[egrogan]

It's funny, but I feel like all this solo exploring is actually changing Isabel's demeanor. I'm not really one who thinks a lot about having a "bond" with my horse, but I do want her to be respectful and follow directions. In a way I can't quite explain, she seems much more interested in me these days. Yesterday I went out to the field to grab her for a ride, and she saw me at the gate and came running from the far end of the pasture to meet me, eyes fixed on me the whole way. For the first few months I knew this horse, I had to chase her around the field to catch her (a.n.n.o.y.i.n.g). We've long been over that problem, but she's never been the kind of horse that meets me at the gate. It was sort of sweet, I have to admit, even though that sounds a little mushy.

I also feel like she's a lot more responsive undersaddle. Turns are much more precise, she's a lot "handier" in that I can get her to go through spaces that I wouldn't have attempted before, and she just generally seems to be more focused on me (i.e., ear flicked back waiting to see what we do next). I rode in the arena last night because I wanted to focus on downward transitions, and for awhile had her trotting on a completely loose rein and was actually getting her to listen to my seat well enough she would come back to a walk easily. This sounds like a small thing, but it's really not something I've been able to do with her (she is definitely NOT the kind of horse where you just think about stopping, and she stops). This wasn't as successful after we cantered a bit, which I expected. She gets pretty hyped up after cantering and trotting after that tends to be a little fast and choppy (something else to work on). But it's good to know there are a couple of obvious things to work on.

I don't know how else to explain it, just feels like we're working together in a different way all of a sudden. It's really cool!

 

[egrogan]

Just got this neat picture of Isabel from the Office Manager at the barn- she does love a good roll in the dirt!

 

[egrogan]

OK, all that sentimental stuff I wrote up there ^^^ you can disregard that!

So with all the good rides I've been having, we were clearly due to have a bad one. Yesterday was sort of a perfect storm set-up for having a bad day. We have single-gender turnout where I board, but the pasture set-up recently changed and this week, the girls and boys now share a fenceline in the larger pasture, which has been split in half. So Isabel is now in raging heat, and consequently hugely herdbound and obsessed with one little pony gelding. It was also a really hot day yesterday and the bugs were terrible. All in all, by the time I tacked up and mounted, I was getting on one irritated horse who was not interested in going for a ride.

We rode out of the ring as one of the suddenly irresistible geldings was coming in, which she did not appreciate. We had a little argument about crossing the street, and she was trying to be evasive and spin around towards home for the first 15 minutes of the ride. We got to our next road crossing, and had to stand and wait for a minute as 3-4 cars went by. At this point, she pretty much had a temper tantrum- apparently having to stand and wait is the greatest indignation a horse can experience! When the cars passed and I asked her to walk forward, she threw her head up and down and did a spin so we were facing the other way. I think she actually surprised herself though, because she spun and then just stopped stock still (I used to be a teacher, and I have to admit, her reaction to her naughtiness kind of made me chuckle in the same way that you would laugh when an adorable student would misbehave in a totally innocent way). So anyway, after this little tantrum, I got after her, we crossed the street, she fretted and jigged a little bit. Then suddenly she decided that everything in the corn field (the same we've ridden in a dozen times in the past few weeks) was going to eat her. She was shying away from the corn stalks, snorting and blowing, just acting ridiculous. But I just kept riding her forward, and eventually we managed to ride at a reasonable walk for the rest of ride, even being able to give her a loose rein for the last couple of minutes as we headed back to the barn. She was completely drenched in sweat by the time we got back- I guess a combo of a 90 degree day and this ridiculous behavior. It took a really long time to cool her out.

It's funny how these blowups happen when you're least expecting it- it was so hot yesterday I went out to the barn intending to have a leisurely, walk-only ride and just enjoy the scenery. Obviously Isabel had other ideas!

 

[Wallaby]

But hey, you stayed on and you worked through it! I'd call that a success. :hug:

 

[egrogan]

Ha! Wallaby, you are right- I suppose staying on is something.

I was actually thinking about a post you made earlier, about how Lacey didn't like you just being a passenger and wanted you really plugged in to riding. I got on in the mindset of just having a lazy ride, and I think my lackadaisical riding from the beginning set me up for the attitude I got from Izzy. Oh well, no riding tonight as I had to do a volunteer training for our therapeutic riding program, but I gave my lovely lady a pat on the nose while she was eating her dinner and left it at that.

 

[egrogan]

OK, back on track today. Izzy is still in disgusting raging heat but she was over the worst of the herdboundness and rode out without too much trouble. I rode her much more aggressively. We warmed up w/t/c in the ring, and then when we headed out, we immediately trotted right on. I rode the loop with more hills today, and she seemed to enjoy trotting/cantering up the hills and across the fields. The weather was nice and cool, but the flies were the worst I've seen them. At one point, I looked down and she had a swarm of them all over her head and neck. Poor girl.

