In March I had a much needed talk with a co-worker who owns a horse. The point of the conversation? That at 30 I know plenty about horses, especially THIS horse, and I shouldn't be letting other people make decisions for me about what's best for him. The result of the conversation? Lyric and I moved barns at the beginning of July. Our new barn is much fancier than we really need. It has an indoor dressage ring, an outdoor dressage ring, a jumping field, a track around the pastures with some mini-cross country jumps, and trails that lead to even more arenas we can use. Oh, and it's across the road and about 100' from access to Duke Forest trails we can ride on. The turnout is also pretty much ideal. They rotate pastures (~ 2-3 acres?) once a month for each of the 2 groups of geldings (4-6 horses). The mares have a larger field and don't get rotated, but there are also only 3 of them. So now we have access to multiple riding terrains and buddies.
The change has been incredible. We went from barely being able to ride once a week without massive muscle soreness to riding 3-5 times a week (even in the 100+ degree heat) with only a little bit of stifle soreness to show for it. His stifles took a major hit these past couple months with the crappy turnout, so I'm hoping he's just sore from building muscle. I noticed tonight that he's no longer dragging his hind toes on straight-aways in the outdoor dressage arena (which has less deep footing, but still). So I think we can actually start making some goals!
Goal #1: Continue building strength. I tend to get a bit impatient, so I don't want to push him too hard too fast. Right now I figure we can handle 20-30 min of "work" and then go for a trail ride. I'd like to get that to 45 minutes of walk/trot/canter, but I need to remember to build up to that over the course of a month or two.
Goal #2: Work on his curling. If I wanted to show Arab Costume, Lyric's head position/speeds are great. We've got a great long trot and hand gallop. I'd like to be able to control his speed just a little better than that, and part of that is teaching him to go "through". Right now leg = faster tempo and rein contact = bend your neck at the 3rd vertebrae. We need to develop more "oomph" and throughness, which will hopefully come as we add strength.
Goal #3: Keep it fun! We have all these new options for what to do, so I want to make sure that I don't bore him to death with drilling or circles. There's no reason we can't work on not curling out on the trails or pop over some tiny jumps to keep things interesting. But again, I have to remember not to overdo it!
Goal #4: Keep track of our progress. I'd really like to start taking monthly conformation shots to track how his body changes over the next couple months. I wish I'd gotten a picture the day I moved him, but oh well. I'm sure there are plenty more dramatic improvements left to come!
Friday, July 13, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
Umm, oops
So I sort of forgot about updating the blog when things were going well (there was a pony to ride, after all) and then didn't feel like it once stuff started going badly, so yeah.
Here's a brief summary of how things have gone...
Oct and the 1st half of November went great. We started to work on getting Lyric more balanced and using his back-end rather than dumping all the weight onto his front end. Then he started getting resistant at the trot. As in, I'd ask for a trot and we'd end up stopped all together. I let myself believe it could be a training issue for awhile (probably too long), but got the vet out right before Christmas to do hock injections.
When I returned in January after visiting family for Christmas, Lyric was thrilled with his new hocks. He did beautiful transitions, started doing some baby lateral work (spiraling in/out, quarter turns on haunches at the walk or "square turns"), but by the end of the month he was starting to balk again. Just a little at first, but it got progressively worse until around the beginning of Feb I just gave up trying to ride him. He'd started balking at the walk, so something was clearly off.
We haven't really found a likely source of the problem yet. We tried a bute test (2 g morning/night for 3 days, 1 g morning night for 3 days) and saw no change. My trainer thought he might be selenium deficient, which can cause a general muscle soreness. So he's on a Se supplement and he did look somewhat better on Saturday when I lunged him for a little while. He also got a chiropractic adjustment on Wed. He only had 3 vertebrae out, and the chiro said that they shouldn't be out enough to have caused the problems. I'm hoping to get on later this week (we got rain and snow yesterday, so I think the ring may need a few days to recover!) and see if he's progressed any.
Meanwhile I've been given some general instructions as far as body work stuff goes (basically, poke his muscles). He's tight/sore on the left rear side. Whether that's a consequence of the life-long right front funky foot, muscle soreness from increased ability to use his hocks, or some sort of scar tissue problem, I don't know. I'm still hoping that this will all just magically go away and I'll have my cooperative pony back. So far all I know is he is/was sore in his left lumbar region and doesn't respond to bute (so it's probably not bones/hocks).
