In Which Stitch Gets Another Vacation

 Everything worked out this week and I managed to get a few rides on Stitch. 

After his little vacation his balance isn't feeling as good. Not sure if it is because of his growth (which wasn't really that much, though he's starting to fill out now), or lack of strength, but I figure our 2-3 days a week of walk/trot won't be any issue.  The plan was to be able to start cantering in June, but there's been a bit of a curveball thrown into my plans.

I kinda, sorta, had my first fall off of Stitch. 

Really, it was more of an unplanned bail. 

But, it kinda messed up my leg. I definitely won't be riding for a bit. 

The ride itself was fine - his balance at the trot was getting better through the ride with lots of easy changes of direction.

Someone had left the exercise ball on the arena surface before I entered the arena, and I was letting Stitch kick it during our walk breaks. He's done it lots of times when I was on the ground; this was the first time we were doing it under saddle. He seemed to enjoy it, there were lots of good kicks.

I presented him to the ball on what was going to legitimately be the last time before hopping off.  Instead of kicking the ball, he decided to kneel on it. With both front legs. In a very unbalanced fashion.

Stitch's front end disappeared in front of me. There was a moment of is he going to go down all the way, at which point the possibility of me getting chucked over his head and getting badly hurt became likely, so I opted to quickly bail off the left side of him.

Because he was basically standing still, for a moment I thought I was going to stick the landing - until I felt my right knee pop while still in the air. Out of the corner of my eye that leg seemed to bend from the knee at an angle it isn't supposed to bend. 

I think I hit the ground first with my left leg and then fell back mostly on my butt and immediately said "I've hurt my knee".

Much thanks to the multiple people who were at the barn that night and took care of my horse (who may have been slightly traumatised by this) and helped me through my body's involuntary reaction of wanting to pass out or vomit that always happens when I have a sudden sharp pain. Once that cleared I hobbled around the barn with an ice boot wrapped around my leg until my parents came to drive me and my car home. I probably could have driven, but I knew it would stiffen up by the time I made it back into the city and didn't want to risk not being able to move it quickly to brake if needed.

I'm quite certain it's just a sprained knee, and honestly don't even think it's that bad. There's actually very little pain in the knee for the most part - unless I take a wonky step on an uneven surface. The biggest problem today (Saturday, it happened Thursday evening) is that everything else in my leg has tightened up, and I have a giant knot in my calf that tightens up every time I sit down and makes walking very uncomfortable. 

I had to work on Friday, and honestly spent too much time on my feet, which is probably part of the reason it's so tight today, but now I'm off for the next week so can rest it - though I have many things I need to get done. I was planning on trailering Stitch over to the vet clinic on Wednesday to get his teeth floated, but if there isn't significant improvement by Monday I might have to delay it. He's not a perfect loader yet so if I have no strength in my leg I might get into some trouble. Not to mention the drive, which would mean sitting for about 2.5 hours and stiffening up each time. 

The last time I sprained my knee, about 12-15 years ago from falling off Phantom twice over the same jump at a clinic, I was back in the saddle a week later - and realized right away it was the wrong decision. I think I tried again another week later, and then ended up having a bit of a forced break when my dad ended up in hospital for a week, so it was really at least three weeks before I was able to ride - on a reliable, broke horse. Which does not describe Stitch. (Reliable, yes - he's been good, but nowhere near steady enough at the moment.)

So far, I don't think this sprain is as bad as that one was, but the next few days will tell. In the meantime, my massage gun, and the tens machine and diclofenac that I had gotten for last year's torn rotator cuff will be getting lots of use. 

And Stitch will be getting fat.

It Didn't Happen

In what should be no surprise at all, I did not manage to get my horse ridden this weekend. 

I legitimately tried - I was dressed, had grabbed half of my tack with my grooming kit, brought Stitch in and inspected his sides for the new bites that showed up overnight - and initially missed the one on his back. Right where the saddle would end. Which was tender to pressure.

I found it as I was grooming, thankfully well before I threw a saddle on. 

Instead, we worked on lining up at the mounting block as a refresher, went for a walk around the pond (during which I almost died when he spooked at ducks that flew off right next to us), and then I needed to stay inside because the sun came out and it got hot which I wasn't dressed for so Stitch got his mane tidied up.

Stitch recovered quickly from the duck incident. My foot, not so much.

The hope is that 48 hours will be enough time for Stitch to become non-reactive to the scrape so that I can try again on Monday. If he happens to come in with more marks on his back, his suit of armor will have to go on. I try to keep the fly sheet off until the flies actually get bad, which is usually more like July, but am willing to make him wear it earlier if needed.

The Last Month

Yet again, I've fallen off the blog-wagon. Not that there is much to blog about. 

Stitch has been, for the most part, on vacation for almost a month. The first couple weeks weren't planned as such - he got his vaccinations and had a bit of a lump on his neck, then the next week I think my body was fighting off something because I was absolutely exhausted all week and ended up with a hoarse voice at the end.

Turns out my horse doesn't mind getting his feet wet if it's his idea and not mine.

That weekend I noticed the swoop that his back gets when he's in a growth spurt. When I went out to catch him the next day and saw a horse across the field and thought to myself  "whose horse has such a pointy butt" and realized it was mine I decided he could have a couple more weeks off. 

I swear his back changed shape every day over a couple of weeks.

His butt is looking a bit less swoopy, but now his shoulders are looking like they're jammed up against his withers. Last week, on the lunge, his canter was the chest down quarter horse version, a couple of days later it was much better balanced. One thing that has changed of late is that he has been a bit tougher to get the right lead on the lunge, which has always been his stronger side. I'm trying very hard to not go all "my baby horse is permanently broken" about it. 

I got myself a 3d printer for Christmas. This magnet, which started as a picture of Stitch that I had Chat GPT make into a Pixar movie scene, is on the white board of my tack locker.

Do you see the resemblance?

Good news is that as of this week his balance has gotten better and he can quite capably gallop a balanced circle on the wrong lead on the lunge. He even threw in a couple of changes to get on the right one, before tucking his butt underneath him and showing that he might actually have some athletic moves in him. Oh yay.

In an effort to work on Stitch's posture I've been working with the Surefoot pads with him. They aren't new to him, I've introduced them to him many times over the last year, but he's never wanted to have anything to do with them. You would think his feet have eyes in them based on how adept he is on not actually placing his foot on the pad when I put his foot down.

