January Thaw

January is always a difficult month- the weather is cold, snow starts in earnest and spring seems so far away. However, we have had a couple warm(-er) days this week and the ring thawed out. Julia was coming out too.

Riding time is so hit and miss in the winter that it's difficult to know what to work on. Carmen is not a horse the enjoys the same thing over and over and I don't want to push her physically when her condition is not so good. So I decided to set up a series of obstacles for us to play with. That way we could play and not get too caught up into schooling.

I set up a box with poles that allowed for 1 canter stride between, a gate, cones, some trot poles and a gate. There was a puddle in the ring and I decided to use it for an obstacle:

more of a question for Irish but still a good one. 

Irish was quite excited to be up in the ring. which for him, means that he was totally ADHD. Julia had to work hard to get him to focus. But damn, he looked great. Look at him go!

Carmen was pretty calm, but when I was on she was worried about troll corner. It gave me a chance to work on my calm seat and not fall into the tension cycle. None of the obstacles gave any trouble, although both gave the water the hairy eyeball. But it wasn't a huge deal.

standing and chilling in the water. 

Carmen and I worked on her backing up- she's starting to do it without inverting and is very pleased with herself. Our process of doing something new, getting a ton of praise and leaving it seems to work well with her.

After we hosed down their legs and bellies which were muddy and turned them out.

The next day I brought Carmen to ride by ourselves. She was really good with everything. I've been working on her stretching and bending and it's paying off. She definitely is more adjustable in her trot and walk to shorten and lengthen.  Our canter is less so but I need to be better with my seat to keep her with me when she tightens, not get popped out of the tack.

I only rode for about 30 minutes on Saturday. She was right with me and did everything I asked. Near the end she was orienting to the woods so I figured something was there.

post ride graze. In winter. Go figure. 

In the barn she was even more oriented. I turned her out and was cleaning out the paddock. Both her and Irish were riveted to the woods and then I heard two shots in close succession. Scared the crap out of me. Then I heard dogs. After about 20 minutes I heard two more shots, sounding closer. I realized that it was still rabbit season so I suspect that was what was going on. Another lesson in listening to your horse- they knew something was going on well before I did.

Today it's snowing so who knows when I can do it again. But that's okay- I'll take advantage when I can.

Carmen: Are you sure you don't want to play today? 

A Great Start to 2020

I am not sure how it happened but I am so far behind in blog posts. I haven't even done my recap of 2019 and my goals. I will get this done by the end of the week! I promise.

But I want to share about today. My ring has been frozen for the past 10 days or so. I have managed to get a little groundwork and riding in but it was at the walk. Not that I mind- there's a lot that can be done at the walk to work on flexibility and suppleness.

New Years eve was a quite rainy but that meant that today was nice and, even better, the ring was thawed out. Julia came out to ride and we headed up to the ring. Irish was feeling really really fresh. So was Carmen. I spent some time on the ground with her working. The work I do is to get her to soften and relax into the work. I am finding that she is responding well to this.

perfect way to spend New Year's Day

While I was doing this it started to rain, which turned to snow and then hail. WTF? Screw it, I'm not leaving. 
Carmen:  are you sure? 

Irish was being quite ADHD so I stopped to advise Julia. I turned to Carmen and she was quite relaxed. So I got on. She was energetic but forward. At times she would tense but responded well to my relaxing my aids. It's getting easier for me to do this and my lizard brain is less likely to be screaming at me that we're all gonna die. Fortunately the sun started to come out.

Irish quickly settled into work (a great side effect of aging- it doesn't take as long).  Carmen and I worked on our lateral work and it was pretty good. I even practiced a few half-passes. Our mediums sucked at the trot but she was keen at the canter.

Carmen is feeling good and my seat is feeling much more secure as well. But even more importantly, I have much more control over my mindset. It's easier to not get flustered or frustrated. I suspect that it will always be something that I need work on but it's nice to see progress.

Carmen: I was good, no? I should have more apples

But even more exciting is my update on Irish.