Horses sure were a lot simpler back when I was a teenager. You fed them, put shoes (or not) on them, and cleaned their stalls.
Here's a brief summary of how things have gone...
Oct and the 1st half of November went great. We started to work on getting Lyric more balanced and using his back-end rather than dumping all the weight onto his front end. Then he started getting resistant at the trot. As in, I'd ask for a trot and we'd end up stopped all together. I let myself believe it could be a training issue for awhile (probably too long), but got the vet out right before Christmas to do hock injections.
When I returned in January after visiting family for Christmas, Lyric was thrilled with his new hocks. He did beautiful transitions, started doing some baby lateral work (spiraling in/out, quarter turns on haunches at the walk or "square turns"), but by the end of the month he was starting to balk again. Just a little at first, but it got progressively worse until around the beginning of Feb I just gave up trying to ride him. He'd started balking at the walk, so something was clearly off.
We haven't really found a likely source of the problem yet. We tried a bute test (2 g morning/night for 3 days, 1 g morning night for 3 days) and saw no change. My trainer thought he might be selenium deficient, which can cause a general muscle soreness. So he's on a Se supplement and he did look somewhat better on Saturday when I lunged him for a little while. He also got a chiropractic adjustment on Wed. He only had 3 vertebrae out, and the chiro said that they shouldn't be out enough to have caused the problems. I'm hoping to get on later this week (we got rain and snow yesterday, so I think the ring may need a few days to recover!) and see if he's progressed any.
Meanwhile I've been given some general instructions as far as body work stuff goes (basically, poke his muscles). He's tight/sore on the left rear side. Whether that's a consequence of the life-long right front funky foot, muscle soreness from increased ability to use his hocks, or some sort of scar tissue problem, I don't know. I'm still hoping that this will all just magically go away and I'll have my cooperative pony back. So far all I know is he is/was sore in his left lumbar region and doesn't respond to bute (so it's probably not bones/hocks).
Horses sure were a lot simpler back when I was a teenager. You fed them, put shoes (or not) on them, and cleaned their stalls.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
First lesson under saddle!
Lyric got his first under saddle lesson this weekend. Tara switched times with me so we could get a lesson in before leaving for the Gamecock football game.
We started out with some quick lunge work. I need to remember to use a steady pull to turn him tighter when he's trying to gawk and invert rather than short tugs. That'll probably help our stopping, as well! Lyric tried to cut in on the circle to avoid the poles and got a swat with the whip to remind him to go out. He's pretty hilarious when he overreacts. He turned the trot poles into a very interesting little jump from the canter. We didn't bother putting the side reins on so that we could get to the riding part!
We worked on not getting him to curl behind the bit. Gayle says his conformation will make it important to keep him from getting deep because he's built to facilitate curling. I felt like cursing my early riding instructors who wanted me to put my hands up forward near the martingale strap. As a result I ride with straight elbows and low hands, neither of which is good for dressage (or riding in general). I've made it my goal to get through an entire lesson without Gayle having to fuss at me for my hands being down or my elbows being forward. Gotta start somewhere! I think we'll make a good team once we get some of these basics fixed. Lyric's game for whatever and catches on to what we want very quickly. And at least for now, he doesn't hold my mistakes against me. :) What a good pony!
We started out with some quick lunge work. I need to remember to use a steady pull to turn him tighter when he's trying to gawk and invert rather than short tugs. That'll probably help our stopping, as well! Lyric tried to cut in on the circle to avoid the poles and got a swat with the whip to remind him to go out. He's pretty hilarious when he overreacts. He turned the trot poles into a very interesting little jump from the canter. We didn't bother putting the side reins on so that we could get to the riding part!
We worked on not getting him to curl behind the bit. Gayle says his conformation will make it important to keep him from getting deep because he's built to facilitate curling. I felt like cursing my early riding instructors who wanted me to put my hands up forward near the martingale strap. As a result I ride with straight elbows and low hands, neither of which is good for dressage (or riding in general). I've made it my goal to get through an entire lesson without Gayle having to fuss at me for my hands being down or my elbows being forward. Gotta start somewhere! I think we'll make a good team once we get some of these basics fixed. Lyric's game for whatever and catches on to what we want very quickly. And at least for now, he doesn't hold my mistakes against me. :) What a good pony!
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Time flies
I just realized Lyric's been here a month! In that month he's gotten his feet trimmed three times, blown an abscess, and decided that I'm a lot less fun as a regular occurrence ;).
