Horses have the most amazing radars for trouble. We’re always hearing of them sensing a big storm hours before it arrives, knowing when something is wrong with a herdmate, and reacting appropriately to our moods.

Ace is certainly no different.

Yesterday there was small carnival complete with marching band just on the other side of the treeline from my barn. It started with a parade with said marching band, and a whole bunch of firetruck and police car sirens leading the way. I rode Ace for a good 20 minutes with all that sound going on. He didn’t bat an eye, and his threat level alert status remained Green=Low.

We walked around the farm a bit to cool out, and ended up in the yard in front of the barn where he could now see the carnival rides and flashing lights.

With the crazy sounds now in view, Ace’s alert status went up to Blue: Guarded. His head was up, ears pricked, and full attention on the distant carnival. But he wasn’t worried, just attentive.

Then something down the long driveway caught his attention and his alert level immediately jumped to Orange=High. He started dancing around and pitching a minor fit without taking his eyes off the driveway.

One of his herdmates was dancing around down there almost out of view. And she was missing her rider.

Apparently they were out for a ride when the task at hand and the carnival noises got the best of the mare, and she dumped her rider and high-tailed it back across the road toward the barn. She had nearly gotten hit by a truck before being caught by the neighbors.

Ace’s reaction to seeing her 200 yards away was the first indication we had back at the barn that anything had happened.

Fortunately, all involved were OK, and hopefully learned a good lesson about riding alone across a road with a carnival going on.

Ace didn’t settle down until the mare was back in the barn, untacked, and in her stall either. Alert status back to Green (getting dinner makes the threat level status go down quicker as well).

Ace has had one week and one day in his new home and is doing exceptionally well. We even went on our very first trail ride last Friday!

Moving Day

Moving day dawned cold, windy, rainy, and dropping in temperature. While it was gross for loading up my jump equipment and horse, it fit the mood as we prepared to leave our former home. The new barn owner and I took her trailer to get Ace, and after visiting with my friends for a while, it was time to head out.

We didn’t have far to go, but I wrapped Ace’s legs anyways because as any one who has read for a while knows, he’s a bit accident prone. He walked right onto the trailer and was patient as I shoved him in and closed the divider (he’s so long he barely fit). He behaved himself the whole way. When we arrived, I opened up the trailer door and then the divider, and Ace immediately started to back out … before I could unclip him. To my great happiness, our tie training paid off and as soon as he felt the pressure from the trailer tie he stepped forward again instead of fighting. Once he was unclipped and I got the lead attached, he backed himself right off and took a good look around his new home. We walked around the arena a few times with just a little blowing as he checked out the surroundings. Then I took him to his new stall … he got one of the double stalls that is 10×20 feet! With a flake of hay and lots of room, he settled right in.

Settling In

Ace settled into the new routine very quickly. Because being in a smaller space and with bossy horses, stresses him out, he gets turned out daily with the “babies.” He quickly made himself king of his little 4-horse herd. His new buddies are Mister, a colt foaled last spring; Mo, a very timid 3-year-old; and Tie, who is 2-years-old and the pushiest of the bunch. After receiving two small warning kicks from Ace, Tie quickly relinquished leadership. They all get along well and mostly stay out of each other’s way.

Ace seems quite happy with his new routine of being stalled overnight and out during the day. He’s been very relaxed and cooperative all week. Some of his spooky and other bad behaviors that appeared with the cold fall weather have disappeared.

Working Hard

I immediately took advantage of our new 60×150 foot arena and put Ace to work. We went from only riding once a week to 5 rides in one week! We’ve mostly been doing walk/trot to get him re-conditioned, with a little canter work and some trot poles thrown in. He feels so much better with the extra room. Although, he did have to re-learn not to over-bend and bulge through the turns.

And the best ride so far was going for our first trail on Friday with our friends Pam and her Appy mare Nikki. We went out for a little over an hour and Ace was fantastic! He was pretty relaxed the whole time. Every once in a while he’d go on alert and look around, but mostly he just followed Nikki and seemed to enjoy a nice afternoon out. I think it might just have been the most pleasant trail ride I have ever been on. Pam, Nikki, Ace and I have scheduled a recurring trail date for Friday afternoons.