As you know, Irish was diagnosed with 'a neurological issue' several years ago. I have been trying various things to manage him. Of the things I have tried I have had the most success with:

• a daily dose of previcox
• lysine added to his feed
• magnesium (which greatly improved his headshaking. 

A few years after being diagnosed he began to present with urinary incontinence. It's been getting worse over the years. I've tried all sorts of things to protect his hind legs. Boots always end up getting stiff from the urine no matter what I do. The most effective protocol I have found is to wash them regularly (everything from hose-off to using dawn soap), then spraying with Blu-kote and sprinkling on powder. By 2019 he had a constant stream of urine and his stall was always a complete mess. 

Way back in April my vet (recently took us over from her dad) recommended that I try Vitamin E. Now in the past I had researched this but everything seemed to indicate that vitamin E at this point in his disease would be too late. However, she said that there was some research that massive doses might provide some benefit or maybe slow down his progression. Sourcing the amount required was not so easy but I settled on the Greenline Vitamin E. He's getting 1 scoop of that (10,000 IU) and a scoop of the vitamin E/Selenium making his dose rate approximate 11,500 IU per day. 

After a couple months I thought I saw some improvement in his leaking but wasn't sure that I wasn't seeing what I wanted to see. I kept dosing anyway. Last sunday I was brought Irish out to give his legs a good wash when the weather was warmer. Normally I have to dodge pee while I do this but there was none. I watched him the rest of the day and never saw any dribbling. On monday morning, instead of the normal soaked shavings I saw a more 'normal' messy stall. And I found actual pee spots. I was really excited and told Ed. 

looking good, you can see the blue on his legs

Irish: knock it off Carmen, this is my photo shoot
Carmen: whatever

I watched Irish carefully the last few days and found an absence of dribbles and more pee spots in his stall. When Julia came out to ride him I wanted to see how he was with the movement. Normally he dribbles more when working. And he did have some dribble when she was trotting him. But not a lot- just a little. Back in his stall after the ride he stretched out peed! Julia and I started cheering. Irish has not had a true pee (as far as I know) in years.  

And watching Irish go he was perky and forward and not looking like he's a neurological horse pushing 20. I saw some of the old Irish in him. 

I know that this may not be permanent but for now I'm really happy about it. 

would love to have this guy back

And on another note, Guinness' birthday is today. Believe it not he's three!!! He's become a great farm dog and companion.

Guinness: yay for birthday bacon! 

How was your New Years?

Retrospective: A Decade in Horses

This blog hop comes courtesy of Might As Well Event. The idea is to use on picture for every year of 2010-2019 to show your journey with horses. I've enjoyed reading everyone else's posts on this so I decided to give it a go. Even though it's really hard to A) settle on one photo and B) find photos/remember stuff from 10 years ago!

FYI, I might just break the rule of '1 photo'

2010
It felt like a big year to me. My son graduated high school and we bought the property that we now live in. At that point we hadn't moved- we spent the year renovating.

Meanwhile, I had Irish  and he was 10 at the time. We were showing but not a lot. He was a really solid horse by this point. I could hack him out and take him places. He might have been tense but he always tried to be a good boy.

Irish not sure what the fuss about with the ribbons. 

2011

We sold our house and moved into our farm and began building the barn. It was a the fulfillment of a lifelong dream to bring Irish home.

2012

Steele came to live with us. I started the blog to chronicle the adventures of raising a charming, intelligent and mischievous yearling. 

still one of my favourite photos

It was also the year I took Irish to his final show followed by a clinic with the judge who made me cry. She was highly critical of Irish's way of going and was really nasty about how she indicated that it was my fault that he had a lateral canter (despite me saying that he'd never had it before) and flatly refused to help me. I am still quite pissed about this to be honest. However, later that year Irish was diagnosed with neurological issues.

2013

I was spending my days taking care of the horses and working out the routines. Irish was getting ridden lightly and Steele was learning about being a grown up.

