A whole lot of nothing going on

What a crazy few weeks.  The trip to visit family went actually much better than expected.  I had threatened them that I wouldn't go back if there were crazy dramas and it must have been taken to heart because no dramas happened whatsoever! 

No zooms here, but she moves so nicely

When I got back, the arena was super dusty again and has been like that ever since.  It was supposed to have been fixed last week but wasn't, now it is supposed to be fixed this week and we are still waiting.  It is now below freezing so they can't even sprinkle with water anymore.  Even walking makes a pretty good amount of dust so I haven't been doing much riding.  *sigh*  I get it, arenas are dusty but I am paying a lot of $$ to have a facility that I cannot use.  Grrr.  Winter blues are setting in.

Those who are not amused about their picture being taken

App is doing much better.  The farrier said she thought it may have been an abscess blow out.  I don't agree because I was treating it as thrush, but it doesn't really matter.  The frog was fully split and went up into his actual heel bulb causing him enough pain to crabwalk.  He is no longer thrushy and is walking fairly normal.  Most days he walks with just a very slight limp, other days he has a very noticable limp but he is still in great spirits.  

He will deny any extra weight

He has also gained a LOT of weight finally!  He is within 50lbs of his ideal winter weight.  I think it is a combination of the rice bran plus the barn keeping hay in front of him 24x7 that has done it.  Win!

Still looking good for a retired old man!

Mia is doing well too.  I am not quite sure how to blanket her this year, she is in a pasture without a lot of wind block, unlike last year.  She never acts cold and she doesn't really shiver, so she is capable, but still.  She was blanketed last night as it was super windy and super cold, single digits with wind chill.  Let's see if she maintains weight, starts shivering, etc.  She is in a lightweight blanket now and I have a mid/heavyweight one if she needs.

The "You haz carrot. Give me now" face

The in-laws are coming in for two weeks this weekend so I suspect I will be at the barn more.  Maybe the arena will be decent enough for me to ride in.  One can hope for the Christmas miracle right?

No Saddle November

It is supposed to be No Stirrup November, but when the arena is really dusty and you can't do much of anything, why not just skip the saddle altogether?  That's what I've done anyway ha!  I am also horribly lazy and it is simply saving a step in the tack up process.  Both Mia and App have been quite muddy most of the week so I guess it works out.  The extra time I would usually spend riding hard is spent pulling crusted mud off of the horses so the stupid things can be warm. 

The horses get their feet done this weekend and we will see how the report goes.  App still has a crack in his left front but then also got really bad thrush in his right hind. I was treating both with Tea Tree oil per the recommendation of the farrier as I didn't have CleanTrax.  After almost 2 weeks though, the thrush split his frog clear into his heel and was super painful.  I broke out my big guns and the thrush is now gone, we are just waiting for things to grow back.  Things aren't worse, which is good, but they haven't fully resolved.  App is still pretty uncomfortable and walking stiffly.  The barn moved him into a different paddock that is not solid, wet "mud" (ie urine/manure mix) which helps the thrush issue as well.  One day at a time, one discussion at a time.

The arena dust issue SHOULD be being resolved next week.  They are adding a different sand and adding MAG flakes which will help.  I used MAG flakes in MI and they worked really well 85% of the year so I am hopeful it will make the arena ridable here in PA.  Fingers crossed, maybe we can actually start working again!  Right now you can't trot more than 5 minutes before it gets extremely dusty, let alone doing much canter or having a second horse in the arena.  Then the outdoor arena was closed off to night riding under the claim someone left the outside lights on all night, so it is closed off to everyone.  It is a really crappy rule, and I know for a fact none of us "night riders" did it, they only ride outside when I really push them to ride outside because it is cold!  To restrict the outdoor from the night riders is really unfair, IMO, but that is boarding life.  

The rides on Mia are going well, No Saddle November is doing great at really solidifying my seat and balance.  Despite my insistence that I wasn't going to do "fancy" work, we still ended up doing serpentines (which are DA BOMB), stretchy trots and walk/canter transitions.  HAHA!  The lady I ride with at night, MR, says she loves to watch me because it looks like I ride with a saddle but I don't.  Apparently, I don't move.  Aww <3 Way to give me a big ego :)  

I am off to visit family for 5 days, wish me luck!  It is a nice 9+ hour one way drive so it should be be long and tiring.  Here's to hoping it is uneventful.  I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

Moving right along, no lesson for us

A hectic couple of weeks isn't too bad when you consider all of the riding I have been doing.  Nothing blog worthy though, just dressage stuffs and who wants three blog posts over "Shoulder in, all the time" and "we are compressing the dressage canter to get Mia to tuck her pelvis", etc.  Boring.  Add to this the fact the indoor is SUPER dusty, outside has been SUPER cold and it gets dark at 5p, and while I have been riding, it is boring and I haven't been inspired to talk about it.

So how has our dressage been?  Shoulder in, all the time, in all gaits.  Mia is now doing shoulder in to the right much easier in the canter.  I have worked hard at not being so grabby with the right hand (Bad hand!) and I think it is working.  Shoulder in is still hard for Mia, but we are working on it every time we ride and every time it gets just a smidgen easier. 

Our serpentines have become super easy now, as long as I ride it properly go figure.  As soon as we pass center line and change the shoulder in direction, *boom* Mia does them easily and without falling in.  Good to know, shoulder in fixes all of Mia's problems haha!  Mia can go from straight, into a circle, and back again without real issues and our corners are usually superb.  I really enjoy our slower tempo, though would really like a little more push.  Baby steps I remind myself, baby steps. 

