So, I’ve been spending a lot of time with my horse lately. Instead of ropes and carrot sticks and saddles, however, it has involved epsom salts, rubber tubs, lugging hot water, vet wrap and a lot of duct tape.

I noticed that he was just a hair off in his left hind the day before Thanksgiving. It was a minor hitch, so I wasn’t too worried. Three days later, he had a cut above his heel. On closer examination, it was apparent that he had an abscess that burst. It was clean, nothing was seeping, and he was sound. I kept it wrapped for a few days with a drawing agent (for any remaing pus) that the vet had given Dave and Tracie when Marahute had an abscess.

Then it came time to remove the vet wrap and duct tape boot. Saying that Ace was a bad patient is a little bit of an understatement. I was holding him while Dave tried to remove it. It was ok for a few seconds, and then Ace’s foot started flying. Hard and fast is also an understatement. He was relaxed and looked like he was practically asleep on the front half while the back half was kicking wickedly. It took a good half hour, some arena time picking up his feet with ropes, and eventually we got it off. But after that he wouldn’t let us get anywhere near that foot without kicking.

There wasn’t a lot we could do to take care of him when he was trying to kick our heads off. Fortunately, the foot was cool, the cut looked good, and he was sound.

For a few days I fought with him enough to at least keep the cut clean and sprayed. And he started letting me handle it better. Dave and I also discovered during this time that a little smack on the butt was enough to stop that foot from flying. I hardly give him more than a love tap, but he thinks I’ve just taken a huge chunk out of his flesh and immediately behaves himself. I guess it’s a little like a mare who nips her foal to keep him in line. Ace just needs to be reminded that I’m the boss of him and he needs to behave himself. So, since that discovery we’ve had a much better time of taking care of him.

I kept his foot wrapped for a few days with some furazone ointment to encourage the cut to heal to heal. And it was looking really good.

Then Saturday I went to check on him and there was a lot of heat in the foot and he was a little bit off again. Not taking any chances, Ace has been on a five day soaking and wrapping regime, to be followed by an every other day soaking for the rest of the week.

Surprisingly, Ace seems to enjoy having his foot soaked. Once I get his hoof in the tub and the water poured in, he doesn’t budge it for at least twenty minutes. He likes to be groomed, so that’s been a good way to keep us both occupied and to keep him from moving. Last night he even turned himself into a pretzel so that he could get a drink of water without moving his foot. I was soaking his hoof in his stall and the water bucket was hanging back by his shoulder. He shifted his front feet just enough and then bent his head laterally all the way back until he could just reach. And he never moved the soaking foot. And then he did it 3-4 more times. It was funny. And impressive.

Tonight is day 4 of the soaking and wrapping. His foot looks pretty good at this point. I’m really hoping that we are just about out of the water (pun intended) with this and that Ace and I can get back to regular work and health soon.

Hopefully I will soon have survived my first health challenge as a horse owner. It’s awfully nervewracking!

… with my horse and my blog!

It’s been a crazy month here. Family emergency and several days out of town with a grandparent in the hospital, Thanksgiving travels, planning and attending a surprise [50th] birthday party for my mom (she reads this and all of my comments, so feel free to leave your best wishes :)), work stuff, and other life stuff, I’ve been out of the loop. Also, with losing Classic last week and Ace having that abscess, I’ve been all out of sorts. He’s finally on the mend, and I’ve got some of my free time back, so I’m off for a good horsey session tonight. We haven’t gotten to do any real training work in 3-4 weeks. I wasn’t able to get to the barn for the last three days, so I really miss my horse and am ready to get back in a groove. Can’t wait for some barn time.

Besides being behind in our training, I’ve been behind on a few tags and awards here. Here they are finally …

6 Things About Me Tag

From my good blogger buddy On The Bit, who you definitely should be reading if you aren’t already. (By the way, On The Bit, I left you several comments this week and none of them are showing up on your blog. I don’t know what’s up with that.)

The rules are as follows:

• Link to the person who tagged you.
• Post the rules on your blog.
• Write six random things about yourself. (I’m making mine all horse related!)
• Tag six people at the end of your post.
• Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
• Let the tagger know your entry is up.