For some reason though, the last couple of weeks he's changed and is enjoying them. Not to the extent that Phantom and Cisco did, but he's letting me place his foot on a pad and has a few moments per session of allowing himself to have all the feels. I've noticed that he is much more comfortable standing with the left front on a pad than the right, and has a hard time staying on the right front if I pick up any other foot. Don't know what it means, just something to note.

Feeling very zen. Maybe the lines in the sand are helping?

Something else we've been working on is standing untied in the crosstie area. At the beginning of winter, my goal for the season was to work on ground tying with him. But then we moved to the new barn, and he had that period of barging out of the crossties, so that kind of got put aside. But Stitch has been much better of late - still paws, but much less, and has been quite good about standing in the area and waiting when I unclip the ties. 

This will be a process. I've discovered that he initially is good, but then he looks for something to do. I'm having the same problem under saddle with him when practicing parking. He'll stand nicely for a few seconds, then starts looking back at me like he's saying "helloooo - why aren't we doing something? We should be doing something." Very ADHD brain. 

The horses will move onto grass in July. I'm starting to do some hand grazing in preparation. I hate hand grazing - it's one of my least favourite horse things to do. 

The crossties have a rubber mat in the stall area, then a small gap of cement, then there's another mat in the aisle in front. The plan is that he has to keep his toes on the mat in the stall. He's kind of got the idea, and is now sometimes self-correcting with a voice aid from me if his toe steps off the mat, but it's hard for a busy brain to not let the feet move. I'm not expecting miracles and thinking I'll be able to leave him untied while I run to the washroom or anything, I just want to be able to turn my back for a few seconds to grab something across the aisle and not have to go running after my horse. 

I'm hoping to hop back on him this weekend and do a few more weeks of slow work until the next growth spurt hits. He's currently 15.1 1/2 in front and 15.2 behind, but doesn't turn four until the end of July, so I fully expect he'll get to his string test height of 15.3hh - I very much hope he stops there!

Gotcha Day

I'm super behind in posting about my last couple of rides (I don't want to have to edit video), but yesterday was Stitch's 1-year Gotcha Day!

Of course, I totally forgot about it until I was turning him out, and as soon as he realized that the candy machine was out of candy he wandered away from me and I couldn't get any pics.

It's been a year of new beginnings - a new horse who I'm starting from scratch, first rides, and a new barn that we call home.

The baby horse on the day I went out to view him.

Stitch has been a pleasure to work with - other than that one weekend in February we don't talk about. 

The first new blanket that I bought for him. It's a 69" that was done up as small as I could make it. He still can wear it, done up as big as I can make it - his butt peeks out a bit but I'm determined to get my money out of it! 

He has proven to be a willing, smart, and sweet horse who is constantly complimented by everyone at the barn. 

First time lunged with a saddle in August 2024.

I've learned that food is his favourite thing - any and all food - and that getting fed appears to be the highlight of his day. It is also likely the reason that he paws (which has gotten significantly better, but it's still there). His second favourite thing these days appears to be the black barn cat Dexter, who has been in the arena quite a bit recently and Stitch goes all stalker mode when he sees him.

October 2024, when I decided it was time to give him the winter off to grow since his butt had shot up.

So far, the only things I know he dislikes are puddles, getting hosed off, and having his temperature taken. He was good with that one last summer but not so good after his strangles vaccines in December. I'm waiting for a much warmer day to tackle the wash rack at the new barn.

First ride out of the arena in September 2024.

This is hopefully the first of many years in our journey together, with many more firsts to experience together.

Stitch today, taken out in the field while waiting for the vet to show up to give him his vaccination. Can't wait until his red summer coat is back.

Baby Brain Blown

With spring now being here (this week, at least), a big priority has been to get Stitch out of the arena. There aren't as many trail areas as I had hoped at the new barn, but there are a couple of empty fields that horses will move to for the summer that we can ride in until then, and a bigger field at the back that might get cows on it to graze it down. Then, in the fall once the crops are off, the neighbour gives us access to his fields. 

We are also about a seven-minute drive from a place that has a cross-country course that we could pay to ride around, and a half-hour drive to a shared use recreation area that has trails for horses. 

Before I make any plans to take my horse off the property, I'd like to be fairly confident of not dying on the property. 

It cools off quite quickly in the evenings at this time of year, so a beautiful sunny day does not mean you'll be able to skip the winter coat after dinner, and all too often mid-day plans of riding outside are changed by the time I actually get on the horse in the evening.

Stitch is currently in his moth-eaten shedding stage of spring while his dark winter hair slowly give way to his red summer hair.

Wednesday worked out though!

I started the ride in the arena, which was its own challenge - the overhead door was open. Not at the end, but half-way down one side. Stitch gawked at the outside every time we passed it, but surprisingly didn't really try to exit. He also didn't come close to scraping my leg off on the kick boards after the open area of the door, which I was quite concerned would be a problem.

We did a bit of trot in a busy arena (3 riders) with me trying to find some spaces to do some turning. He was a little looky about the horse that was doing a bunch of cantering, but with everything going on he wasn't too bad.  

Eventually, we wandered out, keeping to the paths around the turnout areas and driveways. 

I have done a bunch of leading Stitch all over the yard in-hand without issue, but apparently it's a different story when Mommy isn't in front. The good news is that he's more of the stop and stare kind of horse, and if I give him a moment he'll keep going. 

I was suprised at how looky he was for the first bit. He stopped a couple of times by the bleachers for the outdoor ring, though I wasn't really sure what he was looking at. 

The first baby brain explosion happened when we were headed towards the pond (once it dries up we are able to ride around it in summer, but we were nowhere near the side of it on this day) and some ducks came in for a landing. That was a stop and stare in llama mode. When I finally got him to start moving his feet again, he turned into a giant puddle - it was a whole two hooves wide - that he was all oh no about. This horse is not going to be an eventer - he has hated puddles since the day I got him.

Got past that, then went down the lane between some turnouts. The horse I knew could be silly wasn't in his paddock, so I thought it would be smooth sailing, but nope, Stitch saw something else move and spun to the right, towards another lane of turnouts, but also into some muddy footing, which he instantly regretted. He was very much "I don't know where to go".

Thankfully, he heeded my guidance and we didn't end up in the ditch. We then went down the driveway towards the road, and he finally started to relax. From there we back-tracked the first part of the ride (he still stared at the ducks), and continued past the field that he lives in. By this point he was able to march along with a long low neck, though I definitely wasn't given him overly long reins!

