Good Jingles Y'all

Red circle: things that should not be. A divot in the left hind splint bone. 
Green arrow: things that are fine. This is a major blood vessel to the bone. 

Eli starts 2 weeks of strict stall rest today. I called the vet Tuesday evening for a funny looking puncture/scrape on the inside of his left hind... I just wanted to be sure nothing was in there.

She was immediately concerned about a fractured splint bone and wanted to see him. When she xrayed, we found the tiny divot/bone irregularity in the red circle.

It bothered her a whole heck of a lot... so we're on the ultra conservative path and waiting 2 weeks to xray again to make sure the splint and the cannon bones don't have hairline fractures.

Eli SHOULD be fine. 9/10 horses are completely fine. He was pretty sound last night and everything points to it'll be ok. We just don't want to get this one wrong. 🤞

Plans Change

If you follow me on social media, you already know the news. My plans got a little messed up between when I posted last and this past weekend, but it all worked out for the best!

We did go horse showing and it was GREAT, we just didn't go to the show I originally planned on. 

I need some time to process videos and pictures and wait for the official show photographer to send me a few images, but there will be an official show post later this week I hope! (I also need to do mega updates of the various pages on here)

Until a little bit later!

End of Winter Status

I'm not sure who is still here and reading. If you are, I appreciate it! Writing about the day to day issues just isn't going to happen for me, and it would be boring I think, so I'll do these periodic write ups that will have video and other things we're up to. Partly for anyone who is still interested, and partly so I can look back at what we were doing, what worked, what didn't, and to keep track of our progress.

3/20/2021

Eli's joints, tack, and hooves have always been a work in progress.

Early in Jan 2021, he became VERY spooky. Like, get on, strap in, trot off because you can't trust him to walk around the indoor without spooking hard.... and he'd even spook hard from the trot. I decided to have the vet look at his hocks/stifles at the beginning of February because we had turned up the dial on his work at the end of December and he had been working very well but the spooking was getting unmanageable. Turns out his hocks were super ouchy. The left was pretty dry and the fluid in the right was not the correct texture. Hock injections made Eli a very happy horse; the spooking stopped almost immediately. I also got him started on Adequan and we'll alternate Adequan and Legend every three months.

I had the saddle fitter bring some bits for me in February. Eli was going really well in his nathe, but he chewed through two of them and I can't keep buying them from the UK. We tried the NS Turtle Top Loose Ring first and never tried anything else. He met the bit right away and was very happy to keep the contact and was delightful to ride, with the added bonus of brakes and steering. We also added a wee bit of flocking to the front of his saddle because it was tipped down slightly... and I completely misread his objections to riding after flocking was added. I thought he was still sore from injections (we hadn't done too much at that point) and I thought he was objecting to working again after being unsaddled and such... nope. He progressed to threatening to rear. I spent the next week trying to determine if it was the saddle or a sudden behavioral issue. Apparently you can tack and untack him a dozen times and he gives zero shits about going back to work, even if he didn't like the previous saddle. He cares about how the saddle feels in the shoulder and under the twist. The fitter came back out (I had called her the day after she was here with an SOS) and she stripped all of the flocking from the front and reflocked it with completely new flocking since this saddle was used when I bought it. Eli was happy, and not trying to rear, haha. It still needs a little more flocking, but we're going to add it slowly as the brand new flocking compresses. She said if we ever get him another used saddle, she's going to strip all of the flocking from the everywhere and we're going to start from scratch since he's apparently very sensitive to it.

We had a new to us chiro come out last week for adjustments and acupuncture. Our old favorite stopped coming to our area and it took us 6+ months to find a replacement who was both a vet and did a good job. She was GREAT and is our new favorite and we've got her on a 6 week cycle. Eli is a lot more comfortable and the other horses she saw had super improvements too.

As for his hooves, we've had a few change ups.

Front hooves: Last year we tried removing his pads and packing, tried easy care shoes, and then went back to pads, packing and a 2 degree wedge after the vet xrayed his fronts because he was so sore. Those made him happy, but he still wasn't landing heel first. Penn's owner suggested flip flops (steel toe on vulcanized rubber shoes), and on 3/2/2021, my farrier and another local farrier were able to match up their schedules and she taught him how to apply the shoes. Eli LOVES them. He lands heel first, is more free in his shoulder, and is super happy. We have a couple issues to work out still (his feet suddenly started falling apart this past week when winter suddenly dried out), but I've got everything crossed that we can figure it out.

Flip flops are super cool. They're supposed to provide the best of both rubber and steel, but the rubber is flexible enough for the shoe to stay on if the horse steps on it... we'll see about that. Eli did manage to pull the right one off last week.

Hind hooves: When the vet came for spring shots, I had her take new farrier films of his front hooves, and for shits and giggles, take films of his hind hooves since we've had hind end issues in the last 3-6 months and I've never x-rayed the hinds. Umm. Yea, it's a good thing we did because the angles are a disaster. The vet and farriers agreed that we need to ditch his easy care hind shoes and put steel shoes, pads, packing, and 2 degree wedges on the hinds. Those went on on Sunday (3/21/2021), and wow does his hind end feel better. I could feel his hind feet, the left hind didn't trail, he didn't catch his toes and wrench his stifles, I told him to sit down in the canter and he did, and was super comfortable on a short trail ride (he usually struggle busses it downhill). Makes sense that anything that involved sitting down would suck for him when both hinds that are supposed to support his weight are at a negative palmer angle, stretching the back of his leg already. I'm super happy that he's happy, so fingers crossed he stays that way.

