Blankets, Clipping, and Training

First off, I am selling this beautiful Smart Pak Ultimate Turnout. Size 78", heavy weight (360g). Still waterproof, freshly cleaned (it doesn't even smell horsey). $100 negotiable (money vs no money is great, so make me an offer), email codexdressage at gmail if you're interested. I even have the right size shipping box available right now!

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the blanket. It is really super tough and has seen 2 winters with zero exterior damage from a pair of unforgiving baby horses. There is some staining on the outer shell- I promise when it's rinsed, the water runs off clear. There are some rips in the lining, but they're small things as you can see. New, this blanket is $209. Take advantage of my loss!

I wanted the combo version of the blanket because Penn seems to have trouble staying warm when it's truly cold. You all know the lengths I went to to try to fix the shoulder gap issue (plus chewy friends). This one won't gap at the shoulder, and won't drive my BO crazy switching the medium weight hood back and forth between med and heavy blankets. I'll admit, the second reason was a large part of getting it... because it made me crazy too. I did price buying a heavy hood (which seems to be available now!), except for a hair more money, I could buy the combo blanket and not deal with the detachable hood. With the recent sale, (20% + USEF 5%), I was able to nab the blanket for much less than list price, so I jumped on it.

"Mama, why did you wrap me up in a heavy weight blanket when it's 65 degrees out?"

He's so thrilled that he basically has a turtleneck sweater.

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Penn got full body clipped this past weekend. With the unseasonably warm fall we're having, I was hosing him down after every ride. He would sweat everywhere like he does an 80 degree day, except it's been in the 60s (with some 70s). I promise I am not working him for hours- that's after 45 min of walk/halt/walk/trot/walk hell. Minimal cantering because we just can't do more or we don't get to it.

Being bathed is exhausting.

I ordered new blades then shaved him last Saturday. I kept him in after breakfast, bathed him (like scrubbed him squeaky clean- I have NEVER done this to clip before), then kept him in while I cleaned stalls. By the time I was done working, he was dry, and I got straight to work on his legs and face, finishing with the body.

It's a mini Penn, made from his own hair!

I was so proud of him! He was antsy about his legs (resulting in me having to touch them up the next day when I saw the wide swaths of hair I missed), but he stood without freaking out about the clippers! I couldn't cross tie him, but he stood ground tied. I was able to cross tie him the next day to do touch ups, which is VERY exciting!

I've always clipped my horse "dirty." Mostly because it's time consuming to wash them and then wait for winter hair to dry, and because I'm not used to having hot water to bathe with, or a warm barn to keep him in while he dries. It worked out perfectly for me to help feed and turnout, bathe, clean stalls while he's drying, then clip. I think I'll be scrubbing Penn down every time from now on to clip. It was soooo easy to clip him. I shampooed and conditioned him with suave that I got on sale from the grocery store, and then sprayed him with an old coat spray that I don't like much anymore. It was a shame to shave off all his beautiful fluffy brown hair- I really love his coat.

His shaved coat turned out MUCH better this year!
Plus fewer lines since he was clean when I shaved him.

It seems the feed combination plus vitamin supplement is really working for him, because his shaved coat this year isn't an ugly mousy color like previous years. We took some new coggins pictures while he was spiffy clean (hence the pretty shot above).

Since I had to clip him so early this year, I'll probably have to touch him up in mid-Dec and then again sometime in early Feb. I won't do his legs or face again, I got most of the hair off those, so they'll grow in more controlled now. Plus I hate shaving the face and legs, it's annoying to get in all the crevices!

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We continue to plug away at Megan's homework. We're nearing the end of the 3rd week of walk/halt/walk/trot/walk hell, 3-6 weeks to go before we can start adding in normal work? There were some pretty frustrating days in there, that's for sure. But, we're nearing the end of the first 3 weeks, which according to GP Trainer, is when changes start to settle and things get better... I sure hope so!

Let's ogle the pretty bling on the bright orange hunter safety bonnet, haha.

Things actually are looking up- we've had a couple really good days, and they're starting to happen more than the bad.

Penn started to not want to be on the bit, and I absolutely could not figure out why. "He doesn't want to be on the bit." "Let me get more handsy." "Wait, I'm doing to much. I shouldn't be doing this much." "Wait a second, I'm letting him go from halt to walk by coming off the bit. I'm teaching him that that's acceptable." "Fffffffffffff."

I spent some time redoing the halt/walks. As soon as I set the tone of, "No, coming off the bit is not acceptable" and "No, I will not be helping you stay on the bit," he started being on the bit extremely reliably, and holding it when I released in the walk and trot.

I also started giving him antacid before riding. 5000mg of calcium carbonate. $0.31 a dose
Not pictured: the vitamin E pills I also started giving him (2000 IU to go with the 500 IU in his vitamin)
$0.19 a dose vs $1.07 in Smartpak's vit e supplement.
I just feed him a handful of minty pills with the two vit e pills, and everything gets gobbled down!

Something else Megan helped me with was getting him bendy again- sometimes he comes out one direction like a 2x4 and no amount of inside leg helps move his ribcage. She had me put the outside leg on enough to hold his haunches from stepping out, but then use the inside leg to activate the inside hind. The rib cage has to swing out to allow the stifle to come up. Voila, it's magic. This idea has been particularly helpful when he comes out like a 2x4 or when he wants to look to the outside or when he wants to throw his haunches in. I vary the outside leg with the situation (umm we don't need more when the hips are in, it just needs watched), but thinking about making the inside hind step up instead of moving him around has been soooo helpful.

Last night's ride was great, I never got to the canter, and it took a half hour to get the trot I wanted, but we got there. And I was able to leave my circle and keep my trot! I started with a long slow torturous walk/halt/walk warm up. It sets the tone for the ride. By the end of the half hour, I had a horse who was absolutely through, light in the hand with elastic contact, and was pushing through his whole topline- I watched the muscles from his poll to his shoulder all bulging evenly. I do a lot of staring at his neck these days. It's really helpful when I don't have mirrors or eyes on the ground to double check me- if I can get the muscle right in front of the shoulder working, I know I'm on the right track.