I honestly didn't think he'd be as spooky as he was, but overall he settled quickly, so it was still a win in my book. The first ride outside of the season for any horse tends to be more exciting than it should, whether they are a baby or not. 

I think they got the outdoor arenas harrowed, so hopefully we'll be able to get outside for a proper ride soon - but the snow and rain needs to stay away!

The Circle of Ease

On Sunday night I had the arena to myself and I really wanted to be able to focus on working on steering. 

I set up the classic exercise of 2 poles on a circle (at E & B) and pylons along the center line. I knew that Stitch really likes doing poles, but I didn't realize how much he likes pylons - by which I mean he likes to eat them. As soon as I would put one down, he'd have it in his mouth. He even tried to reach down and snatch one the first time we walked through them under saddle.

The stretch goal for the ride was to be able to do the poles/pylon circle at a trot. I honestly didn't think we'd manage it and had plans to just use the poles/pylons individually as something to aim for in our turns. 

Once Stitch got going, which took a couple of minutes because he had to deal with the justifiable distraction of his favourite kitty walking through the arena, his steering felt pretty good. It usually gets better as the ride progresses, but this night it felt good from the get-go.

When you are so distracted by the kitty that you forget you have feet.

So we tried the exercise. And in what I'm learning to be Stitch fashion, he nailed it.

Yes, I had to use a bit more inside rein than ideal. He isn't looking for the circle yet, and doesn't move reliably off my legs, so I had way more feel than I'd like to have on my inside rein. It doesn't look that bad on the video though - by no means was his nose cranked around the turns. 

I think the exercise worked well for him in that he seemed to start to look ahead in the turns and get the idea of continuing on the circle. We'll definitely revisit it soon!

We just did it once each way, because when you do it that well the first time, there's no need at this age to drill it. It was also the first warm day of the year and homeboy was already pretty sweaty after a little bit of work. 

I'm going to have to start going through some books and finding some new exercises to try!

Ride #31

I was finally feeling better after the previous week's head cold so I prepped Stitch for his first ride in almost two weeks (which was planned to be on Monday) by letting him loose in the arena on Sunday to get those crazy young horse antics out of his system.

He just wanted to stand and cuddle a kitty.

My kind of guy.

Dexter, the black panther barn kitty, was hanging out on one of the kickwalls in the arena when we went in. Stitch immediately noticed him and took every opportunity he could to just hang out with him. Dexter doesn't really love the horses, but does love being held by a human, and he was a little put out with the fact that Stitch kept parking himself between the kitty and the human and was making it difficult for the kitty to get into a position that he could be picked up.

Dexter was desperately trying to figure out how to get to me on the other side of the horse. He refused to go over the horse. 

Stitch did have to go for a couple of canters, but they weren't particularly energetic, so I gave up sooner than planned. Would that come back to bite me in the butt once said butt was in the saddle the next day?

Initially, I wasn't quite sure. 

Stitch was a little sticky about walking forward when I first hopped on. It was probably something that you wouldn't see, but I definitely felt. The arena was the busiest it's been on my ride since last fall, with three other horses in the arena. One was finishing her lesson so left soon after I got on, which left one person having a flat lesson and another person riding her rather hot TB.

It took a good seven or eight minutes before Stitch started to walk forward and relax. There were a couple of moments when a horse passed him and I felt him gather himself up like he was thinking of going with them, but it never went beyond that.

In trying to stay out of the way of the person having the lesson, I didn't get to do as much steering off the track as I would have liked. We had a couple of icky circles at the beginning of the trot, and then a couple of better ones as he got going. Those were probably all that we did for circles. But we did try some baby leg yields at the trot - and he got them! Just a couple of steps towards the track, really good off the left leg, a little less good off the right one. We ended the ride there. 

There is a possibility that Stitch is going through another growth spurt. He's lost a little bit of weight over the last couple of weeks, which seems to be the precursor to his butt shooting up, and after taking his blanket off this weekend, yeah, I think his butt shot up. If it seems to affect his balance he'll go on vacation again for a few weeks. I'm going to have to measure his butt - I can't see over the top of it anymore!

The Week That Wasn't

The plan is to ride Stitch three times a week, but I don't think we've managed to hit that goal yet. 

We got two rides in last week - Tuesday's ride was really good in learning how to rebalance the trot, which was the goal, but we lost our ability to do a circle. There was another person riding with us, which hasn't happened a lot so far this year, and there were moments that Stitch was definitely distracted by the pinto dressage pony, but overall I was really happy with how he listened to my aids. 

And then I woke up on Saturday morning with the plague. I finally succumbed to one of the many bugs going around, and it took until Thursday to feel mostly human. Just in time for a spring snowstorm that is continuing through Friday morning, when I am supposed to be at the barn for my farrier appointment at 8am. 

My farrier had messaged me Thursday morning to confirm we were still a go and I said yes unless I end up in a ditch and she said we can reschedule if the roads are terrible in the morning. I stressed about it all evening after reading about how bad the roads were for peoples drives home from work (and about whether my car would get stuck in my alley before even making it to the main road) and sent her a message to reschedule before I went to bed. Stitch is only on six weeks so I have a little bit of leeway.

I'm betting the cobra chickens are regretting coming north so soon.

Sadly, the snow is going to stick around for a few days since the temperatures are going to be below freezing until Monday.

Back to a heavyweight blanket for a night.

We'll see what roads are like over the weekend and hopefully manage to finally get three rides in next week. 

In the meantime, Stitch got his first taste of a donut (vanilla icing with sprinkles and strawberry filling). Guess what he's getting for his birthday!

Ride #29

I didn't ride all week, due to feeling crappy for a couple of days followed by snow/freezing temperatures. Stitch was bundled up again in his warm jammies for a couple of days, but will hopefully be able to be nekkid on Monday or Tuesday. We're not out of the woods for snow - my birthday is early in April and we always have snow after my birthday, but that should be the last of the stupid cold for the season. Fingers crossed.

When I went out on Wednesday night to bring him in and put his snowsuit on, he was happily playing bitey face with his BFF out in the field, which was followed by galloping off with bucks and farts, then the stare into the distance with his tail up in the air and the dragon snort. 

I thought he might be a twit to bring in, but he surprised me and walked very calmly next to me. We went straight into the arena as it was empty and he was given a chance to get the last of his sillies out before I put him in the crossties. He is playing much more in the arena when given the chance, lots of bucks and farts and diving into a change of direction last minute. 

