Deer Flies and a Dodo Brain

I'll keep this one quick since I have no media to share (sorry). Had some awesome friends from the good ol' days come out to visit this past week and meet JJ, which was loads of fun. First visit was from a high school friend and mentor... Will be visiting him and his wife and meeting her horse this week so I'll make sure to get a picture, which I meant to do when they met JJ but forgot.

Today one of the best horsewomen I know came out to meet JJ. In high school I boarded at her farm and took lessons from her and over the years she's taught me more than I could ever fully thank her for! Anyway, it was a good reunion and she was very helpful in many ways, not the least of which was replacing the trotting poles every time JJ was too lazy to pick up his feet (which was pretty much every time through... I've decided that once he "gets" something, he gets bored with it and loses motivation to do it correctly, because he definitely knows how to trot through poles at this point). Anyway, she seemed to think he was a pretty cool little project and that I was doing well with him, which was good to hear :)

Other than that nothing too wild to report. Tried to trail ride a few times but was repeatedly driven out of the woods by the deer flies.

Cantered JJ over his first pole (on the ground). Cantering up to it he seemed a little unsure of what I was asking. Kind of like, you want me to who over the what now? But with a little leg and reassurance he went right over it, no problems. Did a few more of that, then set up two poles three strides apart. Well, let's just say that's when I discovered just how long JJ's canter strides are... We fit two strides ;)

Also I've been incorporating some cross-rails and other various obstacles into our flat work. My hope is that JJ will get used to jumping as just part of the routine and see jumps as simple obstacles in the way of flat work, and not get overly excited about them when we really start jumping. So every now and then in the middle of a circle I'll just throw in a cross-rail or small cavaletti. He seemed pretty content with all this so the other day I set up an actual vertical to incorporate as well. So we're trotting around and I bring him straight down the quarter line to the vertical and he... Just keeps right on trotting. Knocked the whole thing down. Awesome. So I get off to reset the jump because obviously I can't end on that! I take him to it again with a little more leg. He half-heartedly lifts his front end but apparently forgets that he has FOUR WHOLE LEGS that need to clear the rail. Down again, and down I go to reset it. One more time. More leg and a big shout of "GO" right at the base of the jump are enough motivation for him to pick himself up into a cute little jump. Yay!

Also also, I fit in a little groundwork last night. Sent JJ between the coops with no problem, then asked him to walk between the roll-tops where I had laid a couple empty grain bags for him to walk over. He wiggled away the first time and jumped them the second time. By the third time through he stepped on them and, scared by the noise, trotted away. Eventually I got him walking over the bags calmly in both directions. THEN! I had lined up all the flower boxes with the intention of having JJ walk over them. I sent him towards the line, which he marched at with his nose on the ground and ears pricked as forward and as tall as possible. I don't think I've ever seen him quite so intrigued by anything before. He gave the fake flowers a good sniff but hesitated. I asked him to walk forward. He walked over them without a fuss, and came around the circle to approach them again. This time he hesitated. I asked him to walk forward and he wiggled away from the flowers and towards me. Sigh. I lined him up again and asked him to walk over the flowers. He did, again without a fuss. I had him do this a few more times in both directions with no problems. Yay!

That's about it. JJ moves to his new home on Saturday, so we'll be on to a new adventure. I still have hopes of entering a low-key schooling show this fall... We'll see!

We're Baaaaa-aaaaaack!

Whoa guys. Whoa. What a long, lame month of July it was. So I won't spend to much time talking about it, except to tally up the totals:
-4 stitches
-2.5 weeks on stall rest
-1 bandage change every 24 hours
-2 boxes of surgical gauze pads
-2 boxes of rolled gauze
-1 week rest after removal of stitches
-Immeasurable amounts of hosing, alu-spray, and scratches cream
-Hand-walking and grazing whenever time permitted

Yep. That was July.

He might be an idiot, but he's just so gosh-darn cute!

But this is August, and August is already amazing. Oh, and I did not start the month off with a rabbit. Stupid rabbits.

I began riding JJ again last Wednesday, but really only walked in order to ease him back into the idea of work. Thursday I did a bit of trotting and towards the end of the ride noticed he felt a little off. I admit, I panicked a little bit. I gave him Friday off, and Saturday morning tried again. Still off. I asked Eventing Rider to take a look, and she determined it was definitely NOT in the hind leg, but rather that he looked a little footsore in front. Which was fair, considering he was overdue for shoes.

The farrier came that day and was amazingly patient with him as he threw little baby tantrums about holding his feet up. I won't spend too much time complaining about the fact that he has always stood very nicely for the farrier, and why is he being such an impatient brat now? No, for now I will just focus on the positive things.

So I rode again Sunday and with his feet feeling much better and over a month off work (and putting on weight all the while)... Let's just say it was a bit of a wild ride. He eventually agreed to pay attention to me and I must say I was a bit impressed with some of the leg yielding I got out of him! Hey, it's the little things.

Monday I rode again and had an even better ride. A Super Awesome Friend even came out and got some video footage for your viewing pleasure. YAY! I've taken the liberty of outlining some highlights and lowlights so you don't have to watch all the boring crap in between. Aw who am I kidding, I'm the only one who watches these things anyway :)

In the first video JJ is showing off his oh-so-impressive giraffe neck and disdain for anything related to the idea of contact. Rather amusing to watch, not fun to ride.

The second video shows JJ coming to terms with the idea of contact and relinquishing some of his favorite giraffe past-times. It doesn't last long though.

The third video gives you a sense of what he's like the entire time - he goes back and forth between giraffe and maybe accepting contact. Often times he lands somewhere in between, and when I start to ask him for more he throws his head up, then I ask him more and he finally drops his head for a few seconds. We'll get there.

And finally, videos 4 and 5 show a canter in each direction. Not so lovely, but we got the correct lead both times and we didn't run into anything, which is always a bonus :)

That's all for now. I decided not to ride today in lieu of spending the evening updating the blog. More updates soon :)