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Unless you keep your horses at home, there's a certain amount of politics involved with the barn.  There's a lot of personalities, passion, and expenses in a small space.  There's a certain amount of compromise that has to happen in order to keep the peace.

I've been lucky enough to have some amazing support teams in the past.  I've had farriers, massage therapists, and vets that treat the best horses in New England.  I've gotten used to a certain level of expertise and skill.  In some ways, it's made me a snob with high expectations.  I don't accept so-so care of my horse.  It's also made me very educated.  I like to ask questions and if I can't get a straight answer, I assume something shady is going on.  But I usually get straight answers and learn about how my horses work and move.  I love my current vet and massage therapist.  They both do solid, straight forward work, answer any questions, and take good care of my horse.  Of course I love my trainer, she's patient and positive with my continued flailing.

After a shoeing job that had me seeing red about four weeks ago, I talked to Trainer A about the barn farrier.  Theo is straight forward to shoe, but he's also in heavy work and has increasing demands on his body.  He's simple, but he shouldn't be set 'em and forget 'em.  I've been having problems with chunks of hoof missing after he gets his shoes done.  I've been having heart attacks thinking I've got white line brewing or that his hoof quality is still crap despite his biotin supp.  His feet just look crappy to me.  I'm not a farrier so I couldn't put my finger on it, but the angles looked off.  Then he started losing nails regularly and this last time his clinches weren't done correctly.  They were sticking out enough to be uncomfortable when picking up his feet.  A clip wasn't fully set.  This screams hurrying through the shoeing to me.  He also reset shoes despite my repeated demands that he not do that, Theo chews through them too quickly.

The decision was that Theo should move to my personal farrier, the one that did Fi's feet, permanently.  I wasn't happy with the barn farrier but it wasn't doing Theo any harm in the beginning, it saved me $100 a shoeing, and it kept peace at the barn.  I stuck it out and kept my mouth shut to other clients.  And I'm sympathetic with Trainer A.  She wants me to use the farrier I want, but she's not the barn owner.  She was just the monkey in the middle with me tantrum-ing on one side and the owner not wanting to lose a guy that's good at keeping the barefoot school horses trimmed.  For walk/trot horses with shoes in front, he's fine.  For a horse in serious work, he's not good enough.  As soon as I saw signs that it was doing Theo harm, I was done.  I'll play nice when it's a matter of preference, but when I see crappy shoes on my horse, I'm not doing it.  Nope. 

My farrier was out today.

I missed him so much.  Theo and I were dripping sweat from trying to sneak in an 8am ride before the heat hit.  Didn't work.  I stood there, wringing my hands, while he pulled shoes and checked the situation out.  Please, please, please don't have white line.  I will never forgive myself if I waited too long and there was real harm done . . . .

He's fine.  No white line, no hoof quality issues at all.  Theo's now in a slightly different shoe that places the nails in just a bit more, away from the edge of the hoof.  It's an overall wider, stockier type of shoe.  As my farrier described it, it's harder to nail a shoe like that, but you won't see bits of hoof tearing off when his shoes are taken off and he shouldn't lose nails at random.  His back shoes are on with just 4 nails per shoe right now, giving the damaged parts of his hoof a break and a chance to grow in.  There's nothing wrong with Theo's feet, it was just the nails were too close to the edge.  He also took a lot of toe off of his back feet and added a rocker toe up front to bring his breakover back more.

It takes my farrier almost 2 hours to do one horse and costs me almost twice as much.  I regret none of it.  Theo's feet look nice again.  He doesn't have shredded edges on his hind feet or sharp points anywhere.  Clinches and clips are all completely flush with his hoof.  He's in shoes that were hot set, ground, and shaped specifically for him.  We talked about his confirmation (he toes out slightly) and optical illusions (his right foot looks bigger, but his shoes are almost identical).  My farrier says he's super simple, just needed some tweaks and some quality time with the rasp to bring his toes back.  He'll be fine on a 6-7 week schedule, rather than the 4-5 weeks I was doing trying to keep shoes on his feet.

Theo was a little freaked about the hot shoeing, he doesn't like the smell or sound, but he didn't care about much with the farrier's monster fan blowing on him.  Nap time for the pony. 

