Are they hot?

Poor Gilly is all alone now that his buddies are away at training. He seems a bit spooky and is always on the lookout when he is in the loafing shed.

My trainer, Heather, sent me an email report on the other two horse's progress. Both can really go, but are they hot or just spunky?

Sparkler is being bucky. Here's what they figure. It seems to happen when she is hot, sweaty and tired but should get over it once she is in shape. Banjo is hard to catch, (tell me something I didn't already know) but he is stopping better. He just has a lot of energy.

They have been on trails, fields and lately the road, where they've been good with cars. I will just need to keep working with them when they get back.

On the sidelines

Everyone got together at our arena tonight. I just watched with my bruised foot up while Dan worked with the crew.

Damn, damn, damn

It was late since I golfed tonight and I was only going to help Sam with the gate and come back in for the night so I had my soft slip on shoes on. But I Just had to spend a few minutes with Gilly. It was too tempting. I hadn't spent any time with his back feet for a while so I decided I'd try. He picked his left rear leg up so nicely I was careless. The next thing I remember is his foot planted on mine with conviction. I'm pretty sure I shouted, "This is it. I quit!"

He didn't mean to nail me. As I sobbed and carried on he seemed shocked and stood stock still. I hopped around and carried on for a while before I could get him penned up and hobble to the house. When I took my shoe off, my foot had swollen to the size of a softball. Bob got me to the hospital, but just couldn't resist asking if it was time to sell the horses? That was the wrong thing for him to say. My reply was, "Hell no!"

All the way to the hospital I cried and wallowed in self pity. Not that it hurt that much, it was just that I had a surprise party planned for Friday for Bob (I couldn't tell him about that), I had Gilly all to myself and now I wouldn't be able to ride. Another injury. I had visions of surgery and pins.

When the doctor came in with the Xray results and said nothing was broken, my emotions turned upside down. I think I screamed, "Yes!" I know I threw my arms up in the air with joy. Bob said, "Are you sure nothing is broken? She just broke a toe on that foot." The doctor dug out the February Xray and compared the two and said maybe I had refractured the little toe. Oh well. 4-6 weeks of hobbling again. A funny boot to wear. I did it before, I can do it again.

Off to Baraboo

Sparkler seems to have recovered from Ehrlichiosis. I guess I should be guarded, though, since Dawna has had trouble with the powdered antibiotic not working as well as the IV form. She also mentioned that you can have a flare-up without being bitten again, similar to the way Lymes disease behaves.

So, with some trepidation, Bob and I delivered Sparkler and Banjo to a new trainer, Heather Dix, in Baraboo, a week and a half later than originally planned. I was very happy with setup. Heather couldn't be there, but Lisa and her daughter, Jenna, the other two women in the training team were there to show me the premises, the tack, the work out spaces and outline the process.

Heather starts each horse with groundwork using Parelli, Anderson and other techniques that work for her. She then passes the horse to Lisa, who starts work in the saddle. Once she is sure the horse is sound, won't rear or buck, etc., she passes the horse to Jenna, who does the trail work. I was so impressed with their enthusiasm. They said they've been waiting anxiously to try the Walking horses. Lisa rode a gaited horse recently and found it more comfortable on her knees. Jenna has just taken in a Fox Trotter in trade for training and loves him.

We put the horses in a holding pen to get them acquainted with the rest of the gang--about a dozen boarded and under training horses. Banjo began acting studly, posturing to keep Sparkler away from the herd and the herd away from her. He'd stomp his front feet, blow, arch his neck and make noises. I think he is about to get taken down a notch, never a bad thing. I was warned they might come home a bit nicked up.

Baraboo is a long way to travel, but I had read good things about Heather and they seem to be well founded. If I get back a couple of trail-ready horses, I will be ecstatic. Travel time was long due to the recent flooding in the area. Highway 12 was only 2 lane. One half had been washed out and was under repair. We saw railroad tracks washed out and creek bed walls washed away.

We're workin' 'em

Our trainer, Dan, came over to our arena tonight. Art and Vicki couldn't join us and neither could Bob, so it was just Jim, Sherrie and me. I was tired and it was warm and I almost cancelled, but I'm so glad I didn't. It was a blast. Jim rode his palomino, Bray. Sherrie rode Gilly and I rode Banjo.

Bray, a 3 year old, is getting so much better. Jim had no trouble with him. Gilly is a plodder. Finally Dan had to get on him and use the spurs to get him moving consistently.

Banjo--well he just amazes me. He stood tied very patiently while I swapped out his bit from a severe reining bit to a snaffle, groomed him and saddled him twice (the first time I had the pad on backwards...). On back, he was fast but very smooth and responsive.

Sparkler is better

Last Saturday, Sparkler seemed to have lost the limp brought on by Ehrlichiosis. I suspect that was because she had just received the antibiotics through the IV. The next day, she took a nose dive and both her rear right and front right seemed to give her pain. But with twice daily tetracycline, she is almost back to normal.

Best laid plans

I've been waiting for this day for months. We were planning on taking Sparkler and Banjo to Baraboo for their month of training. But last night when I checked on Sparkler she was lame. Sam told us she had carried on like a crazy lady after we left for Dan's with Banjo and Gilly, so I figured she had banged or sprained her leg.

I called the vet and she said bring her in. She was running a slight temp and the front of her right rear leg was slightly swollen, so we drew blood for a test. Being afraid of needles, we had to get her in the horse stantion and hold her nose tight. At the same time, she gave her a dose of tetracycline, then did the quick test. As the vet suspected, Sparkler turned up positive for Equine Granulocytic Ehrlichiosis (EGE), a tick borne bacterial disease. There's a human version, too, HGE.

So, I have 10 days of treatment with powdered tetracycline before she can go for training. The good news is she will have complete recovery and will be immune from this disease for 2+ years. Luckily, my trainer can accommodate this delay.

