Weird Horse Possessions

When you own horses for a long time, you sometimes accumulate things that, well, normal people probably don't have kicking around in their house.

I have one such thing that I keep forgetting about. I've had it for 30 years, sitting in a jar, sometimes in a drawer, sometimes on a bookcase. I was reminded of it while reading The Hunky Hanoverian's post about her horse Rio's surgery.

It's a splint bone.

Or rather, part of a splint bone. About a 2" part.

My first pony, Sunflower, had a bit of a bad year around 1989. We figured that she tried to kick another horse (being the cow that she was), missed the horse, and connected with a wood plank on a fence. Which resulted in a broken splint bone in her left hind leg. This was only the start of one of those "crappy things happen to horses" years.

The Sunflower pony.

So off to the local vet clinic she went. I was only 14 years old at the time, so I don't remember much of the true scenario. I imagine that she went under general anesthetic, but I don't know for sure. I know I was completely unaware of the risk that it would involve,  as I had only been riding for about 3 years. She stayed at the clinic for about a week and came home to be rewrapped daily by me (I remember using Cool Cast bandages). After a while, it became apparent that she was experiencing some pain where the bone had been, so the nerves were cryogenically frozen along that area, and she forever more had 4 hairless dots along the outside of that leg.

And the surgery cost $800.

I don't think I'd ever taken the bone out of the jar until I took these pictures.

At least, that is how I remember it all, from my child's perspective of 30 years ago.

My party favour when I picked Sunflower up at the vet was the chunk of bone in a jar of formaldehyde.

The writing on the masking tape on the jar says "Sunflower, Left lateral splint bone, April 11/89". I guess that was my birthday present that year - my birthday is April 8th (bad things tend to happen around my birthday, I tend to get really paranoid around that time).

Over time, the formaldehyde has either leaked out or dried up. I didn't realize the condition of the jar until I took these photos - not sure if all the cracks actually go all the way through the jar or not.

Whatever formaldehyde was left in the jar I dumped out when I took the bone out. Oops.

Do you think it would be weird if I were to take it to the vet with me on my next visit and see if they would top up the formaldehyde?

This bone cost $800. I'm not getting rid of it anytime soon.

What weird horse things do you have in your possession?

Horse #2 Session #1

Since I hadn't planned on riding on Sunday, but ended up riding Phantom, I decided that I would just lunge Cisco. He hadn't done anything for five days, there were dressage lessons on all afternoon, and when I was ready to do something with him it was mid-afternoon and I had only eaten a muffin all day. And it wasn't a Costco sized muffin. So I was not up to hopping on.

I haven't lunged him very often in side reins. I think I've done it maybe twice. It's something that I want to start adding, so it seemed like a good time.

He was a twit about standing so I could get him set up when we arrived in the arena (New horses to make friends with! I must visit them!). Once I sent him out on the circle, the side reins were left long, but surprisingly, he seemed to be reaching for them. I might have to start riding with a long rein and see how that works out.

He wore the Equisense while I lunged him. Because he was on a circle the whole time, there is not a score for symmetry (need to trot for 20 seconds on a straight line to trigger a symmetry score).

Here are his lunging numbers:

I lunged him for just over 20 minutes. 73 transistions seems really high, but I guess it would include all the times he fell out of canter. I did ask him for a lot of transitions, but not that many.

Workload - You can see all the transitions here. They were generally quick transitions - trot, walk a couple steps, back to trot. He had some nice trot transitions - he didn't keep a frame through them, but had a bit of lift in front. And when stepping into canter, he literally stepped into canter. Nice and soft. 

The big difference in the amount of time we spent going left was likely due to the time he spent walking right at the beginning as warm up, which was to the left. His left lead canter is also his weaker side, and the transitions tends to be a bit stickier, so I will often do a couple more on that side.

Stride regularity - it was nice to see that the trot was a 6. His canter tends to be erratic, but not in an unbalanced, scrambly, quick way. It's more of a very balanced, super slow canter, that I need to keep sending forward.