We have done a good bit of No Stirrup November, although not exclusive No Stirrup as I was working towards my lesson (that didn't happen).  The thing we have worked hardest on is canter.  We have worked almost exclusively along the rail, not doing many 20m circles, to really drive home the shoulder in aspect.  Mia is now doing a very clear, rhythmic 3 beat canter that is SO cool to listen to.  I didn't realize she didn't do it until she started doing it.  She sounds like a huge warmblood coming across the arena, with equal, heavy thud-thud-thud.  Love it! 

Going large in the arena is also super helpful in developing the super collected canter.  We are playing with getting Mia to tuck her pelvis and really sit, I work to get the good canter and then sit up, hold into a half halt and apply lots of leg (like we are in front of a jump).  Mia really sits down and lightens her front end and it is super cool.  She can do it pretty well to the left and only decent to the right but it is coming right along. 

What fun have we had outside of dressage?  Well...not a lot.  We were working hard to prepare for the lesson and I really wanted to show big progess.  And then the lesson was cancelled because it was in the low teens the night of the lesson and the instructor cancelled.  UGH.  Oh well, maybe she will come out next month.  Until then, we had some fun with a hunter pace last weekend.  It was FUN!  Mia hasn't been on many hunter paces, but she is finally a good trail horse so I was excited.  I went with 3 others from the barn and despite it being a walk ride, it was still fun.  I brought my dressage saddle as I didn't expect to be able to jump (expected objections from the others who were walking) however everyone was ok with it.  In the end, 3 of the 4 of us were jumping over things!  I passed over only one jump, that was 3ft, because I wasn't comfortable jumping higher in my dressage saddle.  It was hard enough already haha.  Everyone thought Mia was so cute jumping and they said it was very obvious Mia really enjoyed her job jumping.

She was awesome during the hunter pace and was a rockstar.  She threw not a single fit, loaded right up, she jumped everything, she didn't spook, she didn't avoid water/mud and walked in the front and rear without complaint.  What a huge improvement from 2 years ago <3 < 3 Nothing fun is scheduled for the rest of November, we have to travel for Thanksgiving (boo) so it is just steady building on dressage.  One day at a time!

A lesson recap

On Friday I had another lesson.  Two lessons in 30 days??  Say it isn't so!  And I also have another scheduled!  It was a good lesson, a very good lesson actually.  Not quite up to par with my lessons with M in Michigan, however, they are close!

The instructor, ML, was impressed with my progress over the last month.  Like, super impressed.  She said we had made 4 months of progress in a month's time??  Not sure I buy that, all we did was start to get into actual shape bc Mia wasn't lame/hurt and also work on our homework.  I'll take it though, everyone else said ML doesn't give compliments out lightly so I should really enjoy them.  Okay then.  We have really slowed Mia's tempo down this year, by over half in fact.  The theory is that Mia has long legs and she needs time to get her legs to really under herself.  With a quicker tempo, Mia doesn't have time to fully extend her legs as she is "rushing" to go faster.  With a slower tempo, she has time to really extend and "flick" her legs and to get her hind legs really underneath herself.  Alrighty then.  Sadly I don't have a SINGLE picture of any of my lessons since the beginning of the year so I simply have to trust her on this.  She says Mia looks amazing when doing it.

Our entire theme of shoulder-in, all the time, carried over into this lesson and is my homework for the next lesson as well.  Mia naturally walks slightly haunches in so the nonstop shoulder-in is going to hopefully not only get her more balance and straightness, but also "even" out her natural way of moving.  ML said we have made excellent progress and she can see Mia is really starting to redevelop her muscling and is looking good.  Yay!  Just in time for winter to lose it all haha!

We did a lot of shoulder in (no surprise haha) at the trot and ML was impressed with Mia's ability to go straight, onto a circle and back on the straight without losing balance.  Our serpentines were pretty good as well, as long as *ahem* someone rode them properly.  She also had us work on spiraling in/out with the bigger goal as to bring Mia's head BACK up as she is staying in contact.  When she brings her head up, while doing shoulder in and being on contact, she engages her hind end and really looks wonderful.  If I let her keep her head stretched down (Where I have been working on putting it ALL YEAR), she trails her hocks.  Apparently, Mia got the memo during all of our training and now it is time to step up the requirements. 

We ended with some canter and, again, ML was blown away by our improvement in the canter.  I had someone tell me she hasn't heard ML give so many compliments in a long time.  Trying not to get a big head, I mean, all we have done is get back in shape and did our homework.  Mia's left lead canter is amazing, as always.  The shoulder in is easy enough for her and I was even able to really ask and get Mia to compact, tuck her pelvis and collect her canter for a few strides before relaxing it back out without a huge loss of balance.  It was awesome!  ML said Mia had real elevation going on.  Ugh, I really need pictures!!!  To the right wasn't as glamorous, obviously.  We were able to get the shoulder in, though it isn't as easy.  This is her weak side remember.  Mia will tuck her pelvis and rock back in the canter but loses her balance coming out of it and so it is something to work on.  All in good time.