Which he did none of on Friday night when I brought him in. I was planning to ride on Saturday and didn't want to die, so he got let loose on Friday, but it only took a couple of minutes to get the little bit of sass out of him. 

And then Saturday came, and it was cold, and I had family dinner plans, and I didn't want to feel chilled all evening, so I didn't get out to the barn. Which meant that on Sunday, when I did ride, I wasn't too sure what I was going to get.

The sass was definitely in there. Stitch was a little looky at a couple of corners that to me didn't seem to have changed when we walked in the beginning - by which I mean he took a good look at them but kept walking past them. But that was about the extent of it. 

For this ride, he was forward at the trot right off the bat. He wasn't, however, feeling very balanced. So I actually slowed him down a bit in order to gain some balance. For the most part he was thinking forward though, not asking to slow down so much, mostly when we had steering issues.

Our 20m circles were terrible - a week off did nothing initially for our steering. So it's the perfect time to try a 3 loop serpentine, right?

The first go ended up being a figure 8 - the two circles kind. I tried to turn and when we ended up heading towards E I knew I couldn't save it for the serpentine. So we did a couple of figure 8's first, which worked out quite nicely. Stitch was listening and waiting for my input as to where we were going. I also changed how I asked him to turn, using an indirect rein instead of an open rein - and what do you know, he bent nicely and stayed much better on the desired path.

On the next serpentine attempt, I figured that I would have to think about turning much earlier to make it happen. Again, I kept my hands close together and used an indirect rein before turning, and ended up having some lovely turns. Guess it's time to start riding him like he's a big boy now!

Stitch also gave me a lovely feeling as we started the serpentine of balancing the trot coming out of the corner at C. He responds well to me closing my thighs to slow down, but it's been more slam on the brakes kind of slowing down. This time, I put my lower leg on at the same time, and he responded by rebalancing himself and still going forward, and it set us up for a great turn off of the wall. 

So, yeah, it looks like I have to remember how to ride properly again!

Adjusting the balance in the trot will be our goal for the next few rides. By no means am I asking for anything crazy - no collection here - just to be able to rebalance before turns and transitions. Exercises like the serpentines will help with this quite a bit, I just have to remember to ask for it!

Auspicious Beginnings

Well, my visit to the barn on Sunday didn't start very well.

Parked, got my stuff out of the car and walked to the barn, pause - what is that sound?

Oh, that's the sound of all the air escaping my tire. 

I think I see the problem. 

I really do have bad luck with tires. Which means I'm well versed on how to remove a tire and don't get stressed over it anymore. It could have been worse - it was only snowing/sleeting a little bit, but right around freezing. I'd rather that than having to do it (again) in -25 weather. 

So that got dealt with, then I trudged out to the furthest corner of the field to catch my horse. Like, 10 feet away from the fence line, where the horses haven't been all winter so there is still a whole bunch of snow that doesn't have any path going through it. Snow that is slightly deeper than ankle height, which I had to trudge through in my ankle-height boots. My feet were damp for the rest of the night. 

I went out on Saturday afternoon, which was beautiful and sunny, and Stitch and two other bay boys were all lined up having a snooze in the sun.

They did an excellent job of lining up in a straight line.

The plan for this ride was to do a little trot course of poles. Stitch really likes doing poles, and we did it a few times in the fall at the old barn. I was hoping that this would give him some incentive to really trot forward.

First of all, let me say how hard 8' poles are with a greenie! They don't give you much wiggle room when your steering isn't perfect. I had to really think about starting my turn early, especially down the long sides, or he could dodge a pole pretty easily. 

I got on and was immediately "something's not right". My stirrups felt really short, jump length short. Now, I had cleaned my saddle the day before, so I figured I had just put them on the wrong hole, although I was pretty sure that I had made sure to note what hole they were on before moving the buckle. And then I realized that the buckle (webber style) was digging into my right calf, which it never did. 

I think that what I did was put the leathers on the wrong stirrup bar. My saddle has two options for stirrup bars, the forward one is generally for jump styles of saddles and the rear one is for dressage. I know I put them on the back one, and I realized that they should have been on the front one. Oops. The front one also sits lower, so that would be why my stirrups felt shorter although they were on the right hole. 

Oh well, I wasn't changing it at that point, although we'll see if I regret that decision if I end up with a bruise on my calf. Although I did eventually drop the stirrups down by a hole, but not before I trotted a lap with the buckle releasing on my left stirrup and it getting longer and longer. I thought it felt weird but couldn't figure out what had changed. 

After all that, my horse was wonderful and I had a really good ride. I was right about the poles - they really helped with the forward. It appears that Stitch's favourite things are diagonal lines and poles, so put them together and that's where he really picked up the forward.

He still asked to stop somewhere on the course on every course, but once I said no he kept going. 

The last course had the best feeling at the end of the course. We came across the diagonal and maintained the forward around the short end - that is the trot I am looking for. That is the trot that felt like he was taking me somewhere, and he pushed into the contact with my hands softly. 

This was also the first ride since we got going again where he was starting to feel steady under me and not so wibbly wobbly. Being more forward probably helped.

Super happy with this ride, and we'll definitely have to repeat using poles on a regular basis. 

Coming Along

Tuesday's ride was about continuing to encourage Stitch to come forward through turn. He's now looking for the turns, so that's helping a lot. 

First full circle in the middle of the arena. He fell in a little bit after crossing the center line because he knew where he was going, so I didn't complain about it.

To me, he's still not carrying us as forward as I would like, but it's getting closer. He gave me a figure 8 that he just dialed in on when we turned off the track that felt wonderful - locked on to the spot we were returning to on the track, and a steady, strong forward. That's the feeling that I'm aiming for.

Stitch was all "I got this".

Part of the lack of forward is totally related to fitness. I still want to keep the rides short and not drilling, but we need to start increasing the amount of trot we do in a ride. I'm aiming for 5 minutes in the next few rides and working up to 10 (currently averaging 3-something). As he starts getting tired the forwardness definitely decreases. It would also help if he didn't do things right so fast!

Like this first attempt at head-to-the-wall leg yield off my right leg. He definitely got a cookie for it!

Smart Cookie

On Saturday, I took Stitch into the arena in a halter and worked on the mounting block. He was, of course, pretty well perfect about it. I took the opportunity to reward him with a click and a couple of cookies, in the hopes that it would set up a willing horse for my ride on Sunday.

