Rebranding

First of all, thank you everyone for the kind words about Quaid. He's responding really well to the medication and seems like his old (young) self. He's perky and hungry and wants me to do things with him again. It's a nice thing to see. 

 Longtime readers of this blog know that Carmen and I have come a long way. They also know that there is always a certain amount of tension between us when she's being ridden. It is rare that I don't feel a need to manage her emotions or direct her feet. 

To be honest, I have accepted that as part of our relationship. It's not even that the tension is necessarily a bad thing. Sure, sometimes she's agitated or reactive. Other times she's forward and just wants to go.  But it always feels like there's a certain level of push and pull between us and that is how we find our balance. 

In our last lesson I was blown away by how relaxed she was by the end. I think she was too. When I have been able to ride I've been trying to recreate it by following what we were doing in the last lesson. I've been asking her to flex but softly and slowly and then releasing the same way. I can feel it working and it's neat to add this our sessions.  

I had a lesson last Sunday and we picked up from where we left off. Jane had me suppling her by getting her to move her body through various gymnastic exercises: leg yield across the arena, shoulder in to straight, shoulder in to renvers, shoulder in to haunches in, shortening the walk and then letting her out again. Jane would call me on every time I held too much because Carmen's mouth would gape. I had to have my legs on but not hard. 

shoulder in

Doing all this took a lot of focus on both our parts. It felt like I was making adjustments every stride (or half-stride). But man did it pay off. Jane noted that I was much better at keeping her rhythm steady and fixing it before (or at the same time) she had to tell me. I wasn't always aware that I was doing it so that's good. 

As we worked I would give her opportunities to stretch out her neck, rebalance if she fell on her forehand and sped up and then repeat. The goal was for it to all just be smooth. No sharp aids. A couple times I had to bring her down to halt because she wasn't listening to my half-halt but it wasn't harsh. 

offering a softening of the rein to invite her to stretch a bit

Without going into mind numbing detail, it was a bit of a mind-blowing experience for both of us. There was this one moment when her shoulder-in felt so effortless that I was just in the moment and totally forgot to listen to Jane. 

Jane: did you hear what I said?

Me: oops, no, sorry I was just enjoying this so much. It's not that I didn't hear you, I just wasn't listening. 

Fortunately for me, Jane has a sense of humour and was not annoyed.  At another point Carmen and I did a circle and then headed up the long side. It felt like moving anything on my body a millimetre was telling her to do something. She was soft and forward and 100% balanced. 

We both freaked out. 

Carmen: what is happening, this feels so weird. 

Me: I know! 

So I halted her and just let us breathe for a second. And I'm not making it up that that's how she was feeling. I swear. It was like we were totally communicating.  We took a beat and then carried on.  There were times when she fell behind the vertical, but not to avoid contact, and I was trying hard to help her reach to the contact but not drive. 

behind, but also reaching?

I don't even know if I'm explaining it right.  It's not even that I was perfect. I really was not. But all the work we've been doing seems to be coming together. There was another moment when I said to Jane I can't hear you. 

That's because I didn't say anything, I'm just watching. Do you know how rare it is for Jane to not have a correction/suggestion/advice? Like this is the first time ever. 

flow-y canter, 10/10 stars

We finished with a lovely, balanced counter canter. We stopped and discussed and then Jane said 'we do more but look at her, I just want to leave her here. Like how much more could she give us? 

I was in total agreement. I think our ride was around 50 minutes, it felt like forever and also five minutes. Jane thinks that this is getting unlocked because of the focus I've (finally) put on keeping her rhythm. That makes sense to me. 

How cool is it that we can change our pattern from balance through tension to balance through softness?  I'm sure we'll be tempted to fall back into old patterns but that's horse training for you. If riding/training was easy then everyone would want to do it, lol.  

balanced counter canter

Ticked Off

 So I was thinking the other day that is was time for a Quaid update. As we move further into fall towards winter the number of rides begins to drop off simply because it's too unpleasant. I don't mind so much because I can take advantage of every good weather day. 

look at that adorable face

 I still hate the time change in fall but I'm much less inconvenienced. So yay for not working. 

