Walking the Oversized Dog

I woke up early on Sunday morning and headed into work - only to discover that I didn't work that day because I had agreed to take someone's Saturday shift the following weekend. D'oh!

So off to the barn I went.

It was a perfect summer morning. It had rained overnight and the temperature was cool enough that you wanted to do something outside but didn't have to wear a sweater.

Stitch was greatly enjoying his morning nap when I drove in. He is very much a kid who sleeps hard and does not want to get out of bed when mom says it's time to get up.

Flat out in his circus tent pj's.

I decided that Stitch and I would go for a walk down the road. I wanted to do something with him away from the arena, and since it had rained the gravel road was softer and would be easier on his toes.

So off we went.

This was the first time I had taken Stitch away from the barn and away from his fellow equids. I wasn't sure how he would behave, but didn't think there would be any issues.

Just walking the oversized dog.

I was right. He was a superstar.

He was very brave and defended me from the trained guard boulders that popped up after the tall ditch grass next to the neighbours driveway. He maintained eye contact with the leader, the biggest one, as we passed, and that boulder learned it's lesson and gave us no troubles on the return trip home.

They were very menacing in person.

Another two doors down lives a pony, quite possibly an ungelded one, who to my knowledge lives by himself, and thus gets very excited whenever another horse walks down the road. There is a line of trees between his fence and the road, so we can hear him galloping and screaming, but you can't really see him between the trees. He can cause a bit of excitement as we walk past him.

He's starting to figure out how to pose for pictures.

Stitch saw and heard him, stopped, got taller, and then walked quietly past. I didn't even have to give a yank on the lead at any time.

Work it, baby.

On the way home he called out to his friends a couple of times just to make sure they were still within earshot, but that was the only stress reaction he gave. We had lots of relaxed snorts and sighs, so he seemed to enjoy going out to explore.

Stitch's talking face.

It was a good first time going away from home experience that we will have to repeat again through the fall. I'm hoping that I will have him going enough to be comfortable to take him out into the crop field in October for a hack, but we'll see. It's too hard to walk around it on foot, I would only do it if we can ride it. 

Very Demure. Very Mindful.

On Friday Stitch saw the vet to get his teeth floated. It was the first time that he's been sedated since I've had him, also probably the first time since he lost his testicles. I am happy to say that he is a cheap drunk and it only took the initial dose of sedative to get the job done. The two grey ponies, especially Phantom, were notorious for needing extra sedation on dental days - Phantom's record was three top-up's after the initial dose at a cost of $125 for just the sedation. Stitch's sedation came to $40. Very demure. Very mindful.

The vet didn't have any concerns about his mouth. He had some sharp edges where caps had come off, but his bite and alignment were good. She recommended that he get done in another six months after he's lost more caps. That will tie in nicely with getting it done around the time that I plan to start him again after his winter break.

Stitch was even polite enough to stand quietly in a stall while he came back to full consciousness. I don't know if he's ever been stalled before. Again, a change from the grey mare who got angry at being in jail and would bang the crap out of the stall door.

I also took the opportunity for a quick bean check - didn't find anything. Didn't get my head kicked in either.

Now, if I can ever get over the lingering phlegm and snot from last week's Covid, we will be ready to get to proper work. 

Stitch's First Rider

Stitch has had his first rider onboard!

This giant unicorn and a rainbow balloon has been hanging out in one stall of my horse trailer since last summer when I had set them up for Phantom and Cisco's birthdays. They didn't deflate that much (just filled with air) and I kept them around in case I wanted to use them in the future.

Well, the time had come for them to die - I wanted the space back in the trailer. But I might as well introduce Stitch to them first! 

The kid noticed them immediately when we entered the arena, but he wandered over and gave the unicorn a sniff. No big concern, not even when the rainbow, which was slightly softer than the unicorn and didn't really want to stand up, slowly slid down to the ground in front of Stitch and softly touched his toe. He stood perfectly still, gave it the hairy eyeball, made sure it was dead, and then walked right past it without a care.

The balloons got dragged behind me as I led him around, and then the rainbow was thrown over his back. Meh.

