The Roaming Rider

Remember when the equine dentist came and was concerned about Gemmie having Cushings? In her opinion, any horse over the age of 20 needs to be proven to not have it especially one that is on pasture 24/7 and is erm…a little portly.

It took a while for the hubby to get in contact with the rep from the company offering free testing, but eventually it got done and the blood was drawn for that plus Coggins. Hubby went ahead and ran the test on Pete too because he is 30 and it was free. Pete’s came back 100% normal in all regards. That guy is a tank. Gem’s, well her’s came back a bit meh. I

Her Cushings values all were normal, so no Cushings though right now I’d have preferred that as a diagnosis. It is really easy to manage with Prascend and the hubby can order it through work. Life doesn’t always give you the answers you want though.

While those results were normal, her insulin was at 70, normal is 40, and her glucose was up as well though I do not know that value off the top of my head. Neither were impressively high, but they certainly weren’t normal either. These results point to EMS and the recommendation was to retest in 6 months. Dusty is reaching out to the equine dentist for her opinion on the results (she was a full care equine vet before reducing down to acupuncture/chiro and dental only). In the meantime, I started my own research and picking of the brain.

EMS is Equine Metabolic Syndrome is basically Type 2 Diabetes in horses. Increased fat cells make the body resistant to insulin so the pancreas pumps more out to get a response and serum glucose levels remain elevated. The biggest risk is laminitis. Gem is over weight but she is more like a 7.5 or 8 on the BCS, not obese like most of the ponies and horses I saw online with the condition, but she is also pretty low on the test values. In general treatment is aimed at lifestyle changes much like it humans with early and mild Type 2 diabetes: eat less sugar and exercise more.

The recommendation is for grain to be under 10% NSC and I immediately checked her bag of feed when I got home yesterday. It is 12.8% but is a ration balancer and she gets maybe 1 pound total a day. Math makes my head hurt, but after doing some figuring she gets extremely little in her feed, so we are good there. I’ve not had her hay tested, but she also hasn’t had any hay since the grass started coming in several months ago, so that is an avenue I’ll explore come the end of summer/early fall. It should be ok from preliminary research as she gets a fescue/bermuda mix and that is pretty low in general.

Her biggest nemesis is the grass under her feet and the fact that she is retired. Right now the grass is basically yellow straw from the high heat, constant blazing sun and no rain in weeks. It is literally crunching under our feet. A grazing muzzle may be in her future but that is my last resort. I know plenty of people use them and that is fine. I personally hate them. I hate anything on a horse’s face in pasture with others, it is a safety risk, plus they screw up their teeth something fierce. It is better than laminitis though, so we will see if I have to go down that route. I’ll do it before I let her hooves go to crap, but I think tackling her exercise and weight is a better option.

The recommendation here is to exercise 30 minutes 2-3 times a week. Get those extra…erm 100….pounds off and get the body responding to itself better. Except this is me we are talking about here and there is always an issue. Time. I barely get the time to ride Eeyore, my hopeful competition horse, ridden 2-3 times a week for 30 minutes. There is no way I can sneak in 6 rides a week total. Won’t happen. Hard stop.

This is where I wish I was in a boarding situation with a big barn rat population of kids dying to get on anything that can move. It would be easy to find enough butts to w/t/c her around or hack her out (her specialty) for 30 minutes or so a few times a week. Instead I may need to get creative on finding some warm butts to do it for me. I worry about the liability and will need to check with my insurance company to see if I need to add anything to the policy to cover myself in case someone comes to ride her and gets hurt. She is pretty safe, but she isn’t point and shoot simple and you just never know with horses. Having someone come out would also only work while we are also home. We do not own a boarding facility, this is our private home, and I would not be comfortable with them coming when I wasn’t around. It will be a bit tricky, but hopefully the right person or person’s come out of the wood work to ride a horse for free a few days a week.

I believe that if I can get her back to a shape other than round, that her blood work will return to the normal range without anything drastic happening. There are two medications that can be tried but the research all highly recommends lifestyle changes first. Metformin, a human diabetes medication, can reduce intestinal resorption of glucose therefore helping reduce intake though it seems to have little benefit overall. Levothyroxine, a medication for hypothyroidism, has shown some benefit in increasing metabolism and helping to shed the pounds. Its interesting, to a geek like me with medical stuff anyway, in that there are no reported cases in hyperthyroidism with use. I would rather not go down either of those paths at the moment.