Ed and I

Anyway, in my rides on Quaid I've been focusing on having him forward and rhythmical. All of his fussing with contact or resisting a transition comes from him not being forward and balanced. When he gets fussy with the contact I make sure my hands are quiet and steady and just ride him forward to find me. I no longer drop the contact because, funnily enough, it turns out that is not helpful to his learning.  Unless I want him to learn to fuss to get me to back off.  

I had one ride where he was bucking in his right lead canter, which was throwing us all off balance. I actually dismounted and worked on the transition on the lunge, then got back on and worked through it. After a couple good transitions I called it a day. 

**side note: I find it amusing that I am amused by Carmen's bucks but not her spooks and it's the total opposite with Quaid....

On Monday I rode him and he was lovely. Responsive to my leg -which I'm really trying to keep quiet and not nag him every stride because this is a trap I fall into with less forward horses. We had a lovely right lead canter depart and kept the canter all the way around the ring. I ended the ride there because I was so happy. 

I took this picture right before I put on his bridle and got on: 

I realised that he's getting a little, ahem, chunky. Which is fine heading into winter but I decided to cut back his feed ration a bit. These Iberian horses can get overweight pretty quickly once they stop growing. I don't think he's stopped growing quite yet but it's definitely slowed down. 

The next day I figured I'd ride Carmen first and decide after if I was going to ride him too. I noticed in the morning that he didn't finish his breakfast but otherwise his stall looked normal and he seemed fine. I let him out and decided to just monitor.  

When I brought Carmen in he was standing, napping in the sun and didn't really care when I took her. Again, not unusual that he doesn't care but he normally comes up to score a cookie (I give my horses a treat when I get the halter on). 

I was riding Carmen but also keeping an eye in the paddock. Quaid hadn't moved. I told myself I was being overreactive and I would just check him after my ride. Then he laid down. At this point, I'd been riding about 15 minutes and 90% of my attention was not on Carmen. I gave it up and dismounted. I put her away and brought Quaid in to check his vital signs. 

I started by trying to find his heart rate. Full disclosure- I suck at it, even with a stethoscope so I gave up. I did check his breathing rate: 20 breaths per minute. A little high for a horse at rest. His gums seemed pale and then I took his temperature: 40.6. Uhoh. That is quite high (about 105 for non-celcius people).  I put him in his stall and brought Carmen in and then called the vet.  You may recall that our local vet clinic no longer does equine services. My new one is about 90 minutes away.  The person answering took my info and told me that someone in equine services would call me back. In the meantime I was worried about his temp so I gave him some Banamine.  After about 40 minutes the vet called and said she was in the area already so would shoot me a text when she was on her way. That was great, while I was prepared to trailer him over it's much better to not stress him with that.  

The vet, Dr. Kate, arrived before 2:00. I was out in the barn. Quaid was a lot perkier and had sweated, probably because of the banamine. We chatted about his symptoms. She took his temperature and it was 38 something. We both had the same thoughts about the diagnosis: Anaplasmosis. 

Ironically enough I had just researched and written an article for it for our local horse magazine. It is a tick-borne bacterial infection. It is all around me and I know of at least 3 horses who have had it this year.  The vet said she treated 6 horses with it last week. The main symptoms are: 

• Fever- typically 39.5-40 C but can go as high as 42.2C. It is usually highest after 5 days of infection. 

• Decreased appetite or refusal to eat

• Reluctance to move

• Limb edema

• Petechia- small, purple dots on the gums and/or skin

• Iceterus- jaundice of the skin, gums and whites of the eyes. 

• Increased heart rate

• Increased breathing rate

 

Quaid had 4 of the symptoms. No swelling and fortunately, no neurological signs (which sometimes happen). Dr. Kate  drew some blood to check for infection (she also showed me how to check his pulse on his jaw. She told me that his heart beat is difficult to detect with the stethoscope, even for her, which made me feel better.  His white blood cell count was a bit high but not as high as you would expect with anaplasmosis. But it was quite possible that I caught it really early and it hadn't had time to get high. We decided to treat it as Anaplasmosis because he had an infection somewhere. 

She did a dose of IV antibiotics and left me with some to give him orally. I'm to text her his temperature and how he's doing every day. Last night at supper time his fever was back up: 40.5 and he wasn't really eating his supper. But he was interested in his hay. I gave him more banamine (he's to get it for 3 days). This morning his temperature was 38.9. He hadn't finished his feed but ate a chunk of his hay. Right now they are still finishing up last year's hay but I've been giving him the current crop.   He's outside and is quite interested in grazing so that is good. 

Dr. Kate texted me today and said she looked at his blood under the microscope and there were some signs of Anaplasmosis but his white blood cell count was not as high as they would expect. She wanted to know if I wanted to run further tests. I asked her if it would change what we're doing and she said not right now. So we decided to wait. If he's not a lot better by Monday then I'll bring him in and we'll run more tests. She'll keep his blood in the fridge so if it needs to be sent off she can do it Monday. 

As always, Quaid is so good with the vets. I held him while she did the IV and fed him cookies. I can check his temp and dose him in his stall with no halter (at least right now).  Keep your fingers crossed that he continues to improve. 

here we go again.....

Honestly, if we could eliminate all the ticks in the universe I would not bat an eye. 

Releasing the Dragon

 Well I've had four lessons in a row and it's been amazing. The last three have been with Carmen. In my recap a couple weeks ago I talked about how we're working on establishing (and keeping!) a steady rhythm. Last week we built on that and worked on flexion and doing transitions from behind rather than her throwing into them with her chest. 

I will love this image by Emma forever
(and my goodness she's lightened up)

It was good work and a great lesson. I can see huge improvements in our transitions. We even did some work on counter canter and it was great. Our first time through I took my leg off and she dropped to canter and then picked up the 'correct' lead. I couldn't be mad, she was clearly helping. 

I did a quick debrief with Jane and we tried again and it was great! Look. how balanced we stayed. 

To the left it was even better. These are the best counter canter loops we've ever done. 

I had a good week practicing encouraging her to stretch her neck and to be soft with her body. As always, it's Carmen so every ride is a new ball of wax. But overall things have been going really well.  

I was excited for this morning's lesson. I thought briefly of doing it with Quaid but decided I wanted to keep the momentum with Carmen going.  After a few unseasonably warm days last week this weekend was more typical. So cool and a bit breezy. Carmen was definitely feeling more challenging and dragon-like. 

Carmen: what part of 'I'm not in the mood' don't you understand
Me: ......oh I understand...

Jane came and immediately honed in our total lack of rhythm. Which I was like 'yeah I know, I keep trying'. 

Jane had us do an exercise of shoulder in a few strides, straighten a few strides, repeat all the way around the ring.  It was really hard because I had to stay soft but firm and keep the reins active, but don't be abrupt. 

but it really worked

It's funny, it felt like a train wreck to be honest. But when I look at clips from the video it wasn't as awful as it felt. As tense as she felt at times I never felt unsafe. 

I also found at times that I was getting lost at what to do but Jane just kept talking me through it and the pieces began to fall into place. 

We finished on the middle 20m circle practicing getting her to flex and soften to the inside while maintaining a light light leg. All my moves had to be slow and deliberate. Carmen's ears began to bob, then her neck began to soften. Like really soften (unfortunately my pivo quit here so no media).  Carmen was completely unsure of this but at the same time she felt like playdoh. The lightest aid made a difference. I have worked with Carmen a long time and I have never felt her this loose.  We finished and I dismounted. Carmen did a number of 'releases' just like horses do after a massage when they let tightness go: she shook her head, blew and yawned and yawned. Her face during this was adorable. Instead of a fire-breathing dragon she looked like a kitten. 

I am fascinated to continue on this path. 

Putting the 'Fun' in Fundamentals

 There are a lot of basics things that horses need to know in order to live in our world. And a lot of it can feel like work. 

My horses have it so tough

But it doesn't have to. 

I mean, I know that horse training requires focus, dedication and persistence. But working on these things allows us to do the fun things and be safe. 

At the September show (that seems so long ago!) Tanya, Julia and I were chatting and riding at Coveside came up. Longtime readers will recall that we have ridden there before. We realised that it's been a long time- October 2021 in fact.  Then at one of our joint helping sessions we got out our calendars and found a date that worked for all of us- October 24th. I emailed the owner and she was fine with us coming and,  fortunately, the weather cooperated and plans were finalised. 

I've been hacking Quaid out on our property this year and he's doing really well. It is a big ask though to trailer somewhere new and do it. It would also be his first time trailering somewhere and being tacked up off the trailer and getting down to it. I knew it was a big ask but I also felt like he was ready. 

all ready to go

Early morning Julia came and we groomed the horses and loaded them on the trailer. Both self-loaded without an issue. I sent a quick text to Tanya that we were leaving and we hit the road.  When we pulled in Tanya was right behind me and pulled up beside us. We unloaded the horses and tacked up chatting like a bunch of 12 year old girls. 

Quaid: I don't know what's going on 

Quaid was quite understandably a little worried and curious about his new adventure. Carmen looked around and knew exactly what was coming.  We mounted and headed off. Quaid was put between Suzi and Carmen so he'd feel safe. He felt quite tense but he listened really well. I worked really hard on staying relaxed in my seat and not holding him tight.  

Carmen: just relax kid, I've got this

The trails are beautiful at Coveside. They wander the whole property and go up and down hills.  I didn't get a lot of photos but I enjoyed the view and the company. There's something about riding through the countryside on horseback that just makes me so happy. 

There was one spot where there was a shed with stuff inside. Carmen spooked but then went by but Quaid refused. So we sent Suzi ahead. He was still worried and did not want to go by. Julia brought Carmen back  and she stood like a statue by the scary shed. I sat there and quietly urged him forward but did not push. After a few minutes he screwed up his courage and tiptoed by (he might have had his eyes shut). I was very proud of him. 

I'm laughing here because he gave a huge shake and 
I almost came off from it. 

We went up and down some fairly stop hills and he handled it really well. He didn't get too upset when I kept him to a walk. Quaid did really well on the bridges. I don't know how far we went but we were heading back to the barn and passed through the area where they have the temporary stalls during show season. There was a girl on the back of a pick up truck parked there and we stop to chat. I could feel that Quaid had had enough. We were an hour in and he handled everything I had asked of him. So I decided to dismount and walk him the rest of the way. He walked beside me happy to have me beside him. We arrived at the trailer and I took off his tack. Quaid was as sweaty as I've ever seen him. I know that he worked hard carrying me over the hills but it was also nerves. I think he would have walked right on the trailer if I dropped the lead line.  Instead we loaded them as usual and headed home. 

all smiles at the end

I forgot how much support a green horse needs when first being ridden on new trails. We were both really tired when we got home. It was a big ask of a young horse but he exceeded my expectations.  Carmen felt great and really enjoyed herself. Quaid will get there. 

I can't wait to do it again. 

The Rhythm is Gonna Get You

 Last Sunday it was Carmen's turn for a lesson and I was excited. Earlier in the week riding I had an epiphany. It was another breezy fall day but the sun was shining and it felt pretty warm. Carmen was being really good but every time we went through the corner where there are a lot of bushes with leaves blowing she was getting tense, counter bent and rushy. I did what I normally do- bend her, half-halt and ride on. After multiple times there it hit me about how her rhythm kept changing.  Now if you read this blog even casually you will know that Jane has been on me about her rhythm from day 1. I've even joked about it. So I don't know why on this particular ride it hit me as something, you know, I should work on. (My theory is that in the past I was more worried about her spinning and bolting but I don't anymore so that freed up more in my brain to think about more things than survival). 

Anyway. I decided to ignore everything but her cadence. To help myself I began to repeat over and over: this-is-the-rhythm. It really helped. So when she sped up or slowed down at the trot I just kept posting to that chant (thank goodness there's not anyone really near to me!). And funnily enough after our third time through Carmen gave a big sigh and totally relaxed. And we went on to have a great schooling session. I have this habit of texting Jane when I get these breakthroughs. And she's always positive about it: 

Which made me even more excited to have our lesson and work on this some more. And hoo-boy was it a great lesson. There was so much good stuff and so much covered that I could make this post way too long. So let me hit the highlights. 