Steele not sure that this is in his job description but willing to try 

2014

This year was an epic one with the horses. 

Steele was fitted with a saddle and then backed. 

both of us so intent on the learning

 I spent the summer riding him and then took him to a show to hang out and then did the clinic with the judge. The judge was amazing, Steele was awesome and things were coming together.

Then in December my world crashed with the horrible, traumatic and fucking should-never-have-happened death of Steele.

2015

In the beginning I was still reeling from the death of Steele. To be honest, it has taken years to come to terms with it. At this point I was having trouble sleeping, everything seemed pretty gray and I was a complete mess.

I knew I needed to do something to help myself and Irish. Which led to a road trip with Karen and the purchase of Carmen. It was an epic winter and we had so much snow that it was a nightmare. Carmen came home to me in March and we still had like 4 feet of snow on the ground.

Carmen wondering what the hell is going on

It was a bit of a difficult year for Carmen and I. She was quite reactive to a lot of things and I was struggling to understand her and how to deal.

Irish had developed headshaking but I found he responded really well to Magnesium.

2016
I came very very close to selling Carmen. She was being really spooky and bolting all over the place. It was like there was no horse to talk to and it was frightening.  I ended up hiring a trainer to come and help me with her and that made a huge difference. While there might be some things I would do differently now, at the time he literally saved both of us and I would be profoundly grateful for that. He helped me to see a lot of holes that were in her training and we began to fill them.

I started taking clinics with Johanna and she was a godsend as well. I did a Centered Riding clinic which blew my mind and really started me thinking differently about my aids.

at the clnic with Johanna

You can ask me why I didn't sell her that year and move on and I honestly couldn't tell you. There were enough times that things were good that I could see how thing could be. I am also pretty stubborn so that probably played a role. To be honest, I think that whatever was broken in Carmen spoke to what was broken in me.


2017
This was the 'do all the things' year for Carmen and I. We did a few clinics, did a trail obstacle clinic that was amazing and has impacted my work with Carmen consistently since then. We went to four shows and we had scores that ranged from 4-8.

But it began to feel that our partnership was coming together and I was really happy with our progress.

2018

This was a mixed year for us. We started off with a great year at clinics and shows. In the fall the wheels began to come off again and I was in despair. I actually had to scratch a test while I was riding it because she became un-rideable. Again I thought about selling her. Then I decided to try ucler treatment and it was like a veil lifted. Carmen became transformed. Not that she was/is spook free but the mindless melt downs were diminished.

Again, I am blown away by how brave a horse that can be terrified by a goldfinch can be! We did another trail obstacle clinic in the summer and she was a rock star. I joined the TRT training website and it helped a ton with our groundwork and learning to deal with scary things.

more of this horse please

and less of this one

2019
To be honest, I spent a large part of this year waiting for the wheels to come off. While there were periodic issues things have been on a pretty steady trajectory (this will be a whole post/recap).

not for sale

In the past 10 years I have grown as a rider, caretaker and human being. I have come to terms with my dreams falling to ashes and starting over.

I wonder what the next 10 years will bring?

A Very Horsie Christmas

I hope that everyone had a very enjoyable Christmas. I wasn't sure how I felt about mine going into it but it turned out to be a very good holiday.

Last year, my daughter was ill and ended up in the hospital for 2 weeks with acute kidney failure. It was quite scary. This year my son is on deployment to the middle east. But we've been able to connect with him pretty often so that has been good. He called early Christmas morning and we all had a lovely chat.

Ripley crawled up on the couch to listen to her owner

We had a lot of rain and then a sudden drop in temperatures which meant that the ring was hard with icy patches. When I can't ride I turned to baking.

cinnamon buns

homemade ice cream sandwich with a scoop of french vanilla,  whipped cream,
hot fudge & strawberry sauce and grated chocolate sprinkled on top

While baking is fun it's probably not the best coping mechanism......

Ed and I had bought a new mattress so we had agreed on 'no gifts'. 

