Horse camp, Sharp Objects, and Training Holes with Sensitive Emotional Mares

It was a stupid move on my part. I know better, but I was in a rush , wasn't wearing my gloves and wasn't paying close enough attention and had bad aim. My right index finger paid the price. Since my husband  insists on keeping everything surgical sharp around here, I didn't feel much at first. Then I saw the blood. I had no idea a finger could bleed that much.  I mostly tried not to look at it, just enough to make sure it was still attached...one glance and nope, a bandaid wasn't going to  fix this little mishap. I got a few papertowels, applied direct pressure and went about getting myself on the way to get some help.  I was home alone but not dressed for the day .  Dressing yourself with a gushing finger is no easy task without making a mess.  I got myself in the car and made the 25 minute drive to Urgent Care.  They got me right in but I managed to panic the girl behind the desk because apparently  I was "too calm" for the amount of blood coming from my finger.

It's a terrible thing to be in the middle of your own trauma and then have to reassure the staff who is supposed to be taking care of you. She turned a shade of what I would best describe as greyish white  but quickly paged someone to come get me before she nearly passed out and was escorted to the back by her coworker. Thankfully, the male nurse who arrived was not squeemish about blood.  Or atleast he didn't let on that he was. It was a 3 hour process between arriving, soaking the finger m  numbing the finger (that was the worst part) so they could sufficiently irrigate  and clean the wound  and assess  the damage. The Physicians assistant  was going to send me  to the ER if I had severed any tendons or liagements. I got lucky and missed all that, somehow. She did quite a fine job stitching it even though part of the cut was resisting the lidocaine injections. I had to suffer through some of the stiching without numbness. Stitches don't come out for 14 days. Fantastic....

I am no longer playing with sharp objects,  atleast not for a while.  I have this gigantic bandage and splint on my finger. It's been pretty painful, especially at night when it seems to want to start throbbing. The antibiotics are pretty heavy duty and not playing nice with my stomach. Most of all it's irritating because it limits what I can and can't do. I am left  handed and the injured finger is my right hand but as with  most left handers, I am more right handed dominant so it's been awkward.

Maggie is officially moved to the boarding facility but I told her she was going to horse camp. I thought it sounded better.  It has been a long time since I have boarded a horse somewhere and it's very strange to not have her here. To be honest, it makes me a little nervous to have someone else responsible for her daily care but it will give me the ability to work her consistently.  I also have direct access to miles of trails which is a bonus.

Ofcourse my riding for the next couple of weeks might be a bit limited given the injury. I had to cancel my jumping lesson this past weekend.

Now that Maggie is at an arena where I can ride her.. the timing is a bit maddening but the boarding facility could not hold my spot for another 2 weeks and I wouldn't ever expect that. I didn't want to cancel and risk losing my spot. The facility is full so I threw caution to the wind and kept with the plan. There is still alot I can do with her on the ground. In fact it's exactly what she needs.

It was nice to have those couple of days of riding last week but it really made me reevaluate a couple of Maggie's training issues that I have not been able to completely address. There are training holes in her and as her trainer, it's maddening but humbling to admit that. The first few spring rides are frequently the roughest and that is to be expected but Maggie still gets so mad at the slightest things. I have never known a horse with such a quick fuse. It's been a challenge in her training progress. A thorn in my side that has yet to quite go away. I have learned that meeting her for the challenge in a full frontal attack will not work. She will not relent or acquiesse at a certain amount of pressure. No, she will just increase the pressure. She is too strong willed. She has taught me to remain calm no matter how upset she gets. If I get mad or frustrated things go south at a high rate of speed and I may as well just put her away for the remainder of the day.  A good horseman once gave me the advice that when a horse up the presure like that, sometimes the trainer has  to follow that pressure up, in a persistant but calm manner, until the horse drops the pressure. In other wordsm increase my pressure as she increases her pressure. I have tried that. It does not work, or , more likely, I am not doing it right.
I  have instead attempted to  redirect her in different ways , to find a way to slip in the back door. She often wants to buck, throw her head or worse,  attempt to rear  when she is upset and this softer approach seems to work to diffuse her mad and allow us to move on . Over the course of time , persistance and consistency have lessened her temper tantrums .They are less frequest and less severe but still they creep up.  I am not getting through to her like I need to or want to.

 Our time at the arena will hopefully allow me to continue to work her through these issues. Ground work  and work on the lunge will become her main purpose in life . At the end is this very simple goal : be able to apply a leg aid for a quiet leg yield  and /or canter depart without the explosive transition.
 