Left hind

Right hind

As for riding, knock on wood, things are going well. The mental coach I worked with last year and I had a call in January about new goals and where I want to go from here. She helped me come up with a plan, and we brainstormed how to make it happen and how I can hold myself accountable.

This lead to me trying lessons with a trainer local to me, partly because she was recommended for the in hand work, partly because she's a judge, and partly because I could haul to her farm and she was willing to ride Eli if he was being a fool.

Eli hauled delightfully well, came off the trailer calmly, settled in a stall, and munched hay like a champ. I felt comfortable just lunging and hopping on. The trainer had a ton of good tips that mesh well with what we've been working on, and didn't involve pulling his head down or anything like that. It was ride the hind legs and forward into the bridle. She had me up Eli's "safe" trot to a real working trot, then we did a neat exercise in suppling Eli's longitudinal balance (see below videos). Basically, trot big (from the seat with big full posts, not the leg) on half of a 20m circle, then half halt and sit the trot and engage the core even more to shorten the stride and ask him to sit down.

Link to Youtube

Link to Youtube

We moved on to fixing the canter (which acquired a head toss, especially to the right). It's my fault because I have panic induced habits that make me pull, which he hates. We built the trot up to the big trot on a 20m circle at E/B, leg yield out (not actually out, just changing the balance on the shoulders) and press the trot until he naturally breaks to canter, aiming to have the transition coming into the wall at B or E. It's how she teaches her young horses to canter. It worked really well for getting us into canter with no head tossing. Then she had me sit on the outside hind in the canter to anchor myself.

I went back two Saturdays in a row, and plan to go back again. Those lessons were really helpful, and at home I worked on reattaching my elbows to my core since they wandered in my lessons, which made my hands jump up and down.

We set up the small dressage arena in the outdoor this past weekend because... we're going to a horse show this weekend! We're going to the schooling show winter series that I used to take Penn to, and riding T-1 and T-2. Here's some iffy video of T-2 from this past weekend... my riding friend T held a phone on a wiggly horse on Saturday, and Pivo just struggle bussed it on Sunday because the zoom was too much for it to see clearly and we had predictive follow on. Poor quality video of a high quality horse?

Link to Youtube

Link to Youtube

Anyway, hopefully I have good news about the show next week!

Happy New Year

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy, and better new year. ❤

The year was strange and hard, but man, I'm really loving Eli. This year forced me to keep him home and take the work slowly. 2020 wasn't all bad!

Gait Updates & Holiday Wishes

Poor sad blog, it's been pushed to the side this year. I haven't made many updates, especially around the one year mark when I wanted to. I got some great video from this weekend, so I'm doing the one year gait review today, instead of back in August/September when I wanted to. Enjoy some video I made a few months ago, and then the one from this past Saturday!

Eli's canter from my first ride on him. This may not be a fair comparison because it was my first ride on him, but it's pretty accurate. I was being taken for a ride, and that continued through winter 2019-2020 and spring 2020.

Link to YouTube

This is almost a month after the 1 year mark, but he didn't come home until 8/13/2019, so it's pretty close to 1 year:

Link to YouTube

And then finally, from this past weekend. I spent a long time this past year with a grounded, slow trot because Eli struggled to keep his balance with his poll up and his nose out. I've been able to establish better straightness recently, so I've been experimenting with adding power back to the trot... and suddenly this horse appeared! There's still some work to go: better reach, better suspension, eliminating the bit of BTV that's going on here, and steadying the poll. It's just so much better!

Link to YouTube

If you're in the same boat, don't despair. The horse will get there when he gets there, and not a moment sooner. (Also, lessons with A Enter Spooking help a lot!)

Since I'm not sure what's going on in my life or when the next update will be: I hope everyone is having a healthy and safe holiday season. Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

One Year Comparisons: Hooves

I diligently took pictures of Eli's front hooves after every trim and reset. I didn't do the same for the hinds since they weren't as drastically bad... but they've both evolved so much.

I need to talk about the hind hooves first, because they influenced recent changes we made to the fronts. Forgive me, there's some history to go through before we get to the comparisons!

Hinds

At the beginning of summer, Eli was struggling with his stifles. He has struggled with toe catching behind ever since we put hind shoes on him last fall, but it started getting a lot worse once we started working outside on the harder outdoor arena. He started catching the toe more often and harder, wrenching the stifle in the process. I know his stifles turn out and he'd prefer not to track straight, but it's been getting better. I did my due diligence and had the vet out for a lameness exam even though he's not really lame, and to take xrays of the stifles.

He was due to have his hind shoes reset 2 days before the vet came, so I had the farrier pull his shoes so the vet could take whatever xrays she wanted. He did a slight trim so Eli wouldn't chew up his feet  but left enough hoof to put shoes back on. In those two days, he didn't catch his toes once.

