Caught

When I picked up Stitch in April of 2024, his previous owner told me that he can sometimes be silly about being caught. Sure enough, when I took him home he was very wary of strangers - which included me - and did the thing where they walk just enough ahead of you that you can't get the rope over the neck. When he would stop and let me approach, I always had to go to his shoulder first and put the rope over his neck before putting the halter over his nose or he would leave again.

I always had a treat with me, that he would get once the halter was on. When I had time, I'd go back out a second or third time that day, put the halter on, give him his treat, walk a couple of steps and then remove the halter and release him. 

About 6 weeks in he started coming towards me when I went out to get him. 

Then he started to come to the gate when I called him.

All winter, he would meet me at the gate when he saw my headlight in the dark.

We had a few weeks this spring when I was apparently in Stitch's bad book after catching and leading him to the vet who rudely jabbed him while in the sanctity of his field, and he was back to the walking just a bit ahead of me, so I started to give him a treat again once haltered. I hadn't been doing that consistently since the fall.

I was forgiven after a few weeks and he went back to reliably walking across the field to me when I called him.

This summer, I added another element to our routine. As Stitch is walking to me, I turn around and put my back to him, hold the halter open to the side of me, and he comes up,  reaches his head through my arms and places his nose into his halter.

It only took about 4 or 5 days for him to figure it out, with a cookie reward as an incentive.

I have tried multiple times this summer to get it on video, and something always seemed to go wrong with my phone. But I finally got it yesterday, by propping my phone up on the ground under the gate. It's not the best video, but better than nothing.

Well Adjusted

Stitch had his osteopath appointment yesterday. Overall, he was pretty good, although he was losing patience by the end. The kid has the attention span of a gnat these days when he isn't getting worked.

I told her that I had jinxed myself when I made the appointment and said there was nothing wrong with my horse. He heard she was  coming and has been lame behind for the last two weeks. Initially, I was sure it was the right hind, but the last couple of times I've popped him quickly on the lunge I've been thinking the left hind was also looking wonky. He doesn't look as bad on a straight line as he does on a circle. 

She got right to work and found that his sacrum wasn't even. I'm sure I'm going to get this wrong, but I believe it was that his left side was tilted up and his right was tilted down, and the illium was jammed the opposite way that it should have been, and that his L6 was stuck in extension because of it. 

Or something like that. 

She found him to be stiffer on the left, which ties in with me seeing him off on the left the last few days. I asked if this all would tie-in with a slip and she said it's the kind of injury she sees after a trauma.

Everywhere else in his body was great though. Some good news at least!

She worked some hopeful magic and is optimistic that his sacrum area is no big deal. Stitch is to have 3 to 5 days off with handwalking and then see what he looks like. She said she usually schedules a follow-up appointment for 30 days later, but if he comes round in the next couple of weeks she doesn't need to come back.

So fingers crossed that she is a miracle worker!

If he isn't looking significantly better by mid-September I'll get him booked in at the vet clinic. Based on how long my knee has been taking to heal, I'm comfortable giving him time for a soft tissue injury to feel better. 

He went back into the field right after his appointment, only to be hauled back in a couple of hours later for a training opportunity I couldn't pass up.

Stitch got to meet the mechanical cow.

For those horse people who have never been around horses trained on cattle, this stuffed cow is attached to a wire system that is stretched along a side of the arena. At a previous barn, it was permanently along a long side and was controlled by a human on something similar to an exercise bike that was pedalled forward or backwards to control the direction of the cow. That cow was red and called Buford.

This barn has a fancy version that is operated wirelessly by a button held in the human's hand. It's not up all the time- this was the first time I have seen it set up in the arena, and it's sized to be set up along a short side of the ring. Thus it has to be pulled down and put away when not in use so that no one clotheslines themself or their horse. I don't know if the cow has a name.

Whenever I saw it used in the past it was for cutting horses to practice with. The barn owner today was planning on just getting her horse used to the motion - she has plans to do some sorting or penning, not cutting. 

I could not turn down the opportunity to torture expose my horse to something new. I didn't think he'd lose his shit over it - he loves the cow roping dummy that gets pulled behind the quad. But this one moves faster, the clips jingle, it bounces when it stops, and the wire make a whirring noise when it moves, so who knows how he would react. Especially after I spent 20 minutes leading another horse around the arena who went into full dragon mode as soon as she set foot in the arena and spotted the cow. I didn't even get to the move the cow part with her, we ended when she could walk about 20 feet past it and not threaten to run me over.

Stitch walked into the arena, straight towards it, and stopped about 4 feet away with a "that's different" look on his face. When he got a cookie for taking another step forward he was all "I like this game". 

He never got close enough to it to put his nose on it - I probably could have got him there pretty easily, but he didn't need to be that close to it or the wires.  I thinked we walked past it once each direction and then I started moving it. 

Stitch kept his eye on it, but more in a "hey, that's neat" kind of way. He had no problem standing and watching the cow or walking behind or past it while it was moving. We were in and out within 15 minutes.

I was very glad that I went back out into what is possibly the hottest day of the year to drag my horse in from the field to see his reaction (or lack thereof) to the mechanical cow. Next time, maybe I'll try to ride him past it. 

Photo Dump

I've been having problems with Blogger wanting to add pictures to my blog posts recently, so here's a post with all the pics for the last few weeks.

