The People Pleaser

Karen at Bakersfield Dressage posted about how reliable and steady Speedy has become, and how he'd become a "Goddess" personality type, according to the book, "Is Your Horse a Rock Star?"

I poked around the book's website, and took the quiz for Penn. It spit out SEAF (Submissive Energetic Afraid Friendly) aka the People Pleaser.

The People Pleaser
Saved from the book's website.

Some quotes from the People Pleaser chapter, with my own comments after:

Easy to love! They are touchy, cuddly, expressive, cute, loveable, and smart. They try so hard but worry so much.

Do you know how much cuddling Penn likes? I do. He cuddles everyone and anyone, and is happy to cuddle for much longer than you are. Penn was at his current barn for like a week before I had a bunch of the kids telling me he's their favorite.

Some riders will think that they can lunge or exercise this horse to get him to quiet down. As the speed increases, the internal chatter increases until nothing is making any sense and you both feel frustrated and upset. That is why the canter can take a long time to develop in this personality. The wind in their ears is whispering many things. But as they learn to allow you to control them, you can start to slow it all down and make it work for them.

Penn's weakest gait is canter. It gets into turbo mode and super quick. Although, his trot gets into turbo mode too, but it's easier to manage. We spent a lot of time just slowing it all down. I also have had better results when I keep everything quiet from the start- working him does NOT help his tenseness. If he comes out tense, change the plan because it's only going to get worse. I do find him EXTREMELY frustrating sometimes.

The People Pleaser horse is not actually looking for a serious job. He is happy being your companion at work or otherwise as long as you are appreciating him for his part. They do not like to be left on their own, so the job must be one that you can help them with. They are not your once a-week pleasure horses as they need a lot of riding, but trail riding will appeal to them as it is relatively low stress.

Penn LOVES to be ridden. Mikey enjoyed working and riding, but Penn's love for it makes it look like Mikey hated it. I'm pretty sure I could do anything with Penn, and he'd be all "Okey-dokey Mom!" He absolutely needs to be ridden almost every day (or every day if everything is low key). He comes out so overzealous after a long rest that he's incredibly tense.

The People Pleaser does not care too much what you do, just as long as you care.

Absolutely, 100% Penn. He really just wants to be loved. If you scold him, he ends up so wounded and depressed looking. He gets upset if another horse gets scolded near him! Imagine if he was a human- I think he'd be starring in some sappy musical about love (and I'm quite sure I would go watch it).

Basically, People Pleaser horses need routine, daily loving and attention, a quiet relaxed confident rider, and quiet training that doesn't overwhelm them. Interesting things to keep in mind as his training progresses.

Adorable and cuddly, right from the beginning.

I repeated the test for Mikey- he came out as a SECF, aka the Goddess. This one quote stood out to me:

Your challenge will be to not get stuck exclusively in one sport. This horse will encourage you to broaden your horizons and go play in new fields.

I changed Mikey's career so many times and that horse just lapped it up.

I think in time, Penn might be able to be a Goddess. The main difference between the two, I think, is confidence in themselves. Mikey had so much life experience that by the end, he was brave and curious and independent. New places didn't phase him at all- he definitely didn't start out that way! Penn has so little life experience that I think he's constantly looking for reassurance, "Is this right? Am I ok?" A pat on the neck goes a long way for both horses.

Goofy and lovable with a dash of  independence.

What personality is your horse?

Braiding

I don't mean to toot my own horn here, but I'm going to. I'm a good braider. I sew in my braids because I think it makes the best finished product. I sew in what I call button braids, but I've also been told they're actually called plaits. Google seems to agree with that. Whatever.

Trainer has paid me to braid her horses before they go away to shows. She brings me to events where she's riding 5 horses and I braid all of them, plus other clients horses. I've sent my braids down center line at Plantation Farm's CIC**/*** and Fair Hill's CCI**/*** events. If I had gone with trainer to Rolex last year, they would have gone down centerline there too.

I'm out of practice since we don't braid them for dressage or eventing, but I can do tails too. I usually do them for the 4H kids.