Overall, super super happy, now to just put the time in to cement that feeling as Penn's default setting. Megan was hopeful on 2-3 months of work, so I'm hoping for that! But if he needs more, then oh well. Plus we'll be constantly revisiting this for the rest of his dressage life anyway. I'm so excited to see what he's like next year, after 6 or more months of building on this base!

Look! Cute floofs in their natural habitat.

This weekend we're going to a clinic at DT's barn. Everyone likes the clinician coming in, so I figured I'd give her a whirl. I signed up at the end of September, before lessons with Megan. I almost wish I hadn't now, because I don't want to mess up the work I've done, but apparently the clinician had M do something similar in her last lesson, so I'm hopeful that it'll mesh well.

2 Week Overview (Lesson, Trail Rides, Clipping, Browband Bling, Chiropractor)

I promise I haven't fallen off the Earth. I've been super busy at work, busy with Penn, tired of working 7 days a week, and haven't felt like writing, nor really had time to. I'm trying to keep up with everyone else's posts! But things have gone on:

I had another lesson where I struggled with my seatbones. Very discouraging, I didn't bother writing about it. We focused on different ways of trying to get my seatbones working properly, but at this point I'm overthinking it and overdoing it.

Queen Penny and her court jesters, Sophie and Felix.

I took Penn for some long over due walks.

Pretty scenery... but we somehow missed the fall leaf change. The leaves went from greenish to dead and off the trees.

Trail ride at Trainer's when we hauled over to see a new chiropractor. (details below)

Penn got clipped almost two weeks ago. He was a gem this time around- clipping his whites all summer really helped desensitize him to clipping. I still can't cross tie him, and I had to wedge him against the wall and ground tie him, but we got the job done! This is the first time I've fully clipped my own horse- I've fully clipped Trainer's but I've always left the face and legs unclipped on my own horse.

One last look of his pretty mahogany color. I braided his mane, tail, and forelock to keep them out of the way.

Part of the pile of fluff. #notpoop

So pretty! (Except that mane- I was halfway through pulling it)

I really like the no-hair look! I did a poor job with the saddle patch though. It doesn't match side to side and it is a bit big, but whatever. I can fix it when I clip a second time this winter.

Penn was such a big boy about me clipping his face, I was very happy with him!

I also finally finalized the Dark Jewel Designs browbands I won from EventingSaddlebredStyle's Olympics contest- I'm so totally smitten by the one, so much so that I haven't even taken a picture of Penn wearing the other!

Black/Gray/Clear ombre with tanzanite spacers.

LOOK HOW PRETTY

I was completely distracted by it when I went to hang the bridle in my trailer- the sunlight really caught the tanzanite spacer's color.

It has merited a lot of looking- sometimes the clear beads catch the light, sometimes the black. It never looks the same and I love it!

I also got a gorgeous gray and navy one, which I'll post when I get a pic of it!

Penn looking at the trailer when I pulled it up to haul him over to Trainer's barn last Wednesday.

And Penn made a big trip to the land of NQR last week. He's not lame, but his right hind is not willing to step up and under. It's always been weak, but this was beyond normal for him.

Trainer called a halt to lesson as soon as she saw it when we warmed up last Tuesday. I told her we'd been struggling in general, and I had long lined him Sunday to try and work on his canter. He had bucked into the canter numerous times, which is completely unlike him, and he struggled to the right on the lines. She had me trot/canter each way, then lunge him so I could see what it looked like and so she could see if it was better or worse without a rider.

He was much worse without a rider (no wonder I feel like I'm holding him together again, it's because I am). It's not visible in the walk, it's barely visible in the trot, and it was horrible in the canter. To the left, it was like he completely forgot to bring his right hind along with him. It was barely coming up even with his hip. To the right, it was like he was bouncing on his hind legs instead of striding properly.

He was about 2 weeks overdo for chiropractor work, and we had been working hard at flying changes, more collection and extension, and more lateral work. We're hoping it's a mix of fatigue and overdue for bodywork. I'm upset I didn't notice it riding him, but it seems to have been graduallying getting worse so I attributed it to something going wrong in training.

I had already scheduled Penn to be adjusted by a traveling vet who does chiropractor and acupuncture injection therapy (B12 injections). He has quite a following and came highly recommended- he travels over half the country to just do chiropractic work on horses. Luckily, that appointment was the next day after lesson. I hauled Penn over and we went for a gentle walk before he was adjusted (it was a gorgeous day!).

This vet was very concerned about Penn's lumbar/SI area/hips- more so then his regular chiropractor. He was quick to point out that Penn's right hip was considerably lower than his left. It's been that way since last winter, and his regular chiropractor had been working on it. I figured what was left was poor muscling on that side since he didn't really want to step up and under with the right hind... apparently not. He said he thought it had been like this for a long time, is probably from an injury long ago, and it would take him a few visits to get it fully worked out. He also pointed out how the lower lumber region wanted to turn to right (and I could actually feel it- he showed me where). The vet was surprised I had just reported that Penn had just started bucking this week- he thought Penn should have started bucking long ago.

Let me say that Penn did not enjoy getting adjusted. The vet did a quick check all over, adjusted his shoulder, then worked on the problem area in his hips. He showed me how stiff Penn's back was before, and then how bouncy it was when he was done. It was very neat. He used a bit of force in his adjustments, and Penn decided he had enough and moved away sideways... so we reset him and he decided to try walking away... so I held his head and shoulder, Trainer had two hands on his right side as the vet worked on the left side to release the right (very interesting). Penn did reach around and pin his ears and snap a couple times, so I did feel bad for him... But I know when I'm worked on effectively, it does hurt, but I also understand what's going on so I don't bite my chiropractor. Towards the end, he started stomping his right hind- something vet said is from his back releasing and it creating a tingly feeling down his leg.