Elevation - Phantom had an elevation score at a canter of 15.9cm. I am surprised that Cisco's is lower at 15.5. Maybe it's because he was quite relaxed, so was a little longer and lower in his frame, especially with the sidereins on. Maybe this number is indicative of the difference in the training levels. It will be interesting to see how this number changes. 

So that gave me preliminary numbers for both horses.  

We're still in the midst of some fairly cold weather, so it might be the end of the week before I can ride again. But then it looks like spring might actually be here - there are a bunch of days that the temperature is supposed to get above freezing. Phantom doesn't think so - I don't think I've seen any hair fall off of her yet.

First Equisense Session

I wasn't sure if I was going to ride on Sunday when I went out to the barn. I expected it to be a bit too chilly. For some reason though, it felt much warmer than the temperature stated. So I brought Phantom in and tacked her up, and broke in my new Equisense.

How much snow did we get this weekend? Enough to bury a hood. A hood that should have been on Cisco's neck.

The first challenge I had was figuring out how to put the sensor holder onto my girth. I use the forward girth-groove type of girths, and I had a really hard time getting the holder to sit in the right spot. I tried it with and without the extenders, and it was either too tight, or too loose. Well, crap.

And then I put the girth on the horse and realized I had it on backwards. Oops.

The right way. Notice the slight curve by the buckle so that the sensor sits nicely behind it. 

It fits much better when it's on the correct way.

On Phantom's Total Saddle Fit Stretchtec girth the sensor didn't sit snug against the girth. I could fit a finger between them. I'm not sure if this will cause problems as it is supposed to be tight. On Cisco's Prolite girth, it was not a problem.

Phantom's girth and tummy.

Here are the readings from our ride:

Our ride was a little under 40 minutes long. We are still on a rehab program, so we did 5 x 2 minute intervals of walk/trot and a wee bit of canter. A big chunk of the 59 transistions we did were trot/halt/trot transitions we did towards the end of the ride (and which she did really well).

Our symmetry score was 6.9. Ugh. 

A couple of things could be going on here. During either the second or third trot set I did a bunch leg yields, in a few steps left/few steps right pattern all around the arena. And there was some shoulder in during one of the later trot sets. Lateral work affects your symmetry score negatively.

The other reason could be because something might be going on with her left front. I keep feeling it at the beginning of my ride, one of those subtle feel-but-can't-see types of things. She seems to work out of it. I'm trying not to be overly paranoid and haul her off to the vet about it. I usually get her hocks injected in May, so if it is still happening at that time I'll get her looked at. 

Low was 6.1, high of 7.7

You can see that her symmetry does get better as the ride progresses. The low point is likely the section where we were doing the leg yields.

Workload - nothing surprising here. I use my Garmin running watch to alert me for intervals, so they're pretty even.

Ok, so I admittedly walked an extra lap to get this score. But in reality it was 49 / 51 before that. My breakdown by gait isn't too bad. Probably a side effect of doing intervals - it's likely a little easier to make sure you spend an equal amount of time on each rein during the intervals.

Stride frequency - this is a number that is individual to each horse, so I'll need a few rides to get baseline numbers before I can make any evaluations.

Regularity - nothing surprising to me here. Phantom tends to be poky at a walk, and then she jogs when I shorten my reins and ask for more walk. I've always had issues keeping her canter rhythmic. Today she was a bit tight in her back, and I was tight in my lower back, so I wasn't sitting well in the place she wasn't giving me.  Her trot has always been her strongest gait (and mine).

Elevation - I think I am pleasantly surprised at the canter number. She's a very level built horse, and does not have an uphill canter. I was expecting it to be lower, not that I have any baseline numbers. 

That is how ride #1 with the Equisense went. Cisco was lunged - I'll post his session tomorrow.

Delays

My Equisense didn't get picked up very promptly in France, so the expected delivery date has been changed from Friday to Monday.

