Monday Maintenance

It’s Monday, and I woke up to frost, 25 degrees out. I had to scrape my car windows. Good thing I covered the herb garden last night because I transplanted all of my indoor starts yesterday. Would have been a waste of all the time and effort, only to lose them less than 12 hours later of them getting put in the ground. It’s May and its Montana and I know it stays cold up until July most years, but I am growing quite tired of it . I know there isn’t much I can do about it but it just confirms in my mind how ready I am to make a move to a warmer location. Can’t do it now, but it’s one of those long term 3-5 year plans looming out there.something to look forward to when I am riding in 4 layers in June, just to stay this side of freezing my ass off.

That said, I may as well focus on something I can control.

A few of you may have noticed that I have officially become a follower on some of your blogs. Crazy as it may sound, I was physically having to go onto each of your blogs in order to see any updates… I know.. how old school… right? It was just one of those things that I never got around to doing and quite honestly, I kind of enjoyed going onto each site individually to see updates . Unfortunately, time is a hard to come by commodity for me and I want to do a better job of staying current on the latest blog updates. So, in an effort to become more efficient with my blog addiction, it was time to do something about it. If I haven’t gotten to your blog yet, don’t worry, its just that I am making my way down the list, in no particular order , as I get a few extra minutes.

I also had to update my main page with a couple of additional photos of some of the other “kids” on the place and adjusted some different verbage in some of my other page elements and I added a follow by email option because I really like that on some of the others blogs out there. Makes it soooo much easier!

This week, I actually am taking a few days off from work. The weather I already have my days scheduled to the max with to-do’s. Riding is number one on the list, but I promised myself that at some point, I would do some concerted house cleaning/organizing instead of the quick cursory cleaning I do most weekends.

Two work days… I can do this..

The Head is " In the Bucket"

I did this post  a couple months back about changing up Maggie's bit, but at the time had not determined yet what I was going to change to, even if I was going to change.  I decided to start out the season just riding in the same old Myler snaffle I had started her in 3 years ago but it wasn't too many rides and  I started realizing I was not communicating effectively with her in the snaffle. She was fighting it, running through it, and generally ignoring it. I was having to really get  into her mouth in order to get a response, and even at that it wasn't much of a response. It was obvious that I was just creating more resistance in her.

In my work towards the goal of someday having a finished "bridle" horse in Maggie , I was losing ground in the lightness category. It was clearly time to do something different.

BUT WHAT?

I wanted to make the right decision but the tricky part about changing bits in horses can often be as confusing and frustrating as finding a well fitting saddle. In the end, I knew I would just have to try something and see if it works.

I had a couple of issues to address;
1)Overly forward horse- needed to have the ability to rate without pulling on her mouth
2) Needed something that would allow me to communicate clearly for correct training response

Training skills I had in place with Maggie from the snaffle were:
1) Lateral flexion
2) Soft feel- break at poll
3) beginnings of longitudinal flexion
4) Response to leg and seat aids

For the sake of brevity here, I opted (after of lot of jaw knashing and discussions with a respected trainer) to move her up to the Myler Forward Tilt Ported Barrel with the short shank.  It's considered a level 1-2 in Myler's scaling system, but I have seen it also listed as a Level 2 , depending on what site you reference.

It had been years since I worked a horse in shank bit and quite frankly, it made more more nervous than long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs . Shank bits can be bad in the wrong hands and I was afraid that my hands had become a little too careless after using a snaffle for all these years.. Comparitively, a rider can get away with a lot in a snaffle bit. I chose to attach the bit to a set of reins that had rein chains, for added feel and clarity.

The first two sessions we walked around in the arena and I didn't ask anything, just let her get used to the feel of it .  She seemed to be quite comfortable in it. Her mouth was quiet and she moved forward without any issues. On the third session I started asking for some turns. She was a little unsure at first but it became obvious to me very quickly that I barely had to pick up those reins for a response. When I asked for a stopped, I barely got the slack out and she was stopping with her front end lifted and her hind end under her.  I don't care who you are, that is an awesome feeling.  I found that when she dropped the inside shoulder on a circle, I could easily get her to pick up by a slight up squeeze on the inside rein and there was no resistance there like there had been in the snaffle.

We have since ridden on the trail with it and yesterday's ride confirmed for me that I had made the right choice.

She had her head "in the bucket" on a loose rein with only a slight squeeze on the reins. (Longitudinal flexion) She had lipstick (green foam on her lips) through out the entire ride and she was  dribbling drool bubbled... Yes, that is a good thing. It's indicative of a soft mouth.

At a trot, behind another horse, she was controllable again, and I was able to rate her when she was out front to a nice 8-9 mph trot. A pace easily maintained over many miles.