I'm thinking of ordering this DVD from Lucky Braids to "learn to braid like the pros" in an attempt to make some extra cash to pay for things like truck tires, my horse's insurance, hotels for horse shows etc. My area has a lot of H/J and 4H riders, and if I want to tap into that pool, I can't do the braids I've been doing. My last attempt at hunter braids was awful, however I know now I was taking way too much hair on an improperly pulled mane.

While I was waiting for Penn's hoof to dry after soaking it Tuesday night (desperate horse owner), I pulled his mane to fix the damage I did to it when I braided it over the weekend (braid down, cut off the tail end of the hair, oops, not doing that again).

I did a test run of the button/hunter braids- I had been studying this video on YouTube and wanted to give it a try. Her method seems very similar to what the DVD does (check out the DVD's preview link). Here's what happened:

I took 1" sections, braided down, added yarn, tied off with just one of the tails.
All I had was the chestnut yarn I used to use on Mikey.
It's definitely the wrong type of yarn since it frays easily.

I used a homemade pull through (needle with yarn like in the video) instead of a latchhook to pull the yarn through the base. I like feeling like I'm sewing them in.

I then pulled the knot up into the base of the braid and pinched the braid flat.
The knot wanted to pull through the base of the braid. Oops.

Cross over the tails, put the crossover under the braid, pull across the neck so it's very tight. This is part of where my yarn failed me- it wouldn't hold the tightness.

I did a surgical knot (a knot with an extra twist?) and tried to shape the braid...
Then a double knot underneath to secure it.
This is about when I realized Penn's mane isn't pulled properly for this type of braid. It's too long for its thinness.
It looked like in the video she was going about halfway down with the surgical knot... I'm going to guess I went too far down for my first try.

Tails trimmed off. I had trouble with all the braids' bottoms turning to the left, so I'm doing something funny when I braid them down or tie them up. Penn's thinner mane doesn't help either! I think the braids need to be even tighter too. I need better scissors with a super sharp tip so I can cut the tails off closer.

Not quite right. Though I'm kind of happy for my first try with yarn in about 4 years. I still prefer my sew in plaits.

To me, these look horrible and I couldn't send anyone out in them... which makes me concerned that if a client's horse is pulled thin like this (or pulled improperly in general, which is bound to happen on the local circuit), that I'd be in trouble. I know I have a few readers who do more H/J stuff than dressage, so how do these stack up? Any tips?

What got me started on this practice is a friend who is going to a show this weekend and needs someone to braid her horse Friday night with these button/hunter braids (she doesn't braid and always hires a braider). I messed around with her horse Wednesday night... and I think I got the hang of them. However, I'm still pretty slow, and I'm still learning the tricks you can only learn by doing (or watching that 80 min DVD).

Early attempts on the right (too loose), a broken braid, then some good attempts (good tension).

I put in 10 Wednesday night... but apparently I need to make them a bit smaller so I can fit more on his neck. This got somewhere between 1/3 and halfway down. I'm a little concerned about that.
They're wonky because I was doing 3-4 at a time, and my hand bumped the previously tied up ones when I started the next set.
(that's not how I'll be doing it on Friday- I'll do all the braiding down first, then each step of the tying up).

So here's some questions for all of you, what kind of braids do you put in? Do you pay someone or do it yourself? If you pay someone, how much do they charge for what end product?

Worrywart Post

Alright, who knows some good rituals for making sacrifices to the horse hoof gods? Cause I need them.

Penn is now 5 days into his lameness. He's had a vet and two farriers look at it, all agree it's an abscess, and no one is willing to dig. Which is fine! I'm not eager to go that route. Obviously, it hasn't blown yet. It doesn't even look like it's anywhere near ready. Penn is signed up for his first recognized show May 21/22, and it would suck to lose almost $500 worth of hotel and entry fees... Plus we're picking up Guinness on the way in and that puts his show in jeopardy! Plus I just want to hang out with Guinness and Austen!

PLEASE SIR, HEAL ALREADY.
And yes, we need a chain to wrap his hoof. *facepalm*

Penn continues to make life hellish. Since he doesn't have a shoe on that foot, he's been on limited turnout while stalls are cleaned in the morning, then he comes back in for the rest of the day. He is trashing his stall on a daily basis. I got him that cheap boot, and while it certainly is holding up OK, it's a bit big for him and didn't make it through the night before he got it pulled off.

