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.
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!
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!
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.
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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.
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)
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!
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!
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!
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!
I opted to use Liam's farrier for Eli as well. He's not as experienced a farrier as some (he got into shoeing post-army), but he's very into continuing education, corrective shoeing, and forging. He's very into showing owners where imbalances are, the good and the bad, and can read hoof xrays and work with a vet to solve issues. He has developed his eye and takes his time to make sure corrections are right. He also happens to own the farm I board at, which is also good!
So... here's the before pics.
Top row is the front left, bottom front right.
They're super rough and I cringe looking at them. The angles on all 4 of his feet are different. On his hinds, the medial aspects have shorter walls than the lateral aspects.
I REALLY loved riding Eli when I tried him out, which made me want to overlook his feet (and after all this shopping, I would have bought Penn all over again too knowing what I do now). I absolutely xrayed the shit out of those fronts (hoof to fetlock, all the angles) to make sure the insides were ok. The insides are pretty good for being toed in. The hoof wall, albeit very poor quality, is very thick. There's a ton of excess toe. He has a neutral palmer angle and very thin soles. The bony structures seem ok, joint spaces clean, and no side bone. The vet who did the PPE thought he went through a period of very poor farrier care based on the hoof wall and excess toe.
Multiple vets looked at his xrays and thought since he's sound now, these feet are entirely fixable.
We already overhauled his diet to a 19% NSC feed, but I'm working with BO to put him on a 13% NSC beet pulp based feed since he seems particularly sensitive to environmental changes. His original feed did not have controlled sugars and starches, and was much higher NSC than what we switched him to. I'm also giving him 40mg of biotin and 400mg of keratin twice a day. Human pills worked on Penn, (I take one a day too, my hair stopped falling out and my nails stopped breaking), so I'm hoping it'll work on Eli too.
I get human pills from Sam's Club and spend around fifty cents a day feeding 8 pills. Overkill? Gosh I hope so. But for that price, I'll throw 80mg of biotin at him every day and not lose a bit of sleep over if he's peeing some of it out.
Anyway, back to his feet. Farrier thought there was enough hoof wall to get nails in, which would allow him to put pour pads in.
His goal, realistically over the next year, is to keep bringing the toes back while (fingers crossed) good quality hoof grows out, ideally bringing some more heel with it. He's encouraging the sole to be concave instead of flat. He's also trying to coax the hinds to grow bigger.
Eli's breeder said he was good for the farrier... and well, he was... not great. Still manageable, but threw head tossing tantrums and ripped his feet out of Farrier's hands. I think his feet hurt somewhat, and standing barefoot on concrete was a bit too much for him. He was also itching for Julius, had a few days off beforehand, and was testing us a bit.
Farrier got his fronts trimmed and reset, and the hinds trimmed before calling it a day. Eli was so over it. We reconvened the next day for hind shoes to go on, which went quite quickly because Eli was quiet and behaved himself.
Eli wants to land toe first, and his front end can be quite stabby. The leg will reach from the shoulder, and the reach stops at the knee and he jams it back down. He also paddled quite a bit up front. He's built nicer than he moves. Just one round of shoeing mitigated a lot of that and he's already moving better under saddle.
The corrections Farrier made behind have Eli struggling a bit. He wants to land on the outside of his hoof and the trims are now encouraging him to land in the middle, so he has to learn to move again. Every so often he takes a misstep behind where he catches the toe or loses the stifle. I'm just taking everything super slow and easy with him and I'm being super careful not to overdo any of the work we do. His musculature has to change, which will take time.
There's a ton of training issues in that video that need to be addressed, but I'm super pleased with his progress. My big concern was to keep him forward thinking with no curling. Above the bit was a ok. I want to start to develop some thrust, so he'll develop push, so he'll find real connection and come up off his forehand. He thinks that's a bit silly and would rather root the reins out of my hand or lean... because guess what? I put him back in a snaffle! I used a GP Trainer trick to help him not find purchase on my hands, and a Mary Wanless trick to keep me out of his mantrap (the hole at his whithers), and keep his rooting from dragging me forward.
We walked outside after schooling in the indoor.
It's a small thing I know, but a huge victory for my confidence to be comfortable leaving an enclosed area for the not fenced in outdoor. #smallsteps #smallvictories
As I said above, Farrier is very into continuing education. As such, he participates in "Farrier Fridays" where more experienced farriers meet with newer ones and with vets, and they tackle a topic or two. One of the events they're doing in a few weekends is a weekend long clinic with British Master Farriers (sorry, can't remember any of the group names) and local vets, at our barn. Farrier asked if they could use Eli as a demo horse. Eli will have a ton of farrier eyes analyze his movement, conformation, and hooves. If the farriers want, the vets will take xrays (free of charge to me), and the group will discuss. They'll make a plan, and do the first shoeing cycle of that plan (also free-ish of charge, I'll probably have to pay for materials, which is cool). So duh, I said yes. Eli is a solid guy, a crowd won't bother him, and he's got some issues that I'm thrilled to have those eyes on! Best part is, Farrier will be very involved in the case and will easily continue after the clinic!
