BAD NEWS BEARS

Well, Tango and I took a trip to Belmont on Tuesday to pay a visit to the Ruffian Equine Medical Clinic and finally get to the bottom of this lameness thing. As it turns out, he isn't actually LAME... just limited. He apparently had an old injury to the check ligament that was either really terrible or just never given the care to heal properly, because the ligament is now very thick because of scar tissue and the scar tissue has actually ADHERED to his suspensory. DAMNIT! I've now found myself with a horse that can't jump anymore, since jumping is going to pull on that scar tissue and make him sore.
Looking at that ultrasound with Nancy and the vet and coming to the slow realization that I can't fix him absolutely broke my heart. I would have given anything to be able to fix this horse... I would have taken any amount of time and given him any level of care if someone told me it would make him OK, but instead I'm left helpless with the knowledge that I need to find him a more suitable home... a home where someone can pet him and adore him and take him out on the trails... maybe do some flat work, too. I guess the only thing that's good to know is that he isn't in pain... this thing up front is just happening because he's lost so much elasticity in the ligaments.
I've had to sell horses before... Dusty needed a less challenging home when she went blind in one eye and Kess decided he didn't want to be a preliminary horse... Both of those were hard for me, but I at least felt like I'd gotten the chance to TRY with them... I spent 4 years with Dusty and we got a chance to to all sorts of marvelous things together.. we both finished our first Training level together... hell, we finished our first recognised NOVICE together. That mare taught me all sorts of things about riding softly and efficiently. She gave me confidence. Most of all, she gave me brilliant memories and I couldn't ask any more of her... she gave me all she had and it was time for her to do that for someone else. It also didn't hurt that Jen bought her, so I was going to be able to keep seeing her.
couple photos from our time together:

Dusty and I as Black Riders for Halloween one year with my friend Helen and her horse Benji

Millbrook

Ethel Walker stadium... on our way to 2nd place

Kess was a totally different story. We had a great, short run. I got him as a Novice packer who wanted to do more, and more we did. Our biggest highlight was finishing 2nd in the TR division at Stuart, and I was SO excited about him. However, with him going lame at Fitch's Corner, and me going lame as soon as he was rideable again... we had some issues. I loved him dearly, and had a blast with him, but I guess I never quite felt the same sort of connection with him that I did with Dusty.. probably because I wasn't the one who trained him. He is now happily trucking around Novice with a little girl and I'll get to see him run when I go up to Millbrook next weekend! Anyway.. here are some fun photos from our time together:

Stuart XC

Meeting santa at LEC!

Stuart SJ

Kess and Gunner - his love at Lake Erie


I was able to handle selling those two because I felt that we'd at least gotten a chance to perform together and have some fun. Maybe that's why I'm finding this so hard with Tango... I feel as if the two of us haven't ever gotten a chance to do anything. I absolutely LOVE this horse... Dusty was sort of green when I got her, but Tango was VERY green... everything we've accomplished has been because of our teamwork. And let's not even mention that he is the sweetest, most talented horse I've ever met... I had such high hopes for him, and it really feels like my heart is breaking when I think that I'll never get to experience his BEAUTIFUL jump again, and that he'll never get to enjoy it again... because he LOVES to jump. This isn't as hard as saying goodbye forever... not by any means... Sierra gets the medal for the hardest goodbye... but it's just the fact that he's SO talented and SO lovely and he'll never get the chance to really prove it. I can't even type anything more because it's just making me upset. The blog isn't finished... I'll keep updating on Tango until he finds a new home, and then I'll start up anew once I find a new project... but I'm done for now.

return of the mystery lameness

well, Tango's weird lameness is officially BACK. I've been wondering about it for a little while now... not always sure he looked great, but not always sure he DIDN'T look great. It's probably at less than a 1 right now and only visible when he drops behind the leg at the trot, but it's there. I took him to Nancy's to have her take a look at him too, since I wasn't entirely sure if I was just being paranoid, and she definately saw it.
The whole thing is incredibly frustrating, so she called up the new Ruffian clinic at Belmont, where she knows a few of the vets, and told them what was going on. They agreed to see us this coming Tuesday, and Nancy's going to come along since she a)wants to see her friends b)wants to know what's wrong with this horse and c)doesn't think I should be hauling through NYC by myself (AGREED!).
I'm nervous that they'll find something irreparable, but at least then I'll KNOW and can find him a situation that will work for him. It's not fair to either of us to keep beating our heads against a wall with all these different diagnoseses.

Riga Meadow

I went to Riga Meadow yesterday to have a nice day of watching ponies. Taylor was going up there with her trainer to help out, so I met up with her. First of all, it is an absolutely BEAUTIFUL venue... the views are breathtaking.

