July Wrap Up

    

	Goggles
Training rides	5
Lessons	1
Hacks	2
Ground work, lunge, long line	4- 1 trailer loading and tarp, 3 lunge sessions with trot poles
Flat rides	5
Conditioning rides	0
XC school	1 – with AT
Shows	1 – HSITP jumpers (+ warm up day)

Goggles: Goggles had 15 rides this month, averaging every other day. The big news this month was his trip to do jumper rounds, which he most certainly did.  There was a lot to work on, but he showed up and TRIED the WHOLE time. 

July was also the month when trailering just... seemed to click... and in spite of doing a lot of it, he just... kept walking on the dang thing. Once I'm sure it isn't just a temporary fluke, I'll sum it all up in a post. 

We increased the distance of our hacks down the road. He has continued to get more and more relaxed, to the point that his first ride after the show was in the bareback pad. 

Is trustworthy steed? 

Seems that way...

This month I discovered a pretty large hole in his understanding of multiple ground poles in sequence. I noticed it under saddle when trying to do some raised trot poles and then noticed a lot of anxiety when doing 4 trot poles on the lunge. So we did three lunge sessions just very casually. He wants so badly to be a good boy and DO THE THING so he gets a lot of anxiety about DOING it. So these lunge sessions were just in his rope halter and on the line, lunge whip mostly tucked backwards under my elbow. As a trained horse, he needs to feel confident with the lunge whip, so it is present, but I found that if I moved it much the tension went WAY UP. We'll get there though. Ben lunges sooooo well but does require the presence of a lunge whip but never requires much use of it. Whoever taught him to lunge did a great job, and he's simultaneously relaxed but in tune and responsive to just voice commands. I'd like to get there with Goggles eventually. Our last lunge session of the month he was much more relaxed and seeking out his two trot poles and mostly slowly stepping over them while articulating more with his hocks vs. rushing forward and down and frantically stepping through them. 

He went to JT's at the end of the month since I was headed out of town for 8 days. He's signed up for his BN debut with AT at the Majestic schooling show this weekend, so I felt like it would be most fair for both him and AT to give him the week with her. I also was hoping he was finally emotionally stable enough to deal with moving to JT's barn for a week with his Relyne AND gastrogard to help keep his belly happy. He went XC schooling and had a great report back, just one stop at a blue and white cabin that has thoroughly spooked many horses. 

He also got hind shoes put on this month. He wasn't lame behind, but he was losing a hind foot behind him with some regularity. So back in those he goes. Hopefully once it's winter and dry again they can come back off. We'll see. 

Ben: Ben had a hard month. He did get a few good acupuncture sessions in, including one at the Chi institute. This was my first... not positive experience there though. During the scanning the instructor was emphasizing REALLY digging in with the hemostat tip he was using to scan. Which meant that my sensitive thoroughbred was "sensitive all over". I don't doubt body soreness from his feet, but c'mon, every single point was hot? I've seen other people emphasize the need to find a neutral spot on the hindquarters or shoulder or neck and decide what is just... the fact that you're running some foreign object along their skin with some degree of pressure and what is an actual response. This helps establish the amount of pressure you need to use ON THAT HORSE. I've had A LOT of positive experiences there with instructors I've really liked, so we'll keep going back if we make it into the lab sign ups, but I will request not to work with this particular instructor again. This instructor seemed a better fit for... not a thoroughbred. Ben did still seem to enjoy the treatment portion as well as hanging out with the students and being his usual friendly, social butterfly self, but I was still annoyed and he was certainly uncomfortable for the 5-10 minutes of scanning that the instructor (and then the students after he demonstrated HOW HARD they had to scan) did. 

Pretty wide eyed after walking off the trailer, it's been a minute since he's gone somewhere other than JT's! 

Scoping things out 

His feet continue to be an issue, because, shocker, these things take time, and Florida in the summer is not the most friendly time of year to try barefoot. My husband and I put on EasyCare octos that lasted for exactly a week. 

On the plus side, I found them in the field after they came off and could reapply if I thought they would stay on. They also made him instantly MUCH more comfy. He got a tiny amount rasped off by his usual farrier and was lame at the walk afterwards, so these did get him over the hump of that. 

His hind feet are doing pretty well. I can't assess soundness since he's still so lame up front, but when my husband was helping me with the octos, I had him press all over with his thumbs and the prior soreness from this spring to just finger pressure is gone. 

When Goggles headed to JT's, Ben got to go out with two of the barn owner's mares. They were all most delighted.

Going to make this a permanent set up since Goggles is just too mean.