The vet did a thorough look over and we xrayed the stifles to check them for bone malformation. Everything looked good on that front- no hooks! He did have some inflammation, which considering the struggle bus his hind end has been on, didn't surprise me. She recommended alternating rounds of Adequan and Legend every 3 months (which I'll do once I sort out a few things), and keep doing what I'm doing.

Long blocks of text need pictures of good boys who walked (under saddle) by themselves on the trail for the first time... after happily leaving the main group to head home alone! This was a few weeks ago.

That's all well and good, but I didn't have a content feeling on why shoes caused Eli to catch his toes. Farrier and I agreed that if he'll stay comfortable, we'll leave him barefoot behind since he's not wrenching the stifle. Eli got a proper barefoot trim and was happy.

That lasted about 3 weeks before I noticed some significant issues: footsore behind led to footsore on all 4 feet, despite pads and packing in his front hooves. He stopped walking comfortably out on the trail, even on soft dirt footing. He stopped pushing from behind to go up hills, not that he pushed much anyway, but he was clearly uncomfortable and pulling himself forward with his chest. He was standing more square on the concrete aisle, but everything else seemed touchy.

I had been talking to Penn's owner about hoof boots, but I was struggling to find a boot that was long enough for Eli's hooves, but narrow too. Eli's hind hooves are quite narrow, and more than one company told me their products wouldn't work for him. I was paroozing Easy Care's website when I saw they have a shoe specifically for hind hooves in their EasyShoe range. We measured Eli's hoof, and the shape of the shoe was right for his hoof, so I ordered Eli's first pair of EasyShoe Versa shoes!

From Easy Care's Website

The day finally came to put them on (we had to wait for enough hoof growth), and getting them on was an absolute shitshow. My farrier has put similar shoes on several horses over the years, so none of what happened was his fault. Eli was in serious pain. Farrier did a normal trim, and we found bruising arching with the white line for several inches along both hind toes.

Farrier thoroughly dried the hoof using a heat gun, slathered glue, then nailed the shoes on... one f-ing nail at a time. Eli would snatch the hoof out of his hand at every single nail. Funny part was, the nail going in didn't bother him as much as the hammer pounding near the hoof. Eli caught him once and the whole process had to stop while Farrier bandaged his hand up because he was bleeding everywhere (no good horse discount, I went and bought Farrier beer).

I was a schmuck and realized something the next morning: I should have packed Eli's hinds with magic cushion when Farrier was done the night before. I went out after work that day and packed his feet. He was still a bit sore when I brought him in, but post-MC and about 30 min later, he was already tracking better and bigger behind.

Since then, Eli has felt great! We're in our second cycle of Versa shoes, and I'm happy to say the second set went on a lot easier. Farrier has devised a great process for getting them on, and it's so great that he struggled briefly to pull them off. They were still adhered VERY tightly after 6 weeks in dry summer.

6 weeks of toe wear.

Eli wears size 138mm, but might have to go to 140mm in the next few cycles because his hind feet have started to widen! We can always grind off some of the length if needed when the time comes.

Fronts

With the polyurethane hind shoe experiment being a success, this past week we put on these front shoes:

EasyShoe Performance N/G

I originally wanted to put on Versas, but the shape of the front shoes wasn't correct for Eli's fronts. I also wanted to keep the bar shoe shape with frog support. After a lot of discussion with Penn's owner, I added supporting the bony column of the hoof and leg with a frog support wedge. If you recall, Penn's owner is a corrective farrier who leans towards barefoot and alternative shoeing. She dislikes the impact of steel shoes, and won't put steel shoes on unless she's doing pads and packing under them for shock absorption and frog/sole support.

The Performance N/G fit the bill. Definitely click the link to see the shoe flex independently. Eli wears a size 4, which is snug in width and JUST long enough.

These went on just as nicely as the hinds. They fit very snugly before they were glued and nailed on, so fingers crossed they stay on as well as the hinds have!

While I don't have a verdict about these as far as function, they appear to be doing the trick. Eli seems happy in them, and he's using his shoulder well and seems happier. I thought I had video, but my Galaxy s10 fell victim to the most recent Pivo app update and I had an error happen while recording Eli going in his new shoes... so no video.

Hoof Condition

In the last year, the quality of hoof has gotten a lot better all around. Eli's hooves were crack free until summer started, then all of a sudden got a bunch of small, minor cracks. The quarter crack in his left hind is gone though!

Eli kindly ripped his shoe off in turnout, pulling a chip out in front of the crack in this pic. Farrier trimmed a wedge into the bottom of the quarter crack to discourage it from continuing up the hoof. We packed it with keratex hoof wax after the shoe was back on. I couldn't find a real before pic of the crack, but it was another cm or so higher when he came home. 

Of course I didn't do proper pictures of the quarter crack, so this was the best I could find. The small cracks are all remnants of his time barefoot, plus a dry summer. But it's almost gone in this pic!

A reminder of where we started with the fronts. These are at least 4 weeks into their trim cycle since his fronts were pulled at his vetting in early Aug 2019.

Almost exactly a year later. Still more to go (come on hooves, PLEASE GROW HEEL), but they're still so much better. We're still chipping away at the toe, a bit more to go there too.

And without further ado, a video of the last 12 months of front shoeing!

Gotcha Day, Year 1!

Today is Eli's gotcha day!

