Hair Everywhere

They are shedding. A lot. And it's still too cold/dark/covered in snow to groom outside. So I'm covered in hair and the barn aisle is covered in hair and the broom and all my brushes. Ug. Anyway Axel is about the same. Same swelling. Same knee. Thought he might roll in the arena due to the extreme itchiness of shedding hair but he decided against it.

Cody ran around the arena a bit with some encouraging. I need to take some video of him, he's looking good these days. I did end up getting on Cody bareback for a few minutes. We even trotted around for a while. I'm finding it hard to keep my body straight and still ask him for a bend AND not bounce off. One of those pat your head and rub your belly type issues. Cody spooked a super tiny almost nothing spook but I stayed on, yay me. Really it was nothing more than surging forward a stride but I'm a wimp and don't have a good seat so I was happy I was still on his back.

So that was about it for my quick visit. It's hard to find time and to get motivated again after pretty much doing nothing all winter due to Axel's winter long practical joke.

In sad news, Jeff's niece's Buckeye passed away yesterday (the dun in the photo above). From what they can tell he just laid down and that was the end. He was a pretty old guy but he had a really nice retirement and was a great first horse for her.

Cody get his hair dried

So here's a photo of Axel's knees from tonight. Pretty much exactly the same as the previous photos. With a bit of additional winter hair of course.

He was still pretty gimpy today and trying to walk across the ice rink to the barn didn't help of course. He loves his MSM though and I think he's much happier getting his treats now that they don't taste bad. He walked around the arena a bit but he didn't want to roll so we went back outside.

Cody was waiting his turn when I brought Axel out. He was a bit more snowy so I groomed him up pretty good. He had some nice platform snow shoes on his front feet so I bet he was glad to have them picked out. I free lunged him for a while at the trot and canter, not too much so he didn't get sweaty. We worked on some ground work after that. I think I need a refersher course on some of the ground work stuff I feel like we're stuck and not quite getting to where we want to be with moving parts of Cody's body and eventually lateral movements. He still wants to always look at the gate when we're in there.

When we were done playing in the arena I put Cody back in the aisle to see how he'd react to the hair dryer. He was actually still a little wet from the snow so I figured it was a good time to try. He wasn't too sure of the whole deal. He behaved really well but he was pretty concerned with what was going on. I managed to dry a spot on his withers but the hair dryer on low seemed really cool. When I tried it at home the high setting seemed really hot but now low seems too low. Who knows, it did dry him off in that spot pretty well. I'll keep working with him on that so when we really need it he isn't surprised.

Back to Work

Brought Axel into the arena to clean out his feet and see if he wanted to move around. No such luck. He's still looking pretty sad. This time when I picked out his front right and put it down he was lame on it. Seemed like it was his knee. I'm wondering if he's just all over achey from the swelling and not moving around and the billion below zero temperatures. Haven't heard from the vet on the bloodwork yet. I hope it comes back soon so we can get started on some sort of treatment. It's sad seeing Axel so down.

Note to self: work horse in arena first, then bring in other horse while first horse is cooling out. Sure would have saved some time.

So I brought Cody in and cleaned out his hooves and let him loose in the arena. He wasn't going to run around on his own so I started to free lunge him a bit. He hopped and skipped and kicked up his heals quite a bit. I put him on the lunge line to get a little more controlled work out of him. His preferred gait of the evening was canter. It was a lot of work to get him down to a trot and a collected trot was not going to happen. It took even more work to get him down to a walk. In all he probably ran around for 10 minutes at the most. And he was sweaty and wet. Not soaked to the bone but wet enough and steaming that I didn't want to turn him out right away. So for about a half hour we walked, wore a wool blanket, groomed, and waited. He finally stopped steaming and was cool to the touch but he was still a bit damp. I rubbed him down the best I could (which he does not appreciate) and brought him back outside. Luckily there wasn't much wind so I think he'll be okay.

So this would be the reason I haven't ridden since the beginning of December. Only a few minutes of work and we have to spend half the night waiting to dry off. Maybe I can find an old hair dryer. Not sure that Cody would enjoy that any more than being rubbed down. Time to throw some more blankets in the car. I wonder if riding with a quarter sheet would help at all, on second thought Cody was sweaty on his neck and chest so a quarter sheet wouldn't really help for that.