Receiving our instructions from Dotty

 Rhythm of course. Carmen and I managed to keep it for most of the lesson and most of the time when Jane reminded me I had already recognised it.  I need to keep the feel on the bit to help her steady and ride her to the contact. Carmen tends to shorten her neck and stride and go faster with her legs. Of course I need to be steady in the contact to  encourage her to reach for it. But I tend to then get too open with my hand so she can just fall on the forehand. 

this is our first trot work and so much to love, but 
see how she's thinking of curling behind?

Jane talked a lot about getting her open in her trapezius muscle. I had to stop and ask her to explain it to me because I wasn't sure. She explained how it is a fan shaped muscle and has too parts in the neck and in the back just behind the wither (https://www.rodnikkel.com/content/saddle-tree-blog-from-shop-and-desk/the-trapezius-muscle/. Horses that have a dip in front of the wither do not have a well developed trapezius. And if it is not open they cannot lift their back. Carmen has a habit of retracting her neck and she does, indeed, have a small dip right in front of the wither. We spent a lot of time getting her to stretch it out. 

Jane explaining the trapezius 

If I understand what she said, Carmen needs to stretch into the contact so she can lift up her back and engage in self-carriage (I'm sure Jane will let me know next week if I'm right on this).  And a horse cannot relax and stretch out this muscle without a steady rhythm.  

Now this is lovely - reaching for the bit and 
pushing from behind

could she be rounder? Yes. Is she stretching
to a quiet contact? Also yes. I'll take it

My hands are so much better than even a couple months ago. I'm doing much better in keeping them down and not having my shoulders up around my ears. It was a lot of work but Carmen was great through 99% of it. There was one spook she did when Quaid came barreling up the field but if you watch the video you can see that she really was deciding to go with it. 

It felt like it took us a bit to come down from this and for me to relax my hands down again but really it was not that long and we were back to the exercise of 10 m circle to shoulder in. Then SI to half-pass. 

Shoulder in, haunches in are all getting so much lighter and easier. 

shoulder in

half-pass

Every time it gets better and better. I love how much 'ground' we covered in this lesson. My hands, my awareness of her rhythm, getting her to seek contact rather than me pulling back to get it. When I compare where we were this time last year it's not even close. It feels like we're so much better balanced and together. It's rare that I feel that we're not communicating. Even when she questions me it's not a pure rejection 95% of the time.  

love this screenshot from when I was setting up the Pivo. 
Carmen: look at my halo

Coming Together: Baby Genius Lesson Recap

 On Saturday we finally were able to have a lesson. The last lesson I had was August 23rd and then we had the show. Since then, for a variety of reasons, we've been unable to schedule one.  I had always planned for my next lesson to be on Quaid and I decided to stick with that plan. 

In our rides I've been really trying to focus on forward, rhythm and relaxation. And trying to stay sitting up and stop leaning forward.  The weather the past few days has not been great. It appears that Mother Nature has remembered that it's autumn and she needed to catch up. It's been really windy and on Saturday we had a frigging wind warning for later in the day. I'd been working him in the wind to help him get used to everything flying around and he's been dealing well with it. But I was not looking forward to riding in the morning while at the same time I was determined that I was not canceling. The base wind was 35 km/hr with gusts in excess of 50. 

you can see his tail blowing here

I planned for a little longer for groundwork and that was a good call. We were able to get our communication established before I got on. At the walk Jane had me keep my hands low, and I swear that I've been working on it but his neck feels so far away that my arms have to be almost straight to be where she wants them. I even (gasp) argued with Jane about it but she pointed out that my elbows still had a bend and now the bit and arm were aligned. So I sucked it up and tried.  

and I can see that my hands are indeed too high here. 
*sigh* riding is hard

We practiced flexions because I was letting him look outside too much. But also don't hold the inside because that makes him curl. All of this sounds like we were a mess but we were not.  In fact we were pretty steady and Jane even commented that we had improved since she saw us last. As you'd expect with a green horse we'd be steady and then it would fall apart and then we'd get it back. Jane had us practice leg yield at the trot which we really hadn't worked on. But it was surprisingly okay. I tend to push too hard with my inside leg. 

he's trying so hard here

Here's a clip that is pretty reflective of our work: the good and the work-in-progress. 

