Shadow Updates

It should come as no surprise that I am really enjoying working with Shadow, the standardbred. He is everything I love about the breed... sensible, level-headed, reliable, and willing to really, truly try. Mike happened to be off of work one afternoon when I drove down to work with Shadow so I wrangled him into coming with me and taking photos. When we were done, he commented that Shadow moves pretty much exactly like Ozzy. I had to laugh because it really is true.

Learning to go in side reins.

A few sessions ago, I introduced Shadow to the concept of lunging with side reins on. He needs to build fitness and balance and it seems unfair to demand he learns to carry himself and a rider at the same time. Shadow was a quick study on the concept of lunging. He is learning verbal cues at an alarming rate.

The funniest thing about Shadow was when he decided to get sassy during his first time on the lunge line. When I asked him to pick up the canter to the right, he threw a fit from sheer excitement. As Erin always said... we love the standardbreds, but they are some of god's most graceless creatures. Shadow's attempts at bucking had us in tears from laughter. It was ridiculous.

Under saddle, we continue to work on building a better trot and developing consistency within the gait. His walk-trot transition is lovely and smooth now, provided that you hold him together through it. I am slowly teaching him to default to the nice transition, even with less help from his rider. The same thing goes for the trot. He is pretty good so long as you ride him with a firm contact and push him forward with your seat the whole time. The second you give him more rein or ask for a bigger stride, he lurches forward and promptly falls apart. I've been doing a lot of medium walk to free walk and back, working on following contact without losing momentum. The concept will eventually transfer to trot work, but for now it's pretty abstract to him.

Shadow and April

I have also started cantering him a little bit here and there. He picks the canter up very willingly, but can only hold it for a handful of strides at a time. Then he gradually gets more and more lateral until he's pacing. The good news is that he knows that pacing is not the answer and he is swapping from pace to trot more and more immediately. The idea is that he'll eventually learn that he can either trot or canter... that's it.

In the course of lunging Shadow and working on his canter, I've become a little concerned about his right hip/stifle. He is not lame by any stretch, but he does have some weakness in the right hind. He is more reluctant to pick up the left lead than the right, and it's not stemming from disobedience. He also points that foot when he stands out in the pasture, and April and her farrier noted that he has a hard time holding that leg up properly to have the foot handled. I suspect we may have found the reason he was retired from racing despite a promising start to his career. I told April not to panic yet. She has only had Shadow for a month. It takes about three months for a joint supplement to properly kick in. I suspect that with maintenance and strength-building, Shadow should be just fine, and will probably also be able to jump.

The good news is that April loves him regardless of his limitations. She informed me that she would keep him even if he was pasture sound only. This horse really lucked out.

Introducing: Clue

Time to talk briefly about another new client horse. This one is at the same barn as Shadow. He's a little different than what I normally work with though. Meet Clue:

Clue is a ten year old paint gelding whose owner, Bonni, bought him from a mutual acquaintance of ours, who I'll just call The Cowboy, eight years ago.

These days, Clue lives a good life. He has mostly been sitting around the pasture lately, though he does tote the occasional rider or go for the infrequent trail ride. He is at a good weight with nice feet and well fitted tack. Mostly he's spoiled rotten.

This guy gets novelty points for being the first bald-faced horse I've worked with. Clue is a nicely put together horse with a very handsome head and lovely neck. I'm not normally a fan of the bald-face marking because I think it gives many horses an eerie, ghost-like look, but Clue's saving grace is that he has two dark eyes and black eyeliner on both sides. I'm still not 100% sold on the marking, but Clue showed me how some people might find it attractive on some horses.

Clue has had a lot of training. He neck reins like a dream and stretches right down into a lovely western jog once you get him warmed up. However, he is a wily horse with an impressive stubborn streak. His most recent trick is stopping short at the gate and refusing to move forward.

Once upon a time, Bonni would have worked through these issues on her own, but, following a heart surgery a few years ago, she has become a more cautious rider. She initially hired me to evaluate Clue under saddle, with the plan to have me give her lessons to get her confidence back with him. However, after watching him give me a pretty hard time, she opted to buy a few training sessions before getting on him herself.

As you can see in the photo above, Clue goes in a beetle hackamore. He reportedly had a jaw injury that made him really resistant to bits in general. Thankfully, the bitless bridle seems to really work for him. As I said, he's excellent at neck reining, and the beetle hack works well with that.

I've ridden Clue twice now. Unlike with most horses, who I read pretty well on the first ride, it's taking me a while to figure out all of Clue's buttons. It doesn't help that he hasn't really been ridden in longer than anyone can remember. The training is in there, but it's rusty and buried deep under the cobwebs. I have to assess his training while he gets a refresher course.

I also have to get past some of my own habits in the process. For example, when a western horse acts up, I frequently switch to direct reining to get through the rough patch. This is pretty much ineffective with Clue, especially in the beetle hack. Direct rein just makes him more resistant and confuses him. It's taking a little bit of re-wiring for little old English rider me.