The corgi is covering the tracking info,

Which is a bummer because I was hoping to use it over the weekend. Now there's a good chance that I won't actually receive it until Wednesday, because no one will be at home during the day on Monday to accept a package, and I'll have to drive somewhere in the city on my day off to pick it up.

Not that I'll be riding much - there's a winter storm warning in place. We're supposed to get about 25cm of snow starting tonight through Saturday. I'm hoping to be able to get out to the barn on Sunday, mostly to put a liner on the ponies as it's going to get chilly again.

Why???

Good thing I got all those rides in over the weekend, as I'm pretty sure the ponies will get another week off.

Spring has to come sometime, doesn't it? Hopefully it lasts for more than one day!

Nothing Exciting

I've done great with getting some miles in the saddle over the last week. I've ridden 6 out of 7 days, and should be good to get rides in today, making it 7 out of 8. I don't know the last time that I rode that consistently. The main reason is that the weather has been nicer - around 0 C during the days. Evenings cool off pretty fast, so although I have had plans to ride both horses on a couple of evenings, I'm so cold after the first horse that I have no desire to ride again. So Cisco has had 4 rides, and Phantom 3.

The rides haven't been at all exciting.

I was hoping to get some more canter in on Cisco over the weekend. But there was always a bunch of stuff going on that he wasn't quite as settled as I would have liked.



Sometime on Saturday, the motorized overhead door into the arena died, in a half open position. So it was really cold in the arena when I rode that evening. And when someone arrived and attempted to bring their horse over to the arena, the noises were rather distracting to Cisco. No major hijinks on his part, he just wasn't very settled. That was also the night that we were having some issues staying straight.


When I arrived to ride on Sunday, there were lessons on the go with people who had hauled in. I decided to ride Phantom first figuring that by the time I was then ready to ride Cisco the lessons would be done. But nope - as I was bringing him in another trailer arrived. This one had a couple of kids riding in an evaluation lesson. I rode during their lesson, but again, not a time to try a canter that probably can't be steered.


Cisco's not really bad through all of this, just distracted. He just wants to make friends with all the new horses that he hasn't met yet. The worst things he does are trot quicker, and bulge towards the other horses through the turns. Pretty minor and will go away with some miles.

The video clips are typical as to how the rides are going. Nothing exciting - no breakthroughs, no really bad moments. Just a green horse who needs some consistent miles.

So Not Straight

Cisco was ridden on Friday, Saturday and Sunday this weekend. I think these were rides 6,7 & 8 for this year on him. And only somewhere in the mid-30 rides overall.

The problem that has cropped up this week is straightness. Rather, our lack of it.

We are having two different problems. One - through a transition (up or down). The other - being able to stay on the track down the long side without dropping the shoulder to the inside. Now, it's only been the last few rides that when we have halted he hasn't needed to take a step back to balance himself. So I'm pretty sure the transitions will be related to balance and will improve significantly with some more miles.

The going straight up the long side issue - this week he has kind of figured out how to drop a shoulder to the inside, and has been starting his turns earlier than ideal using this method. So then we end up going around the short side of the arena with his head turned to the outside in my feeble attempt to steer, and this sets us up for a crappy, wiggly long side.

Can't stay straight!

He still doesn't understand moving laterally off of leg, so leg yielding, which would be the obvious fix, ain't happening.

Dropping that shoulder before the turn.

I decided to do the exercise where you trot straight into a corner, halt, then turn out and do the same in the next corner. Every once in a while I would have him turn into the wall and change direction just to keep him on his toes.

It totally worked. I mean, it took a few repetitions. And some of the halts (through walk) were ugly. But late in the ride we were able to ride deep corners without dropping the inside shoulder, and because our corners were better, we were able to stay straight down the long side.

I do have to get onto teaching him to move away from my leg though. His steering is generally quite good, and I can keep my hands very quiet when I want to turn or circle. And I think he has some understanding of leg with the steering. Until something distracts him, then he forgets everything.

 One whole step of turn on the forehand.

I'm going to try to ramp up the turn on the forehand and leg yields over the next few rides. By which I mean - ask for like 3 steps of leg yield, and maybe a whole 4 of leg yield. Since we can barely get one step of either at this point, I think that's a good goal to start with.

It Was A Good Weekend

The weather finally warmed up slightly. I managed to ride each day over the weekend, and even had Pony Grandma take video. Unfortunately I also worked all weekend , and didn't get home each night until after 10 pm, so you are going to have to wait to see how unexciting my boring rides on Cisco are going.

I also had a call from the tack store that someone had made an offer on a saddle I have on consignment there. It's been there for 6 months so I was happy to accept. I'm really hoping it all goes through. Now I don't feel so bad about buying the Equisense.

Last night I rigged up a strap with a surcingle buckle on Cisco's hood. Hopefully this will be horse proof and it will stay done up. We'll find out through the week!

Hopefully I can get the video edited tonight and have lots of footage of a green horse in an awkward frame to regale you with for the rest of the week.

New Toy Ordered

I have no willpower.

I ordered the Equisense Motion.

I totally admit that I'm a geek who loves spreadsheets. I wear a Garmin running watch as my everyday watch. It tracks my steps, sleep, and I use it when I ride, to either track my time/distance, or for interval training. I don't actually run (I go through stages when I try to be a runner, which my brain likes, but my body hates).

These were all my own steps. No riding steps this week.

When I found out that there was something like my running watch but for my horse, I wanted it. And the more that I read about the other people who have one and use it to track data, the more that I wanted it. 

I want to start getting data at the beginning of Cisco's training to see the differences that happen over time. I'm curious as to when he halts and I feel like I'm going to slide off the back of the saddle, is there really elevation there?

I want to make sure that I'm doing 100 transitions per ride. (Does it measure transitions within the gait, or only between gaits?)

I am hoping that I can use it as a tool to help me figure out if Phantom is having issues related to tying up. It will be interesting to see if there is a difference in her synchronicity and elevation after she gets her annual hock injections in the spring. 

It's coming from France - and it's supposed to be here in a week. In the meantime, I'll be creeping everyone's blog posts about the Equisense. I've already joined the Facebook page and read the instructions - I'll be ready to use it when it arrives!

I've Been Enabled.

Bloggers are such bad enablers.

Still Cold

There hasn't been too much happening over here in Gray Flannel Horse Land. For the last week it's been fairly chilly - not the nostrils freezing shut as soon as you step outside cold, more the I just don't want to have to get bundled up after I get home from work kind of cold. The actual temperature has been hovering around my definitely not going to ride temperature of -15C, and there's always a windchill added to that.

Dreams.

On the news last night they were saying we only had 2 days in February that it got above the freezing mark. That's it, just 2. I'm pretty sure I had to work on one of them, and it rained on the other one. I know February isn't over yet, but for the next 14 days, it isn't looking like that number is going to get higher.

Reality.

It's supposed to get nicer starting tomorrow - close to 0C, but not quite past it. So I'm going to try my best to ride 4 days in a row. Fingers crossed!

Note that the ponies haven't started shedding yet so they are obviously convinced that they live in the Arctic and are now polar ponies. I won't believe spring is coming until I see gobs of hair coming off.

I'm Gonna Learn Him

The weather was all over the place last week. Sunday was freezing cold, with a high about -18C. It warmed up on Tuesday to a balmy +3C. Unfortunately this also brought rain, which was left sitting on top of the snow. So any road that has snow on it is now a skating rink, because the temperatures dropped the next day. It started off pretty nice in the morning but the temperature plummeted throughout the day. By the time that I made it out to the barn in the evening it was -17C, with the windchill much colder. Just walking out to catch a horse left no feeling in my thighs due to the cold.