The comments about me?  Pretty good.  I need to stop looking where I am going, apparently.  This works in jumping but not in dressage.  If Mia were a clock, I need to look at 11 and 1 and stop looking at 9 and 3.  I need to remember to actually RIDE my horse as I am struggling to fix my wayward head and not randomly stop riding when I remember my head is turned too much.  I need to stop being so grabby with my right hand when doing shoulder in in the canter to the right.  The right hand does not create the bend, so stop trying to make it.  Keep my hands together, continue to bridge my reins if needed.  My sitting trot looks really damn good!  Need more strength to sustain it, but apparently it looks really good. 

Lots of work to do before our next lesson (Nov 10!!!!).  Lots more shoulder in, esp to the right, work on encouraging Mia's head up, try to compact her strides to get her pelvis tucked and start some counter canter.  Yikes!

Another update? Say it isn't so!

I know, I was a bad blogger and didn't update for almost an entire month with the last post.  I am very sorry and hope to make it up here.  I don't know how other people do it, I seriously have so little time between my day job, riding the horse 4 days a week and taking care of the house.  Blah!

Can you tell she enjoys this?

It's okay though, I do have some updates AND I have a little time.  First, some pics from the show.  As mentioned, I volunteered and took pics with the good camera at the show.  That meant most competitors had 10+ pics of themselves.  Someone said they were going to video my dressage and when going jumping, I handed the camera off so pics could be taken of myself and others.  I never got the video, or any pics, of my dressage and I have exactly 3 pics of us jumping.  I guess better than nothing?  At least the pics came out okay.

Those knees though <3

Overall I am happy with the pics.  Mia is jumping well, she had no real issues with the course and except from the one pic of me jumping ahead *ahem below*, we look good.  This was the second element of the last 2 stride that came off of a very sharp 45 degree turn.  You were on the rail, you turn sharply off of the rail at apx 45 degrees and jump 9 of the combo is 3 strides away.  I *think* the course would have actually ridden better if you turned right vs left after jump 8 and rode around the arena to get to 9, but not a single person one did that and I didn't have my watch on to check time so I didn't want to risk it.  

Position, stop doing this please

Jump 9 came up quick, she jumped it well but flat and then was too forward to 9B (above).  She met it well but she was MOVING and my position isn't great.  The pic does not adequately convey the energy she was putting into the effort.  HA!

App is such a goof

Back in January, Alyssa needed some help and was offering commissioned artwork.  Well, who am I to pass up helping a blogger and getting my beloved App painted at the same time?  I already have him in pencil, I needed him in color!  I was beyond thrilled to get it last week in the mail, it is PERFECT!  It matches App so well!  I am beyond happy with how this turned out and I am so happy I was able to help Alyssa when she needed it.  This is going in my office so I can look at it all of the time.  Now I need to get my butt in gear and get some art done of neglected Mia, she has not a single piece of art ha!

WOW!!!

Mia is doing well, she is finally sound and injury free which is fabulous.  Last week we did some gallops because I was in a funk.  Mia can fly, like seriously fly.  And flying really helps break me out of funks.  I used to do it semi-regularly on App when we were both younger.  It was awesome, you have his walk, trot, canter and gallop.  And then he had this 5th gear, he would literally drop his body down and accelerate through the gallop.  You could actually feel him lowering himself and then the extra power coming from behind, it was sooo cool.  Alas, he is now permanently broken and there are no gallops in his future with me so I do it occasionally on Mia.  Rarely though, only about once a year.  Last week I did it and brought my phone with me to record our speed because this is stuff I need to know.  Mia is certainly faster than App, but how fast can she actually go?

Gallops!

We had a 15 min w/t warmup before trotting down to the road and galloped through the hay field and up the big ass hill.  It is probably a half mile from point A to B?  OMG She galloped almost 38 miles per hour!  That is FAST.  A quick google search shows the fastest racehorse went almost 44 MPH, not sure if that is sustained or not though. And it was SO cool to ride.  We went down and did a gallop a second time but Mia slowed down as we started going up the hill, she had no more gallops left in her and went into a canter so we called it a day and cooled out.  The speedometer app is cool, and pretty accurate when testing in my car.  I strap it to my hand via a armband phone holder when I use it (fitness) and while it doesn't show meters per minute, it works out as I know I need apx 12 MPH for BN, 14 for N, 16 for T and 19 for P.  There are actual ranges, but these are the numbers I remember and gets us close for conditioning.  I confirmed that fast mare is fast!

This Friday I have another dressage lesson, I know OMG!!  A second lesson with a month?!  I am excited to see how it goes and HOPE that it becomes slightly more regular.  Regular lessons would be FABULOUS.  I hope to get a recap of it posted before weeks go by this time too!  Fingers crossed :)

Lesson and CT recap!

Man things are really busy over here, so busy.  So, so busy.  Where were things?  So TWO WEEKS ago I had a lesson.  It was a pretty good lesson, she confirmed my (slower) trotting pace is the correct one for Mia right now.  She confirmed I am riding better (yay) but that I need to do shoulder in.  When?  All the times.  When I think I am done with shoulder in?  Do more.  Yay!  Right?  HA!  So why so much shoulder in?  Mia is unbalanced and is falling on her forehand, especially in corners, and riding the shoulder in before, through and after the corners are going to help her stay balanced and seamless.  Interesting.  We also looked at her canter and while Mia is leaning/falling in, the suggestion was for Mia to simply go faster and with more outside rein.  Did it help?  Eh, kinda.  Baby steps and all.  Not super confident but it can't really hurt with where we are now.