The first time I rode Clue I just did some walk and jog. His walk was pretty lovely. His jog was really nice as long as I kept a pretty short rein on him. He just rolled along. Once he relaxed, I gave him some rein, and he would stretch right down as far as I'd let him go. He would also immediately start speeding up... faster, and faster, and faster, until I took a hold of him again.

On our second ride, we developed a little more feel together and he earned the right to have some freedom with the reins. I also cantered him for the first time. As Bonni had warned me, it was pretty bad. He was just choppy and unbalanced, but with a little finesse he got more organized and actually tried to carry himself nicely.

I am also learning how hard I can push Clue. He hasn't done anything bad per se, but he feels like the type of horse who would retaliate if he was pushed too hard or too suddenly. Instead, I'm working on showing him that I am more patient than he is stubborn. When he protests, I quietly persist and continue to ask for the right answer until he gives it. Sometimes this means sitting through his antics, which include backing up, throwing his head, and wiggling sideways. I don't escalate and I don't punish him. I just wait until he realizes that I'm not going away and that it really is just easier to do what I ask the first time.

I have plenty of nice things to say too. Clue moves brilliantly off the leg and he's a sweet guy under the stubborn streak. He's also a total mama's boy, crawling right into Bonni's lap as soon as I release him from his weekly 'torture'. He is expressive and he's a bit of a comedian.

I think we'll have a lot of fun once we figure each other  out.

Julio's First Time at Round Valley

Mike and I finally had a free day all to ourselves yesterday. We slept in, snuggled, had a leisurely cup of coffee and even breakfast. *gasp* Then we packed up the dogs and took them for a hike/swim at Round Valley. I can't believe it's the first time we've been there this year. I remember when we were there at least once a week. Sometimes life just gets in the way.

Herbie was beyond delighted and dove immediately into the reservoir, showing off her new found swimming skills.

Julio was a little more reserved, but he too went in past where he could touch. He's an adequate swimmer, but I wouldn't call him graceful. Mike says he swims just like his old lab mix, Dakota. By the end of the day, both dogs were exhausted. I was pretty tuckered out myself.

The funniest thing about the day was the new game we discovered with Julio. If you spit or throw water at him, he'll do all sorts of acrobatics in an attempt to catch it in his mouth. I nearly drowned laughing at him.

Of course I took a million photos in the process.

Herbie swims. In the background, a wild dorka appears.

Sunday Stills: Aurorapedia

From unwanted racehorse to kid-safe mount :)

Sunset Duke

Long story short, there was a horse I fell in love with when I worked at SRF. He had been abused through SRF's program as a yearling and landed in my barn after being passed from trainer to trainer and being deemed 'dangerous'. My first ride on him consisted of him trying his best to kill me. My second ride, which was caught on film, featured a lot of spinning, threatening, and half rearing on his part as he tried to express to me just how scary riding was for him.

I spent months working with Duke to get him safe. I got him walking and trotting quietly. Then I got him cantering and started over cross rails. I even took him trail riding.

Me with Duke back in the day.

Eventually, Duke got adopted by a lovely British woman. I was very upfront about his history, even showing her the early videos so she knew what she was getting into. She took Duke home and loved him. I cried the day he left... one of only two times that I cried when horses got adopted. She did dressage with him and they were very happy. Shortly after I quit working at SRF, Duke reappeared on their available horse list and I cried all over again. His adopter's job got transferred over seas and she couldn't take her with him, per adoption contract. I briefly contemplated adopting him, but it wasn't feasible and there was no way I was going to tie myself to SRF in any way.

From there, Duke did a brief stint with a woman I know, and who I was pretty sure was all wrong for him. I tried to stay optimistic, but my heart sank. When he was returned again, I stopped looking for updates. It was depressing and out of my hands, and I didn't want to know.

Jess, Spyder's adopter, randomly messaged me the other night to tell me about this SRF standardbred she found on instagram. His name was Duke and he had the nicest canter and jump. My heart must have skipped about eight beats and I asked, "Do you know if it's Sunset Duke?" Jess didn't know, but she linked me to a photo. I would know that face anywhere. It was Sunset Duke.

After a bit of stalking networking on Jess's part, Duke's adopter friended me on Facebook. I am awaiting the full story of how he came to her, and I'm excited to fill in the gaps in his history for her. Amy, the adopter, already mentioned that SRF 'needs to get their shit together', and I told her I have nothing nice to say about them. She assures me, "Don't worry. This is his forever home."

I definitely got a little misty going through all the photos. He ended up in a good place where he is loved and it couldn't make me happier.

They look so happy!

WW: Rachel and JR

Note from a Student

"Dom,
Thank you so much for all you have done for Tiger and me. I now have enough confidence and trust in my horse and my riding that we have successfully been jumping 2'6"! I love that I can blame that on you! You are such a lovely person and friend. I hope to keep in touch with you. Lastly, thank you for always saying that I could do it!
With much love,
L"

THIS IS WHY I DO THIS.

Puppy Spam

After a brief hiatus to deal with the height of kitten season at the clinic, we are back to placing puppies at an alarming rate.