So I popped the unicorn aboard, since it would stand upright and be a bit more imposing  above him.

The only reaction I got was a big "I guess this is my life now" sigh.

I hope I get the same sigh in a few weeks when it's me up there!

Soft Kitty

 After staying home for two days wallowing in my covid-induced misery, I felt a bit better on Friday. I was able to mask up to hit the feed store and the tack store that was having a sale.

I went in with the intent of not spending much money, and I managed to stick to it. The planned purchases were Vetrap and horse cookies, and potentially a glittery saddle pad that I had seen previously and was on sale for only $30.

This wasn't the first time I considered buying this pad. The glitter doesn't come through well in the picture, but trust me, it's there.

In browsing through the store, making sure that I really didn't need anything else, I saw the Hands On grooming gloves. I have a pair but the rubber nubby bits on some of the fingers are falling off. The gloves were about the same price as the saddlepad, so I told myself I can get one or the other.

I'm sure that the saddlepad would look great on Stitch, in it's dark blue all-over glittery glory. But he really seems to like a good scrubby grooming, often swinging his butt towards me when I get to his hind end with the curry.

The gloves came home with me. I might forever lament the lack of glitter in my saddle pad collection, but watching Stitch's upper lip stretch while he got scrubbed with my gloved hands confirmed that I made the right decision. 

After hitting those two stores I had just enough energy in me to head out to the barn. I popped Stitch into the arena for a play. He's still learning that free arena time is play time, but tonight was the first time he had any sass in him. Enough that he even let out a few bucks. That was the first time I'd seen him do that.

Good news - he did not miss his calling as a bronc horse. His back end got sufficiently high, but his front end didn't get very low. His neck kind of stayed level and long, it should be easy to sit if he ever tries it under saddle. 

Didn't get any video of it because, well, didn't expect it.

But I did get lots of pictures of Stitch checking out Jerry, one of the barn cats. He's seldom in the arena, but for some reason this night he meowed his way into the middle of the ring. 

Forget about the glitter. Enjoy the cute.

I'm Blaming the Oncoming Sickness

It's a good thing that I lunged Stitch on back-to-back days Monday and Tuesday this week, because not only did the wildfire smoke come in at hazardous air quality levels, after 4 1/2 years of avoiding it, I finally succumbed to Covid on Wednesday. Mid-way through my week of vacation.

That's a definite positive.

So far, I'm either too hot or chilled, have a cough, and all my joints and problem areas ache. It's only been about 30 hours so who knows how the next few days will go. I've had four vaccinations so hopefully they work their magic and keep the symptoms minimal.

Anyhow, on the Tuesday I tried to capture the lunging using my new Pivo Pod X. This is the one that I Kickstarted back in October 2021 and it finally shipped this spring. After I didn't have a horse to ride, of course. 

I tried it once just after it arrived without reading the instructions and didn't have much luck. I thought I'd try it again, knowing that lunging wasn't going to be the best option to test it.

The Pivo Pod X is the one that moves on an x and a y axis. Meaning that it can tip up and down as well as go sideways to keep the selected item in focus.

I'm currently 0/2 on using it.

The first problem is that I didn't put my phone in landscape mode, which is required for horse tracking. If I had bothered to check it after a couple of minutes I would have seen the message saying so, but I did not.

When I put my phone onto the holder in portrait mode, it was angled up towards the rafters. I thought that once it found the horse it would self-adjust, but for 80% of the video the top 3/4 of the screen is rafters. For some reason it did adjust down towards the end, so I've got the couple of circles seen here.

I don't think lunging is easy for the Pivo to keep the horse on the screen as it has to be set up outside the the circle. I'll try it again though, and see if the problems were all user error.

I also realized I can try the Pixio. If I attach the tracker to the saddle then it should track the horse while on the lunge. I can pop it in a case of some sort before clipping to a d-ring.

So, here's a whole 40-some seconds of Stitch on the lunge.

His left lead is the stickier one, and this might be the best transition he's done so far. He's starting to find some balance at the canter and I'm happy with how quickly he relaxed into it.