That lesson prepared us for our little CT.  Overall it was a good show.  It was held at my barn and I volunteered to take pictures of most competitors so there was that complication.  It also meant I have virtually no pics of myself.  And then when I was done with my ride, I was asked to stay at the ring with Mia because another horse was freaking out when Mia tried to leave.  Herd bound horses.....ugh.  The dressage went pretty well and we scored a 35%.  The judge wanted more leap in the canter (Baby steps judge, baby steps!) and a little more bend in said canter but she did NOT say we were falling in. To the left.  We did get that comment to the right, but to the right is Mia's hard direction and I don't think I pushed her fast enough to help straighten her out.  Again, baby steps!

The stadium portion was a huge cluster, I was supposed to ride at 1p but they didn't even start any jump division until 1p AND they were letting people school in the arena over the jumps we were supposed to go over.  I know it was a schooling show, but wth?!? It made for a HUGE time waste.  I didn't get in the arena until 145p and by that time I had been on since 1240p, it was hot, we were hot and tired and ready to be DONE.  The other Novice competitor was just as annoyed as I was and it was so frustrating.  ARGH!!  If it wasn't at my own barn, I would have scratched and left.  It was almost 90 degrees, almost no shade and no one knew what was going on.  We did finally get in for our jumping class and went double clear to finish on our dressage score.  I got 2nd (of 2) with a 35% and the other competitor got a 33%.  The other competitor is also a former 1* horse being leased out to a 19yr old kid, so there is that.  Overal, I thought the scoring was not too shabby for having virtually no preparation for the show nor being anywhere close to competition fit ha!

Mia had an easy couple of rides Tues/Weds and then got almost a full week off as I had an auto race to compete in which took our Thur-Monday.  I went out last night and bebopped around bareback.  I am not in shape enough to do two pointober officially so I am just competing with myself.  I did two laps of bareback two point last night and feel it today (HA!) but my balance and muscle strength were on par.  It's the little wins.  Time to get back into the swing of things!

Lesson prep, show prep!

Ah....yes.  When we last left off, Mia had finally recovered from her knee injury and abscess and we were finally ready to move forward.  I had bought a tub of KrudZapper per Carly's review of it and was using it to remove the last bits of "crud" on her legs, it wasn't really cruddy but the areas have been discolored all year.  I made a comment to the barn owner that I was using it for her scratches and it was working great around the time the abcess was an issue.  The weekend after Labor Day, she came in with a huge hind leg, she had a cut on the inside hind leg that got infected and her whole leg was swollen and hot.  Seriously!  I was really annoyed because the previous weekend, she had a half dozen hairless scrapes on her hock areas.  On that Tuesday she had a small cut on the inside of her left hind and another on the outside of her right hind, but neither was sore or swollen.  I doctored them up, rode, all was fine.  I got a text on Friday that her leg was swollen and they thought she had issues from her "scratches".

First, she does NOT HAVE actual scratches.  She hasn't had actual scratches since I have owned her.  The fact the barn is telling people the leg swelling was a result of her tendency to have scratches really pisses me off.  Second, the "scratches" had zero to do with her leg being swollen.  A 5 second look at her showed the reason her leg was swollen was a pretty big cut/puncture on the inside of her leg, halfway between her stifle and hock.  OMFG.  The entire leg was huge and quite hot and she was lame on it.  I was so angry because the barn staff didn't actually look at her leg, they just threw this random "scratches" claim around.

Saturday she barely let me touch her leg and she proved her saint-ness as she tolerated an iodine wash/cold hose/Neosporin treatment without totally flipping her lid.  She came really close to flipping it though, she was really at her patience breaking point when I finally gave up.  She hadn't kicked out, just held her leg way up/out/away.  She hadn't reared, really, and hadn't bitten anyone (lol) but she could not stand still and was very angrily shaking her head/neck/body so I called it a day after working on it for about 15 minutes.  We repeated the ordeal on Sunday and on Sunday she at least let me touch/handle the cut and leg.  The leg was still huge, but the entire leg wasn't hot, just the area around the cut, so that was progress.  We did this routine every day until Tuesday, in addition to SMZ's and bute, before her leg finally came down in size.  Phew.

I rode her last Wednesday for the first time and her scab came off while we were riding (likely from her tail bag) but she was fine with me putting (even) more Neosporin on it.  It was big and looks ugly, but much better.  Saturday I rode a quick dressage ride and the scab stayed on.  She was a very good mare for our ride.  She is really out of shape, a 30 minute medium/high intensity workout was a bit much for her, but tried everything I asked and wasn't super sassy.  We finished with our dressage test and while it isn't great, she did a good job with it considering her time off.

Yesterday we went on a 2+ hour trail ride with some barn ladies and it was a really nice ride.  Mia is such a rockstar on trails anymore, I so vividly remember barely being able to get her to walk a straight line without spooking and now she doesn't care while everyone else is super looky.  Yay Mia!  She was very hot and sweaty, much more than everyone else, despite it being a 98% walk ride.  She got a good hosing and thrown outside to relax.  Tonight I have a dressage rider coming to look at Mia for a possible lease situation.  Apparently she rides 2-3rd level and is looking for something to toodle around on.  Mia has never had anyone else ever seriously ride her, if I could have some dressage training put on her?  Hmm, that would be awesome.  It would only be for 1-2 days a week and I'm not even sure if I will go through with it, but it is intriguing enough that I am contemplating it.