We didn’t have any luck finding Penn’s feed at Tractor Supply Friday night and had resolved to go to one of the big feed stores after my lesson.
In his own dry lot.
We had a lovely ride with GP Trainer’s second assistant trainer (GP Trainer was off teaching a clinic). Penn felt great! He did take some NQR steps tracking right at the trot, but settled right into sound trot steps to the left.
The assistant trainer addressed some of the issues we’d been having: I didn’t want to touch the inside rein because that’s “not correct” but I’d lost the lateral flexion at the poll and Penn just wanted to put his nose to the outside, despite all of my inside leg being on and his neck being shifted in:
Using both the inside rein and inside leg, she had me think about flexion and bend as two different things (because they are) and overdo the lateral flexion and bend in a “bend, more, most” 3 step process. At that point I’d also use a bit more inside leg in a ‘lift the belly’ type motion to encourage him to bring his back up. I'd hold the "most" for a few steps, then release the inside rein. Repeat as often as needed. Doing this will cause him to fall out the outside shoulder, but that doesn't matter too much. He wanted to fall out more tracking right, so I kept enough outside aids on to keep him on the circle. Even though we're using an awful lot of inside rein, I still can't just pull or hang on it- she had me rolling my inside hand and being super sloppy with it to encourage him to bring his nose in.
As he became more flexible with that and started losing the outside shoulder on the circle, she had me keep him straighter by blocking the outside shoulder. It was really nice, he suppled and eventually I didn’t need my inside rein to remind him anymore. We did that in both walk and trot, and she carefully timed my 2 minutes of trot each direction (she is currently doing the same drill with her horse and also wears an event watch to keep track!).
The next two videos are just bend, more, most on the circle at the trot. The one to the right has some general NQR steps, but the left looks a little better with a weird step every now and then.
We finished with some leg yields from the wall to some distance in, to back to the wall. They started out as straight, fly sideways, fly the other way, straight. She had me keep careful control over the shoulders and force him to take straight ahead steps before SLOWLY going back to the wall. If we didn’t make it back to the wall, so be it. The shoulder control was the important part. They were allowed to be a bit sloppy (not straight nose to tail) because this is building on the bend, more most idea and just keeping control of the shoulder.
The second two are leg yield exercises in the walk and trot from the wall to the quarterline. Sorry they aren't more edited down, I just didn't have time to pick them apart and do the edits!
It was a really great lesson and was very productive. I fear it’s the last lesson I’ll ever have on him. :( I’m sure most of you know where that’s going. But that’s another post that's coming.
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We went to GP Trainer's massive local feed store- it's more like a mega feed store that's also a tack shop to rival Dover in available products plus sells expensive hunt club home decor. Mom and I paroozed the entire place, but of course I didn't take pictures! What the heck, I'm not good at this.
They were having a sale on Charles Owen helmets, and I've never tried one on, so I grabbed a very sparkly one (gray/black sparkles I think), and I loved it. It fit great and looked great. Then I looked at the price tag. Over $400! I can't even figure out which one it was by looking online. But I do know that they fit my head well, and also have the right profile for my head. Good to know for when I need to replace my OneK!
We ended up not finding his exact grain (Purina Impact Performance) in the product list, and the staff was wonderful in helping me find something similar based on an online label. I was afraid to buy him a brand new feed for only 4 feedings, so I got him a bag of alfalfa pellets thinking he’d like them. Uhhh, you can guess how that worked out!
Safely tucked into GP Trainer's!
So thank all the lucky stars that we opted to do an MRI, and GP Trainer was willing to keep Penn and my trailer… As mom and I were headed home on Saturday, the truck gave a “CHECK BRAKE SYSTEM” error message.
Ok, so you might not be thinking that exactly. BUT WHY THE F DOES MY TRUCK FEEL THE NEED TO LOSE ITS BRAKES EVERY TIME THERE’S SOMETHING MAJOR WRONG WITH THE HORSE?!
Ahem.
We got ourselves stopped right away on the side of the PA Turnpike. I tried the Torque phone app with the computer/Bluetooth plug in with no results, though I can’t say I tried very hard when I was panicking on the side of the highway. I called Husband to let him know there was a problem, and we would need rescuing at some point. Luckily (if there is something lucky about this besides we didn’t have the trailer and horse with us), we had stopped right in front of a sign that said “Rest Stop 2 Miles”. Wonderful. I figured I had enough brakes left to go 45 mph with my flashers on and limp to the rest stop where I felt safe popping the hood and looking at my brake fluid.
Did you know when you go 45 mph in a 70 zone with your flashers on, people and 18 wheelers avoid you like the plague? It’s my new favorite way of traveling!
Anywho, I used 3rd, 2nd and low gears to get myself slowed down on the exit ramp, and used the brakes to fully stop in an empty part of the parking lot. Sure enough, I had no brake fluid going to the rear brakes anymore, we only had some going to the front.