So…first we will be retesting in 6 months to see where her values lie. In the meantime, the summer grass is poor quality, she already gets no grain and what she does get in a balancer is low NSC, they are not eating hay at the moment (it is always available in their stalls but they ignore it when the grass is in), and she will be pulled from retirement much to her chagrin so she can lose those pesky 100 lbs she has gained from living the life of luxury.

If anyone has any suggestions as to finding a rider to come exercise her a few days a week , I am all ears. Not being a part of a barn family does hurt in a lot of ways sometimes.

Lessons can be great, but as the saying goes “the proof is in the gravy”, namely would what I learned in my lesson with AB translate home when riding alone?

Of course, as is the norm in my life, Eeyore sat for longer than I anticipated. Sunday morning I was finally able to tack up and see what I could do with what AB told me Wednesday night.

First off was installing forward thinking and moving from the start. No more checking the brakes with a 10 minute walk-halt-walk warm up. Get on and get moving! Eeyore was a bit up having just moved the horses out the far field for the month of June even though they were all in the barn for breakfast. I swear he is the epitome of book smart and street dumb.

It was good though. That is the attitude that makes me generally lock everything down to a crawl and that is exactly the opposite of what AB wants me to do. She wants me to feel more confident and comfortable with him in front of me and moving than rely on curling him into himself and creating a situation where he only has up to go to release his energy.

Once I mounted, I got him moving into a marching walk. I didn’t ask for a halt one single time and instead set us up on the move. I only walked around the arena one time in each direction before getting into the trot as AB had instructed me to do.

My second big goal was to stick to the rail. I’ve always been told to use figures and changes in direction as a way to keep his focus and attention, but AB wants me to use the entire arena, staying on the rail, as a way to keep that forward momentum at all times. It also forces me to not cave in when he begins to bulge his shoulder or decides now would be a fantastic time to cut in. I haven’t been the best at sticking to my plan, so when he would do that in the past I would turn that into a circle, serpentine or change of direction and think I was doing something good. Instead I basically just taught him that he was in charge and could make the decisions.

By sticking to the rail, I was forcing myself to stick to my plan no matter what.

So off we went at a trot to the right along the rail. He did his patented grab the bit and duck in maneuver. I sat tall, shoulders back, knee bent and thought “nope, Trainer AB says to ignore him, keep a light but loose contact, and use my left rein to keep him out against the rail” He was none too happy with this and got a bit angry but you know what? Because I had a forward, in front of my leg horse, and because I refused to lock down and give him something to grab against, he continued moving where I wanted and it never escalated beyond some grumpy head shakes on his part.

In fact, it took only two long sides and two turns to get him relaxed and on board with the plan. Way sooner than ever before and we went on to change direction and have a lovely ride to the left. He got a nice stretchy walk break before I wanted to try the canter in the same manner.

Off to the right, I got him in front of my leg (what a concept!!) and then asked for the canter. He picked it up, but then also picked up the bit and tried to cut in to the right like a good western games horse. Except…I sat tall, kept light but loose contact, kept my knees bent under me, and used the left rein to keep him out along the rail. And you know what?? He complied rather quickly. He still loved to burst out of the turn like a race horse going down the long side, but that was manageable and only last a few circuits before he was relaxed and settled and gave me a lovely uphill, hind end powered and easy canter.

I didn’t ride for very long. He was being such a good boy and I hit all my goals after about 30 ish minutes. The morning was nice and cool and he had barely broken a sweat but the ride was more for my benefit than his. I plan to lay out some ground poles again for my next ride and work through a similar exercise to what she had placed for us in the lesson with the change of bend as convincing him to nicely go where I want versus where he wants is our most difficult task on the flat at the moment. It was really nice to not only have homework to work on after the lesson, but to be able to apply it as well. I really think AB is going to be great for me.

AHHHH!! So much happened, so many breakthroughs!!! I started the lesson hyperventilating and visibly shaking with nerves and ended it with a grin and a thirst for more. What more can you ask for from a 45 minute long lesson? Nothing!