I wanted to have comparisons and such to put on here, but alas, work and life combined with Blogger's dumb new format makes it super difficult to post from my phone. I'll hopefully have some 1 year comparisons next week!

I rode this morning before work with a plan to be at the barn extra early to be down at the outdoor with 10 minutes or so extra time so I could use the selfie feature on my Pivo... Eli was not down with that plan.

I arrived at 5:55 and went to get him after pulling out brushes and tack. Found him napping. Note how dark it is.

So tired! Face smushed into the grass, snoring.

Getting a wee bit dramatic, snoring and groaning while sleeping.

Wait there was a noise!

Don't care, I'm exhausted.

He started getting up and stopped. He also started grazing and stopped. And stayed like this. Note how light it is.

When you kill almost a half hour trying to fetch the horse on Gotcha Day, this is the kind of selfie you have to settle for!

Not All Wins Are Blue Ribbons

 #wordlesswednesday

Eli's Eggplant

There's a bunch of things I've wanted to write about lately, but this is simply hilarious so I'm going to write about it first... and use your imagination when I say "eggplant." I'm not calling it anything else so I don't land in the wrong type of search engine!

So Eli is a ridiculously itchy horse. He's got a hundred itchy spots. It's probably easier to tell you what isn't itchy. I know he has ended up with staples in his face from itching it on inappropriate things a few times (I met him with staples under his left eye, he still has those scars and then some).

On Saturday, I noticed he has some flaking skin on one of his stifles, so I'm going to town on it with a stiff brush and he drops. Mikey was always easy to clean, Penn would try to kick me when I tried, so I was curious what Eli would do.

He had some peeling skin, and I was gently peeling/rolling it off to make sure I didn't get overzealous and pull too hard. He didn't snatch his "eggplant" away from me, so I kept on going because it was good training for sheath cleaning. For whatever reason I looked forward at his face.

He was liking it. A lot. Not in a slap the belly kind of way, in an "OMG that's the spot, KEEP SCRATCHING IT'S SO ITCHY." He really enjoyed it, some of his best "that's the spot" faces.

Umm. I've never met a horse with an itchy eggplant. Belly? Sure. The actual eggplant? Nope.

Sunday rolls around. What does a normal horse owner do? Not what I did I'm sure! I scratched his stifles again to see if I could make him drop to try and itch his eggplant again. The answer is yes, he dropped faster and more relaxed and enjoyed a good umm, scratch?

Eli is weird AF y'all. He kept his eggplant out, apparently wanting more scratches. This horse is going to be rated R if I'm not careful! He also wanted a snuggle when I walked past his face to wash my hands. 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ Despite all the weird, I'm filing this under "good training" even though it's sort of gross and slightly awkward. But it's good to know he doesn't need to be sedated for sheath cleaning.

In all seriousness, I got a good reach up in his sheath Sunday to see of he'd kick me. Nope, he won't kick, but he was even more itchy up there and it was super gross. I ended up doing a poor cleaning after a trail ride. I didn't have anything on hand to clean him with other than water, so I did what I could. I pulled out enough smegma to make a ball the size of my fist, and I know there's more in there. For the 5-10 min I dug around hand deep in his sheath, he was making the best itchy faces! He won't drop with water around, so I'll have to look for a bean another day.

Sunrise 8/3/2020, Eli did not want to get out of bed!

Since he's tried to remove eyes while scratching his face, I'm just considering myself lucky he hasn't pulled off his eggplant with inappropriate scratching!

2020 Updates

Hello everyone! Long time no post. I've been suffering burnout from work since sometime late last year, and it hasn't let up this year. I've had zero desire to get on here and write anything after spending my day frustrated and staring at a computer. Put that on top of it being a bit of a dark time mentally for me, then pile on COVID-19 madness, and you don't have a good recipe for blog writing. Plus like... it was mostly low content times.

I hope you and yours are safe and well in this pandemic, and your life hasn't been turned upside down to an unmanageable point. I'm one of the lucky ones- my husband and I are both working at home 100% since mid March (expected through at least September, if not the end of the year) and it's BAU for us. I fall into a few of the health risk categories, so I'm extremely grateful to be able to work from home.

Our barn didn't close, but we did excessive cleaning with social distancing rules. Social distancing is getting easier as the weather warms up. I still feel safe going out there because of all the precautions I take personally and the precautions the staff takes. I wipe down my trunk, locker, and stall front when I arrive and before I leave. I keep a halter and lead rope for my personal use and leave Eli's regular halter and lead for staff to use. I tack up in my stall using a personal set of cross ties so that I don't have to share community cross ties. I wash my hands when I get there, at least once while I'm there, and before I leave. I use paper towels to open doors. Most of the other boarders do something similar.

This set up actually did a fabulous job of teaching him he's ok alone in the barn. I found he was a lot less worried about things when he was in his "safe space." It also taught him to stay in his freaking stall instead of running out!

As a barn, we've been using the TeamUp app to note when each of us will be at the barn so we can spread out throughout the day. There were some minor tweaks I had to make to my barn schedule, but I'm still getting out there 4 to 5 days a week.

I'm also on staff at the barn, so I participate in cleaning high traffic surfaces as well as the gator, pitch forks, wheelbarrows, brooms, and dust pans. The barn lounge was closed almost immediately to discourage loitering, and was staff only up until recently. Knock on wood, staff and boarders have all been healthy so far and we're going out of our way to protect ourselves and everyone else.

