Now that we have carte blanche for a full work load, I put some thought into how best to get pony pants fit again. A thoroughbred he is NOT, and he doesn't hold onto a base level of fitness that would allow us to easily lope around a novice course just by existing in his field.
Favorite activities: standing
And eating
He has successfully lost some weight this fall, a combination of grass slowing down and increased workload. The fat pads on his barrel are smaller (but not non-existent).
One of the mainstays of our fitness prep for the novice three day last fall was a walk loop before or after most rides. In my mind, this is also good conditioning for putting strength and flexibility back into that tendon.
Proprioception exercises
And more
The roads are pretty sandy right now, that deep, shifting kind of footing that is hard on tendons and ligaments. So I let him choose where to walk - he often does opt for the deeper sand rather than the firm shoulder. I assume he knows what he is doing and *hope* that this is strengthening his tendons.
That walk loop before or after a ride also means that our rides are coming out to a total of an hour most days. Some days I am still setting my 8 min x 3 timers with 2 min breaks in between to make sure that we're doing a decent quantity of trot and canter work. Other days I do now feel the freedom to get some really nice quality work and then reward him by heading out for a hack after. He's also doing his raised poles in hand 3-4 days a week, 5 poles, 10 times back and forth. Two of the poles are on jump standards right now and are pretty darn high. I'm close to flipping the blocks up to the highest setting as well (they're on the middle setting right now).
We also have gone back to our 5+ mile walk/trot/canter rides out.
All booted up and ready to go - I added pastern straps back in and saved myself from having to fetch a front boot multiple times. Took me more than one ride to remember those straps existed, oops.
Hello cow
This road has great shoulders for a little trot and canter. We also met baby squirrels figuring out life in the middle of the road. BB was adorably snuffling one when the little rat bit him on the nose! It left a tiny mark, but his feelings were hurt. Poor sweet pony! (I realize he was terrifying the squirrel, but my sympathies lie with him still)
Prior to remembering the pastern straps
Hello beautiful cow
He's got the best ear tips ever
He's also working 5-6 days a week now, usually with a rest day after a jump lesson. And, knock on wood, the tendon feels great and he feels great. I do think that the canter/gallop sets are also beneficial to him, especially if we plan on eventing again, but so far I haven't added those back in. The vet who treated him said that the SDFT lesion was either from knocking himself or a high speed injury. Given that he likes to fancy prance and doesn't particularly like to gallop I'm guessing it was a wayward foot striking himself there, although that's a bit weird given that it was on the lateral aspect of the tendon. But we hadn't done any galloping around the time the injury occurred. But in my mind that also means that the "high speed" work should be added back in last. I'm thinking mid-November, a full 6 months post-injury.
Super short blog post, but some notes I wanted to hold onto. And it's my blog, so I'll make posts whatever length I want, yes?
Butterball and I had our fourth jump lesson last Friday. I had done our homework pole-54 feet to cavaletti- 54 feet to pole two different times since our last lesson. We only focused on the five strides though, so in the lesson PW wanted us to work on opening his stride back up some to the 12' show stride.
We started with a pole 5 or 6 strides to a crossrail. We really struggle to get going to the first fence. He's much easier to ride fences 2 through whatever on and is much more motivated, but getting going for the first fence is always a challenge. During the lesson we started most of our courses with the pole to crossrail and that was a test of whether or not I had gotten the canter correct BEFORE starting the course. Five easy strides meant we had our "show canter" going. Then it was just a matter of keeping it flowing around the turns to get the strides down the lines. And y'know what? We DID! Including a gappy spot to the out fence that was definitely the biggest thing we've jumped since we've been back at it this fall.
I did still let him lengthen past the distance a few times to the single fences in the course. Irritating to have to learn that lesson every.single.lesson. Adult ammy for sure. But otherwise things went pretty well.
I've been playing with the canter with my hands UP higher than I typically want to hold them and hearing PW's "BOP!" in my head every time the contact drops. I think gradually BB is trusting that I'll be more consistent and not start trying to force his head down into a (false) frame. Also keeping my hands UP really, really helps with the left hand turns. Turns out (ha) that outside rein is essential to good quality turns.
So, to sum it up, get a quality canter of the stride length you want for your course BEFORE you start your course. Then check in during the course to make sure the canter is still balanced. Fix it BEFORE the fences. Then maintain that same canter up to the fence, not letting it change. Easy peasy, right?