He then popped in 6-8 needles in the SI area and one on his right shoulder, and injected them all with B12. I think the B12 is supposed to help the adjustments stay longer. The vet said to give Penn at least one day off with normal half day turnout- I said he'd get 4 days off because I simply couldn't make it to the barn again before Monday.

Holy shit though, Penn's hips were extremely close to level when he was done. When Penn's regular chiro adjusts him, his hips still look the same. I was floored. I've never been able to see physical results of the work... and this guy is only $15 more expensive than Penn's regular chiro. After hauling him home and finishing up there, one of the other girls at the barn noticed Penn being willing to stand square behind, instead of his usual pose of the right hind under or resting while the left holds up his hind end. Interesting.

Penn is, of course, on this vet's schedule for next time he's through this area (about every 8 weeks- the guy likes every 6 weeks but finds he can't get all his clients seen within 6 weeks for the correct rotation, so it's 8 instead). I do believe Penn has a new regular chiropractor.

I'll see how he is tonight! I'm hopeful that this NQR will be gone with that big adjustment and time off. Our Very Exciting Event is next week and I wanted to make Penn's second level debut at a show the weekend after Thanksgiving! Both are up for cancellation depending on how Penn is this week.

Shaved Legs

So by now you've noticed that I've been planting Penn in front of a fan to dry his legs after hosing him down so I can put his boots on and turn him out.

There was this almost proverbial moment.

Basically, my evenings become long because I drive 40 min to the barn after work, tack up, ride, hose down horse. By this point evening feed has started and they're starting to turnout for the night, so I need to make sure Penn eats and gets all his stuff on for turnout. Oh yea, and put away all my stuff that probably got spread all over the place because that's apparently how I roll at the barn. And after all of this, I still need to drive 40 min home.

This includes letting him eat his 4lb of grain and then drying his legs so his boots can go on.

I try to do things while other things are happening- hose down horse, put in stall to eat dinner (at least he's finally not the slowest eater ever!), then put everything away while he's eating. Then I grab a towel and fan and rub Penn's legs down after he's done eating.

I'm sure this is something I should be doing anyway, but I don't. Ever since I started spraying Mikey down with generic versions of the original yellow Listerine, all that skin fungus/crud/nastiness that develops on legs/ears/under the jaw cleared up. It stays away as long as I am religious about my Listerine spray. Seriously, give it a try! It makes them sleek and shiny too. I'm going to be trying a new mix of the original yellow with one of the mint flavors as a fly spray (I originally started Listerine as a tick repellent), because I've found the yellow version is about as effective as most fly sprays if not more effective. (Not against the pterodactyls that fly around, but I don't know anything effective against those!)

I found a post on Chronical of the Horse by Lauren Sprieser. Some backstory here: I started casually searching for an upper level dressage trainer (Trainer knows and even told me to go find someone who knows the FEI stuff because Trainer won't be able to help me with that stuff) a few months ago. I forget how I found Lauren, but I ended up liking her program and website so I liked her page on Facebook and so I get all her updates. For the record, I've never met her but I'd really like to ride with her to see if she might be a match for Penn and I once we're looking at 3rd/4th and above. She rides Grand Prix herself, just won the Maestro Cup at Dressage at Lexington on a 78.9% (the class was NOT a freestyle class, it was the regular GP test). She has a group of students (ahem, 5 of them), who are working on the FEI levels. She seems to have a lot of experience bringing along her own horses to the FEI level as well as keeping students moving along. BO was asking for names of people we'd be interested in having in to clinic, so I put her on the list.

Anyway, I saw she wrote something new for COTH, so I read it. It's a neat little piece about grooming for shows (as well as product endorsement, but whatever- I want to know what people use!). She mentions that all of her horses' white markings are shaved year round.

Interesting.

I hate hairy legs. I can't stand feathers, unless it's full feathers because the horse is full Friesian/Shire/Clydesdale/Gypsy Vanner/breed-that-has-full-feathers. I've never shaved my own horse's legs. Mikey never had enough white to try it out, and I always left the legs hairy for winter even if the rest of the horse got clipped.

Since I'm towel drying Penn's legs every week night, he has a ton of white, and I'm not showing again for another month, I decided to give it a try and then some- I shaved the white and up to the knee/hock so there's even less hair to keep dry under the boots.

Look who's shaved, sleek, and shiny now, sans bath!

Penn was a total rock star about clipping. I approached it a little differently this time: Cords freak him out when they're dragged across the ground and they're associated with clippers. This time, I pulled out all the clipping supplies before I took him out of his stall. I borrowed the super long extension cord that lives with the leaf blower and got everything plugged in and made sure it hugged the wall. I got Penn out, hooked him into cross ties like normal and brushed down his legs. I opted to put the chain over his nose, just to be sure, and then unhooked him from the crossties and ground tied him instead. I stood to his left first (he's not good about them in front of him or on his right...), and turned them on. He was not sure about them, but I was easily able to shut down any efforts he made to leave. I rubbed the clippers on  his neck and shoulder while they were running, then moved on to his legs and started clipping.

The worst thing he did was stomp his feet (I assume the clippers tickled), but squeezing his fetlock joint with my free hand took care of that. He wanted to hug the wall on his right when I was on his left, and vice versa, and I decided that it wasn't an inappropriate action because he's still standing and not leaving and it makes him feel better. When he has more experience I can insist he stand in the middle of the aisle.

Since things were going well, I tackled his overgrown bridle path, ears, and whiskers. He was worried but stood like a perfect gentleman.

I turned off the clippers and made a huge fuss over him, telling him he was a good boy and stuffed him with cookies. His expression change was hilarious. So while we're clipping, he's unsure and worried looking, and as soon as I told him "Good boy!!" and started patting him after I turned off the clippers, his expression did a complete 180: "Was I a good boy? I was? OMG YES I WAS A GOOD BOY!" And he all of a sudden looked all proud of himself. I loved that- and I wasn't the only one to see the expression change. That's the exact right feeling I want him to have when we're done clipping (or done doing anything). He had zero jumpyness after we were done, which has never happened before. He stood quietly as I shuffled things around to get him tacked up for a trail ride. I did not put away any clipping stuff while he was out though- I wanted the good feelings to continue and barely moving the cord worked well to start and I didn't want to mess it up.

