Retro Update

I meant to include another little tidbit in my most recent update but somehow forgot, even though it was pretty much the most exciting part of this past week...

Quick lunge on Monday

After riding in the ring on Monday I decided to hack JJ in the field. He had been good in the ring for the majority of the ride, but towards the end he seemed to decide there was a monster somewhere nearby that was ready to attack when he least expected it. I tried to regain his attention to no avail. After he danced around a few times I gave up and went for the field instead.

He started out fine in the field just walking around, then randomly he decided the coops in the field were terrifying objects (even though we had wandered the entire field the previous evening). I worked on walking him closer and closer to the coops. He began to settle eventually and I had him walking close to a coop, when he happened to step on a branch on the ground. The branch snapped up, scraping the coop on the way.

Ha.

Up JJ went. All four feet straight into the air. He must have flown a good three feet straight up. I somehow managed to have enough composure to pick up the reins and say "HO". He landed and miraculously didn't take off. Good thing too. His launch threw me enough out of the saddle that if he had decided to take off I would pretty much have body-slammed the coop. But he didn't take off. He stood still and I wrenched my way back to center, took a breath, and laughed. He walked away calmly. I made him circle the coops a couple more times and then headed back to the barn.

After I untacked JJ I lead him back to the field straight to the branch that had caused the previous ruckus. I kicked it into the air in front of him. He flinched and backed off. I did this a few more times, always walking away from him and kicking the branch away from him as I went. Eventually he got over it and I called it a night.

Whew!

One more teensy update. Or long update. We'll see. Anyway while I was riding this evening a German Shepard came barreling out of the woods. The dog (a known friendly dog, although perhaps not the most horse-savvy dog) stopped when he saw us, then began circling JJ. JJ was a little unsure of the creature at first but when he realized it was just a dog he was willing to go back to work. The dog, on the other hand, had other plans. He continued circling and began barking. JJ was very unsure of this... Almost as if to say "what does it want from me??". It was pretty clear the dog was trying to herd us. Sigh. Clearly we weren't going to get anything more done until the dog's owner claimed him, which she did very quickly.

At that point I pretty well lost my motivation to work, so we headed back to the woods. This time I took a smaller side trail to see if I could find a loop. I ended up at the same dead branch covered muddy spot, but this time I was determined to get through it so we didn't have to keep doubling back on our route. JJ was very unsure of the mud and branches, so I got off and lead him through it. Once through he was fine, and I had to lengthen my stirrup by three holes just to get back on, but JJ was awesome the whole time. Whew again!

Lessons Galore!

Whew, lots of updates this week! I've been a little too busy between the new job and getting JJ settled to update, so this is going to be one looong post!

So, on Monday I rode again, and JJ was awesome again. Pictures below to prove there were some good moments and, of course, some bad moments! I put him back in his stall for dinner and was chatting with friend/barn owner (henceforth FBO) about teaching JJ to trailer. She practices a lot of horsemanship and groundwork and graciously offered to teach me a few things with JJ. COOL! We got to work that evening. She showed me certain cues to get him to move his feet in very specific ways, and how to ask him to walk, trot, sidestep with the hind end, and side step with his forehand. JJ responded very willingly and I was very impressed.

On Tuesday I just worked on solidifying my knowledge of the simple groundwork I'd learned Monday. Friend/fellow board (henceforth FFB) was in the ring and offered to do a little work with JJ (she also knows the ways of the horsemanship). She played with him for a bit before FBO returned from work and showed me the next step: asking JJ to pass between objects. She set up two roll tops about 2 feet apart, leaving a narrow hallway for JJ to walk through, then asked him to do so. He put up quite a fight about this, and the reality struck: if he was so hesitant just to walk between a couple jump obstacles, how would he ever walk onto a trailer?! She did get him through eventually and then asked him a few more times, and he was better.

Wednesday I had a lesson with eventing rider (henceforth ER). ER really liked JJ but said I needed to put a lot of work into getting him looser in the neck and shoulders and better at bending around corners. We spent the majority of the hour just on that one thing and made some serious progress. The video below was taken towards the beginning of the lesson - I wish I had one of the end of the lesson to for comparison!!

On Thursday I did more groundwork. I had JJ going through the roll tops easily so I set up two coops side by side and asked him to walk between them. He hesitated a bit but went through much more easily this time around. So, I asked him to step over a low cavaletti. Easy. I raised it. Easy. I put one of the roll tops under it. Uhh... Little scarier. He went around it once and the next time he jumped/fell over it. Good enough. I asked him to go over that a few more times, then asked him to jump a pair of sawed-in-half blue barrels. Not a problem (aside from the whole coordination thing). Cool!