This Friday I have my first lessons since January?  February?  I am really excited for it, I want to really work on Mia's canter, my position and getting relaxation.  This weekend we have a small fun show, a Novice CT.  We aren't really ready for it, but we can get around a stadium course without being fit so I entered.  Let's hope she can stay sound until next weekend.  I did tell the barn that if she gets hurt again, I am putting her and App back together and they will have to figure something out in regards to their herds.  She never got hurt with App and this is her 3rd injury so far this summer and no one ever knows how it happens.  I am tired of having an injured horse.

Sound and happy

Mia is thankfully still sound!  Man, what a month and a half it has been.  Hard to believe it has been since July 16 that we were able to do real work.  Argh!!  All is good though, we are moving forward, it isn't like we are chasing points or anything.

Last weekend I rode on Sunday and just did a trail ride with another barn lady.  Pass up an opportunity to ride with someone else?  No thank you!  So Mia didn't get real work.  Last night I was going to do boring ol fitness but someone left jumps up in the arena and I just couldn't help myself.  The fitness was very heavily sprinkled with 2 to 2'6"jumps and Mia was awesome.  She came back to me every time, she trotted every fence when I asked, she didn't act like a loon and I worked on two point.  It was such a good ride!

This week will be mostly fitness work as I hurt my shoulder, again, and am trying really hard to rest it for this week.  While I don't want to do dressage due to the fighting, we should be able to do fitness without any real issue.  Fitness it is!  That said, I really do love my jumping saddle.  It is so comfortable and really does whisper "be here" and my body just agrees.  It makes me happy.

App is still doing well, he is moving so much better after the farrier and now he is being turned out with a yearling filly.  He is now running around a lot more to keep up with her, and is even running around without her!  I am so pleased that he is moving so much better.  Here is a video of his lame self running around for no apparent reason last night.

This is super short because I am SUPER fricken busy but wanted to share Olivia's giveaway.  A Total Saddle Fit girth!!!  Mia has one for her County and I am not sure if she rides any better in it, but I do think it fits Mia better than her normal, straight Thinline girth.  Her saddle has to be back to be really off of her shoulders and we also have to use the 2nd and 3rd billets instead of the normal 1st and 3rd.  This girth seems to prevent the saddle from sliding forward and it looks good.  Go enter!
https://diyhorseownership.com/total-saddle-fit-shoulder-relief-girth-review-and-giveaway/

Lameness on, lameness off

After Mia FINALLY came off of her antibiotics and was moving FABULOUSLY, what happens?  She comes up lame.  Of COURSE she does.  I rode on the prior Wednesday and put in a semi-serious work out for the first time in 2 weeks and hoped to hit our show on Sept 3rd.  It went decently and I was optimistic.  By the time the farrier was out on Friday, Mia was lame. She was uncomfortable on her right front but showed no heat/swelling anywhere.  She then proceeded to stay like that for a solid week.  No heat.  No swelling.  Just a slight head bob at the trot and a short step over tight turns.  Argh horses are so frustrating at times!

But you give me treats so it is okay right?

Thankfully she wasn't super lame and I figured since she isn't all that lame (because she really wasn't), I could still make her earn her keep and walk around so we did several bareback walking with only a halter type rides.  She has become such a solid citizen, I remember all of her antics over the past 3 years and was always curious if I would be able to ride comfortably bareback, let alone in a halter.  Now I am doing that on a semi-regular basis!  One day we even went on a "trail ride" with another border and they were so impressed with my mare.  Even with others, on a trail in which we encountered turkey and deer, we were bareback in a halter and didn't have a single issue.

Someone was VERY happy to be out and about.

Finally on Sunday she came up sound.  Finally.  I hopped on bareback and we did some quick w/t/c in the arena and she felt good.  I kept it really short because I did NOT feel well at all (an allergic reaction which made every joint ache, along the lines of bad flu pain) but I had to finally sit on my horse at more than a walk!  I was impressed with my balance, considering I have effectively had 3 weeks off, and Mia did wonderfully.  She even hopped over the cavaletti that were out!

LOOK!  At anything and everything!

Last night I was going to give her a semi-relaxed ride, we were going to do some light fitness work in the form of some walking/trotting on the trails but in a non-structured format.  She is not in shape for the show on the 3rd and I don't think I will get her there in time, but no time like the present to get back to work. Mia, however, was super excited about being outside.  Look over there, look over here, spook at the fish, spook at the bird, spook at the stick, straight lines are for sissies.... all while having a huge ground covering walk.  Eventually I gave up on the semi-relaxed trail ride and went for some true fitness.  I made her trot up and walk down the big hill 3 times before trotting on our normal fitness route.  After the third trip up the hill, she finally settled down and was acting like her normal self.  Nothing like some good hard work to take the edge off of the energy tank!

Tired mare was tired

We had to bushwack the trails a couple of times due to downed trees but we finally got to the destination, the lower hay field.  It is the last field we come to during our normal fitness work and is a great place to really open her up and let Mia just fly.  This was the only place I let her canter last night and she was.....excited to say the least.  I let her canter, she took it to a gallop and then adamantly refused to come back to me.  Great.  Thanks Mia.  It took not only sawing on her mouth, but also pulley reining her to get her to stop before the 90 degree bend which was downhill thanks to the direction around the field we had went.  Uphill with no control?  Eh, maybe.  Downhill?  No.  Just no.  I then very sternly told her that if she wasn't going to respond when I asked her to slow down, she lost the privilege of cantering for the day.  I made her do 2 full laps of the big field in trot (approximately 5 mins, with pretty decent elevation changes) and by the second lap, as soon as I sat down and relaxed, Mia took the opportunity to slow down and walk.  Tired mare was tired!

I will do this same type of ride tonight to get Mia back into the "work" mindset and to skim off any remaining "extra" energy she has in reserve and will work on dressage on Wednesday.  Since our Sept 3rd show is shot, I'm not in a rush.  Here's to hoping she stays sound and injury/sickness free for a while!

Novice Debut photo dump

Apologies that it took so long to get this post up, hopefully it was worth the wait.  I had big plans....alas they all went to hell so this is the consolation prize.

Mare had the hops on this day, wood allergy in full force!

Warm up!

Mia LOVES water

We had no issues jumping up this bank, or over the feeder
that can be seen behind the grass on the extreme right afterwards

My fav pic of the day.  Position love!

Barrel attack!

What Mia looks like when she Superwoman's it

Through the woods is no big deal for Mia

All the jumps

Unsure if this is Training or Prelim, Mia
didn't care either way and jumped it with ease

Easy peasy

Ditches are SO easy now!  She also jumped the
Training ditch seen in the background SO well

Very happy mare

 I am not entering the show in the 19th because while I would really like to, unfortunately I just don't think she will be ready and I don't think it would be fair to her.  I am going to bring her back to full work this week and she how she does with some fitness by the end of the week.  We have the new farrier coming for the 2nd visit on Friday and I am excited to see the changes that come about as she is able to implement the changes she started with the first visit.  Fingers crossed!

And things go downill

On Tuesday I got Mia from the pasture.  She is "over the hill"  with an almost 3000ft walk down a good incline to get to it.  So, of course, I ride her up the hill whenever I can.  I rode her up the hill and into the barn for our trail ride prep.  I hop down and blink.  And blink again.  Her knee was HUGE.

Day one, after cleaning, bute, cold hosing, neosporin and swat

She was totally sound, though uncomfortable.  Wednesday it was big enough that she was now lame so out the vet came.

Day 2

The vet didn't think the joint capsule was involved, but we had to have uncomfortable discussion that she isn't insured and I wouldn't be able to afford the 5-8k surgery to flush her knee if it was.  Ugh.  Lots of drugs.  Lots and lots of drugs.

Day 2

Goodbye $$$$!!!!

Day 2

The very unfortunate fact is that I was traveling out of town on Friday and could not get out of it, so I couldn't even tend to her 6 bullet point list of things that needed to be done. Sweat wrapped and stalled until swelling gone.  The Tridex paste daily.  33ml of IV Gentamax daily.  Banamine on Thurs before bute 2x a day.  15 SMZ 2x a day.  Yikes.  Thankfully the barn was willing to help out (for a fee).

Lots of this.  Lots and lots of this

Thankfully by the time I returned on Monday, the knee was much better and the joint capsule was not affected.  The swelling was almost completely gone.

Day 6

Day 6

And then a small tornado hit within a mile from the barn making it EXTREMELY difficult to travel to the barn.  2 re-routes needed, drove under 2 trees over the road and through 2 flooded sections of road.Yikes

Extensive tree damage

Not even the worst, but the easiest take pics of

Driving around trees

Eh, just lines down...no biggie right?

Wednesday finally marked the 15 day mark and Mia finished her 2 weeks of drugs.  Thankfully her knee looks to be healing well, and without issue though I think it will scar.

Day 14

Day 14

She has several large scrapes and had 2 open wounds.  The biggest one (as seen above) is the one that is having a hard time closing but is finally doing so.  The smaller one (above) is the one the vet thought may have compromised joint space.  Thankfully she was wrong.  Despite many pasture walkings, no one could find what she got hurt on.  It obviously isn't a kick, not with the number of scrapes, but it is a mystery.  She is now staying in a different pasture.

She was very lethargic on the SMZs but is back to normal so I plan on riding this weekend.  There is a show on Aug 19 I wanted to go to but I don't think she will be ready for it so our tentative plan is Sep 3rd.  Fingers crossed we can keep her injury free!

**edited to add**  And then App got kicked in his good shoulder by a wench of a mare this past Saturday.  He seems to be okay, just tender.  Needless to say I had a LOT to say and got a heartfelt apology from the barn owner over it.  They had randomly decided to move pastures/herds around and set up for this bad situation due to an unnecessary overreaction.  He should NOT have been in that pasture and he should NOT have been with that horse.  I'll see him again tonight but aside from a good bit of hair loss, he seems no worse for wear.  Grrr!!!!

Mia's Novice Horse Trial debut

We have been doing a lot of CT's lately, no fault of our own.  We have entered a Horse Trial (maybe 2?) this year only to have it knocked down to a CT due to weather or other factors.  It is now mid July and we are literally having our very first Horse Trial.  Geez!