He was better about it once it was time to get on, not perfect - a couple of times when I put a bit of weight in the stirrup he moved away, but I took my time and looked for reasons to reward him and when I did get on he stood rock still.

Thankfully, he was forward right off the bat and there were no attempts at the walking bucks like there were on the last ride.

The goal for this ride was just to continue some steering at the trot and let Stitch get more comfortable and confident with it so that he stayed forward through the turns. I think that's going to be the focus for the next few rides. 

Please ignore the huffing and puffing on my end. Breathing is hard when your nose is full of snot because it's a bit chilly out.

And he was! Again, not perfect, but a definite improvement over the last couple of rides. The circles were feeling a lot rounder, and the diagonals a lot straighter.

After the trot work, I decided to try a bit of head-to-the-wall leg yielding and see what I got. We've been working on it in-hand, and he's got the idea of it with me using my dressage whip laid across his side to ask him to move laterally. We'd give it a shot and see what happens. 

I asked for it off my left leg. Of course, I got nothing for the first few steps, but I moved my leg back a bit and he moved his bum over and gave me a couple of steps for a good first effort. I clicked, he got a cookie. We went again, and kind of the same - nothing for a couple of steps, then move the bum over. Again, click and reward. 

Across to the other side of the arena we went. As we approached the wall, I slowed the walk, Stitch stopped for a step, then very deliberately moved himself sideways. Click and reward. Asked him to walk on - he walked sideways away from my left leg. 

I may have created a leg-yielding monster.

We only did it off the left leg, I'll ask with the right leg next time, once I've made sure I have pre-loaded enough cookies in my pockets. 

I was really happy with how he thought about what I was asking. This can be an exercise where some horses really lose their brain when asked to move sideways with a barrier in front of them, but Stitch kept his cool and took his time thinking through the question. 

Once again, I am amazed at how fast horses learn when positive reinforcement is used. Not that I should be that surprised - I'd figure things out pretty fast if cookies were involved too!

Ride #25

I believe that Wednesday's ride was #25. Yes, I am still counting, and will continue to count for quite a while.

Stitch was super chill while getting tacked up. Barely any pawing. 

I was ready to tackle standing at the mounting block as the day before he had walked away while I was trying to get my leg over, which he hasn't done before. Not sure why, other than maybe because he hadn't been ridden in a week? Although he was lunged the night before, but really lightly, so maybe not enough?

Anyhow, it's something I want to nip in the bud. I'm too old and too stiff to get on via fly-by's these days. And it something that he knows how to do nicely.

He was quite fussy at the block on this day. In the end, I had my mom hold him while I got on, or I wasn't sure I was going to ever get on. So we'll work on that in-hand on my next couple of visits since I don't plan to ride again until Sunday.

Stitch says that cookies will solve the problem. Cookies solve all problems. 

Whether this is linked to the mounting issue or not, Stitch then threw in a couple of half-assed walking bucks in the first circle after getting on. That's new. 

He had a bit of that powder keg feel, not wanting to go forward, but also might explode. So not fun to feel on a greenie. 

I was thinking I might be best to get off and lunge, but wanted to get at least a bit of forward walk first. And once we got that, he was fine. So??

I'm actually wondering if maybe his back is still a bit sore from the bite he came in with on Sunday. He was fine for my Wednesday ride, other than standing at the block, but maybe the second day in a row set it off? I'm definitely giving him the next couple of days off, and will re-evaluate on Sunday. The other reason that I'm wondering if he's still sore is because he seems stiffer bending to the left than usual, and again was maybe worse on Thursday than Wednesday. I'll try some massage and ground exercises and see what I find.

But, since he seemed fine once he started walking forward, we continued with our ride. 

The goal was a figure 8 with circles at each end. And we achieved it! He was a little bobbly across the first diagonal, and we're still figuring out forward and steering at the same time, but it was a good effort. It looks much better on video than it felt! He still feels quite wobbly.

Then I ended the ride with a trot down the long side asking for a forward trot for a few strides, rebalance, and forward again, which he did really nicely. He wasn't as forward during the rest of the trot work as he had been the day before, so I wasn't sure if he would do it, but he nailed it. 

I think we only did about 3 minutes of trot, but as I wasn't sure we were even going to get into a trot when I first hopped on I was quite happy with the ride. The other rider was being kind enough to let me have the right of way, and she was ready to canter her horse and warned me that he might be a bit sassy, so I ended the ride on a good note before things had a chance to fall apart.

So other than the beginning, it was a good ride. 

Oh - and I measured him - he's grown another 1/2" to 15.1 1/2 hh. Maybe just a wee bit taller behind still. He's lost a bit of weight and looks a bit leaner these days, so I'm worried that another growth spurt is coming. (Don't worry - he's far from skinny.)

He's also far from reaching the height of his BFF Simon, who is honestly taller than any horse needs to be.

A Simple Ride

We finally got another ride in. I went out last night to check out the bitey status of Stitch's back, which I was happy to see was zero. I kept my fingers crossed that it would be the same tonight - and it was!

The goal for this ride was to trot a long side, 20-ish meter circle, then down the next long side. I didn't want to have him break a sweat, as it's finally warmed up here so the horses get sweaty pretty easily, but it's also cool enough that I want to make sure he's dry before going out. 

Overall, I was quite happy with the ride. There was someone else riding in the arena who was being kind enough to give me my space, so I would have liked to have done a bit more down the long sides, but didn't want to interfere with her ride either. 

Stitch got to the point where he was starting to look for the shape of the circle. He's a bit sticky in the first part of the circle coming off the wall, but as we crossed the center line and his nose was pointed back to the track I was able to release my inside rein and he continued on the desired path. 

I ended the ride with a bit of gas in his tank still. That's been a challenge, usually he runs out pretty fast and then loses the forward. Not that we did much trot, it was lots of short bits, but that's usually all it takes.

The only thing I didn't like was that he walked forward while I was getting on. He hasn't done that yet, and I don't want it to become a habit. If he does it on the next ride then I'll hop off and try again until he stands still. I might go back to rewarding him with a cookie if he stands for the next little bit too.

He's going to be ridden on Thursday (pending vampire gelding attacks) and I'm interested to see if he'll still be forward after being ridden the day before. Hopefully yes!

Gym Hair

 Pre-exercise bangs:

Post-exercise:

Perfect when you leave the hairdresser, and then you walk outside into wind.