We got four pups in late last week. They are about 12 weeks old. They look a little lab/vizsla/golden-y, but who knows. Three girls and a boy. The littlest one was very shy when they first arrived, but she's getting friendlier by the day.

There was another litter of four just before that. Two of them got adopted before I even met them. The two remaining are a little girl named Clementine and a little boy named Star.

Star

Clementine

And, just when we declared the farm 'full', we got a desperate call from PR about four tiny, tiny pups that had been dumped in a box outside the vet clinic. They were very small and very weak and they were worried they wouldn't make it. Of course they came in too. I think they may be pibbles! They're only five weeks old so it will be a while before they're ready to be adopted out, but I took pictures of them anyway.

And, of course, there's still Cano, the adult male that was found living at a gas station. He's probably lab/corgi or something similar. He's sweet, obedient, and good with people and animals, but as an adult, he's going to take a little longer to place.

Introducing: YouGotIt (aka Shadow)

I have picked up a slew of new clients lately and haven't had time to talk about any of them. I will try to get to all of them, but I'll start with the standardbred, of course.

Shadow's adoption photo ©Vicki Wright.

Shadow's owner, April, contacted me after another client of mine forwarded her my contact information. She told me that she rode for ten years, mostly in the hunter world. She owned thoroughbreds and did a lot of jumping before she developed tendinitis in her hip, which forced her to quit riding for about six years. She is getting back into horses, and this is where the small world stuff begins.

April recently adopted a standardbred named Shadow (registered name YouGotIt). My first questions, of course, was whether she got him from SRF. She did.

SRF, predictably, didn't give her any information on her horse. All she knew was his registered name and that he is 15 years old. They couldn't even tell her if he was a trotter or a pacer. I wanted to face desk pretty hard since I know SRF has free access to the US Trotting database. With a registered name and/or tattoo, they can get the horse's entire life story from birth to retirement. To add insult to injury, Shadow hasn't raced since 2000, and has likely been in SRF's program since then. How do you not have any basic information on a horse you've owned for thirteen years?

Photo from FB.

After my evaluation, I went home and did some of my own research. Despite the fact that Shadow had trotted willingly during our first ride, I had a feeling he might be a pacer. I was correct!

Here is what else I learned about Shadow:
Shadow is a 1998 pacing gelding by Electric Yankee out of a Kelly Lobell mare named Glen Head. His immediate breeding is not very impressive, but he does go back to No Nukes, a famous pacing stallion.. No Nukes grand-babies tend to make awesome riding horses, so yay!

He was born in Indiana. His mom had six other foals. Out of all of them, he was the best racer. It looks like he never went through the sales as a yearling, so his breeders must have been pretty invested in him.

Shadow was actually a pretty successful racehorse in his short time on the track! He made 10 starts and won six of them! He also came in second twice, which means he had an 80% success rate of finishing in the money. He made $62k, which is not too shabby! His record was 1:55, which is pretty fast for a two year old.

I vaguely remember having to track Shadow's owners down for follow-up paperwork when I worked at SRF. My guess is that Shadow suffered some kind of career ending injury at the track and was placed with SRF, where he was placed in some sort of a riding home. Judging by my own rides on him, I'm guessing he was used as a trail horse with very little formal training (not that there's anything wrong with that). I have no way of knowing for sure, but I suspect he was returned to SRF either because the owners hit hard financial times or because they failed to comply with SRF's strict follow-up policies.

Trail riding with April.

April told me that SRF didn't have him for long before she adopted him. The trainer there only rode him once or twice. They were unable to answer any of her questions about him at the time. In fact, she would have missed him entirely if she hadn't specifically written his name down ahead of time.

Apparently SRF's new farm is laid out in three big pastures. One pasture has rideable mares. One has rideable geldings. The third pasture contains companion horses and is located across the street. Last I checked, there are about 40 riding horses on the farm, so I'll let you visualize what going out to meet the horses looks like.

April says, "They make you sign a waiver..."

But enough about SRF... let's talk about Shadow.

Shadow is about 16hh with a huge head and kind, intelligent eyes. He has great ground manners and his default response to life is to go to sleep. He is a big sweetheart without a mean bone in his body. He stands perfectly still for mounting, doesn't spook at pretty much anything, and tries so so hard to please.

So what's the problem?

Headshot by Vicki Wright

Basically, despite being 15 years old with potentially 13 years of riding under his belt, Shadow is green as grass. He has a big, swingy walk, but still turns like a cart horse, with no idea about moving his shoulders or engaging his hindquarters. Because he was taught not to pace by being rushed into the trot, he has developed a huge, lurching trot transition that jars his rider out of the saddle. You can imagine that this would be very unpleasant with a bad hip. The trot itself is pretty much a sloppy racehorse trot. April says he does pick up the canter, but she hasn't even tried to tackle that since she brought him home (smart girl).

I was very pleased with the work that April has done with Shadow so far. As I said, he's a gentleman on the ground and at the mounting block. April also installed my favorite parking brake before I even met her, taking a lot of the initial work out of it for me.