I just needed to get on my horse

Saturday I rode, but it was on someone else's horse. A Trakehner named Fancy.. It 's the cause for starting that irresistable urge to ride, regardless of the temps and footing that always occurs this time of year. ( More about Fancy later)

I took Monday off and it was relatively nice out so the hubby and I took the" kids" up the road for a quick ride. I don't know what we were thinking because we always try to avoid riding Maggie and Brego together. It's bad  ju ju between those two but it was one of those afternoons where we were trying to get some household chore stuff done and then simultaneously  we both had a " I just need to get on my horse" moment.

In only a few minutes from home both "kids" (juvenile delinquents would be a more appropriate description) found every excuse to act out. Maggie nearly kicked a car that went by and Brego just wanted to run, far and fast. Good think he has a braking system well installed.

We eventually  managed to get them sorted out after a bit and it actually turned from "what were we thinking" to "this isn't so bad" kind of ride.  Ofcourse, coming home Maggie had some less than obedient moments but we mostly worked through it. I would have given anything to  have gone straight out to the arena to ride her for a few more minutes but it's still covered in snow and ice.

It was really nice to get on my horse  and ride her, even if she was a bit fiesty. The good news however is that  after this weekend Maggie will be getting worked on a more consistent basis  regardless of the capricious late winter/early spring weather and bad footing.

 I will be moving Maggie to a boarding facility for the next two months. It's a big decision that has some financial compormises but I found a reasonable priced facility with access to an indoor riding arena, albeit a small arena.We have traditionally hauled to nearby arena's in the past once a week , for a not so reasonable price but its never consistent and hard to get anything of value accomplished. This facility also has direct access to the trails I often train on for endurance conditioning so it's almost the best of both worlds.

Fancy- ok, back to Fancy. I am totally excited about this new adventure I seem to have fallen into. The first things was finding a trainer, which I never thought I would be able to do  since I knew of most of the local trainers could not really get excited about taking lessons from any of them.  Not because they are bad people or anything. I just didn't share any of my same training philosophies or was overly impressed with what they were teaching. I was fortunate in my child hood to have had the opportunity to work with some really great trainers so I guess my expectations are high. About the time I was going to can the whole idea of trying to get back into a little jumping,  I found this lady who is relatively new to the area. She has only been here two years. I called her, and she actually called me right back. First test, passed. Then I arranged to go out to her facility to meet her. That went well and he invited me to come and watch a lesson or offered to come let me watch her ride and I did that too. I definitely felt like she was someone who could help me and I could learn from. So, I signed up for a lesson. My first lesson was last Saturday.

 From the time Iwas a young girl I always dreamed of owning and jumping a Trakehner. I got to ride one Trakehner gelding that was stabled at the show barn I was employed by,  but he was deemed a horse that was dangerous and whicked off to some other training barn. I cried the day he left the barn. I was hoping to save up my pennies and buy him. Young girls and their horse dreams.

As it turns out, as a not so  young girl, I might be get to live out that dream just yet....

Fancy is  the lesson horse, owned by my  trainer. She's a Trakehner. Wow, that sounds weird, I have a trainer?? It's been years since I have gotten to say that! Anyways, Fancy is a Trakehner and she is pretty darn cute.  In my lessons, I havent actually jumped yet and don't expect to for a while yet.  Relearning how to ride with such incredibly SHORT Stirrups will be my first big challenge and relearning how to stay balanced and secure in a two point position will be my next challenge. Only one lesson and my legs , lower back and hips were already screaming at me. How the heck did I do this for so many years??!?!

I guess it's safe to say that  Endurance is definitely on the back burner as of right now.  We may try to attend one LD later in the summer if we have time to train but it's definitely not the priority.

Honestly,  I have no idea where things will go, whether I will ever jump Maggie, or ever do endurance with her again but I am looking forward to having a different focus for a while. I even  have tentatively set up some time to work on cows later this spring with her.  I really want to take this time to figure out what her niche is. I know Endurance probably isn't it, even though she has the speed, she is missing some other key things that make a successful competitor. I will continue to work on Maggie's training in the arena setting. Lots of dressage focused work (boring I know , right?)
I plan to  put her on the lunge for a concerted amount of our training time and work on her canter  and cnater transition. Right now  her canter transition is not a transition at all , but better described as an explosion with a few bucks thrown in for good measure and once I get her through that, her canter is a gallop. 


There is no lack of things to work on and that's just with Maggie. I still have JB to work as well and I officially have the riding bug!











