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.