Stitch's Traumatic Week

 The baby horse had a bit of a traumatic week in which he realized that he maybe isn't as grown up as he thought he was. 

For the last couple of weeks we've been mostly hacking outside the ring, trying to get in as much time riding outside as we can before the cold and dark kicks in. Which, it turns out, happened this weekend. Saturday was wet, windy, and cold; the horse was sporting a lightly lined blanket and I was wearing two lined coats and still cold when outside.

This was the rising of the last supermoon of the year. It was much more impressive in person than the camera shows. Whomp whomp.

Pretty well all of my rides have been by myself, and Stitch has been fantastic about being by himself. Not perfect - there have been moments when he just stops, generally when we are heading away from the barn, and he gets a bit stuck for a moment before I unstick him by pulling on one rein to shift his balance. We have been mostly walking still, so that's probably not helping the situation, and he seemed to be a bit better after we did a few steps of trot in one of the fields one day, so I'm hoping that's just a temporary problem. 

I've been getting on in the arena, we walk a couple of laps, then heading out to wander around. Stitch thinks this is great. What he doesn't think is so great is having to go back into the ring after 20 minutes of wandering to do some boring stuff. As soon as we turn the corner to head back to the ring he slows down and throws a few stops in. I've generally been heading back in to do a couple of short trots, which gets him unstuck, but our trot up the long side away from the gate has been a wee bit crooked. We're not doing much trotting until he gets looked at by the osteopath later this week, so I haven't really wanted to school it, but he is going forward, so again, it's just a blip.

On last Monday's ride, we had done our walk around the fields, followed up by a couple of trots in the arena, and left the arena again to continue wandering for a few more minutes. I let Stitch decide if we were going to turn left towards the front of the barn, or right towards the back of the pond. He chose left. This took us past a couple of horse pens that are between the barn and the outdoor ring. 

We were pretty well completely past them when the horse in the end pen came charging out of his shelter, where he was hidden from our view, and charged towards the fence from behind Stitch. Totally in a play mood, not at all mean, he just likes to do sneak attacks at passers by. Not the first time he's done it as we've gone past him, just the first time under saddle.

Well, Stitch went all wtf and scooted off. Yay we cantered! I wasn't keen on it being on the road though!

It's apple season! Stitch's new favourite season!

So he was a bit on edge after that. But we continued on our way towards the front of the barn.

Which took us past another couple of pens. This time, there was a lady in the pen, who I was talking to as we approached it, but she stooped down to adjust her horses hoof boot, ripping the velcro, and I think she might have been hidden from Stitch's view by a bush. 

Stitch went splat at the velcro sound. 

Again, we continued on to the front of the barn. As we approached it, three people suddenly popped out from the overhang. 

That was too much for Stitch. He then started thinking something was going to pop out at him everywhere. We walked past the front entrance, towards the sheds that store feed and hay, and he stopped and was very worried. We did manage to walk past them, and I called it a day.

The next day, he was maybe a bit more high-headed than usual on our ride around the field, but was okay. Then we headed towards the back of the pond, which was fine on our first pass of it, but when returning a duck that I hadn't seen flapped up out of the water, which always scares Stitch. Then he started looking for monsters and found one in the grass and one in the firepit that we had passed many times without issue. He was very much on edge. 

A couple of ladies were on their way back to the barn from their ride around the fields after Stitch passed the firepit and one remarked on how he was looking a little frazzled (I had told her about the previous days ride). She offered to head back out and escort us around one of the fields to see if he relaxed with a baby sitter. 

He did. About half-way around the field he visibly relaxed and dropped his head. So that ended much better.

I decided for Friday's ride that we were going to mostly stick to the arena and give his brain a bit of a break. Which was probably a good idea because the boys had been moved to their winter field that day. It's the same group of geldings that he's been with all summer, but they are now back to being next to the mare field, which has a new horse in it, so there was still some feelings to be had. He was good, just maybe a bit more up than usual. Which took like two trots to knock out of him.

Saturday, which was the yucky day, was going to have to be an indoor day. I intended to ride, but Stitch was being a bit restless and tight while in the crossties so I thought I'd let him have a play instead.  He actually looked the best he's looked in weeks, but I didn't let him go overboard on playing. 

I've been converting my Greenhawk branded blanket liners, which work with Horseware, to work with the Bucas blankets I'm planning to use this winter by adding velcro tabs at the front and back. I don't want to remove the back clips, just in case, so I used some scrap elasic to give them a keeper to clip into. 

Back in the barn I had to play dress-up with him, sorting out a couple of new-to-him blankets for the winter, and he started to get restless like he was doing in the spring when he started getting bargey. I'm not sure if it's because of drama in the new field, or if he's anticipating the routine of park in the crossties/get fed/get blanketed/get to go out. 

So after he got his blanket on we went for a walk around the barn (it was too cold and windy to go outside) and then he got parked in the crossties again. 

He was pissed when he realized what was happening. He got bargey, which I was totally expecting. 

I put all my stuff away and ignored him while he danced around. Once he got a bit better I took him out, where it was feeding time for the pen horses, who were all flamboyantly displaying their eagerness for their food to arrive, which resulted in Stitch walking on his tiptoes while passing them.

It was a traumatic week for a baby horse, who maybe isn't quite as confident as he was, and who isn't too keen on a couple of life lessons he's been forced to learn. So far, it hasn't been too traumatic for me, but if this continues I might also start getting jumpy!