I spent the first two sessions working with Shadow on softening his poll, lifting his shoulder, and rolling into the trot instead of launching into it. It's very basic stuff, but it's hard work for the lumbering horse. The good news is that Shadow is a fast learner and is already offering baby leg yields at the walk. He is getting lighter in the bridle already, and when he gets the transition right, it's lovely. In fact, his trot is just plain gorgeous once you get it organized. He can only hold the nice trot for three quarters of the arena so far, but what I've seen so far is lovely, and I'm excited to get photos of him under saddle in the near future.

April is also willing to work hard and has a good foundation as a rider, even if she's a bit rusty from her time off. I had her get on Shadow on Thursday for the second half of her lesson. It took a few tries, but she was able to get that nice transition out of him. The smile on her face was priceless. I suspect she'll be showing him in no time.

I get to work with a lot of really cool horses these days, but I think I'll always have a soft spot for the standies.

Ace Update

The blood results came back yesterday. Ace is negative for EPM.

After hearing some stories about false negatives from people on Facebook, I did some more reading. This article talks about the various tests for EPM. We did the Western BLOT, applying the 'rule it out' approach. From what I understand, this is not the test that turns up false negatives. Had the Western BLOT come back positive, we would potentially be looking at doing follow up tests (or not... after all, he's symptomatic), but it didn't. I feel pretty confident that it's not EPM.

My vet and Casey were both excited about the fact that this wasn't EPM, but my heart sank. Now I have no idea what we're dealing with. As I mentioned previously, further diagnostics will be difficult and expensive, and still won't guarantee a diagnosis, let alone a treatment.

As I expected, riding Ace has officially been taken off the table for now. I wasn't planning on getting back on a neurological horse anyway, but it was good to have the vet back me up on the decision.

The plan for now is as follows:
Continue to work with Ace, focusing on lunging. Get his fitness up, get him muscled, and keep him moving. See if he improves or declines with continued regular work. This part is easy.
Put Ace on MSM, Vitamin E, and Selenium. I've been doing a lot of reading on the benefits of Vitamin E in neurologically impaired horses, and it gives me hope. I was pretty skeptical at first, but now I'm keeping my fingers crossed tight that the supplements will help.
Reassess Ace at the end of the month to make further decisions about his diagnosis, treatment, and future. Ace is paid up through August. I told his owner that it's entirely her decision if she wants to keep him at my barn for treatment, etc. or take him home and do it there. This is something we're going to discuss in depth when the time comes.

I have gotten a lot of comments about EPM, other neuro diseases, and other possibilities. I am going 100% with my vet on this one, but I welcome input. Specifically, I would love to hear from those of you who have had horses on Selenium and Vitamin E. What brands of supplement worked or didn't work? What sort of recoveries (or not) have you seen?

We have a pretty good list of things this 'could be' and a plan to address them one by one. How far we take this is going to be up to Casey. It's her money, her horse, and her heart on the line. In an ideal world, this horse could be scanned from snip to banged tail tip, but finances are not unlimited.

I have heard my share of miracle stories, many of them here in the horse blogging community, but to be perfectly honest, I've got a sinking feeling about all this.

Dog Stuff

Time for your weekly dose of random photos of my dogs (are you getting sick of this yet?)

First and foremost, Herbie and Julio got their new collars from Action Leashes.

Last week, Julio came into the living room with his raw hide. He laid down like a good dog and I kept on doing whatever it is that I do on my laptop. Some time later, I heard *crunch crunch jingle crunch crunch* and I was like, "Wait... jingle?" It turns out Julio had sneaked Herbie's collar off the back of the chair in the kitchen and had chewed most of the way through it. I guess he was experiencing some collar envy. I had been debating getting a new collar for Herbie anyway. This made the decision easier.

I can't stay mad at this face.

I placed my order with Action Leashes, providing measurements for their completely custom parachord collars. I went with martingale collars with buckles and tag rings. I've always been a big fan of martingale collars, and the buckle makes for added convenience since I take my dogs collars on and off about a million times a week. I went with royal purple and royal blue to match the dogs' harnesses, and chose the reflective option for added night time safety. Awesome. Payment was super easy, and before I knew it, photos of my completed order were up.

Photo ©Action Leashes

Well before the reasonable 'two week' ETA, the package arrived in my mailbox (with a matching key chain!) The collars fit my dogs perfectly and looked rather sharp. My dogs are getting fancy.

I tried to get some photos of the collars in my yard, but the dogs were entirely too busy playing with what's left of their Jolly Ball.

You can kind of see the collars here.

I've also been doing even more walking with the dogs. I combined the two trails at Mercer Meadows for a longer walk yesterday. It was close to five miles and the furthest I've trekked since I got off crutches. I didn't take a single picture of anything other than the dogs the whole time I was out. I guess I'm obsessed. People warned me that photographing a black dog and a white dog at the same time would be a challenge, but I don't think my issue stems from their colors so much as trying to get them to both pay attention at the same time. Attempts at posed photos are pretty comical at times. Sure, they'll both sit and stay like good, obedient pooches, but good luck getting both sets of eyes open and both mouths looking normal at the same time.