She still bobs her head up and down a bit as she has to learn where to position her head, as well as to develop the musculature to hold her head in the bucket ,  but what a positive change I have seen within such a short amount of time.

Less fighting, less resistance, a softer  more responsive horse... looks like we are back on the right track..

*Disclaimer- I am not recommending this product and I am not a professional trainer offering training advice. Please seek professional advice from a qualified trainer. This was simply an over view of my experience and what worked for me and my horses level of training. J. Kelner

( pathetic but apparently necessary these days)

13.5 Cold Wet Miles

The weather man claimed that it would be rainy this morning and clearing off this afternoon , so we decided to take the morning, pick up trailer tires and do a few errands and ride in the afternoon. As the morning went on, the clouds didn't seem to be clearing at all, in fact they were getting lower and the temp was dropping. We got home around noon, got the new tires on the trailer, threw the heavy oilskins in the truck and reluctantly headed out. By then it was already 2:00 and it was raining..and cold. 

We made the best of it. Not another soul was out and on the trail and there is something very surreal about a dark, quiet, wet forest to ride in.. We were all in a mood to just take it easy today and for the first several miles, didn't do anything but walk. We did alot of climbing hills and made our way  towards Pete's Ridge but when we hit the trail turn off to the ridge trail, we decided to go straight instead of taking a right up to the ridge. Eventually, the trail turned  into a two track trail . We ran across a group of Paintball guru's before hitting a  gate to a forest service road. We decided to turn around and head back and make our way up Pete's Ridge, only what we thought was a right to the Pete's Ridge trail , was the wrong right turn. We rode for about 3 miles , stopped for a while and had our "lunch/dinner" we had packed in the saddle bags, chicken, cheese sticks and water. Carrots for horses. We had one little mishap here. I went to give Brego a piece of carrot he had dropped and somehow, he managed to catch the tip of my middle finger in his front teeth and clamped down pretty hard. Good  Grief that hurt!! Luckily I jerked away quickly (reaction) and got my finger back in one piece, although I will admit I was afraid to look at first for fear of seeing just a bloody stump. Instead, I  just have a really big bruise on my finger nail and it hurts like you cannot believe..I will probably lose it.. .gross...
We rode for a ways longer and checked the GPS. Despite the rain, we were having such a great ride.  The horses were being perfect and frankly we lost track of time. Tom checked his watch and it was already almost 6:00 p.m. OOPS.. The trail we were on was sending us too far south so given the late time, we decided to back track and make our way out. I would have liked to see where the trail took us but maybe next time.

The temperature was dropping quickly and despite my 4 layers (in MAY no less) , gloves, neck gaiter and ear fleece,  I was beginning to get pretty cold . It didn't help that  I was also  wearing a heavy , now water laden oilskin. That takes a toll on the shoulders and back but I was thankful to have had it for today's ride because it kept me mostly dry. I will take a little discomfort of riding in layers over being cold any day.

We made it back to the truck, unsaddled, blanketed both horses, let them graze for a few minutes and got the heck on the road to get  home. Heat seaters turned on high. It was heaven.. nearly fell asleep!The truck read that the outside temperature was 36 degrees...

Today was one of those days that I could have easily bagged going riding. Honestly, riding was the last thing I  wanted to be doing but once we got out there, it was great. Despite, the very low snow levels...

Its MAY!! This should not be happening !!

The diagnosis

So the good news is that Xena did REALLY well with the people at the vet clinic.  I have only had her there once jsut to do a quick meet and greet not too long after I got her home. Yesterday was her first time as a "patient" there and she only thought about being aggresive once and it was briefly. The vet techs and the vets did a really good job just keeping it as low key as possible so that her experience was a positive one. That being said, she tolerated being pet by lots of strangers and didn't growl once, even let the vet pet her belly.. I was thrilled about that..
Ofcourse she was pretty stressed but that was understandable.

The vet was able to get a stool sample from Xena's gift on the lawn of the vet clinic, which worked out great, elimnatiing the need for the vet to have to manually take a sample, which probably would have set Xena back even further. The ran the test and it indicated alot of bacterial overgrowth in the gut..aka, COLITIS, or simply put, Inflamation of the colon. That was actually good news because it can dealt with easily. There was no indication of a blockage, malabsorption and no parasites.