He wants to fall out to the right when tracking left so I try to use the walls to encourage him to stay straighter. The sessions are very short because homeboy has zero fitness. Not necessarily bad for a baby horse for the first few rides!

One More Thing Sorted Out

I've got the bridle sorted out for Stitch (Phantom's Ps of Sweden bridle and a Herm Sprenger Dynamic KK eggbutt) - now it's time for the saddle.

Earlier this summer I used the Wow saddle gauge on Stitch to determine which parts for a Wow saddle would be needed for Stitch. By which I mean would I be lucky enough that my existing Wow saddle that I had for Cisco could also work for Stitch?

In theory, it looked like all the parts should be the same. He needs a flat tree and wide DXWG panels. Instead of the 5U headplate that Cisco went in Stitch is currently narrower and needs a 3U, which I also happen to have (I think I used it for that one week when Cisco was actually skinny). 

I'd popped the saddle on him a couple of times and hand-walked him with no concern on his part. Last week, I decided it's time to lunge him in the saddle. He's been ground driven a bunch with a surcingle on, but that's pretty well just at walk and trot. He might tun into a bronco at a canter.

For the first lunge, I didn't want to risk damage to the expensive saddle so opted to sacrifice my treeless saddle instead. He knew it was on him, but other than initially giving it the hairy eyeball when it continued to follow him around there wasn't much of a reaction. Even after I dropped the stirrups and let them dangle.

The saddle definitely slid forward through lunging. I had used a shaped Total Saddle Fit girth, and thought maybe that I didn't need that style. Didn't really matter, this was a one-off with this saddle.

The sacrificial saddle is a no go to be ridden in.

On Monday, I popped on the Wow saddle. The goal is to get this saddle girth setup sorted out this week because there are a bunch of sales this weekend, so if I need to buy something new, now is the time.

Look who isn't super bum high this week. I didn't think that he had a forward girth groove until I looked at this picture. (Also, I must say that I missed having a shiny horse. Gray horses just don't get that shine.)

I didn't think his girth groove was all that forward and that I wouldn't need the point billet. I tried it with the TSF girth while tacking up, but didn't like how it fit. The billets were definitely sloping forward which meant that the saddle would move that way once he got going. I swapped to the h-girth, still without the point billet, and lunged him - it still ended up on his shoulders.

The saddle pad stayed in place, but the saddle was pulled forward.

So point billet it is.

I don't typically like to lunge on back-to-back days, but I was on a bit of a time crunch to sort this out before the weekend sales and it also looked like the forest fire smoke was going to blow in this week. So Stitch thought he was going to die for the whole 12 minutes that he lunged, at least half of which was walk.

An obviously lucky to be alive pony who's saddle seems to have mostly stayed in place.

But the saddle seemed to stay in a much better position. So this is what we are going with. Happily, it doesn't cost me any money. We just need to play with the Flair panels.

And then sort it all out again in the spring. 

Hand Me Downs -Take 2

My attempt at salvaging Phantom's old Rambo fly sheet to use this summer on Stitch was a fail. The mesh started shredding along the bound edge on his butt. When I stitched the binding on, I didn't do anything to the edge of the mesh which is where I think I went wrong. I think that the mesh edge needed to be rolled or folded first so that the binding would have something to grip onto and not just pull away.

Oh well, it only cost me $5 and some time. I was going to try to salvage it once again and finish the edges differently, but since there were a couple of spots that the mesh was shredded a couple of inches I don't think I had enough fabric to work with as his butt was already poking out.

So, on to the next hand me down option.

The circus tent fly sheet.

This one came from Greenhawk last year. It's a textilene sheet that was on sale for $50 or $60. My motto for horse clothing is that the cheaper it is, the prettier the colour gets. But I still think it looks like a circus tent.

It's probably about 2 sizes too big still for Stitch, but since he's filled out quite a bit and now has boobs and a butt (not much yet, but way more than he did in the spring) it didn't completely hang off of him around the neck. I can deal with the extra length over his tail, but because of that length it hung a bit low around his hind legs. 