I feel like a huge boulder is off of my shoulders.  I was so worried that I had a lurking issue that was making his feet shred.  Hearing that it was just a tweak to his shoeing left me giddy.  Theo will get shod again before regionals, then he'll settle into a nice, normal shoeing schedule.  A little Keratex on the nail holes and sole was suggested, but that's it.  Tomorrow I'll get a feel for how Theo goes in a rocker toe.  I'll get some pictures of the finished shoes tomorrow as well.  After two hours, mi papi was done with standing quietly and got moved into a stall to wait out the worst of the heat.

Our show is forecast to be 90* with high humidity and afternoon thunderstorms.  My ride times are 10:30 and 2:30.  This is not okay.

Position, pain, and perserverence

This took awhile to get up the nerve to write, since its one of those subjects where my opinion isn't exactly popular.  But hey, my blog, life is short, etc.

I've been reading several posts lately about how important position is.  Opinions run the gamut between 'position is all' and 'hey, whatever works for you and your horse'.  I find that many riders lean toward the what works for you camp.  Me?  I'm solidly in the position is all camp. 

Which is a funny view for someone with pictures like these.

Good gravy, what am I doing in those?  Though to be fair to myself, I was out of shape in both of those pictures.  I picked these examples because I was on mi papi and had no excuses.  I tend to forgive myself of bad pics with Fi because I was frequently just trying to stay on as she did her impression of a barrel of TNT.  Hard to have a solid position when the horse under you is trying to go in multiple directions at the same time. 

But I hate my position in those pictures.  I will turn myself inside out to avoid more pictures like those.  I work hard at my position, I'm just not perfect.  But I've got solid fundamentals and I'll probably work to build on them until the day I hang up my spurs for good.  I do have a position over fences that I can be proud of even if I think it needs work.

 I've been a position nut over fences since I was a kid.  I competed in equitation, after all.  It served me well as an eventer after some tweaks to get me solidly over the center when jumping outside of the ring.  This didn't translate into my flat work.  My position on the flat was basically one of waiting for the jumping to start.  But that's finally getting fixed.

These are better.  I'm not sticking my elbows or butt out as much.  My toes are pointing mostly forward.  I'm actually sitting on my horse.  A long way to go, but it's progress!  Painful, slow progress.  And the pain isn't just mental.  When I got off my horse yesterday, I had to have someone take Theo for a moment while I held very still.  A nerve in my bad hip twinged hard and I wanted to make sure I didn't set something off that would lay me up with a show this weekend.  Advil, muscle patches, extra pillows, heating pads.  Reshaping my middle aged body is not an easy task.  So why would I do all of this to make my toes face forward?  What does it matter?  I can move up the levels with toes that point out, right?  It's just part of one collective mark.  It works for us, so why change it?

I used to think that.  I used to think things like toes forward and a pretty hand position were just the icing on the cake.  I've been firmly, harshly shown that it doesn't work that way.  Toes, for example.  I've always had a toe out type of position.  Common enough in the h/j circuit but not acceptable in the dressage ring.  I groaned and half hearted my way through the comments about my toes.  It bothered my knees and hips, I didn't want to do it.  But with steady nagging and adjustments, my hip rotated, my knee settled in near the saddle, and my toes moved forward.

You know what?  That completely changes your leg position.  I have a whole new set of leg muscles to use now.  It also changed the opening on my hip, making it possible for me to actually sit down.  I clamp with my calves less and can use my thigh far more effectively.  It wasn't about making my toes face forward to look pretty.  It was about moving my entire leg to make it hang down from my hip in the correct way.

My hands are another example.  Dropping them down or opening up the rein seemed like a no brainer.  It works, you do it.  I used to tell Dorkzilla's owner that she could wear white gloves because her horse was so steady that she could have pretty hands.  I'm learning it goes the other way around.  Her horse was so steady in the bridle because of those pretty hands.  It's been well over a year now of having Trainer A crack down on my hands.  Spending all of July with no hands made a fundamental change.  My hands are so much more still now because I don't feel like I need to muck around.  And guess what?  Theo's steadier in the bridle and more accepting of the contact.  I get a true connection with my pretty, steady hands.  I don't get the false frame I got with my hands constantly picking and setting.

I don't have the strict, vertical head at all times, but I do have a new 1/2" of muscle in front of the withers.  I gave him his head and he's learned to carry it for himself.  I'm not quite white gloves ready, but it's a whole new, very quiet world. 

