In Her Eyes

EUREKA! Success! Today was one of those days when I had to just admit that I had been a stubborn fool and was blaming my own laziness or lack of preparation that caused the rides to fail, on my beautiful, sensitive horse. Instead of working on my turns by using my seat and leg with more balance and correct leg position WITHOUT using any reins, I had continued to use my hands to balance myself and in doing so was pulling on my horse's mouth. Over and over again she'd speed up as I pulled to keep myself from falling over. The lack of steadiness on her back made her nervous, then speed up, at which time I would, of course, pull her mouth to slow down, which would make her go even faster to avoid my rough hands.

Today I completely avoided contact and I could see immediately when I was shifting the wrong way, dropping my shoulder or putting too much weight into my left stirrup when I was trying to go right, but would lean too far and put me and Chanty off balance. I could tell immediately when I was doing it right. She would turn beautifully and continue on the rail slowly and more relaxed. We worked on it with my endurance saddle which has a different feel than the dressage saddle, but then after a short rest and a treat, changed saddles and boots so that I could prepare to ride her in that saddle next week. She was fantastic. My student watched and was so impressed at how SLOW Chanty was as she sees her as a very fast horse, because of how many times her nervousness had dictated the speed at which she moves. Nervousness that was caused by my imbalance and erratic pull on the reins. I had to tell my student that we are ALL students, constantly learning and for me, who helps others for the satisfaction I feel, it means that I will continue to improve as a teacher, even as I educate myself.

It never ceases to amaze me how forgiving horses are to us clods of humankind. Chanty, if she were a person, would have seen me coming with the saddle and bridle today and said: "Haven't I given you enough chances to get it right. I'm not going to let you bounce all over me and pull on my sensitive mouth, hurting me and making me feel so scared. Do you think I'm nuts?" Why do they allow us to keep coming back so we can get it right. I suppose it is because their survival depends on living in a herd, putting up with the day to day stress of life. Some don't put up with the physical torment of humans, any more than they would put up with it from a herdmate. They will fight back and make sure you don't do the same thing again. Chanty just wants to get along and knows where her comfort comes from in the form of food, water and shelter. She puts up with me, to a point and I thank her for letting me come back another day and try again. Hopefullly, I will do what works for her from now on so that our rides will be enjoyable and I will see in her eyes the calm, sweet creature that she is...thank you Chanty!

Just the Way You Are

I am really enjoying this warm sunny weather as it gives me a chance to spend more time with my horses. One of my favorite things to do is ride to music and now that I own an IPOD with some pretty awesome speakers, I can play my music anywhere, including outdoors in the arena. I just put it on and shuffle the songs and off we go. I find that the slower music works well when I'm trying to get my nervous, sensitive horse to improve her lateral moves-shoulder in, travers, renvers (In the travers and renvers the horse is bent evenly from head to tail. The haunches come away from the line of travel either away from (travers) or toward (renvers) the wall. The forehand stays on the line of travel.) It makes her nervous when I put my leg back because she thinks I'm trying to ask her to move off forward and the more I press on her flanks the faster she goes. So then I try to keep her from going forward by holding the rein steady, open and close to get her to slow. It's not that she can't do the maneuvers, it's that she needs desensitizing to my leg so she understands not to move off quickly or exaggerate her entire body around to the right or left as she would on a circle. Lateral moves are so great for getting their back end strong and flexible and the back lifted, so that when you ask them to move off straight or on a circle, they "collect" themselves or work more off of the strength of their hindquarters with very light touch down of the forequarters. Horses only put 60% of their weight on the forehand if they are standing still. Once they learn to balance and strengthen themselves with the weight of the rider, there is much less weight on front end.

With everything new comes stress for my horse (and me) and the lateral moves for her have made her more nervous. I've begun practicing them on the ground with me standing behind her tail and just to the side with the lunge rope going through the stirrup. We also work on WHOA and back up. I'm teaching her to back up with a slight pull of her tail or tap on her back. This is a real challenge for a horse that takes any contact as a reason to move off and especially a pull on her tail. Sensitive right brain horses don't mind moving their front ends away, but they don't like to "give up" the hindquarters as it is their means of escape.

