Getting it right off the horse: 2024 Update

For reference: 2022 and 2023 posts detailing my fitness routine with small updates for the horse as well. 

The same pesky whiteboard of shame still exists to log the weekly workouts: 

 

But there are a few modifications to what is on it. For starters, I am less and less able to call myself a runner these days... my "long" run is down to four miles and my pace is slower. But I haven't noticed a decline in my overall fitness level. Even back in the fall when Ben and I were still galloping training level courses, it didn't seem to matter that I'm running at 9-9:30 pace most of the time vs. 8:30 pace. 

The new addition this year is weight training. I asked a friend what her routine is since she always is so strong and steady in her position, no matter what her horse is doing underneath of her. She recommended a few different youtube channels: Heather Robertson and Sydney Cummings. I think she does these three or four times a week (I've purged that information from my head) but I do them once a week. There are a few favorites that always light up my entire body, but sometimes I'll also let whatever the most recent suggested video is just roll. Sydney does much more cheerleading during the routine while Heather lets music play silently. Pick your poison. 

While Goggles is still sometimes exhausting to ride, I think the dedicated 30 minute strength training sessions each week have definitely helped. I still do a few of the workouts from the Ultimate Exercise Routines for Riders, but I've outgrown most of the exercises in there. I was able to modify a few (ie clamshells with a band vs. without), but often they don't give me the same satisfying burn that weights workouts do these days. I do need to circle back to the stretching routines because that is certainly an area of weakness. 

Also with Goggles specifically in mind, I do deep neck flexor strengthening once or twice a week. His propensity to do those giant spine wrenching trips that feel like an entire car crash worth of whiplash motivated me. He's doing those much less these days and my neck is stronger, so it's been quite a few months since I've woken up unable to turn my head ::furiously knock on wood::. 

As far as the horses go, both of them benefit from raised cavaletti, so I've been doing that multiple times a week with Ben and once a week with Goggles. Ben is limited to what he can/should do at the moment, so he's got more low impact ways of strengthening. I've also been doing acupuncture on Ben once a week to try to help with ulcers and now with foot pain. It certainly can't hurt and he seems to like it quite a bit. They also both do at least a minute of belly raises every time I see them. I do 6-10 seconds and then reward with a treat. 

Non-linear progression

Goggles had his second under saddle lesson a week ago. He'd been... fizzy since we cantered under saddle the week before. We cantered at home once and then he was continually offering that and not offering to steer. 

We meandered out to JT's field, fairly chill, and hung out with her on another horse while she watched a training horse work for a few minutes. Then they both went back in and we were left ALONE. We walked the circle of death exercise, cavaletti on their lowest setting, to give him something to focus on and then headed into the ring. He didn't bat an eye at the mats on the way in this time, good boy! He was however high pitched calling every so often and did hump his back and carry on a little bit to express how he felt about being left. 

When JT walked out she asked how he had been since our lesson the week before. I described the feeling and she asked if he felt that way now. YES! Her response was "Okay, perfect, today we deal with that." I <3 her. So we dealt. She said we were going to do a million walk-trot transitions, and we did. We also got 4 cones marking our circle so that we could not meander around the ring. 

Walk ten strides, trot ten strides, rinse and repeat. The cue to walk was voice "WOAHH" slightly more volume and definitive ending to the word than the settle, low pitched, calming "ho-oohhh" (pardon my lack of phoentic spelling), shoulders back, stretch up, close the knee and thigh. If that doesn't work, one short bump with both hands, then release. If that doesn't work, then turn inside the larger circle and do a small circle until we are walking. Then lots of praise. Then trot. And again. Then we took a break. 

When we started up again, when we had to turn to a smaller circle to get the walk, we would change directions through the circle. He started balancing himself and getting straighter, it was magical. 

Part of my difficulty of replicating lessons at home is that I have too much time to think when JT isn't telling me things. Like my internal dialogue gets shushed by her input during lessons, but it is running full blast while at home. "His neck is so twisty, how do I straighten that, (helpfully pulls on inside rein) maybe he's got cervical OA, maybe this is just the way he is and he's broken. I'm breaking him more... etc etc etc" It is not that he is perfect in lessons, in fact that day was a great lesson in dealing with non-perfect baby horse. But I have less time to spiral out of control about how everything is awful. And instead we fix it, but by riding him properly, forward and off the inside leg. 