 

You have to read this and comment!

I have been shopping and reasearching a bit. Ride season is just around the corner and I really WANT TO RIDE ..

My goals for Maggie this season have little to do with endurance. It was a decision that was both easy to make but hard all at the same time. I love the sport, more than any other riding discipline I have ridden in, but when I look at the facts, it's not the best fit for Maggie. Yes, she is fast and tough as nails but she is also very hot and the competitiveness of it all just fries her little brain. She doesn't eat well, drink well or rest well. In time, some horses might figure this out. Maybe Maggie would also, in time, but I think she has more to offer in another direction. It's my responsibility to find what that is as her owner.

 After a lot of looking, I  have tentatively arranged a few lessons on working cows to begin in the coming weeks. It's  a local trainer who is supposedly trained in the Buck Brannaman styles of horsemanship. Ofcourse, I proceed with caution on that because alot of trainers make that same claim and most can't cash the check. Only one way to find out. Go ride with him a time or two and see for myself if it's a fit.

In the meantime, I need to get some concerted riding time on the ol' girl and grease the wheels again before I ask too much.  She's been a pasture muffin since October and I am sure we will have a few issues to sort out. I certaintly can't do anything at home with the footing. What to do? Find a boarding facility and board her for a month or two so I can have access to an arena. That's my only choice right now.

It's been over 10 years since I have had to board a horse somewhere. I had no idea it was such a process. I think ,a fter alot of calls and looking, I may have found a suitable place but I ran into a situation with one place that really shocked me.  This particular facility came to me highly recommeded , that it was run very well, kept clean and had vet techs on staff there. It sounded great . It was also pricey. In speaking with the owner , she seemed very nice and sent me all the paperwork. It turns out you have to apply to board there and they have to approve you. Ok, I could appreciate that. They were trying to weed out less than reliable boarders. Made perfect sense. They required vaccinations and coggins. Vaccinations I could understand but I explained to the owner that I do not vaccinate my horses any longer due to some ongoing reactions . The owner was willing to still accept me as a boarder in that case since I would be the one taking the risk. As far as requiring Coggins, that seemed to be a stretch to me because  MT law states that if a horse has had a coggins,  and has not left the state since, you don't need to renew it yearly.  That said, I was willing to  go get a Coggins regardless. The owners were obviously trying to protect themselves from an EIA outbreak and lets face it, not everyone is honest about their horses whereabouts or health for that matter.

Here is where the wheels fell off for me..
Apparently somewhere in the communications and the emailing back and forth about the vaccinations, the owner took it upon herself to ask the vet techs about my horses health history. I had not signed any paperwork or made any committments to board at this facility. She essentially "checked" up on me and the vet techs openly told her they knew of my horses reactions to  vaccinations in the past.

As far as I know, in selling or buying horses, a  release  of information has to be signed by the owner for others to have any medical information. In this case, this info wasn't highly confidential or anything , but it's the point that the facility owner took it upon herself to pry because she happened to have access to people who knew and that the techs openly discussed it without my consent. At the very least, the techs should have known better.

It bothered me.

Correction-

No, it flat out pissed me off.

The owner claims she is working very hard to run a facility without any "typical horse boarding drama".  It seems to me her actions don't quite follow her words. Had she asked,  I would have gladly told her she could contact my vet for records or even talk to my vet about my choice not to vaccinate. But she did not and took it upon herself to get information that I did not consent to, that she had no right to know. I had to wonder what else the techs are sharing that they shouldn't be with other horses or potential clients.

In the end, I have chosen another facility and the owner lost a potential client but I am curious about what your thoughts are .

What would your response to this be? Was this innappropriate on the owners and the tech's part or am I having too high of expectations?

**disclaimer in the off chance that someone who was involved in this  or knows someone that was involved in this and might be reading....Professionalism and Client Confidentiality are important and I would be happy to discuss it with you.

 

February Frump

             

February and I have a love hate relationship. Mostly hate. Here in Northwest MT, we always seem to get the end of January thaw ,which inevitiably reaches into February. Things become icey, sloppy, muddy and just plain ugly and gross, yet certain days are sunny and  nice enough (40’s) to make me yearn to get going with riding.

February likes to play games like that. It’s a month that demands patience  while it dangles the proverbial carrot of warmer days ahead just on the horizon, giving us glimmers of sunshine  and then  stealing it back to into it’s cold wintry nights.