The large picture view of the lesson was not earth shattering. We did a lot of work in the trot and canter, then tackled some ground poles, and ended over a tiny cross rail that was maybe 18″. But the power was in the nitty gritty details that gave me the ability to change my conversation with Eeyore and have the tools to deal with his very strong personality without it turning into a fight. Now I am addicted and want more, more, more.

The burning question of the evening was how he would handle the lesson situation as a whole and that answer is a bit hard to pin down. A lot of things were different about Thursday that separated it from previous experiences and I am not fully sure what all made the biggest impact. For starters, a boy on his young pony joined us in the ring. At first, Eeyore wanted nothing more than to crawl inside that pony’s skin, but he eventually got over it and settled in to the work at hand. Second, we were not stuffed on a tiny circle to quite literally spin farther and farther out of control and were instead told to use the entire arena to my advantage. Third, Trainer AB had me work him from the get go. No more walk-halt-walk warm up. She wanted those feet moving from the time I mounted with very little time wasted in the walk. It set the tone right away. Last, Trainer AB hopped in the stirrups after watching me trotting him around. She wanted to get a good feel for him to better instruct me on what to do and it gave us both a lot if insight into the inner workings of his brain.

Things never escalated. Sure, things weren’t always pretty and her end analysis is that he is very difficult on the flat, but workable and we should make huge gains quickly, but nothing ever felt out of control to me. I think this is tricky to explain because he wasn’t magically more compliant, but instead I was given a better way to respond and therefor I never got tense and was able to keep my own brain functioning to counteract his behaviors as they presented themselves. I wasn’t stuck in a negative loop of “don’t do a” and instead could think “do b”.

I really think that not being stuffed on a circle had the biggest impact on the evening. I always hated being shoved on a circle even when I rode Gem. I knew the point was to use the circle to naturally force balance and a slower pace, but when you lack the skill set to have proper bend, use your aides timely, and still remember to breathe, the circle spirals out of control pretty quickly. Yet every lesson, even ones in which I jumped her, I would find myself stuck back on that infernal circle for an hour without relief. This time, I was immediately told to use the entire arena and it gave me more time to react to him and get things back under control without the worry of having to concentrate on the bend and steering. Basically, it let me be the beginner that I am.

After Trainer AB worked him a solid while in the canter, we had a chat about him. She didn’t hate him, so there was that. Her analysis was that he is used to getting his own way and he does this by being a jerk which then creates a rider who is locked down and tense. Once that happens, he is free to grab the bit and run off to do whatever he decided was more fun be that bulging his shoulder, cutting the corner, or changing gait. When she focused on keeping him on the current path and ignored his back end so that he could canter sideways if that is what he chose as long as he kept on the rail and went where she said, he quickly returned to being a normal horse as it was way more work to canter around sideways than to just comply and go where she wanted. I had the opportunity to work on this a lot and it was much easier to do than I thought it would be.

Continuing along in the flat work, Trainer AB wanted me to stop focusing on perfection which ended up being another major breakthrough. When I would ask for a down transition, say from canter to trot, I would immediately get after him for a great trot which is how I was taught in the past. She wasn’t too thrilled with this and said that I need to break it down for him more. He isn’t a baby, but he also isn’t a highly trained professional either so we need to cut him a little slack. When I would ask for the trot, she didn’t care what trot I got as long as it happened when I said. After a few strides, I was then to package him up. So it would look like this: canter-ask for trot-get a flopping limb flailing trot-praise the down transition-3 strides later package him into a good quality trot-ask for walk-get a floppy walk-praise the down transition-3 strides later get a good quality walk-loose rein. I know in the future we will need to get higher quality right away but not where we are at right now. I’m not sure if this had that big of an impact on Eeyore, but it sure took a lot of the stress off me to have that perfection taken off the table. By the time we finished the flat work and moved on to ground poles, he was really relaxed, calm and listening.