We practiced that walk-trot circle the next day, briefly, and it was there! Enough so that we cantered. And then did a few more walk-trot transitions after. With the realization that I needed to mostly stay out of my own head it went much better. 

A few days later we went cross country "schooling" for the first time. Aka we met a friend at Majestic Oaks and walked around. He was super about almost everything. He took a bit getting his toes wet and then had several panicky moments once they were wet because the water was moving under him. He did body slam his friend once doing this, so I caved and stood in the water while he danced around until he got it sorted out and stopped dancing. Down side, I had wet boots and half chaps for the rest of the ride. At least I hadn't brought my tall boots out for this ride. 

He did the BN ditch like it was NBD. We looped parallel to it, showing it to him with both eyes, for maybe 3-4 loops till he stopped acknowledging it, and then we stepped over it. Super good job. He also walked over a few entry fences - a coop, a log, and something else that I forget. He did want to kick up his heels a bit after these, I needed to just push him forward but was feeling a little tentative and didn't do a great job of that. He also stepped up and down banks without a second thought. Good boy!! Overall, very pleased with him. He was brave and forward. Regulating between things and overall was a bigger deal than any of the jumps/ditches/banks themselves. 

Since he pulled a shoe at some point during this adventure (since I'm a dope and forgot to put bell boots on him), I took him out in hand to the hay field near the barn to work on emotional regulation away from his friends a few days later. It was pretty interesting, he was fine when we first got out there, but when I stopped to let him graze, he kind of realized he was alone and didn't have a specific job to do to keep him occupied. So he trotted circles, cantered circles, and pulled and bucked and threw in a couple of rears for good measure. All out of my space, so per the cowboy, just let 'em do it (also what on earth would you do to stop it). The few times he came into my space, he tick-tocked back out of it just fine even when he was on high alert. He also changed directions on his own and did some self-inflicted work tracking right, cool that he wants to stay even-ish. Eventually he settled, heaved a sigh, and started grazing consistently. He got a softer look in his eye, and I hope realized that he can be fine away from friends. I hope he also had the realization that temper tantrums don't actually get you what you want. 

He kept staring off and screaming. This isn't pointed towards home, I'm not sure if someone else's horses were responding to him, but I couldn't hear any. He's a little ribby, the GY's and I are still learning how to feed a growing baby.

But he did settle down and graze

And I grazed on blackberries

I only bell booted the foot that still had the shoe on. He looks pretty cute in green!

Next week he goes to JT's for a bit of a boot camp while I'm out of town for 5 days. I need to write a Ben update too. He had a great recheck on Wednesday and is going back to work, thank goodness. 

Ben's Best Day Ever (and some mullings on diet, supplements, and balance pads)

Ben and I went to the Chi Institute on Friday for him to be a demo acupuncture horse again. It was pretty foggy and dark that morning when I arrived at the barn. Ben and his older friend had started cantering around while I was letting the other horses in. And unlike his 25 year old friend, he cannot be trusted to navigate the two gates and barn without banging into things when he is feeling VERY frisky in the morning. So he got haltered and I led him in with a bit of trepidation. But he was a good boy and just BOUNCED next to me, not on me. He loaded well and we arrived shortly before the lab started. This was the second in person session of this set of students in the course, so people were a bit less WOW a horse and more focused on the upcoming points exam. 

Taking in the scene, being so handsome and alert

The TA for Ben's group works in Virginia and works on a lot of thoroughbreds at the track. For some reason it had not occurred to me that on the track TBs would get acupuncture, but of course they do! Anyways, the TA adored Ben and he adored her. He introduced himself to everyone by grabbing the empty trash can from the center of the group for putting needles in later and flinging it back and forth while they were chatting about things that weren't him. Then he proceeded to pick up a stick from the arena ground and fling that around for a bit. Clown. Once he had everyone's attention on him, he was a bit more focused and did some yawning and licking and chewing as they identified points. 