The first thing that comes to mind is that she got into something bad and ate it. Or she had a diet change. Neither of those seemed to be a good explanation. There has been no diet change, no over indulgence in treats and no recent kitchen garbage raids. Getting into something, like a dead animal also isn't likely as she is never loose, except for her escape over a week ago. The  vet did not think the timing of her symptoms was jiving with that explanation.  Instead, the vet leaned more towards stess causing all of this. Dogs often get Colitis while kenneled due to stress. Well, she has certainly been stressed ever since trauma of the escape. Just like us, our gut flora can get out of sync with too much stress.. Makes sense to me.
So we were sent home, no harm no foul with an Immodium type medication as well as Metronidazole which is an antiinflammatory as well as kill certain harmful organisms such as Clostridia. She is also on that really expensive prescription gastro health canned food from thet vet for a few days. Xena was already feeling better by last night and the screamin mimi's have stopped. She thinks the canned food is like a slice of heaven. Getting the pills down her is quite a task but she gets so excited about the canned food, I just smash it into her dish and she doesn't know it's in there. (unlike most of my horses who would never fall for such a rookie trick)  I am sure I will have fun reintroducing her to her regular food..

So we are treating the symptoms and trying to get Xena back to some sort of normal  butI need to figure out how to manage her stress level so we don't have recurrences of this. Ofcourse, I can got the route of Prozac for Puppies- but I would rather avoid that. I am hoping to try a few homeopthic remedies and see if anything will help. The first one that comes to mind is Rescue Remedy . I have heard good and bad but the only thing I can do is try and see if it works.

If all else fails, I can use it...!

More Dog Issues...

Okay,so this week the plan was two fold; 1) get back into my weekly workout routine after taking two weeks off to decide if I was going to decide whether I was going to continue with the running thing and do a 10K and 2) Get a 22 mile week in for Maggie..yes 22 .. that has a fail safe built in because if I didn't make 22, 20 would still be "OK"..

So I have decided that the running thing is done for now, exept for maybe a little trail running just to mix it up. Otherwise, my fitness routine for the summer months will go back to interval workouts twice a week and a day of weights, and the rest will be farm and garden work. So far this week, I got one workout in.. Tonight is another workout night.. we will have to see what happens because after last night, things have the potential to be totally screwed up for the remaining week or what's left of it. Maggie getting in those 20  miles is likely out of the question... 

The German Shepherd, Xena, has gone off the deep end. Last Monday she ran away. She managed to scale the 6 foot kennel and high tailed it to god knows where. Tom looked for 3 hours for her. Luckily, she came home, on her own, once I showed up... after traveling like a banshee to get through a 4 hour drive just to get home from a day of CMS auditors... I made it home in 2.5 hours.. record time , but as soon as I got home, Xena showed up when I called her. It turns out , she is deathly afraid of lawn equipment. The neighbor had been mowing and it sent her over the top of the kennel. Ok, so plan B was to put wire of some sort on top of the Kennel.

I am doing this post in reverse so bear with me. I am working on about 4 hours of sleep for the past two nights.

Reverse the clock to Sunday. Xena developed diarrhea. It hasn't stopped, even though I have tried to feed her rice and taken her off everything else.. Sunday night, in an effort to try to keep her "contained" I put her in the mud room and shut the bottom half of the Dutch door that accesses the kitchen. I walked away for just a minute to find something, and she climbed over the door. After clearing a 6 foot fence, a 3.5 foot door was nothing I guess. Well, I scolded her and then she was  anxious all night. Would NOT settle down. The diarhea continued but seemed to get better over night.

Monday morning: Work day..
So,  since there is still no top on the outdoor kennel, so we can't leave her out there... so I have been keeping her in the garage and come home at lunch to let her out. I got home finding the expected accident (s) on the floor , which wasn't a big deal, however, I also found  that she had climbed up onto the new kitchen farm table that Tom built for me. He just brought it home Saturday morning and it is not quite finished . It's really a work of art  and it WAS ready for it's first coat of sealer.
Yeah, well, she scratched it to hell.  I wanted to kill her...I really did...  Why would she climb on top of the table???  Seems the Kennel escape has set her into a tail spin of sorts. I cleaned up the mess, covered the tale, put a bunch of obstacles on top of the table to deter her from climbing up there again, and left back to work.


The good news is that when I got home last night,  she had not climbed on it again and the scratches were salvageable with an iron and wet cloth (wood trade secret I guess). 
Last night, we put chicken wire and boards on the top of the kennel. Once that was done, the weather broke and the lawn really needed to be mowed.

Fine, Opportunity for counter conditioning moment with the mower.  I kept Xena on a leash and walked her up to it , let her sniff it before it got started and made it a big deal when she went up to it. Told her she was a good girl and rubbed her belly. She seemed okay with it at that point. Then when Tom started it, we stayed at what seemed like a safe  distance away. We were in the back yard and the mower was in the front yard. She could hear it and see it but it was well away to what seeme like a "safe" distance.  I tried to distract her with a toy while the mowing was going on , hoping that she would cue off me not being worried about it.. No go.. she just wanted to run away. She got really scared so I finally just brought her in the house  and put her in her inside crate. She finally calmed down. 