Front bucket is for the rear brakes. No fluid!
Rear bucket is for the front brakes. Found what's left of my fluid!
Did you know you have to call *11 for the Emergency Services on the Turnpike, who will then tow you to the next exit, unload you, then you can call AAA to save the day? I didn't. I do now!
Luckily, the rest stop was 2 miles from the next exit, there was a good parking lot nearby to drop us off, and the tow was free because it was under 3 miles. The driver was also there in record time- 30 min! Mom and I barely had time to use the bathroom, get something for dinner, and make our calls before he showed up.
The driver tried to get his dispatcher to let him take us all the way to our proper exit (since AAA was going to call them anyway to tow me there), but the company was short staffed and couldn’t send him 60 miles out of his service area. He would have charged us his company’s rate for towing, instead of the $4 a mile that AAA would charge.
Getting picked up at the Turnpike rest stop.
Husband met mom and me at the Turnpike exit and reviewed the brake lines while we waited for the AAA tow to arrive. The lines that were replaced in Feb 2015 were still solid, albeit rusty (they shouldn’t be since the lines were supposed to be stainless…). The problem was, the shop that did my original line replacement only replaced the main lines that had been previously spliced. They did not replace the lines that go to each wheel. Husband found that out a few months ago and was going to replace them himself in the spring with some new tools he got for his tractor project… whups, not doing that! The passenger rear line developed a hole and was streaming brake fluid all over the parking lot.
The AAA tow truck showed up fairly quickly, and we followed it to the shop where we decided to drop the truck off at… without telling the shop of course! They’re only open M-F, and there’s no emergency number. Husband left them an envelope with a laundry list of things: Brakes (doh), wheel bearing check (we think the passenger front is bad), speedometer (Who needs this to work properly? I don’t. I always end up pulling the trailer at whatever speed feels comfortable… which is usually 5-15mph below the posted limit), and then do an inspection because that’s due in December.
Oh, that’s not the end of course! Stay tuned for more…
Sure enough, when Penn finished his doxycycline for his fever, his soundness diminished. In addition to fighting tick borne disease, Doxy is also anti inflammatory. It helped make him look sounder than he was. We have had sound days, slightly off days, and then the Very Off Day.
A few Mondays ago (11/5 to be exact) was the Very Off Day. I'd been struggling with my posting dynamic, his right bend, half halts, my seat, and basically everything else up until this day, and Penn was having a bad rehab day and he struggled to walk evenly. Put all of that together, plus rider emotions and horse tension and I should have just gotten off 5 minutes in when I realized it was a lost cause. Nope. I lasted 20 minutes before flinging myself off my horse (which spooked him) and just hugged his shoulders and sobbed in the indoor. Penn stood very still and was like, "The human is broken. Whaaaaa...?"
He was so very lame. So incredibly lame. Uneven and tripping in the walk, uneven and hobbling in the trot. He felt like shit. I was thinking, "He's done. That's it. He's going to be retired and live in a field and never be ridden again."
Then came the next thoughts. "I'm making him lame."
He's sound on the lunge line, or at least the same level of sound as he was a month ago at his vet appointment. He is not sound when being ridden. You do the math.
So then I'm reflecting on how I'm riding him: I've tried up and slow, lame. Letting him out ended up in a turbo trot that was even... or so turbo I couldn't tell if he was lame or not... but he had the unbalanced legs of doom running on the forehand and leaning heavily on the right shoulder. I couldn't seem to make a half halt work and get him off his right shoulder, so he eventually felt lame again.
Complete and utter disaster.
I arranged for a friend to be out 2 days later to get video for GP Trainer and the vet. The vet would be able to see the lameness and compare it to what she's seen before, and GP Trainer could have a look at what I'm doing to him to make him lame.
The following will make my arena sobbing look extremely dramatic.
Watch the right trot video again: the "unbalanced" steps? Those are lame steps. Vet confirmed yo. I thought they were when I was riding, it was nice to know I wasn't being crazy.
I have to thank Jenj and Megan for talking me down, both had super tips to go with my comments of "I can't ride" and "I'm breaking him" and "how did I get my bronze, I'm terrible" and the actually much more helpful "I've lost control of his body parts and he lays on the right shoulder and flings his ass left, what do I do".
Megan encouraged me to keep his haunches in when tracking right, and said 'yes, you can use your inside rein to help keep his shoulders and nose pointed correctly, as long as you give it back and don't hang on it.' Jenj reminded me that first level includes leg yields for good reason- move the shoulders around frequently and he can't lean on one of them.
Even so, the horse in these videos is much sounder than the Very Off Day. We went on to have a day that felt absolutely fantastic- he felt sound and normal and pliable and wonderful, in addition to being light in the bridle and connected. We went on to have some days where I'd feel him start to take lame steps, but I remembered how to adjust his balance with my seat and he got better.