My dogs are ridiculous.

Ace: Neurological

This post is password protected. Email dominika.nawrot@gmail.com for the password.

Click here to enter password

West Virginia: There and Back

On Sunday Mike and I drove to West Virginia and back to drop off an order of jumps for Liz. We are planning to do a for real visit for a few days in the near future, but this was the best we could manage with our insane schedules. Besides, we can't bring the dogs in the truck so we didn't really have a choice.

Originally, Mike and I were supposed to leave by 6am at the latest. At 5am, I rolled over and sleepily mumbled, "Five more minutes." We woke up three hours later. Oops.

Thankfully, we made really good time on the drive down (six and a half hours, including stops).

I did get a terrible migraine about halfway through Pennsylvania. I've come to the conclusion that I'm pretty sure Chinese food triggers the migraines. It's probably the MSG. That sucks because I love, love, love Chinese food... but I'm definitely not in love with it enough to put up with migraines. Mike and I were able to stop for painkillers and caffeine almost immediately so the whole ordeal was over pretty quickly, but I was pretty miserable for a while there.

The views coming through western Maryland were gorgeous. Mike and I have been having this ongoing debate about whether or not there are any actual hills in Maryland. I'd say this photo is all the proof I need:

The line between Maryland and West Virginia is sort of a tangled blur so I'm not really sure what state we were in when, but it was all lovely. Mike and I need to start doing more day trips so we can get some real hiking and exploring in (you know, in all our vast free time).

We were both super fascinated by the wind turbines up on the mountains. I know a lot of people hate them, but I honestly wish NJ would get on board with all that. Apparently there was talk off putting them in the ocean, just off the coast, but people moaned that they would be an eyesore (as opposed to Snooki and all our other shore attractions). Mike and I were extra delighted when our route took us up the mountain and directly under the turbines. We probably added twenty minutes to our trip just by stopping and gawking and leaning out the windows to take pictures. (Yes, Liz, we are those people.)

It got so big!

Before I knew it, we were meeting Liz at the corner gas station/deli/whatever, and she was handing me a suddenly-three-month-old (K)Atticus. I cannot believe how big he got! Or how healthy he looks! Or how completely chill he is. He rode happily in my lap all the way to the barn while I made up for lost time by smooshing him a little extra. Good kitty.

At the barn, I met Liz's friend, Chris, said hi to Kenai, and finally, finally got introduced to Q and Griffin. I did my best 'critical face' and quickly came to the conclusion that Liz has a very lovely pair of horses. In fact, I don't think photos do Q justice (and I think she's lovely in photos!) She's pretty much what I would look for in an endurance horse if I ever got another go at it (you know, instead of taking a block headed tank of a standardbred and doing it the hard way).

Mike set to work putting the finishing touches on the jumps while Liz gave me a quick tour of the farm. I got to meet the other horses, including the little gypsy sporthorse filly who is o-my-god-so-cute.

I wasn't planning to ride on this visit (we were really strapped for time) but, before I knew it, Liz and I were strapping bareback pads to her horses to cross the creek and see the rest of the property. It wasn't until we were halfway across the back field that I realized that, probably for the first time in my life, I had been given my choice of horses and had gone with the mare.

Q was totally lovely. She was springy without being uncomfortable, forward without being rude, and obviously used to being ridden all over the universe. There need to be more mares like her. She also stood patiently while I discovered that I no longer have the upper body strength to vault onto a horse. *sigh* I even let her out for a brief, brief canter on the way home, which is when I decided that I need to come back to ride her for real, and soon!

Liz on Griffin, me on Q, and the faithful Kenai.

After playing some catch up and having some beers, we were ready to put the jumps to the test. Mike carried them over to the riding area and I made Liz ride over her new toys about a million times before I was satisfied. Q was a good sport about the whole thing and looked super cute in the process. She's an honest and bold horse and seems the type to be up for anything. A-dorable!

And just like, the day had gotten away from us. Mike and I still had a long drive home, and Liz and Chris had dinner plans. We said our goodbyes, promising to get back together soon. Then Mike and I hit the road.

Once again, we made good time on the way. We stopped for snacks and gas, but otherwise made a straight shot home. Neither one of use was particularly hungry, and by the time we got back on familiar turf everything was closed.

We did have a bit of a minor detour on the way home.

On the way down, we had taken the turnpike to route 11 to avoid Harrisburg traffic. 11 dropped us off on 81 south. That was during my migraine, so it was a bit fuzzy to me. We got off the turnpike, stopped at a Love's on the right for pain meds, and turned right onto route 11. I just assumed that Harrisburg was south of the turnpike and that we took 11 south to circumvent the area.

On the way home, following the same logic, we got off of 81 north onto 11 north. The GPS kept trying to convince me to get back on 81, but I ignored it. I did check the map to make sure 11 connected to the turnpike (it did).

