[egrogan]

Fizz had a great visit with the vet yesterday, really enjoying the bodywork. She especially loves big, deep stretches when her front leg is extended forward and she can lean all her weight back to stretch. Her pelvis was indeed twisted in a wonky way, so after that was addressed she couldn't stop deep yawns and licking and chewing. We'll go for a short, easy ride today and then can get back to regular rides as of tomorrow.

Poor Josie on the other hand had a less positive vet visit. She needed to get her second Lyme shot, but she flipped out with it. She was already nervous just with the vet saying hello, but I thought she'd be ok with a quick shot. Vet had the shot drawn up and was just starting to say "I don't think she liked this much last time..." when the needle went in and Josie shot backwards like she'd been electrocuted. I'd been standing in front of her with a hand on the halter on either side of her face, but she caught me totally by surprise. The barn aisle isn't more than a couple of horse lengths long, and as she flew back she knocked into the muck bucket and the cans of chicken feed at the end of the aisle. Fortunately instead of panicking more, hitting all that stuff stopped her long enough that vet could hit the plunger on the needle to get the vaccine in- which was hanging out of her neck throughout this episode. Poor Josie- she needs one more of these shots in three weeks to complete the Lyme series. So guess what we will be practicing for the next three weeks!!

Despite that, I do feel confident she's going to come around. She wants to be friends, she just gets overwhelmed easily. I keep reminding myself that she's been here less than two months, and it for at least two years before that that she was just running feral with almost no human contact.

Building good horsey relationships, on the other hand, has gone wonderfully. These were all taken the last couple of days...

 

[gottatrot]

Aww, I love the pictures of your sweet horses!

 

[PoptartShop]

Omg, I am so glad to hear they found the missing man. How cute Neeko is!! Awwwwwwwwwwwww. That is so heartwarming! <3

Oh, the buttercups are tough. We had some too & mowing helped but they're trying to come back. So annoying. But the horses avoid them which is good! I bet miss Fizz was happy for the lack of bugs on the trail!
The hind end release stuff is good to know. Josie probably enjoyed her little massage a ton! So sweet!!

 

[egrogan]

Tuesday we went for an easy ride to the overlook, which was miserable the whole way because of the bugs. We were swarmed by a deer fly cloud the entire way, but I think Fizz was less bothered than me because of her horse hoodie. If you look between her ears, you can see one particularly persistent deer fly that landed there. Since it didn't seem to be biting her, I didn't swat it away because I wanted to see how long it would stay there. It hitched a ride for 3/4 of a mile before flying away!

Yesterday was cool, drizzly, and breezy again; I don't think it ever got above 60*F. I wasn't feeling very inspired to ride- the gloomy weather does that to me-but there were no bugs so I figured I need to make myself get out there. I'm glad we did, the lack of bugs made everything so much better.

There were threats of rain when we left, and when we got to the overlook the sky looked questionable. But again, no bugs, so we kept going, over and down the big Cavendish hill. I stayed on to ride down the big hill, rather than handwalking. She was a little noodly going down, but there was no attempt to jump into the ditch or spin around to go home. From the bottom of the hill to our turn-around point, we trotted and cantered along. Slowly adding more canter. The roads are really hard though so I'm hesitant to do too much pounding on her legs.

A little snack before we turned back. I was surprised to find that there were COWS in a field where there are never cows (the field is behind us in this picture). There were half a dozen of them, but they were well off the road munching their way through a row of shrubbery. Weirdly, she didn't seem to notice them at all. Don't they smell? I was actually a little concerned that she had no sense of them...It was odd. But since she didn't see them, I didn't make a big deal of it and we just went about our business.

 

[egrogan]

Ride this morning- I intended to go on a 5 mile ride, but it was actually 7 miles instead. Oops! I didn't reallllyyyy have time to go that far, but I still managed to make it back in time for my first work meeting. I just didn't turn on video for the meeting, as I was sporting some gnarly helmet head! I always think this trail is shorter than it really is for some reason- until I'm out there and wondering why it's taking so long. And then I remember that it's not as short as I thought.

At any rate, we had a great ride. We got to a stretch of road that allows you to trot along for a good mile that's flat to mildly-uphill road, and there was no traffic of any kind so we had the road to ourselves.

Fizz settled in to a steady tempo, so steady that I was laughing that she felt like a vaulting horse as they go round and round their circles. Her rhythm barely changed at all. Given how smoothly she was going, I decided to try to give myself a riding lesson 😉 Lately I've been feeling like my posture is terrible and I'm hunched forward in the saddle, so I did some of the balance exercises I'd have little kids do on the lunge. Put the reins in one hand and with the other, reached out straight to the side, straight in front, straight up in the air, touched my belly button, put my hand on my hip. Then I switched diagonals and did it all over again. She just trotted along like a lesson pony so we did this for a solid mile. I was thinking about how nice she felt when all of a sudden, she put the brakes on...to our left, we saw a little bear take off running for the woods! 🐻 She stared off after it, but it wanted nothing to do with us and disappeared as quickly as it could.