The ground poles were really funny. Honestly, by this point we were both caked in sweat and breathing hard so I was surprised we moved on to something else. She did chastise me a bit for calling him lazy. In her opinion he is not lazy and actually has a huge engine and endless supply of fuel. He is just really good at faking it. She set up 4 trot poles on the long side sorta left of center. She warned me that everyone messes this exercise up (spoiler: I didn’t!! Though I did then mess up the next one pretty bad so karma) and to not worry if I did. You can see my awful paint rendition of the exercise below. It was focused on riding away from the poles, bending right, changing bend left, riding over poles, bending left, changing bend right etc…

We started heading towards the gate and he clobbered the crap out of the poles, scattering them everywhere because he was focused on where the pony was and didn’t even see the poles. We bent right, then argued going around left but I kept in mind her instructions to wiggle the reins and let him swing wide if he wants to make life harder and we got around on the path I wanted without wavering and came back through the poles. This time he turned the 4 poles into two jumps with a bounce in the middle. He charged forward, jumped the first two, landed in between 2 and 3, and then immediately jumped out over 3 and 4. She laughed and we came around to do it again. He clobbered them once again going towards the gate, stayed in the trot and didn’t argue about the exit strategy but then once again bounced over them heading back through. She told me that he is a cute jumper. I really liked how she didn’t get upset, yell or criticize me at all through these baubles and instead remained calm, pointed out the positives and had me approach again. It kept me calm and ready to try again instead of dreading the next trip around. It took about 5 or 6 cycles through but eventually he calmly and politely trotted through each way although she helped me cheat a little on the approach that he preferred to canter through by oh so non nonchalantly stepping in front of the line of poles as we came in to them and then just as slowly and non nonchalantly stepping to the side which helped break up the line for him visibly and kept me more focused because running over your Trainer is a bad thing. It was little things like that where she interjected so tiny and quietly that had a big influence and just blew my mind.

Once he went through that exercise no issues, and I was proud of myself for making all the proper turns, I thought we were done. But no. She asked where I was at in my jumping him. I explained that I like to add jumps as a reward for all the flat work but that I generally trot into them all, canter out when I feel ok, and have only done mostly single fences. She said that jumping a course would be extremely difficult on him since his flat work is so complicated at the moment. We couldn’t just do flat work between the fences since well…sometimes it takes us a while to get him on the same page. She did want to do a cross rail though to end it so she kept 2 ground poles and made a tiny cross rail at the end. We came at it towards the barn since that was his better direction over the poles and she wanted me to bend right after. Well, my brain was still thinking of the last exercise, so we cantered away, bent right, bent left and came at it on the wrong lead since I have zero idea how to get a lead change and he didn’t magically offer one up on his own. She laughed and said to just continue going around to the right to approach from the same direction, so we came around again.

She also wanted me to ride the back side stronger which is a big weakness of mine. I get so focused on getting to and over a jump that I sorta stop riding and let the horse do whatever on the backside. Not good. The last time I approached, we hopped over the tiny cross rail no issue and then wonders of wonders I rode him away from that jump like a normal person and then turned once we hit the rail. She let us stop after that with sweat running down both our bodies.

After all of that we had a bit of a chat as to my goals and for the firs time in my adult riding life I had a Trainer tell me “you are a lovely rider and you can do more than you currently think”. She does agree that we have some issues, but she thinks they should be easily fixed with some reconditioning on both our ends and that she may not let me do an amoeba level HT instead hitting starter next spring once we have polished up the flat work a bit. She thinks he is super smart and once he figures out I won’t let him get away with his crap we will make a lot of progress together. I drove home grinning like a fool, had verbal diarrhea all over my poor unsuspecting husband, then repeated the experience to poor Emma who texted me about something else altogether and finally passed out because I was past my bed time. What a great first experience with Trainer AB!

Believe what you will, but I like to think that the Universe is on our side. There have been way too many instances in my life for me to personally think otherwise. The week after the Hunter Pace with Bette and KC, I ran into a friend at Chipotle. I hadn’t seen Barbara in close to two years and we eat at Chipotle a lot. Anyway…we got to catching up and she asked me who I was riding with these days (after telling me a harrowing tale of her last event with a separated shoulder hanging useless against her side. Eventers are a tough breed) and I told her I was in between trainers at the moment. She got real excited and told me she knew of the perfect person for me. I contacted AB and had my first lesson with her last night.