Cantering Cody

Groomed Cody and gave him his extra food. This time I put some water in it to see if that would make it easier for him to keep it all in his mouth. Instead it just made a sloppier mess. Back to the drawing board I guess. It has nothing to do with his ability to chew but rather his ability to keep his mouth shut while doing it. I think the next attempt should be a wide shallow pan where the food has to be spread out. I hate grooming this time of year, everything is staticy. I should probably put some dryer sheets in my grooming back to rub on the horse before brushing so I'm not zapping them all the time!

So I lunged Cody a few times with the shorter rope just to get his attention. A had brought out a couple barrels to the arena so I set those up on either end to do some figure 8s and maybe get slightly more circular circles. Cody was pretty amped when I got on. If I didn't know better I'd have thought he was a barrel horse and the sight of the barrels got him worked up. We walked for a while and trotted quite a bit. I had to make constant adjustments as Cody kept "surging" forward and speeding up his trot. Which in the end is a nice change from the past few months of him only moving if I was carrying a whip. He was very willing to canter so we managed to make it around the arena at a canter about a time and a half before breaking stride going to the right. To the left there were some issues getting that lead but that's been our MO lately.

I kind of threw away the circles and figure 8s and worked more on the cantering just because it was more fun and he was so willing to keep moving. I attempted some rollbacks on the rail and then moved into rollbacks and cantering half the arena, rinse, repeat. It wasn't great, Cody wasn't sitting down or turning on his haunches, but he was moving out so I decided our lesson was more on doing what I asked. Speed up when asked, calm down and slow or stop when asked. He was doing really well even when he got worked up. We ended the lesson with some calm trotting and then worked on some backing up both mounted and unmounted. He doesn't get a great grade for the rein back but we'll keep working. I did some stretches when we were done. He stands really well for the front leg stretches so I can only assume he doesn't mind doing them. I noticed he's full of little scabs everywhere. They're mostly grown out but the bugs must have kicked in at the end of summer or something.

A came in and worked with Vinnie jumping over the barrels while I groomed Axel. He's been kind of a pill lately, grabbing at everything and chewing on stuff. He puts the cross tie in his mouth and pulls on it. He's not wind sucking that I can tell but the chewing on stuff is getting to be a really annoying habit. A finished up with Vinnie as I was ready to go back in the arena. I just wanted to let Axel move a bit since it had been pretty muddy all week. So I just sent him off without a lunge line and he trotted and cantered and really didn't buck a whole heck of a lot. He had a nice big extended (for him) trot, nice canters on both leads, even a flying change. Why can't he do that when I'm riding? I thought maybe he'd jump the barrels that were still set up but he went around them every time, I wasn't going to force him into jumping them with his sore foot but if he chose to do it on his own I'd be excited to see it. That was pretty much all for the night for Axel.

What got into you?

I ran out to the barn quick last night just to check on the horses and make sure no one had done anything stupid over the long weekend. I dropped off a bag of feed for Cody to have a little extra every once in a while. The horses thought I was there for feeding time when they heard me in the feed room.

I gave Cody a scoop of the senior feed as I was grooming him. Boy does he make a mess when he eats. No wonder he's a little thin, food all over the floor. I just did a little lunging in the arena to make sure he was feeling good. He was a little feisty mostly just when asked to move faster than a turtle. I jumped on bareback for a while and just rode around with the halter and lead rope. Cody's a difficult horse to sit on bareback right now. He's thinner so there's less "body" under your legs and you kind of wobble around easier. We did a little trotting and some backing up which went well. Our turns on the forehand and haunches still lack ... a lot.

Axel followed me to the barn limping the whole way when it was his turn. I was hoping it was just a stone in his hoof and thank goodness I was right. When I asked Axel to lunge he started out at a decent walk, sped up, started trotting, then cantering, then completely galloping and bucking and farting and acting like an idiot. Same reaction on the other side. Mind you I only asked for a walk. I un hooked my lunge line and clucked at him once and he was off around the arena like a bat out of hell. It was at this point that my previous thought of giving him some bute so he wouldn't be sore for the cattle clinic left my mind. When he finally stopped he was huffing and puffing. I jumped on him bareback and rode around at the walk. I'm hesitant to ask for a trot bareback since I haven't worked him a lot lately and he mostly likely buck. So we just walked around, tried some bending, backing, turns, checked our brakes. Nothing spectacular.