Every time someone was around to video the unsoundness I felt, he would feel fine! It was awful not being able to get video of his unsound days. I swear, the people at the barn must have gotten used to "that crazy girl who thinks her horse is broken."
There isn't a whole lot of content to this post, but I needed it as a precursor for the next FIVE posts that detail our disastrous trips to VA over my Thanksgiving vacation. Stay tuned folks.
I got him new SMBs- professionals choice ventech elites in charcoal!
Just ignore basically everything else about the video, except his soundness. We're rusty and out of shape, and he wants to go way more forward than he's allowed to right now.
Well, he's been walking. And walking some more. And then walking. In between walking, he lives in his stall or the dry lot.
The frustration levels have sometimes been high for both of us.
Sorry bud!
It was rough to start; I started picking at the walk because that's all I could do. Be on the bit, don't lean on my hand, repeat endlessly. I figured if I could get him off the forehand, all the better for his front right leg. I quickly found myself constantly fiddling with the reins. I popped on draw reins so I could encourage him to be off my hand with my leg and he wouldn't be able to lift himself off the bit too much and stare around. So much doh.
Eventually it dawned on me that I was riding him poorly. I wasn't putting my leg on, I wasn't sitting up, I wasn't using my core. I wasn't riding him like GP Trainer wanted me to- from leg and core. I was treating him like a fragile horse when in reality, the tendon hasn't separated that much and hell, he's allowed quiet flat turnout and up to 25 min of tack walking 5 days a week, and he doesn't need to have standing wraps on 24/7. He can certainly work on holding himself up properly!
He has been super happy and chill in his tiny private turnout!
He also will not eat the grass in there, he will only eat the hay that's put out for him.
And he will only eat it up by the gate where it is in this picture. I tried putting it down the fenceline, closer to the grass, to help not beat up the same spot on the ground. Nope. He ate like 3 bites then walked all over it and wasted it. Facepalm.
So first, I bought him a Nathe bit. I'd been wanting to play around with one for a while, so why not now? (for the record, I need to pop his Korsteel oval loose ring back on and see if there's a difference) He does seem to really like it (he takes it very easily btw, not that he was bad before, this is just better), but I'm not thrilled with it's durability.
It looks sharp though with his ombre browband and silver noseband piping.
He chewed through the plastic down to the steel cable core in a single 20 min ride 4 weeks after I put it on his bridle. Smartpak was great and gave me the benefit of the doubt (apparently that's a COMMON occurrence for Nathe bits) since I only had the bit for 4 weeks, and they sent me a replacement. If it happens again, I'm going to try the Herm Sprenger Duo, which is apparently slightly less flexible but more durable.
Umm, that's a chew mark down to the core. He figured out he can suck on it, which pulls it up into where his teeth are, then he chews it. I was not happy- the bit ad explicitly states it encourages chewing, so shouldn't it hold up to chewing?
Next, I rode him properly. The same way I tell all the ladies who are learning their dressage basics: have a steady following contact on both reins in the walk, with elbows in and at your side but not rigid, and inside leg on as the swing of the horse's barrel goes out. Catch the motion with your outside elbow, and voila, like magic, the horses are generally seeking the bit and trying to lift their shoulders. I hadn't been practicing what I preached. If all those ladies can stomach the fight on their OTTBs/QHs at training level, I should be able to work it out on my 3rd level horse! It was hard, but I did it. So far it's been 8.5 weeks of working on the connection in the walk, but we did it. I also made sure I did it without gloves (so the rubber lining of the rein bites my hand when there's too much weight) and without spurs (make sure I create the impulsion correctly, without resorting to simply spurring him on).
Basically, I spent a lot of the last 8 weeks remembering how to properly follow the walk, and how to properly put a horse on the bit without constantly nagging them. I even got a couple rides in on a reluctant OTTB who led a rough life as a lesson horse, and is relearning all his dressage basics. He is deeply offended by the leg (nagging children riding him), and would rather be hit with the whip (sad face). His owner has trouble motivating him to move any faster than a snail, so it was quite educational for me in following the walk/trot/canter properly and timing the aids correctly to create happy impulsion, which led to prompter transitions, and a less offended horse.
I've also been biking A TON. I've logged quite a few 16-20 mile rides on days I don't ride.
I almost fell on my ass a bunch of times getting this picture, lol!
I also bought the Finntack ice boot that's been plaguing me with ads on FB and IG. I figured I religiously iced Mikey's old bowed tendon after jumping, and his hock for months after exercise after his surgery, so logically I should ice this too.
Overall, I'm super happy with it. It's very flexible and stays cold for a long time. The downside? They come in SINGLES. As in, not a pair. It was $40 FOR A SINGLE BOOT (I got mine from ebay, I didn't price shop properly!). Though, I'm happy enough with it that if I still evented, I would probably buy a second one. (Though let it be noted, if you don't want fun colors, Big Dee's sells them as a pair in black)
We also had a small back scare- he grew a palm sized oval of white hair. I called the saddle fitter, sent her a picture, and scheduled her to come back as soon as possible to make sure my saddle wasn't bothering him. The saddle still fit, but she and her office manager discussed what could cause that kind of mark. Since he was so dropped on the right side earlier int he summer (May to mid-June, before he got his new shoes and his right side lifted back up), the saddle probably pulled on the left side every time I rode him, creating that white mark. We decided to try an experiment with their Concept saddle pad. They did pressure testing on it during the R&D phase of its creation, and it showed a large reduction in pressure when compared to a regular saddle pad. Sure enough, 2 weeks after starting to use that pad, his white spot is almost completely gone.
7/5/2018 on top, 8/3/2018 below. Only difference was a saddle pad change on 7/20/2018.
I despise the shape of this pad. I could live with the flank cut out, but the forward sweep of the front makes my skin crawl. But alas, pony likes it. He's gotten a lot less bitey when saddling since I've been using it.
When the fitter was out, she noted that he has gained a huge amount of neck and whither muscle, enough that if he keeps going, we'll need to change his tree. Great. New saddle at the end of March, horse went lame for spring, we rehabbed for most of summer, and she's been out twice to check things. She'll be out again before the year is out, I'm sure! But we both seem to still love the saddle, yay!
That neck topline muscle is really coming along!
So how about some news about where Penn is at soundness-wise?
It took a long time for him to start feeling sound again at the walk. When we did the second round of new shoes, Farrier made the bar on the medial side of the right front even wider and we saw an immediate increase in soundness at the walk. That was about 6 weeks into the walk rehab. He had his 3rd, and hopefully final, shockwave treatment that week too.
I had Husband out this past weekend, so he grabbed a little video for me.
Video #1- Penn shows the most unevenness when he walks away from the block. He's always been that way- shuffling around until he gets going. This unevenness he shows in this video is far less than anything he's shown recently.
I don't know what happened to the video quality from this video and the next. It was super humid, so maybe that's it... or maybe there was something on the lens. Who knows, but I apologize for the low quality!
Video #2- After about 10-15 min, he's generally working well. He was a bit fussy the day I had video taken, his forelock kept getting in his ears and he hates that! I also realized how much my outside leg hasn't been doing anything... I'm losing the hind end!
Video #3- Since we were 8 weeks into the rehab, and Penn spooked at nothing and ran off with me the day before, I figured a short controlled trot around the outdoor wouldn't hurt him. Plus I was DYING of curiosity to see where he was soundness-wise at the trot. He's very heavy in my hand in this video, but I wanted to see where he naturally went in the trot, and I didn't want to interfere with his gaits. The dude gets a break anyway, he hasn't trotted in 8 weeks. I was really happy with what I saw- he's much more comfortable with his front end in general, he's still lifting the shoulder even if he's laying hard on my hands and falling down (if that even makes sense? he's not as down in the front as he would have been a few months ago if I left him to trot on his own). He is of course still lame, and it really shows tracking right on the curved line.
He goes back to VEI on Aug 16 for his recheck, and we'll discuss injecting things at that point too. I have a feeling we're going to get another 4-6 weeks of walking though. This tendon seems especially slow to heal, and it needs to be done right. No more trotting!
Obligatory, cherry picked screen grab! I need to remember to sit up!
I never wrote about my lesson weekend on 3/10-11, which is the precursor to this whole new saddle episode, lol.
Who's a happy rider? ME! Because I did my homework SO DILIGENTLY that Penn progressed more than GP Trainer anticipated in the 3 weeks between our February lessons and March lessons!
Overall, GP Trainer was thrilled with the progress I had made in just 3 weeks on my own at the end of winter. She rode him first like she did when I visited in Feb 2018, and commented, "This is a completely different horse!" He was holding himself up more consistently, he was lifting his shoulders, all was awesome and we had a great weekend of learning, and I started getting quiet clean changes without a lot of fuss. The ability to shake him off the bit (aka not leaning and Penn has to hold his own head up), completely disrupted his ability to bolt or leap through the change. Go figure right?
Everything was awesome until we got home that is. I noticed Penn was exceedingly touchy. He didn't want to be brushed ANYWHERE. His neck, arms, girth, back, hindquarters, gaskins. He was extremely grouchy. I was sure he was bodily sore, but I opted to call the saddle fitter that helped us in January to make sure his Stubben still fit well enough... because it looked sketchy to me.
We had decided in January that she could get his Stubben 1894 to limp along, but it wasn't an ideal fit for either of us. Luckily, the Fitter was coming the following weekend (3/17) and had time to see Penn.
She immediately confirmed what I feared- Penn had packed on a lot of muscle between January and March, mostly the lifting of the neck, shoulder, and back kind. The fit wasn't terrible when he was standing, but as soon as he lifted his back, the saddle needed to be the next tree size up and pinched him. She couldn't shuffle the flocking in the front panels either- if she removed some, the front of the saddle would sit on his whithers.