AAAND today! I was excited to hop back on today and work on the things we'd done Wednesday in the lesson. I tried to do all of the same things that ER had showed me, but of course the ride was not going nearly as well. I spent 45 minutes trying NOT to get frustrated, and in truth there were some nice moments, but eventually I threw my hands in the air (by which I mean I sat and asked JJ to walk and dropped the reins to the buckle). Fed up with bad circles, I glanced at the trailhead that branches straight off of the riding ring. I would swear it was calling my name. Well, why not? So out we went - JJ on his first ever trail ride! I wasn't expecting anything and I don't know the trails at all (hey, I never said I was smart), so I sort of planned to just go a few hundred feet and then turn around. JJ was so good that we went quite a bit farther than planned though! He marched into the woods with his neck stretched down, nose straight out, and ears pricked forward. I steered him around a few right turns, thinking I might find a short loop back to the barn. I'm pretty sure I would have too, but we came upon a giant fallen birch limb with branches and leaves strewn all across the trail. Surrounding the branches was about 6 inches of mud. I considered trying to get around it anyway, but decided not to push my luck so we turned back. BUT I am still super proud and impressed with this little 5 year old marching into the woods for the first time without a buddy so boldly!! Go J-Man!

JJ's Summer Home

FINALLY! Thanks to a good friend, JJ finally arrived in his Harvard, MA summer home Saturday evening. We had left MA at 6:30AM to pick him up in NY. We arrived mid-morning after a smooth ride, and after I loaded up the trailer with all of my tack and such, I brought JJ down. He had no interest in getting on the trailer... UGH. Three people and a syringe of ace later, he was finally on.

JJ's new digs: Mansion!

JJ's new digs: grassy paddock!

All in all the whole trailering experience was very frustrating for me. I've had awful experiences with non-trailering horses in the past (Ahem, DOLLY anyone?!) and I really haven't ever seen a good way of teaching a horse to trailer. JJ was also not on his best behavior. I'm not surprised about that - he hadn't been really worked in several weeks and I had been in MA the entire week prior to trailer day. Anyway, as we were all trying to get him on the trailer he began his kicking-out thing again that we had worked through way back in March. $%$(*%#$#)^. The in trying to have him back off the trailer, he acted like he didn't know the cue to back up, which he absolutely does. So basically anyone who met JJ yesterday probably thinks I've done nothing productive with him in that past four months. Very frustrating. At any rate, I'll have to work on trailer training at some point... A tricky summer project.

This morning I lunged JJ in the ring for about 15 minutes without tack (VIDEO BELOW). He threw in a few kinks as seen in the first circle, but settled down quickly. We later turned him out with a chestnut mare named Olive in hopes that they would be pasture buddies. After a few discussions, the two of them settled and enjoyed their afternoons munching on grass.

In the evening I tacked JJ again for another short lunge, then hopped on for a ride. I am SO pleased to report that JJ was AWESOME today. Better than I ever would have expected. HOORAY! Hoping to start taking lessons soon so we can start making some real progress!

A Lameness Rant

OK I know it's been a while since the last post, but it's not entirely my fault. There was a good week in there where I was pretty busy and only rode JJ twice. Then towards the beginning of June I noticed JJ's feet were beginning to crumble and his front shoes were a bit loose (Note: he was shod May 1st). I lunged him and saw that he was somewhat sore on the front right - the foot crumbling most. The next day he seemed a little better, and since he had only been ridden twice in the week leading up to this point I knew I needed to get on while I had a chance and get some of his energy out, so I did. It was EXHAUSTING. And, at the end of the ride, he threw that right front shoe. That was on Tuesday, June 3rd... And so starts the shoe saga:

Sue called the farrier immediately but he said he couldn't get out until June 11th. UGH. Oh well, JJ's foot was fine, really, just sore from being barefoot on rocky terrain. I didn't ride him the rest of that week but secretly hoped a few days of getting used to walking barefoot would make him more comfortable. No such luck. On Thursday I tried out a booty on his foot to try and protect it from rocks. By Friday he had thrown that booty off too.

It was also Friday that I noticed he had wrenched his back right shoe only halfway off - very problematic. These shoes have little triangular "clips" that fold up over the front of the hoof to help keep the shoe on (haha). So when the shoe twisted half off of his foot, that sticking up triangular clip gouged out a nice hole in the bottom of his foot. The result: a dead lame horse and a very upset me.

I soaked his foot and packed it on Friday, then continued to soak it Saturday and Sunday. JJ was on stall rest all weekend, which he hated. I managed to get another farrier out Monday morning (THANK YOU!!!). He fixed up JJ's feet but warned me that he thought JJ might have a stifle injury on the right side, contributing to his lameness. Well crap.

And, to add to all of this fun, Mike and I are currently in the process of moving to MA. So Mike and I will leave at the end of this week but JJ will be in NY until the 21st. The vet will be out next week to check out his limbs, and by the time he shows up in MA he will have had a good three weeks off. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that there's nothing wrong with his stifle (essentially the knee of the horse), and that as soon as he moves into his summer home I will be able to get him back into work. I have goals of a schooling show in the fall!!!

P.S. I'll add pictures later - no time now.