Sweet?

I'm either an amazing horse trainer, or Stitch's attempt at world domination has come to a resolution, because in just one short week, my horse has done an almost complete 180 in his behaviour (we'll say a 165).

Not just about the barging out of the crossties - he's still trying a bit when the crossties are released, but not as often and not as determined. Now I just make him circle tightly in the grooming stall, and he gives up after two or three times. Once he's got to that stage he's lovely and will wait and step out one step at a time with me. 

Miraculously, the pawing has been significantly reduced. Like, a lot. And when he does paw, more often than not it's one or two soft paws and then all four are on the floor.

All four on the floor, but plotting his next move.

Don't know why, don't care. Just happy to have my sweet baby boy back.

Well, I suspect he's actually not so sweet. At least when he's out with his buddies. Because he keeps coming in with welts on his back, surrounded by slobber. 

On Friday I intended to ride, but Stitch  had a small-ish welt on the right side where the saddle would sit. It was pretty warm so it may have recently happened. 

I've know a couple of people who have been seriously injured when they threw a saddle on top of an injury and tried to hop on, only to be flung to tbe ground before getting their leg swung over. Don't need that thank you very much.

So, no ride on Friday.

Or on Monday, because Homeboy had an even bigger welt on his left side where the saddle would sit, and he definitely dropped his back when I pushed on it to determine tenderness.

The saddle is definitely going to sit on top of it. I'll have to dig out the witch hazel and keep it on-hand.

Do I think he's getting picked on out there? No, I'm pretty sure he's happily in the middle of whatever gelding games are being played.

The weather has also done a 180 so Stitch has been nekkid since Thursday. I might have to put a suit of armor on him again if I ever want to ride - this time, it might have to actully be made of armor!

Baby Steps

Much thanks to those that commented on my last post that 3 year olds are assholes. It gives me hope that my kid isn't going to turn into a serial killer.

We've made some progress the last couple of days. I was back to liking my horse after I left the barn.

He has definitely become accustomed to the routine, and that sets up some of the issues. On Wednesday, I changed it up. He came in, got cross-tied, and got his food (ration balancer). Usually, I unclip them and stand nearby while they eat untied and have plenty of time to grab them while they finish licking the bowl. I was pretty sure that Stitch was going to be all "see ya" when he was done, so he had a lead shank attached the whole time. Sure enough, he finished and tried to leave. 

Now, he wasn't as bargey as the previous day, but I was also prepared a bit better - mostly meaning that I wasn't wearing huge ski gloves and I could actually hang onto the lead rope. So I managed to catch him just before he got to the point of getting me out of position. 

At this point, he was still very much not wanting to back into the grooming spot, but they're wide enough that he can turn around in them. So we went in face first and turned around, then everytime he tried to barge out I managed to get his neck bent and we could do a little circle in the stall.

It took a little while, but we got to the point where we could stand for a few seconds on a loose rope, so off we went to the next thing. 

Next was to the arena for a quick lunge. He was pretty quiet in there and very respectful, so I tried to keep it easy and lots of rewards. He also stood rock still to get his feet picked on our way out.

Back to the crossties, where he backed softly in. Then grooming, spending lots of time with some good scrubbing on the itchy bits, followed by a walk around the barn with lots of stopping and backing. 

I definitely saw an increase in the pawing and fussing when it came time to put his blankets on. Now, I don't really think he likes wearing blankets to be honest, but it was still -24 C that night, and hey, it's something he's going to have to deal with, but I will spend some time next winter figuring out which ones fit him the best. I'm not loving the way the one he was wearing was sitting on his neck.

After the blankets went on, we went for another walk around the barn. If it had been nicer out, I would have taken him for a walk away from the pasture outside, but my face froze pretty fast when we got outside so it didn't happen.

On Thursday, I rudely interrupted Stitch's afternoon nap in the sun and dragged him in - and I mean dragged. He was very much "I don't want to go to school".

Again, Stitch was fed first, but this time I left him crosstied and held up the dish for him. Sure enough, he finished eating, and tried to surge forward, to be stopped by the crossties. He was not impressed that I tricked him.

He had some moments of quiet while being groomed, but was a twit about his feet when I tried to pick them. They didn't actually need to be cleaned, I just needed to make a point of picking them up, which is hard to do when he's trying to paw.

We went for a quick walk/back up around the barn before returning to the crossties to get tacked up.

Now, I figured that getting the bridle on might be a problem. I was prepared to do it in the arena if I needed to. It wasn't going to be about actually putting the bridle on, but stopping Stitch from barging out when I took the halter and crossties off. 

So I dropped the halter down his nose and put it around his neck while still attached to the crossties, and he immediately surged forward and almost clothes-lined himself. Again, he was not impressed that I tricked him.

For ride 24, the goal was to be able to trot some 25 meter-ish multi-sided circles. They were pretty rough in the beginning, but they got better.  We didn't do a ton of trot as it has finally warmed up and he was already a bit sweaty after a little bit of work, and there was another rider in the arena who was being very nice to keep out of my way and I didn't want to interfere too much with her ride, but the circles started to get better and he was getting the idea as to where we were going. 

After untacking we walked for a bit more in the arena to try to dry out a little bit, and then went out to the pasture through a different door. The temperatures are back up around freezing, so he'll be nekkid now until the weather changes, which reduces one thing that seems to ramp him up.

We're going to continue on in this pattern, changing the order in which we do things and returning to the crossties often. There were multiple moments when he stood quietly on Thursday, and that's an improvement over the last few days, so there is hope that this is making a difference.

Also, sorry for the wall of text - I keep leaving my phone in my coat which seems to always be somewhere I am not.

Who's The Boss?

I want my sweet baby horse back. 

My current horse is a menace.

As I recently mentioned on the blog, Stitch has been having a lot of 3-year old feelings. The whack that he got one night has mostly fixed the biting, also helped by the moratorium on cookies being dispensed. 

However, the pawing has been getting worse. Actually, his whole behaviour while in the crossties has gotten worse. 

The pawing has become consistent. Doesn't matter if I'm standing there grooming him, his front legs are moving. They came into contact a few times with my leg one day so I've been carrying a dressage whip and getting after him if he paws while I'm working with him. At moments it helps, at moments it doesn't.

Today, I found out some information that may partially explain some of the behaviours.

Stitch has been performing a coup d'etat. 

