An August Fly-By

How is it September already?? I guess being busy is good, especially since it means I'm getting paid and money is a necessary commodity (especially when planning a wedding!). But, honestly, where has the time gone?

My mom's a doofus. Can't even keep track of time!

I've been working 2-3 days a week at the animal hospital. Those days when I'm not there I am working either on illustrations (currently on my 3rd large project for Paint Horse Journal in the past five months) or authoring online learning content for Sapling, which I've been doing for almost a year now. It's actually been working out really well in terms of being able to see Charlie. I'm able to go to the barn first thing in the morning on my days off from the hospital, when it's not so hot. Then I work from home the rest of the day. Teching days are ten hours at a stretch, so they're kind of a waste for getting anything else done, but I love being back at an animal hospital.

Charlie is doing pretty well overall. He had one weird bout of lameness last week that is still resolving, but otherwise not bad. He is getting a little beat up a bit from playing with the babies over the fence, and we've sacrificed two fly masks in the process, but I don't care about small bumps like that. He's just being a horse.

Here is a pictorial rundown of this past month:

First weekend in August: Dan's cousin's wedding up in RI

Cow desensitizing was a main goal this month

Got to see some up close and personal

Even the big ones aren't so scary anymore, they're just funny looking horses

Super awesome gift arrived mid-month in the mail from Maddy :)

I also got a lot of opportunities to play with random jumps and pole combos

It's nice to be at a barn with jump supplies

Of course, I'll make a jump out of anything

One day I decided to work on walking on different textures

Charlie thought the mat was food. Weirdo.

You mean I is not supposed to eats dis? Den whats the point?

Looking particularly regal and handsome :)

Trotting Tuesday and a Wednesday Walk-About

Charlie and I continued our bootcamp on Tuesday with some solid flatwork prior to his farrier appointment (partly I did this to ensure he wasn't an anxious mess like last time, although I was pretty sure he'd settled in enough for that to be a non-issue...he ended up being a perfect angel). Achilles was interested in what we were doing and actually walked into and stood in the ring with us the whole time; Charlie didn't care.

Lots of geese everywhere, a view from the ring

We started with side reins, then I got on and worked on a lot of walking and circles. In the end it was probably a 35 minute workout with 10 straight minutes of consistent trot work. To the left was awesome, and Charlie was stretching down into it in almost no time. To the right, though, he was definitely stiff and sore. I met with quite a bit of resistance, some whip-around toe biting, and pinned ears, but I pushed him through it and kept the circles bigger in that direction until he relaxed a bit, then switched it up with turns in the other direction again to loosen his muscles. I'll have to work on softening him up on that side and keep doing the carrot stretches before and after each ride. Hopefully that's all it is.

Because of the workout and farrier appointment yesterday, I decided it was best to focus on mental (rather than physical) conditioning today. So I took some advice from a good friend and took Charlie for a walk. We went straight out the back of the barn, through the woods, and into the back field, then continued down the side of the large field to the left of the property and back down the driveway toward home. Less than a mile, but a nice jaunt.

This will be really nice in the warm weather

Charlie was overall really good, and we even saw multiple deer and geese! He jumped sideways at the first deer, and snorted at the others, but was more curious than scared. Couldn't have cared less about the geese, which is good because they're everywhere. I kept his attention with periodic "whoas" and "back," and stretches for cookies.

There's a deer dead center, watching

He actually only had one episode: when I asked him for the third time to step over a few logs and he decided they needed to be jumped. It was an excited "I-need-to-release-energy" rear-squeal-spin-kick-rear move that ultimately looped one toe dangerously close to the lead rope, so I dropped it and said loudly "Enough!"...and Charlie stopped and looked at me. I picked up the leadrope, asked him to walk on and step over the logs, calmly this time, and then we continued on our way without further incident.

Tomorrow looks like it will be a deluge, it's already raining right now, so Charlie will most likely have the day off. I'm not sure if we'll tackle the walk-about again right away, mostly because I want to ride and help build Charlie's topline, but I think it was a good exercise and I was pleasantly surprised at how well it went.

Refresher course

Friday was sunny and a fairly warm 30 degrees so I headed out to the barn to hang with Charlie. I actually had just read a good article from Horse Illustrated regarding non-riding winter conditioning exercises. It reminded me of stretches and other things I could do with Charlie and was just the incentive I needed to start getting back in the game. Gave me something to focus on. 

My goal for the day was to do a refresher of the basics, remind Charlie about personal space (which he seems to have forgotten now that he's been living the good life in the pasture with other guys), and take him for a successful, quiet hand walk away from the other horses. Build up both his confidence and mine, as well as ours for each other.

Nice mud-ice ring

The ring was still a frozen mud mess, so I decided to work with Charlie in the field. The other two horses are both old, non-reactive guys so I figured this would give Charlie both a calming influence and a distraction; if I could get him focusing on me instead of them, that would be a big accomplishment for us both. 