So here goes:

1. I’m married! I discovered a lot of my regular readers didn’t know that. To make it horse-related, my hubby Ben isn’t much of a horse person. Meaning he’s not that interested, although he does have a fair amount of natural riding talent. I’ve put him up on Marahute and with just a little instruction he was getting her to listen, and even bend in the turns (which she doesn’t do unless you make her). Of course, he knows how to clean stalls, stack hay, feed, and fill up water buckets. Like my dad (also a horse husband), he knows about diagonal, leads, and heels down. He’s also super supportive of my horse habit. I reward that by making sure I don’t completely ignore him for the horse.
2. I used to HATE trail riding. We didn’t have a lot of trails around my barn, and it’s not something we did often. As a result, the horses weren’t all that good about it. I was a royal wimp when I was just starting out, so I couldn’t mentally handle it when my horse refused to cross the creek or spooked or got nervous. I’m learning to lose my old ways, though, thanks to Dave and Tracie. They love trail riding, and make it look and sound so fun. I’ve been out a bit with them, but I can’t yet handle a ride over an hour and half long. I get bored and my butt hurts. If I could trot and canter the whole thing (think Man From Snowy River) it would be a lot more fun.
3. My favorite place to be during a bad storm is in the barn. We’ve had a few doozies, and I was always at the barn for it. We’d run around like crazy trying to get all the horses in out of the elements and closing and blocking all of the doors so the wind wouldn’t blow them in. Then we’d put helmets on and hide out in the tack room underneath the saddles. Weirdos.
4. I’ve discovered that it’s a whole new world when I actually own the horse I’m working with. I’ve always had projects and worked hard and enjoyed them, but it’s a whole new level of investment when he’s mine. I’ve discovered I’m more patient, more attentive, more motivated, and more concerned. Hopefully I don’t become too neurotic and can learn to balance a healthy concern with not being over the top.
5. I hope my horse lives forever (wishful thinking doesn’t hurt, right?) but if he doesn’t, I want to be with him when he goes. Planned or not, I want to be by his side so that he has a familiar face and someone who cares. Also, it’s better closure for me to be present. I couldn’t do what Tracie did. I will never forget that final moment, as she turned at the door to look at Classic one last time, and Classic looked back at her with ears pricked. It was incredibly poignant and beautiful and sad all at the same time, and something that is burned into my memory. It’s also something I couldn’t do.
6. I think it would be hilarious to take my cat to the barn and let Ace chase him around. Ace likes to follow the cats and check them out. My cat Rooney (who I love to death) is kinda dumb and clumsy, but very friendly. I just think it would be really really funny. I think the two of them would make a great pair. Rotten, I know.

I like reading everybody’s six things, so I’m definitely going to tag my six people. Do specifically horsey things if you can. Here goes …

• Smells Horsey - one of the first horse blogs I read and one of my favorites. But she hasn’t been writing lately, and I’m hoping this encourages her to do so. I miss her!
• A Horse Crazy American In Germany - I just started reading her blog, but am really enjoying it. It’s so interesting to learn about the differences between American and German horse cultures and practices.
• Enlightened Horsemanship Through Touch - who is incredibly knowledgable and whom I’m encouraging to keep blogging about horses even though she doesn’t have one any more.
• Grey Horse Matters - just because I like her and she always leaves such encouraging and thoughtful comments.
• The Horsey Set Net - who I “met” virtually recently and whose blog posts and comments I really enjoy.
• Holy Racehorse - who is also new to the scene and brings an insider view to training racehorses, with a more a natural philosophy to boot.

The Butterfly Award

GreyHorseMatters was right when she said I could use this award last week. It did help to cheer me up a little during a hard horse week. I have a lot of respect for GreyHorseMatters and always appreciate her encouragement and well wishes.

