Second Browband Done!

I spent my Saturday night finishing a second browband! That unfortunately, I cannot sell. As I was fumbling with it trying to get part of the wiring to sit properly I accidentally sliced the nylon thread at the end by the bridle loops and had to sew the darn thing back together. I think I got it patched up well, but that combined with a bad rivet job (not awful, but I don't have the right tools for it so I have marks on the rivets), I am just not comfortable selling it, even at a discount price. So now it's on Mikey's Micklem and we'll see how well it holds up to being in a tack room and seeing almost daily use.

Its beauty picture! Jet Black AB bicones, white lined clear seed bead webbing, and transparent smoke lustre connectors.

Mikey enjoys this new bling.

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Addition to this post:

Hubby made me a leather loop and rivet station, complete with new tools :-) Happy second Hanukkah to me!

Love my husband!!

Argh.

It has taken me a week to write about this, and I'm not going to say much because this week has been one long, upsetting, event after event week.

Mikey got kicked or something last Friday or Saturday in the hock. The already weak hock. I found it when I took him for a road walk and he walked fine, and trotted horrendously. To make a long awful story short, Mikey moved to the barn my trainer is leasing for the winter on Christmas Eve. It mostly centers around the fact he was going to be there anyway for the vet next Monday and I couldn't monitor the leg as closely as it needed to be since he had 3 different sets of hands on him a day of varying knowledge. It was not in the horse's best interest to stay. There's other reasons too, but that's not for the world to know via blog.

A week later and Mikey is for the most part sound and no more swelling. He tracks well and flexes negative, but you can get a slightly off step by turning him just the right way in trot and his right hind is just slightly slow off the ground.

On Monday Mikey will see the vet for: acupuncture, a pentacin shot, a stomach ulcer test, and now she'll also be checking his hock.

Lucky Numbers?

I got Chinese for lunch today, and found my fortune cookie oddly accurate. Perhaps I should go buy a lottery ticket tonight with the lucky numbers.

Let's hope the browbands are the good opportunity that's coming a knocking. Mikey wants his hocks injected again this year!

Why yes, everything in my life right now is expensive.

New Business

I decided to make a blingy browband for Mikey because the one I really liked was over $200. While this is not similar to that one, it is much more blingy!

"Mom, my face is sparkly... and I might like it."

I wove crystal beads with glass seed beads, went to an Irishman's leather shop to learn how to make the leather ends, and bam, sparkly browband that is almost ready for the masses.

I have a few design things to work out, but as soon as they are, I will post links to my Etsy store and anyone can have one made to order! I have a lot of colors available. I can do Swarovski Crystal or a premium regular crystal (the one Mikey has on is a regular crystal). A Swarovski Crystal one will be outrageously expensive because I need 165 of the beads for a 16" browband, and they are expensive to begin with and bulk pricing means I get 3 packages of 6 beads instead of one package of 6 beads. *shakes head*

Anyway, I'll be posting finished browbands as I go. I have one completed (light blue crystal with white webbing), one ready for leather ends (solid black crystal with white webbing), one almost ready for leather ends (red/orange crystal with gold webbing), one ready to start beading (fire opal Swarovski Crystal with black webbing), and beads on hand for a green iridescent crystal and a cream pearl one.

Stay tuned!!! And if anyone wants one, please comment and I'll get in touch! More pictures to come!

Good Ride After Lots of Dreadful

I rode last night with much better results.

I started by simply closing the arena door after we came in. This is something I never, ever do. I figure if I'm out at a show and something is going on, I can't ask for someone to move, or for a door to be closed, I have to deal with it. I can't deal with it in public if I can't deal with it at home. But last night I was alone at the barn, it was windy, and I really wanted a good positive ride so I broke down and closed the door.