I wasn't up to riding, but had to bring each horse in - one had to be fed, the other needed his hood replaced. So I figured I would do some clicker training in the barn.

Wet, hairy face.

Phantom has done a bunch, and it was just a refresher session for her. Tapping her legs with the whip to have her lift them, then we worked on having her take a step with her hind legs to have them under her more and a bit closer to her front legs.

She loves clicker training and is highly motivated to figure out what I want.

Cisco is not.

At least with this type of work. The goal for the day was to get him to lift a hind leg when it was tapped. I have only tried this once before with him, and got no reaction. This time I was determined to make some progress.

It's too hard to take pictures while holding onto a clicker, a whip, treats, and a horse. So instead I offer you a headless horse pic.

After what felt like 3 or 4 minutes of tapping and getting absolutely no reaction, I decided I would have to spell it out to him. While tapping, I leaned over and squeezed his leg like I do when I want to pick his hooves. Then he got the click and treat. I did this a couple of times, and started to see smoke coming out of his ears - he was thinking. Until he got distracted by something shiny down the barn aisle.

I then progressed to tap tap tap nudge his hip to get him to pick up his foot. A little less direct, but still spelling it out. This seemed to help him start to put the pieces together. Very slowly.

There was some definite progress made, and it got to the point that he would lift his right hind when I tapped more often than not. Not immediately mind you, but within a few taps.

What happened to my head??!?

I debated on whether I should start on the left side or not. I decided that I would, partly because I was curious as to whether what we had done on the right side would cross over to the left. It didn't.

I'm going to do another session within the next couple of days to see how he responds. I haven't figured out how he learns yet - does he need a night to think about it and he'll come out better the second time? Does it take multi-sessions for him to start putting the pieces together? Does he not give a crap about wanting to work with and please his person? (I don't think it's this - he really likes people.)

I'm trying to find the activity that makes it click in his brain and then gives him incentive to try to figure out whatever the new thing is that I introduce him to. Phantom has always been very motivated and engaged. Cisco hasn't shown that yet for this type of work, but has in other work, so I just need to find that one thing that puts it together for him. The next thing I'm going to try is kicking a ball. Phantom loved that one, and I think Cisco will once he figures it out. I just have to figure out where in the arena I can keep an exercise ball so that the dogs can't get at it.

To Register or Not To Register?

I've kind of casually looked into registering Cisco with the International Andalusian & Lusitano Horse Association. He can be registered as a Half Andalusian. It's the kind of thing that I've looked at, priced out, tried to figure out if it would be worth it, and decided it wasn't. And then this weekend I saw a Facebook posting that for the next four months they are having a reduced price on registrations. So if I really want to do it, now is the time.

He was bred by a friend of mine, so I know I can get her to sign off on the papers. The stallion owner is somewhat local and still active, so I don't anticipate any issues there.

I believe it would cost me $160 US (membership for me, registration fee, DNA kit fee).

But why do I want it?

Will I ever show him in anything to get points? No idea. There is a big Andalusian show every year about 2 hours away, so I could go if I so desired. His balls were knocked off many years ago, so there's no chance of any little Cisco's ever needing to be registered.

I think it's because in my mind Andalusians are still not an overly common breed, so it's a bit of proof. You know, of his majikal unicorn pony bloodlines.

Because he is 25% real unicorn.

I've got a couple of months to decide before I would need to get my butt in gear and get the paperwork submitted.

The other thing I would need to decide before sending the registration in is a name. As in a proper show name type of name.

Cisco is a bit too simple. Great for an everyday name, but for showing I would want something fancier. And I would like to incorporate Cisco into it. And maybe keep it Spanish.

Unfortunately, my Spanish sucks. Like, I can mostly count to 10 and that's about it.

So I have asked Google for suggestions. So far the winner is Meter Cisco - which means to make trouble. It seems fitting.

That is supposed to be a hood. On his neck.

Note the innocent face. 

If anybody has any other suggestions, I would love to hear them!