____________________________________________

Eli and I have been trucking along, taking everything slowly because I'm mentally struggling (but getting better now). Instead of seeing the good in each ride, I was only seeing what I hadn't done or wasn't doing because of fear. It made horses not fun, and I didn't want to go to the barn or ride. I wanted to sell everything and be done with horses, but I didn't know what I'd do instead.

I took GP trainer's advice back in March and got in contact with the sports psychologist she used several years ago. The program I was using got me in the saddle and going with Eli, but wasn't enough. I'm still in the early phases of the new program, it's hard but it's working.

It took an obscene number of pictures to get one with his ears semi-forward. He was gorging himself on grass and looked unhappy about it. 🤣

I got to have a great virtual lesson with Megan at the end of March! She really helped me to start bringing Eli's hind legs closer together so he engages better, but we also went over the cues for shoulder fore, and teaching a young horse how to respond properly. Breaking it down into attainable steps really helped in other aspects of riding too.

I also figured out back in April that a lot of my trouble with Eli taking over and pulling me out of the saddle came from him physically pulling the bit forward in his mouth and then leaning hard on it. He's gotten his tongue over the bit a bunch of times doing that trick. I wasn't trusting myself to keep my own balance so I was using his mouth for balance (I know, bad!), so this trick was really effective at destabilizing me.

When I ordered his bridle after he came home, I got a plain cavesson and a drop noseband. I swapped out that plain noseband for the drop. What a difference! He fussed with the bit, trying to take it from me, had a slam on the brakes tantrum when he couldn't pull the bit forward, and then settled into really steady work. Steady in tempo and the contact.

Link to YouTube

I've been able to pick the fights, and win them quickly, over not leaning, giraffing, or rooting. When Eli can't pull the bit forward, he doesn't get his balance lurching around, which means I have core to spare, so I can shake him off my hand and put my leg on and use a seat based half halt to put him back in contact seeking mode.

I also found a trainer in my area to take lessons from. She's been around for ages and finished her gold medal last year. We've been lessoning every other week since the end of March. Lessons revolve around self carriage with suppleness for Eli and correct position for me. GP Trainer P is forward into the contact and not pulling the horse into it, and she's been very understanding about my fear issues and Eli being a new partnership. (the video above was from our 3rd lesson, the two below are from our... 5th? on 6/5/2020)

Link to YouTube

Link to YouTube

I made a few other tack adjustments in the last 2 months:

Changed the bit from a HS RS Dynamic Loose Ring Lozenge to a Nathe. Eli has never been great about bridling (tall horse becomes a giraffe). In fact, I have to be careful he's still tied to something because sometimes he'll turn and leave as soon as he knows the bridle is coming! Penn was never difficult to bridle, but he gobbled up the Nathe like candy. When I put him in a double to take pictures before he went to his new home, he refused to take the bit the next day until he realized it was the Nathe again. I was at a loss of what to do bit wise for Eli. He had a hard, dead mouth, wasn't thrilled about meeting the contact, and evaded being bridled. I tried a cookie after taking the bit to encourage him to go along with it, which helped at least keep him in place, if not head down. He didn't seem... happy. I was afraid I wouldn't have breaks with the Nathe, but I got so fed up one day I just popped it on and thought, "I can always dismount if he's not listening."

Uh, for the first time ever, I had real direct rein steering. I didn't realize it was missing. He wasn't afraid of the contact, in fact he went right to it. We kept it and haven't looked back! He's been much, much happier in the contact. The amount of BTV curling has also been reduced. Sure it still happens sometimes when I get too heavy handed because I've lost my balance (sorry Eli), but he lives on the vertical for the most part.

First or second ride with a new-to-us saddle!

Put Penn's Hastilow Concept Elevation on consignment with the saddle fitter and found a used Black Country Bellissima. GP Trainer mentioned she first saw Eli that she didn't think the saddle was a good long term fit for Eli, but I didn't get a new one at that time because I figured he'd be changing shape and Penn's fit well enough for now. Fast forward to the end of April. Penn's saddle had been reflocked twice, and I'd widened it once already. Suddenly, the panels weren't sitting right and it was both pinching the very top of the whithers causing pressure bumps while being too wide at the bottom points (meaning it was too wide). Making the tree narrower only made the bumps worse (so it's also the wrong shape). When I stuck my hand into the gullet, I found the left panel under the twist was sitting on Eli's spine ever so slightly. I put Penn's old Stubben 1894 on, which is several CM too small, and Eli preferred to have his back squeezed than whatever was going on with the Hastilow. I suspected that he also disliked the flex-tree in it- he seems to enjoy steady, non-chatterbox tack.