Existing near the trailer. Man is it easy to see how breaking this down makes it much better. He had a lot of anxiety about even touching his nose to the ramp. I wasn't asking him to touch it at all, but curiosity was motivating him, which was pretty cute. With absolutely no pressure from me he was exploring on his own.
Suspicious ear still on trailer
Must be a pony thing to eat while you pee
He was being so cute and cuddly and was choosing to come hang out with me after our "training" session
Charlie thought that since kicking the dog worked so well to make it go away, he might try the same tactic on me. Ouch. Learning curve for both of us. This meltdown was about trying to exist farther away from Bubby and the barn than he had been before. Once again, he led the way there, but then got panicky and then mad when I wouldn't let him run home. On my part, I was not nearly aware enough of keeping the KICKING end away from me when navigating NOT letting him run home. Welp, lesson learned.
He had a mini version of this on Wednesday when we were moseying about prior to the farrier arriving. He didn't get me, but he did a mini bolt towards the barn and swung his butt at me at the same time. I corrected before it turned into a kick, and I think he maybe remembered that kicking me wasn't a good idea.
This was his first time getting trimmed by his new farrier. He DEFINITELY had some stranger danger and just barely held it together at times, but it was a positive experience overall. The farrier complimented his feet too, yay!
Once again, I know how human parents feel. Is this not the tiniest, most perfect hoof??
Friday we regrouped on leading lessons/exploration and took a more structured approach to things. We walked in wide circles, first with his brave eye (right eye, in case you were wondering) towards the outside. After each successfully completed circle he got to graze while I walked with him. He loves a specific type of weed and seeks it out, so that was his reward.
Also loves oak leaves
Once we were doing the wide circles at a reasonable pace and without needing to make tiny circles to enforce not walking ahead of me, we switched directions. This got us out to the scene of the crime with no drama. It also got us pretty close to the horse trailer. Success!
Then we did a baby intro to the hose.
Unsure ears
Hrmmm
Success! Wet front tootsies
Next was a "tying" lesson while he got groomed. Lead rope wrapped around solid post. Enough friction to teach him to yield to pressure, but not actually immovable.
Then I unsuccessfully tried to find a substance to help introduce the idea of oral meds. He didn't love molasses or applesauce.
Bubby did though!
I fetched their ball from the back of the pasture after that and Bubby was please. Charlie is no longer afraid of it and seems to think it is kinda fun too, so that's progress.
A few random shots to round out the post
Loves chewing on fly mask and it isn't even ON someone's face. That's not a good sign LOL
Hmmm...
A few days after kicking me, Charlie got his grain before his hay and bolted it and choked. My friend called me to have me drive down to help her tube him. Fortunately he cleared it himself before I got there. It was a few days of really loving my life choices re horses though.
But now we're back to cuddly ponies and rainbows and sunshine!
Butterball and I had jump lesson number two on Saturday. I don't know if pony is just excited to jump again or if all the soft leg means go flatwork is paying off. However, the forward tends to be a bit downhill, which JV would say is better than no reaction, but still not what we're going for. Anyways, most of this lesson was about woah meaning woah.
Per my request that we do either hunter or equitation classes at a show at the end of the month, we did a loopy inside-outside-inside-outside course for the whole lesson. After a few embarrassingly bad crossrails, PW put the jumps up to something that made the pony at least vaguely pay attention.
Dissecting course by course:
First course, 0:00-1:10, we started to get a little quick and long coming into the outside five stride line. It is a five stride line when the jumps are 1.10m plus, so getting down it in 5.5 showed how long strided we'd gotten. It wasn't really a problem until the diagonal skinny where he left long. If the fences were bigger, that might've been a time where he didn't leave because he didn't feel like he had the power to get off the ground carefully.
He's SO CUTE
Second course, 1:10-1:57, we did a better job down the outside line, doing it in a pleasant six. But then I didn't ask him to come back until about four strides before the skinny on the diagonal and so we had a bit of a pop chip because I didn't "get my work done early".
Those ears as he locks onto the fence!
Third course, 1:57-2:44, this one went pretty well.
Fourth course, 2:44-4:00 we started out okay on this one, but then it kinda fell apart. I softened the reins at him to the diagonal skinny again (problem child solo vertical it seems) and he lengthened into the pop chip. Then down the outside line I kept my hands a bit high as I tried to woah and pony objected to the feel on his mouth and did a hideous leap out. This discombobulation continued through cross cantering through the turn. He's much more apt to miss the R -> L change, I think it is just a strength issue.