It was AMAZING. But…you will have to wait until the next post for those details. Today I want to talk about the overall vibe and her training methods. I’ve been on the hunt for a trainer to call my own since returning to riding in 2009. I never could find what I was looking for and was beginning to think I never would. Maybe I was just being too picky. Until I met AB. Everything felt right. Everything clicked. I know training styles and methods vary greatly and this post is not a treatise on the correct way to go about learning how to event nor is it a backhanded dis on anyone’s methods because all roads lead to Rome and all that. But for me and for this horse and in this moment in time, this is the only method that has made sense to me and I am oh so thankful to Barbara for the recommendation. I owe her a burrito or something.

My riding instruction to date has been pretty negative overall. Everyone I’ve ridden with has always focused on what not to do. Don’t pull. Don’t brace your lower leg. Don’t go around so straight. Don’t post so fast. Which is fine. I did need to stop doing those things, but not only did it give the entire lesson a very negative feel it also didn’t provide me with what to do in place of those things. Great. I’ll stop pulling but now he is zooming off or cutting the corner or doing whatever and I obviously have no idea what else to do so now I’m back to pulling and getting scolded. There was no other options provided.

I read an article several years ago about the human brain. Apparently, according to this author, the brain doesn’t register the negative such as DON’T. When you think “don’t spook” all your brain registers is “spook” and so you do. If you change the internal conversation to “walk calmly past the tree” you will. Going around and around a 20 m circle for 30 straight minutes being told “don’t pull, don’t brace, don’t etc….” was a whole lot of don’t-ing.

You know what AB never did, not a single time in an hour even when I messed up? She never said a negative word. NOT ONE SINGLE TIME. She never said “don’t pull against him” Instead she said “act a little silly up there, be loose and get him confused so he refocuses on what it is you are up to”. Instead of “don’t brace your lower leg” she said “can you bend your knee a little more to bring the leg back?”. Everything was spun in not only a positive reinforcement type manner, but with an action I could perform to change the conversation. It felt empowering instead of degrading. The end result was similar – I stopped pulling – but instead of feeling bad about my ability to ride, I felt encouraged and like I could make a change.

She had a similar approach to training Eeyore. I’m a control freak wimp and my warm up is centered around walk-halt-walk transitions until I feel like he is dialed in and listening. She wasn’t really a fan of that approach. She explained, and I will probably get this a little wrong in my translation, that in her opinion everything we teach the horse has to be with cross country in mind as that is the riskiest phase. She doesn’t want to teach Eeyore something in the arena and then have to undo that out on course. This all boiled down to one simple fact: the answer should always and forever be forward. We want to teach him that his “yes maam” should always be seen as forward momentum, looking ahead, wanting to move.

In regards to warm up then, she would prefer if I didn’t spend so much time teaching him to anticipate me shutting him down and instead teach him that from the moment I mount, we are going some where. So let him canter instead of trot if he breaks. Who cares? I need to control the direction and the pace, but if I say walk and he trots? Ask myself this: is he moving forward, is he going where I want and is he in front of my leg? If the answer is yes to all those, then let him go and slowly bring him back after a lap or two. In so doing, he will expect a forward ride every time. Breaks to canter from the trot? Same thing. Is he moving forward, in front of my leg, where I want to go? Then let him canter a lap or two then bring him back to the trot no fuss.

This came up again when jumping. I told her that he gets a bit rushy and that I like to use circles and halting after a jump to settle him. She wasn’t a fan of that again saying that forward is the answer. She didn’t want me to teach him to get nervous in the air or shut down wondering if this time I’m going to make him halt on the backside. Instead, she wants him going over every jump thinking about moving forward away from it on the back side. She said this all teaches him to be brave and bold out on the cross country course which is what we want in the end.

I’m not saying this is the only method of training an event horse or that it is even the best, but I can tell you that by the end of that lesson I had a much happier, forward and easy going gelding than I had starting it and I was a much more relaxed rider as well. The entire vibe of the lesson was uplifting and building confidence and skills instead of past experiences where I would leave dejected and questioning whether I should just return to the trails and give this whole thing up. Which was pretty magical if you ask me.

I’m sure I’m leaving some stuff out but these were the main philosophies that really stuck with me. I think she will be an excellent fit for us and I can’t wait to lesson with her again. Stay tuned for the actual lesson recap which will be jam packed with info!

What do you do when you want to improve your skill set and ability?

Take lessons.

What do you do when you want your horse to improve his skill set and ability?