Some time later, I was very confused. None of our surroundings looked familiar, and this was taking a lot longer than I remembered. Not to mention the highway was making a lot of lefts and rights that I didn't remember it making on the way down. We did get to see a lot of standardbreds in the form of Amish buggy horses, so I guess that was a new experience for Mike. After what seemed like forever and a half, we finally got to the turnpike. Ahead of us was the Love's we had stopped at earlier that day... only... it was on the right, not on the left where it should have been.

The whole thing sort of blew my mind, so I did some Google mapping when I got home. Turns out we took the turnpike to route 11 NORTH to 81 south on our way to WV, crossing back under the turnpike in the process. Meanwhile, Harrisburg is north of that whole area and was never in our way to begin with. Moral of the story, just take the turnpike directly to 81 and avoid the whole detour. Oops. Despite all that, we really didn't lose any time on the return trip.

 Mike and I got home some time after midnight. We were both pretty worn out and went to bed almost immediately. It's not exactly our standard road trip, but it was a nice break from the monotony of our lives. I'm excited for a return visit :)

Friday Fotos: Dog Walking and HDR

I have been doing a lot of walking with the dogs lately. Sometimes I just walk. Sometimes I bring my camera. I have started playing with HDR photography again. I'm still not very good at it, and I'm still not 100% sure how I feel about it, but I keep playing with it anyway. I came up with this one the other day and was pretty pleased with myself:

Most of my walking has been at Mercer Meadows. It's so convenient and pretty, and people haven't really discovered the park yet so I get it mostly to myself. I'm starting to put together which paths go where. I put together a map the other night from one of my walks, and realized that I was right through the woods from the trail Herbie and I walked the first time I went out there. I'm excited to go for longer walks and connect all the trails for extended adventures.

Red trail was my original walk. Blue trail was the other day.

I've been spending a lot of time really working with the dogs on these walks. Poor Herbie. Getting Julio really brought my attention back to things that I've been slacking on with her (like loose leash walking) and I've laid down the law again. Julio picked up heeling and LLW pretty much immediately. I've started letting him off leash for brief bursts. The truth is I think he's totally trustworthy, not going to go anywhere, and probably more reliable than Herbie, but I'm not about to be 'that person' who pretends leash laws don't apply to her.

I'm pretty proud of how well behaved my dogs are on their walks. I get lots of compliments on how well trained they are, and it makes me giggle because we've only had Julio for a month.

I'm also annoyed at my own inability to take a good photo all of a sudden. I FINALLY managed to get the poochies 1&2 to pose nicely, and I COMPLETELY forgot to change my settings from my HDR shots. Herbie was basically a glowing orb in the photo. I managed to salvage it somewhat in photoshop, but I felt like a moron.

But enough rambling... have some pointless photos of my dog walks in the last week.

The Official Announcement You've All Been Waiting For...

About that Julio dog...

WW: Tor's Misadventures with Jay Jay

Ok. Mostly wordless. I have known Tor for 20+ years. I have never seen her come off a horse before this.

Ace Ridden

After a weekend off, I started up with Ace again last night. I'm almost afraid to say anything out loud, but I think we've reached a turning point. He came when I called and I tacked him up like any old horse. We wandered down to the ring with Mike in tow with the camera.

I decided to play it safe and steer him from alongside as our warm up. Then I laid across his back for half a lap just for good measure. Then, without any ado whatsoever, I climbed on board.

We picked up right where we left off, walking a cautious circle around the ring. I dismounted, praised him, and re-mounted. I was even able to pick up my stirrups! There was no flailing about. There was no buck. It was lovely.

We even had a moment where he saw something that concerned him and worked through it. He paused, and I dropped my stirrups again just so I could have a quick escape if I needed one. Then I asked him to walk off and he did.

I'm hoping that the day when I can just lead him to the ring and get on board and pick up my stirrups is in the foreseeable future. We still have to walk, walk, walk until he gets completely comfortable, but it's hard not to get excited. He is so light in the bridle and so willing to learn. I'm hoping this is the glimmer at the end of a very long, dark tunnel for this horse.

Sunday Stills: Another Sunset

Introducing Ace (Long)

Since I've been working with him since December and he's been living with me for two weeks, I should probably do an actual entry about Ace, huh?

Ace is a horse that makes CP look easy. Before Willow broke my leg, I was telling Mike that if there was a horse that was going to hurt me, it was Ace. He has issues on top of issues and I think that's half the reason I haven't gone into any detail about him.

His owner, Casey, contacted me in December, pleading for help. There are some holes in Ace's history, but here's what I've pieced together:
Ace is an eight year old "quarter horse", though we suspect he has at least some Morgan in there. He is about 14.2hh and a beautiful mover with lots of hair. Casey admits to buying him because he was 'so cute and fluffy'.

He started his riding career off on the completely wrong foot. The people who had him at the time reportedly broke him the 'ole cowboy way'. They basically cornered an untouched four or five year old, strapped the tack to him, and turned him loose in a pen to 'figure it out'. Ace is a sensitive horse and the only thing he 'figured out' was that people suck and riding is scary. It's a real shame because he's a smart horse with a really cool personality and probably would have been a boss of a riding horse if someone had taken the time to start him patiently and properly. But what's done is done.