The second left canter was really good and nicely balanced. After that canter we let him have a rest and then did a little work on the right rein and then called in. I really like his turn on the forehand- I've been schooling it in hand and under saddle asking for a single step at a time. Jane liked it and said that my work with Carmen has paid off in that I don't let him go fast like I used to let her. 

Our right canter has historically been a bit wild and wooly but it's coming. And it just goes to show how correct work and alignment make all the difference. 

I was so impressed with how well he handled everything. The trees were moving, the wind was wild, leaves were blowing around and he just tried his little heart out for me. At times he would startle and then just come right back. It was a lot for a young horse to handle and he just trusted me that it was all okay. Can we stop and appreciate that the weather was cold and windy and Jane was all 'you should canter' and I was all 'that sounds great!'  and Quaid was all 'well alrighty then'. 

Jane told me that she was really happy with the work we've been doing: "so proud of the work you have done with him in the past month. It was really good work. He'll be very solid at training level next year, schooling towards first." 

I know that he's a bit behind the vertical but there's so much to love about this moment in time. You can really see the horse he's becoming. 

I am not sure how much longer I can 
call him 'baby' genius.....

The Magic Bullet: Bit Changes

I've always been a person who are constantly changing tack to find the magic bullet that will make everything easier. But I also know that sometimes what you have is just not going to work. 

I first introduced Quaid to bits when he was a 2 year old. Since then I'd been struggling to find one he liked.  The first one I tried was a Happy Mouth Mullen: 

I believed that they were gentle and that horses tend to like them. It was clear that Quaid hated it. I gave it a few trials because the bit was new and I know it can take a while for them to adjust but all he did was chomp and chew and it was getting worn. 

I then looked in my cupboard and dug out my Stubben Golden wing broken snaffle. He was much quieter with it but over time it was clear that he still was not happy with it. 

Stubben Golden Wing

Here's a video from one of our early rides. You can see him champing away at it. 

I used this for a long time with him and through it all he champed and chewed and rattled it. Not all the time but enough. In looking at it it seemed that the mouth piece was a too thick for him.  So then I dug out a thinner broken snaffle and he was pretty good with it. 

But I still was not convinced that it was good for him. Again the thickness and the lozenge seemed to bug him. 

When he went for training I saw that Mike and Nikki used a thin, plain snaffle bit and he seemed to like that really well. I always worry about the nutcracker part of those snaffles though but I filed that information away. 

Clearly my internet searches triggered my social media pages because tack, and more specifically, bits started appearing on my feed. I'm going to be honest and I struggle with paying a huge amount of money for a bit. For example the NS Turtletop bit retails for $430 here!  At that price I expect it to muck out stalls during its down time. 

I then had an ad for Agadors come across my feed. I was intrigued, the bits were inexpensive, they were a Canadian company and shipping was free over 60$. I ended up buying the 'Calm Ride' bit: 

It was said to be good for horses with sensitive tongues and other oral issues. They also had a generous return policy and the bit itself was pretty cheap (under 60$). It was apparent that Quaid liked it right away. His mouth was calmer and when I picked up the reins rather than yawn or pull he would soften.  I used it in the Johanna clinic and he was quite good:

Here's my mistake though- I didn't realize that this bit was illegal for dressage shows. I had read the rules and looked at the pictures and thought it was fine. The problem was the copper rollers in the middle. Equine Canada says that you can only have 1 roller in the middle, not multiple. I get it because they need to draw a line somewhere but I was bummed. I even wrote to a steward to make sure but in the end I had to return it. I looked to see if I could exchange it but all the ones similar had more than one roller in the middle.  Fortunately, the company gave me a full refund and they told me that they were working on a 'dressage legal' bit. 

I went back to the old broken snaffle but within a month the company was advertising a new 'dressage' bit.: 

see the single roller?

 I ordered it immediately. The blue is a sweet iron that will slowly rust out. I'm not keen on the colour change but that is very much a first world problem. Because Quaid is really really liking this bit. 

see how it's starting to change colour? 

It fits him well and I find it to be really stable in his mouth: 

And for under $60 these are great bits. I was really happy with the customer service as well. If you are looking for a bit I'd advise you to check them out, they have a real variety of mouthpieces and styles. 

looking handsome and so grown up