Rocking Horse Winter I - Dressage and Stadium

After matching out three separate scenarios (stabling, commuting from the GY's, commuting from JT's), I had decided stabling made the most sense. And in one regard, I was right, I rode at 8AM on Saturday, and 830AM on Sunday. But in several other senses, stabling was not ideal. 

The stalls are a bit dusty. RIP that cooler. 

See, ya learn something new about your horse daily. And mine loves wallowing. Literally dug into the somewhat questionable clay/sand stall base and then rolled. Repeatedly. Love ya Ben. On the less light humored side of things, Ben was a bit stressed by stabling. He was uber confused by what we were doing hacking on Friday. "Okay, we're at a show, k, we're going into that dressage ring. NO? We're just wandering? With a few other horses? What is our purpose here???" He was a bit stressed and tight until I put him to work. Then he went straight to work and softened really nicely. But still wouldn't hack on a loose rein after working. So we called it quits after 20 minutes since he had to be working the whole time in order to not turn his back into a board. 

Also, my phone told me Friday night was in the high 40s. The frost on the grass Saturday morning and the fact that my feet were cold all night long told me otherwise. So dressage was not our best effort by far. It got better as I rode the test more and let it happen to me less. Also being able to feel my toes by the end of it helped some too. I was kind of bummed coming out though. They had divided senior training rider so we were in a division of 10, seemed like a pretty good time to try to qualify for AECs. Turns out the judge liked Ben a lot and so the scores were fairly generous and definitely reflected the improvement in quality as the test went on. We actually ended up with a 28.3, sitting in first going into stadium. 

We had two hours between dressage and stadium and I actually parked him on the trailer in his box stall so he wouldn't roll with his braids and get himself super dusty again. He seemed pretty content there. 

Stadium was pretty much identical to the December horse trial. Ben warmed up like the pro he is and we went in and made decisions. And jumped our first clear round at training level!!! Not to take away from that, but we had a very lucky whack at 9B that somehow stayed up. But he put 2 strides in the 2 stride and 1 in the 1. And when I felt him jump in a little quiet to the diagonal line related distance, I closed my leg and he moved up to the second jump in the line. 

I took his braids out, brushed him off, and tossed him in his stall naked to wallow to his heart's content and eat some hay. My husband had come over to watch stadium and we hiked a bit of the Ocala NF down the road. That afternoon Ben and I went for a long mosey together. He is pretty adorable and kept checking in with me periodically by sniffing my face, but then grazing and sniffing things and wandering. Exactly what I wanted for his legs. At one point in the evening, someone's Great Dane was off leash and wandering around. Ben made a beeline towards him, he LOVES dogs, but the dog didn't reciprocate and moved away, so Ben kept pulling towards him, just trying to say HI! Fortunately Saturday was much warmer, so neither one of us froze overnight. 

Spoiler alert: Sunday did NOT go the way we wanted it to. But we're both fine. Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

Confirmed.

I lucked out Wednesday and managed to get Ben to a local schooling show at Clayton Frederick's farm. There are so so many different options available this winter. It's really nice to be able to check out different farms and courses. I was feeling anxious about stadium. With Ben starting January with a week off and with our stadium round at the December POP show, to put it bluntly, being pretty shitty, I wanted to get a couple more rounds done before the Rocking Horse event next weekend. 

Ben started super goofy. He'd gotten to play with the other horses in the morning and was very upset about being taken away from his new BEST FRIIIIEEENDS. He was screaming as I got out to open and close the property gate, and I'm pretty sure he worried the whole drive there. To his credit though he's a professional and even though I couldn't leave him alone on the trailer while I went to look at the course, he was totally fine once I was on him. He spooked a tiny bit at the mirrors in the warm up area, but I don't blame him. There were shards of mirror left stuck to a concrete wall, not really normal. 

Our first round wasn't the greatest, I could NOT see a distance to save my life. 

Solidly left behind to a meter oxer, Ben is the best

He was absolutely perfect though, two strides in the two stride, no spooking, just a complete professional. 