I just made a couple of temporary adjustments to the blanket to render it wearable. A dart in the neck closed it up enough in the front. Don't try this at home kids unless you have a beast of a sewing machine! Six layers of webbing and three layers of textilene pushed the limits of my heavy-duty machine - thankfully it only needed about an inch of stitching that I could baby it through. 

To solve the length around the hind legs I chose to just fold up the corners and stitch around the edges. It will keep the excess from hanging too low, and next year I can take the stitches out and the original shape of the blanket will be restored.

I might have to deal with a bit of poop on the leg strap clips, but that's minor.

So far this has worked out much better than the Rambo. That one survived only a couple of days before shredding, and Stitch has been wearing the circus tent for a couple of weeks with no issues.

The other hand me down that has been getting use is Phantom's PS of Sweden bridle.

It fits Stitch nicely and looks great on him, though I have to change the browband on it - that was Phantom's for a long time.

He seems happy so far in the Sprenger Dynamic KK bit that I tried first so we'll see if that ends up being the bit we start with. His teeth will be getting done next week and then we can get serious about learning big boy things - the countdown is on to be sitting on him in September!

A Fresh Start

I feel like I'm in a bit of a weird space at the moment. Not bad, just weird.

To be honest, saying goodbye to Phantom a little over a week ago has been a bit of a relief.

There were a few times over the winter that I thought she really wasn't comfortable and that I might to have to make the decision sooner than later. After Cisco left in March, Phantom seemed to have a harder time than usual sorting out the new hierarchy with her longtime companions.  I don't know if Cisco looked out for her more than I thought.

There were also moments where I wondered if she was having some vision issues in her left eye. She would sometimes make a point of putting me on her right side when I went out to catch her, and when leading her on her left she sometimes bumped her head into me.

She just hadn't been engaged or interested in much for quite a while.

Except her hay. Her very large belly for the last couple of months was indicative of that.

If Cisco hadn't gone I might have made her appointment in the spring. But I couldn't do that to myself at that time. However, when I refilled her Prascend in April, I only got the small box.

The original plan wasn't to get another horse right away. But, since plans changed, I knew that this summer would be Phantom's last. Once her Prascend ran out, it would be scheduled.

So I had about 3 months to get used to the idea. Thus, I've dealt with my grief and I'm ready to move forward.

A big part of moving forward has meant cleaning out my tack box and getting it down to one horse worth of stuff. I don't really want to get rid of anything yet until I figure out what Stitch will end up going in, so that means bringing it home and trying to figure out somewhere to store it. I have enough blankets to fully clothe 3 horses, all the same sizes, that are too big at the moment but will probably fit Stitch next year. They're all getting washed and stored in vacuum bags to try to squish as many as I can into a few containers in the garage. I think I pulled out 3 halters, 3 breastplates, and a couple sets of reins just off the one door - they all got dumped in a bin.

This was two grooming kits that I had to thin down to one. I found the Swat I knew I had but couldn't find - that stuff is coveted up here because we can't buy it any more!

I also now have the ability to take a night off from the barn since I don't have to dispense medication - not that I have as of yet. It's been my routine for the last three or four years to be out almost every day so it's taking a bit to break that habit. It's going to happen this week though, as I have an event to attend on Wednesday evening and a late work shift on Thursday. Not to mention I fully expect to wake up on Tuesday morning with a stuffed up head to go with Monday's sore throat and croaky voice. That might be a good reason to take a day off.

So things just feel a bit weird. The greys, who were very much a pair in my mind, are gone. I have a new horse, in a new colour, who I am very excited about. We're taking the slow road, but that's OK- I've already told him he's not allowed to go anywhere for at least 15 years. I might be over this year by that point.

The End Of An Era

It's the end of an era for me. I no longer have any grey horses.

I've known for a while that it would be happening this summer. Despite her daily dose of Previcox, for the last few months Phantom just hasn't seemed very comfortable, and I know that she is a horse who has always disliked anything that made her uncomfortable.

I hope that Cisco was waiting for her and they are forever sharing their piles of hay.

Hand Me Downs

With a new horse usually comes the need to purchase a bunch of new things.

However, with a baby horse, new things might not fit for very long and require another purchase of new things within a short time period.