The Butterfly Award is for some of the “coolest horse blogs you know.” The idea is that you pass it on to several other blogs and say something nice about why you like them. So here goes …

• To Behind The Bit - who does a ton of research and is very informative without pretending like she knows everything. I love that she covers all kinds of horsey topics; ones she subscribes to as well as ones she doesn’t. I’ve learned tons from her blog posts and hope this encourages her to keep it up. Hers is one of my most favorite horse blogs.
• To On The Bit - even though I know she’s already gotten this, I would be remiss if I didn’t give it to what I would consider my best horse blogging buddy. We and our horses have so much in common. It’s been great getting to know you, even if I don’t know your first name! She’s a great girl I never would have met without blogging.
• To Pony Girl Rides Again - whose pictures of her boy are always gorgeous and always make me laugh. I wish I could get such good pictures of my boy to illustrate my posts. It’s been fun to connect with other new-ish horse owners.

I’m a firm believer that the greatest riding instructor you’ll ever have is your horse. Things Ace has taught me over the last week:

• he doesn’t like to feel pressured
• he doesn’t like it when my upper body gets too forward. He stops if I get in front of the vertical.
• I can’t ask him too many different things at once yet. One step, one aid at a time.
• he is very forward without any convincing when it’s cold out
• an active seat drives him forward more effectively than nagging legs
• he likes to walk on the rail and hug the corners
• encouragement rather than pushing him forward is more effective

I had a lot to think about for our weekend rides after the lessons I was learning about Ace’s personality last week. And it paid off! We had two very good, albeit not perfect, rides. Ace was more responsive to my legs and moved forward more energetically. While I still have an issue with him deciding to break gait, he would move forward again  when asked instead of planting himself or going backwards. And that is definitely a step in the right direction. He continues to move his hindquarters very easily for me.

I still need to work on getting him to move his shoulders, but at this point keeping our forward movement is more important.

I spent some time letting Ace go whereever he wanted as long as he kept walking. And wouldn’t yah know it, but the silly horse just stayed right on the rail. He walked the same direction, right by the wall, hugging the corner, for at least 10 minutes. Guess I don’t need to worry about him getting bored just going in circles.

I was also excited to discover him acting very thoroughbred-y on Sunday. He was very attuned to his environment and was much more energetic and tightly strung than normal. And it was kind of fun. That kind of behavior doesn’t bother me in the least; we did some groundwork to calm him down and get him focused and otherwise we had a nice, energetic ride.

Tomorrow my mom and sister are coming to visit for a specifically horse night. Mom and I will probably both get on Ace while Shawna plods around bareback on Marahute. I’m looking forward to making mom play photographer so I can finally get some pictures of me actually riding Ace!

This has been an interesting week for Ace and me. After two months, I think the honeymoon is finally over.

I still love him to death, and he’s still a great horse. But I am starting to see some recurring issues, which really just means that I am getting to know my horse better and he’s slowly teaching me how to work with him. GreyHorseMatters left this comment yesterday on working with the horse I have:

I can see Ace is teaching you too, how he wants to be trained. It’s good that you’re a good horsewoman and can recognize the signals he’s giving you. You are smart enough to know you have to take it slowly day by day and work with the horse that comes out on that particular day. Good for you, I see you and Ace are going to be an unbeatable team sooner than later. Keep up the great work, sounds like you really have it under control with your ability to be flexible in your training plans.

She left that just after I was starting to realize I needed to adjust my thinking and my communication with Ace. After last night, it’s even more clear that Ace is teaching me how to train him … but also how and why. I also greatly appreciate her encouragement because it gives me hope. With Ace’s training pretty much completely on my shoulders, I’m honestly a little bit scared! What if he has some issue that we will never work through? What if I screw something up and then can’t fix it? What if we never get over it? These are the thoughts that keep running through my head. Ace is mine now, and no matter what comes up we have to work through it because I made a commitment to be his person and take care of him. I can’t just trade him in if it doesn’t seem to be working out. At the same time, I remind myself that training takes time. And these aren’t such serious issues that we will never be able to work through them. Just because we can’t step into a show ring tomorrow doesn’t mean that we won’t be able to in 1, 3, 5 years. And I have to remind myself just how much Ace has learned in just 2 months, which ultimately isn’t all that long.