I started in walk with a much stiffer horse than I usually start with. I remembered exercises detailed in Bakersfield Dressage's post that involved working circles in counter bend and how she had had good luck with them unlocking her horse's jaw, so I gave them a whirl in walk and trot as I warmed up. They were quite effective. When Mikey is stiff or tense, he locks his jaw and I haven't found anything that quickly unlocks it- until these exercises. I didn't get a lot of throughness as I was doing them (I still got more than I had), but as soon as I went back to regular bend I had an incredible amount of throughness and swing. As I moved on to my haunches in work, I kept those exercises in my back pocket for any time I met resistance. A quick run through of the counter-bent figure 8 got him soft and pliable again.

Another thing to note is I left my gloves in the barn. I realized this when I was getting ready to get on and I was like, "Oh, no gloves." I had already finagled the arena door and didn't feel like tromping through the wind to fetch them, so I worked without them. Every now and then I like to work without them because I'm more aware of how much pressure I'm putting on the bit, and where my hands are and if the reins are slipping etc because well, my hands hurt and the reins pinch my wedding and engagement rings.

He carried a bit of tension last night, and it became evident as I asked for a trotting haunches in. Without my gloves I felt immediately when I began to smother him with inside hand when he didn't immediately comply, and that made me reevaluate how I was asking for it. I also realized my seat and legs were "screaming" at him when I asked for haunches in left. I expect a problem, so I used more than I needed. The moment I quieted down my seat and hands aids to a minimal amount (a tiny bit of outside thigh and seatbone with soft unmoving hands), he immediately softened and shifted his haunches into a lovely rhythmical 4 track haunches in (yay mirrors! Normally I would have thought it wasn't enough angle, but the mirror showed it was very appropriate). I kept that same thinking as I did more to the left and I had a happier and happier horse who very willingly stepped his haunches in.

I tried the same feeling to the right, and I need to work on getting my left seatbone and thigh to talk the way my right ones do. It was not as clear to Mikey what I wanted, but haunches in right is his easier one, so he was awesome and did it anyway once he figured out what my seat was 'mumbling' at him.

I did a few half passes in trot, and felt the collapse of my right side when I half passed. I collapse my right side, which Mikey does not appreciate. Had to think of it like someone had my right shoulder and was pulling upwards on it and force myself to sit up. As soon as I did that, the half passes got easier. Nothing spectacular, but I had soft ones each way. I'm running into problems with Mikey quitting them when we're about 10ft from completion. He suddenly becomes resistant and refuses to keep tracking over. I think I haven't been insisting he complete all the way to wall lately, so he's just doing what I've taught him to do: stop half passing before you get to the wall.

I moved on to canter, and did a couple canter haunches in before working the half pass in that direction. The half pass left was softer, the haunches didn't lead, but I didn't like the amount of trailing they did either. They had limited cross over but the general idea was still there so three soft ones of those and we moved on the right. I would have kept it at two, except I gave him a pat after the second one quickly on the left neck and he immediately went to trot before we had turned left at C to continue going left. So repeat. The right was not as nice as the left, the haunches trailed more, but it was still soft and he did make it from the rail to centerline in the span of a longside. Two of those, transition to trot, stretchy circle, walk, lots of patting and good boys.

One thing I tried to do last night was say "Good Boy!" and try to work on a pat on the shoulder. He really appreciates those and I have to remember to do them for all good efforts because he tries harder the next time. He was wonderfully through and had his back up all last night, so after 20 min of work we were done. No lingering on anything, do it promptly and successfully and move on!

My hoof wrap from Tuesday did not fare well. I didn't think it would. For some reason I couldn't get it wrapped just the way I wanted, and he wore a horse shoe shape on the bottom and had a flap hanging from his heel. I cut the whole thing off to ride. I had wanted to work with it on so I didn't get sand rubbing on his heel bulb, but I had to try to buff off the mud and dry the hoof with the sand so I could rewrap it. The joys of hoof wraps.

Too Much Going On

There has been way too much going on!

This was a hurried post, sorry!