There's a reason professionals tend to have beautiful positions.  Because those beautiful positions work.

That's Katie Robicheaux, Charlotte Dujardin, and Shelly Francis.  They're all Grand Prix level riders I enjoy watching.  And guess what, every one of them has beautiful hands and a rock solid position, regardless of who they're riding or who's watching.  You don't make it to that level by being a noisy, ineffective rider.  And having watched Katie training at the Wanless clinic, she busts her butt every day to maintain that position.

So how important is position?  It's everything.  If we can do it with me in an incorrect position, imagine how much better it will be if I'm in the correct position and making it even easier for us. 

Ouch

Spending a lot of time at the barn means I've used my horse products on myself more than once.  Horse shampoo is great for hair, Showsheen was a massive mistake, vet wrap is incredibly useful when bandages aren't available.  Corona and Effol Lederbalsm are both good on your hands and Sore No More really helps with exhausted legs.  I've bummed Robaxin and Ulcerguard from my horse during show season in the past.  I like to think it gives me a unique perspective on their experience.  Ulcerguard, by the way, is actually rather tasty and effective if you have ulcers.

CYA statement:  Please do not use your horse's meds on yourself.  It's dumb.  I was young and broke.

This has included cleaning up wounds with horse products.  What I've discovered is that horse products burn.  They burn like crazy.  Wonder Dust on a badly bleeding cut at a horse show was one of the most painful experiences of my life.  I used combinations of profanity I'd never considered and educated many youngsters.  It did the job of stopping the bleeding when nothing else worked, but I hated my life during the process.  Who knew charcoal was so horrible?

My latest discovery was Banixx.  I love this stuff, clears up any kind of mystery funk and heals up scrapes fast.  It's in a spray bottle which is very convenient.  I hit most of Theo's scrapes and bumps with it because he seems to get an infection if I look at him funny.  The horses tend to step away when I use it, but they often step away from a spray so I never thought of it.

Yesterday I looked at the big scrape on my elbow and thought 'that could use some Banixx'.

Still looks gross

HOLY MOTHER OF PEARL.

That stung!  That really stung!  And there were campers in the aisle, so I couldn't accurately convey to my friends how much that stung!  And then I turned and looked at Theo, who I've been spraying with this when he has open, bleeding wounds, and apologized.  A lot.  I had no idea how badly that stung every time I used it.  It's effective so I'll keep doing it, but now he gets a cookie every time because standing for it is not something I would do.  I'd probably kick someone that sprayed me with that when I didn't know the reason.

So I'm developing a new policy.  All products that I can safely try, I'm going to try it on myself before I use it on my horse.  It never occurred to me that Banixx would burn.  I'm a weenie about this stuff, but so is my horse.  And he doesn't know why I'm doing it.  That means trying his supps, testing all of his wound care products, all of it.  I don't want to cause him pain without knowing it. 

 My elbow looks better today, btw.  So it's a good product.  Just ouch.

Blog Hop: Viva Carlos August's 10 Questions

1. What is your biggest source of caffeine that gets you through the day? (drink, not just brand) Two big cups of coffee every morning.  Two of my coffee mugs may or may not equal half a pot. 

2. Do you honestly think your trainer is the best trainer for you? Eh.  I've changed trainers so many times in my life that I don't think any trainer is perfect, but I can learn something from anyone.  She's fantastic for where I'm at right now and she can get me where I want to be.  We'll probably have to call in more help as I move up, since I'll be her first student moving up the levels, but I'm enjoying myself and fixing things that have been broken for years.  I don't mind being her guinea pig at teaching someone the intricacies that most students don't get around to learning.  It's slow, steady, and non-stressful.  I would probably go faster with someone else, but she's here, she's affordable, and she keeps me marching along happily.  I've learned slow, steady, happy progress actually lasts.

3. One token of advice a fellow rider/trainer/horse person told you that you still remember to this day.  Don't fit a round peg into a square hole.

4. If riding meant costing your family so much money that they’d be basically on poverty line, or making your family terribly unhappy (if they were not supportive or understanding, etc.) would you still do it?  I would stop.  I have cut back in the past when necessary to keep afloat.  I don't get financial support from anyone and I wouldn't accept it if they tried.  My hobby, my problem.  If I can't afford it, I don't get to do it.

