I CAN pick up the left lead?

Today was a really big day for Dee and I. I've been working very hard to get her stronger behind so that she would find the canter transitions (and work in general) in our tiny ring less stressful. We've been doing endless walk-trot transitions, some baby leg-yields and as much stretchy work as I can convince her to do, and I've basically left the canter work alone completely. Today, she was doing some really lovely trot work... mostly stretching, quiet, forward and balanced... so I decided to try a little canter. We started to the left, which is the hard direction for her lead-wise, but the better direction for her in her trot work. I made sure she was forward and balanced, then softened my hand and asked for canter (she tends to get feeling a bit restricted with too much contact, so I wanted her to feel free to canter forward). To my great surprise, she popped right onto the left lead. No fuss, no muss. Sure, she threw her head up a tad, but I don't care about that right now. I care about the fact that I was able to ask for canter and get a QUIET transition onto the CORRECT lead. I honestly expected some playing or bucking or.. i don't know, baby antics.. but she was a perfect lady, I only had to give the slightest of leg aids and off she went. She broke a little bit on the 1st short side, but quickly picked back up and went on. The right lead was just as nice, with a quiet depart and an even nicer overall canter. The left side is definitely her weak side for canter work.. I could feel her struggling a bit more to maintain it (which is strange, because I'm rather crooked, with my right hip quite a bit higher than the left, and I have always had a TON of trouble with right lead canter, because it's hard for me to get my hips moving properly.) After our HUGE canter success, I quit for the day and told her what a rock star she is for picking up her leads on the first try. Seriously. I love this mare.
I think that I mentioned a few posts back about starting her onto Mushroom Matrix's ECP Matrix. I'm really thinking that it's making a difference. She's looking good and feeling great. I also just got a FREE month's supply of Performance Matrix. Bettina swears by it for young horses, "Blood Matrix is specially designed to improve energy and endurance and to promote quicker recovery after exercise. It works by helping to improve the transportation of oxygen to cells and the removal of carbon dioxide." (from mushroommatrix.com). Hey, Ill give it a try. I'm a big fan of the ECP, so I think I'll be a fan of this, too.

Itsy, bitsy, fuzzy wuzzy worms.

I never thought I'd say this, but YAY, my horse has worms! Dr. S found a pretty hefty population when she did the fecal, so it looks like the powerpac was just the thing, and since she's already on the strongid daily, we should be able to keep the population in control! All of her blood work looked wonderful, and she's officially innoculated for the season (with no reactions to the shots, thank goodness!). Now I've just got to get my copies of the rabies and coggins and we'll be set for any competitions we want to go to this year! Also, miss Dee has been utterly DEE-Lightful lately. She's been very good about her daily dose of icky wormer, and was a doll for Dr. S. I also think that (gasp) she may be starting to enjoy this grooming thing!
Dr. S thought that she was very cute... commented on how nice her shoulder is, what a nice eye she has, and how BIG she's probably going to get!
The dentist is coming for a visit on Friday, so if the teeth are causing trouble, too, then they'll not be causing trouble any more.
On another note, I'm about to pull my hair out, because while we HAVE been feeding the max-e-glo pellets, I ended up having to get the mash, and it is a MESS because it has to be wet. It gets all over Dee, all over the stall, all over the buckets.... there is rice bran EVERYWHERE. I'm already sick of it and it's only been a few days. Oh well.

The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return...