Friday: Work, my trainer's barn Christmas party
Saturday: Barn work, ride, wrap Mikey's hoof, visit a wonderful Irishman's leather shop, get home and clean up for my husband's company Christmas party.
Sunday: Barn work, ride, wrap Mikey's hoof, deal with new truck and trailer set up and get trailer brakes adjusted again, hurry home to host the husband's parents for the afternoon and evening.
Cue here to have breathing problems start up.
Monday: Work from home because I can't breathe, run to the barn after work to wrap Mikey's hoof again, run back home to change and then go to my parent's house for my husband's birthday.
Tuesday: Work from home because I have a doctors appointment in the middle of the day, run to the barn after work to wrap Mikey's hoof again, run back home to change and then go to my parent's house for the first night of Hanukkah.

During all of which I am trying to get my own business started up enough that I can start making a little money. More on that later.

Which brings us to today, Wednesday. I'm going to ride today, but let me catch you up on how everything's been:

Mikey became sound and moving evenly again by Saturday, but for now, we're keeping the hoof wrapped to protect the heel bulb from hard ground outside and to keep it clean when the ground is mud instead. I cancelled my lesson because I wanted to get Mikey working again before seeing my trainer and my trailer brakes weren't talking properly and I wasn't sure we could have them fixed for Sunday.

Over the weekend I wanted to review half pass in canter and make that function again. I spent Saturday and Sunday either gloriously failing, or supremely winning at half pass. Mikey has become very reactive to the half pass and anything else lateral. The half pass in canter has fallen apart because every time we leave the wall in canter Mikey is trying to do a flying change, but I can hold him to his lead, so instead I get hopping, head tossing, and general disconnection. The half pass in canter has fallen apart to the point where I ask for it, he trails his hind end maybe two strides, then either tries to pull through me or simply just won't move sideways anymore, disconnects and attempts a flying change. I've been working on NOT doing them- canter down centerline, half pass from the wall to centerline so I don't have to make a change of direction, anything EXCEPT the flying change. He's getting it slowly.

I got so angry with him Saturday. We started off long and low to make sure he was sound, and he was, and then I went back to working the half passes again like I do in any normal warmup. He was very nice in the long and low, paying attention and relaxed. As soon as I asked for canter half pass, he began spooking at the arena door and being a reactive snotface.

The little snot has had a good bit of "easy" work, long and low and nothing really expected of him for the past week or so. So Saturday he's good and not spooky, and then I ask for more, and he becomes spooky as all hell. I know it's because he's learned he can disconnect and almost get away from me (he flings himself sideways and gawks at the arena door when we track left), and I have a lot of trouble keeping him on task. I spend most of my energy fighting him and trying to get him through again that I completely miss the start of my next movement. I've tried ignoring the behavior and keep on trucking into the next movement, which is then complete crap. I've tried overbending him to the inside so he has trouble staring out the door (he shuts down instead), I've tried circling until he stops reacting (I was still cantering the same circle 6 or 7 15m circles later with almost no change). He's not spooky when the work is easy, and he's spooky when it gets hard, the little snot.

It got so bad that coming out of every corner he'd break to trot from the canter, making it even more impossible to do anything with him. I'm sure by this point I was interfering quite a bit just trying to keep him round, but when I'm driving my seat like I would for extended canter, pony club kicking, and supporting all that with the hand to keep him from motorcycling his turns, I expect a better reaction than breaking to trot.

Usually when things get this bad, I know there's no fixing it today and try to do something else so we can end on a positive note somehow.

I went back to haunches-in in walk and trot on the rail, paying attention to connection and throughness only. Angle and bend, don't care for now. I need my throughness back. He's far enough along that I have to be able to manipulate him and he's not allowed to become a snotface and offended by the extra work. He couldn't quit until he stayed through both directions in trot.

So Sunday rolls around, and I check that he's still sound and then start immediately into the haunches in. Then swapping from haunches in to shoulder in and back again. I keep going with that in trot until he's responsive (not reactive). He's gawking at the arena door to the left still, but in trot, it's not so bad and it's relatively easy to put him on task again with a forward thinking seat and leg, soft hands, and a slightly open left hand to keep him thinking about what's in the arena. I start the half pass, thinking about it more like haunches in on a diagonal (stand at the start of a half pass so you're looking down the diagonal the horse is going across- it's a haunches in!) than a sideways movement. When I think about it like this, I tend to get the haunches leading, but I can keep the throughness. Right now I have a haunches severely trailing problem, I'll take leading for now and then fix it later.