Take lessons.

What do you do when the one thing that sets your horse off the most is taking a lesson?

I don’t know.

Eeyore came from a lesson barn situation and not the best lesson barn situation either. I know he had been there about a year though how intensely he was used is unknown to me. I can take some wild stabs though at how those lessons went down from some things I witnessed while there.

Since being home with me I’ve noticed a strange pattern emerge and each time it reared it’s ugly head, sometimes very literally, I could easily blame it on extraneous matters but the saddle fitting debacle has brought it front and center and now I have to figure out what to do in order to move forward.

You all may think I’m crazy but the moment someone walks into the arena with us and it starts looking an awful lot like a lesson is about to go down Eeyore loses his ever loving mind. I’m talking jigging, bolting wildly and at random, curling his chin to his chest, snaking his head violently around and eventually rearing. His whole body becomes rigid and it’s like he is prepared for some intense battle when all I’m asking for is a walk in a large easy circle.

It gets worse and worse the longer it goes on too. There is no talking him off this ledge. It happened when he was first with me and TrJ came to my house. I blamed his questionable soundness and the saddle. It happened when the saddle fitters came to fit him the first time. I blamed the saddles. It happened when I trailered him to TrC. I blamed the 45 minute wait for her to decide to show up. It happened at this last saddle fitting appointment and there was nothing left to blame.

This isn’t reproducible at my home rides. Sure we aren’t perfect and he throws his opinions in from time to time and our bend isn’t great and my steering isn’t always on point but he always, always remains calm. Maybe a bit defiant but always calm, cool and level headed. He doesn’t rear. He doesn’t jig. He doesn’t snake his head around in angry protest. None of it.

I was so very proud of him Thursday too. He traveled well in 90F heat over 2 hours to unload at a brand new facility after hours with not another soul in sight. He unloaded, looked around and then got busy grazing. No screaming. No fuss. He wasn’t even nervous.

He stood still for her measurements to the point where she told me he was a most excellent boy. And he was! When we tacked him up, I walked him next to a picnic bench and mounted from there. As far as I know he has never seen a picnic bench before let alone be mounted by one and he never batted an eye. Just did what I asked.

And the shittiest part is that if she had not been there I could have taken him to the jump or derby or even xc field and had a blast. The fitter went to her van to make notes while I mounted and began walking him around the empty parking field. I had decided to just ride him there for the fitting as it was grass and fenced in. He was fine. A little distracted by the sprinklers that came on, but he marched forward with a relaxed and swinging back.

We walked in a circle getting warmed up after the trailer ride and he was fine. It didn’t even cross my mind he would be anything but A GOOD BOY given his amazing behavior at home and his outing at the hunter pace. I didn’t even think about his past performances because I had blamed those all on things I have since eliminated. But the moment the fitter came walking over and said “ok, please circle to the right for me” it was game over.

He became a rigid steel beam. He curled his chin to his chest. He refused to do anything but jig or bolt. By the final time she made an adjustment and I got back on he went straight up in the air all four off the floor and I called it a night. I never even got to canter in the saddle. He was a lathered mess. She was a bit shell shocked at his behavior and tried to make excuses: the ride over, the fact he was alone.

But in that moment I knew. It was none of that. It had never been any of the reasons I thought. Had she stayed at her van everything would have been fine. I could have done anything with him. But the moment he recognized a lesson type scenario he was gone.

I have been thinking about this a lot since then. I need to take lessons. I need to learn more skills and improve. I want to clinic. I want to go on adventures. I’m going to have to figure this out but it’s hard when lessons are the one thing he flips out about.

Some friends, who are probably tired of hearing me talk about this, have given me a lot of suggestions. Try a lesson using a head set and a trainer not in the arena. Try a lesson while the trainer is also mounted. Try a lesson where I’m given an exercise, perform it in full while trainer disappears, then go hang out and talk about how it went while the trainer gives treats and pets Eeyore letting him rest. Make the trainer a good safe spot.