5. (Girls) would you ride while pregnant?  With the complete understanding I want no children and have taken steps to make sure that doesn't happen, I'd keep riding as long as I could get in the saddle.

6. How do you tell when a horse likes someone/has bonded with you or someone else? It's really individual.  Fi loved most people on sight.  Theo, on the other hand, is much less trusting.  You know you've got him with he whickers and comes out to meet you or tries to suck you in for a grooming session.

7. Are horses capable of loving, in your opinion? I believe that they can develop a relationship with a person where they consider them to be a herdmate, that separation is distressing for them, and that they prefer to be in the company of their close herdmate.  Is that love?  Probably, same chemicals released, but the horse version.

8. If you could have one horse from your past come back for 5 minutes, who would it be, why, and what would you do with them in those 5 minutes?  My gut said 'Allen!' and we would just go out and gallop and jump big jumps.  He would appreciate the control and experience I've picked up while he was gone and I miss having that much power dragging me to the jumps.  But my first pony Terry is a close second.  And I'd just feed him all of the treats he couldn't have as a foundered pony and groom him and hug him as an adult that now appreciates how wonderful he was.

9. Should a trainer also be a friend, or should it be a student/teacher relationship? That's a tricky one.  Your trainer is in charge, that's how it works.  Quite a bit of what they say is non-negotiable.  There's also financial pressures that require a certain amount of emotional neutrality.  You can't feel betrayed by your friend when there's a business decision made that you don't like.  On the flip side, if you're showing and spending that many hours with them, you better have a friendly enough relationship to not mind hanging out in the truck or in stabling for hours on end.  You should be comfortable enough and friendly enough that you can make jokes and have frank conversations.  It's a delicate balancing act for the trainer.  I try to keep a certain level of separation, specifically to avoid things getting complicated. 

10. One piece of advice/training you were given by a trainer or mentor that you look back on now and view it as incorrect? Just slide the bit back and forth until he puts his head down.  Ah, dressage in the late 80's.

Weird pony

There's a point where I just have to accept that my horse is weird.

I discovered Theo's new favorite thing ever yesterday.

Yes, I am using his tail brush on his ears.  The inside of his ears.  I've been using that brush along his crest and withers, but while brushing out his forelock I went to brush out the owl tufts in his ears as a joke.  Mi papi was in heaven, leaning into it and head around his ankles.  He loves having his forelock brushed out and now I have to add brushing out his owl tufts.  He'll be so happy this weekend when I have to clip those ears to get him back into show form.  He loves anything that involves touching his ears.

This is the same horse that falls asleep with a happy sigh when I start working on his tail and makes groans that are almost obscene when the massage therapist is out.  Maybe he really was always meant to be a show horse.  He certainly enjoys the primping and grooming enough.

Appointment made with my favorite farrier for next week and I get to keep him this time!  Woohoo, new very expensive shoes!  Woo . . . hoo . . .

Ramen for dinner it is.

Getting old

So I had a whoopsie type fall.  No biggie, right?  Hop up, give the pony a cookie, remount and continue on with my day.

This morning I woke up going 'what the hell did I do yesterday?'. 

Not all of this is fall related.  I continue to up the game on riding with my core and that means a lot of sore muscles.  I'm also cracking down on my dropped left shoulder and collapsed left rib cage.  This means other muscles moving in ways they're not used to.  Screw those Abs of Steel videos, try learning to manage the size of your walk with just your hips.  I figure I'll be bikini ready by the time I hit Third level.  Goals!

But that magnificent bruise on my ass and the corresponding knot of sore, tight muscles?  That's all from my little tumble.  It's right on the butt cheek, just the way I intended to land to prevent any actual injuries.  Lots of padding back there, but now I'm sitting at my desk reconsidering my choice.  It's hard to analyze data without sitting on said bruised ass.  I put a Salon Pas patch on to keep things from tightening up.  Dressage riding is so very glamorous.

Trainer A's comment was that at least it wasn't on my bad hip and maybe this will even me out.  Ha, ha, teach.

Though it might work.  I had a friend with a horse that had a chronic issue in one hoof.  He managed to bruise himself on the other side and suddenly bam, sound!  Well, not sound, but he trotted off even.  It actually helped in the long term to get him straightened out since he moved straight for the first time in ages.  Not that I think me bruising my right side repeatedly is going to fix my crooked position.