Apparently, over the last couple of weeks, he has been seen moving up the ranks in the group of geldings that he lives with. He has recently been seen pushing around the established leader, a big draughty tank of a horse. 

The kid has gotten bigger, stronger, and a huge ego.

It kind of ties in with his behaviour escalating over the last few weeks.

The last couple of days he's been really bad after he had his food. 

Our routine is that he comes in, gets parked in the cross-ties, gets stripped of blankets, a quick brush, into the arena for whatever I do that day, back to the cross-ties, noms, blankets on and head out. 

I was wondering if I needed to start changing up the routine. I had been thinking that he was overly eager to go out because he always got gate cookies when he went out, but I've reduced that so that shouldn't be as much a factor. 

However, after hearing about his power struggle, I'm wondering if part of his hijinks is due to his eagerness to go back out to his buddies, where it's probably party all day every day. He has been sticky about leading forward when I've brought him in, stopping every few strides and planting, not wanting to leave his friends. 

He was really bad yesterday about getting his blanket on, to the point that I took him into the arena to finish it as he kept almost trying to sit against the back wall. He has also started barging past me when I undo the crossties. Like, full-on nose against his chest, set his neck, see ya with me water-skiing behind him.

I am not impressed.

The rope halter had only slightly more impact than the leather halter, which had zero stopping power when he set his neck. The chain lead is getting dug out next. 

Unfortunately, the way that the barn is set up is not helping. The area in front of the grooming cross-ties is not very wide, so when he barges out I quickly run out of space to maneuver before I'm running into shelves and saddle racks. I have to be able to catch him before he barges out. 

I'm going to start with changing up the routine. He can get fed early, then groomed, a bit of work (he was momentarily better after being lunged today, until he got fed and blanketed), a blanket on, and back into the arena for a bit of ground work, then, if weather permits, maybe some walking around the yard. 

So far this hasn't snuck into the arena, and he's been really, really good in there. He actually doesn't want to go back into the barn when we're done, so I'm also wondering if being in the cross-ties is stressing him out.

On my way home from the barn, after thinking that I want to sell him and get a 10 year old who should be well past this stage, I reflected back on my other horses, who all had phases during which they weren't fun to deal with. Phantom was pretty well always good on the ground, but for the first couple of years we had some terrible rides under saddle. Cisco was good in the barn, but a stressy mess in the arena.

Before them was Farly. I got him when he was 6, lost him at 19. I think that for all that time, he was always the boss horse in his turnout situation. He never had to work on it, he just seemed to give off vibes that said he was the boss and the other horses accepted it.

The first couple of years that I had him, he had atrocious ground manners. He was a confident horse who was very dominant, and we spent a lot of time working on stopping immediately and backing up and moving out of my space. He also spent most of the first couple of years doing the idiot dance in the crossties, especially if he was in the barn by himself.

We got over it, and he received compliments from cowboys on his manners, but man, there were days.

Is Stitch starting to show some dominant traits like Farly? 

I'm really hoping that this will start to get better with a couple more weeks of sorting out the hierarchy and getting back to work (it's finally going to start warming up at the end of the week) and that it doesn't take the next two years of constantly getting after my horse to make him a solid citizen again. It can be exhausting to deal with.

A Return of Old Faithful

 I've decided to put the riding on hold for another week. It's been freezing cold, and will be until at least late next week. Despite having a heated arena, when it's colder than -20C (plus a windchill) I don't like to ride the horses that live outside 24/7. I think it's too hard on them to come in and get all warm and then get chucked back out into the arctic temperatures.

So Stitch will get a reprieve for another week. And then we will hopefully be able to get some consistent rides going.

In the meantime, he's keeping me busy. Homeboy ended up with another hole in his Amigo blanket - the fourth one since he started wearing it in December. After patching up the last one, I warned him what would happen if he got another hole in it, and tonight he he bore the brunt of my anger.

He is now wearing the Suit of Armor.

The textilene fly sheet worked really well for Cisco's blankets. I mean, he'd get about two winters out of the fly sheets before they were trashed, but his blankets underneath stayed in quite good condition.

Unfortunately for Stitch, the only fly sheet I had at the barn was probably the most trashed one I still have. It's the one that Cisco put a hay pocket into the shoulder of, and most of the patches are barely hanging on. But it will work for one night. I dug another one out when I got home. It wasn't one of the three that I was looking for, but one that I don't actually remember buying. It's been worn by a horse, so it's not new, maybe it's the one I bought from someone on Marketplace a few years ago? But I thought it was a different colour, so????

He's also now wearing Cisco's old Greenhawk turnout. It's a wee bit long on his butt, but he's filled out so much that I think the shoulders will be a better fit for him. Cisco didn't fit into the standard Amigo/Rambo's very well, and I think Stitch will be the same. If not, I still have a bunch of Bucas's we can try.

I'm really hoping that we won't need to worry about blankets much longer, but I think going forward Stitch will be wearing the suit of armor on top. I love that he has friends, but those boys can be so hard on blankets!

Rides 22 & 23

We're back at it!

On Tuesday, I went out in the freezing cold evening to the barn. Turns out I was the only crazy person there all night. But that meant I had the arena to myself!

I made a last-minute decision to tack Stitch up, pop on my helmet and boots, and see what his thoughts were about me putting weight in the saddle again. I was by myself (the evening employee was around to check on us, so I wasn't totally crazy), so if he didn't seem confident about me putting my foot and weight in the stirrup we would stop there, but if it was all good then maybe I'd swing my leg over, and then???

Unsurprisingly, it was one time with weight in the stirrup, then the leg over. When I asked him to walk away from the mounting block he took steps backwards instead of forwards and I wondered if I was going to get myself into trouble, but once he went forward he was all good. 

It only took about a 20 m circle for him to relax and feel quite confident walking around the arena. We did a total of about 10 minutes, with some steering, walk transitions off of my seat, and halts off my thighs. An excellent refresher for him.

Despite the weather being significantly nicer on Thursday, (a balmy -12C), when I arrived at prime riding time the place was again empty and I had the arena to myself. Sweet!

Stitch had a little bit of pep in his step when I got on but quickly settled into the walk. Lots of snorts were released.

He picked up the trot right away when asked, and unlike when I started him in the fall, forward was not a problem! He was a bit too quick, so we had to work on settling the trot, which I wouldn't really say we did in the fall since we always trying to just go forward. Sadly, I think he already has a better half-halt off my left rein than my right, which seems to be how all my horses go. I was hoping he'd cover up my faults for a least a little while!