Getting the boot back on him last night was terrible. He let me cut off the diaper/gorilla tape bandage (because vet wrap is a no no), but then when I went to wipe some of the extra poultice off his foot, he became a raging, badly behaved demon horse. I'd pick up his foot and 3 seconds later he'd jerk it from my hands as he tried to fly backwards. I got his chain, put it on him, held the rope while I went back to pick up his foot, he flew backwards and right into the chain. We had a small discussion about not being a complete asshat, and then I was magically able to wipe extra goo off his foot, put some protection back on it, and put the boot back on. Lots of carrots happened too as demon horse became better behaved, so don't worry about him.

I turned him out for an hour since I didn't have anything else to do. He seemed sane, so I went and cleaned his stall and chatted while I waited for a farrier to show up.

I went to catch him later and he decided that letting himself be caught was bad, and went galloping around the field like he was in the Kentucky Derby. He's still lame at the trot, but he certainly canters and gallops just fine. He also bounces and bucks and spins just fine. He got sounder as he kept moving around, but I think he was getting high on adrenaline and that's pretty good for covering up lameness. I was only able to catch him once I pulled out my phone to video my "lame" horse galloping around. Note to all those who can't catch your horse: pull up your camera to take pretty pictures of him running and you'll be able to catch him.

Penn is not as athletically gifted as Mikey was in "airs above the ground."

The boot made it though the shenanigans, however it did get turned 90 degrees. One of the farriers checked his foot, found the spot much more reliably (last time he was hoof tested, the vet was only able to narrow it down to a 3" section of hoof), but the hoof was still kind of tough, so no digging into it. My own farrier will be out Monday, so he can have a look too. Maybe I should have called him out right away, but I'm going to guess it would have been a trip for naught, seeing as how this doesn't look ready to blow.

I wrapped his foot back up for the night... and I was able to use vet wrap! There was a bit of commotion in the barn that had Penn distracted (horses walking in for dinner), and I put his lead rope and chain between my knees so if he flung his head up to back away from me, he'd crank himself. The method was very effective, I was able to do poultice, diaper, VET WRAP(!!!!!), and gorilla tape quickly and easily. I decided to put his boot back on, and he let me readjust some of the straps so they were tighter... then I decided to vet wrap the damn thing on, haha. Same thing, held his lead rope between my knees, took the leftover vet wrap and covered the boot so it would stay on and hopefully not turn. It kind of defeats the purpose of why I bought the boot (to avoid vet wrap for the moment), but the boot has a thick heavy duty foam pad in it that both evens out his front end (missing shoe) and gives the sole some protection (for turnout). We're hoping wrapping like this will let him spend the whole day outside (standing in a stall didn't help it blow, and several people agreed that letting him move around should help it).

So much protection.
Yes, the vet wrap is high. The boot goes a decent distance up the pastern, and reviews online had issues with it rubbing... so there's vet wrap under it and over it so it hopefully stays in place.

I'm not soaking the foot yet, but it is getting packed with an epsom salt poultice every night. I know I've soaked hooves in the past, but it must have been post-blow out. One of the farriers said that you want to draw the infection to the sole so it blows out there, which is why she recommends the poultice first and doesn't recommend soaking until it's already blown, or you could inadvertently soften parts of the hoof you don't want abscesses to blow out of. (side note, she's a VERY good farrier and really knows her stuff, so I'm trusting her on this). My trainer said to pack it with ichthammol, which I one day express ordered from Amazon Prime this morning. I figure it can't hurt to try something else for a night or two.

So everyone, what's your abscess protocol?

Monday's Vet Appointment

Monday morning the vet came out to adjust Penn... and we tacked on the lameness exam too.

She asked me about Penn's medical history, and that's when I realized I really don't know much about him medically. He had a good pre-purchase, has had a few bumps (aka his face) and that's about it. He's never been lame, just funny behind in the last few months. The same vet office did his teeth at the start of this year.

She decided to check out the hoof first, and so she had me lunge him... where he proceeded to be extremely lame on the soft indoor footing. Much, much worse than the day before.