Stitch the Explorer

I kind of had an extension to last week's vacation with Monday and Tuesday off. I had taken Monday off due to a medical appointment in the morning that I was unsure as to how long it would be. Welp, it was cancelled that morning as the person I was to see wasn't able to come in that morning. Unfortunately, I didn't find out until I arrived for the appointment at 10:30. They had called me and left a voicemail, but my phone was still on vacation mode and was on Do Not Disturb so I didn't get the message. No worries, it was rescheduled for next Monday, and it got me out and about for the day.

After making a stop to get the rock chip on my windshield that I picked up last Friday sealed, I arrived at the barn around noon to get a ride in. 

The night before, I finally had a free arena to let Stitch have a run in. I really thought he would want to be silly, but no, he really didn't. Not sure if it was because he was looking a bit uncomfortable behind again. I didn't push it, and instead worked on teaching him to pick up a jolly ball in his mouth. He's very mouthy and I think being rewarded for picking things up will be something he enjoys.

So on Monday's ride, we just walked. But I had put my big girl panties on, and after we spent about 15 minutes in the outdoor ring, we left it to explore. 

There are open fields that the horses (and cows) have been moved from. I have only been out for a walk in them once with Stitch, with a small group of riders, where he power walked and led the whole way around. 

At the moment, there are two open small fields and a large field at the back. I want to go out with someone else into the large field when we first go out, it's the furthest away from the barn and has lots of trees for things to jump out of bordering it. 

Of the two smaller fields, one is Stitch's winter field that the geldings will be moving back to shortly, and the other one borders the field where he currently lives. 

The geldings have a habit of following us along the fenceline when I take Stitch to do his uphill back-up's, so I was concerned that they might run the fence if we walked in that field, which would probably cause Stitch to do something silly. And you never know how your horse will react to being ridden in their turnout field, which is the place that they get to run and play freely.

On Monday, we tackled the field next to his friends. Stitch was super. He stayed at the walk, with his nose stuck out on a long rein. I don't trust him enough to let him have a loose rein, but he's almost at the end of my cob-sized reins and on a light contact. 

I was debating going into the winter field, but then realized that there was a combine harvester working in the field on the other side of the trees, and I probably shouldn't push my luck.

But on Tuesday, that is where we went. We did only one lap of the outdoor arena before heading out. He perked up as soon as we entered the field, but responded really well to my reminders that I was on his back and he was just to walk. 

He's been getting much braver in our walks around the yard. We had to pass the paddle boards and boat that are next to the pond, which he hasn't seen for a few weeks, and he was wary of them, but kept walking forward and just moved a bit more to the side to give them some space. When we passed them again from the other direction he barely gave them the side-eye.

On Tuesday we did about 20 minutes of exploring and then I took him back into the outdoor arena to try a trot. On the lap at a walk we did before trotting he kept stopping and actually standing still, neither of which is normal for him. I couldn't figure out if he was wanting to pee or if he thought he was done. But we got to the long side, and he picked up a very big and bouncy trot - that felt pretty good. Well, it felt even. It did not feel good getting bounced up high with every stride! But I was happy for the forward - he seems to want to suck back when the wonkiness is present.

We just did two long sides of those big bouncy trots and called it a day. 

So now I'm hoping that I'm on the right track and the walking is being beneficial. Maybe the longer warmup and the bigger walk that he does walking outside the ring is helping loosen him up. 

Or maybe it's because I made another appointment with the osteopath for two weeks from now. 

It's probably because of that. 

A Little Bluster

Stitch's second walk ride of the week was on a rather blustery Friday. I'd much rather ride outside than inside, partly because the outdoor ring is much larger, mostly because we will very quickly be stuck inside for six months. If I head out straight from work for the next couple of weeks I should be able to ride outside before it gets too dark, but not for much longer.

I had to decide if I wanted to take the safe option and ride inside, or put my big girl panties on and ride outside. Someone else was riding outside so I sucked it up and went out.

And again, Stitch was perfect. 

I've wanted a real sheepskin seat saver for ages. A local place that sells sheepskin of all types had these fancy seat savers on sale so I had to grab one. I love the pattern! angusoliversheepskins.com

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He had done a couple of tiny spooks when I brought him in so I was a little worried that he would find something in either the trees next to the ring or the leaves blowing across the sand to be silly about. But he was solid. 

He was so good that we did 25 minutes in the ring and then went for a walk outside it. I wasn't brave enough to head out into the back fields by ourselves, but figured there would be enough to spook at just walking to the front of the barn and down the tree-lined driveway. 

He didn't spook at the flapping crazy carpet on the fence used to prevent a mare from nosing all her hay through it, didn't spook at any of the trees, and seemingly would have been happy to continue down the road when we got to the end of the driveway. I didn't want to push my luck.

I guess it's time to tackle the mane again.

This ride was all walk except four long sides at trot, mostly because he was getting a bit stuck in the walk and needed a bit of forward. I did the first two to the right, which is the diagonal that felt wonky last ride, but felt fine on this ride. The two long sides to the left were the posting diagonal that felt nqr on this day. Not sure if that one felt worse because I went the other way first or if it was actually the worse direction.

So, no change from what I was seeing on the lunge. 

Sigh.