And of course we immediately violated that. 

He surprised me with a new arial shot of our farm. 

looking at the barn. See the horses watching these guys with the drone?

most of our property from the top. 

this is the one he framed

I love seeing these photos. They show all the work we've done over the years. 

My daughter bought me a lovely riding shirt and then completely blew me away by giving me this set:

I mean, can you even?

It's going to look lovely on Miss Carmen. I think we can safely assume that the person who used to heap scorn on people who dressed their horses in bright colours on their horse is now dead. 

The young woman that Irish is teaching to ride really surprised me with these beautiful signs: 

ignore the barn aisle that needs sweeping,
 there's no point until the stall doors are closed. 

We had a lovely dinner with just the three of us. Later I went out to the barn to do the night feed/clean. I was trying to decide if I should take Carmen out and give her a groom. I normally leave the stall doors open and Carmen usually hangs out at the door but doesn't leave. That night I heard her hooves on the barn aisle. 

Get back I said. Normally she would just back up and sigh. This time she actually walked out. I expected her to head to the hay pile across the aisle but she turned and walked down the barn. I wasn't too worried that she was going to leave so I slowly walked out of the stall saying what are you doing missy?

You may think I'm making up what happened next but I swear I am not. Carmen walked to where I groom her, turned around and stood in exactly that spot looking at me expectantly. She was asking me to groom her! I took off her blanket and gave her good deep groom which she appeared to savour. I then cleaned her stall, restocked her hay and water while she watched me. I put on her blanket and said there you go and she went back to her stall. 

This horse guys, she continually surprises me.

Blogger Gift Exchange

I participated in Printable Pony's Blogger Gift Exchange this year. I was actually on the ball and sent mine off early.

I knew that mine would come sooner or later. On Dec 23 I came home and Ed was looking at me with a funny expression.

I was expecting a package from Amazon today so I opened this without thinking. But it's for you. 

he had put it all back together

I wasn't upset and since it was so close to Christmas I decided to wait and open it on the 25th. 

It did not disappoint! Cozy pyjamas and socks and treats for the horses. I love flannel pjs- they feel so nice on cold winter nights! The socks will be perfect for this summer's riding too. 

The cookies are a huge hit with both horses. The dogs were quite interested as well. 

And, best of all, I found a new blog to follow! Our mares sound similar. 

Thank you so much Alaina! 

Merry Christmas everyone! 

T'is the Season

Christmas is fast approaching and, if you follow this blog, you know what that means:

THE (SOMEWHAT) ANNUAL CRITTER CHRISTMAS PHOTO SHOOT!

I grabbed my antlers and cell phone and headed out to con/ bribe entice my beloved animals into cooperating for the camera.

Irish was, as always resigned.

Irish: is it that time again? Did you bring treats? I don't perform for free you know. 

Irish: What do you mean I'm too close? I have to get the cookies before Princess Greedy Guts take them all. 

Irish: This is the best you're going to get. 

Me: I'll take it! 

Carmen: I heard that there were cookies. 

Carmen: Back up? Why would I do that? The cookies are here. 

Carmen: Okay, I'll trust you but make it fast. Also, don't give any to the dog behind me. 

Guinness:  What? No. It's beneath my dignity as head of security. 

Guinness: Mom, this is so dumb. I'll be laughed out of the Farm Dogs Guild. 

Guinness:  I'm only doing it because I love you. But promise me it won't be on the internet. 

Ripley: I'm a guest. I'm pretty sure that makes me exempt. 

Ripley:  This is not my idea of fun. I can't even look at you right now. I'm telling Dad. 

Ripley: Well I guess I look pretty good. 

Willow:  this is new. I think it' brings out my eyes. 

Willow: Make it quick. My patience is fading fast. 

I know it's silly. But when I look back on the previous cards I smile at the fond memories of my beloved animals. Many of whom are not here anymore. At least not physically anyway.


Merry Christmas from all of us at Oakfield Farm. I hope you have the holiday you want.