By the time I got there, novice stadium was just beginning. I found taylor and told her that I wanted to keep an eye out for Delaney - the pony I used to ride at Stephie's. Oddly enough, I then turned around to see a little dark bay pony grazing with a fly mask on... closer inspection revealed that his halter did in fact say "Delaney"! I chatted with his rider's mom a little bit and she told me that he's been doing great, which is always nice to hear! I guess he lived in MD last year with his owner while she was at college, so that's cool! Here's a picture of him that I found here

I hung out and watched stadium for awhile before wandering off to XC, as Taylor's friend was about to head out on course. As you can see from the photo above, the XC course was pretty lovely... you could see just about everything if you stood in the right spot. Tay's friend went well, but the horse hurt itself and had to be taken to the on-site vet. It wasn't serious, thankfully. While they did that I wandered further into the XC fields and watched a bunch of people go. The course looked like it was riding very well, and everyone seemed to be having a pretty nice time. Right before I went back towards the dressage/show jumping, I saw a little pony going that I was PRETTY sure was Delaney, so I decided to wait and watch him go. Well, he wasn't a very good pony yesterday... he stopped at the jump after the drop, dumped his poor rider and took off back to the start. Silly pony!
After that, I was planning on heading out, but Taylor sent me a text saying that Bandit was in the dressage ring. Bandit was our friend Addie's old horse and is now being ridden by a young girl. He had a terrible dressage test and then got eliminated in show jumping... probably for the best. Having seen him, I headed out... horribly sunburned but glad to have spent a day at an event.