After what seemed an age, (ok not really, 3 weeks and one homemade saddle pad later that relieved the spine interference for the most part), my previously scheduled appointment with the saddle fitter came and we settled on the Black Country Eloquence. I test rode a padded up WXW to see if Eli liked the tree (he loved it) and if I liked the feel (I did not). The main hang up was the saddle I was trying was a half size too small, which made everything feel off. Saddle Fitter did not have an Eloquence in stock in an 18.5 that I could try, and Black Country was still closed from the virus. We talked about having something custom made because I didn't like how the seat felt and we thought I'd enjoy a slightly forward flap dressage saddle (thank you Mary Wanless), but I also wasn't prepared to spend $4500+ on a new saddle. Instead, we did some internet scouring during my fitting and found a few 18.5 MW candidates that allowed trials, and I reached out to them. I took the WXW on trial so I'd have something to ride him in and to make sure he kept liking the tree. I actually found the saddle winner the next morning- a very well used Bellissima. The Bellissima is the same tree and saddle as the Eloquence, but is the luxury model.

From the tack shop's website

I called the tack shop selling it first thing when they opened and it was on its way to me that afternoon! I was super nervous about it not fitting Eli since it looked a little narrow to be a MW, but it fit Eli like it was made for him. It also felt like it was made for my butt! It encourages me to keep my pelvis tilted up, thigh rolled in, core engaged... all those Mary Wanless taught ideas. I still think I'd like more forward flaps, but it will work for now. If/when Eli outgrows this saddle, I'll order a custom Bellissima (because in truth, I love calfskin seats). I just have to save for it!

Eli has felt like he was about to buck for 90% of the rides I'd had on him up to this point. I'd check in with other people riding with me and they'd say, "No, there is no buck in his back." It made me nervous to put leg on or really ask Eli to do things. My friend that rides Eli sometimes didn't register the feeling because her mare feels like that all the time (very high internal pressure mare who does often buck when she feels she's been wronged). That feeling is gone!

Monty Robert's Dually Halter over the bridle with a second set of reins hooked to the rope nose as a sort of emergency brake.

Eli can also walk downhill under saddle. I started trail riding with a Dually Halter safety net and the idea that simply getting into the woods was a victory, even if I got off and led him. The major problem I had was his inability to sit down to go downhill. He'd flail and try to trot off, stumbling and running into the horse in front of us. With the Bellissima, that is gone. I didn't make some miraculous training adjustment overnight... I changed the saddle and he sat like he's supposed to. He likes it better!

Link to Youtube

Thanks to the change of saddle, I had this first successes on 5/26/2020, when I just "went for it" and cantered outside because Eli felt safe. Sure, I'm super freaking handsy and using him to balance myself, but to get less handsy in the canter I need to practice the canter.

I made the change official on Memorial Day when I drove to the fitter's office to drop off Penn's saddle for consignment, return the trial saddle, and have them vet the Bellissima for soundness. I took a bunch of pictures of it sitting on Eli and of Eli's back without it so they could evaluate balance and his musculature. The saddle needs to be reflocked, but with a shim it'll do until the fitter can get out again.

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In other news, the beauty of the internet has also led me to some incredible strangers. Through Instagram, I found someone who managed to get SoloShot to replace her arm tag because she was sent a faulty tag. I tried to get a new tag under warranty back in Oct 2018 and got no where with them after a month of pestering. This lovely individual, who was a stranger to me and we had nothing more in common than a love for horses and broken SoloShot3s, used her connections to get my inquiry to the right people at SoloShot. I got a new tag about a month ago, and my Soloshot3 has worked almost flawlessly since! It has had a couple goof ups in tracking where I'm not sure what happened, but it has worked well enough for 95% of my rides because I keep it on medium view instead of tight... so videos on the blog will end up a bit zoomed out, sorry! But the bright side is... I'll have new media regularly!

Link to YouTube

6/20/2020 We love a super boring canter these days :)

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As for the blog, I'm certainly not closing it. I'm also not going to be updating it as much (heck, I've only managed... 3 times this year?). I'll probably do a bit more updating now that the Soloshot3 is working again!

Link to YouTube

We started cavaletti Sundays back up this past weekend. We stopped them when Eli started bolting through this same exercise and I had to use the 90 degree turns to trip him up and help him not anticipate. I did a bunch of cavaletti on the long lines to let him figure out cantering trot poles like a wild man was not a safe thing to do. Ever since, knock on wood, he's been good!

The Curious Case of Inappropriate Poop

Horses are not dicks on purpose people. Dogs, cats, horses and animals in general don’t do things out of spite. If they’re mad, they tell you right away, end of story. Then they’re back to themselves, and they might like you less, but it’s a constant dislike. Not plotting. Horse dynamics within the herd are swift and severe, and then it’s over.

I mean, this totally looks like Sophie is going to kill me in my sleep. But alas no, she is simply tolerating my shenanigans.

Around the time we switched to day time turnout, I started getting reports about my horse being an asshole because he was pooping in his water bucket. Then it was his feed bin, NIGHTLY. I was racking my brain to figure out what was wrong.

It all started with Eli pooping in his water, and barn staff complaining they had to dump it every morning. It took me a couple weeks to work out that he was leaning on his buckets while he slept, and then horses are horses, so he pooped where he stood… which happened to be in the water bucket. The staff tried moving it all over his stall, and without fail, every night he’d find it and poop in it. We tried “poop training” him by putting another horse’s poop in the stall where we wanted him to poop (and his too). It worked for one night only.