Pleased to be the center of attention and being so tolerant of being poked everywhere

During the break we went out to the sunshine so I could warm up and Ben could graze. I chatted with another owner who said he was "obviously a quality thoroughbred" and asked me if I knew of any for sale like him. JT has gotten a similar comment while warming us up and responded "I wish I knew!"

The shiniest, most handsome

He was a bit out of patience after the break. It is a long 4 hours of standing around and being a patient pony, so I couldn't blame him. He quickly tuned back in though and enjoyed his treatment. The students had decided to have the TA do the treatment so that they could keep reviewing. The TA was really quick with her needles and did a lot of B12 injections rather than electroacupuncture. The idea is that the B12 stays at the point and acts as a bit of an irritant and pressure spot so that the stimulation lasts longer without having to necessarily stand there with the needle in. She did it with 22 gauge needles and he really didn't seem to mind it much. 

This time around he was a "Balanced Wood" for his constitution. The way she described it, wood constitution is more solid, brave, trustworthy. Kind of all the things we've been working on with him, I wonder if we've brought out his inner wood. My friend who is currently taking the course discussed it with me later and we decided he might truly be an earth. I realized when the TA was describing a point by the ear and noting that if the ear was pricked forward or pinned the point shifted that I have NEVER seen him pin his ears. EVER. He does not have an angry, mad, or mean bone in his body. And I guess the wood constitution does have some desire to push back against authority and sometimes respond when a fight is picked. Which Ben DOES NOT. Anyways, just kind of interesting things to think about with him. He definitely has a sense of humor. 

You can barely see the 22g needles down his back here 

He scanned positive to a few of the stomach points and she asked what gut support he was on. Which he's not. And he's in full work and doing lots of travelling, so probably should be. She recommended the probiotic Equitic as a starter. As I sit here and am digging deeper though, he has recently been switched to Nutrena ProForce Fuel which contains a probiotic and prebiotic. So does he really need a separate probiotic? But the grain does not contain the specific strain (Lactobacillus reuteri) that is present in the Equiotic... Oye. The probiotic doesn't break the bank, but is roughly $2/day. 

She also prescribed him Tendon/Ligament and Body Sore because I said the Chi Performance hadn't done much. Actually what I said was I had no idea if it did anything. Because he spent November with JT on her grain and hay and schedule, and hee started receiving the Chi Performance partway through that month. Then we moved back to the GY's and he's been on the Nutrena ProForce Fuel since returning there. There's also better grass- Bahia and winter rye, supplemented with Timothy or orchard hay. At JTs it is Tifton round bales instead of grass and then t&a in the stalls. And the rice bran I was getting shipped from Chewy was back ordered so he got switched to Purina Amplify two weeks ago. THEN I got a free sample of Organic Gut Solutions, a product made in Ocala that had some suspicious claims of detoxifying the gut. But the ingredients did not look to be harmful, and they claimed it decreased anxiety, so what the hey. 

Anyways, said all that to say, no idea if the Chi Performance supplement did or did not make a difference because literally ALL the variables have changed since I started him on it. 

As shown in the above grazing picture, he looks fabulous right now. He still needs to add some trapezius muscle back in that atrophied with our poorly fitting saddle. But other than that, he has a great butt and is super shiny and slick and feeling really good. 

He has been slipping more in the hind end though over the past... unknown time frame, I want to say two months. I've been more diligent about stretching his stifles post-rides now that we're back at the GY's. And I've been breaking out the balance pads more. Mostly because he finds them really challenging in the hind end, making me think they're really good for him lol. And if he is slipping somewhere back there, then strengthening the stabilizing muscles should help, yes? 

Don't mind the sweaty saddle mark... I can't use the pads before I ride because I paint his feet with Farrier's Fix OR copper tox and I can't get that on them. And then he gets hosed post-ride. And I don't want to get them muddy and wet. So sweaty post-ride, pre-hose it is. 

The right hind is the hardest to get him on. He really wants to put that foot on solid ground. It takes a lot of repositioning and then clicking for finally putting weight on it to get him to stand on that one. 

We're only doing a minute on them right now, but I'm hoping to build up to more. It is a really good use of the clicker training because I am far from his head, but trying to let him know he is doing it right and a treat is coming. He's so solid on the not mugging me for treats while I am actively clicker training. He was still definitely mugging me for my snack and trying to ask the students for treats yesterday, but y'know, he is who he is. 