From there, Ace went to some woman who Casey describes as 'weird' and 'nutty'. The woman basically didn't do anything with him 99% of the time. She did ride him in front of Casey when she came to look at him (after she found him on CL). Casey says the woman climbed onto his back and they basically cantered off the second her other foot was in the stirrup. At the time, Casey assumed that was just the lady's style.

Casey brought Ace home as a six year old. She managed to ride him a handful of times before they got in trouble. On her second to last ride, Ace bolted with her. She was able to stay on, but he scared her half to death. The time after that, he bolted and threw a bucking fit and Casey bailed. She got hurt in the process and was basically terrified of her horse. A few well-meaning people at the barn tried to help her. One after another, they ate dirt. By the time the farrier climbed on board and got dumped, Ace had developed a nasty habit. The second your butt hits the saddle, he takes off. If you manage to stay on through that, he bucks. And he has a wicked buck.

By the time I came into the picture, Ace had been declared dangerous and unrideable. Everyone was advising Casey to get rid of him (sound familiar?) When she scheduled me for the evaluation, she emphasized that she had no interest in getting on the horse herself. I explained that I wasn't promising to get on him either.

When I met Ace, he was a hot mess. He broke the cross ties. He was afraid of the saddle. He wouldn't cooperate for bridling. He was skittish on the ground and pushy to boot. You couldn't even approach him from the right side. At all. Needless to say, I wasn't about to get on him.

As I worked with Ace, I learned more about his personality. As I mentioned, he is a smart and sensitive horse. In the wrong hands, that's the worst possible combination. Worst of all, he has learned to hide his fear. He basically bottles it up until he can't take it any more, then explodes violently.

I explained to Casey that I can't stop a horse from being afraid, but I can show him what to do with that fear. Step one would be to teach Ace to react immediately instead of going to his 'happy place' and exploding unpredictably. Step two would be to channel those explosions into appropriate responses. Step three would be to gradually raise his threshold so it would take more to spook him. I told her it would be a long process featuring a lot of ground work and desensitizing.

The good news is that Casey, like many of my clients, is an incredible and dedicated horse owner. She wants to do right by her horse and she is not on a schedule. She's willing to pump in as much time as it takes. Finances are a restricting factor, but she's not in a hurry.

Unfortunately, I only got to work with Ace half a dozen times before I got hurt. In that time, I taught him the basics of lunging. This wasn't an easy task. Ace's initial response to lunging was to just bolt to the end of the line and pull with all his might, and that was without the whip! The whip itself sent him into a fit of terror. Even seeing it on the ground upset him. I also did a lot of desensitizing with him at that point, including some work with a plastic bag (yes, I'm that hippie trainer). We worked on approaching Ace from both sides and touching him all over. I taught him the parking brake and how to yield to pressure. I had him yielding his hindquarters and shoulders and softening his neck.

I even got on him once. After a whole session of laying the steps that lead up to mounting, I was able to quietly throw a leg over without fireworks. Ace was tense, but he allowed it and, most importantly, stood still. I got on and off about a million times and it was going well. We even managed to walk about ten steps without event. Then, I brushed him ever so slightly with my right leg and he lost it, bolting and trying to buck. Thankfully, I had already installed the emergency brake and was able to pull him up safely and end on a good note.

Then I got hurt. I called Casey from the hospital and told her she might want to hire another trainer because I wouldn't be able to work with him for at least two and a half months.

Casey replied, "Don't be silly. Of course I'm going to wait for you." I was touched.

So Ace sat from February until May. When I went back out to see him, both Casey and I were expecting it to be 'step one, take two'. Ace surprised us, however, by remembering everything I'd taught him up to that point, and happily cooperating. In fact, he was being so good that we started some liberty work that very day.

Over the next few sessions, Ace made a lot of progress. He was starting to focus on me and really 'get' some of the exercises.

We did experience a bit of a back slide for a while there. Ace went through a few sessions in a row where he tried every known evasion and basically flipped me the bird as he galloped away from me in the arena. At one point, we made a 'round pen' by cutting the arena in half with construction fencing. The looks I got from the other boarders were pretty priceless, but the trick worked and Ace got focused on me again.

Once again, I worked up to getting on him. On, off, on, off, on, off. Once again I got to where he walked off for a few steps. But when I went to pick up my stirrups, he took off again. This time, he went straight to bucking. Thankfully, I stayed on and pulled him up. As soon as he planted his feet, I hopped down. Just in time too! Ace ran forward, reared, and tore the reins out of my hands.

Yikes.

The good thing about that session is that I finally got to the root of the problem. The big thing that sends Ace running off in a panic is the sound of the stirrups. He's fine with the feeling of arms, legs, etc. brushing his sides and flanks and hindquarters, but the second he hears that jangle-thwap of the leathers, he loses his mind.

Right around this time, Casey started experiencing some barn drama. The pressure to get rid of the 'useless' horse was greater than ever. The one girl said, "Ace just needs a job. I don't know why you don't just ride him." Lady, you are welcome to get on him yourself! Seriously.