So, back to the getting to know each other part. Ace is very smart and very willing, and wants to please me. He’s always looking at me for direction. Always has his ears up. Never explodes. A lot of the time he does exactly what I ask with very little prompting. But some of the time, there’s a switch in his brain that turns to off and it’s like he completely forgets what my signals mean.

The other night, after moving forward lightly off my leg and seat at both the walk and trot, he suddenly stopped dead in the end of the arena. I couldn’t get him to go forward. He wasn’t scared, he wasn’t upset, he just wouldn’t go. At my slightest cue, no matter what it was, he’d back up. I could get him to disengaged his hindquarters both ways. He’d flex laterally. But he just wouldn’t go forward. I tried being more forceful. I tried letting him relax for a minute or two and gently asking again. Wouldn’t budge, unless it was backwards. I ended up getting off and driving him from the ground. When that was successful, I got back and we were fine.

Last night we started with some ground work to work on the Driving Game and the Circling Game. I didn’t ask for any backwards whatsoever; only forwards or moving his shoulders. Driving was no problem. He’d threaten to slow or stop, and I’d gently wave the carrotstick at him and he’d keep going.

Then I went to circle him around me. We’d start by facing each other, and I’d raise my arm parallel to the ground and point in the direction I wanted him to circle. He’d prick his ears, blink, lean, and head off in that direction. I can usually get this 2-3 times in either direction, without using the stick to remind him.

Then suddenly, he’ll decide to stop circling before I’ve asked him to stop. And he looks at me. And the second I begin to raise my arm, he puts his head up and goes backwards. And no matter how calm I stay, or how I ask, all I get is backwards. I pushed it for a little while, while he just got worse and worse. We even almost had a little explosion (almost, but not quite).

Then I took a step back and just started rubbing him all over the with the stick; doing some desensitizing with the rope. After a minute or two, I stepped back a few feet, lifted my arm and pointed the left, and off he went like nothing had happened.

While we didn’t necessarily have a breakthrough in Ace’s behavior, I feel like I had a breakthrough in understanding his personality. And here’s what I think I discovered last night:

1. There’s a switch in Ace’s brain. When it’s up, he remembers what my cues mean. When it’s down, he forgets. He’ll be fine the first few times I ask, and then suddenly it’s like that switch goes off and he’s completely confused. He gets anxious when he’s unsure and when he’s unsure he goes backwards.
2. I wonder if he thinks he’s doing something wrong when I ask him to do the same thing more than a time or two. It’s like because I keep asking, he thinks maybe he didn’t do it right the first time. This applies to me reminding him that I haven’t asked him to stop trotting yet. Or that raising my arm and pointing still means go that way.
3. And maybe most important: Ace doesn’t like to feel pressured. He’s not the kind of horse you can just “get after” when you are having a battle of wills. I think the more I ask, the more he shuts down. On the ground, I figured out this means rubbing and loving on him and doing some Friendly Game. He relaxes, and then does what I ask. In the saddle, I need to figure out what exactly take the pressure off and flips the switch back to the on position. I’m fairly certain this means that I can’t push him through issues, but that I need to take a step back, encourage him, and then ask again.

I’m not feeling the overall excitement this week about “Ace is so smart, so friendly, has such a great trot, etc” that I have for the past few months. While I may be feeling a little apprehensive, I’m also feeling like our relationship is deepening and that I’m really starting to dig deep and learn more about him. I’m starting to understand how his brain works, and now I just need to figure out how to work with that.

I’m feeling hopeful.

I got some great news from Dave about Ace the other day …

Dave said that, other than feeding and cleaning his stall, he hadn’t handled Ace much in a long time. The other day he went to halter him and take him out of his turnout, and Ace was obviously wary of him. He gave him a funny look like, “You’re not my mom. She’s the one who usually does this.” And he moved away. Dave stepped back and gave Ace a chance to check him out, and then he was fine. I was glad Ace got over his wariness quickly. But I was equally glad to know that it was obvious that Ace realized Dave wasn’t me.