I pick up my canter both ways, and each direction ask for haunches in on the long wall. To the right, he's very willing to give me it (he likes traveling with his haunches right), to the left, we've started WWIII. Either haunches in or throughness, not both, then bam, there's the door and he's sucked back behind my leg and I'm trying to keep him from spinning while still asking for forward. Whip, spurs, doesn't matter. I end up screaming obscenities at him because that helps me relax and deal with him without being mean to him. Yes it's crude. Oh well. Eventually the haunches in left in canter gets a little better. I decide to keep tracking left and tackle that half pass first while he and I both still have energy. The first one we do (thinking about it as haunches in again) is ok, and I go from the wall to centerline in an unspectacular fashion, but it only disconnected a tiny bit. I go back around again to try again and he's evading me at the arena door again. I try the other diagonal and now he sucks back and gawks at arena door the entire time I'm asking for half pass, because now he's straight on to it. I ended up continuing to work on it until I get another semi good one. I had to use the whip to help keep the haunches moving. The right half pass is much much better, it was almost as fluid as the trot half pass right. We did two of those well, he got a good boy and a pat. I only worked for about 25 min or so.

Tonight I aim to repeat Sunday's ride (hopefully without the gawking).

I wrapped Mikey's foot on Sunday and asked husband to do the duct tape because I can't ever get it to stay properly. The sole of the wrap ends up shredding. Well he taped it, and showed me what he did, and when I came back 28 hours later it was still intact, even after being outside in the mud Monday!

All hail the duct tape skills of my husband.

I wrapped it the same way Monday night, and 24 hours later on Tuesday the wrap was just as good, and it had seen much more mud Tuesday. The hoof was just a touch wetter, but no dirt.

Shoeing Issues, Trailer Issues, Lesson Issues *Updated

Just a bit irked about Mikey's shoe. For the couple months I'm at this barn, my farrier's assistant (who is a farrier with his own clients) is going to shoe Mikey because it fits into his travel cycle when he'll already be visiting the barn for another horse and it'll save everyone time and money. He usually does the finishing work after my usual farrier puts the shoes on, so no big deal.

I think I'm about to become that horrible client farrier's hate.

Pros: My horse has a shoe again. The farrier made a special trip out ($$$) to make sure Mikey has his shoes back. I am happy about that.

Cons: The farrier essentially had to do a reset mid-cycle, so Mikey's front hooves are now two different lengths. I can understand this. Mikey is due to have his other feet done next week, so that off balance problem will be fixed then. What I have a problem with is it is the wrong type of shoe, and it looks like the hoof is much too small. Which leads me to believe he was not trimmed the way my usual farrier has been doing it. I really should have written down exactly why they slightly changed how he was being trimmed up front and put toe clip shoes on the fronts. I think it was to make the heel base wider? I'm really not sure, but it was something that will be better for flatwork. This is why I write down anything important. It also seemed like there was an excessive amount of shoe out behind the heel without any hoof over it. I know some will stick out, but this seemed like too much. But I am not a farrier and do not know much about shoeing, so I hate to question the work. Maybe he just didn't have a toe clip shoe in his truck and didn't realize Mikey needed them. I don't know, so I don't want to presume.... but he never mentioned he didn't have the right shoe when I talked to him yesterday.

Ok, so I'm seriously irked about the shoe. I messaged my trainer but haven't heard back. I'm trying to figure out how to word my question of "why the heck does my horse have the wrong shoe on" in a way that won't offend anyone. I also am willing to pay my usual farrier more to make the trip out to my horse. The farrier that put Mikey's shoe back on yesterday shoes one other horse in the barn. The lady that does most of the riding of that horse noticed that the farrier is putting on one new shoe every cycle. Like a rotation of one new, 3 reset each time and it's a different new one each time. I voiced this concern to my trainer (who works very closely with my usual farrier) and she said it did sound odd, but that's not how the two normally work and there's probably some reason like a lost shoe somewhere in the cycle.