After some serious discussion, Casey decided to move Ace to my barn. She wanted to get away from her boarding situation and we agreed that Ace could really benefit from more than one session a week. Training board was sort of out of the budget, but she found a way to afford the three day a week program.

On July 15th, we picked Ace up. Of course he didn't want to get in the trailer, but I came prepared. After turning down an offer from the barn owner to "just get behind him and push", I got Ace on the trailer in about 20 minutes, without him ever getting stressed or breaking a sweat.

As seems to be the norm, the new horse settled right in. By that evening, he already seemed more relaxed, and I was able to hose him without a halter on to beat the heat.

A few days later, Ace started regular work. On the very first night of training, he blew me out of the water with his willingness to work with me. He was totally focused on me despite some very distracting things going on in the background. We played the 'catch and release' game, where I yield the shoulders to send the horse away, and yield the hindquarters to bring them back. He was totally calm about the whole thing.

Two nights later, we really put the pressure on with some major desensitizing. I brought a bunch of soda cans to the barn, filled them with rocks, and tied them to the stirrups. Before I was finished with the last knot, Ace was gone. We had him confined in the indoor and he was definitely not holding back his fear. I wish I had video of him tearing around the arena, trying to dislodge the cans. It was pretty impressive. A few laps later, Ace realized that the cans were not going to stop following him. He also started to realize that they didn't actually hurt him. He slowed down to a regular canter, then a trot, then a walk. Then he marched over to me, cans a-rattlin', to demand a cookie. Good boy.

We did the cans again the following week. This time he didn't care when I tied them to him. He also lunged quietly with them noisily bouncing off his sides. He still got pretty bothered when I threw them back and forth across his back, but his spooks were getting smaller, less violent, and shorter in duration. Good.

No longer worried about the whip.

Stirrups are not much of a big deal after cans.

Ace's lunging is really coming along too. He is starting to learn verbal cues for his gaits and has even been over cavaletti and cross rails. I even introduced the side reins. He is lunging more and more like a normal horse and I think he's starting to find it sort of boring (good!)

I also started working with him on ground driving. It became immediately apparent that he's never done anything of the sort (I sort of figured). His initial response was to panic about me being behind him. Then he refused to go forward (backwards and sideways, sure, but not forward). Steering was non-existent. Brakes were iffy. That was a long and exhausting session for everyone involved.

But all along he has been getting slowly quieter and more relaxed. When he gets scared, he stops going to his happy place. Instead, he gets tense and looks to me for the right answer. When he really can't take it, he politely tries to opt out instead of ripping the line out of my hands and bolting.

Yesterday, we had a real break through. I worked Ace in the middle of the day (not my usual MO). I tacked him up and led him down to the arena and he was being particularly quiet. I walked all around him and thumped the stirrups around. He cocked a foot.

I decided to try something a little out of the box. Thankfully, Ace is short so I can reach over him very easily. Instead of traditionally ground driving him, I just walked alongside with one arm on either shoulder. I steered with the reins, but he had to lead as though he were being ridden. With some practice, he started to steer really nicely, and he had a lovely whoa when I asked. To get him moving forward, I would cluck, then gently bump him with my elbow, simulating leg. Occasionally, I rattled the stirrups.

The longer we worked, the more relaxed Ace got.

Finally, I decided it was time for the next step. After all, we had kind of run out of other things to work on. I wasn't quite ready to just swing a leg over and hang on, but Carolyn was right outside the arena and could come help if I got into trouble.

First time in side reins.

I put Ace in park, put a foot in the stirrup and leaned across his back. He tensed his entire neck and looked alarmed. I waited until he softened, then got down. Rinse, repeat about a million times. When he seemed ok with me laying across his back, I bumped him and clucked. He took a cautious step forward, then froze. I rubbed his neck and waited. He tried a few more steps, thought about bucking, and decided not to. Before long, I was steering him all over the arena like this. I must have looked pretty silly, leaning over the horse like a dead person and wandering all over the place, but it was working.

A few laps later, I parked Ace and climbed on board. Again, he got tense when I threw my leg over. I patted him, waited until he relaxed, and dismounted. Then I went back to walking him from the ground, then leaning over his back. We went through this cycle a few more times, and each time he got more relaxed when I got on board. Eventually, we were taking a few steps forward at a time.

And then we walked once around the arena with me sitting astride. Ace softened his neck, put his head down, and sighed. We wandered ever so slowly along the fence, and I just sat quietly as he gradually relaxed. One lap later, I pulled him up and he stopped softly on a dime. I dismounted and he didn't flinch. I called it a day there, took him to the barn, and fed him lunch.

I don't think I've ever been so excited to walk forty steps on a horse before.

I called Casey at work and left her a message. She texted back to tell me it was the best voicemail she's ever gotten!

It may not seem like a big deal, but for a horse like Ace to carry a rider quietly around the ring on a loose rein is no small feat. It gives me hope for his future. It has been a long, slow road, but I'm hoping the patience will pay off. All I can do is lay down the foundation, and the rest should fall into place.