While his legs and feet are adjusting to the gradual changes we're making to his "funky foot", we're working on getting him muscled up and introducing some basic dressage concepts on the lunge line. Right now he's getting lunged with just the outside side rein on very loose, with the focus on getting him to stretch down and loosen his neck and withers so his back can come up. We have some trot poles he gets to do as well, which I think he enjoys despite being a doofus and stepping on them once they get raised.
Tonight we took a break from the ring and lunged in the field next to Coach K's driveway. It's a great place to work him because of the nice, slopey hills. Lyric thought it was great because he could trick me. It's just AMAZING that putting his head down to stretch magically brings the grass in reach of his mouth. I'd have found it a lot funnier if I didn't keep having mental images of him putting a foot through/on the side rein or the lunge line and breaking a leg out there. It was a great workout for him, though. It's amazing how much of the soreness in his hocks disappears when there's something interesting going on. And he's got impressive reach with his front end, too!
While his legs and feet are adjusting to the gradual changes we're making to his "funky foot", we're working on getting him muscled up and introducing some basic dressage concepts on the lunge line. Right now he's getting lunged with just the outside side rein on very loose, with the focus on getting him to stretch down and loosen his neck and withers so his back can come up. We have some trot poles he gets to do as well, which I think he enjoys despite being a doofus and stepping on them once they get raised.
Tonight we took a break from the ring and lunged in the field next to Coach K's driveway. It's a great place to work him because of the nice, slopey hills. Lyric thought it was great because he could trick me. It's just AMAZING that putting his head down to stretch magically brings the grass in reach of his mouth. I'd have found it a lot funnier if I didn't keep having mental images of him putting a foot through/on the side rein or the lunge line and breaking a leg out there. It was a great workout for him, though. It's amazing how much of the soreness in his hocks disappears when there's something interesting going on. And he's got impressive reach with his front end, too!
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Fun with abscesses
Well, my equestrian odyssey is taking a slightly different course than I'd planned. Lyric has what we affectionately call a "funky foot". His entire life there's been a flare on his right front foot. He's been sound on it, so we weren't overly concerned about it. Gayle (my trainer/trimmer) saw it for the first time a week ago and explained what was causing it.
It turns out that the flare is a secondary effect from the real problem, a more upright inside wall. Because the inside portion of his foot grows more upright, it pushes his entire hoof structure up on the inside, resulting in a lowered outside edge to the coronet band. Normally, the resulting flare would just sort of self-trim while the horse walks, but since Lyric has nice, strong hoof walls, it just keeps growing out "funky". The problem with this is that it is stretching his outer hoof wall away from the inner hoof, resulting in a stretched/distorted white line. He's getting weekly trims on the front foot to slowly lower that inside hoof wall and take off the outside flare. The hope is that as we do this, the hoof structure will realign itself, resulting in a horizontal foot. What that means for me, for the moment, is soaking his foot twice a week in a solution that requires an airtight seal around his leg.
I'm hoping that all of this will go well, and so far Lyric doesn't seem to mind his new foot. Of course, it's hard to tell because last week just before he got his first trim on Saturday, he started showing all the symptoms of an abscess. Lyric is many things, but "stoic" is not one of them. He's very much one of those horses you'd swear had broken a leg when he gets an abscess. I soaked it and by Monday he was sound enough that I rode him lightly. Well, this morning he came in slightly lame, and by 3 he was dead lame again. So I'm back to soaking his foot in Epsom salts. Tara, the barn manager, is giving him some bute and found an Epsom salt poultice that I'm going to borrow and see if we can get it to drain. If not, I guess Lyric will be getting to meet his new vet sooner than anticipated!
Today wasn't totally depressing, though! I drove out to the "local" tack store. They didn't have what I was looking for (a cheap lunge whip), but I picked up a small bag of horse treats to see if Lyric would eat them. Turns out he loves them (to the extent that he knocked the bag over trying to fit his muzzle in while I wasn't looking). So at least now I know what to bribe him with while we're doing our foot soakings!
It turns out that the flare is a secondary effect from the real problem, a more upright inside wall. Because the inside portion of his foot grows more upright, it pushes his entire hoof structure up on the inside, resulting in a lowered outside edge to the coronet band. Normally, the resulting flare would just sort of self-trim while the horse walks, but since Lyric has nice, strong hoof walls, it just keeps growing out "funky". The problem with this is that it is stretching his outer hoof wall away from the inner hoof, resulting in a stretched/distorted white line. He's getting weekly trims on the front foot to slowly lower that inside hoof wall and take off the outside flare. The hope is that as we do this, the hoof structure will realign itself, resulting in a horizontal foot. What that means for me, for the moment, is soaking his foot twice a week in a solution that requires an airtight seal around his leg.