So everyone seemed in decent condition, hopefully they have remained that way today. Though I could probably borrow one of A's horses if someone turned up lame. Cow clinic tonight!

New Friends

I dislike not getting out to the barn more often. I miss out on all the excitement. Vinnie is now in with Cody and Axel. Looks like he got beat up quite a bit. It must not have been as bad as Danny beating him up since he's still in there with the boys. But Axel isn't very nice to him and keeps chasing him around. They have a separate feeding area set up behind the lean-to.

I was going to ride Axel a bit so I brought him in and groomed him, got him tacked up, and went to do some lunging first. And he was pretty lame at the walk. Nothing earth shattering but clearly off. He wasn't working out of it so we just did some walking in both directions on the lunge and worked on actually stopping when I asked (we'll keep working on that one).

So I grabbed Cody and planned to just groom, lunge, and turn out. But another boarder came in and asked if I was riding so I decided, sure why not. We rode around in the arena for a while, no whip this time. Cody wasn't a ball of fire but he was alright. Did some trotting and I was going to stop there but the other boarder wanted to take a ride down the road. My laziness caused me to not get off and get Cody's boots and that will be the last time we go down the road without them. Cody was not pleased with what little gravel was actually on the road. So much that he didn't even speed up when we turned back for home. And I'm starting to think I might have to get some boots for Axel as well, he's getting kind of gimpy on the road. Additionally I think I need to pick up one of those rider's rasps. Cody's hooves are pretty chipped up, there must be a lot more flies out there. The farrier isn't due until Aug. 31.

A Little Huntseat

No photos from last night's ride :( Video might have been interesting, not sure how I would have looked. I got out the huntseat saddle and swapped it with the dressage saddle. I figure if I ever get around to showing I'd be showing WSCA and there's no dressage classes. So I thought it'd be best to start riding in that saddle for a while. J said it looked good on Cody. I felt like a fish out of water. I haven't ridden with my knees that bent in ages. But if I'm going to play around with some jumping as well I guess I need to get used to it!

Cody had a bit of a bump on the outside of his right front pastern so I decided to lunge him before I tacked to make sure he wasn't hurting. He was lazy lazy lazy (gotta remember that stick with the plastic bag) but he didn't seem to hurt at all. After fidgeting with the saddle to get it to feel at least a little normal we were on our way (how in the world do you keep your leg on when your knee is bent so much?). I had the foresight to grab the whip so I didn't have to kick constantly. And actually having my legs up a bit higher seemed to help a bit as well. But with two other horses in the arena there was a lot of temptation to stop and watch them work. We manged to do quite a bit of trotting but Cody is a little confused on posting. He slows down quite a bit making it nearly impossible to post. So before we attempt any jumping we'll have to work on that. J was showing the stuff she was working on with Amigo to get him to calm down in the canter. J3 (heh yes there are 3 Js at the barn) gave it a try with Steele. He gets a little full of himself and speeds up so they were talking about doing some spiral-ins. He's back from the trainer so J3 has been riding him quite a bit it seems. He's still heavy on the front but he seems to go quieter than he did before she sent him away. I attempted some cantering with Cody, wrong lead to the left nearly every time. Finally had to counter bend the heck out of him to get that left lead. J said he had a really nice lope. Right lead he just didn't want to canter at all but when we got it he kept it up for a lap or so and did a nice halt when asked.

After all that work I was sweaty. But Cody was actually barely wet so I guess I didn't work him too hard. I'll probably try and ride him again tonight and if no one is in the arena we'll do some lunging over ground poles and then maybe just work on trotting. I'll see if I can just let him go and do two point or post and let him have his head and just move out. If no one else is around I'll try and video it despite my fear that my riding position will look like crap. Eek!

