May 2024 Wrap Up

 

 

	Ben	Goggles
Training rides	0	2
Lessons	0	1
Hacks	0	2
Ground work, lunge, long line	8 (1 Equiband, 7 lunge sessions)	2 - Equiband, 1 - trailer loading, 2 - liverpool from the ground
Flat rides	0	7
Conditioning rides	0	0
XC school	0	0
Shows	0	1 – Majestic Starter

Goggles: The big news this month was his first (recognized!) event that I would call a definite success! 

Beyond that show though, he had fewer rides this month than we'd managed in April. Partially because he developed cellulitis in his right front and was out for a few days because of that. Partially because I left for a conference at the end of this month. Partially because of life getting in the way. He had a total of 14 rides though, averaging an every other day schedule. Also he was a super patient for his cellulitis. He is 17.1 and could stick his head straight up in the air but kindly does not. He proved again that he's a LOT more stoic than Ben and it took a few minutes of grooming before I noticed how droopy he was and took his temp. He was lame for about two days on that leg and then got right back into it. He's a tough dude. Even though I don't enjoy having to treat him, it is always kinda neat to learn more things about how a horse handles stress, medications, pain, etc. etc. Filing notes away for the future, getting to know every part of him. 

We played with a decent amount of Warwick Schiller this month, ending the month with a few rides of his "Do the opposite." This really really helped us get a few straight lines here and there. It was amazing for the walk - turning a small circle the opposite direction of where he was falling in helped get him walking straight lines pretty quickly. The trot was a bit trickier and doing this on a loose rein revealed holes in his education as well. He's started to understand stretching really well, but if the reins are just loose but he's not actively stretching? He kinda wants to quicken the tempo and fall on his face. So we did a lot of walk trot transitions off of seat and voice to help every time he got quick, continuing the do the opposite principle. I think we're getting somewhere. The canter is hard. It's where he is most crooked, but I also haven't sorted out how to do the opposite when he falls in - we certainly can't counter canter a 20m circle and he does have flying changes in there that I don't want to screw up. 

Spoiled, I hang with the gate a little open so he can snag a few bites of long grass before I close it 

This month he also faced down his liver pool demons. I ordered a tarp and we've progressed to a liver pool sized tarp not along a fenceline that he is (mostly) casually popping over each time a see him. I'm hoping this will translate to liver pools out in the wild too. 

Ben: Oh Ben. May 2nd he got his shoes pulled. May 10th he moved to Goggles' farm. May 22nd a barefoot trimmer worked on him. He had not been sound before that, but was distinctly less sound after that trim. So he got put in wraps with pads by that trimmer. He was the same level of unsoundness as before his trim once the wraps were on. One of the wraps only lasted two days though before coming off, but fortunately the left front stayed on as that is definitely his more tender foot.

I'm carefully logging and documenting levels of soundness and what we're doing, maybe someday this will come together to help me find the magic formula to keep him sound and happy. Honestly I think we'll go back to his regular farrier next time he's due (another five weeks will put him on the same schedule as Goggles). We'll probably keep him out of shoes through the end of the summer and then try again, maybe with composites. 

A little chonk, but overall still looking pretty good

Prior to the trim I had been doing some lunging over raised poles and work with the equiband to try to keep him vaguely in shape. Post trim we knocked that off, but I'll probably pick it back up in the next few days. 

The final update: 

Their field is so grassy, but this is where they were choosing to hang and eat

The boys are now turned out together. They were ignoring the shelter (Ben) and tree line (Goggles) to stand along the shared fence line in the heat together. They also weren't eating much grass. And Ben was getting bit on his butt by putting his butt up to the fence to let Goggles maul him. So we tossed them out together. There was a lot of galloping around but only one moment where I held my breath when Goggles kinda aimed at Ben with both hind legs. Ben is pretty quick so he stayed out of the way, but his attempts to assert himself weren't very effective. They ended up with Goggles in charge, we'll see whether or not he's okay at that role. They have been so agreeable to one leaving to go do stuff other places on the property, so I'm also hoping that this doesn't make them insufferably bonded.