We started with several stretches: nose to chest, nose to knees, nose between hocks, then bending around to the shoulder, girth, and hip on each side. Then 30 steps backward (Charlie is really good at this, backing on just a voice command until I say stop). From there we progressed to walking in hand, focusing on him stopping when I said "whoa" (not a step or two later) and staying out of my personal space. Initially he was very pushy. I had to remind him several times with a firm second "whoa" - and had to constantly flick the end of the leap rope to remind him to stay out of my space - but it came back to him eventually. 

Back to school

He was definitely distracted by the other horses in the beginning. Anytime I'd ask him to stop or turn away from them he would grunt and spin away, threatening to rear. I've learned there is a very fine line with Charlie between firmly redirecting him when he is misbehaving and telling him too strongly to stop, which makes him think you are attacking him and results in his "go-to" backup-pull-rear behavior. Since he is especially reactive to face tension, the worst thing I can do is to let him feel any tension on the lead rope when he acts up. So, during this lesson I really focused on pointing the lead rope away from my body, releasing any tension on it, directing my energy at his hip, and redirecting him forward into the open space every time he acted up rather than choking up on the lead. It worked! After five or ten minutes, and several repetitions, he started licking and chewing and calming down.

The main part of our exercise came next: walking over raised ground poles. I don't have ground poles, but I do have logs! First I sent Charlie across the shorter two, encouraging him through the "chute" formed by the longer logs while I remained on the outside. Several times in one direction, then several times the other way. Then we switched so I was on his opposite side. 

Better than ground poles

Once he could do that calmly, I progressed to asking him across the two larger logs. They span a ditch so this required more concentration, and the first few times he got pretty frustrated, flipping his head in the air and grunting as he clipped a toe, or didn't place his feet quite right, or tried to jump it and flailed. Again, I ignored any tantrum and didn't apply any tension to the lead. I just redirected him back to do the exercise again, allowing him to rest and receive praise if he did it calmly, and he got the idea that I wasn't going to freak out on him or yank on his face if he messed up. 

Learning to move in, out, and around the "box"

We ended with a walk around the entire perimeter of the field and the outdoor ring, away from the other horses. It was really encouraging for me to see the different horse I had at the end of the lessen versus the beginning. He wasn't perfect, but it was a definite step back toward where we were, and gave me some solid confidence to do it again. I plan on doing a few more sessions just like this one before we attempt a hand walk around the property and down the driveway (where he flipped out before). And then we'll ride, once the weather cooperates of course.

I think the logs exercise was particularly helpful, and I'm excited to do more work with them and other natural obstacles around the property in the future. I think Charlie liked it too. Something different.

A winning day for Charlie

As it was a busy day for me today, after working/riding this morning I ran over to my mom's house to take care of their dogs before booking it back to the barn to squeeze in Charlie's 12:30 vet appointment before work later that afternoon at the dog rescue. It was a deluge outside but apparently everyone and their mother thought today would be a good day for spring horse stuff: there were multiple vet appointments (with different vets), a dentist appointment, and a farrier visit all scheduled around noon today with different people...how odd is that?

I made sure to get there early to ensure Charlie was clean and spruced up for his Coggins pictures (yes, they are doing them digitally now) - which he was, thanks to my bath earlier in the week and the fact that I kept a sheet on him:

The awkward "I'm cute, right? You have treats?" face

That's better

He's really filling out nicely, although I think those withers detract from his neck

Shiny shiny! And his mane is actually laying all on one side for once

Then we waited and waited and waited....the rain was pouring down outside and making it nearly impossible to hear over the constant drumming on the roof of the indoor. I figured the vet was probably caught up in the bad weather, why waste this time? So what did I do? Hopped on Charlie. Bareback (like, really bareback, because I didn't want to mar his sleek coat with pad rubs or sweat marks). The rain was pounding and the wind, whistling. Oh, and there were the two new paint mares, one of which is in heat, in the round pen at the end of the ring due to the storm (they are normally out 24/7 so they don't have stalls). How was Charlie you ask? Perfect!!

Yup. True bareback for once. I'm sure I'll feel that tomorrow.

We only walked, my tailbone wouldn't be able to handle anything else without the protection of a bareback pad, practicing stop/go/stop/back/go and lots of turns and serpentines. He couldn't have cared less about the mares or the rain or the people walking back and forth outside of the ring. After about 10-15 minutes he started to get bored so I got off and we practiced liberty commands on the ground without a lead rope: come, walk, halt, back, yield hindquarters, etc. Wouldn't you know that little devil of mine decided today was the day he would show off like a pro! I had him trotting next to me on command, doing circles, whoaing to a halt within a step or two and backing up with just a hand signal and voice command. Where is the video camera when you need one?!