We're ridin' now

I was chatting with Kate, my farrier, yesterday about how we feed, prep, pamper, doctor, train, nurture, spend money on and clean up after our horses, yet we bought them so we could ride. Well, after 3 years, I am riding and so is Bob.

Wednesday with Dan

We trailered our horses for our weekly neighborhood training and drove to Dan's ranch to use his huge outdoor arena. The rain threatened but never followed through. I tried my new Wintec dressage saddle on Banjo, but it just didn't feel right and his gait wasn't there. So I switched back to the gaited National Bridle Saddle and he did better. I could never seem to get him into his running walk gait. We did a very comfortable canter, though.

His one rein stopping is getting better! I've had some luck on the left and no luck on the right. Dan had me try the right, and when Banjo said "no" I made him canter and tried again. And again. Finally he said "yes". When we were done all the horses were sweating. Some of it was high humidity, but a lot of it was hard work.

We are all beginning to feel like accomplished riders, ready to hit the trail with confidence. Maybe next week.

More bliss

I scheduled Kate Lessard to come tonight to try once again to trim Banjo's feet. It's been 9 months since his last trim and the hooves are starting to show some cracking. I don't want anything to go wrong at training next week.

3 days in a row

Last night I was supposed to golf a charity tournament, but it was sprinkling so I used that as an excuse and skipped out. I had the join up success from Sunday, and felt it important to do successive days working with Banjo's feet. It went well. I had to tug on the front feet to pick them up, but I had him giving me the back feet, rather than me tugging on them.

Please be good

So I prayed we could get at least 2 more feet trimmed tonight. What was I worried about? He was an angel. The first foot in front gave her the smallest bit of trouble, but it was like no big deal for the rest. Best of all -- no more thrush. Probably what helped the most was our attitudes. We kept a chatter going as Kate began working confidently, expecting everything to go well -- and it did.

Kate is great

Kate congratulated me and I thanked her for her patience and advice. I would highly recommend Kate to anyone. she is a beautiful young woman, tiny but strong. She's just bought a new red truck and she looks good in it.

What did it take?

Looking back on this whole foot issue, I think I could have resolved it much quicker if not for the long winter. I can't be in the cold much because of my fingers. I put in time with Banjo whenever I could but the best success occurred when I spent successive days with him. I am very patient. Sometimes I didn't even touch his feet, but just spent time walking, grooming, petting and lots of backing. Whenever I did approach his feet, I always asked first before pinching or tugging. For the front feet, I'd never had made progress if I hadn't first picked the leg up from the front, giving it a good forward stretch before curling the foot up underneath and then walking to the side.

A horse is an intriguing animal

I had Banjo joined up and hooked on tonight. Yes, I did! I've wanted to do this since we got him. I read everything I could find about "joining-up" using a round pen. This Sylvia Scott Round Pen Training article was the best one I found. I also watched the John Lyons symposium video I checked out from the Library. Something has always gotten in the way of doing this, but with him getting his feet trimmed on Tuesday (that has to go well- his hooves are way long and getting cracked) and going to training, it had to be now.

Why round pen work?

This is the animal who took the entire Rice Lake neighborhood to catch when we bought him. The animal I couldn't touch in the pasture until a month after we got him. The one who's feet you couldn't touch after his foot trim when we discovered thrush last fall. He has gotten to the point where I can sometimes walk up to him in the pasture and touch him, but most often not. I have just recently been able to lift all feet and pick them, but he is still resistant. Round pen training is supposed to help with all this.

What round pen?

I made my round pen using the corral panel end of the arena which is rounded off and plastic posts with fence tape on the other side to complete a circle. I brought him into the space and he made one loop before he learned he could either walk through the tape or jump over it. So I tried the other side of the tape, the larger area. Same thing - he would escape inside the fence area. So I took the fence down and used the entire arena. 45 X 90 feet.

All lathered up

He had no halter. All I had was the lead rope and a kissing noise. At first he tried to hide in the corners and not make complete loops. I found that a shushing sound and hitting the ground with my lead rope when we got to the corners kept him going. Pretty soon I had him doing loops and making turns when I wanted. I got his ear focused on me pretty quickly, but he would often turn his head to the outside. Then, he started slowing down, making smaller circles and on one turn he just stopped and faced me. So we took a big break and I turned my back to him and relaxed. After a few minutes, I moved toward him on his right, stretched my neck to the right to see if he'd move his hindquarters away and face me more, but instead he just moved his butt toward me so I sent him away. By this time he was getting pretty lathered, so I moved him to the curved end of the arena making him just go back and forth on that end. Then company arrived. Art and Vicki stopped by to say hello and razz me about all the kissing noises. Banjo seemed happy for the break.

Progress

While we chatted, I made him do some turns at a walk. I used a karate chop motion with my hand toward his butt hand while moving my head in the same direction and he would turn in toward me and go in the other direction. Then, sensing the quiet in him, I moved closer. Suddenly and mysteriously, we were doing small circles to the left - he was joined. But only for a short distance and not to the right.

Invisible lead rope

I had to give Vicki some money so we left Banjo for about 10 minutes. When I came back to the arena, he was on the far end and made a bee line straight toward me. I could not believe my eyes. I went into the pen and started walking away and there he was close to me as he could be following me. The invisible lead rope was there! It happened. I went in circles, left and right, zig zag, serpentines. I could not lose him. Fast or slow. So cool. We paused, I petted and rubbed. I pressed my cheek to his. He pressed back. Bliss.

What's with this?

So with time slipping away, I had to end this beautiful moment and release him to the pasture. Would this continue outside? No... Once he was out with his buddies, it was as if he didn't want them to know that he had submitted to me and would not let me touch him.