I manged to get him ready for turnout BEFORE they were done turning out! Wahoo!

I'm not saying I did a perfect job- I didn't. I found some lines that need to be taken care of before they grow out. Whatever, my horse was very good for clipping!

Part 1: 4/2 Lesson & Show Prep

I am going to break this three-day weekend up into 3 posts even though I said before it would be 1. I was writing one post, but it got stupid long and covered way too much ground. So each day this weekend (Saturday-Monday) is getting it's own post. Plus right now Penn is on vacation and I have more than enough material to cover a couple days while he's taking a well deserved rest.

Part 1: Lesson and Show Prep

Saturday was a LONG day. I worked at the barn in the morning (feed, turnout, stalls), then had a half hour lesson, then it was time to pack the trailer and drive to the show and do all the pre-show activities. Bedtime ended up being around 11:30 or midnight maybe?

Lets start with how one of the horses pooped in his feed bin, and because I wanted to keep rolling that morning in getting the horse out ASAP, I decided to hold another bucket up for him to eat out of instead of cleaning his bin out right away. It was fine until he got a drink and coughed. All over my freshly cleaned fleece jacket. I don't have children, but I now know what baby throw up is like, and it doesn't make children appealing. At all. I washed my fleece in the bathroom, hung it up, and prayed it would dry before we left for the show because the temps were only in the 40s that morning (with a mid-50s high), and now I only had my long sleeve shirt and polo.

Penn playing with Ike the dog. Towards the end of their play session, because Ike got a little overexcited and had to be called back. I wanted to get some video of it though! It's hilarious.

I found out that Penn has a dog-friend, Ike. I don't know how it gets started, but Ike runs and barks next to the fence line and Penn trots and canters and head tosses and bucks next to him. They parallel each other like a cutting horse and cow. They seem to really enjoy running back and forth, so that's fine. Ike generally stays out of the field, but BO is ever watchful and calls him back to the barn when it looks like he's going to go under the fence. I think the whole thing is hilarious!

Anyway, I got to lesson and the idea was to warm up a bit and go over one of our tests. Trainer got after me to keep his haunches in just a bit more on turns and circles. We used the trot loop and canter work from T3 to warm up, so I ended up riding T2 instead of practicing T3.

There were 4 major takeaways from lesson that are more show specific, but still helpful:

• When coming back to the rail- from a circle, diagonal, or shallow loop- make sure Penn's shoulder hits the rail first. When he gets all fish-taily, his haunches are actually hitting first.
• Once I'm on the circle or diagonal, push his trot or canter just a hair more forward and give the inside hand just a little. This let's him open up and get some loft in his step while stretching his neck and really lets me show off his gaits. Near the completion of the movement, collect him back just a hair and make sure he meets the rail properly.
• In corners and turns up centerline, think about keeping the haunches in (but absolutely DO NOT push them in at all), and use the thought of counterbend to help him not collapse in the turns.
• In T3's left lead canter work, Let his canter be a bit open for the circle and coming down the arena, but as I get closer to the corner, start collecting, and then keep collecting past the judge and down the diagonal. This will keep him from flopping like a fish down the diagonal.

Penn got clipped, which wasn't as much of an ordeal as it's been in the past (whiskers, goat hairs, bridle path, fetlocks). It seems if I start with his legs or somewhere on his body, he's more cooperative about his face. It's not that it scares him up my his poll either, because he doesn't give two hoots about the clippers buzzing away up there. He only cares when it's by his nose. I missed a huge section of hairs because I was trying to keep him from attempting to break the cross ties. More practice is needed!

I got all my stuff packed up (I cleaned my tack Thursday night), and Hawk and I loaded up the horses and off we went to the show! 

When we left around 2:30, it was sunny, breezy, and around 50 degrees. In general, it was warm feeling.

It turns out our early ride times saved our butts because they forced us to haul the day before the show. Just as we were arriving, it started snowing. A lot. The really wet and heavy stuff. And it was super windy.

About 10 minutes into unloading the trailer.
Where the hell did our sunshine go???

My fleece jacket, which had managed to dry before we left, became unwearable again after making several trips to the trailer and then standing out there to unhook the trailer. At least I grabbed my Carhartt jacket on a whim when I walked out the door Saturday morning. While it was too warm to wear it at home while doing chores and riding, it was very nice to have at the show grounds where it was 20-25 degrees colder (and much more windy).

Hawk and I got to ride in the dressage arena itself (yay!) and it was excellent practice. Penn was definitely less reactive on Sunday because of it. I finally got to school him in left lead canter past C. At all of the previous shows, he's turned into a spooky mess past the judge in T3. I just try to hold it together and get past it. Saturday night I got to reapproach and try again! And continue repeating it until he finally relaxed.

We braided after riding, but that's about when the barn started getting super cold. We'd been sharing the ring with another group, but they had only hauled over to practice and were going home... so they kept going in and out of the barn, leaving the main door open so all of the "warm" air in the barn was escaping and winter was coming in! Penn and Fiction got extra blanket layers and extra hay with their dinners, and we set off to find ourselves some dinner and go to the hotel for the night.

Can we talk about how a blizzard decided to happen while we were in the barn? Snow was creeping under the barn door, and there were several inches out in the parking lot. We'd only been in the barn for 3.5 hours. I used a broom from my trailer to brush off the windows and headlights of my truck because my ice scraper wasn't in the backseat anymore! The roads were horrible, the temps plummeted to around 22 degrees, and the wind was fierce (pumping 21 gallons of gas into the truck was a horrible experience). We were VERY happy that we hauled over Saturday. The roads would have been too treacherous for us to haul early Sunday morning.

WTF Mother Nature? April Fools Day was the day before! Also, we're in APRIL which is NOT WINTER!