2 weekends ago we went XC schooling for the very first time this year.  It went very well!  We met Stacey and Mochi and had ourselves a wonderful time.  Mia went over her first training level jumps with ease.  EASE.  And 2 jumps I am curious if they were prelim because they were HUGE.  I know training is big, but these were big.  I have a pic!  And it was easy for her. She is such a beast.
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And that, my friends, is all I got typed up before things went to hell.  I have tons of pics, but those will have to be a media dump so we can get caught up with life.  So the quick recap:

Mia did excellent in XC schooling!  She loves water jumps and we got to play with so many elements.  We did a bank out of water to a three stride to a small pheasant feeder.  We went down the bank into water.  We did up and down training level banks.  We went down banks that had a small log on top of it (Mia's hardest question a few years ago).  We went over 3 different training (2 prelim?) jumps.  We jumped one of those HUGE hay bales.  Most importantly, we jumped what is the beginnings of a sunken road called a roller coaster.  You jump a fence, have an immediate downhill slope to an immediate uphill slope with a jump on top.  I am SO glad we schooled this because Mia did not understand the question!  She was game, but very confused and unsure how to proceed.  We went over it about 10 times before it was easy for her.

On show day, things went very smoothly.  Dressage warm up was good!  But....  I was still really tired and so I drank half of an energy drink on the way to the show and it really messed with my mojo.  During the dressage test, I did the unthinkable.  I.....yeah....I stopped riding.  BLAH!!  She was doing so well too and I just stopped riding!  ARGH!!  We ended with a 35% with her new "relaxed" dressage frame which had my reins WAY too long and not a lot of back/front connection.  Considering there were 2 people in the mid 20's, my 6th place placing of 10 wasn't too hateful.

Stadium was next and I was glad I took the time to walk it.  Fence one looked like you could make an easy inside turn to 2, there was NO way.  Phew!  Despite it being a relatively easy course, it was hard for everyone.  Only 2 people rode double clear, yours truly included, and one person even fell off.  Yikes!!  After fence 7 I lost my right rein and almost missed fence 8 completely and fence 10 I just froze, got a bad distance and Mia hit the jump but it stayed up and I didn't fall off despite looking down over her shoulder.  Grr.

XC was immediately after stadium, with only 20 minutes between the two rides.  And XC was on the other side of the facility.  Hustle!!  When we got there, we were held because a rider fell off, the horse took off and no one could catch it.  Yikes!  When they finally sent a horse on course, they still hadn't caught it.  XC rode very well.  Mia was wonderfully forward and got nice distances to the first few fences.  She got a little strong over 4 and 5 but came back when I asked her to trot through the woods. She dominated the water and fence 9 and we went to the roller coaster jump.

The fence was actually the "easier" jump, where you land flat for a stride before going down the hill, we had schooled the one that had an immediate drop.  She locked onto the wrong jump at first, then I got a bad distance to the correct jump so it wasn't pretty but it was easy peasy.  The up bank was a piece of cake and the ditch was SUPER!  I am SO happy that schooling the faux ditch at the barn has made ditches be a non-issue.  We finished up with a nice, slow dressage canter to eat up time and was still 30 seconds under optimum.  Double clear!

Our double clear resulted in a wonderful 3rd place finish, with only .8 points from second.  WOW!!!!!  If I had ridden just a half effort harder in dressage I could have gotten 2nd. Argh!  Not riding is not typical of me, so I am pretty sure it was the energy drink, but at least she was nice and relaxed during the ride and both jumping rides were amazing.  Mia got Monday off and we were going on a trail ride Tuesday.  Cliffhanger.....

Craziness that is life

It sucks when life is so busy you can barely get things done.  Usually I can do blogger things while I am at work or during lunch, that just isn't the case lately.  Blah!  I am struggling to get time to keep on top of everything.  Some family was in over the 4th of July weekend.  I had tried to powerwash our front porch before they came in preparation for getting a small storage shed we were going to put on it.  That resulted in the porch needing to be repainted as old paint flaked off and then we found porch posts had rotted and needed to be replaced.  So that has taken up a LOT of free time.  Plus de-landscaping the back of our house and selling SO MANY plants...  I have been a selling fool these past 2 weeks.  Next will be some tack, LOTS of girths, one day it will be quiet again lol.

Rotty rot of a porch post.  NOT cedar.

So before the 4th, the farrier was supposed to come out.  He canceled 2 hours before he was supposed to show up and refused to reschedule, saying he would "let us know" when he could come.  Except he has done this 3 times and it takes weeks to get rescheduled so the horses are then long overdue.  This last time, the other boarder had enough (it was originally her farrier anyway) and was able to get a barefoot trimmer out of New York to come visit us.  She has been talking with this farrier for about 3-4 months and we just went ahead and decided to try her.

Hanging porch post

What a difference.  I gave zero instruction as to what I was unhappy with currently, just let her do her thing.  She made a huge difference in App.  App went from a grade 4 lameness to walking off a 2 at worst.  OMG.  She brought his heels back (FINALLY), changed his bars and the overall balance.  He is standing so much more comfortable and when she finished his front feet, he let out a huge sigh and did some licking and chewing.  Awwww!  Poor man must have been uncomfortable for a while, damn farriers.  I have complained ad nauseam about his hoof balance and underun heels and no one would actually fix them.

New cedar bottom for porch post

Mia wasn't nearly as big of a change, she really addressed Mia's slightly clubby foot and brought her heels way down.  She changed the balance of her fronts and said her hinds were in very good shape.  The downside is this farrier is more than double the cost of a typical trim (because she has to travel so far) but if she can make App almost sound so I am not considering putting him down for the winter?