Cody's Day

I only had an hour or so last night so I just went out to lunge Cody a bit and put his fly mask back on. He was super slow and lazy again as he has been lately. Now even the whip doesn't really inspire him to get moving. Until something clicks and I haven't quite figured out what it is yet. I was trying to get him to trot or move or something. I recall he got pissed off and threw out a buck and after that things were golden. I can't recall what it was I did to make him mad but it worked. Then he trotted out nice and big and switched directions promptly when asked. Still can't get him into a canter and I'm not sure what's up with that. Perhaps I'll grab the carrot stick and plastic bag next time I go out. If I can't get him to canter I can't reward him for doing it correctly right away and he won't want to do it ever. It's a vicious circle.

We worked on some halt from the trot and just trying to get a reaction immediately when I ask. He did alright on that. And then I worked on some of the turns on the forehand and haunches. Turns on the forehand are sort of okay and turns on the haunches are more difficult. Lastly we worked on our backing up issue. He'll back up really well with me standing facing him and doing either the rope wiggle or waving my hands and asking him to "back." He's been not so great at backing while I'm at his neck leading lately, kind of sliding in that area. I also tried asking him to back while standing by his hip, that really confused him. So I think we'll be working more on backing in general from the verbal cue from all sorts of places and then work on some ground driving and backing that way. So I might give up my backing under saddle goal until we can do it on the ground from nearly anywhere. We'll work on the leg yielding under saddle and hopefully some of that will help with the canter.

Long Time No See

I got the best horsey welcome last night when I went to the barn. Cody, of all horses, knickered at me like I was his long lost BFF. And it wasn't even close to dinner time so who knows why he was so excited to see me but it was nice anyway.

I groomed Axel first while the barn owner was riding one of her horses. Axel has a few good sized welts from I assume bug bites. His chin doesn't look too bad but he still has the flap of skin/hair hanging from it (not as bad as it sounds it's mostly just hair). It's too big to pull off and I couldn't bring myself to cut it. Hopefully it'll just fall off soon. Apparently Axel was itchy all over. Usually you can find a spot or two that really makes him happy to have scratched. Yesterday it was nearly every place I brushed; full on lip curling and neck stretching. Goofy horse. When the barn owner was finished in the arena Axel and I went in and worked on some lunging. He was a little excited and trotted out pretty quickly but none of the previous bucking. He put his head down a bit at the canter but nothing major hopefully just stretching. To his bad side he actually lunged without a fight. He was a little jumpy on that side and kept offering canter strides to get out of trotting. We worked a while on getting the canter on the correct lead on that side. He even did a flying change. We did once more on each side, got both correct leads and stopped there. I'm trying to teach him that being nice and lunging correctly means we're done. Of course I don't know what I'll do when he picks up those leads calmly and correctly on the first try! Of course then I suppose my standards move up to collection and using his hind end properly. We backed out of the barn and that was the end of that.

Cody wasn't terribly happy that Axel had left, I suppose now it's been a week or more since I took one of them away and he got used to it. I didn't have too many plans for Cody, just a bit of grooming so we went to the crossties and got that done. His nose still seems sun burn free. It's a little flakey which he wasn't too happy to have me brush. He was, however, pleased to have my curry his head. I put his fly mask back on when I turned him out but I'm seeing now it's not sunny at all today so he probably would have appreciated not wearing it for a change. Oh well. Pink nose horses have to put up with it if they don't let me put sun screen on them.

Getting Warmer

It's definitely starting to get warm and humid. Both horses came up to me in the pasture to see what kind of fun things I had for them. I guess that means Cody isn't holding a grudge after our long trail ride on Sunday. Axel was pretty lazy when I tried to get some circles out of him in the arena before getting on to ride. Then he was pretty lazy under saddle. I can't quite tell if he was hurting or just being lazy. We did trot around for a while but it was a lot of work to get and keep him going. He's getting so fat I figured he needs to get working, I don't think being overweight is good for ringbone. I didn't really attempt any good cantering and he was trotting pretty okay, not really popping up quite as often as he had been.

But it didn't feel like enough work and the pants I was wearing were not cooperating and it was hot. So I got off and got the lunge line and whip. He had a few super crazy bronc moments but settled in (probably tired himself out) and was trotting really nice and then even picking up the canter with little fuss. This of course was tracking right. Tracking left, not so much, it takes a lot of work just to get him to get going in that direction. Once he did it was nearly the same, good trot, pretty good canter on the correct lead, a little bit of fussiness. I probably should have been video taping it since he seemed to be moving pretty darn well.