Not too long after the bear, we turned off the road and up onto a woods trail. The first part of it has nice enough footing to keep trotting, but it does get rocky and slippery going downhill. We trotted where we could and walked the rest.

It wasn't especially hot, but it was a very muggy morning. She didn't want to drink even when we got to the good mini waterfall.

The rest of the ride home was uneventful, though the flies picked up in intensity the closer we got to home. We were both glad to get back- Fizz tucked right into the corner of a shed, and I think she's been there all day since!

JOSIE UPDATE
I've been working with her in short sessions every night after they have their evening feed. She's now standing quietly tied for some basic grooming. She's doing well with her front feet. I can pick them up easily, and she holds them nicely while I clean them out and 'pretend' to rasp around the outside of them with the end of the hoofpic. I am still not picking up her hind feet, but I can touch her from the hip to her fetlock with the end of the lunge whip, and with my hands down to her hocks.

I've been playing around with the clicker and some alfalfa pellets while doing this, but she isn't food motivated at all. She's tied with a hay bag, so as often as not when I reach up to her mouth to practically put the alfalfa pellets in it, sometimes she won't take them at all. I guess in a way it's good that she's working with me just because. It still funny to me to have a horse who doesn't care at all about treats though!

We'll see if by next week I can actually pick up her hind feet. Not sure.

I also need to start working on her shot aversion and try syringing some applesauce into her mouth. Even if she's doing better with me handling her feet, she really needs to get trimmed when the farrier is here next month, and at least right now, I'm still planning on using dorm for his visit.

 

[egrogan]

Phew- it was a hot, steamy weekend here. We've mostly avoided the very high temps most of the rest of the country has had the past few weeks, but it was nearly 90*F yesterday and today.

Yesterday I volunteered at GMHA as a cross country fence judge for starter horse trials. I've never volunteered for cross country before, but it was a lot of fun. I'm not an eventer, but my understanding is that this was more of a schooling show situation for young horses, newer riders, etc. The beginner novice division had a fair number of junior riders, and it was just adorable as the ponies came charging up to my fence game as can be, with their little pilots counting out their strides as they approached...ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR...JUMP!!! And then were all smiles and pats and "good job pony!" as they cantered by. I do wish I had been able to really experience riding as a kid. They seemed to be having a blast.

One of my fences:

I was there most of the day, and had fences in 4 divisions. The elementary and pre-elementary divisions were for the green horses/riders, and you could see there was a difference in the level of confidence there- for both horses and riders. But even with a few refusals sprinkled across the divisions, it all seemed very safe and supportive, and looked like most people had a good time. It wasn't specifically a Morgan show, but there was a good representation of Morgans jumping around.

Novice:

Beginner Novice:

Elementary:

With all four feet firmly planted on the ground, Fizz and I met M and Coalie this morning to get in our ride before it got too hot. It was warm when we left, but not oppressive yet. As we headed down the hill of despair to get to our meeting place, we were soon greeted with a large tree across the road, making it impassable. We had to do some bushwalking up a ditch, into the woods, and then back down a ditch and onto the road to get around, but Fizz was game. Mac the German Shepherd is back into the cone of shame (and thus voiceless), but we saw him coming so didn't get too spooked passing him. And M and Coalie were waiting for us right past his house.

We decided to get into the woods as quickly as we could and hope temps stayed cooler than it would be in the sun out on the road. Plus, the roads are concrete hard right now. The flies were terrible, but we kept the horses as comfortable as possible swatting them away. And the batman headgear helps a lot!

We followed the snowmobile trail, which is in really good shape footing-wise, and on the sections that weren't too rocky we trotted and cantered while it wasn't too hot. We rode the trail "backwards" - in the sense that we hopped on the trail where we usually come off it back to the road - so there was a lot of fairly steep downhill for the horses to navigate. We had a long conversation about how two years ago, I never would have been comfortable riding those steep downhills and would have gotten off to handwalk down. Fizz just feels so much more confident and capable now. When we first started doing these trails, it's like she'd just fling herself down the hill on the forehand and hope for the best, which was very unnerving. Now I can feel her thinking through where her feet should go, and engaging through her whole body to balance well. It's really satisfying to think about how much different she is to ride now.

The horses passed up the opportunity to drink at the little waterfall near where we saw the bear on Friday, but Fizz was happy grazing as the tall forest grass was practically hitting her in the face in some spots. Coalie decided he did want a drink after all when we went through a mud puddle. Fizz had a huge mouthful of grass that caught his eye, and he tried to grab it out of her mouth- then stuck his tongue out at her when she wouldn't give it up! M had to push his head away to get him to stop. Too funny.

The bugs were really awful when we split up to go our separate ways home. My neighbors' fields near my house aren't hayed yet, and as we walked around the perimeter Fizz seemed to like the feeling of the tall grass tickling her belly and driving the bugs away.

Sure felt like summer today in a way it hasn't yet this year! Still, we were out early enough we ended up doing 9 miles, and while we were hot and itchy at the end, it wasn't unbearable. I'm hiding out inside now with a fan on for the rest of the day, but I'm glad we were able to go for such a good ride.