I might just have my eventing horse after all!

After 3 good rides and an hour on the trails, Ace was worn out! He was happy to stand in the aisle outside his stall and let the cross ties hold his head up for him.

When my mom and I showed up Saturday for yet another the ride, the look on his face very clearly said, “You’re kidding me, right?”

He’s getting Sunday and Monday off, and then we’ll be back to work with these Jane Savoie exercises tomorrow.

In the midst of all this, I have been checking on Ace nearly every day, even if I just stop out for three minutes to pick his feet.

Back In His Old Digs

Ace is a happy boy these days. Dave and Tracie have a new permanent addition to their personal herd, bringing their total back up to four. Poke is a great little chesnut quarter horse; he was boarded with us for a while, and was recently given to Dave and Tracie. I rode him a bit when he was here before, and really liked him.

We have two main stabling areas at the barn. The first consists of four stalls in the end of the indoor arena, where Dave and Tracie’s horses live. They go in their stalls morning and evening to eat, and are loose in the arena during the day and night. When we had to put Classic down last December, Ace moved into her stall in the arena.

The second area is a small pole barn just in front of the arena where Ace lived when I first got him. It has two stalls and storage for hay. It has access from the stalls to a large paddock area that goes around the arena. Lately, Dave has had some horses in for training for a month or two at a time. They stay in the small barn and paddock, which makes management easy.

Now that Poke has come home and there’s a sixth horse in the mix, it made a lot more sense for Poke to live with Dave and Tracie’s other three horses in the arena and for Ace to go back to the small barn. Instead of sharing the paddock with the horses who cycle in and out, Dave split the paddock in two so each horse has his own space.

Ace seems quite happy with the new situation. He’s outside all the time, moves around quite a bit, and is even building up some muscle in his butt since his part of the paddock has a big hill. He doesn’t mind a bit being separated from his herd, but does still get some pasture time with them. I like having him out there where he has constant access to outside (which also solves my blanketing problem for this winter!).

Ace’s Elephant Memory

To my very great happiness, Ace has been 100% sound for nearly a month now. He got his feet trimmed last week, so they are starting to look much better and the bad frog has healed and grown back significantly.

Now that I’m starting to settle into the new house and schedule, I can start working my horse again. I started with some ground work over the weekend, to renew our communication skills and see how much he remembered after 6 weeks off.

It was like he had been worked yesterday.

He remembered how to do everything I asked, except to stop and disengage his hindquarters when circling. (and I can’t really complain about having issues stopping rather than going, for a change, can I?). Actually, he was doing the groundwork better than he had. We’ve honed some of our skills under saddle, so he moves his shoulders and does sideways much better on the ground now than he ever did.

This is the second injury that has sidelined Ace for at least a month, and both times he’s started right back up where we left off. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen another horse handle it quite that well.

Mostly, I now need to work on re-conditioning him. I think he’s still weak in that right stifle, because although he’s sound, it sometimes makes that popping noise if he’s not using himself well.

I’m going to lunge him over the next week, and then get back in the saddle with long walks and slowly building up the trot and canter work. I hope this nice weather holds out a while longer so I can ride outside and get him back in shape before we are confined to the arena for the winter!

Now that I’m da boss of da shoulders (Ace’s that is) I’m using that building block to keep him out of my space and to protect his space.

One of the most fundamental ground manners that our horses need is to repect our space. In the herd, they are very good at using their back legs and teeth to make other horses respect their space. It’s no different with the horse and human relationship. Ace needs to know that he has to stay out of my bubble unless he’s invited in. It’s a leadership thing and even more importantly, a safety thing. I don’t want him thinking it’s ok to run me (or anybody) else over. I also want him to know that I’m da boss of him – and keeping him out of my space is a good place to start.

Protecting My Space

Ace has never really shown any dangerous behaviors (other than kicking like crazy when we were first wrapping him for an abscess), so a lot of our space issues are about leadership. Sometimes he’s really good about staying a few feet away from me, and sometimes his nose is glued to my pocket.