Jon Holling - Saturday and Sunday

Thankfully, Saturday didn't have to be an incredibly early day, since Tango and I didn't ride until 1:30. I got up to the barn at 8 and gave him a much needed bath, packed the trailer and left by 10. It actually wasn't a terrible drive up, we didn't hit any traffic... even at the tolls. I rolled into Greenwood farm at about 12:30, put Tango into his stall, gave him water, got changed and started tacking up. Our warm-up went well for the first few minutes, but by the time all five of us were in the ring, he was starting to get bottled up and nervous. Jon started the clinic with us working through a grid. It was ultimately a grid with 5 one-strides, but he built it up slowly. We began with three trot poles, which Tango refused to trot over. It then turned into pole, x-rail, pole... which he bombed through. By the time we hit two jumps, Jon was actually walking in front of us as we came into the line to try to get him to back off and slow down! It sort of worked, but he still wasn't being very good. Once the fourth jump went up, I was SURE he would back off a little bit, but I was sorely mistaken. Oh well. After we had gone through the full line a few times we moved on to a little line. Jon told us that it was made to be five strides, but he didn't care if it was five or six, as long as we knew what we got. At first, they were just simple poles on the ground and the goal was to quietly get our strides. Once again, Tango had other plans and insisted on trying to charge the poles and bolt down the line... we ultimately got a semi-controlled 5 strides down it before jon put the jumps in.
While the two lovely, quiet horses got to canter into the line, Tango and two other horses were made to trot in. I think that we managed at least one decent trip through, but he was terribly unrideable for the most part. It was at least nice to hear Jon tell me I rode it well, despite Tango trying to run away with me before during and after the line. With the line (basically) conquered, we moved on to corner fences! This was a big deal for my little guy, who's never seen anything like it. They were very small... probably about 2 feet... but they were still corners. We started with just one, which Tango jumped pretty well, and then added another. The first time we jumped through was going away from the barn, so I actually had a pretty decent ride. He jumped into the line HUGE, barely made the three strides and then launched out over the second... I ended up slipping my reins and almost riding the second like a drop, since I wasn't entirely sure we would make it over at first. To my delight, Jon told me that I had ridden it really well, especially considering how aggressive Tango had been (aggressive, NOT wild or stupid, yay!). We tried it again and had a lovely line.
The last part of the day was a course. We did the grid, made a hard left, came around to the 5 stride line, rolled back to the verticle in the line and then came over the corner line, this time towards home. Our first time down the corner line didn't go very well. He charged in and I didn't quite have him in control, let him drift right and ended up with a run-out at the second. The next time through was the same problem. Jon then had us take the second one by itself and then come around to try the whole thing. That time, we had a very nice ride through. A good way to end the day!
Tango got a nice wash-down and grazing time while we watched the last group go. After the last group was finished, I gave him his dinner and set off to find my hotel and get some dinner of my own. Around 7:30 I headed back out to the barn to check on Tango one last time. I wrapped his front legs (the left front, where he stuck it through the fence, always seems a little puffy now), brushed him and left him alone for the night.
The next morning I got to the barn around 6:15. No one was around yet, so I decided to wait on feeding Tango until the rest of his barn got fed. He wound up with breakfast at about 6:45... I unwrapped him and was pleased to see that his legs looked great. All that finished, I helped Jeanie - who had set the clinic up - remove all the jumps from the ring so that she could drag it and then headed to the truck to eat my Dunkin Donuts breakfast. As I was sitting there, a trailer began pulling up the driveway. I thought the truck looked familiar, and it turned out to be Stephie! Very exciting! She was riding Merk in the first group of the day, so I helped her tack up and then settled in to watch her. Merk looks GREAT. She was jumping REALLY well.
I watched the next couple of groups, too, and at about 11 I took Tango out for a walk/some grass. We were riding at noon, so he had a good half hour of wandering around and eating before I started tacking him up. Our group was only three riders, so it was really nice. He actually warmed up pretty well... much quieter than he had been the day before... but that didn't last long. Jon started the day with cantering poles. There was a four stride line and a three stride line. Again, he didn't care if we got more (or even if we got less, since we were on green horses), he just wanted us to know what we got and keep a good rhythm. Well, the minute I asked for canter, Tango started flying sideways and trying to bolt. When I finally got him at least pointed towards the first line of poles, he got totally inverted and took off down the line. NOT a good way to start the day. We then made our way to the next line with similar results. I think it took us five or six tries before he was even marginally rideable. At one point, he sort of tripped over or kicked one of the poles and then very nearly bucked me off because he was pissed off about stepping on the pole. Jon's response to that was "Don't worry about it, that's his own problem for running the pole over." Next was a pole on the diagonal to another pole, five strides to an oxer. Tango got over the pole and then tried to make a bid for the oxer... I took a tug and made him add another stride, to which he responded by taking off bucking after the oxer. Jon laughingly remarked that "He's got an opinion about everything!" Yup... that's my boy. He told me that when he gets all worked up about these things I should just try to ignore it, but also be strict with him by letting him know that what he's doing is wrong... basically it just comes down to NOT getting frustrated with him. He also said that I had done well not to get upset with him, because it would have been easy to do over the weekend.
I'm not sure what exactly changed after that, but suddenly Tango's brain switched back on and the rest of the lesson went REALLY well. I really started to feel like I could put my leg on and ride him more forward. The course had a lot of tight turns, a triple and a bounce... I was really really thrilled about his performance. He was back in hand pretty quickly after the fences, and able to make the turns without circling. One thing I do have to be careful of is not getting him "stuck" in his canter when we go around the turns (especially the tight ones). The turn to the bounce was really tight, and our first time through he got way too up and down and totally lost the engine, but the second time I rode him more forward and we got a much nicer canter into the bounce.
All in all it was a great weekend for both of us. I was really pleased with Tango's performance on Sunday, and even more pleased to see that he was still really fresh when I got him home.. he took off galloping around his paddock as soon as I let him out!
We were supposed to be having a lesson with Nancy today, but I guess she forgot that she was going away, so that didn't happen. We'll get there eventually!
I really wish I had photos from this weekend, but sadly, I brought my camera and forgot my camera charger, so the camera was dead. Oh well!
We learned a lot and had a blast... Jon is an excellent teacher and I can't wait until he comes around again!

Jon Holling

We survived! I'll post more later, because I'm currently about to be late for work, but the little boy and I got through the clinic unscathed. He was absolutely wild and sort of frustrating, but Jon helped us through it and I had him going pretty well by the end of the second day. He got lots of pats and I look forward to riding with Jon again.
more later!

Clinic Preps... continued

Two more days until Jon Holling! I'm praying that the weather hold out so that we can XC school... it's looking good so far, but New England is pretty unreliable in that department. It's hard to believe it's already July... before I know it I'll be back in school. I just filled out my entry form for Kent... now I just need to write out the check, get it in the mail and hope they arent full. fingers crossed!
we've got a flat lesson tonight with Jen, which I felt was much-needed after last night's ride. We pretty much spent an entire hour arguing. Sometimes I forget about the fact that he's still only six and green.
I've put together my "Clinic Checklist" and have already begun getting my stuff together.. but I seem to have lost my flat back buckets... I have no idea where they may have gone, but it's really frustrating.
plan for the next couple of days:
today: flat lesson
tomorrow: easy hack
saturday: leave at 10AM for clinic - show jumping with Jon!
sunday: XC school with Jon or more show jumping if the weather is crappy.

yikes! well, I'm off to go to work and fret about the upcoming weekend.

