Here be Dragons

A few days ago, the elastic stirrup fell off of my left half chap.  No big deal, I thought.  Today, the shoelace of my left paddock boot broke in half as I tried to tighten it.  Ok, I'll just wear my field boots today, then, I thought.  The zipper of my right boot is broken, apparently.  Well, at least they are field boots.  Ten minutes later, I had the lace removed from the offending field boot and set about putting it into the paddock boot.  Oh yeah, and my favorite breaches are starting to get worn through.  Needless to say, after all the things that went wrong, I didn't have high hopes for my lesson today. 

When we started, it felt more like I was riding an untamed, vengeful dragon than a mare who is, despite what she would have people believe, actually broke.  

I think this is what she imagines herself as, sometimes.

When, approximately 10 minutes into the lesson, she responded to my "go forward now" demand by belligerently launching herself into the air like the ground was suddenly made of lava, J suggested that the lunge line might be a good idea.  I agreed.  On went the side reins, and Dee proceeded to be a complete turd for the next 15 minutes or so.  Finally, she started to listen and behave, and after probably a half hour (maybe more) on the lunge doing transitions and being reminded that she was not a dragon, I got back on.  Lo and behold, I had a real live horse under me again, and after a few minutes J even commented that she was quite lovely.  So, success! (?)  

On Tension

Dee and I moved to a new barn last week.  It's a great little place with only a few horses and a low-key atmosphere.  The horses basically live outside, only coming in for terrible weather and meals, and get 24/7 access to hay, inside and outside.  It also has a dressage arena to die for, with beautiful footing.  It's also about 20 minutes closer to me, so now I only have to drive 20 minutes each way instead of 40.  I'm thrilled, and I used our move as an excuse to get my butt in gear and start riding again.
Dee has not been ridden in about 3 months.  She has been working pretty consistently on the lunge, but for her that doesn't really count towards good behavior under saddle.  Our first couple of rides, I just walked around, thinking I should give her a chance to get used to having a rider again.

 On Friday, we trotted for the first time.  She was pretty good for the first few minutes, but definitely tense and on the verge of exploding the whole time.  So I gave her a break, then picked up the trot again, which went terribly.  She was 100% distracted, even more tense, and acting like a total jerk, taking every opportunity to spook and balk.  I got a few circles of halfway decent work and quit, because I was frustrated and figured it would keep getting worse.  I told myself that I should have just quit after the first few minutes of trot because she couldn't handle more of a workload yet.

Yesterday she was equally atrocious... wound tighter than a drum, taking every opportunity to spook her way out of working and just generally having no brain between her ears.  I was discouraged.  I felt like I couldn't ride and she was some sort of lost cause for me.  I was feeling pretty sorry for myself.  Why was I suddenly unable to ride her through the naughties?  Have I completely lost my nerve?

The answer to those questions, I think, is that I was being a wuss.  I think part of me is worried about another freak accident, and it was translating into me anticipating the spook, which in turn created more tension and more spooking.  I could feel myself riding backwards and being stupid, but I wasn't stopping the behavior, I was just quitting.  "Ok, you are being bad, I'll just stop asking."

Then I read this great blog post on tension and it was the wake-up call/pep talk that I think I needed.  Dee doesn't need to be coddled, she needs to be worked.  I knew this deep down, but it was helpful to read it, so that I couldn't talk myself out of it.  Do I think it's fair to ask her to canter around forever until she relaxes?  No.  I don't want her to go lame, and she is not fit enough/strong enough for that, I don't think, and canter seems to be harder for her in general.  Do I think it's fair to make her work her butt off at the trot until she releases some of that tension?  You bet.  So that's what we did today.

We did not achieve total relaxation, but we did achieve some relaxation, and maintained that relaxation continuously for about ten minutes.  Of course at that point she had been trotting for almost a half an hour, and given that neither of us has been riding for awhile, I thought it best to quit.  We actually went for longer than I wanted to, but she took almost 20 minutes to wind down to where she ended up, and I didn't want to quit until she started loosening up and getting down to business.  By 30 minutes, however, my lower back muscles were throwing in the towel and telling me that they were sore and not willing to keep working.  I figured better to quit while she was working pretty well and I was still able to ride really positively.  When we went back to walk, she actually went around on the buckle and gave me a few sighs, then stood with a droopy lip in the cross-ties back at the barn.  Did I finally tire miss thang out?  Maybe a little!  The conclusion I ultimately drew, though, was that I was expecting way too much of her yesterday.  She has no reason to be calm and collected unless I give her a reason to be by riding well and making her work.  She has been out of work for 3 months!  I'd be a little bonkers, too, if I was her!  I think we will get back to where we were i the fall as long as I stop being stupid.