I think I'll have to just lunge for real before I ride, get him loosened up a bit. Supposedly the canter is a better place to start than the trot as it loosens up their backs better so they'll be ready to do a nice trot.

Axel is starting to learn that as soon as he picks up that correct lead on the canter and does it nice without freaking out, he can stop. I think he knows it. It seems like he'll pick it up nice then whoa and look at me. When he freaks out and does his bronc impression he just keeps going. He's also starting to really get the turn on the forehand from the ground. Still not much on the bending his neck, we worked on a that a bit next to the wall so he couldn't spin. I also did some leg stretches for him since he was warm I thought it would be the perfect opportunity. Though as soon as he got off the arena footing to the cement he walked like a 90 year old man that had been sitting for 10 years. But right back on the grass out side he was fine again. Joints? Ringbone? The stretching? Not sure what that was about.

Lots of Ground Work

I'm getting a little bored of riding alone so much since I get to the barn more often now. To combat that I think I really need to start doing a lot more ground work with the horses. Starting today.

It was Cody's turn today to work on some cantering. But first we worked on some ground work. Axel stayed in the pasture and had a minor conniption about being alone. Cody and I worked on some of the moving away from pressure with turns on the forehand, which he got pretty well, and turns on the haunches - not so well. Worked on the bending exercises and some backing up. We did some circles at the walk and trot. We even worked on a little bit of ground tying which went surprisingly well. After that I rode for a while and tried to get some canters but we mostly ended up just trotting as fast as humanly (or horsely) possible. How did Steph get him to canter so well? We made a couple attempts at the various turns in the corners of the arena and then dismounted and did a couple stretches. I'm going to have to look at my horse massage/stretching books and get some more ideas for Cody to work on lifting his back.

I took Axel's screaming to mean he wanted to be worked with as well. The first thing we did was walk into the barn and then back out twice and he did it both times well. So he came into the arena and did some lunging. He did really well at the trot in the first direction, a little crankier in the other direction, and pretty cranky about cantering but that's pretty normal. I worked a little with the turn on the forehand from the ground, he got it okay but I think we'll have to keep working on that stuff with him a lot, he doesn't catch on and retain like Cody does. We then worked on some backing up, I wanted to back a whole lap of the arena but we made it around maybe 1/4 or more so that was pretty good. I decided I wasn't done yet and I didn't want to ride so I got out the long lines and the surcingle and we drove for a while and then switched to long lining. I think the long lines are too heavy though, despite having as much slack as he wanted he was still pretty frustrated and seemed like he was forced into a frame. Though good for him to stretch like that I don't think he enjoyed it. He was quite ticked when I asked for a trot and kicked out but manged to have a couple nice trots after that but they were very small and vertical. I tried to do some weaving but I didn't set up the cones before I hooked up Axel so I only was able to get out two and well it was just kind of a loss at that point. I did lunge him a bit more after the driving so he could stretch out the opposite way and he had a very nice extended trot. When we were done he backed out of the barn aisle one more time.

Cody's Confinement

I pulled up to the barn this afternoon and noticed that the new horse (horse owned by a friend of the barn owner's) was in the front paddock with the goofy paint gelding and the black and white paint mare. Looking further I see that Cody is in the middle paddock, by himself. I can see some other horses off in the distance in one of the back pastures. Cody was screaming his head off and not a happy horse. I was wondering what was going on. Jason was around so I chatted with him for a while. I guess he had just put out Amigo and Steele with Cody, Axel, and Danny. There was some fireworks and Cody gave it to Steele pretty bad. So they decided to put Cody by himself and give the rest of the herd a chance to get settled. The other four were getting along well when I got there. There was a few squeals still happening but very minor and all talk.

I grabbed Cody and brought him into the barn. I groomed pretty quickly because Cody was having a fit in the crossties. He did show me that his issue is not with the bit. Clearly his gaping mouth issue and probably the tongue over the bit issue is some sort of anxiety thing. I took a quick video if it with my phone if anyone wants to offer some suggestions on what to do to get him over this.