One funny moment- she was swatting at the flies nonstop with her tail, and with one swat, she actually broke a dead branch off a tree and it got caught in her tail. So she's dragging this 3-4 foot long branch, the thickness of a dressage whip, behind her for a good 10-15 minutes. Good girl though, she didn't bat an eye. I was having these mini nightmares of her thinking something was chasing her and spooking wildly, but once it was clear she was going to ignore it, I just left it until it dropped out (there's really nowhere on the trail that I could comfortably remount unless it was really an emergency. Unless I really have to, I would much prefer to avoid mounting her from the ground, given her somewhat weak back and me really being at the top of her weight limit). So, another "test" on the trail that she seems to have passed with flying colors.

Not sure if it was all the cantering uphill, but this is the first day I can remember when she was not pulling and rushing to get home. I was able to give her a pretty loose rein and she walked calmly the whole way, despite the awful bugs. Good girl!!

Also, someone over in the trail riding section recommended an iPhone app called "viewranger," so I tried that today. I'm still figuring it out, but it was pretty cool from what I could see. We rode about 3km, and traveled at a top speed of 15 km/hr. Not quite Kentucky Derby time, but still just so neat to see our zigzagging route through the woods and fields, and roughly how fast we were going at different parts of it. I would definitely recommend it if you're looking for a way to track where you're going.

 

[egrogan]

Does this look like a horse that wants to go for a ride on a muggy, rainy day!? :wink:

 

[egrogan]

So Isabel got an impromptu day off today- I got to the barn this morning, and they let me know she had not been turned out as they found her this morning with her eye swollen shut and streaming tears. It looked much better by the time I got there, but was still irritated. As far as I can see, looks like she may have a tiny scratch on the lens. She's had this problem before- I think her eyes are easily irritated to begin with, they get itchy so she rubs, and actually causes a bigger problem. Meeting the vet this afternoon to take a look and see if we're back to eye medicine, which is never fun with Isabel.

 

[egrogan]

Didn't ride much at all last week. Isabel did something to irritate her eye in the middle of the week, so the time I would have had to ride during the week was taken up with meeting the vet and doing eye ointment. She ended up being fine, but this is the second time she's had this same issue. The barn assistant finds her in the morning with her eye basically swollen shut, tears streaming down her face. It has a slightly cloudy look in the middle. As the day goes on, the swelling goes down and she goes back to normal. The vet was great, came right out as he doesn't like to mess with eyes, she did get a course of ointment that day, but by day 2, it was totally back to normal. Not sure what she does, but I think she just gets itchy/irritated this time of year, and then starts rubbing, which makes it worse.

We also went away this weekend, spending Saturday at Saratoga watching the races. Here are a few fun pictures:

Palace Malice, last year's Belmont winner and potentially this year's Horse of the Year (though he didn't run well in the Whitney on Saturday):

Will Take Charge, last year's Breeder's Cup Classic runner-up- you can sort of tell in this picture, but this colt is a GIANT. Much more impressive in person:

A little starstruck standing next to trainer Graham Motion after he emerged from the winner's circle with a promising two-year old colt. The interview was all about whether or not he thought this colt will be a Breeder's Cup winner.

Stretch run:

Trackside with my lovely husband (who trounced me in our betting competition):

Got home Sunday, the weather was gorgeous and I finally had time for a ride. Isabel was super stiff when we warmed up in the ring- almost to the point where I felt like she was a little off somewhere on the front end. I just spent a lot of time slowly warming up, and she seemed to work out of it. We spent most of our trail ride just walking on a loose rein. This is the first time I've really trusted her enough to just let her walk along and pick her way, and she responded really well- I could really feel the tension leave and she put her head down and seemed to carry herself a lot more nicely than she was warming up. When we got back to the ring, I had her t/c on the same loose rein for a bit, which was also unusual for her. She's fairly unbalanced at the canter (particularly after a week off) and she did reasonably well without me holding her together.

Snapped a ton of pictures yesterday since she was being so easygoing about everything.

One of my favorites:

Love this one too:

Ever since I pulled her mane, it's been so "bouncy" when she moves:

 

[egrogan]

I was out of town for most of last week, in Seattle for work. So, had a bit of a break from riding. But, I agreed to let Isabel be used in the Advanced Beginners summer camp at the barn, so she did get used a little bit while I was gone. The instructors reported she was VERY lazy for the girl that was working with her during the week. Looks like she made a new friend though:

I got to ride Saturday, and I could definitely tell she had been packing a kid around all week when she tried some silly stuff like pulling towards the gate and ducking out on me when I asked her to canter across the hay field. Quickly got it sorted out though, after a minute she took a deep breath and just seemed to say, "oh, you're back, huh?" :wink:

After a couple of weeks without a lot of riding, it was almost like she was being introduced to the trails again. I took her on one of our regular routes, and she was a little wide-eyed and snorty, like she was when we first start riding out there. So, we worked on just staying calm and listening, and then I let her have a good long canter around one of the corn fields, which seemed to let her blow off some of that nervous energy.