Stay tuned for Part 2: Schooling Show - Series Finale!

Odds and Ends

Here are some topics that I didn't make it to their own posts in the past week (work has been hell- at least one to two hours of OT each day for the last two weeks), but I'd still like to take note of:

1. Penn got his clip updated last Saturday!

"Mom, why do you do this to me?"

And we did it without drugs, and with only one meltdown... at the end? I walked in front of him with the clippers running to trim the other side of his face (I had already done his entire body, ticklish bits and all, his bridle path, and one side of his whiskers and goat hair) and he freaked out, dancing sideways while I held his lead rope and engaged the chain and waited for him to stop. When he finally stopped moving back and forth, I tried to continue stepping around him, and he freaked and tried to back out of the crossties. A hind shoe slipped on the concrete and sparked and then it smelled burnt in the barn, haha. He did hit the end of his chain and respect it, along with the crossties (which are the sliding rope type, so they can't break out but there is give and can be released quickly in an emergency). WTH Penn? I'd already been clipping you for a half hour.

2. I tried Vetoquinol's Zylkene at the last horse show. One of the boarders at winter barn was at a farrier clinic and met with a Vetoquinol rep, and she managed to wrangle 4 packets (4 days) of their calming drug from the rep to bring home for me to try. The product uses casein to induce a calming effect on the horse when their nerves would normally be high (for Penn, this is the rampant diarrhea when trailering). Everything in it is natural- there's nothing that would make it drug test. It's meant to be used in high pressure situations that bother the horse, and you shouldn't see a change in personality. It either works or it doesn't, and it seems to work in 7/10 horses.

You feed the product 3-5 days before traveling, and the morning of travel. The first night Penn ate it, he did not stall walk. At all. Then it all went to shit and he was just a terror all week. He had diarrhea in the crossties the day before the show- in his defense, he'd already been in the crossties for a while because of a timing issue with lessons, and then I braided him and fussed over him and then made him hang out for a little while longer so he wouldn't churn in his stall waiting for the other horses to come in. All during that time, there were little kids running and yelling, a drone camera flying, and the normal barn activites. Only one diarrhea poop was impressive. He didn't poop as much in the trailer, but there was still a little bit of diarrhea on the way to the show. Everything was looking good on the way home. I'd say the product helped a little bit, and I'd like to try it again.

We had done 3 days before the show and then the day of, so I wanted to try 5-6 days before the show and the day of. I contacted the rep and asked about getting more, and that's when it all went downhill. I found out that I can't buy it direct from the company under any circumstances- I knew they didn't sell direct to owners, only to vets, but I thought if I had a vet RX for it, maybe they'd sell direct to me. I HATE paying vet upcharges on things like supplements that already cost enough as it is.

I asked how much vets usually sell it for, and the rep said between $7.50 and $10 per packet, but it's at their own discretion. No wonder he didn't want to part with 4 days of sample!

I contacted the vet office that hosted the clinic and asked if they sold the product- they said yes, but the vet would have to see my horse (they are not my usual vet). Coincidentally, the vet is going to be at winter barn for dental work (which I opted Penn into), so no issue there. I asked how much it cost per packet... $15 per packet. HELL NO. The smallest box is 20 packets, which fed at 5-6 days before the show and the day of barely lasts 3 shows. I was totally appalled. To have the rep quote me a low of $7.50 (which makes me think the product costs the vet somewhere between $3-5 per packet), and then this vet charging $15, I was speechless. I said no thanks, that's too expensive for something that didn't work well enough.

I am going to call my vet and ask if they would get it in, and mention the price quotes that the rep and other vet office gave me... and I know my vet will do better than that and be down in the rep's price quotes, if only to beat the competition!

I wish the company would let owners buy direct with a vet RX. Right now, the drug is legal and they don't want it abused. I get that, but at price of double or triple the cost of the product? I'm being blocked out from buying it. Bad business move I think.

3. Penn is going to see the dentist! Or rather a vet who does dental work. When he gets relaxed, he's started to click his teeth together. Like, he's slack jawed and they're clicking. Another thing is that he's jumping off the contact a lot- someone commented at winter barn that it's like he doesn't trust the contact. His last owner said he saw the dentist last summer, but I'm going to have him looked at this Friday (2/12) anyway, just to rule out any mouth issues. It's a vet that's doing it, so they sedate and everything, and while I'm not crazy about the whole sedation thing (I don't think they need it for teeth floating) and I'd rather a dentist look at him (dentists see teeth a lot more than certified dental-vets), but she's already coming out and I don't have to hunt down a dentist. Trainer's dentist is good, but difficult to talk to. I know nothing about teeth and floating, so I need easy to talk to.

4. Riding. Penn and I went on our first trail ride at winter barn with Hawk and Fiction. The two horses have quite the bromance going on. They are each other's security blanket out on the trail! I'm glad we got to go and do something different, I think Penn needed it!

Penn and Fiction definitely have a bromance going on.

It seems when I try to practice things from the training level tests, I get a jumpy horse and he bounces off the contact. When I do things like the below:

• leg yield from the wall to centerline, change directions and shoulder in down the long wall, go around the short wall and repeat.
• take the leg yield zig zag from the 1-3 test down one wall, go across the next diagonal and lengthen the trot, repeat the other direction.
• canter at A, 15m circle in the corner/early on the long side, lengthen the canter down the long side, collect, go across the next diagonal and either do a simple change at X or trot at A and then canter when we get to the wall, repeat the other direction.

He really gets on board with the work and seems to enjoy it and his fussing instantly stops. Especially in the last one with the canter work. He loved that! The leg yields are getting sticky, and I tried Karen's figure 8 with extra attention to the change of bend last night, and he just about had a fit. I worked it in trot with walk at the change and the trot became a short strided disaster. I don't know if he finds the circle work boring (I would) and that this other work is more exciting (it is), or if there's something else going wrong (I'm sure there is).