When he switched stalls due to an unhealthy attachment to a turnout buddy who also lived next to him in the barn, he started pooping in his feed bin. This cause a bit of an uproar. Inexperienced staff wouldn’t check the feed bin before dumping grain (something ALL STAFF should do for EVERY HORSE anyway), he’d eat half his own poop, and I’d have a shit fit come evening when I found poop mashed around in his grain bin. I was not kind. Everyone said my horse was just being a dick. I kept saying he liked to lean on things while he slept and he was simply being a horse, pooping where he stood.

One particularly bad night where he got all 3.
Horse people really like taking pictures of poop don't they? 

The solution was a gate feeder (like for outside horses) for AM feed after the night in the stall. This worked well and my brains stayed in my head. Poop was removed when the stall was cleaned after breakfast, all was well other than Eli was annoying majority of the staff.

The other odd thing I’ve been fighting is a hock sore on the right hind that just wouldn’t go away. Eli was reopening it every day it seemed, and had been for months. Nothing I did got it to close. After the stall move, a new sore started on the back of his left hock, right on the point of the hock.

Partially healed hock sore that no amount of bedding would stop from reoccurring.

On a completely different (but I promise related note), the Mary Wanless GP trainer I saw in December expressed some concerns about Eli’s hind end. I dutifully got the work ups for lyme and EPM (no spinal tap, just blood, I know it’s not the golden standard), and had a lameness exam and neuro exam. The most we got was he clear on EPM and lyme, was very tight in his lower back, and lazy behind. Both MWGP and my vet suggested chiro work. I had used “adjusters” in the last few months (they aren’t vets and basically did glorified massage and stretches), because I hadn’t heard from my favorite equine vet chiropractor in ages. He is older and travels from Michigan to Western PA to see us, and I assumed he wasn’t making the rounds anymore.

I called his office and got a, “Why yes he’s still coming around! He’ll be in your area next Wednesday!”

Brilliant. Adjustment day came. We joked with Dr W about Eli being a big horse, he’ll need a bigger step to do adjustments. Dr W said, nah he can’t be that big.

First thing Dr W says is, “That is a BIG horse.”

Second thing Dr W says, “This horse’s hind end is a mess.”

Note higher right top of the hip up high in this poor photo.

Basically, Dr W thinks Eli fell at some point in his adult life, most likely before he came to live with me because he's been pretty much the same moving behind since he arrived. He said it wouldn’t take much, since Eli is just so big it’s a lot of mass coming down. His back wasn’t flexible and springy, and what I thought was a small misalignment of the hips (the right sits slightly higher) is actually a bad misalignment.

Eli did not enjoy his hind end adjustment. A friend held his head, I put hands on his left side to keep him from moving, and Dr W adjusted the right side from above (and yes, he thought a 4 step block would have helped!). Eli tried to bite and kick Dr W, all while hitting him with his tail. As soon as the adjustment was made, Eli switched gears and became a sleepy puppy that wanted to snuggle Dr W.

Dr W was super pleased with the adjustment, gave him B12 injections all over his SI and hip areas, as well as the left shoulder since that was also adjusted, and thought we could have it sorted after 3 or 4 more visits (every 8-9 weeks).

Guess what happened?

No, he didn't magically love tarps because of his adjustment. But he doesn't care about tarps anyway.

Eli stopped pooping in his water buckets and feed bin. Sure, he still gets it wrong sometimes. But we have more good nights than bad (I get weekly report cards from the experienced staff and the barn owner). His hock sores are almost healed over, 3 weeks after his adjustment. He also swings better through his back under saddle, but that’s not the point here. Whatever is going on in his hind end meant he wasn’t comfortable sleeping standing up without leaning on something.

You know what else happened? Some of his more neurotic attachment tendencies inexplicably declined. He can be in the barn by himself without having a screaming meltdown. Is he 100% comfortable by himself? Of course not. But he's doing better. It could be that he's getting better quality sleep, which helps his brain function normally, and he doesn't stress as much (I don't see why it would be any different than when humans don't get enough sleep). He's not on any calming stuff anymore, by the way. I pulled that more than a month ago.

I expect it all to get worse again by the mid to end of February when he’s due for another adjustment, and then to be better than now after his next adjustment.

The lesson everyone? HORSES ARE NOT DICKS ON PURPOSE. It just takes some sleuthing to understand what’s wrong. I just happened upon on the correct solution, and you bet I won’t forget it.

2019 Wrap Up

I'm combining my 2019 goal review and 2019 wrap up into one post, because well, we're out of days in 2019 for me to post them! And I almost missed the last day to post this!

Let's see how we did with the goals:

1. Get Penn settled in his new home.

CHECK! I hear from Penn's new owners multiple times a month and he is fat, hairy and happy. He's also sound again! It took until July, but he's back doing low level dressage with the family's youngest daughter and trail riding with everyone else. He lives out 24/7 now and is doing well. I haven't been able to bring myself to visit him, but I will next year I think.

2. Find a new horse.

CHECK. This was a bad year, sorry guys. Finding, then losing, Liam was terrible. I basically horse shopped from January to August with a 3 month break from April to June. That was also terrible. At least I have Eli now! He's such a great boy, and is exactly what I needed.

3. Stay on top of my own health (treat asthma appropriately, de-stress to lower my blood pressure, continue to lose weight or at a minimum don't gain back what I've lost).