Fun ride yesterday. My husband is a runner, and he will often run from town to meet me out at the barn and then ride home with me. He must have been in sprinter mode yesterday, because I was just finishing tacking up when he showed up at the barn. So, I decided to ride our little 3-mile loop, and he came for the walk with us. It was fun to have someone to talk to while riding, but bonus was that we had a photographer along with us!

Not sure why I have such a weird look on my face here, but it shows a bit of our pretty forest trail, and I think Izzy looks cute:

Being impatient standing for the camera:

Still not really thrilled about standing still:

She really HATES to be asked to just stand out on the trail. She definitely interprets that to mean she should try to drag me around in whatever direction leads towards home. Need to keep working on that.

 

[egrogan]

I had planned on yesterday being an arena day- really wanted to work on her gaits and balance. However, I showed up, and the hay guy was there with a massive trailer and a couple hundred bales to deliver, and they have to use the arena to access the hay loft. Soooo....that plan went out the window.

Instead, I decided to take her to the farmer's field across the street and work on some of her patience issues. We just walked. When she got fast, we stopped. She got ****ed. She pawed the ground like a circus pony. She tried swinging her haunches around. She snorted. In hindsight, it is funny to see how hard this was for her. In the moment, it was annoying. We just walked around for 30 minutes or so, until she finally offered a calm, evenly paced walk. Then we went home. That was about it.

 

[egrogan]

It's been awhile since I was excited to work in the arena, but it was actually a bit overdue as I think we were overdue for just a good, straightforward schooling day. Did some basic w/t/c, made sure she was really working in balance and doing the work of carrying herself, and she felt good. She was able to canter around a 20-meter circle on a loose rein without falling on her nose, which was good (she really relies on me to hold her up in the canter). Also managed to get a nice, even trot after some cantering, rather than a frantic shortstrided mess.

After 20-30 minutes in the ring, we walked across the street to the farmer's field to cool out. Guess who was happy to take a nice leisurely walk around the field? :wink: Looks like a real workout was just the solution to her impatience.

 

[frlsgirl]

Instead, I decided to take her to the farmer's field across the street and work on some of her patience issues. We just walked. When she got fast, we stopped. She got ****ed. She pawed the ground like a circus pony. She tried swinging her haunches around. She snorted. In hindsight, it is funny to see how hard this was for her. In the moment, it was annoying. We just walked around for 30 minutes or so, until she finally offered a calm, evenly paced walk. Then we went home. That was about it.

Been there, done that with my morgan mare...and will probably be dealing with this in the future. Good for you that you stuck it out until she was able to relax.

 

[egrogan]

I've been traveling for work a lot over the past couple of weeks, so hadn't ridden much at all until this weekend.

Got to the barn Friday finally having time to ride, and Isabel was less than energetic- it went from cool and brisk back to hot and muggy, and she was not all that interested in riding:
(yes, she actually was dozing while I fixed the girth and stirrups)

Although the weather has been pretty miserable, my last few rides haven't been great as she's just been soooooo lethargic and unwilling to go forward. If she was moving any slower, I think she'd really just topple over. Not sure what's going on with her. I'm shopping for a new saddle, and trialed a few at the beginning of last week, hoping that when I put something new on her she'd be "unlocked" and eager to move forward. That definitely didn't happen with any of the 3 I tried. The chiro is coming on Friday, so maybe that will help, but I just really can't figure out why she seems so unwilling to be ridden. I have noticed she requires a longer warm-up these days (I'm going to post another thread about that) and I'm sure that will only get worse when it starts getting cold again. But even after she's had ample time to warm up, she still just feels so nonresponsive.

She was acting this way a bit in the spring, and I figured she was just bored and ring sour- when we started riding on the trails more, that did seem to perk her up, but even over the past couple of weeks, she's started resisting riding out of the arena towards the trail- so, doesn't want to be in the ring, doesn't want to be on the trail. She is 20, but she is physically in great shape, vet sees nothing wrong, feet are good, so I don't get it. I know some horses will tell you when they're ready to retire, but that just doesn't make sense to me since physically I think she's good. She's never had a strong "work ethic" in the years I've known her (I'm sure she'll be perfectly content when retirement does come for her), but this just feels different.