I hadn't asked the fitter to bring any saddles with her because I was hoping we could still salvage my Stubben. We talked about options and budget, and she wanted to see him go in a Concept Tree. She happened to have a 17.5" Hastilow Concept Elevation dressage saddle (with royal blue patent piping and other royal blue patent) in her car for another client to try, so we popped that on Penn just to get an idea of how he felt about it.
The darn horse LOVED it. He was freer in his shoulder, happily lifted his neck and back, and maintained his self carriage. He gave clean quiet changes left to right, and early behind changes right to left with some exuberance. He went easily forward at the canter, and came back beautifully. He had a clear 3 beat rhythm at the canter, something he struggles with.
I also loved it. We talked about how seat size doesn't necessarily go off of how big your butt is, but rather how wide set your hips are (seatbone to seatbone). Femur length plays a small role, but the blocks you need are based more on that. I didn't find the 17.5" saddle uncomfortable at all. It has a deep seat, which allowed it to also have the narrow twist I like. The way the seat is shaped also made me really sit. It didn't tip me forward or drop me back, just encouraged me to sit way up and down. It also let my thighs and legs hang down, and I easily put my entire leg on Penn, thigh to ankle. I can only describe it like sitting in a bucket that supports you in front and behind your seat, encouraging you to sit up in the shoulder and down in the seat. The leg just hangs nicely right out of the bucket, falling against the horse's side with ease.
Unfortunately I couldn't have the 17.5" (the fitter did think I'd find the 18" more comfortable, plus the 17.5 was in the car for another client to try), so I had to make another appointment with the office. There was a lot of stress with that- huge travel fees for me, dodging lessons and weather (uh, hello 8" of snow that week), but we had an appointment the following Friday (3/23).
_______________________
I rode exactly once between that wonderful ride and the next saddle fitting. Penn wasn't as happy, I struggled to sit up, and we fought each other. The only good thing that came out of the ride was this pretty video clip (courtesy of my SoloShot3, which has been having issues since I updated it... sigh.)
a Hastilow Concept Elevation Monoflap with red piping
a Hastilow Concept Elevation with custom ordered styling: patent touches, white piping, and Nubuck leather seat and thigh blocks, with an extra deep seat
a plain new Hastilow Concept Elevation (same as I tried the week before, just an 18")
I was terrified at first- what if none of these worked out?! A side note, all of these saddles have adjustable trees and are wool flocked. Best. Combo. EVER. Probably the closest I can get to custom without actually doing custom.
She took new measurements of his back before we got rolling. I compared the tracings from this visit to the visit in January. While the whithers themselves hadn't gotten wider, his back did. She takes two tracings further down his back (I'm not sure where exactly) but they were both bigger than they were in January by a half inch or so on each side.
Of course I have no pictures of the saddles. Sigh. Bad blogger.
I rode in the monoflap first, and hated it the minute I got on. The thigh blocks didn't hit me right (because of the monoflap design). They pushed my thigh out, which took my knee off the saddle, and I rode around like a beginner rider with my knees straight out and heels on. She had to change the tree in the second one, so she said keep warming up and we'll switch when the tree was swapped. I just walked and trotted, but I fought the saddle. In spite of that, Penn floated along, happy as can be. The fitter said that the Fairfax Monoflap she wanted to bring rides in a very similar way, so I'm not missing anything (they didn't have an 18" seat in stock that I could try).
I rode in the custom styled regular flap one next. That went slightly better, but I hated the Nubuck leather. I already had full seat breeches on, and nubuck is very similar to suede. It was grippy in all the wrong ways. This saddle was also supposed to have a deeper seat, but it felt flatter and I felt more prone to left/right rolling. I struggled in the canter, and Penn had a very low quality to the canter and 4-beated most of the time. It didn't give me the same ability to sit that the one I tried the weekend before did. I did ask for one change, but it was difficult to set up and perform, and Penn struggled with it too even though he seemed happy with the saddle.
Finally, I tried the plain unadorned new Elevation. Ahhhhhhh. I was super worried it wouldn't work out, because then I'd be saddle-less. I sat down in it and was like, "ohhhh this is better." I had the same bucket feeling, and we went on to do a bunch of quiet changes and his first canter zig zag! Left lead half pass, change, right lead half pass. It was far from perfect, and I had trouble starting the left half pass, but in the final try, he did an ok left half pass, to an ok change, to a nice right half pass.
Hastilow Elevation
We talked prices and fit and trial period, etc. She adding flocking to it and told me in 30 hours of riding time, she'd have to come out and check the fit and probably add more flocking since all of this fresh new flocking will compress.
Since getting the saddle, I noticed Penn is easier to maneuver laterally and is more uphill. I've found it's easier to sit the medium trot when the saddle is helping me sit up and absorb it, and it reminds me to sit the heck up with my shoulder and sit my butt down and back, which helps lift Penn up. He's much happier to do his changes.