I'm hoping that all of this will go well, and so far Lyric doesn't seem to mind his new foot. Of course, it's hard to tell because last week just before he got his first trim on Saturday, he started showing all the symptoms of an abscess. Lyric is many things, but "stoic" is not one of them. He's very much one of those horses you'd swear had broken a leg when he gets an abscess. I soaked it and by Monday he was sound enough that I rode him lightly. Well, this morning he came in slightly lame, and by 3 he was dead lame again. So I'm back to soaking his foot in Epsom salts. Tara, the barn manager, is giving him some bute and found an Epsom salt poultice that I'm going to borrow and see if we can get it to drain. If not, I guess Lyric will be getting to meet his new vet sooner than anticipated!
Today wasn't totally depressing, though! I drove out to the "local" tack store. They didn't have what I was looking for (a cheap lunge whip), but I picked up a small bag of horse treats to see if Lyric would eat them. Turns out he loves them (to the extent that he knocked the bag over trying to fit his muzzle in while I wasn't looking). So at least now I know what to bribe him with while we're doing our foot soakings!
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
The odyssey begins
The odyssey isn't really beginning in 2011. It began on May 5th, 1995 when a little chestnut colt was born on a small farm in Bishopville, SC. My mom was starting to think about replacing her 16yo grade mare and had been looking at some options. We looked at a half-Arab half-Fresian mare (who strangely enough ended up moving in next door to my parents house about 10 years later) and several other riding-age horses, but she wasn't finding anything she liked. Somehow, she ended up picking this little, 6-month-old Arabian stud colt named Flashs Image. She calls him Lyric, but I tend to just call him Lyr-Brat thanks to his bratty 2yo self.
We took him back to his trainer for I think 60 days of training when he was 4, but that's been the extent of his formal training. My mom's mare is still going fairly strong now, 16 years later at 32, though she's starting to show her age and requires more involved feeding these days. I ended up being Lyric's primary rider during those early years since I "bounced better" (not that there was a lot of bouncing back up needed) and we did everything from fun day shows to pole bending to 2'6" hunter courses. His very first show at 4 was a fun day show where we won 2nd in Simon Says after antics that included sitting on him backwards and any number of very odd things. He never moved a hoof he wasn't asked to. Since I moved to Durham for grad school, he's mostly sat around being a pasture pet and getting ridden once or twice a month when my mom felt like riding twice.
In the next week or two, that's all going to change. He's getting moved up here with me to be my new horse! Rather than sitting on him backwards or jumping, we'll be working on my new passion, dressage. I think he'll do great! I've worked with my trainer, Gayle Dauverd, off and on over the past few years on horses I've leased, and I'm hoping she'll like Lyric as much as I do. I don't have ambitious showing goals, I just want to keep learning. If I can one day do tempi-lead changes (not necessarily one-tempis; any tempis will be fine!) then I'll consider this a successful adventure.
We took him back to his trainer for I think 60 days of training when he was 4, but that's been the extent of his formal training. My mom's mare is still going fairly strong now, 16 years later at 32, though she's starting to show her age and requires more involved feeding these days. I ended up being Lyric's primary rider during those early years since I "bounced better" (not that there was a lot of bouncing back up needed) and we did everything from fun day shows to pole bending to 2'6" hunter courses. His very first show at 4 was a fun day show where we won 2nd in Simon Says after antics that included sitting on him backwards and any number of very odd things. He never moved a hoof he wasn't asked to. Since I moved to Durham for grad school, he's mostly sat around being a pasture pet and getting ridden once or twice a month when my mom felt like riding twice.
In the next week or two, that's all going to change. He's getting moved up here with me to be my new horse! Rather than sitting on him backwards or jumping, we'll be working on my new passion, dressage. I think he'll do great! I've worked with my trainer, Gayle Dauverd, off and on over the past few years on horses I've leased, and I'm hoping she'll like Lyric as much as I do. I don't have ambitious showing goals, I just want to keep learning. If I can one day do tempi-lead changes (not necessarily one-tempis; any tempis will be fine!) then I'll consider this a successful adventure.
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