We went back in and went around again and it was lovely. I missed to the in of the two stride but he stepped up and it jumped out nicely. 

With these rounds under our belt/girth, I realized driving home that it feels like we are a training level pair. Unlike our first few rounds at 1m and even our move back up to 1m, it doesn't feel scrappy anymore. As seen above I still screw things up ALL THE TIME. But it doesn't feel like we're going to die/crash the jump/stop. It feels solid and good. I still reserve the right to screw up badly enough to die/crash the jump/stop at any point, but I'm no longer internally screaming about that possibility before each round. 

Ben knows his job and while he reserves the right to spook at things that might eat us, he now does his whole hearted best to get us to the other side of the jump. If we turn and a jump enters his field of view, he locks on to it now and doesn't go "Really?!?! That one??" while internally screaming, he goes "That one!" And goes for it. And he doesn't let mistakes I make, like missing to an oxer, shake his confidence.

I certainly still screw up plenty, but we can shrug, say oops, and move on without panic. It is a really awesome feeling, and I'm savoring every bit of it.

Green Numbers????

First, ulcer (treatment) updates: 

• Since it is freakishly cold in FL right now, Ben is actually hanging out with the whole herd more often than not because he is protected by his blanket. He is the only one with hind shoes and when he was with them in the summer, it was just bites. So far he hasn't been bit on his exposed neck and he is DELIGHTED to be with the whole herd. He had an entire party the first time I let him out with everyone. Everyone else kept eating hay while he carried on behind them trying to get SOMEONE to play with him. It was adorable. 
• I started him on ReSolvin EQ. At the price of $214 for 32 days, I figured it would come with some kind of dispensing system. NOPE! It's fine, I am drawing it up into 60cc syringes that the GY's are top dressing on his food daily. But as fish oil, it does need to be protected from light and heat. So the bottle stays at my house in my closet and then I dose out a few syringes at a time. Not sure how this will work when it is hot again. The feed room is air conditioned, but not always to 70 degrees. He also was a bit displeased by it the first few days. He isn't that much of a picky eater to be honest, he ate his powdered Chinese herbs that they warned horses might not eat. Soooo for very picky horses, probably not the right thing. Looking back at their study though, they did use it for treatment, which makes the price more palatable if you compare it to the month of GG we're doing. My current idea is to keep him on this through the end of the GG then consider overlapping it with a cheaper, easier to deal with supplement. 
• He is still getting alfalfa cubes soaked. But he's getting worse about eating them. I have found this with several other horses over the years too. At first they're super eager, but then they get bored or something?? So he gets a bit of grain mixed in with them, which may kind of defeat the purpose, but then again he gets lunch so it is lunch buffered with alfalfa cubes. 

Moving on... we went to Magnolia Sands again on Friday. And we jumped modified and prelim combos! Holy crap! Nothing of prelim height, but if you'd told me last June that I'd be pointing this horse at skinny wedges as the second part of combos and he'd be going "Got it!" I would've called BS. 

We warmed up over an entry mulch table that prompted a "WHA?!?!? We're jumping things???" Okay sir, get it together. From there he was all business though. We even managed NON-derp jumps over what JT called my favorite sharks tooth. It's not the jump itself, its just that it is off in a busy, spooky corner, so every time we've jumped it in the past he is too busy spooking at everything else then sort of derps over it. 

Picture/narration follows, but if you just prefer to watch the video: 

After the warmup and our sharks tooth, we looped over a coop uphill - uphill jumps are still a bit of a mystery to me... I kind of hold the reins and go forward and Ben always jumps them BEAUTIFULLY. I was scarred by a jump a long time ago at Pony Club camp on my appy. It was uphill and I thought it was HUGE and we never did get over it... 

Uphill!

Right hand turn back down the hill, he was right in being this close, the long spot would've been a flyer. We headed down the hill to a coop after the house.

Then did a log 

And headed back down into the depression to do this wedge

Then JT pointed us at a combo with an M on the side of it. It was a BN bench in, to a modified wedge. I think my eyes bugging out of my head was unnecessary, pretty sure the wedge out was not at all modified height, but was skinny. 

We were tight to this

And so did 4 strides instead of 3 to the out

Got a much better spot the second time

And I didn't fling myself up his neck 

The up bank combo to wedge we kinda sorta screwed up, but not in a terrible way, and we got the strides right the second time. 

Too quiet up

Aannnd very tight to the wedge, but he did it like a GOOD BOY

A bit more power up this go round

For a much prettier jump out

The coffin... the first time through we did a log, bending line to ditch two strides to the house. He stared hard at the ditch, so I probably should have done that same line one more time, but instead I put the whole straight combo together. He proceeded to stare HARD at all of it again, put a hind leg in the ditch. Then I flung myself up his neck at the out jump. He was a very good boy and jumped the out which was very kind because I was 100% not helping and would've ended up on the jump if he stopped. 

Why on earth am I riding like that??? 

Much better

And the other direction

We did get it together though, and that was the only real OOPS of the day. I called it a day there and let him drink some in the water complex before walking back to the trailer. He is cleared to go back to full work by his vet, but it still kinda feels freaky that two weeks ago he was standing on three legs, so I'm being conservative. I realize that going out XC schooling at all is not conservative, but if he is getting tired and doing things like slipping in the ditch because of that, then that is the time to call it a day once we sort that specific question out. 

Begging for cookies after we got back, of course he got some

Looking inside

Ben got scoped Monday. I'd been wanting to do it for a while. Then he almost bit me a few weeks ago doing a belly lift, very very out of character for him. We'd scheduled a recheck appointment for his mystery lameness for Monday. Thankfully though, he is sound and has been since Friday (and has stayed sound with under saddle work!!) So we switched his appointment from lameness  to a scope. 

Ben has a few ulcers, grade 2 equine squamous gastric disease (ESGD). Bad enough that we're starting a full 28 day course of Omeprazole. Ouch. Grade 2 is technically "mild", but looking at his stomach, ouch.

Then... Then... We enter the world of gastric supplements. Oh boy. One of those of there are so many things that claim to do this, none must work 100% of the time. I ended up ordering resolvinEQ from Kentucky Equine Research. It has long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids. They did a study with 13 thoroughbreds in training. This supplement decreased severe ulcer (grade 3-4) from 38% of horses to 8% of horses. Low n number and the overall prevalence of ulcers was 54% in unsupplemented horses and 31% in supplemented horses. So it may not do a whole lot for the "mild" grade 1-2. I put mild in quotes because his grade 2 stomach sure looked uncomfortable. I'll see if there are enough behavior changes to gauge our maintenance treatment success from that. If not, scoping on farm was incredibly reasonable, so I'll have his vet back out at some point. We're definitely going to recheck after the month of GG to make sure they resolved. 

Lifestyle wise, he'd probably be happier with a buddy all the time. He gets his friend at night but because the field they go in is small, he is without his friend during the day. In the summer when the grass is growing more quickly, we might be able to change that. He has forage nearly 100% of the time - grass with hay supplemented in the pasture and then hay for the 3-4 hours he spends in the stall to eat grain. After the biting, I did buy alfalfa cubes to soak and feed before trailering. The travel is definitely the most stressful part of his life. He likes the box stall set up better than straight load. I am not sure if he likes traveling with a friend better (ie in straight load) or solo in the box stall. He would travel less if he lived at JT's. And could probably have a friend to go out with who wouldn't beat him up. But he'd spend more time overall in the stall. 

I think for now I'll try the new supplement and alfalfa cubes daily as our maintenance. If that isn't effective, maybe a major lifestyle change to move to JTs barn to minimize his travel. Although he'd still haul out to school and show, sooooo.... 

I might try some Purina Outlast as well. Unclear how to combine that with my alfalfa cubes idea. Also unclear how to get the GG on an empty stomach. Maybe post ride? 

Oof. Anyone out there gone through this and want to share their fav gut support? 