Anyway, I guess one of the benefits of her being slow as molasses is that we had a really pleasant, leisurely amble across the trail on Saturday, and I snapped a couple of nice pictures:

Wish these were better quality, but this is her opinion of the ride after getting back to the barn...mind you, we did nothing but walk 3-4 miles of flat trails!

 

[Wallaby]

The things that come to mind for me with her being so slow are pain and/or some kind of deficiency in her diet - salt, perhaps?

Lacey would do that slow-slow thing when her eyes were bothering her. Particularly in the summer, she'd act like trail rides were the worstttt...turned out that, for her - due to her ERU, she needed to wear a UV blocking flymask while riding [like she wore all the time in the pasture - I had been taking it off for rides because of aesthetics, basically]. As soon as I added a flymask to our riding routine, the pep came right back into her step.

Of course, Isabel is gonna have different things "at work" for her than Lacey did...but you know.


It is the muggiest hottest part of the summer and older horses often realllly don't do well with that [everyday it was over 75*, Lacey needed to be hosed off at least once a day or she'd get heat-stroke-y and confused]. Hazel, though she's a goat, is similar - she goes from morose and out of it to peppy and alert with a simple hose down.
Is your girl being hosed off regularly? What's her "hot weather situation" look like?


Just throwing everything at you I can think of!

 

[frlsgirl]

Ana was acting the same way when summer came. She would fall asleep while tacking up and just didn't seem interested in doing any work. All she wanted to do is eat and sleep. I gave her some electrolytes and that did make a difference. I also switched my riding schedule to early mornings as she's much more alert and eager then. Once it gets cold out, I'll switch my riding schedule back to afternoons.

 

[egrogan]

Thanks, Wallaby and frls. You gave me a couple of different things to think about:

1. Diet. This is sort of a "duh" moment, not sure why I didn't think about this already The pasture that she's on is pretty much blown for the summer, so it really only gives them something to do during the day, not serious nutrition. They still get hay morning and night, and she is on a ration balancer- however, I cut it back in the spring when the grass was plentiful, maybe I need to revisit.

She does have a Himalayan salt block in her stall, and I notice that she goes through them really fast. I suppose this could be another sign that she's deficient in something.

Diet/nutrition is something I never feel like I understand well enough. I had a "feedxl" subscription back in the spring when I was making some decisions about the right ration balancer, but I probably need to learn more.

2. Environment. I started thinking about when she became resistant to going on the trails, and I think it was about the time when the horse/deer flies starting getting really out of control- to the point that her entire head and neck would just be swarmed with them. She rides out on the trail with a fly bonnet, and I spray her down intensely before we go out, but even with all that, it got pretty miserable. Add that to the heat, and I can see her starting to make the association that riding outside=uncomfortable.

She does get hosed down after really hot rides, though I would say that's not something she particularly enjoys either...

Hopefully this is our last week of heat and mugginess, and then fall will really be here.

I'm running out to the barn this morning just to say hi and do a quick grooming, don't have time to ride today unfortunately due to work.

 

[egrogan]

And here's the lovely lady today. Had to sponge her face off as she decided to rub her flymask off in the middle of an irresistible mud puddle out in the field.

 

[egrogan]

The chiro came to see Izzy on Friday morning. Izzy was very tight in her SI, and really her whole hind-end. She was a little short on her left hind when she trotted on the lunge, and just generally looked uncomfortable.

She's always a little unsure of what's happening with the chiro, but she mostly cooperated. I also described her lethargic attitude to the chiro, who suggested acupuncture to "release her chi." Now, I'll admit, I'm not much of a naturopathic person, but I went ahead and had the acupuncture done (much to my husband's amusement- at first, he though I was kidding!).

Isabel got Saturday off after the adjustment, but the chiro said to expect her to feel much perkier on Sunday when riding. The indoor was having some roof repairs when I went to ride yesterday, so unfortunately I wasn't able to really give her a good w/t/c through some school figures to see how she was really moving, but I just went ahead and jumped on and headed right to the trails. Since I didn't know for sure how she'd be moving, I generally just kept things to a walk. I do agree she was much more energetic, and seemed to move more freely behind. The statistician in me can't say for sure if it's definitely because of the chiro work, or because of the beautifully brisk fall weather, but regardless of the cause, it was nice to have a clearly happier horse back!

Here's Izzy looking sweet and relaxed at the end of our hour-long ride:

 

[Wallaby]

Yay! I'm so glad she was better today!

I totally know what you mean about the hippy-dippy stuff - it can feel a little silly but sometimes it really does help! I was amazed at what equine massage did for Lacey and has done for Fabs, who knewwww!
Or weird herbs! Like I basically cured Fabio's ulcers with herbs and I realllly did not think that would work! :lol: