Wordless Wednesday is actually a random collection of pictures with somewhat wordy captions. Sorry, not sorry.
How is he so stunning all the time?
Scritchies with his BFF
Uhmmm... he was getting really hot with all the canter and I did a super quick clip and left him looking very moth eaten. I will clean it up before he goes out in public.
Turkeys in the woods
Introduction to the dressage whip
Still such a tiny dude
Being SUCH a GOOD BOY for his second trim. Unsure ears, but trying so hard.
More Henny adventures
I went to Maine for 8 days. It is an absolutely stunning state.
I got a lot of satisfaction out of the basalt seams in granite, how cool is this?
Isle au haut - spent a night camping here; the first day fog rolled in in the evening and it was absolutely magical
Lots of moss, I love moss
Allegedly the reason I went to Maine, a work conference. Image of cat claw into dog eye - corneal perf, picked up a bit of iris and lodged it into the lens, causing a cataract. Also incredibly cool. Not great for the dog though; that cataract will lead to uveitis then glaucoma then blindness. Time for an enuc.
Back behind the best ears; he spent the time at my friend's place in canter boot camp. First ride back we went for a nice easy hackamore hack to make him love me again.
There's a fawn that is right at the losing the spots stage in those trees
Ms. GY's horse lost a shoe in his field overnight. I used pony as a search vehicle after our hack and found it. Then I dismounted and found that Butterball had lost a boot! The boots fit so well that I don't contort myself to check them at all during rides anymore, so I was dreading finding it. Fortunately it was in the field where we'd done a final fun canter towards home (bad training yes, but lots of fun). Expensive shoe recovered, hoorah.
The highlights of this month included good news at Butterball's recheck ultrasound and cross country with Henry at Majestic and Rocking Horse.
Butterball got the okay to go for 30-40 minute rides every other day with 15-18 minutes of trot per ride and a few strides of canter in straight lines. While he thinks this is a TON of work, and to be fair it is 1000 degrees, it has given me an opportunity to be very mindful and deliberate about every stride of walk and trot. We've worked on our rein backs and leg yields as well. He has been a VERY good boy.
He's still splish splashing once a week too and loves going to the clinic for his session and to say hi to all his favorite friends. This horse is such a ham. He does seem to wish they'd just fill the treadmill and let him hang out in the water, but he accepts walking too.
Charlie is doing a whole lot of growing. He had his first trim the fourth week in July and was reportedly (mostly) a very good boy.
Peekaboo between Maddie's legs
He's shedding baby fur and his socks/stockings are becoming so much more crisp
What diz?
He's a bit rude to his mother sometimes; she puts up with it. The other mare in the field does not tolerate pushiness, so it is probably a good mix.
It's been a week or so since we did a proper session of leading and feet and such. But I keep arriving when they've just gotten their hay which is a pretty unfair/unproductive time to try to work on things. Somehow I think he'll survive though.
August will be more of the same. To try to slim pony pants down I've added in a 30 minute hand walk on most of the off days from riding. It's honestly fun to mosey around the neighborhood with him, he's happy to be out exploring and taking in the sights. I've picked up some extra shifts to compensate for the baby horse decision. Better to be working more while it is horrendously sticky and hot outside.
Butterball gets his final recheck ultrasound (aka the insurance coverage runs out) at the end of August. Hopefully we'll be given the okay to do more cantering at that point. The tendon looks better and better. I can still feel the spot, but if I weren't hyperaware of it, it would be hard to notice these days.
There's only so much I can write about walking and trotting, so how about a cross country adventure?
Henry and I got to go to Rocking Horse on Saturday. We arrived a few minutes after 8:30 and (mostly) beat the crowds. We still didn't beat the heat, but let's be honest, that's not really a thing in July in central Florida.
As per usual, Henry was a delight. He eyed the coffin like riveted ditch under the upper level trakehner while we warmed up, and I promised him we definitely would NOT be jumping it. Once we were warmed up, we looped across the acres Rocking Horse has to offer and popped a few fences in each area. Henry is potentially the most fun I've had cross country since Zinger. If you ride him anywhere close to appropriately, he is willing and steady.
Pardon the ridiculous background music I put to the video. Avoiding copyright issues..
I did mess up twice on our last loop out. We were headed slightly downhill to a fence with a sandy takeoff. He'd been generous with taking the longer spot a few times already, but when I let him lengthen the last 5-6 strides past the appropriate distance to either a cruddy chip or a long spot/big effort, he declined. I repeated the mistake before I wised up and decided if I couldn't ride better I'd at least change the circumstances to make it easier. We picked up the BN size fence on the reverse (uphill) approach, circled around and did the N fence that had been causing me problems uphill, and then called it good. I could definitely feel Henry going "Silly kid, I think she needs to learn something" as he opted to not bail me out and then nodding with satisfaction when I got it right.
He has the easiest, steadiest canter out cross country. He's happy to go a bit more forward or just lope steadily, but really requires very little input from his pilot to maintain set speed and direction. It's a nice change from Ben who did a lot of sideways, Goggles who would've gotten there but was green, and Butterball who doesn't necessarily see the point or joy in a nice long canter-gallop. The joy of a good thoroughbred out for a canter or gallop cross country is truly unmatched.
