:

Layout 3: 

My vision for the pole barn is something like this....

With truck/trailer parking along the left in the "lean-to". The truck/trailer parking would be closest to the driveway in all of the above sketches. Then tractor/other tool storage under the main part of the building. Eventually part of the building would be enclosed, probably 10x14' area, with window AC unit, to be feed, tack, and tools that need climate control storage. While we are living in a 5th wheel the building would also house an outdoor, detached catio. So that my husband and the cats all live through the experience. 

Anyways, stream of consciousness. It will (hopefully) be fun to document all the planning and building stages here, so I'm content doing just that. But also this is an open invite for suggestions, thoughts, pros/cons, and even "are you an idiot, obviously _______". The amount of $$ this is going to be, I'd rather have people point out every possible consideration before we start putting sweat and $ into this. 

June Wrap Up

Photo by Victoria DeMore Photography - since it was the first day of June I'm posting it again

 

	Butterball
Training rides	0
Lessons	5- 2 DRESSAGE(!!!) And 3 jump
Hacks	5- including our lake adventure
Ground work, lunge, long line	1 hand walk around the GY’s neighborhood
Flat rides	8
Conditioning rides	0
XC school	1- Magnolia Sands
Shows	0

 Butterball worked 19 times this month. Between two weekends of 7a-4p shifts and a trip out of town at the end of the month, he had it slightly easier than May. 

North Georgia was absolutely lovely

The big news this month was starting lessons with our new dressage trainer. In the first lesson we focused on reaction. The second lesson we worked on balance and a few down transitions. The third lesson we worked on turn on the haunches, left lead canter, leg yields, and a bit of shoulder in and extension. 

How perfect is this pony? 

We also got his saddles checked. The jump saddle needed a bit of flocking added in the front, but the dressage saddle was still great. 

Butterball moved to the GY's this month. 

Enjoying the shady barn for sure

He had a brief run in with Ms. GY's thoroughbred who, noting that Butterball was willing to be submissive, then tried to kill him. It was horrifying. Fortunately other than a few bites, that ended okay. Butterball actually now goes out with her other two horses who both bit Goggles and Ben incessantly. But Butterball is very willing to be under them in the pecking order and stay out of their way, in a way that is smarter than both TBs were. So he actually hasn't gotten bit at all. 

Back on these beautiful trails 

The other big news was that we bought property. And while I initially planned on a five year plan to getting there, that quickly changed... I would love to have him at home much sooner. So now we're plotting fifth wheel options until we could afford to build. Which has meant some fun playing with possible property layouts. And also some sobering moments asking the internet to approximate costs of things. Realistically, I think a 1-2 year time frame would be reasonable... 

We did get off property for one trail ride/pond splash with plans to go again (or to a different location) at some point in July with Ms. GY. 

Overall a super productive, albeit warm, June. I'll be out of town for a bit again this month, but we'll keep working at our dressage and jump lessons. I think August will be our return to competing with a trip up to Bouckaert Farms (formerly Chatt) for another Novice run.