Final lines, 4:02-end, we improved upon the previous oops on the diagonal skinny and got the five done much smoother, hoorah! He also got a nice right to left change after the skinny because of the better canter.
Since I took so long to write this recap that we've actually had another jump lesson in the interim, let's go ahead and launch into that. It is completely without media, sorry, but it was the same vertical and two poles, so just imagine that.
PW asked if I wanted to work on anything. I told him our left hand turns kinda sucked and I wanted to strengthen those. We started with a bit of a dressage lesson with instructions NOT to soften the reins at the horse at any point. You're not being soft, you're letting him fall on his face and have inconsistent contact. Heard. PW would go "BOP" every time he bopped up off the contact. Eventually he had me try lifting my hands a bit since having them closer to the mane led to pony face burying behind the contact a bit. To start in the canter he had me going pretty slowly then only allowing forward once his back was moving and accessible.
Then we took a short break and started jumping. We did a pole - 54 feet (show 4 stride) - vertical - 54 feet - pole. Over and over again. We were to do the waiting 5 strides. We were inclined to lengthen to the 4 after the fence, so I had to do a good bit of WOAHing with body, hands, and voice. Once Butterball got what we were going for he was landing much softer and smoother. The part where I struggled was NOT pushing him after the first pole. If the canter was decent then the five strides should just flow and I should trust the canter. The funny part was that when I FINALLY managed to start doing that, Butterball got much straighter over the vertical without me having to kick or pull him straight (not that pulling him straight ever works, but that's my inclination). Not pushing him gave him a bit more space to the fence and a much better jump. I could FEEL when I had little moments of "not trusting the canter" and tried to do too much.
I was given homework of setting up that line with a cavaletti. The goal is to eventually do 4 to a 5 or even 6. They should be THAT adjustable. It also really helped me to feel what canter we landed in on the backside. The pony is clever so once he knows what we're going for he just kinda does it. But I could feel the difference between the easy 5 and what was going to be a fight to squeeze in 5. Now to bring that assessment to every part of the course...
One tired pony post-lesson
First clip. I waited too long, but man was it satisfying
Butterball had his first (undocumented) jump lesson back a week and a half ago. It was fantastic! He was very happy to be there and then also very exhausted by the approximately twenty jumps that we did. He did do some calling to Ms. GY's horse while he waited on the trailer during her lesson. SIR! In his defense he hasn't gone anywhere other than splish splash since May.
This was after a flat ride at home. Sub in some jump tack though and this is how he felt post lesson.
We focused on the little details. The SAME contact and SAME pace to each fence because somehow I missed to a 2'3" vertical a few times LOL. It was very fun to be back out there.
Then a week ago I pulled a muscle in my back, and it was very unpleasant and limiting. I've had aches and pains before, but this felt like I was physically incapable of rolling over in bed because the pain made my body so guarded. So that was fun. Fortunately with DH's help (shameless plug here), I'm back to my normal self a week later. He also helped identify what asymmetry in my squatting led to this. Turns out it all stems from left ankle sprain --> right knee pain --> asymmetrical squat --> pulling my QL while setting a 30 pound weight down on the ground.
I made Butterball do some "equine assisted therapy" and walk around the ring with me on him bareback one day, but otherwise he had time off until Wednesday because my own back being that stiff and uneven seemed like a recipe for screwing his up.
His own PT
I don't recall if I shared, but at his last tendon recheck his vet recommended upping PT for his stifles (raised poles, backing, the usual stuff) and maybe doing another round of esterone like we did last fall if that didn't fix the stickiness he was seeing in trot-walk transitions in hand. He asked if the course of esterone last fall helped. I told him I had no idea because I also got diligent about doing PT. Soooo cue just the PT to see if that helps.
Wednesday we caught a break in the rain and my back felt good enough to try a saddle so we went for a walk around the neighborhood.
Hmmmm.... not where you're supposed to be. Ms. GY said he and his BFF had been peaceful in the barnyard all morning. She'd left to get hay maybe ten minutes before I arrived. I think he waited until her truck pulled out then went under the chain and into the hay room. I dropped the chain and went to lead him out. He tried to tell me he didn't fit between the wall and the golf cart. LOL sir, nice one.
Processing the less familiar cows
He thought the trailer trash lane was pretty spooky on this day. Unknown if there is some animal in there or if that's just the product of a week off work.
Loves mud puddles
Weather pending, we'll have another jump lesson tomorrow. But I'M NOT COMPLAINING ABOUT RAIN, WE LOVE AND NEED RAIN!!
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