End of 2022

Ben gave me a great end of year present... New year's eve... We took him for a nice walk around the neighborhood. I didn't put the chain on because he'd worked that morning and it was warm. But I should've because he was up and in my space. When we got back we came in through the pasture in the front by the barn. I decided to let him go for a few minutes to dance and prance and then go in for dinner. But he didn't realize the horses were right there in the barn and RAN in a totally panicked way. For about a minute. I was trying to catch him the whole time, but couldn't catch him until he paused, tried to start running again, and then was three legged lame on a front leg. 

We walked in with him barely toe touching on that right front. I stopped by his buddies stall so he could touch noses and calm down. Then I inspected. Shoe was still in place, hadn't turned that and stepped on a clip. No swelling or crepitus or source of pain in the leg. Let me put it through a range of motion. Put him in his stall and he limped around 3 legged but then went right to eating. His vet told me to give 2g of bute and keep checking for swelling. She couldn't get out to see him that night though. He would eat some and then circle and fling his head in pain, I felt so awful. 

Talked to my BFF and we tried to decide if he should go on a trailer to the hospital to get rads. She reminded me to check for digital pulse - bounding in that foot. Ended up getting a vet I used to use to come out on emergency to shoot rads. I paid her extra, I was so grateful she came on a holiday for a non client. No fracture, thank goodness. Negative to hoof testers as well, one theory before that was he'd slammed a rock deep in the sand and given himself a terrible bruise. He was even a bit better while the vet was there, would put the whole foot on the ground. There was a gas track on that foot, but could've been from the abscess in June. 

Overnight he got progressively more comfortable. In the morning he was walking but slightly lame at the walk. Had laid down though and would rest the hind foot on the same side and let me pick out the other front foot. 

This morning he took a couple of slightly off steps on hard ground at the trot. Not at all off in the soft dirt of the arena. 

So in the span of 36 hours I have gone from: 

• He's broken a bone and has to be euthanized tonight
• No fracture but a terrible career ending soft tissue injury
• Maybe he can be a dressage horse and just never jump
• Maybe he'll be okay and go back to work???

I definitely could've lived without this whole roller coaster, as I'm sure he could've too. He was so sad Saturday night. The GY's have been amazing, they brought me out a jacket, food, and water that night and chatted to keep me company. I think we took several years off JT's life as well as I kept her updated Saturday night. 

Today and tomorrow we're tack walking. Wednesday he gets new shoes with pads all around, and we'll have his farrier hoof test him again. Current going theory is there was an abscess brewing and he shoved gas around into some sensitive lamina while acting a fool. 

#whytho #fuckinghorses

2022 Wrap Up

January: Yoshi started this month with a new diagnosis of left proximal suspensory desmitis. While I was told to keep him in light work through this, I gave him 30 days off for my own mental health. During this time he did have a corneal ulcer so we got to add eye medications to the list of experiences. Through JT's connections, I acquired an adorable lease horse, Ben! 

February: Yoshi got his hocks injected (even though he really, really didn't want to). I gradually started him back to work and figured out how to balance two horses. Ben and I got to know each other better and planned out a March BN for our first event together. I also listed Yoshi for sale, disclosing his loooong medical history. 

March: Yoshi found himself a new home with a woman who loves him and totally understands thoroughbreds. We're FB friends and I enjoy her photo updates of Yosh, he found himself a great person. Ben and I did our first show together and continued to spend the rest of the month getting to know each other. 

April: Ben and I moved back up to Novice and after a beautiful dressage test and acceptable stadium round, kinda fell apart on cross country. He came to me having done A LOT of novice events, but with a spotty XC record. I wallowed in a bit of guilt for adding to it, then JT and I got to work. At the end of the month, I decided to buy him out of his lease.

May: Unfortunately Ben rewarded me for buying him with TWO MONTHS of abscess hell. I contemplated kayaking and mountain biking as two other possible outlets for all the free time and money I was going to have when I gave up horses. While all signs pointed to the lameness being JUST an abscess, we couldn't rule out collateral ligament issues completely. 