I’ve made an impression!

I claimed Ace as my horse; no other holds my heart quite like he does. Last time I saw Penny, I loved her just as much as ever, but I could tell that something inside me had changed. I didn’t connect with her as “my” horse now that I really officially have one who really is “my” own. It was a weird feeling.

We’ve had some good sessions in the last week - a few rides (he’s getting much lighter to my leg aids), some free-lunging (he’d been cooped up in a stall with the bad weather) and some groundwork (we finally got some good sideways). I’ve been riding him in his rope halter just to start and until I could get a new bit big enough for his mouth. I got a new 5.5″ french link eggbutt snaffle I’m excited to try tonight and see how he likes it. He’s done well in the halter, but he’s definitely to the point where we need the greater refinement of a bit.

Ace has been at Dave and Tracie’s “Crosswinds Ranch” for nearly two months now. Their four horses — Midnight, Louie, Classic, and Marahute — and my boy Ace have had the opportunity to meet each other over the fence, work in the arena together, and get to know each other through the bars of their stalls. Taking our time letting them get to know each other seems to have paid off, because putting them together in the pasture was pretty much uneventful.

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.

We all do it, all us horsewomen bloggers have to talk about our horse’s manure habits from time to time. And after reading quite a few poo posts, I can’t believe I’m giving in and doing one of my own. I never thought that would happen on my blog. But here it is …

I’ve gotten up close and personal with Ace’s poop this week, as Dave and Tracie are on vacation and I’m responsible for animal care while they are gone. Sure I’ve cleaned his stall before, but it hasn’t been day in and day out. And here’s what I’ve discovered:

• He poops like a gelding. Great, big, honkin’ piles. Not like the dainty, neat little ones I’ve been picking up from the girls.
• He poops on the edge of his stall. He’s pretty neat, and keeps his piles on the edges where he we won’t step in it.
• He poops in his water bucket. On purpose. Dave had just finished cleaning his stall once when Ace backed up to his bucket, lifted his tail, and let loose. I discovered that he did it today. So gross.

Doing full care for my horse is fun, because every single time he sees me he nickers. It’s this deep wuffling nicker that melts my heart. And he does it. Every. Time. I thought at first it was just cause he wanted food. But he can have a couple of flakes of hay and still nicker at me with his mouth full every time I come into the barn.

That’s the fun part of taking care of my horse myself. The not fun part is all the other animals, when I’ve had to deal with some health issues. Classic is the 24-year-old thoroughbred mare who has arthritis in her hocks. I’ve had some trouble with her lying down and not having the strength to get back up. We have to provide some extra motivation (a small cattle prod) and pull on her tail to rotate her back end up so she can get her legs underneath her. Once, we almost couldn’t get her up and it was worrying. But she’s been fine since. It’s been a challenge, but one I’ve been able to deal with and work through this week. Fortunately, when Dave and Tracie come back they will also bring back the two young Foxtrotter geldings, who help keep Classic on her feet and whose absence we think is contributing to why she’s going down so often. But the week is almost over, she seems stronger, so I think we’re out of the water.

Because I’ve been spending the last week taking care of 3 horses, 11 cats, and 2 dogs on top of a full-time job and my regular activities, I haven’t had a whole lot of time to work with Ace. I pulled him out to do some groundwork tonight for the first time in a few days, and was amazed at how well he did. So far, he doesn’t usually respond to visual cues well; he needs a little bit of pressure to understand what to do. But tonight, as soon as I wagged my finger at him to ask him to back up … he backed up! Usually, this is the game we fight on the most. He usually needs me to swing the rope with my whole arm before he’ll respond. And a little wagging finger did it! It wasn’t a fluke, because I tried it twice more and he did it every time. Ace is one smart cookie, that’s for sure.

In our Parelli ground work, he does very well with the Friendly, Porcupine, Circle, and Driving games. He’s ok with Yo-Yo. And we still don’t get much Sideways.He’ll do it a few steps moving to the right, but won’t do it at all to the left yet. Still, that’s pretty good for just one month of work!