Also, skinned elbows are a way bigger nuisance than I remember.  As a kid they were such a standard state of affairs.  Now I'm acutely aware of every time I bump something.  Including the arm of my desk chair. 

Overall, I'm sore and have random tight muscles due to a combination of very demanding body work followed by impacting the ground at about 9mph (assuming a height of about 2 meters up, assuming I was at rest when we started, and assuming gravity works the same in the riding arena as in the rest of the world (9.8 m/s^2)).  That doesn't sound like a lot, but that's still a pretty good bit of force to focus on my ass with that very sudden stop.  I think we need bouncy footing to soak up some of that force. 

Whoopsie

I was thinking to myself that I needed something to happen worth blogging about.  I mean, I love writing about my day to day riding, but it's about time to have something to really write about.  Aside from complaining about the weather.

Well, the fates delivered.

I missed a couple days, so Theo whinnied and cantered up to the gate when he saw me.  He missed me!

Clutzy dork, but so cute

He also managed to give himself another scrape.  Of course he did, we have a show in less than two weeks.  It's very minor, but after the last one?  I'm doing everything to keep it clean and infection free.

My lesson was great.  I went down in my dressage gear for my first private in August, getting back into the grind.  We've been starting to work on the concept of half steps.  Of course, since neither Theo nor I have ever attempted anything like this, it's slow going.  Right now we're working on the basic idea of me being able to tell him to either step over two poles set close together or step between them.  This takes a ridiculous amount of awareness and body control for both of us.  We've been teaching him just to reach out and step over both poles rather than always stepping between them.  That was step one.  Today we started working on having him step between with just his right hind on some passes and completely step over on others.

It's hard.  So, so hard.  It's going to take months to get this.  But I think it will completely change the way I ride if I can consciously control how big of a step he takes with each leg and he learns that he can have energy that goes up as well as forward.  Trainer A was very happy to see him stop his forward by lifting his hind leg up for the first time today.  It was just one time, but hey, that's a start.

Then we jumped around a bit to make Theo happy.  As usual, he bombed about happy as a clam, popping over the 2'3" fences like they weren't there while I tried to not hurt myself on my dressage saddle.  But it was worth it, he was so relaxed and happy at the end of our ride.

My water bottle was sitting next to a coffee mug in the corner.  Trainer A offered to grab it for me, but I said no, we've been practicing.  I went over, hooked it with my whip, and started to haul it in.  Theo reached over and gave the mug a sniff.  And a shove.  He knocked it over, spilling the contents.  I lost my grip on my water bottle.  One of the two knocked off a picture frame and some papers.  I was hanging way off to the right and Theo shied to the left, like he always does.  There was no chance of me recovering.

About the same time I heard Trainer A say 'sit up!', I was already abandoning my stirrup and letting go.  Me hanging that far off the side was freaking Theo out.  Safer to just fall.  I landed on my ass, right on my phone.  That's going to be an interesting bruise.

But on the bright side, it was the best kind of fall.  It was controlled, I chose to let go, and there was pretty much no forward momentum.  I apologized to Theo as soon as I was up.  I didn't mean to give him a fright by hanging off his side.  He was rather displeased by the whole situation with me ending up on the ground, but he was perfectly happy to accept my apology and it was like nothing had happened when I hopped back on a minute later.

 I don't always take selfies, but when I do, it's to show off my bleeding elbow after falling off my horse for a dumb reason

After every fall, I get an ice cream.  It's a rule.

Butterscotch soft serve!

I'm actually quite thrilled.  I was feeling over due and falling off in such a controlled, non-traumatic way makes me feel better.  I fall off about once a year and now I'm set for another year!  It wasn't likely I could pull off landing on my feet two times in a row, so at least I knocked off another minor, actually pretty darn funny fall.  I don't think Trainer A was expecting me to be so pleased to fall off.  I mean, I don't want to fall off, but if it's going to happen, this is the best way.  My head didn't even touch the dirt.

So now I'm sitting with a heating pad on my butt.  The bruise is already starting to show and it's exactly the size and shape of my phone.  But my phone is fine, so I officially recommend Samsung phones.  They are tough.

Tomorrow's lesson is going to be hilarious when I try to sit my bruised butt in my saddle.