I am trying really hard to not buy new things for Stitch just for the sake of buying new things for the new horse. The kid still has a lot of growing to do.

It looks like the WOW saddle I had for Cisco is going to work for Stitch. I suspect that they will be of a similar shape - round and wide. I might need a 24" girth for him when I start him this fall, but I'll probably try to borrow one for a month or check out the local consignment options. Next year my multitude of 26" gitths should fit with no issues.

Bridles won't be a concern. Phantom's PS of Sweden bridle looks like it will fit him just fine. Again, I have many more in storage to choose from if need be. No idea what bit he'll choose, but a quick glance in his mouth makes me think that he doesn't have the fat tongue issue that my last two had. Fingers crossed that he's a bit more straightforward about what goes into his mouth.

Then there's blankets. Sigh.

As much as I want to spend all the money and buy Stitch a complete wardrobe, this is the one place that I've made a conscious decision to be frugal. I did buy him a new 69" 100g turnout for a really good price in the spring which he wore a couple of times in cold, wet weather. I also bought the same blanket in a 72" for a really good price for next year. I find the 100g blankets to be the most versatile and use them as a shell over a liner all the time.

But I have not been able to bring myself to spend any more money on blankets for him, including flysheets that will only be worn for two months this year. If I know what size he'll be next summer maybe I'd bite, but I already have a bunch of 75's ready for him when they fit. 

But the bugs have been bad. So I got crafty.

Phantom's Rambo Protector didn't really make it through last summer, which was probably it's 7th or 8th. The mesh on top of the tail flap and the butt above it had basically disintegrated. However, the rest of the blanket was still in pretty good condition, especially considering it's age.

I don't know what the mesh is made of, but it feels like tail hairs were woven together.

That blanket is a 75. Stitch fits about a 69. So I figured I could cut a few inches off the tail end of it, rebind it, add a tail flap, and Stitch could wear it for this summer.

So I did. And you know what? I'm pretty happy with the result.

I ended up moving the leg strap attachments up higher before he wore it.

I admit his butt sticks out just a wee bit. But I didn't really have much of an  option on how much to cut off to get rid of the damaged material. To compensate, the tail flap that I added is a bit wider at the bottom. It's only stitched across the top so that he is able to lift his tail up to poop. I'm hoping it doesn't get tugged off by a pasturemate.

The best part of giving this blanket a new life was the cost. I salvaged the binding from the piece that I cut off and the textilene that the tail flap is made of came from my fabric stash of to-be-completed projects I'll probably never start. I paid a whole $5 for the binding on the tail flap and that was the only thing that I didn't have on hand.

It's not super pretty, but it's more than functional. It just needs to last for two short months and then I can give it the funeral it deserves. 

Positivity

Stitch has been learning to do big boy things. And he's done them all with little to no drama.

We are still a couple of months away from me actually sitting on his back - he doesn't officially turn 3 until the last week of July - but we've been working on things that will hopefully make that day easy.

A couple of weeks ago we started ground driving. This meant wearing a surcingle and a tight belt for the first time. The wearing of the surcingle was no biggie - no bucks at all. The tightening of said surcingle wasn't his favorite.  Not that he was really bad about it, he just walked circles around me. I gave him a couple of days of this then used clicker training to encourage him to stand still. He figured it out right away.

He's worn a saddle - it was just so I could figure out if I will need to get a shorter girth for him. I think that my multitude of 26" options will work this fall.

This kid is smart. And food motivated. He loves positive reinforcement. Especially the kind that ends with a cookie in his mouth.

We've also been working on lining up to the mounting block. He got the idea pretty quickly, but not quite right. He was always one step too far back and his butt was swung away - all the better to make the mouth cookie-accessible. But he knew that the mounting block was the place to be, often stumbling over the steps in his eagerness to get there.

To get him to swing his butt towards me, we went away from the block and used the method where I tap his butt with a dressage whip, and reward him when he steps towards me. Some horses find this difficult to figure out as they only want to move away from the whip, but the idea is that you keep tapping until they take the slightest step towards you and then take the whip pressure off. Clicker training works really well with this method - they figure it out really quickly.