Both Jenj (here, here, here, and I know there's more but these were easy to find) and Megan have ridden with Alfredo, enjoyed it, and blogged about it. I was STOKED to find out he was coming to a barn a mere 4 hours from me for a 3 day clinic 5/21-23. I wanted to learn his methods for piaffe/passage, he was here on the east coast, and he wasn't stupidly far from me. Jenj described his cool way of getting changes on a horse, which I recreated at home and bam, Penn had changes. I needed to take a turn with him.
Lots of learning happened!
I messaged the trainer organizing it and tried to sign up for 2 of the 3 days. All was well until I asked work for the time off... and they told me no. I could have the first day (a Monday) but not the second day because of an outage test that was being conducted. I had to make a deicison at that point- do I make a crazy plan of drive down Monday, ride, drive home, go to work Tuesday, or do I skip out?
I went, duhhhhhhh!
I got up at 4:30am Monday, met two ladies at the barn who were coming with me to audit, and we were on the road at 7:05am. Alfredo's flights got messed up, so the clinic was shuffled from noon to 6:30pm, no lunch break. We were excited to get there in time to see the first few rides, one of which was a GP horse.
We actually got to see majority of the clinic (I only missed part of the rides before and after me)- we were there for the beginning and stayed until the end... meaning I dropped Penn off at midnight, and got myself home by 1am Tuesday morning, showered, and got way too little sleep for a Tuesday in the office. It was totally worth it, majority of the horses were FEI level horses, or aspiring, and several of the riders were ones I knew about and have seen go at shows.
Arrival
Some of the things he covered with the other riders:
No hanging on the reins for balance. He made a rider with a "lazy" horse who couldn't be ridden without two whips ride without any whips. He got after the rider to stop hanging on the reins and to sit better (on the back of the pelvis) and to collect the canter using the middle of the thigh. Her horse was beautifully forward with tons of jump in the canter, of which I was quite envious! He made her do her PSG tempi changes on the wall while holding the reins at the buckle, each direction. She struggled, but she did it and she had beautiful smooth changes.
He does not advocate riding with a whip because that is not the kind of rider he is building. He is going to treat you like you want to ride in CDIs and guess what's not allowed? A whip. They aren't allowed at championships either.
To help with getting the changes: trot around the ring, go down the longside and go from shoulder in to renvers to travers to leg yield with the nose on the wall. Continue to flip between those in that order on the long wall until it is smooth as butter. Go to canter, half pass in (more of a haunches in) on the circle, then leg yield out, repeat. On one of the leg yields out, ask for the new lead.
Half pass corner to corner on the diagonal, but before you get to the corner make the haunches lead the half pass, and do a turn on the forehand into the same half pass back down the same diagonal.
Open the inside hand instead of pulling it back.
There was also a huge lesson in being tactful. The first 3 lessons were a trainer, her student, then the trainer and one of her GP horses. Both riders had a little attitude, but the student opened up to Alfredo's ideas and ended up with all of the auditors applauding her efforts and finished a very good lesson.
Sunday night, all scrubbed up and clean for the clinic!
The trainer... is not one I want to ride with. I saw her compete a few years ago and was impressed with her canter work but not her trotwork- it was irregular and tense.... and now I know why. She would tell Alfredo how it is, threw her own trainer (who was there watching and hosting the clinic) under the bus, and basically went off about how her GP horse was a huge ass and how he took years to learn things because he was so uncooperative and was prone to rearing. Alfredo immediately told her to pretty much simmer the fuck down because her body language was so aggressive and that she rides this horse very differently than her first horse (he did not use that language,I'm creatively paraphrasing). He tried to tell her in every way imaginable that the reason the horse had a rearing problem is because she has an anger problem (short of outright yelling that at her). He had to tell her to give the horse a moment to think about the piaffe/passage transition and to stop hitting the horse with the whip when he didn't respond immediately. The trainer rode angry and defensive, but eventually she opened her inside hand when the horse would get stuck and the horse would think and move forward instead of rearing.
Alfredo asked to see the trainer and the host trainer work on the piaffe/passage, which the trainer said "it took me 2 months to undo what [the hosting trainer] did", and about 15 seconds into it, Alfredo ripped her off the horse. He was warned, "That horse will rear and run you over" as he set the gelding up in a side rein and prepared to work him in hand. He simply said, "We'll see" and got to work making the horse do a turn on the forehand in hand. The horse's eye immediately softened and got right to work for him. He settled him on the wall and worked him through a few rearing threats with beautiful timing/pressure/release, and don't you know it, that horse piaffed without running anyone over.
Moral of the story? Be fucking nice to your horse. No emotions. Let them think. GP Trainer got that in my head already, but it was nice to see a horse that is wound so tight relax because Alfredo was simply unemotional with it. I learned later that he almost dismissed the trainer from lesson for being so disrespectful to both him and the horse.
Tacked up, waiting for my lesson. Penn decided to rest his face on the wall for the 10 min we stood there.
On to happier things, like my lesson! I'll admit, after watching the lessons before me, I was extremely anxious.