Then the vet came, he got his shots and coggins bloodwork/pictures....Charlie did great except he decided he didn't want any shots on his left side today (two were given on his right, and then the one blood draw after which he decided enough poking was enough). I'll chalk that one up to the fact that he'd been out of his stall for over an hour, which is time to cue the boredom in Charlie's brain, and the rain and wind was picking up just in time for that last vaccine (I'm sure Charlie was thinking, "Mom! The noise and weather wasn't so bad before, but you didn't tell me it might bite!"). It's ok, nothing can mar my happiness with him today :)

Checking out the mini waiting for her vaccines from Vet #2

Oh, did I mention we lost power halfway through?

Heeeelllo ladies :) He gets along with everyone and loves to flirt, the ham

Lunging Success

Little by little over the past week or so I've started adding more "extras" to my groundwork with Charlie in an attempt to slowly keep adding one more potential "meltdown-maker" to the mix until we are ready to actually ride together. It's been going really well. He's pretty comfortable leaving my space alone now and will not run into the center of the circle when lunging. He also has gotten exponentially better at lowering his head and allowing his person to lead, walking calmly alongside. This past weekend I finally added tack to the mix :)

I reaaallly wish I could say that I have ridden him but I haven't...yet...I really want to but I keep reminding myself that it will be better in the end if I lay a good foundation and really make sure he 100% responds the way I want to various pressures and experiences. That first day I tacked him up as if we were going to ride but with the intention of just seeing how he responded to having a saddle on his back again. Charlie was not impressed with the stirrups bouncing on his sides or the fact that I was asking for all kinds of transitions and making him work so he did let out a few good bucks. I just continued working him through it figuring he has to get used to it at some point. Every time he got fed up or frustrated and tried to buck or rear I stayed calm, applied strong downward pressure to the line (but leading in the direction I wanted him to go) and drove him forward. Then, if he did what I asked, I laid off. My idea was if he is moving forward then he can't be stopping or going up so let's make forward the only way "out". Also, every time he acted up I made him work; when he was good I allowed him to rest. He caught on pretty quick, especially since I also focused on tightening the circle every time he sped up or acted up and expanded it when he was good. He hated that part. It was a trying session for both of us but by the end there was a LOT of lip licking and head lowering. For the first time I felt these tactics that I've been trying to implement all along actually worked and sunk in. Success! :)

Then yesterday Charlie was a DREAM! Maybe not compared to a perfectly trained show horse but boy was it a 180 from what he was just a few weeks ago. For the first time he walked, trotted and cantered on an easy circle without freaking out and he listened to every command to either speed up or slow down calmly and without complaint. At no point was he rocketing around me like a crazy horse or was his trot infringing on my personal space. Previously, when asked to "whoa", Charlie would plow on like he had no clue I was there and it would be a battle to move his hind end out and get him to turn in and stop (and when he did he'd come rushing right into the center of the circle on top of me). Not yesterday.

He did buck/kick out twice, but nothing outrageous. I think that was mostly because I was working him in his new quarter sheet to get him used to it (so chic by the way! Thanks Kate!) and there was a buckle that rattled and smacked him in the butt when he picked up the canter. I ended up stopping after only 20 minutes or so of work because I was just so proud and happy with the progress and how good he was being; I wanted to end on a good note. I really hope that this might mark a turnaround for us and we can start making some real progress. I have also started him on Vitacalm, which will hopefully help take some of the edge off so he has an easier time focusing and allow me to get back in the saddle a little sooner.

Tomorrow we are supposed to get a pretty decent Nor'easter over here in Rhode Island - to the tune of 1-2+ feet of snow. I stopped by the barn after work today to check in on Charlie and make sure he was ready to weather the storm since there's a good chance I may not see him for a couple of days. Good thing I got those snow shoes!

Snow? What snow?

Backing up

Still super cold today which means the horses are only out for half a day (read: full of themselves) and it is too icy to let Charlie run around in the outdoor to release energy. I did turn him out a bit in one of the larger square paddocks this afternoon to see if he wanted to stretch his legs a bit before getting to work; after trotting very carefully around for a lap or two and throwing a haphazard tiny buck-kick he decided this was no fun. Since I knew I couldn't push him too far today mentally (he was still pretty high) we worked a lot on getting to know each other more through "hanging out", grooming, and doing "games" in the aisle. Charlie made some good progress learning that he only gets to go where he wants to go (ie out the barn door or into his stall) if I say it's ok and he is polite. If he rushes or runs into me or loses focus we back up or circle and go the other direction and start again. We did a lot of stop and go, back up and go forward, up and down the barn aisle, and in and out the barn and stall doors.

Although it is hard for him, he is understanding the whole "stop or go back with a small hand gesture" idea now and will stand for small spans of time (albeit impatiently) until I ask him to walk forward or I come back to him. My two proudest moments were (1) Charlie backing halfway down the aisle without a fuss on a loose lead and then (2) backing in and out of his stall several times with my only cue being given from several feet away at the end of the rope. At the time I didn't think we were doing much of anything today really but looking back I am beginning to appreciate the small steps of progress. :)

Oh, in other news, my oversize browband came in from SmartPak and fits great!