Ofcourse, with the diaharea, I had to keep taking her out every half hour so I had to keep exposing her to the noise of the   "death machine" over and over. .  At about  7:00 p.m I noticed that the small amount of stool she was still passing at that  point (not much in her stomach) had blood in it. I thought, Uh Oh...Even with all this, she doesn't seem to act sick in any way, other than she has mentally gone off the rocker...

So, this morning, as soon as it hits 8:00 a.m, I am headed to the vet with her... which will be a whole new trauma for her... she has fear aggression with strangers...

Not sure where this disaster of a dog story is going to end at this point but what I do know is that having a dog should not cause me this much stress...

A hole in JB's back

My focus these days ofcourse is on Maggie, who is not a Barb (Barbs, etc name thing) but is my main riding horse but  I thought maybe it was time to get you all up to date on JB, my barb gelding, who this blog was basically named after.

JB continues to be my other "work in progress" , but in a different way than Maggie. JB has a hole in his back. He has essentially forgotten that he has a right side to his spinal area and how to use it. .Due to his injury and lack of use, he has  learned to compensate for his diasbility by traveling and holding his body in a very strange way. Typically a horse at liberty mostly travels straight... mostly. JB travel with a right bend from his shoulders to his head, but his ribcage bent in the opposite way. So, essentially he is shaped like an "S" as he walks around at liberty.  It's  his "compensation " for his injury on his right pastern. This way he has learned to travel has created some atrohpy in his loin  along the right side of his spine  (if you were over the top of him looking down.) He has become very weak and unable/unwilling to drive himself forward with his hind quarters. As a result, he looks like he is off on his hind left but oddly enough, it's not that he is lame, He is just out of balance.

So , I have my work cut out for me and in many ways, we are starting over. I have been working him on the lunge  to help begin to get his strength without the added burden of a rider. When I do ride him, the work consists of long low walking with alot of bending. He is very resistant to bend correctly to the right. He wants to bend only with his his head and neck , but not let go through the spine and rib cage. It's a very strange feeling and frustrating to ride.

Today, my husband had a moment of absolute brilliance and pulled out a few of our blue barrels we have had laying around. I needed an object of some kind to bend JB around.. A visual aid helped us tremendously. I placed 6 barrels closely togther and made it so as I entered the barrels, he had to turn right or left. We did this at a walk and by the end of a few go arounds, JB was finally starting to find his ribcage again. Wow, what a feeling when a horse goes from rigid to soft,  steps under himself , and relaxes from head to toe... it was a total break through. I didn't have to fight him, he found it himself.

And to top it off, when he bent and traveled correctly, the sense of him being off in the back magically goes away..


In the last few weeks of trying to sort out what we needed to do with JB to get him to travel right, (even to the point of thinking he really was lame in the back end somewhere) today was such a great day.

The takeaway? What appears to be lameness needs to be fully investigated.. Look at the whole horse, don't overlook the small things. Something could be hiding that has nothing to do with a foot  or a leg...




 

Fear and Motivation

So the nicest days we have had thus far this spring were Sunday and yesterday. Ofcourse, as it would happen, I had to attend meetings at our main office beginning early Monday morning, which meant I had to travel 4 hours on Sunday afternoon.It was a  total bummer. It was hard to have to pack up and get in that car to drive in sunny 75 degree weather . I pouted... and whined as long as I could Sunday morning but I did manage to atleast ride JB a bit before I left. I did the office corporate thing ALL day Monday and finally got back on the road at 4:00 p.m. The husband called and said that Xena , the German Shepherd, had somehow managed to escape. She climbed a 6 foot kennel to get out. Do you know how hard it is to be 4 hours away and completely helpless ?? Besides that fact that the majority of the trip is in "dark country" . Tom  would be spending his afternoon looking for her.
A little motivation and a fair amount of fear can do amazing things. For the dog and me.

I made that drive in record time, 3 hours..I got home at 7:00, Tom picked me up at the car rental place and we raced back home. We drove some of the back roads, with me calling her.. but we saw nothing. We decided to run home so I could change out of the office garb and get to searching for her. I had two hours of daylight left. The neighbors had been running tractors and lawn equipment and that scared her enough to drive her over the kennel. She was last seen headed south by some other neighbor.

As I was changing and Tom was unloading the car, he says, "someone's here to see you!"

It was the best 5 words I had heard all day...

Xena came bounding in the front door and jumped on me. She was quite happy to see me but not as happy as I was to see her..
Xena must have heard me calling her, even though Tom had been out for 4 hours already calling and whistling for her.

So much for the fenced back yard we were building...

Plan B- a cover for the kennel..