Sure enough, Stitch figured it out fast. On the second day, I tapped him once with the whip, then just held it up and he continued to swing his butt towards me.  Smartypants.

He was so proud of his new trick, that for the next few days, every time I stood next to him he swung his butt towards me in the hopes that it would earn him a reward. Or towards the person we were trying to show our new mounting block trick who was holding a poo-picking fork. Or the person in the barn I was chatting with - although that was probably more asking for butt scratches.

Now, I'm not talking swinging his butt to put you in kicking zone by any means. It's a definite attempt to line himself up with the person keeping them at his wither area, where he is supposed to line up at the mounting block. 

Much to Stitch's dismay, he doesn't get rewarded for these attempts. He only gets rewarded when he is asked for the behavior, and it's generally ignored otherwise. 

He is now starting to make adjustments at the block to get himself correctly lined up. I've also started to give him his treat on his right side by reaching over his back, which eliminates his desire to turn his butt away from me/head towards me, though does create the problem of me getting knocked off the block when his belly (which is getting rounder every day) shifts left when he bends right.

 

And when he's standing there, it would be so easy to slide a leg over and just sit on him....

Soon!

Weeks 2 & 3

Weeks 2 and 3 with Stitch have been a continuation of finding out what he knows, what he likes, and what he has to learn to put up with.

My challenge has been to keep our schooling sessions, such as they are at the moment, varied and not drilled. Stitch has been a very good boy and has been trying hard to figure things out and we don't need perfection in the groundwork exercises that we do.

We're been primarily working on two systems of groundwork. The TRT Method groundwork has been interesting in showing how he wants to use his body. When doing the exercise on his right side where I bend his head towards me and ask him to stay bent right and move around me he has a hard time not falling onto his right shoulder. His front right wants to step out towards me instead of under himself and away from me. Under saddle this will mean a horse who will overload the right shoulder and be hollow left. It's slowly getting better - last night he gave me three good steps before he lost it and the front right came towards me again.

I couldn't deal with the long mane so shortened it up somewhat. He is now also sporting a bridle path, though it was done with scissors instead of clippers.

The other thing I am slowly working on with him is a series of in-hand exercises from a Facebook group called NoBackNoHorse. The exercises are based on straightness training and focus on encouraging a horse to carry themselves in a manner that strengthens their core and back. We're still very much in the beginning stages, which is mostly getting him to walk with his head lowered into a horizontal balance, but we'll continue through the summer with the hopes that it sets him up nicely when we start under saddle.

Despite the rain we had last week, we are still at a high risk of wildfires in this area.  We woke up on Saturday to hazardous air quality due to smoke from the next province over - this sadly seems to be our new normal for the spring and summer months.

He wore the nebulizer and made the obligatory Darth Vader sounds. Not regretting this purchase with our smoky summers.

I needed to make sure that Stitch wasn't going to have any issues getting onto his German car, which is a straight load with a ramp. Getting on was no problem - getting off was! The poor guy's legs were shaking as he slowly took teeny backwards steps down the ramp, but he kept trying and wasn't dramatic about it. He was much better the second time so I left it there for the day.

Stitch has continued to get better about his ears being handled- he doesn't get his cookie when I put him out until he's dropped his head while I grab at his ears. Next, I need to switch to a halter that I pull over his ears instead of flipping the strap behind his ears to prepare him for being bridled.

Phantom met her new little brother. She told him to stay away from her and they'd get along just fine. He took her advice.

He's also gotten much better about being caught. Sometimes I stop a few feet away from him and let him make the decision to come to me and he's been responding nicely. I don't know if he'd let anyone else easily catch him yet, I'll have to find opportunities to enlist barnmates to help me work on it.

So far, the only thing that he's been oh hell no about has been when I asked him to leap across the water filled canyon. By which, I mean the puddle that formed across the outside of the overhead door leaving the barn. Stitch is not going to be a water hippo. It took some convincing, and he tried really hard to find a way that was not going to get his toes wet, but in the end he bravely stepped into the inch of water and safely made it to the other side (a whole 18" across). 

I guess there's some drama llama in there after all.