June: We continued our abscess saga. Due to concern over collateral ligament injury we also did about two weeks of stall rest, during which Ben BOUNCED on my arm with his front foot while hand "walking". So I switched to tack walking, but even on trazodone or dorm, he wasn't particularly safe to walk. I threw him back outside, hoping I wasn't making the wrong decision. I was rewarded with THE MOST EXCITING CASEOUS MATERIAL EVER in a hoof boot one day! In spite of the emotional difficulty of May and June, it was interesting learning things about my new horse - how does he handle stall rest, what was he like for veterinary work. I knew from his sarcoid treatments that he was phenomenal for vet work, but it was interesting to see how stall rest went. To be fair he handled it well for the first week, but after that things kinda fell apart mentally. 

July: Ben moved to the GY's since we finally waved farewell to his abscess and the questions of whether or not something more was going on. He also got a course of gastrogard which helped check his brain back in after it kinda checked out on stall rest. 

He also started his development as a trail horse with some hacks around the GY's neighborhood

August: First and most important, Ben volunteered as an acupuncture demo horse  and LOVED the whole experience. He continued to endear himself to me as just the most pleasant horse to be around. He won the students and instructor over in the same way, smiling at everyone and enjoying the spotlight on him. We were also back in full work at this point. We did a novice CT at Majestic Oaks, too hot for all three phases at once, but the CT went very well. Then we schooled at Majestic, our first cross country school since April, and he was SUPER. We started adding in training cross country fences. We did attempt a move up to 1.0m at a jumper schooling show that did NOT go well and got JT and I brainstorming about our move up to training. I had shared with her that my stretch goal was to go to AECs at training in 2023 and she took me seriously. 

September: This month we enacted the plan in which Ben learned how to be a training horse with JT. 

And he looked so good doing it! Back to Sweet Dixie to jump the 1.0m with JT - not breathing the first round, but finally taking a breath the second round

He's just so handsome

Schooling some before his training level debut 

September was also the month that my heart cat had TWO surgeries to place a subcutaneous ureteral bypass device (and then revise the placement) for a ureteral stone

Given my emotional feels with my cat in September, it was a relief to hand Ben's reins over to JT for a bit. I was still riding him at home, but she competed him twice - Majestic schooling show at Training and the Sweet Dixie South schooling show with two rounds at 1.0m. 

October: Ben had his recognized training level debut this month with JT at the Ocala Fall HT with a 2nd place finish overall and champion training level TIP award. He was still screaming a bit in cross country, so we played with a bit change. She took him out again at Majestic for just a XC round to trial that bit change and said he was the most pleasant and just galloped around easily. He and I geared up for our training level debut at the POP show later in October, but our stadium fell apart when he had sore feet. Somehow the same combination of leather pad, dental molding, and shoe that he had been very happy in ended up getting sand under the toes making him quite sore. We regrouped and scratched POP and dropped to Novice at the Rocking Horse HT. 

November: We had a GREAT show at Rocking Horse - finishing on our dressage score - 3rd out of 19. He cantered around stadium beautifully and felt confident and forward on cross country. We went back to Majestic for another jumper show at the end of the month and did two 1.0m rounds, each with two rails, but we jumped the dang jumps! 

December: December confirmed Ben as a training level horse - we started with a confident outing at Rocking Horse with a 29.4 in dressage, one rail in stadium, and a clear cross country round. Good enough to put us in 5th for his second recognized training HT and my first ever. Stadium definitely still needed the most work - we put three strides in a two stride line, but cross country felt AWESOME! 

Ben also got to be an acupuncture demo horse again and got stellar reviews from the instructor. Then we headed back out for the POP show at training level. Stadium continued to be a challenge with two rails and a whole two strides in a one stride line. Cross Country he felt solid though. AND we got to do the whole thing with reindeer antlers on, what a way to finish the year! 

Didn't finish the year fixing my hands though... 

Cutest lil reindeer through the water