Last night was a nose-to-the-pocket night. Granted, I had some cookies in there so I will say that at least he had a reason. Sometimes he’s able to forget about the treats I’ve got hidden, and other times he can’t. No matter what we were doing – desensitization, longing, backing, moving hind quarters – he was (rather athletically) twisting his head to keep it right next to me. He wasn’t obnoxious or pushy about, just very very persistent.

And while I’m not terribly stubborn, I can definitely do persistent.

Because Ace has a rather dominant personality, one of the best ways for me to establish my leadership is to move his front end. He’s much more reluctant to do so, but if I can get it anyway I know that I have his attention and respect.

So every time Ace turned that head to my side, I waved the stick at his nose until he moved it, and kept at it until he moved sideways away from me.

We played this game pretty much all night, no matter what we were doing. It was definitely a game rather than a fight. Ace’s ears were always up and he was always watching me with a soft but interested eye. I love when he’s like that. We just have so much fun with each other.

Later when I would send him backwards, he’d oblige and then immediately want to come forward to me. It took quite a few reminders until he realized that he had to stay where I sent him until I invited him into my space. He’d go backwards nicely, then walk over me expecting to get a treat for being good. I’d shake the rope and stop him, then send him back another step or two every time he tried to come forward. Eventually, he stood quietly at the end of the rope and waited for me to invite him back.

It was a fun session, and a good one for keeping up some basic manners!

Protecting His Space

Another way I’ve gained some leadership in Ace’s eyes lately is by keeping the other horses out of his space.

My hubby stopped by the barn on Monday to pick up our house keys (Dave and Tracie fed our kitties while we were gone for the weekend). And while he was there, he actually went into the barn just to visit Ace. The four horses were loose in the arena, and apparently he was able to get in only a pat or two before Marahute (backed up by the boys) chased Ace away. Ben sent them away and went over to Ace again, only to have Marahute chase him away again. He called me later to tell me how put out he was with the three of them for picking on Ace. He said he wanted to put Marahute in “time out” in her stall. Hehe.

So, the last two times I’ve been in the arena with the horses turned out, Ace has been sticking to my shoulder and I refuse to let the other horses chase him away. If they look at us and start to walk in our direction, I send them away. I can tell Ace appreciates this. He’s glued to me any time we’re all loose together.

After just a few days of this, the other horses don’t even try to chase Ace away from me. They see me come in and go up to him and just watch from the other side of the arena. I’m getting a little more appreciation and respect from Ace now since I’m successfully protecting his space.

I’ll show them who’s lead mare around here.

Ace is feeling really good these days. When he gets out of his stall in the morning he gallops and bucks and rolls and acts like a very happy, feeling-good horse. Of course, in doing so on Sunday his back end slipped out from under him. He popped right up though and got away with just a scrape on the inside of his fetlock. Naturally, it’s the same leg that had the abscess. If it’s not one thing, it will be something else.

On another very horsey note, I went down to the barn Sunday afternoon just to spray some fur-all on Ace’s heel. When I walked into the arena, Dave and Tracie’s three horses were standing quietly in the arena. Ace was standing quietly in his stall. Then I did a double take; his stall door was wide open! Ace has moved into Classic’s stall in the arena, but has not been integrated into the herd yet since he was healing (the horses are turned out in the arena except when they are eating). But the boys managed to let him and tried to speed up the acclimation process. It could have been bad, especially if they trapped Ace in his stall, but everyone came out of it relatively unscathed. Ace has one bite mark on his side and one slightly tender spot where he probably got kicked. And they broke the plug on his heated water bucket. But really, that’s not so bad compared to what they could have done. We figured that because of this, and since Ace’s abscess is better, it’s time to focus on getting him settled in with the herd so he doesn’t have to stay stalled any more. Ace sure will be happy about that!

I’m looking forward to Christmas, but am going to be sad to be away from my boy for four days while we spend the holidays with family. Hopefully we can get back into training in January now that he’s all healed up and once we’re beyond the holidays.

Nearly four years ago I was fresh out of college, officially living and working in a new city an hour and a half away from home, and getting married in two months. Throughout college, I rode, worked at my barn, and taught lessons when I was home on breaks. But now that I was living in my college town 12 months out of the year instead of just 9, it was time to find some horses here.