Clinic Preps

This weekend is the Jon Holling clinic up in Sherborn, MA and while I'm excited about it, I am also nervous nervous nervous. We're going to be in the "Soft Novice" group as opposed to the other novice group, which is "Novice/Training" and DEFINATELY not us!!
This past week was a bit of a waste, and he had a LOT more time off than I wanted him to, but I'm not too worried. Last Monday (the 29th) I walked into the barn to find that his front left was all scraped up. It was hot and fat and he was head bobbing lame on it... GREAT! We were scheduled to truck down to Nancy's the next day, but that was not looking likely, so I called to leave her a message that my horse is an idiot and we might not be sound tomorrow. I cleaned the scrapes (Luckily that's all they were) and deduced that he had probably stuck his foot through the fence. After the scrapes were cleaned, I put ice on the leg for about 20 minutes and then poulticed it for the night, hoping maybe it would be magically better in the morning.
Needless to say, it WASN'T magically better in the morning... it was still hot and still fat. He WAS, however, sound on it, which made me extremely happy. We missed the lesson, and I re-iced/re-poulticed and took him for a hand-walk. I went back that evening to take the poultice off, put more ice on and re-bandage. Luckily, it was looking a lot better. By wednesday the swelling had gone down quite a bit and he was still sound, so I elected to do a little flat work. Thursday, I showed up ready to really put him to work and discovered that he had ripped that left front shoe off. Our farrier, being the WONDERFUL person that he is, came out within an HOUR of me calling him in a panic and fixed the problem, but I had run out of light for riding. Friday we did more flat work, but it was kind of an awful ride... neither of us was in sync. He was tense and pissy and I was impatient. After forty minutes of arguing and not getting much accomplished, I finally just had him do some stretchy work, which he loves, and called it a day.
Speaking of stretchy, I am really excited about how great he's doing with that. He really takes the contact down and stays engaged behind now, so I really feel like we're improving from the stretch work now.
Saturday we had a lesson with Jen, which wound up being somewhere around an hour and a half long. We spent about an hour on flat work, drilling transitions and working on lateral movement a bit. I really feel like he's starting to GET the transitions up and down, but I also feel like I need to help him out a little more. His trot work is really improving... he is more consistantly forward and has become easier to ride at in terms of asking for more trot. His canter is, as always, a work in progress... he has a pretty good canter naturally, but I never feel like it's as good as it could be. We're getting there... he's more forward than he used to be, at least. After working on the flat, we did a little jumping. Jen set up a 9' bounce and we continued working our transitions before/after it to get him more uphill. Eventually, she shortened the distance a little, and I really felt the quality of his gaits improve through the exercise... he was responsive, up in front and jumping in great form by the end. Now we just need to get him a little more careful over smaller jumps! He jumps very correctly most of the time, and uses himself well, but he sometimes gets lazy... especially when the jumps are small and/or plain.
I'll post more later (or after the clinic, if I don't find time before then!).

Back to Blog

I know I know, it's been too long! The past two weeks have been sort of crazy and I haven't had a moment to think about blogging. I believe we left off at the fact that Tang and I were about to head up to Orange to hang out with Steph for the weekend. Well, that went AMAZINGLY well. There was a brief mix-up on the way up there, because steph had forgotton to write down that we were coming and was going to be gone until six that evening, but it worked out all right, Tang and I just hung out until she got home.

Our lesson on Saturday was on the flat, and Steph was pleased with how he looked soundness-wise. She was also happy to see how much more educated he is now compared to last time she saw him, but told me that it was time to start putting a little more pressure on him. She had me really riding him from behind into a more uphill balance. What really pleased me was that he just did it, he pretty much understood and gave the right answers every time, it was really cool.
Sunday we rode at nine and it was time for my first time jumping since last summer, when he was sound! Stephie's instructions to Tango were "Can you please NOT jump these like they're 3'6 so that your mother's back doesn't get sore?" haha. Well, he listened! He really has gotten a lot more educated all around. We kept the jumps low (mostly for me), but he was really pretty good overall... a few naughty moments, but that's to be expected, I guess. I feel like those will disappear as the jumps get a little bigger, because he simply doesn't pay attention when they're smaller and thinks it's playtime. Silly boy.
After stephie's, I went up to Jen's to horse-sit for the week and got to play with Piglet! I have lots of pictures, and if I can ever figure out how to get videos on my computer, I'll post those, too!











I was supposed to have a jump lesson Tuesday with Nancy, but Tango decided to stick his foot through the fence Monday night. He was lame lame lame on Monday, so I iced and poulticed. Tuesday he actually jogged sound, but it was still fat enough that I didn't feel comfortable riding him, let alone jumping him. I'm currently trying to re-schedule, because we really need to get in gear if we're hoping to have ANY chance at Riga Meadow!!