I hope everyone had a good holiday weekend. I was at work, sigh, but have been getting in plenty of horse time when not at work.
Amanda and I took Bingo and Henny to Majestic last Thursday. They were both absolutely perfect.
Henry is truly such a joy. He is generous and kind and just so much fun.
Meanwhile Charlie has been continuing mini leading and otherwise yielding to pressure lessons (stepping over and learning to back up). He's holding his feet up for a few seconds at a time. He's also trying less to climb/lean across my back when I pick up the front feet.
Best scritches, most llama baby
Nibbling on Maddie
Hi, I'm Charlie!
And Butterball has been walking for 30 minutes every other day. He did LOSE HIS MIND over some randomly tossed Chewy boxes that contained grain bags. He was positive it was a pack of wolves waiting to eat him.
I should have abandoned ship that day and switched to halter with treats, but hindsight and all that. We eventually made our way past them. They were gone the next day, but I did head out on foot in his halter and with treats just in case there was residual fear, but he was totally fine.
Generally though our walks are pretty relaxing. We're cycling through neighborhood hack; neighborhood hack with equibands; and walking in the field playing with turning solely off my seat and legs with some shorter and longer strides, halts, and rein backs thrown in. I *think* he's getting better about accepting contact without getting busy in his mouth and stiffening right away.
There have been some very vivid skies lately.
Near the Bronson city hall. Looked very old timey
Incredible sunset for my entire 45 minute drive home from work
Henry and I continue to have a blast (well I'm having a blast, he's happy 90% of the time, the other 10% of the time he's internally shaking his head at me). We played cross country again.
And then did a couple of stadium rounds a week later.
He's a different ride from Butterball, but at the same time, the basics of a steady, even stride and having enough canter don't really change. So it's good to still be getting in the mileage there. But it's also just plain fun to go jump around with a willing partner.
Meanwhile, Butterball got to go on a field trip to the Chi Institute. Ben had gone to their labs several times, but I had not taken Butterball. I was worried that he did not have 4 hours of touching in him. He is a VERY GOOD PONY, but he also has LOTS OF THOUGHTS and does LOTS OF THINGS. Whereas Ben is one of the only horses I know who would have been DELIGHTED to be in the exact same dressage arena every single day of his life. Soooo basically I was worried that we were going to run out of quarters and he was going to become the most annoying, fussy, fidgety pony ever.
Well, I underestimated my pony-golden-retriever. He had a great time.
First he inspected their lawn care job and helped out by removing any stray grass blades
His muzzle looks uneven. It was. They worked on it.
He enjoyed (almost) all the touching and reciprocated by cuddling with every single person
Then he got a nice break and ate some grass
Purposely headed into the long section, full on water buffalo
Hold on, I can't go back in yet, I'm peeing (and eating)
Definitely would have put himself through the person gate/pass through... definitely a pony
After his break he got REALLY SLEEPY
And took a nap
The whole first half was the students reviewing points, but even then he did react to the finger pressure at a few of them. It was very cool to see.
After the break they did an actual treatment with needles. They decided to work on his qi deficiency (based on his tongue, pulses, and tendon issue). He had many more feelings about his treatment than Ben ever did. He did request that the students slow down at one point when he was hit with a number of points around the feet. It was a good learning moment for them to look at their patient as well. But once the points were in he processed them very quietly. It was the first time that he was still other than when he napped. And after about 5-7 minutes he sorta came to again and had a few big releases and then requested that the needles be removed.
I took notes on which points they used and added a couple to my dolphin stim treatment plan for him. The TA did some myofascial release on him as well and noted tightness over his left SI area. While she released that myofascial sheet, he had some muscle fasciculations in his left lumbar paraspinal muscles, it all really is connected! The next ride our halts were so much straighter than they have been.
His new farm is on the way home, so we stopped and did his 30 minute walk there, it was fun to put pony on property for the first time
The 👑deserves his own post after two awesome cross country adventures in the past week.
Saturday we went to the horse park. I had taken Henry XC once before, and it is always a joy. I really hope everyone gets to ride a Henry cross country at some point in their life. He is so straight forward and is also obviously having a great time. At the end I thought the gallop over the bridge to the cabin looked fun. When I believed in it, he was delighted to do it. A few times when there were no fences in sight he did a tiny bit of his trademark porpoising, which is hilarious. Also, this is all done in the side pull hackamore. Perfect boy.
Then yesterday we went to Sweet Dixie to play. We got a bit of a later start and it was toasty, so we didn't do much, but as usual he was perfect. He's very helpful for continuing to develop the feel of NOT changing the pace the last few strides. Don't push, don't pull, just keep the stride length the same and it all works out.
As a thank you for continuing to put up with my sometimes questionable choices, I took him to get his hocks done after we left Sweet Dixie.
Is he not the absolute cutest?
And since he's probably going to sneak into every single post for a good long while... another Charlie tidbit. After tucking Henny away in his stall, I hung out with Charlie for a few. We did a few "real" things like picking up feet and moving away from pressure. He is just so stinking cute. His muzzle is the perfect size and softness to smooch on.