She says "Why you gotta make me do things?"

My Fuzzy Valentine

Happy Valentine's Day, From Dee

My four-legged valentine got half of an organic apple, and she was thrilled.  I wish all gift-giving was that easy!

She looks like she's cuddling, but she's really trying to eat my jacket.

Losing the next few days...

Dee's thoughts on the upcoming stow storm:

She says that now, but when she [hopefully] gets chucked outside in it, I imagine she will dramatically be like:

and then..

How the B/O and other owners react:

Why I won't be driving anywhere for the next few days... It would go something like this:

So, stay warm, Dee!

Southern Snow!

Found on Facebook... This is roughly one block from my apartment.  Total driving fail.  This seems to happen a lot when it snows in Knoxville, which is why I stay off the roads.

Needless to say, I did not make it out to the barn today.  Luckily, the lovely E, who is a fellow law-student and boarder, was up at the barn with her truck at 9AM to meet the vet, who was going to give Dee and her boy Patrone their spring shots.  I was going to have to go up this afternoon, and after looking at the weather, I texted and asked her if she would be kind enough to check Dee's rugs and give her some lovin' from me.

I did get to go up yesterday, though.  It was pretty cold, so Dee just toodled around on the lunge a little bit, trotting poles and stretching her legs.  All in all a good day for her.  Love my girl.

"OMNOMNOMNOM These leaves are delicious!"

Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Poor Dee.  I don't have body clippers, but she is such a fuzz-monster that she sweats like a pig every time I work her and I couldn't stand it anymore... So, I gave her a little haircut.  With regular handheld clippers.  And it looks... ehm... not great.  First of all, I can't do lines to save my life.  That said, I saw this picture on Tamarack's Facebook page and thought "Hey, I can maybe do that!":

I liked it because it wouldn't involve TOO much in the way of making straight lines, and heck, if I messed up the lines on her withers, they would be covered with the saddle pad or her blanket.  Unfortunately even with good body clippers my skills are only so-so.  I did a nice job on Sitka when we went to Florida, but it's been years, and that was with heavy-duty high-end clippers.  The ones I used on Dee are meant for dogs.

I figure the lines will be less noticeable in a week or so:

"What have you done?  I hate you."

Serrrrrious hack job.

But it was a success in terms of her not being a sweat-monster!

On the bright side, she was a VERY good girl for her hack job clip.

To The Fruit Wizards Of Donnington

Dee got a massage today.  She spent most of the hour making faces, trying to put anything within reach in her mouth, and just generally being a busy-body.  When I threw her on the lunge after, though, she seemed much more relaxed throughout her body than she has been.  

Reunited and it feels so good.

I'm finally back in Knoxville after a [way too long] visit to CT for the holidays.  So of course, I rushed up to the barn to see Dee.  I waited until about 10:30 to leave, figuring that would give her a few hours with her friends before I disturbed her.  Unfortunately, when I got to the barn at 11, the horses were JUST being turned out.  Luckily (or, from Dee's perspective, unluckily), she was not out yet, so I didn't have to deal with the fact that she would be incredibly angry at me for grabbing her right after she got turned out (and let's be real, she probably wouldn't have let me catch her).
Since she's been on vacation for awhile thanks to me school schedule, the plan is to get her legged back up for a week or two before I really start riding again.  That means lots of in-hand walk work and trotting on the lunge.  She was... marginally well-behaved yesterday.  It took awhile to get her listening and settled in the trot work, because what she wanted to do was fall into the circle, get on two wheels, and bolt in a fit of bucks and leaps.  I was able to keep that to a minimum though, and by the time we changed directions she was mostly listening to me--with some eye-rolling and giraffe-impersonating thrown in for good measure.

Looking very proud of herself.

Back in the barn, she promptly started throwing a pawing tantrum whenever I walked away from her (she knows better when I'm working on her), because she wanted to go out.  If she could talk, I'm pretty sure the dialogue would have been something like "You are the worst mother ever and I hate you and I want to see my friends."  I imagine there would have been some expletives thrown in, too.

Notice the wide-open mouth... Very classy.

On the way out to the pasture we had to have a bit of discussion about not being a disrespectful cow, since she suddenly decided that she didn't need manners and could just barge ahead to the gate.  False.  Once she was back to acting like a lady, I released her back into the "wild" and she never looked back. I could really feel the love.