She pulled out the hoof testers and checked him all over and said agreed it was an abscess, but thought it was under the shoe. She asked when the farrier would be back out to reset him, I said next Monday. She gave me two options- pull the shoe and try to find it, or leave the shoe and soak and poultice it for a few days, then pull the shoe if it doesn't pop out. I told her to do whichever she thought would clear it up fastest- he needs to be sound for us to go in a week and a half to a recognized show. We can keep him comfortable without a shoe for a week if we have to.

She opted to pull the shoe. She did a little more testing and a small amount of digging, but wasn't able to narrow it down to a specific spot to drain- she was afraid to dig into his white line to find it, which is totally fine by me! Hooves take a while to grow back and I feel like they're not something you want to go dig in unless you really have to.

It's somewhere near the red line.

A farrier might have a better shot at pinpointing it, and if it hasn't blown by Wednesday I might bribe one of the farriers at the barn to check. I don't think it will take until Wednesday, just because of how fast Penn is going lame. It seems to be the way these things pan out- the horse goes from sound to three legged crippled in a very short time, abscess blows, then they're healing and sound again.

The vet moved on to his chiropractic adjustment. She asked what made me think he needed it (sewing machine legs behind at the last show prompted the call, the massage therapist was concerned about the SI area, a general lack of swing in his back that he used to have). She tested him, and he reacted to her over his lower back, croup, neck, and tried to collapse his right hindquarter to get away from her testing pokey thing. She worked on him then gave me a review. I tried to remember properly- unless it's written down for me, I'm really just terrible at remembering the medical terminology:

• Crooked hips- the right is lower than the left.
• Lower lumbar was out.
• Neck C4/C5 was out.
• Whither area, poll, and legs were good.

She wants to see him again in 6 weeks, so we made the appointment today. I don't have any media from her adjusting him, it was just neat to watch her flex him and use his own responses to make the adjustments.

We had a dilemma about what to do with him after his treatments- he needs to stay in because he's missing a shoe and is lame, but he needs to move around to help with the adjustment. We came to the agreement that he'd go out after breakfast while stalls were cleaned, then he'd come in when the barn work was done.

I got one of these boots for him from Tractor Supply, only because he's terrified of vet wrap and I hate being mean to him to make him deal with it, and this is probably easier to put on over the diaper and poultice. I have serious doubts about its durability, but I just need the protection for a week until this abscess blows and he can have his shoe back on.

A dubious product.

Hopefully all this clears up in the next week! I'll be soaking his hoof and wrapping for the foreseeable future.

5/8 Schooling Show: The Awesome & The Bad

One day I will look as good as Penn.
And on that day, I will no longer have a rogue inside hand.

Sunday was horse show day!

Hanging out.

It was a longer day than it should have been- I went a two hours early so I could help a friend. She events and knew her event tests, but was riding a second horse and riding dressage tests with him... and she was having trouble keeping track of 4 tests in her head, so I came and read for her in exchange for the use of her show vest. I'm still trying to find my own!

Sleepy time on the leg wraps.
He did end up stealing a track wrap and flung it around.

There was a lot of time to hang out and chill.

Pretty braids!

Eventually I tacked up and got my butt to warm up... and had about 15 min. That's ok, Penn seems to be on the 15-20min warm up plan. When he's good, it's all he needs. When he's tense, it's all he needs or else you'll fry him.

I just like his neck in this one.

Warm up was a good one. He was taking some funny steps that I attributed to a small scratch he had on his front left coronet band. The steps got more solid as he warmed up on what turned out to be a really shitty surface. The whole ring could have used another drag. I'm not one to complain about surfaces, because our old outdoor was a clay/sand mixture that got very hard when it was dry and very slick when wet.

Need to lighten the front end.

This surface was just not good. It was deep and had a crust. I could feel Penn tripping and muddling through other horse's footprints. It really needed a drag. His steps eventually evened out, so I thought he was ok.

You'd think from pictures that canter is his best gait.

The sun was causing havoc with Husband's camera- the clouds kept rolling in and out and so his camera was constantly adjusting so the pictures were quite varied in exposure!

I need to learn to sit his canter, asap.