I had the chance to help a new horse owner with her thoroughbred mare whose personality is much like my Morgan, Chanty. Nervous, sensitive and prone to use flight as an escape whenever she feels pressure (emotionally or physically). She does not like the constant pull of the reins and it will be the first issue for her owner-learning to be as light as possible with her hands. I feel for her-I still work on that issue daily. My horse keeps me honest though and I know when I'm getting it right....or wrong.

At the end of my lesson to music with Chanty, I went to retrieve Sal from her dry paddock and brought my portable "boom box" so I could listen while I cleaned her dry paddock in the warm afternoon sun. Sal just wanted me to finish and take her up to eat, but I couldn't resist serenading her to Billy Joel's "Just the Way You Are". "I would not leave you, in times of trouble, we never could have come this far...." "I just want someone, that I can talk to. I love you just the way you are." Sal was not impressed but I hugged on her anyway. Her coat is looking so much better since I switched to some dryer/coarser grass hay. The stable owner said that the other hay they supply is actually a "poor man's alfalfa" which contains lots more starches. The worst thing for Sal. Since switching to plain old grass hay, the flaking, gray powder from the skin fungus has almost disappeared and she is not rolling in mud to relieve the itching-her coat is clean and shiny. She looks brighter too. Next issue it to try some low dose bute to control her hock arthritis. I have to keep the old girl moving.

Oh well, the girls are as different as can be but I enjoy every minute with them. I hope they feel the same and that they would say "Don't go changing to try and please me....I love you just the way you are."

My Reflection in My Horse

Yesterday, I had plenty of time and natural sunlight to trim my old gal Sal. Our time together is always special to me-we've been through a lot together and the quiet moments remind me what a wonderful animal and friend she is to me. Sally is my 18 year old Morab (Morgan Arab), acquired summer of 1998. The year is significant, since my daughter is the same age as Sally and I have some great pics of the two of them, young and energetic, as well as pictures with me, younger and thinner. Sally is my reflecting pond-by that I mean, if you want to know how much knowledge and experience I've gained with horses over the last 10 years, then look at Sal.

After I had determined that my first horse Rose (see previous blog entry Jan 3 "My Old Friend Rose") was not going to trailer easily and I had no clue how to change that, I decided it was time to go looking for another horse. A woman who babysat my daughter ( 8 yrs old at the time) told me to look in the Nickel ads (where I found Rose-I should have named one of my horses, "Nickel") and see what was available. It just so happened that a young girl had placed a rather detailed, lengthy ad about a horse that she described as sweet and friendly, who whinnies when she sees you coming. She had rescued the horse from the neighbor who apparently could not afford to feed her and so had left her in their pasture to starve in winter and to gorge herself in spring when the new grass came in. Her ad was so endearing and sincere, that I had to go check this horse out.

True to form, when I arrived on the property and began walking toward the paddock with the young girl's mother, Sally whinnied loudly as if she knew I had arrived to retrieve her. She was surrounded by a couple of minis which the young girl was breeding and for whom she was going to spend the profits from Sally's sale. Sally also stood next to their dog and a few barnyard birds wandering around. The first thing I noticed about Sal when I got close enough, was her eyes-big, round, brown and soft like melted chocolate chips and just as sweet. I fell in love immediately. What I noticed next, though, was how thin she was and how dull her coat was. The young girl explained that Sally had been living in an overgrazed pasture and had been malnourished for some time. Because of her inconsistent nutritional intake, Sally was anemic and suffering from muscle wasting. Then there were her feet....

The mother mentioned that horses like Sally who are fed very little and then gorge on the fresh grass of the pasture develop "founder". I had read about the condition but knew only enough to make me wonder if I was committing myself to a horse with too many health problems to really justify the $1000 that they were asking for her. I asked the young girl to show me how Sal acted under saddle and she rode her for a few minutes in the outdoor arena behind her house. It was obvious that Sal had no real training and the young girl did admit that she knew that Sal was just "green broke"-accustomed to the weight of saddle and rider with a bit in her mouth, but very little in the way of advanced training.