A series of contacts led me to discover Tracie, who works at my Alma Mater, attended a church that was one of my clients, and also happened to have horses. I didn’t know her and she didn’t know me. But I sent her an email anyway, telling her about my horse background, that I was looking for someone who needed help exercising or training their horses, and some people she could talk to for personal recommendations. I was going out on a limb for this, knowing she could say “no way” to some complete stranger asking to ride her horses.

But five minutes later, there was a new message in my inbox.

It was more of a book than an email, really. Tracie was thrilled. She and her husband Dave had recently bought two young horses to make their herd four, and didn’t have as much time for the original two horses. They also needed someone with horse experience who could provide animal care on the few occasions they went away.

A few weeks later, I met her face to face and went to their house for lunch, where we spent several hours getting to know each other. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

A Classic Thoroughbred

My second visit out to Dave and Tracie’s actually entailed a chance to ride their horses. My charges were Marahute, a teenage Appy/Arab mare, and Classic, a 20-year-old Thoroughbred mare. At first I split my time between the two. I like a horse that needs a little bit of work, that’s going to keep me challenged and thinking. That was Marahute.

But riding Classic was like coming home.

The 15.2 chesnut with a white blaze had all the trappings of a refined Thoroughbred mare. The delicate muzzle, the soft brown eyes, the long legs. She had a comfortable trot with just a little spring to it and a rolling, gorgeous canter. She was light in my hands and off my legs. And she had that extra little bit of energy that I love in Thoroughbreds.

Classic was willing to try whatever I asked of her. After spending much of her time as a (wonderful) trail horse, she got to play the hunter with me. And she was good at it. She could get that hind end underneath her and have a sweeping working trot, rounding her neck and back just so while staying light. She was such a joy to ride.

Classic reminded me of why I love horses so much, and thoroughbreds in particular. After riding Marahute, who challenges almost every step of the way, Classic was a breath of fresh air. I could feel my whole body (and mind!) relax with her.

Classic could be a little bit of a grump about grooming, was very protective of her space and food, and hated to be tied. But those were just little quirks that we learned to deal with.

She knew exactly who she was, where she stood in the herd, and what she wanted out of life.

The Heartache Of Horse Ownership

When I first met her, Classic was developing just a tinge of arthritis in her hocks. It was just enough to make her the tiniest bit stiff when she first got going, but she’d work out of it very quickly. The exercise was good for her; developing the muscles around the affected joints providing strength and relief.

But over the last year, the arthritis had gotten worse; enlarging her joints, weakening her back end, and making her uncomfortable. Dave, Tracie, and the vet decided to retire her from riding last winter. But she would stand and stare as we rode the other horses, pricking her ears dancing around, making it obvious that she wanted out too. So, Tracie and I would take her out for a bareback walk/trot ride. She’d shove her head into the bridle, drag you out of her stall, and take off trotting when you were mounted. We are all about listening to our horses, and Classic very clearly said she wasn’t ready to be retired yet. So we kept her in light work.

But then in August, Classic lay down for her afternoon nap and couldn’t get back up. She didn’t look too distressed or uncomfortable, she just didn’t have the strength to get those back legs under her. Dave and Tracie almost had to put her down that day, but made a last ditch effort to get her up … and she did.

Even though mentally Classic didn’t want to be retired, physically it was time.

We knew at that point that our days with our well-loved horse were truly numbered. Over the next few months there were more incidents as she continued to weaken. But there were also long grooming sessions, hours of hand grazing, and playing at liberty in the ring. Classic just kept hanging on. It was obvious in her face that she just wasn’t ready to go yet.

Saying Goodbye

The vet and many horsey friends had assured Tracie that she would know when it was time to let go. After 15 years together, with an extra three months to pamper her, prepare mentally and emotionally (as much as you can anyway), and say goodbye, it was time.

Today, for the first time in a very long time, Classic can run without hurting. She can lay down, have a good roll, and get right back up. She doesn’t have to worry about being too weak or hurting too much. She can be young and healthy again.