You'd think with all that gorgeous weather we'd be riding outside? Nope. Back to the spooky indoor!

On to 1-2!

link to video

Note the 8.0 that wasn't totaled all the way to the left above the collective marks. (Note my penciled in totals and percent)

I got the bright idea to have husband stand right at A! The standard arena takes up most of the space in the indoor, so I asked him to plant himself right on the wall looking straight down centerline, so I can see what the judge saw. Husband was too funny- when we were done, he was like, "Every time you turned down centerline you were slightly to the left." How right he was! His first well spotted error- now to make him attend all my lessons so he can learn so he'll see other errors and yell at me...

Anyway, I liked this test very much. I did the first leg yield and was like "BAM! That felt good." Then I came back up again and saw the hoofprints I left and was like, "Wow, that last one was very steady in steepness and forward. The line is basically straight to the letter."

My lengthenings were definitely conservative- I was afraid of mucking them up so I didn't ask for much. Penn was not interested in delivering his usual 7-7.5 free walk or stretchy trot.

We ended with what I thought was a 68.906%. I got the test back, was happy, and reviewed it in the truck on the way home and thought, "There's an awful lot of 7, 7.5, and 8's in here. How did that not balance out the one 6 and four 6.5's?" Well, the show manager who normally totals the score broke her right arm (she's right handed) and that made it impossible for her to tabulate scores. A different person did it, and didn't add the 8 for the final salute into the score... even though she wrote the test movement tally below it. She didn't even write in the 8 for the total column.

I added it all up myself, many many times, and we actually got a 71.406%!! That's my first time being in the 70s! I've been sub-30 at events (recognized and schooling), but that's not the dressage world. I was so excited! I don't know what place I got since they calculated wrong (and I found it on the way home)- they may have just missed it on mine, or missed it altogether on everyone's tests. I know first was a 72%, second was 70%, so who knows. Either way, it was a super competitive day and everyone brought their A-game. At least half of the riders were doing what I was doing- one last prep for the recognized show on May 21-22. I do think this judge was a bit generous.

We got a 3rd, and I'm inclined to believe that the scorer missed the last score on everyone's, so we're going to stick with that!

Well you all know I don't do just one test... and I'm sure you noticed the not good steps Penn took in the first test, mostly when he had to turn with his left front on the inside. He had a little rest between tests and I knew something wasn't right when I went down centerline for 1-3. I didn't warm him up again since he doesn't do well with a second warm up and this is a schooling show, so we did a trot around the outside of the ring and up centerline. We made it through a handful of movements before the couple of steps became consistent instead of going away and I pulled up and excused myself from the test. I went back through the video, and what was screaming to me, wasn't overly apparent, but it was enough. No one watching seemed to know why I pulled up. Whatever!

We think he's brewing an abscess. I couldn't get one of the barn farriers out Sunday night to hoof test him, but I talked to one on the phone and she said to poultice it and see what happens. There's zero heat in his legs.

I jogged him on the gravel driveway and he was ever so slightly off. Barely a head nod, mostly just extra wavy shoulders as he hit harder on the right front than the left.

All wrapped up.

Husband thought it was going to be a quick drop off... but I needed to unload the trailer and Penn needed to have his braids taken out, get his Adequan injection, and get his hoof wrapped (which also meant I had to root through the trailer looking for the abscess stuff).

Evidence of Husband's boredom.

I tried to involve him in the hoof wrapping. I asked him to hold the tape (among other items).

That's not what I meant.

BTW, Penn hates vet wrap. I don't think anyone has ever put it on him because he totally lost his shit when I started wrapping the foot after poultice and the diaper. The sound of it unwrapping freaks him out.

Next Post: The vet comes Monday morning to do chiro work on Penn and check his hoof.

Preview

I'm working on my horse show wrap up (and editing pictures), but I'm just going to leave this here.

Massage Night

Penn got his massage last night. We'll call the massage therapist K.

Penn loved it.

K got started on him before I got to the barn (boo work! Why couldn't I leave early to watch my horse get a massage?). When I walked in, Penn had this sleepy, droopy lip face on and was SO RELAXED. Kind of like a high AF kid that said, "Heeeeeey Mommm... I feel gooooooooooood." Lots of lick and chew.