Ehhhh... well de-stressing didn't last long, I've been horribly stressed for most of the year and generally unhappy. I've also been plagued with health issues that meant not only did I not ride often, but I also didn't bike. I gained back the 30 pounds I lost last year and spent the last quarter of the year struggling to lose anything. With the weight gain and lack of cardio, my asthma is starting to act up, despite daily medication.

4. Bike from Pittsburgh to DC.

Nope. This got derailed quickly as the group I was going to bike with slowly disbanded and it's not a trek I'm about to make by myself. I also didn't have the vacation time to spend on the trip after Liam's trip to OSU and his death. Hopefully Husband and I will ride the length of the GAP trail next year.

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Next is a month by month run down of the year, because a lot did happen that never made it to the blog.

January

I started horse shopping.

Went to Canada.

Austen came to visit me and took WONDERFUL pictures of me and Penn. Seriously. Love.

Penn went to his new home and settled in beautifully.

February

Back at the end of 2018, Kate and Megan schemed for me to travel to CA for the Mary Wanless Instructor Workshop. That happened at the end of January/ beginning of February and was seriously a huge turning point in how I rode. For the first time in a long time, I felt secure in the saddle. I've always felt pretty laterally secure in my upper body in the saddle, but I struggled with longitudinal security, and I've always struggled to stay plugged in. Megan drove me around and Kate graciously let me borrow horses to ride, and gave me a lesson before I went home that came with a breakdown of everywhere my position was failing. I went home and worked on it! I spent almost a month at the walk at home, running through my check list!

March

I spent most of the end of February and all of March horse shopping. Failed vettings occurred and one sale horse dumped me hard. I got back in touch with Event Trainer to go see Liam.

April

Liam came home and we did all kinds of baby horse stuff like leading, yielding, standing to be groomed.

Husband and I go on a whirlwind Vegas/Phoenix/Grand Canyon adventure for our anniversary.

May

I took Madonna to two Mary Wanless clinics where Mary helped me get my posting trot more effective and my core engaged. I loved my lessons. Madonna did not, she started acting out under saddle and rearing when I tried to get on, then bolting.

June

The veterinary disaster month. Liam was eventually diagnosed with Wobblers and was put down June 27.

July

I started riding a gentle school horse with a good amount of motion in her ocean to get used to riding again, and to canter again for the first time in months. I went to see several more sale horses and then saw Eli. I started biking again.

August

My new horse trailer arrived!

Health issues abound! I gave myself a concussion and my blood pressure was spiking. I had to stop biking after the concussion.

Eli came home! I had my hand held through our first few weeks of riding as I was afraid to even trot him because my body was not responding like it used to. I had a few lessons with the German Dressage Trainer.

September

Husband and I took advantage of the long holiday weekend and went to Canada together: Niagara Falls and Toronto.

Eli and I continued to get to know each other.

I went to Dressage at Devon and finally got to meet Jenj!

October

I spent a lot of October hating my job and extremely stressed about it. I got my crap together and updated my resume and practiced my interview questions. Nothing comes of the brief search and phone interviews, which only added to my stress levels.

November

I signed up for a program to get over my irrational riding fear. Immediately, I was able to stop lunging Eli before riding and able to redirect my anxiety so I could cope long enough to get going under saddle. Still lots to work on, but I was excited to ride again.

The month of lessons! I had a lesson I hated with German Dressage Trainer. My barn hosted a clinic and I had two good rides with that trainer, and even cantered a little.

With some of my nervousness and anxiety handled, I took Eli to see GP Trainer finally. She had freshly broken her hand so she couldn't ride him herself, but her staff gave Eli two very badly needed schools that really set the tone in a way I couldn't because of my fear. I rode too! We worked on small goals that were quite reminiscent of GP Trainer's small goal confidence building methodology for green horses (achieve a small task and send then back to the barn glowing with pride in themselves).

I went home from that weekend with GP Trainer with my hair on fire and SO MUCH more confidence than before.

December

I kept working Eli and became increasingly frustrated that my half halt didn't work and I couldn't seem to get him off the left rein. He constantly looked right (both directions) and I'm aware of my pulling left hand, so I had no idea what to do to fix it that didn't involve pulling my left rein. He'd look left and pull/run through my half halts.

I went to see Cob Jockey's GP Trainer (who I'll call JT), who we met in May when she hosted Mary Wanless. She rode Eli and went over a ton that I want to write another post about. Hopefully I can get that out first thing in the new year! We did two lessons that started with her riding and then a short lesson for me. She helped me feel like I was in more control as I gained more influence over Eli. At the end of my second lesson, I cantered a full 20m circle in some semblance of control and structure, something I haven't done since I tried him in July (and that was like cantering a freight train).

I've had very good rides since I've been home and I'm slowly using the entire indoor at home (even the scary area by the back door). And we've ventured to the outdoor on the handful of warm December days!

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And lastly, I want to thank everyone for sticking around and coming by to read and comment on my ramblings. It means a lot that you're coming back to read my sporadic posts this year. I started this blog in May 2014 and it certainly chronicled an exciting part of my life. For the longest time, I wrote to myself, but slowly picked up the greatest friends I have now. The people I've met and talked to through the blogosphere have greatly influenced my life.

Remember when we were kids and our parents told us "Don't talk to strangers on the internet?" I'm so glad to have ignored that.

Here's to a healthy and happy 2020 for all!