February is not the month of love. It is a tease, a mocker, a leg puller.  The temps are bearable to ride in but the footing is treacherous and the arena is still snow covered. The horses have not begun to shed , although every few days I go out and check …just in case.
Nonetheless, I want to ride and  my patience with winter has run out.  I become restless , anxious and generally irritated because I know I still must wait. just a bit longer.

I am sequestered to indoor arena’s to act upon my urges to ride,  along with paying steep arena fees, while trying to manage riding for just an hour. An hour worth of riding is not much after I have have spent years training for endurance. An hour is just a drop in the bucket, but , atleast it's something.



On the horizon, pending the plans come together, I begin a new , but old , adventure with riding. I have threatened to do it for a few years now. I think I finally will.

Stay tuned

 

A leg up..Winter Ride Video Clip

Two posts in less than a week. Must be some sort of record..

On Saturday I headed out with a friend for a some snowshoeing in Whitefish , a nearby town, ie tourist hot spot.. There is a new trail system that has been created that I just learned about and wanted to check it out. We spent about 2 hours hiking around in the about 8 inches of fluffy white stuff. It was a fabulous way to spend a wintry day.

When I got home the sun was shining and  I had a horrible urge to get on a horse, even if only for a few wonderful moments .  I did a cursory brushing off of the snow and ice on Maggie's back and was going to just tie up the halter lead to make into reins but I thought better of that. Bareback is one thing after not being ridden for nearly two months on a hot horse but no bridle? That's just being crazy !   (alteast that was my logic at the time) . I grabbed Maggie's bridle  and talked my husband into coming out and giving me a leg up.
In my rush to take advantage of the limited sunshine, I had not even changed out of my snowshoe clothes which is a pair of lined pants made from a rayon , polyester blend.

Yes,  the slippery kind. Add that to a long coated Morgan.

As I got my leg up all was going relatively well Tom was careful not to toss me too hard considering the slippery pants. I was laying there across Maggie's back but I was sliding in a downwards direction (again the pants)so I made haste and went to swing my leg over. At about the same time she took a step in the opposite direction I was going and I guess the physics of momentum all came together or maybe they fell apare because it felt like I got an extra shove and off I went into the snow on the other side..

Damn pants.

I landed in a face plant into the snow. It was one of my less graceful moments on record but atleeast I was unhurt (exept for pride). Maggie, bless her heart was stock still. I know she was laughing at me.. By now I was laughing at me and so was the hubby. I was in tears in fact..

Attempt number two at getting a leg up was successful and we manged to have a lovely little ride, in spite of the hump in Maggie's back. Hubby even managed to take some video footage and I have posted it to You Tube here

Don't laugh, she is quite fat and sassy and I was barely manageing to keep her from doing airs above ground! Had I added ANY leg pressure we would have hit the moon!Nevermind the layer of ice below the fresh snow. I must be crazy!



 

Hey Everyone! Happy New Year

I hope the holidays and New Year have treated you all well. I can't complain. 2012 was really a great year for us here and I am looking forward to 2013 and whatever it brings.  I am sure everyone is dreaming of their future ride season and making plans and goals. The horses are quite fuzzy and round.. plenty ready to ‘weather” any storms we might have to face here in NW Montana. A fuzzy horse is a healthy horse and we have several months of opportunity for cold stormy weather ahead.

Maggie is officially the neglected child in my world. Sadly, I spent 5 weeks traveling for my newest newjob beginning in November . With that kind of schedule, It was all I could do to come home , washclothes and get back on a plane again. For now I am home and I hope that the intense travel schedule does not return. As the story goes, I had changed jobs back in August but then changed jobs again at the end of October for a better opportunity to work remotely.. with some travel.. However, I might be rethinking that now with the travel I had to do. We will have to see how much “some travel ends up actually being.

2012 was defininitely the year of accomplishments and new experiences for me on many levels. I think I met or exceeded most of the horse related goals I set for myself and Maggie. I even ran that 5K I always wanted to do. I feel very blessed and thankful for such a great year.


2013 has already had a great start. I have already accomplished some personal financial goals and working on a few more for future plans. I am also focusing on my health a bit more than I have , especially after the travel.. It really took a toll on me. I turned into a major zombie. I realized I wasn't going to pussy foot around it.  I am doing the Whole 30 with Dallas and Melissa Hartwig of Whole9. They are in their fourth year of a successful endeavor to change people's lives. It's been a goal of mine for a couple of years since switching to the Primal way of eating but never took the dive. Now I have. I am in Day 2 of my 30 days. So far so good, other than a mess up on drinking protein smoothies for breakfast . Apparently that's a no no because drinking your meals doesn't give the proper leptin release. Who knew?? So , I learn and move on.. no big deal.