I think that Dee is beginning to love me, and I'm very happy about this. The last few days, she has been very snuggly. I mean, she still protests about the curry comb, but she's not as nasty about it anymore. Yesterday, she even let me give her a great big bear hug... HUGE progress!
That said, I'm anxiously awaiting a return call from the dentist, because I think she is in dire need of some mouth attention. She's a slow eater. Painfully slow. She takes about a million years to finish her grain and every other bite is followed by a huge gulp of water. Pellets fall out while she eats. Add all that to the fact that despite a good quality grain, rice bran, APF and now Mushroom Matrix, she STILL appears to be LOSING weight, and I think we've got a tooth issue. I can't think of another explanation. She's getting enough calories and nutrients in her grain and hay to feed a horse twice her size, but she looks terrible. She's been wormed and is on a daily wormer. She shows no signs of being ill... coat looks great, she's bright and chipper, no obvious signs of distress and seemingly no abnormalities. I just can't think of any explanation beyond her teeth. Unless it's ulcers. I mean, she had been INCREDIBLY sensitive when I curry her belly lately (more so than usual). I actually thought she might have some sort of cut or scrape under there today because she was SO reactive. However, running my hands all over her belly and putting pressure on it didn't reveal any cuts and didn't provoke ANY reaction... she could care less that I was poking and prodding her, but the curry comb? HATED IT. Now, she'll usually make snarky faces at me while I curry her belly, but today she was kicking at me and backing away from me like I was hurting her. I actually stopped grooming her because she seemed so uncomfortable. However, other than that, she really doesn't strike me as being ulcery. She's not a nervous type... in fact, she generally seems to be incredibly laid back 90% of the time. Then again, she WAS a racehorse, and it's very common for track horses to be ulcery. However, she came off the track in August last year... I would think the ulcers would have presented themselves by now. Plus, from what I saw, it looked like she was living the life at the farm I bought her from. Turn out all night, easy work 3 days a week... i'm not sure what could be stressful about that. And now? She's basically just been hanging out in a field with her best buds for the past few months and eating boat loads of grain and all the hay she could stuff into her face.
I'm just feeling a little lost and very upset. I'm hoping an appointment to the dentist will fix this issue, because I feel AWFUL right now. I cant stand being able to see her ribs as much as I can, and I'm doing everything in my power food-wise to fix it with NO results. None. It's incredibly frustrating. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this problem will be fixed soon... whether it will be fixed with a dentist visit, gastroguard or some yet-unknown remedy to a yet-unknown ailment is beyond me, but I WILL sort her out. I want my baby fat and happy.

Barefoot at last!

Miss Dee is finally barefooted! Bob thought her feet were in great shape and that she'll probably do well barefoot... so unlike Tango, whose feet were just terrible. I'm hoping that she acclimates well and doesn't get too sore. She was a proper lady for the farrier, too! Actually, she mostly just spend the whole time trying to figure out if my hair was edible or not (not biting, just lipping at every opportunity)... once she ascertained that it was not, she just sort of nosed it around and played with it... silly mare! But that was probably the most affectionate/playful she's ever been with me, so I was excited, and it kept her occupied.
In other news, I've got her started on the Max-E-Glo, and I'm really pleased with it. She seems to love it and is looking fabulous. I guess the Ultimate Finish just wasn't her cup of tea. I'm thinking that once she's in work, I may get her started on Platinum or possibly Mushroom Matrix, which Bettina told me works really well.
In other OTHER news, I finally got around to cleaning out my tack trunk and the rest of the tack room. I've been a bit negligent, and my tack trunk was in a complete state of disarray. The tack room needed some help, too.
Since we got all this snow on Tuesday, my trailer is sort of snowed in behind a plow drift, so I'm not sure when I'll be able to get it out again and actually take Miss Dee somewhere, but at least now I have an excuse to let her hang out: she needs to get used to having naked feet!

Natural Horsemanship

When I was a working student in MA, a woman came once a week to work with me and Scudder, the youngster, on natural horsemanship-type stuff. Now, I don't know what type it was... we used a rope halter and the ground work VASTLY improved Scud's manners, that's all I know. SO, when one of the girls in my senior seminar class asked me if she could use Dee and I as subjects for her senior project on Natural Horsemanship, I leapt at the chance.
We get our first lesson this weekend, and I'm pretty excited about it. I think it will be a great thing for me and Dee to work on together! Our "lesson" is Saturday, so I'll make sure to update! Maybe I can even convince megan to come up with me and take pictures.

On a side note, I wish I had my camera with me yesterday, because Dee was SO SUPER SHINY I couldn't believe it. I guess the Ultimate Finish is making her pretty glossy, but she doesn't seem to like eating it, so I'm thinking of switching her to Max-E-Glo rice bran, instead. It will offer the same results without the weird coco flavor that I think Dee is none to thrilled with. I do LIKE UF, and I think Buckeye is a great feed, so I don't want to take her off of the gro n' win, but I think I need something that she LIKES to eat to supplement the gnw with. They do have a UF powder, but I can't really imagine that it would taste much difference, and the powder is more expensive, so if she hates it, that's a lot of money down the tube.