I should have snapped a pic of his face, but I didn't want to be that crazy person taking pics of everything... but I should have because K loved Penn and took a bunch of pics of him, haha!

She found a ton of tension in the SI joint area. Enough that she asked if a chiro was going to see him soon because she was concerned about it (I assured her that he's on the schedule to get an adjustment on Monday). She found more tension in the right hind area and left neck (go figure, that dang diagonal pair thing again).

She'd find a tense spot (Penn disliked this search very much), but then she'd push into him and hold it on certain points and he'd be tense for a moment then all of a sudden get super droopy, ears cocked, eyes closed, hanging lower lip and he'd enter a trance for a while. I think my description of how she finds bad spots and works them was quite poor, so forgive me because I don't quite get how to find the spots... I look for knots in my own back and bear down on them, but that's not what she was doing.

She asked to see him walk and trot, so we lunged a little bit and agreed he wasn't quite comfortable behind yet.

She worked a couple more muscles, then put some patches over the SI area and underneath him.

So many dots.

Sorry, couldn't get a picture of these dots without taking a pic of his junk!

I took a ton of pics of where they went to I can reapply later. The center patch is a stronger Aeon patch even though it looks like the normal white patches. I bought a second Aeon patch and I'm holding on to it for the May 21/22 recognized show to put on him after Saturday's test. I wasn't thinking properly, I should have bought the three sets of regular patches too. I'm debating just ordering the patches myself, and sticking them on myself... I know Penn's problem spots and how both K and my usual patch lady determined where to apply them. For the cost of one visit of my patch lady, I can get two visits worth of patches from the manufacturer. I hate doing that to her, but Penn is starting to cost me a small fortune! This way Penn can get patches overnight at shows too for much cheaper than if I bought another set of patches to apply myself from my patch lady.

Anyway, that's not the point. K asked if I was going to ride him, and I said no, I was going to give him the night off. She asked if he was going to be outside tonight, and I said no, he'll be in... so she said, "RIDE HIM." I'm like, "Ok! As soon as the farrier fixes his shoe." Haha.

The farrier came shortly after K left and fixed his shoe. He was just as stumped as I was at how Penn sprung the shoe, but instead of one side coming off the hoof, it curved more so the heel of the shoe wasn't supporting his heel or the hoof wall anymore- it was creeping to the soft inside of the hoof. Either way, he came out asap and fixed it.

By this point, Penn was a totally obnoxious beast and was obviously feeling pretty darn good. He wanted to rub his nose all over the farrier and lip his hair and in general be super touchy feely with everyone in sight. He eventually got bopped for being an obnoxious prick, then he looked all sad for 3 seconds before going right back at it.

"I'm not afraid to hurt your feelings..."

I tacked him up and had a super ride on him- also very short because it was almost 8pm by the time I got on him and I did want to go home eventually that night.

I could tell an immediate difference in him when I walked off from the mounting block- he had a ton more swing in his back and went straight to the being on the bit as I shortened my reins. We repeated my ride from Wednesday in structure and movements. The trot 10m circles were MUCH better. There was no discussion about the starting bending, he just went with it. I may have peeked a bit over my shoulder and looked at the bend he had through his body. He's such a little guy, I can peek over a shoulder and see where his hind end is at! The school the previous day may have helped, but I didn't have to keep after his outside hind as much as I usually do. The leg yields were MUCH better. He tends to get slow and stale in them, but he was quite happy to keep the forward motion and cover just a hair more ground. He was a bit distracted for this ride- the horses came in a bit late for dinner because of the nice weather. He had quite a lot of motion in his back in the trot, more than I've felt in the recent past. The canter was forward and very comfortable.

This won't be Penn's last massage! K was wonderful and identified tense areas without me having to tell her where (I did ask her to spend extra time on the SI area). Penn definitely enjoyed it. K was very affordable too. The massage ended up costing a little less than I thought, but I ended up spending more than I expected because we did some patches too. I don't care. The horse feels good.

Let's just throw some more money at this.

I'm very interested to see how the show this weekend goes, and how Penn feels after a chiropractic adjustment Monday. I think we're on the right track!