Needless to say, I decided to bring Sal home and "try her out" for a week. I compare it to the day I announced to my husband that I'd found an ad at the pet store for a lab-golden retriever mix puppy and I just wanted to "go look at her". Who was I kidding? That puppy was mine before we pulled into the driveway. And there was no way I was giving up Sally once I brought her home. The vet confirmed through blood work that Sally was anemic and her protein was low. He was sure she'd improve with good nutrition and exercise. Then I had the farrier look at her to determine what could be done with her feet and was I looking at long term problems. He said and I quote "I wouldn't pay $50 for this horse." Well, I didn't pay $50, I paid $1000 and as they say on the commercial, "The last ten years with Sally-priceless!!!"

Sally was the horse who put up with all of my ignorance, my impatience and allowed me to learn about riding while she tried to figure out what the heck I wanted from her. She was the first horse that learned the "Seven Games" after my good friend Martha (now gone to the great riding stables in the sky) took me to a clinic with a Parelli trainer from Oregon. Sally had to live through all of the early Clinton Anderson videos and struggled to understand why I was asking her to run through poles, barrels and keyhole patterns when I did not have a clue what I was doing. She was patient with me when I asked her do Western Pleasure at the few shows I managed to make it through, even though she is a Morab with a much too high headset to be conformed for Western Pleasure.

What I did discover about Sal was that she likes to go fast! After a very rocky start with trail riding on some of the most beautiful forests in our area, she and I became inseparable and my hours in the saddle with her were some of the most rewarding and enjoyable. She could run up a hill and tear down the trail home at mock speed, sending dust flying in the face of my husband, the mountain bike rider as he slowly trudged up the hill behind us. Every year our trail rides got better and better as I learned to treat Sally as a partner and she and I gained the confidence we needed to enjoy our time together. Only once did I suffer an injury with Sally when she became nervous on a narrow single track when we went between two trees. My knee did not give very well as it sideswiped a large Douglas fir in our path. OUCH!

Sally is also the reason I became a natural hoof trimmer. It was my beautiful Sally who was subjected to my ignorance and overfeeding (kill them with kindness) of grains and treats, thinking I was just keeping up with her increased caloric needs as we rode harder and longer trails in addition to the early dressage training in the arena ( I told you she's been there with me for it all!). Sally's laminitis and founder came to full bloom in January 2003 and although she had been warning me for months (crest getting larger, fat pads over her eyes, shoulders and back side), I did not see it! When it finally reached the boiling point, her feet would no longer hold her and she lay down in agony. Horses will not lay down for very long unless they can not stand the pain and it has to be a lot of discomfort for them to give up their means of escape.

I can feel tears welling up just thinking about what I put Sally through and it has been my goal in life (with horses) to make sure she will never suffer again from the ravage of laminitis. Her coffin bone rotated in both front feet, right worst than left. That began the years of corrective trimming that only prolonged the damage and delayed the healing of her feet which I've been able to accomplish, thanks to the incredible information and instruction of Pete Ramey and his students who've helped me. I've detailed Sal's story at the website and will be featuring the article in its entirety here on the blog in the coming months.

It's been ten years since I first met Sal. Life with me has taken its toll on Sal and we are still struggling with the issue of how much starch is appropriate in her grass hay. I've been told to test it or soak it. I have begun the Triple Crown Low Starch feed which is fantastic but she is still getting too much sugar in her hay as evidenced by the overgrowth of fungal organisms on her skin (that gray powder flaking on her mane, skin of shoulders and the chronic lesions on her lower rear legs). She is basically a diabetic who needs rigid control of her sugars. She gets NO TREATS that have apples, carrots (highest in sugar), molasses treats, cookies, etc.

We'll keep working at it and although Sal suffers from arthritis (years of shoeing that put her joints under great stress due to extreme angles and other "corrective" measures), I keep her moving on the long (23 ft) lunge line and an occasional ride. She reminds me to have patience and to learn more about the horse so that I can share it with other owners. She has a wisdom in her eyes now and when people look at her they see a horse with all the years of experience without having lost the sweetness that's been there all along. I hope she is a reflection of all we've shared and how much I care about her. Luv you Sal Gal.