It's late and I don't feel like sending any video to YouTube, so enjoy this awkward gif.

We attempted a couple of simple figure 8's at a trot. They were a bit of a mess as our steering at the trot hasn't been worked on too much. I think he'll be much more forward now, so getting some steering sorted out is going to be our main goal for the next few rides. There was one corner he kept cutting, although the ones at the far end of the arena he went super deep into, so we'll be working on that.

He kicked dirt into the kickwall coming out of the corner and gave that wall a good look 

All in all, I was very happy for how these first rides in three months went. He definitely hasn't forgotten anything. He also feels much stronger than he did in the fall. Still a ping pong ball at the trot, which is to be expected, but not nearly as bad as he was in the beginning. He was just starting to feel solid about carrying me in October when we stopped, so I'm hoping it will come a bit faster this time. 

Feeling pretty pleased with himself after a turn on the forehand. Also - hasn't he filled out since the fall!

The rides will still be very short for the next little while, slowly adding in a bit more trot every ride. Stitch isn't clipped, and at this time of year I really don't want to have to do it. I have to keep him under his sweat level because this stupid cold weather has settled in for most of February by the looks of it, and when I ride in the evenings I don't want to have to deal with a sweaty, hairy pony that has to be completely dry before going back out. 

Contrition

Well, the sassy-bitey pony got a spanking last week. And it might have been just what he needed!

The day after I wrote the last post about how sassy Stitch has been as of late and how he was going to get a job a bit earlier than planned, I had him in the arena wearing his bridle for the first time since the fall. I was just doing some in-hand work with him - giving to the bit laterally, a bit of walking with me at his shoulder and steering with the reins, etc. 

One of the exercises I do is to stand in front and put my hands on the bit rings on each side with my thumbs looped through the ring, and ask him to flex slightly at the poll and ideally down with his nose. 

This opened up the opportunity for the sassy pony to get a little bit mouthy with my hands and arms.

The first couple of times he mouthed me he got a tiny bop on the nose and a "quit it". 

The third time, there were teeth involved. And I happened to be holding a dressage whip.

He got a thwack across the shoulder. A really loud thwack. Way louder than I ever thought it would be. I'm pretty sure I was judged by the other two people in the arena. (I think I caught him with the thicker end of the the whip closer to the handle instead of the skinny end.)

But you know what? He hasn't put a foot (or mouth) wrong since. 

He was immediately contrite and had the "mommy's mad at me" face. After living with geldings for far too long he realized that this boss mare has limits on what she would take from him.

We'll see how long this lasts. It's by no means something that I want to have to regularly repeat.

I'm hoping to get back on him within the next week or so, just waiting for the frigid temperatures and icy roads to get better, mostly so that I can ensure some consistency for the first little bit. The temperatures are going to be cold for the next couple of weeks, but the heated arena at the new place is lovely to hang out in.

Sass Level Midnight

Up to now, all of my horses have been obtained when they were in the 5-6 years old range. Which means that they were well past the fidgety, squirrel-brained pushing all the buttons part of life.

Stitch, at 3.5 years of age, is firmly in that stage of life. It's driving me nuts.

Standing still for more than 3 seconds? Not gonna happen. 

He feels the need to put his nose on everything, including other people's tack when I'm trying to park him back in a grooming stall. That same nose also swings around far too carelessly in the areas occupied by my body of late as well.

The pawing. 

I think it's mainly for attention, so I try to ignore him when he paws and not return to him until he has stopped for a short period. But he also does it while I am actively brushing him, so ???

And the nipping. When heading back out to the pasture where he always gets a few treats upon release, there have been a few nips at my coat sleeve or glove.

Let's just say there have been a few bops on the side of the muzzle as of late. 

This kid needs a job. It's time to go back to work.

Looking slightly chastised after being lunged a couple of nights ago.

I'm starting the process of getting him ready to be ridden again. He's been long-lined a couple of times lately with no issues. Last night he wore a bridle again. Today I'll lunge with the saddle (if I remember to take it out with me). 

I'll probably hop back on within the next couple of weeks, a bit earlier than I had planned in March. But he's looking good body-wise, and the rides will still be kept very low-key for a while.

A little bit of exercise does a body good. A hopefully the brain too.

Settling In

Stitch was back to his normal self after spending his first night out with his new herd. No more baby dragons!

Tuesday gave us a change in weather and it was finally bearable to be outside. I wandered around the property with Stitch in-hand. There's not really much to do or explore out there in the winter as everything is covered in snow.

We went into the barn and he parked in the grooming stall for what is possibly his first time in cross-ties. There was a bit of fidgeting, some pawing, and screaming if I went back to my locker and went out of sight, but he didn't test the cross-ties too much.

The pawing makes me scream inside, but I'm trying to ignore it in the hopes that he stops if it doesn't get him any attention.

We did a quick walk in the arena, during which Stitch stared at himself in the mirrors at every opportunity.

This barn has the rule that you have to pick your horses feet out when leaving the arena. Standing still long enough to get all four feet done turned into a 15 minute challenge, not helped by my chatting with someone waiting for the vet with a suspected case of laminitis in her senior horse (sadly, we were right).

The next day Stitch was much more relaxed right off the bat. He walked across the field to meet me at the gate when I called him as he typically does - this field is bigger than his old one so I was happy to see that behaviour continue!

The grooming area setup.

I moved him to the grooming stall that he might be able to see me when I went down the to my locker, and he was much quieter than the day before, but it was probably because there was a horse in the stall just in front of Stitch.

The arena was free so I took him in for a lunge. It was a good challenge for him - he had to go into a new place with the expectation that he pay attention and behave nicely, he had to keep going forward while staring at himself in the mirrors, and for the first time I mostly lunged him in the center of the ring instead of using one of the ends with walls around three sides. He mostly got his trickier left lead without needing to really set him up for him,  which is definitely progress, but he struggled a bit staying on the circle.  His canter seems different every time I lunge him; this wasn't one of his strongest nights.

"Who is that gorgeous creature?"

Oh - and he nailed the hoof picking on the way out. Stood rock still. A little bit of exercise does a brain good!

Overall, I've been really happy with how he's settled into his new home. The weather was beautiful and he was out nekkid and I was happy to see lots of dried slobber marks on him, which hopefully means he's been socializing with the other boys.