The county next to the major city I live in has one of the highest horse densities in all of Canada (it used to be the highest, don't know if it still is). For years, and I'm talking like two decades, there has been talk of the county building an arena to support the agricultural part of the community. After some design changes and budget increases due to Covid, it has finally come to fruition. The grand opening was this weekend and they had an open house that seemed to be very well attended. When not booked for events, it's open for riding at the reasonable price of $20. They have some open ride days scheduled for specific activities like barrel racing or jumping, and two days of obstacles scheduled for September. I'd really like to take Stitch for one of those days, just to do in-hand obstacles if he's still a bit off behind.

I took one of my students to a schooling show on Sunday. I picked my trailer up at my barn on Saturday night so that I wouldn't have to go there first before heading to my old barn where she rides. I checked my lights before leaving, as one should, and the left signal light on the trailer wasn't working. I spent 40 minutes trying to get it to work, cleaning the connections, plugging and unplugging, looking for the dielectric grease I know I own but couldn't find. I decided to remove the plate and make sure the light bulbs seemed ok as a last ditch effort. When I pulled them out, they looked pretty good, but maybe a wee bit dusty, so figured I might as well clean the connecting end off before reseating them. To my complete surprise, that did the trick and they worked! 

I finally had a Saturday afternoon free and was able to take a free introduction to leather stitching class at Tandy leather. I've wanted to for a long time but the class is always either full or running at a time that doesn't work for me. We made a leather keychain using a saddle stitch, and I asked to be shown how to do this cross stitch so that I can repair the sleeves that go over the buckles on my webber style stirrup leathers. I now have to decide if I want to bite the bullet and spend a couple of hundred dollars on tools to do some stuff at home.

Stitch still loves to stare at himself in the arena mirrors.

The barn got hit hard last weekend with a two nights in a row of intense rain. This was the second night. I had Stitch in, and a barnmate had just taken her horse out and said that a storm was coming. I asked if I'd have 15 minutes before it hit and she didn't think so, so I rushed to get Stitch out. There was a continuous roll of thunder while I was outside, but the rain held off until I made it back to the barn. It poured, it hailed, it was a constant light show of lightning across the sky. I was going to driving into it if I went home, so I just waited it out for a bit before heading out. A week later and the outdoor arenas are still not open due to wetness.

I don't know how many times I've tried to video something recently, only to discover after the thing that the video didn't actually record. I finally got my Pivo X mostly figured out, and managed to actually record my ride and not just the roof rafters. 

A couple of weeks ago I perused the local consignment tack stores website. They moved a few years ago to a location that is very inconvenient for me to get to and are only open a couple days a week, so I seldom bother to check out their offerings. They had a Neue Schule bit on their website for a ridiculous cheap price, so I checked out the rest of the site and made the effort to get there. Unfortunately, they didn't actually have the bit, but I picked up this new with a sticker label still on it Curvon Baker sheet for only $33. Do I already have the exact same sheet in the exact same size? Yep. And have any of my horses actually worn a sheet in the last 15 years? Nope. But I could not pass up a $33 Baker. Luv that classic plaid!

It was a couple of weeks late, but Stitch finally got his birthday pony popsicle. Which he promptly dumped out of the dish because he couldn't chew into the frozen chunk fast enough. The floor was a wee bit juicy afterwards, mostly due to apple juice slobber. But he very much enjoyed it.

 Right around the same time that Stitch went lame behind, a splint appeared on his right front. Coincidence?

Whomp Whomp

There hasn't been too much happening out here on the western Canadian prairies since my last post. 

I've been managing a couple of rides per week, at a walk and trot. The good news is that my leg has been feeling pretty good during and after a ride - other than consistently twinging it while pushing off that leg from the mounting block while getting on. The bad news is that more often than not it's still a bit achy at the end of the day after putting 20,000 steps on it most days (well, 10,000 on each leg to be accurate). Not nearly as bad as it was through June and July, but enough to make me just not want to ride. The progress is slower than I would like, but it is still progress.

Stitch has been a good boy with the intermittent rides. One of the things that I wanted to work on during these slow rides was being able to get some flexion but not falling in onto the shoulder just because his nose was a couple of inches to the inside. The left is more of a struggle than the right, but at a walk it's been coming along nicely. The trot, not so much. 

We've also been working on keeping a bit of shape through the walk/trot transition. He's so close to getting it consistently, but still loses his balance in the last bit before picking up the trot. I generally get a couple of good efforts per ride though, and I know it'll get better and better.

Not for a couple of weeks though - Stitch came up a bit off a few days ago.

When I brought him in, I noticed that every time we stopped he rested his right hind. I popped him on the lunge and he was definitely off on that hind when it was on the outside of the circle. Not crazy off, but for sure was not right. 

With him wanting to always keep that heel off the ground, I thought that maybe an abscess was brewing. I made sure to bring out the pack of diapers I have for this occasion the next day, and he hasn't held that leg up since. Go figure.  

I also found out that the day he came in lame some of the geldings had been playing Black Stallion, on a day that was very wet and rainy. The person who told me that wasn't sure what horse she saw rearing with her horse across the field, so I'm not certain that it was Stitch, but I'm sure he would have been involved at some point. 

Today (which was actually Sunday) on the lunge I couldn't decide if he still looked off or not. So it is getting better. The plan was to give him a few more days off and hop on mid-week to see how he feels, but I realized today that Thursday through Sunday are all booked up with stuff and I won't be able to ride until the Monday after that weekend, so I might as well just give him the extra few days off. Other than some exercise on Wednesday to make sure his brain is settled for Thursday's farrier appointment. The young horse still needs that. 

We're still toodling along, slowly but surely. 

(Sorry about no pictures - Blogger has been difficult to work with lately and I don't feel like fighting with it. This post already sat for 4 days, so it's now with no pics or never.)