I am hoping that in a month I'll be able to look back and say that his slipping behind is doing much better... so I'm trying to mentally log # of instances per ride to write down on my calendar post-ride. But at the same time trying not to obsess about it. 

Anyways, do ya'll have any input on supplements, grain choices, and probiotics? Do you take a less is more approach or do you feel supplements can be truly beneficial and feed multiple supplements? 

This and that

Ben and I have been gearing up for our training level debut together - this Sunday at the Partners of the Park schooling show at the Florida Horse Park, where he did his last event. Most likely it will be over the same course, so we're hoping to ease into our training level partnership. The weekend after that is Rocking Horse, which will be our recognized training debut. 

I ran through training level test B for the first time on Friday and was appalled by having to do transitions AT letters. Ugh. Okay, fine, time for me to grow up a bit. I keep struggling with the left lead canter transition though - it is at K after doing a 15m trot circle at E. It's in the same relative position in the ring as the right lead transition. However, I am not struggling to the right, but I keep shoving him downhill into the corner and chasing him into the canter to the left. We went back out of the dressage ring and worked on the left lead transition till it was smooth and lovely when we were ready for it, then brought it back into the ring and tried again. It went better, but still not as well as the right lead. Huh. Hopefully I'll squeeze in a dressage lesson at some point in the next two weeks to get JT's pointers on the test. The stretchy circle immediately after trot lengthening was also kinda tough, I really need to emphasize coming back from the lengthening to start the stretch. 

My difficulties with the test aside, he has felt FANTASTIC in our last few dressage schools. Just really through and forward and willing and so much fun. He's slipping behind a little bit, but he is also due to get his feet redone on Tuesday. I caved and put him in hind shoes at the beginning of September. Lo and behold he is not sore in his lumbar area anymore for his chiro adjustments. I don't understand it, nor does my wallet appreciate the $350 farrier bill, but if it makes him happy, what the hey. I've been trying to remember to do his hind leg stifle stretches AFTER riding instead of before. Humans they don't recommend stretching "cold", but it is much harder for me to remember to do after because I don't usually pick out his feet after riding (bad owner). 

We're without jump saddle at this time, but fortunately a very generous, lovely friend is letting me use hers on Ben when we're at JT's barn, so that is what we're going to use for cross country schooling tomorrow. 

Last week we took it easy mostly. We had a lunging day where we played a bit with hunting the jump (pole). I discovered a few weeks ago that he was not very relaxed on the lunge and that woah didn't work that well. So we purposefully had a VERY lazy, relaxed lunging session. It was fun, I could visibly see him relax after a bit. He is really very clever with his feet, and moving the circle around picking up our two ground poles at different angles was interesting to watch. He would scope out the pole and adjust his striding a ways away from it to get it right. He also very tidily trotted over the lunge whip where I had abandoned it and forgotten about it. 

He's been super careful and adorable with the GY's new corgi puppy who sometimes is not very aware of horse feet. Ben just puts his nose way down and kind of snuffles him and steps very carefully around him. He is not an incredibly careful jumper in terms of rails, but it is very interesting to see how precisely careful he is with anything on the ground. Maybe part of his spookiness? 

Today we hacked out to where they are harvesting some pines in the neighborhood. He was extraordinarily brave and watched them drop a few very large trees. But he also spooked/flattened himself to the ground twice when the neighbor ponies walked up to the fence while we were leaving the pasture. #horselogic

Also last week I introduced him to the balance pads. He kept shifting weight from side to side when they were under his hind feet - definitely more challenging for him than when they were under the front. I love that he is just barely downhill with the pads added in. 

In addition to remembering to do his hind leg stretches post ride, I'm trying to do the bladder meridian twice a week. There was a Masterson Method post on instagram where he said that for spooky or anxious horses, it is a very useful exercise done regularly to increase relaxation and trust. I have had to repeat the first side both times, he is so busy and engaged externally that I really don't get feedback on the first go round, but the second time he does seem to turn internally and lose some of the focus on the outside world - maybe that is why it is supposed to be useful?  

Mostly a rambling post lacking media, but I did want to get down some of what we've been doing lately.