I'm doing something wrong here, and I can't put my finger on it. I should be able to trot circles and changes of bend in posting and sitting trot, and it's just not working. I lose the bend in posting trot (because I suck at seatbones when posting) and I lose my forward in sitting (I think I'm restrictive by accident). He's certainly strong enough and well trained enough now to do a figure 8 with change of bend without getting nervous! The dressage instructor is going to be back 2/20, and I'm going to take a half hour lesson with her since my own trainer is in Aiken right now. We didn't click all those years ago (a reason I stuck with just Trainer), and I'm not that hopeful now, but I need some help. We'll see what she has to say!

Buying all the Things I Convince Myself We Need

I was off work yesterday due to the holiday (yay!) but due to a high of a mere 14 degrees (boo!) I ended up not riding. I know for some of you that's still riding weather, but it's warming up this week back to above freezing, and with me still coughing, I felt no need to freeze and ride. Instead, I drove a couple hours away to a tack shop!

I normally buy online from this shop, however, I needed some items more quickly than I was willing to pay to ship ($25 to have a $30 item here in 3 days? umm...), and the standard shipping had my stuff arriving in almost a week and a half (not cool when the place is 2.5 hours away).

What did I need? More blankets of course! Haha. I am a blanket hoarder.

Penn's SmartPak blankets have not been working out well for him in the heated barn overnight. Yes, it's only heated to 45 degrees, but heat dumps directly into his stall, there's no wind, and the barn doesn't radiate cold because it's heated 24/7. My brain says: 45 degrees? Medium weight blanket! But I've tried that, and he ends up sweating by morning. The lightweight isn't much better, only because I'm finding the Ultimate Turnouts not very breathable- I guess that's the trade off you make. They're tough for sure, but the price of tough is that they're not breathable. BO was concerned he might end up with a respiratory infection or coughing (he already is doing that, sigh) with the amount of heat he builds up in the barn and then goes out into the cold- the temperature changes all the time will end up too much for him to handle.

She recommended an Irish Knit Anit-Sweat Sheet that this tack shop sells. It was on sale for $29.99, so I was willing to give it a try. Unfortunately, the only color is white (which will never be clean again of course). (I'm unwilling to let him be without clothes in the barn, he IS shaved after all).

Bright white blanket and a brown horse and background means pictures don't turn out so well, haha.

He'll wear this layer all the time- they'll put his outside clothes on over it for turnout. Even if it doesn't work out, I'm happy with it because I've been having trouble getting him to dry after working him. His blanket clip prevents a lot of the sweat, but he's still sweaty under the saddle and girth. My Rambo Whitney striped fleece is too warm to let him dry properly. It wicks great, but overheats him and he starts sweating again. So now I have a heated barn appropriate way of drying him!

Which means I of course had to buy a second one, because what if it gets wet in turnout, or it is damp from using as a cooler, or I need to wash it? Unfortunately, they only had a single Irish knit in his size, but luckily this fancy blue plaid Cashmelon sheet of similar make and feel was hanging right next to it in the store, and was on sale for $34.99! And I bought their last blue one in his size, haha.

Derpy "Hi Mom!"

I figure I can swap them out to wash, and then have something clean, pretty, and unstained to take with me to horse shows (the sweating is a big problem for me at this winter series I've been going to- the barn isn't heated but there's enough horses in the barn that it heats up pretty well).

"Mom, didn't you hear? They're feeding us right now!"

Of course I didn't drive a couple hours to just stop for five minutes, so I ended up paroozing and picked up a small cheap set of Andis clippers. I have a big body clipping pair from Andis that I love, but they aren't quick and easy in a pinch when I need to clean up whiskers or a bridle path at a horse show (that may or may not have a plug nearby!). So enter this guy:

Tiny clippers with blade guards I'll never use!

It wasn't my favorite pair of tiny clippers (I don't like the camo color)- I actually preferred a Wahl pair instead that was the same price because they came with an extra T blade and a travel bag. The biggest thing that got me was that these Andis clippers came with a 5 year warranty (and a blade guard for when not in use!), where the Wahl's came with a 30 day guarantee. Umm, hello ugly camo clippers!

I'll use them to continue teaching Penn about clipping. I think they're a touch loud, but for $15 I'm not going to complain too much. It's not like I'm going to be shoving them in his ears or anything- this is a whisker/beard/bridle path clean up pair.

So that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Sigh. I didn't think Penn needed anything else... he has everything already! No more buying horsey items for a while!

Clipping and Blankets

I'm on vacation from last Friday until Dec 1 - simply awesome! Vacation will be highlighted with a dressage show on Nov 29 (Training 1, 2, 3), and then after working a half day at home on Dec 1, I'm hauling to a lesson with German Riding Master!

Since we're going to have public appearances shortly, a goal for this vacation was to fix Penn's blanket clip. When I clipped Penn last time, the edges were bad.  From side to side, the pattern wasn't even. The blanket clip didn't meet up properly at his tail. Then there are the areas that just didn't get clipped - behind his ears and near his poll, armpits, flanks.

Saturday was the warmest day of my time off, so I opted to fix it all on day 1 of vacation.

I also opted to drug Penn for it so I could clip him in the barn aisle instead of trapping him in his stall. Domosedan is great stuff. Only I didn't realize how much of a lightweight Penn is- I gave him less than Mikey's usual mane pulling dose and he looked like this for a while... long after I was done clipping him.

Drunk pony.

I was able to get all my edges right and difficult places clipped, and Penn was relaxed for the whole thing. Less drug would have been better, and I'll remember that for next time, but hopefully after a couple more times clipping we can do away with the drugs. I like that it took the edge off and helped Penn not worry, and I definitely didn't need him to be as drunk as he was.

Penn also got to rock his new Smart Pak Ultimate Turnout medium weight blanket and hood!

Styling!

I'm going to get a post going with all my for sale items to help pay for the stupid amount I spent at Smart Pak this week!

Clipped

Penn is clipped. No drugs, no rearing. #win

The edges are bad, by his poll isn't done, he doesn't match very well from side to side, he has lines, and there's a couple furry places where there shouldn't be (elbows, bottom of the flank, behind the ears for a couple inches), but he is clipped!

I've never seen this type of blanket clip used before, but Karen at Contact did it to her horse and I loved it. So Penn matches!

Thursday night I rode for a short time and then decided to do another round of introducing him to the clippers. I started by turning them on and having Penn walk circles around me right in front of them. If he stopped, I flicked the whip at him. If he looked at them and brought his shoulder in at me, I'd tap him on the shoulder.

This really only worked for so long. When I stopped him to show him the clippers he was still hell bent on leaving the barn, or backing into the metal stall latches (we had one do that... He needed a bunch of bum stitches). While Penn would stand in the vicinity of the clippers with his butt to the wall, he was happy to back up and run if he was in the aisle as if in cross ties.

Trainer was still at the farm arranging blankets and took pity on me struggling to work a lead rope, whip, and clippers at the same time. She worked the front end of him, and I worked the back end. I stopped him from backing out of the barn by flicking the whip in his general direction any time he gave a backwards step, and she stopped him from running forward.

I'm pleased to say, he'd rather run forward now. Only pleased because forward doesn't involve rearing. By this point, I'm sure he's still afraid of the clippers, but he's also falling back into old behavior patterns of "Oh, if I act up enough, you're not going to make me." It is a fine line. He's worked out that rearing isn't a good answer anymore, but now he's decided the blowing through you is a better answer (still dangerous behavior).

Between us, we got him to stand in the aisle like a normal horse and accept his face being clipped. She just rubbed him all over with the running clippers, then slowly trimmed his whiskers and under the jaw hair. He dropped his head in that "ok, I'll wait for you to be done" way and relaxed a little. He was good and got lots of cookies when we were done.

"Mom, I'm going to stand just like this, bum next to the wall, so you can't make sure both sides match at my tail."

I decided to come out to the farm Friday night and continue our clipping lesson since it seemed like a good idea to do it two days in a row.

Trainer suggested I clip him in his stall because then he couldn't leave. She warned me that if she finds any hair in the stall, she'll kill me (only because it's annoying as hell to sift out). We have rubber mats in the stalls so I took all of his bedding and piled it in the back left corner. We don't keep a sawdust pile - instead sawdust is dumped by dump truck down the barn aisle and each stall gets a huge pile up against the back wall, then it's removed as needed. I love this method. Anyway, I had to move all of that bedding to the back corner as well because he was keen to stand in it to escape from me. Should have gotten a picture, oops!

I tackled the right side of the neck first. Man, he tried everything to get out of it. He backed up until he was hock deep in saw dust. I pulled him forward (because I can't clip into all that dust) and reset him at the front of his stall, where he proceeded to try and run laps in the stall (cue that lovely chain). After a couple rounds of no backing up, no running through me, he stood there and just trembled for a little while. Sorry buddy :( At this point, I'm not sure how much is fear and how much is the old habit of not having to face his fears. I rubbed him all over his shoulders with the running clippers, then slowly clipped his chest and shoulder and neck. I stopped and gave him cookies and a break, and he relaxed quite a bit.

I tried to reset him to finish the right side, and he wouldn't, so I did his entire left side up by his stall door. He's much more confident working from the left side than the right. I'll have to work on that.

He got a break while I cleaned the clipper blades and gave him cookies, and then reset him for the right. He threw the same tantrums he did when we started, except I was able to get him to a point where if he wanted to eat his hay, he could. He tried, but the clippers were too distracting. I got partway through the right side when I realized my clipper blades were starting to dull. I hurried up and finished the right side vowing to order new blades and fix all the edges then. He also had his butt pressed into the back wall, so evening out the clip by his tail was out of the question.

By the end of both sides, he had his head down and a hind hoof resting.

He got lots of praise and good boy cookies, and I think next time I'll drug him. Since I know he'll give up on trying to leave if he's clipped in the stall, I want to give him something to help him relax so it's not such a terrifying experience. I was concerned he'd become a sloppy drunk and risk falling down in his attempts to get away from me, but I think he'll just put his head down and ignore the clippers. That'll let me put him in the middle of his stall and even up the clip pattern and fix the edges and get the couple places I didn't want to risk with dulling blades.

Hopefully drugging him will help with the hypersensitivity that he finished with. I took him back to the crossties to brush him with a soft brush and put his blankets back on, and so I could clean up his stall and put it back the way it should be. He just barely stayed in the crossties and was hypersensitive to any stimulation- someone who came out to the farm to brush her horse, pats on the neck, etc.

I feel bad for him- he's gotten a ton of life experiences in a short time, but he does need to know that he has to agree with whatever I want to do... whether it's loading in the trailer, walking through a puddle, standing in the crossties to be tacked up, or being clipped. I stayed away from clipping triggers like the ears- that's not a fair question until he's relaxed with the rest of it. I'll keep trimming his bridle path and ear hair with scissors. To be honest, as long as I kept my free hand on him, he was never surprised or jumpy about the clippers and just didn't care about any of the normal ticklish spots (flanks, belly).

Overall, Penn took round 4 with the clippers very, very well, all things considered. We had minor discussions (even if they sound bad up above), but I was still able to get my job done. It's not up to my normal standard (plus I hate trace clips now that I've been body clipping for a couple years- I used to very carefully plot them before clipping any hair so they'd be perfectly even and well, perfect). I'll give him a couple weeks to chill while I wait for my new clipper blades to get here, then I'll clean everything up and go over the whole thing with fresh blades Thanksgiving week before the show on 11/29 and hopefully a clinic with the German Riding Master on 12/1.

Back to nomming, sans hair! He needs a mane pull.

Better Day

I ordered him a fancy show halter with a name plate last week. In cob size. He refused to put his ears forward in the pictures without the tag. I ended up putting the buckle on this side down one more hole, and called that good. His everyday halter is full size and on the tightest holes, and this show halter is cob size and on the biggest holes. I had to buy the horse that's between sizes. But he's oh so handsome!

I was so flustered by the end of Monday that I used an early out to leave work 2 hours early. I was supposed to have a lesson Monday evening. However, Trainer was concerned about the footing because of the rain. That's totally fine! Monday's lesson was going to be teaching him to jump, and I'd like good solid footing for that.

His shoes got reset yesterday, and the farrier made a couple tweaks to the breakover point because Penn has just been clumsy about his front feet and trips on level ground a lot. I held him because he just can't be trusted to stay in the crossties, and you gotta be nice to your farrier. We had a good laugh about Penn. He freaks out over clippers, but doesn't freak out over the grinding wheel that the farrier uses... it makes really loud noises, sparks, and smells because of the sparking. Oy.

I took him out for a hack around the hay fields and decided to just have fun with him. I always liked cantering/galloping Mikey up the grassy lane between the hay field and road and I hadn't tried that with Penn yet. He's so quiet. I asked for trot and canter and he was like, "Ok, I'll lope along like a hunter. Can I stop now?" We had a lovely quiet ride. And he didn't trip over his own feet once on the uneven ground (I'll have to tell farrier!).

He's so quiet that I even took video of him with my cell phone. While cantering. Good baby horse!

I took him back to the barn and decided to mess with the clippers again. I made a plan based off of everyone's suggestions from my last post (thank you!!!) and Trainer's suggestion of closing one of the barn doors and having him learn to cross tie with his butt against the door.

Cross tied! With both cross ties! I felt brave, haha. Pre-clipper training.

First thing I did was my prep work. Close both barn doors. The aisles are 60' long and 12-14' wide. That's a big enough play area, and he can't leave the building. I also left his fuzzy boots on. Gotta protect the legs from themselves. I clipped the chain to his lead rope and put it over his nose. I pulled out the clippers and got them set up halfway down the aisle (conveniently where the plug is!). I just set them down, no turning them on yet.

Second was practice giving to pressure. I asked him to give to the chain, and he immediately lowered his head until his nose was level with his knees. Good boy. I asked him to give again, and lower his head further. He was like, "WTF MAN!" and jerked his head up and thought about backing and rearing, cranked himself for jerking his head up, and then thought better of it and just stopped. I asked for him to give again, and he did- nose even with his knees. I asked to give lower again, and he answered correctly this time with some lick and chew and almost touching his nose to the ground. I had him bring his head back up, then asked him to move directly away from me and then towards me (like 4H showmanship turn on the haunches, but I only wanted a step or two from the shoulder). Repeat all of the previous steps. He became very tuned in to what I wanted. I barely needed any pressure on the chain to ask for any of it. Good boy.

Third, I took my lashless dressage whip and asked him to walk with me and turn small circles around me while staying forward. I didn't even have to touch him with it. A bare flick in his general direction got him moving. If I actually touched him with it he'd shoot forward and past me or move his body away from me. Good boy. For now I'll take forward past me. When he'd do that, I'd just bring him around in a full circle around me and then reset him next to me.

Fourth, I stuffed my zocks with several handfuls of horse cookies. The nugget ones you can get from tractor supply. I set the container on a stall far away from the clippers so I could restock in peace if necessary. I didn't have pockets and zocks are really good cookie holders. And the nuggets are perfect tidbit treats.

I finally brought him back to the middle and picked up the clippers. He went to go backwards, but at the barest pressure of the chain and a small flick with the whip, he held his ground even though I was way too in front of him. Yay for good programming- chain pressure meaning give and whip meaning forward. I was pleased that I could apply both from in front of the girth line and he'd still respond properly.

I held up the clippers, he was like, oh ok, and let me rub them all over his front end. Nose, face, ears, poll, cheek, neck, shoulders. Perfectly happy with it.

Throughout the rest of our endeavors, I made sure the clippers stayed near the wall so he was free to swing his body around to either end of the barn as an appropriate escape.

I finally turned them on. He wasn't as surprised by them as Sunday, but he did go to go backwards.
However, I didn't have to correct a thing. He engaged the chain slightly and gave to it. Instead of going backwards, he weaved. He was so nervous, but he knew he couldn't leave, so he just weaved his body back and forth. I never felt more than a slight pressure on the lead rope. Good boy. He kept reaching his nose out, but getting scared and then weaving some more. I put the clippers on the floor (yay for dirt floors!) and gave him a cookie for standing his ground.

I turned him away and led him to the end of the barn where I made sure he was tuned in to me and the whip by doing a couple circles in walk. Then we walked past the clippers (him between me and the clippers, so we were tracking left around the aisle). I walked with a purpose, he tried to, and when he fell behind I flicked the whip and he trotted to keep up and get past the clippers. Small amount of pressure and he gave and walked. I turned him at the other end of the barn, then passed with me between him and the clippers as a "break". Turn around, repeat many times.

He tried several different answers: slowing down, running past, shoulder into my personal space (I actually hit him with the whip for that one- he never did it again). We kept going until he was willing to walk past it while only keeping an eye on it but traveling straight for the most part. Cookie time!

Next was stopping him next to the clippers, then asking him to move forward again immediately. I didn't want him to have a chance to think about backing up from the halt. Good boy and more cookies. Next was stand next to them and linger. Good boy and more cookies.

He got several breaks by standing at either end of the barn away from the nasty clippers.

I eventually led him directly up to the clippers, and fed him treats as he got closer and held his ground. I picked them up, and he was very interested in them, so I kept feeding him treats when he'd reach his nose out. He eventually bumped into them, but it didn't seem to surprise him, so more cookies. It became a 'touch the clippers, get a cookie' game. Good boy.

The most surprised reaction he gave me last night was when I turned them off. They make a louder click noise, and he jumped and stepped back, but found pressure and came forward on his own again. Cookie.

I rubbed them all over his head and neck again, then more cookies.

He got to be done at that point. More than enough good work. I put his sheet on (it continued to rain last night) and put him outside with his friends. We'll repeat later in the week and again next week, and maybe in a couple weeks I can actually trim him!