The more I talk the more I want my normal farrier out to shoe the horse. There are two other horses that use my usual farrier, but they're 3 weeks ahead of Mikey's shoeing cycle. I'd rather pay for the single horse trip a little before Mikey is due so he ends up on the same cycle as the other two horses.

As I wrote this, I pulled the trigger and texted my question about the shoe to the farrier that set Mikey. Google produced an article about the effects of quarter and side clips vs front clips and it effects how the hoof expands (makes sense). So now I have a toe clip on the right front, and side clips on the left front. The hooves are two different shapes. My horse will most likely not move properly.

I did ride last night, and he was off balance and slightly lame. He did a very good job hurting the inside heel bulb. I'm not sure how much is the heel and how much is the shoe. He did come round and through very nicely for being off (because he's amazing and will work through anything), and I stuck to a lot of walk, some trot and a lap of canter each way with changes across the long diagonal. About 20 min of work. I wanted to work him more since he's been in, but I don't feel right working him that hard. He was very sane for being locked in his stall for two days. Though life probably wasn't too bad. No going out in the rain and wind and cold to eat not so great grass. Instead, stay in the dry warm stall eating as much second cut hay as he could eat.

Mikey is going to wear a betadine bootie (betadine, diaper, vet wrap, duct tape) for the next few days for turnout to help toughen the heel bulb while protecting it from the hard ground. I'll probably wrap it to ride. We did that before when he dug his hind foot into his front on take off jumping a ditch (yes, he was wearing bell boots, this event actually made me buy the Dalmar no turn bell boots that have a carbon fiber strike plate covering the heel bulbs). He ripped the shoe half off, and dug a nice hole into the outside heel bulb of the same foot. That was a fun day, holding his foot up so his clips didn't dig into the sole, all while it bled all over my hands. My trainer had to run the quarter mile back to the barn to get pliers to get the shoe off, and some vet wrap and gauze so the horse could walk back to the barn. I then hauled Mikey so his shoe could be put back on that day. He had about a week off, and then we wrapped it to ride for the next month or so. I had a soft indoor to ride him in at the time, so we were just smart about what we did with him.

Anyway, I'm just getting angry about it. I am supposed to have a lesson Sunday where I haul up to the usual farrier's barn (my trainer is leasing it for the winter), and while I don't want to take him up if he's still not quite right, but I want her to see it so I can either get an answer or reassurance that it will be fine. But my new truck isn't responding to the brake controller box properly, so I may not even go. I hooked up last night to check the drop hitch I use is still appropriate (it's not, I need a no drop or 1in drop), and to check the wiring... Well when I apply the brakes, my marker lights on the trailer go out and the brake lights go on. Husband is already on it. I needed to go to tractor supply and get vet wrap because I can't make it out to the tack shop Saturday to get the cheap stuff, so we'll add a hitch to the list too.

This week hasn't worked out well!

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Updates:

When in doubt, just call the farrier. I could have avoided a whole mess of worry. He couldn't hot shoe because of the smoke alarms (they're wired to a company, so no battery pop out) and you have to to correctly fit a toe clip shoe, so he planned on swapping the shoes from toe clips to side clips. Mikey has been going incredibly well, and I don't want to compromise that, I'd rather everything stay exactly the same. So I contacted the barn owner and asked if I could pop the batteries out of the alarms when he'd be there (that's when I learned it's a fancy security system).  She said I can't disconnect them, but she can call the company and have them turned off while the farrier is working (she does that for her own horses), I just have to remind her in the morning on the day of. I asked the farrier if that was good with him and if he'd be able to reset the side clip shoe (again), he said absolutely. Farrier good, barn owner good, lots of thank yous and praise for both for tolerating a crazy me, and it's all much better! I just need reasons for things, I feel much better!

Now on to fixing the truck (husband checked fuses first, and now he's going to check the grounds in the electric), and hoping Mikey feels up to a lesson Sunday.