The barn got 3 new boarders this month so we are now full again and 2 of them ride at night!  So far, I have had someone to ride with every single time I have gone to the barn for the past 2 weeks.  It is really cool!  It is really different, after riding by myself almost exclusively for 16 months, but really cool.  The one who rides with me the most is a good bit older and a fearful rider but I am being a "good/bad" influence and having her do things like walk up/down a hill, trotting outside and she even cantered on her own.  Cantering is something she hasn't done outside of a lesson in a very long time (her words).  She is thrilled I am riding with her and encouraging her to push her boundaries of comfort, hopefully, she gets her confidence soon.  She has ridden in only lessons for the past 9 years, has been an "indoor arena only" person, and only with other people with her.  I told her she is welcome to ride with me, but I ride outside as well as out and about.

New porch post, "new" paint later stripped off
as "paint+primer" was not primery enough.
Primer added and new paint put on top of that.

I have more updates, so many updates, so another post is to come this week.  What did we do?  Where did we go?  Who did we see?  Stay tuned!

Trying again

So after our last show was canceled, I ended up not riding for a solid 2 weeks.  That isn't helpful when we have another show scheduled in 2 weeks!  EEK!!  We had the abscess and then the family emergency immediately followed by relatives who came in this past weekend so no riding was done.

"new" relaxed trot

I am curious how well Mia will do with full Novice XC course, the courses are much shorter here in PA then they are in MI so I am not super concerned.  Any fit horse should be able to canter 5 minutes when full of adrenaline, and Mia is surely fit.  Never fear, I am not planning on taking a pasture puff and doing a Novice course.  On Tuesday I rode with a lady from our barn, let's call her B, on the trails and I was able to both trot and canter with her.  Not a full fitness set of either gait, but enough of a duration that both Mia and I got a good workout in.  Fitness FTW!

Last night we played with dressage and while it isn't where I had hoped, it was decent enough. I rode for 25 mins and worked on our new relaxation frame.  I don't think we will be able to get it when we are at the show but baby steps, right?  I ride again tonight and it should be a full dressage ride, I need to step up my game to make sure we are prepared!

This weekend we are going XC schooling so I am excited for that.  We haven't gone XC schooling all year, just making do with what is at the barn, so I am excited to go over some Novice and Training stuff!!  And!!!!  AND!!!! We should meet up with another blogger!  How fun will that be!

Not too bad, but holy short neck Batman!

Someone asked how App was doing, App is still trucking right along.  His weight isn't great but isn't bad at all for a broken old man.  His soundness has gone significantly downhill over the past year, from NQR in March/April last year to a grade 4/5 lameness at the walk.  See?

But you know what?  It doesn't slow him down.  Like... at all.  I have been informed that within the past 2 months App has:  Escaped from his pasture (regularly, not once or 5 times), run people over to escape out of the pasture, knocked stuff out of people's hand for no reason, JUMPED THE FENCE and encourages the 29yr old that he is pastured with to escape, run around and create havoc with him.  Ahem.  Yeah App, you are supposed to be broken and in retirement.  Being paired with this old buddy has apparently inspired all of the mischiefs that had been kept at bay for a full year.  The barn people have repeatedly said "I just can't believe it!  He is normally so calm and perfect!"  Yeah... no one believed he was an ass when he wanted to be.  They do now!

I am trying to overlook his limping because if he is creating this much havoc, like JUMPING OUT OF PASTURES and trotting to see Mia, he isn't in so much pain that he is unhappy.  He certainly still has that spark in his eye and will to live and he hasn't let life get him down.  I'm hopeful we can get him through another year, he doesn't seem ready to go that is for sure.

Not as planned

So Tuesday we went on a quick walk trail ride and Mia stumbled and acted off immediately.  I hopped down and dug around with a stick but found no rock.  She seemed to walk most of it off, as at first she didn't want to put her foot down, but was still off at the trot when we got back to the barn. She got some poultice and thrown in the pasture.  Wednesday she was still off but we couldn't really tell where.  No heat or swelling, we determined there was possibly heat in her heel.  She got her massage, more bute, some ickthammol and kicked back outside.

Mia had only a few unhappy moments

My PLAN was to give her Thursday off, check her again Friday and scratch from our (first of the season) Novice HT on Saturday if needed.  That flew out the window when we got a call that we had to rush to OH for a family emergency.  So the show was canceled as we were not even in the state dealing with family stuff.

Most of the time, she was simply content and hanging out.

We finally got back from Ohio Weds am.  I went out to the barn last night and my horses were alive and kicking.  Mia was being eaten alive by gnats, she had big sores on her chest and on her udder, so they were both covered in fly spray.  Mia looks like she could possibly still be lame?  But it is very mild if she is.

Writeup of the findings, sideways bc technology.

This weekend I have relatives coming in to visit so I won't be doing much riding, it lets her have more time off I suppose.  Things simply came to a very abrupt halt and it is disappointing horse wise.

Diagram of the muscle groups corresponding to above

So I suppose the best way to finish the post is to talk about Mia's massage.  I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but I am not sure I got it.  They use a big vibrating cylinder over her withers and a handheld one for everywhere else.  They didn't use their hands on her as much as I expected and the knots that were found were better, but they weren't eliminated.  She was pretty tight in her cheeks and shoulder and they gave me some assignments to do on her to help keep her loose and comfortable. I know Mia did enjoy it, I guess I was just expecting more.  Holding a vibrating massager and running it over her body to eliminate knots is not what I expected.  Has anyone else had an equine massage?  Should the knots have been eliminated?