I took him into the arena to get his feet moving and hopefully get his attention back to me and off of the fact that his herd was far away. We did some circling and worked on keeping on the outside of the circle and not drifting in. Lots of changing directions to make sure he was paying attention to me. For the first time we worked on Cody circling around me with me stationary like you see all the NH types do. He was confused at first and when he got around to my back he wanted to stop and switch directions so we worked through that. You could tell he was concentrating more, his trot got slower and more thoughtful while he tried to figure out what it was that I wanted. We worked a little bit on some turns on the forehand and haunches, mostly just working on responding to pressure. I also lunged him on the real lunge line just to get him moving out a bit and to get a canter. He wasn't very willing to canter this time but we managed.

I did try some standing still focus type work but if his feet weren't moving he wasn't paying attention to me. I saddled him, mounted very easily and we rode around the arena. I grabbed another bridle from my stash, this one is a sort of loose ring with a curved mouthpiece and copper inlays. I might stick with this bit or one like it, I can still neck rein if I want to but when I need to I can direct rein and not cause issues. He actually did well in this bit so far. There was some gaping mouth issues, I'm not sure if he ever got his tongue over the bit or not but if he did he put it back. We did a lot of walking, bending around the corner, staying on the "rail." We did circles in every corner, worked on getting that bend right and keeping the circle nice and round. I added in some serpentine and concentrated on not nagging with the reins but using my seat and legs. We trotted a little, not nearly as controlled as the walk but acceptable. In the end it was a very good ride despite the distractions. And we got to foot-print up the arena that Jason had just gotten done dragging. :)

I put Cody back in his little detention which was difficult to do as he looked longingly to the other boys in the pasture. He went over to the horses in the front pasture and called to them. One of the mares came up to see but was intercepted by the paint gelding who apparently felt threatened by Cody even through the fence. Usually Cody is pretty laid back as far as herd bosses go so I'm kind of surprised that he picked on Steele so bad. Hopefully his separation will help him get over the herd bound issue. I suppose his separation might make him a little more cooperative the next time they put him back in with Steele.

I grabbed Axel out of the pasture and we rode down the road for a while. Had a couple nice canters and generally just had a calm little ride. He seems to be getting along with the other horses really well. Steele squeals at him sometimes and paws but Axel just stands there. I'm thinking he might end up higher on the totem pole than usual. It seems like he enjoys being around some horses his same size. He was kind of tagging along with both Amigo and Steele and even though Steele seems to move Amigo around, it looked like Axel moved Steele. It'll be an interesting journey.

Manicure Day

Once again I brushed and brushed and brushed and there's still hair and mud everywhere. One of these days it'll be gone. Went out to the barn early to get the boys cleaned up before the farrier arrived. Both horses behaved themselves for their trim. He tapered Axel's front feet a bit so he doesn't flare out too much. He thought Cody's angles looked good. I could stand to get him x-rayed again though to make sure there's no change or laminitis.

When they were both done I decided to work with Axel for a while. He stood tied in the arena while I puttered around and he was very polite about it. Even with all the other horses in the aisle getting trimmed. He lunged the trot and canter pretty well also. Reluctant to pick up the canter but he had both leads. I got on and we walked for a bit and trotted. In my attempts to get him to collect a bit, wiggling the outside rein, he kept offering a canter. Well in reality I think it was actually just pissing him off and it wasn't a canter but a buck. So we tried a few canters. Went okay but slow to the right. And it was disjointed to the left. The barn owner mentioned it looked pretty rough. And boy was it. Even his trot was jerky and hard to ride. As much as I can figure it's a combination of having deeper footing so he has to pick up his feet more, he's moving out a little more than usual, and he had quite a bit of time off. I couldn't sit his trot to save my life. I was really riding poorly in the grand scheme of things. I'm pretty sure I have a bruise on my knee from smacking it on the saddle. I'm pretty sure that doesn't happen if a person rides properly. Oh well. We got out and moved around a bit and with the exception of a few little bucks things went okay. I'm not sure if Cody called while we were riding and Danny was being trimmed but when I brought Axel back out he was facing away from the gate not looking very concerned.