That’s the gift you’ve given her, Tracie.

Some gifts are more difficult to give than others. And this is a painful one – for all of us. It may never feel like the right decision to let her go. But it was the kinder one.

I know that Heaven is going to be much better than any of us could ever possibly imagine. And I also know that we can’t imagine it without Classic. God loves us and wants nothing more than to bless us, and for that reason I believe that she is there waiting.

It’s not goodbye forever, it’s just goodbye for now.

When I got home from Thanksgiving travels and went to see him on Saturday morning, he was nearly 100% sound. However, he did have a gunked up heel, and I could tell he had some sort of cut. I got some warm water and a clean towel to clean him up and see what was going on. He was pretty well behaved, seeing as it was the first time I had to treat a boo-boo on him and I didn’t know how he would react. He kicked his foot out to the side just a little to threaten and tell me “ouch, that hurts!” but didn’t actually try to kick me or anything. Once I got the dirt out, I could see this nice, round spot just above his heel. Classic abscess. Fortunately, a small one.

He had only been slightly lame for two days, it burst on its own, and now he’s feeling much better. Dave, Tracie, and I triple teamed him to clean it out with betadine, put a drawing agent ointment on it to make sure all the gunk was out, and wrapped his foot up but good with vet wrap and duct tape. We’ll see how long he manages to keep his “boot” on, and are planning to keep it wrapped up for probably five days or so to make sure it’s completely drained and doesn’t get infected.

On another really really sad note, Dave and Tracie made the incredibly hard decision to put Classic down later this week. For those who don’t know or don’t remember, she’s their 24-year-old thoroughbred mare with bad arthritis in her hocks. Last summer she started going downhill; she’d lay down and wouldn’t be able to get back up. We’ve had quite a few of these incidents throughout the fall, but were always able to get her up, and she never seemed too concerned. But when she gets stuck down, she grinds her hocks into the ground and has really torn them up and they just won’t heal. Over the weekend, she went down again. She was very upset, almost couldn’t get up, and hasn’t been quite the same since. It’s obvious just looking her eyes that it’s gotten bad enough that she is now very uncomfortable. She doesn’t even want to be touched or brushed. Instead of waiting until she finally can’t get up at all, or she injures herself trying to, or is in too much more pain, they’re going to let her die with dignity. It’s a very difficult, sad, decision, but I’m confident it’s the right one.

It’s going to be hard week for all of us as we prepare ourselves and say goodbye, especially for Tracie. We’d definitely appreciate your thoughts and prayers. I’ll be back with a tribute to this wonderful horse later this week.

Midnight is definitely the herd leader, followed down the totem pole by Louie, Marahute, and Classic. We put Ace out first, and then brought Midnight out.

Midnight took a look for a minute, cantered up to Ace with ears laid back, the two of them turned their tails towards each other …

… and then they walked away and started eating.

Next we let Louie out, who also went straight towards the grass. After a few minutes the three of them cantered off towards the end of the pasture … and went right back to munching.

We were just going to put the three boys out because we didn’t want them to get too jazzed up if all five were out, getting everyone running and stressing Classic’s weak and arthritic joints.

But the three of them were handling it so well, so we went ahead and grabbed the girls and tossed them out too. And they went right to eating. Everyone was comfortable enough to take some time to roll. The freshly-bathed Marahute enjoyed using her the grass and her damp fur to turn herself green.

We watched them for a while and then headed back into the barn to finish up chores. As it was getting dark, we heard a ruckus and Tracie could see out just enough to catch Midnight and Ace going at it. They were kicking a bit, and Midnight chased Ace into the wire fence. Fortunately, the fence has a bit of give, and the nearest post broke, and neither of the horses were hurt. Ace had a dust mark on his neck from the wire, but that was the only way we could even tell who hit the fence.

When the boys knew it was getting close to dinner time, they hung out near the gate and kept Ace in the back of the pasture, which didn’t seem to phase him much.

So, all in all it wasn’t too bad for their first time out together. After they’ve had some time to re-establish the pecking order in the larger space, we’ll put the boys loose in the arena together so that they can get used to coping in the smaller space when bad weather comes.