JB update- remember him??? The little red Barb that started this whole thing...Well he's the not the same horse as he had been but he's the same horse that he once was. Clear as mud, right?  The hubby's young horse was lame after being a butthead so was on rest and his other main riding horse, Maggie's half bother Cassidy,  had been getting the tar   ridden out of him all summer and needed a little break so JB was the chosen mount. We took him on several fall rides. Nothing hard or fast but long 3-4 hour rides.Long for him.  After these few rides, it must have kicked something loose in his little pea brain because he started rip snorting around the pasture at regular intervals, the likes of which I had not seen since prior to the big wreck. He runs and plays, and bucks and does airs above ground that would impress the high school masters in Portugal. .It was like he found himself again buried deep down somewhere . It's been so nice to see him act full of P&V again and I am looking forward to our first few rides out this spring(er.. maybe not??) It makes my heart sing to see my JB is back..It took two years...

 

On other horizons..I have also agreed to join a Spartan Race Team in May.. it's the easy one.. The Spartan Sprint.. relatively speaking. Looks Intense , right? The team I am on is a  mix of Amazonian like characters who eat bar bells for breakfast and other normal people like myself who are realtively fit and just want to finish in one piece. Have I been training you ask ? Well.. I guess.. running 3-4 times a week, hills, a few sprints, snowshoeing and generally just staying active although with the zombi mode it's been a challenge. An old hip flexor injury and sciatic issue flared up on me that hindered my progress but  I think I amgaining traction on that. I doubt you will find me  carrying sandbags up a steep hill just to train for this thing..

Beyond that... well.. I am not sure. It seems like enough to worry about for now. The hubby appears to have a pretty aggressive Horseback Archery competition schedule this year beginning in May so I am not sure what that will do to any endurance plans I might have. Spring is a long ways off and alot of things can and will likely change between now and then.  I am just taking it one stride at a time..

 

Storm Blowing In

I am sitting here in my new office. I get to look out at my south facing pasture to watch the horses munch their breakfast , tails  and manes whipping in the wind as a storm front moves in.

 I get to do that now, that is watch the horses from my office window.

I have managed to change jobs twice in a 3 month period after having worked in one place for nearly 10 years.  In August I chose to leave that 10 years employer . It was difficult to leave the people behind but certainly not the job. It was time for a change. The stress was getting too much. I took a position with another local insurance company , only it was a different insurance industry, and not at all familiar. Chage is good and it was a good job, a good place to work that offered security and decent benefits. It challenged me to step outside my comfort zone and learn something new. All of that was fine,  but I just couldn't get excited about it.
Opportunity fell on my doorstep when a previous aquaintance informed me of a position that came open with another company. They happened to be looking for someone with my knowledge on a sspecific system I was already familiar with. Fortunate for me, there aren't alot of us that have this particular system's knowledge.
So I applied and got the job. It's a good job as well, a better job in my opinion. It offers me the opportunity to work remotely, most of the time with some travel. In time, I suspect it will allow me much more freedom with my schedule. Just the saving on the fuel money might be able to go towards some time to board a horse at a stable this winter. But first thing is first. I have to get up and running.

On Sunday, I  head out for the first week of several for some training. Where I will be going is much warmer. With a winter weather advisory looming as I type, it's not all bad. Yet, it's always hard to leave the farm behind. I worry about the dogs, the horses. We are predicted to have our first signifigant snowfall today through Friday. We have been busy in the last several weeks not only getting my home office ready , which was a serious undertaking and reorganization , but also preparing for the inevitable first snow. It's a list of tasks I always seem to dread because of what it represents. Very little time with the horses. Nonetheless, all of the horseshoes are pulled for the winter allowing the hooves several months to go barefoot again. Last weekend, we finished loading the last of the hay for the year. The garden boxes are dug up and compost added. The tank heaters are in the water troughs, ready to be plugged in (most likely later today considering the temps) The gutters are cleaned out, the wood shed is full and the lawn equipment is winterized and replaced by the snowblower. The horse blankets are within easy reach should we need them. What else is there???

As always, summer and fall come to a close much too quickly and usually with several things left undone on the  "To-do list but the important things have been accomplished. I often find myself complaining about all the work that comes with owning a home, having livestock and keeping a place up. There is always a new addition to the list.
But for now, we will rest a bit and settle into a new chapter. 

Winter can lay down heavy upon us.

We are ready.