I told him Penn and I finished my bronze medal last year, we're working on making third better, Penn can sometimes be bolty in the changes, but I really wanted to learn how to do the in hand piaffe/passage work. I also told him that Penn had SI injections about a month ago and is getting back into full work. He asked how many days of the clinic I was riding, I said just the one day... he wasn't happy. He told me outright there's a limited amount he can get done in one day because he's getting to know you and the horse, and you can only cover so much in 45 min and you can only push something so far in one day. I told him I understood completely and knew that coming in, and we'd do what we could.
We warmed up with the leg yield on the diagonal exercise, trotted briefly, and moved on to in hand piaffe work! I told him I wanted to learn how he worked it, because I've had hit or miss lessons with it and I'm unable to reproduce the results on my own consistently. He told me flat out, "This horse is ready to piaffe." Ok, awesome. He asked to see how I asked for it, I sucked at it, and he immediately said, "I can see why the horse bolts through you in changes. We can fix that here." Ok, that's even better.
He started by putting the outside side rein on and looping the reins over the head and through the bit (outside rein over the head like a lunge line, and through the inside bit ring) so that way he had both sides of the mouth right there in his hand. Then he asked Penn to move his hindquarters in a leg yield/turn on the forehand by tapping him rather smartly with the whip on the fleshy part above the gaskin. He always gave a light tap to start with, then a sharp tap if the horse didn't respond. If the horse moved away, he'd immediately stop applying pressure for a moment before asking again. He did that until the horse was reaching the inside hind leg under him and moving to the outside rein without pulling on his hand at all. The cue to stop moving was when he'd put the whip vertically up against the shoulder/neck parallel to the slope of the shoulder.
The bridle set up was like this (picture taken after the fact).
He then took that leg yield to the wall, and used a specific clucking noise (aka, start developing different clucks now), in a trot rhythm while tapping the same spot above the gaskin with the whip with the same gentle/sharp intensity. Penn was confused by what he wanted, and reared a few times (we'll call it levade, lol), before figuring out he was supposed to trot in place.
Alfredo did a few rounds of it, before handing Penn to me to walk once around the ring (the horse works when Alfredo is there, the rider gets to be "the good guy" and walk the horse on a long rein).
Alfredo took him back and asked for piaffe, which was very nice, and then said, "You want to try? Let's see what you learned from watching."
I have to say, I missed the part with the leg yield turn on the forehand and the reasoning behind it. He explained it to me, and off I went. I sucked at it. He took Penn back from me to show me again, and then had me try again, and then schooled me on the ask gently once, then ask sharply. I didn't get anything magical, but I learned a lot on the timing of things. If Penn went to bolt through me, I was to immediately put him on the leg yield/turn on the forehand until he was light in my hand again. I didn't get the excellent response Alfredo got, but it was apparently sufficient because he eventually said, "Ok, that is enough of this for one day. Get on and let's look at the changes."
Penn's best piaffe of the session.
We went back to the trot after the piaffe work, and Penn was immediately more uphill and forward. Alfredo wanted his head a good bit lower with much more contact than I do, but we did it because that's what we were told to do and I am here to learn. Off to the canter!
The first thing he did was encourage me to follow the canter better. GP Trainer has been after me for a long time to sit into the canter and it has been a struggle. He wanted me to pull my pelvis up and down with the motion of the canter, which really forced me to absorb the motion in my core. Thinking about it that way made me realize I completely seize up in my seat when I ask for anything in canter that's not a circle (like half pass, leg yield, flying changes etc).
It took me a while to work out what he was telling me to do with the canter after that. The other riders mostly stuck to the circle and leg yielded and half passed on it, so when he said circle, go to the rail, and leg yield... I tried leg yielding down the rail. Wrong. We had a few communication issues to work out, and then I finally understood he wanted me to leg yield from the corner to X in canter. He then sprung the change on me, and bam, Penn did is very nicely!
The leg yield kept him very straight so I could simply ask for the new lead. I got the one change, and Alfredo said walk... and I couldn't get Penn stopped on the CC. He got bolty and did another flying change. Alfredo immediately said, back to canter! If he's going to run through you, he's going to keep cantering.
He had me repeat the leg yields and changes until we had clean changes, and multiple changes! Penn did his first real set of multiple changes, just two on a long side, but I was super happy!
I would advise anyone who wants to ride with Alfredo to audit him first, to make sure you like his style. He is... quirky. Between quirky, a thick accent, and sometimes he didn't quite finish the instructions, made him difficult to ride for. Once I understood what he wanted, I did it immediately, which made him very happy. That's not to say I didn't enjoy my lesson, because I did enjoy it.
In short, Alfredo is intense and extremely demanding as a clinician. But again, he is building you as if you want to be a CDI rider. He is not someone I would host at home barn, because he's more expensive than most people would do, and he's much more intense than most people I know would be happy with. He is supposed to come back to this host barn every 8 to 10 weeks, so we'll see if I ride again!