The issue is finding a trainer willing/able to do any or all of those things. It’s useless to trailer him out to a lesson just to have him crumple in a heap and then spend the hour pleading with the trainer to believe me, he isn’t like this at home. You all have seen the videos. Lots of newbie rider errors but a calm and steady horse. I don’t have that horse with me when I lesson. And boot camp? Unless boot camp puts him in a lesson string it won’t help. Having a pro take time to ride him in an arena alone won’t do it. The only benefit would be him knowing the trainer better and maybe feeling more comfortable? I don’t know. That’s an expensive experiment I’d like to avoid if possible.

This is not something I know how to deal with. It’s new to me. I’m going to give it my all and I have two trainers that are highly recommended by friends that I am in touch with and will hopefully be able to figure out a scenario where things don’t suck. I’m hoping to get a lesson scheduled in the next week or two, but need to discuss how to go about having a successful lesson and not a stressed out brawl which gets nobody anywhere.

I don’t know though. This isn’t a snag I was prepared to hit.

Horse people can be a little crazy. Fortunately, I’ve been getting better at weeding those folks out and surrounding myself with knowledgeable, kind folks who make me feel important even though I’m not.

The Black Country fitter is one of those and I am so glad I found this saddle so I could add her to my network of people who are helping me succeed.

Everything about this appointment was amazing…from her early communication to her getting special permission to use a facility after hours to her hands on exam and expert advice. She even kept her cool when one certain Orange Butthead most certainly did not and did his best to show off his airs above ground. It was everything I wanted in a saddle fitting experience.

She services the entire east coast so even though she is based 2 hours away in Aiken, getting with her was looking a bit hairy. An unfortunate need to meet with the mental health counselor at Wyatt’s elementary school granted me a Thursday afternoon off and the ability to trailer down to her last night. I was a bit nervous about the whole ordeal. My experiences in the past left much to be desired and saw the fitter throwing saddle after saddle on the horse and asking me to ride and tell them what I thought. No measuring. No hands on. Really, the only benefit was being able to try numerous models without paying shipping.

I was pleasantly surprised when the first thing she did was palpate his back, watch him walk in a straight line and then took numerous measurements. She explained that she prefers to do all of this before looking at a specific saddle so as to remain unbiased. She asked me a ton of questions about my riding as well: which bend was harder, what was my natural leg position, did I tend to hit long spots or chip in while jumping, did he have issues in up or down transitions? I felt a bit like an imposter answering these. I’m no greatest gift to riding over here and I generally attribute everything to my lack of skill versus gear or horse issues, but I did my best: left bend was harder, I tend to brace with my lower leg in front when nervous or tense, I chip in all the time, transitions don’t seem to be an issue. She then wrote down everything she would want in a saddle had I been ordering custom before laying her hands on the saddle I brought with me.

Diagnosis? I was one lucky mother when it came to purchasing my used Wexford.

The saddle had everything she wanted in a saddle for him, the tree size was spot on and the only issue was bridging in the center of the panels. She took the saddle off to work on the flocking. It was much fuller upfront and softer in the back and she wanted to remove all the flocking and level it out to start with a neutral saddle. When she got inside the guts she was surprised to find that it had recently been strip flocked with all brand new wool inside. She told me “You won’t have to strip this saddle for the next 10 years”.

Once she had evened it all out and fixed the bridging issue, we tacked up and I got on. I have a lot to say about Eeyore, but that will be a train wreck post for another day soon. Lets just say he was not on his best behavior Thursday night and I have a lot of opinions as to why and what to do next. But for now, we stayed on a circle and did walk and trot only because cantering was not an option or I probably would have died. In fact by the end, trotting wasn’t even an option. But…

The first go around she wasn’t happy with it. She said that the saddle was shifting left and that if my left bend is the harder side for me naturally anyway, the saddle could not shift left at all or it would make it harder. Centered or slightly right would be better. She also noted that I do have the bad habit of bracing my leg forward when tense or nervous and had a trick up her sleeve to help me with that too. Off the saddle came and she wen back into her van of wonders.

We tacked back up and I hopped on again. This time the saddle was more centered, felt more secure side to side and I stared at her with my eyes the size of dinner plates and asked why the seat all of a sudden felt twice as deep and more secure. She apparently had added more wool just in front of my seat bones to force me to rock my hips back under me, sit back and up and stop the leg bracing. I had zero idea that you could do all that with a minor flocking adjustment but there it was. My mind was blown.

She still wasn’t happy enough with the front flocking and thought it was just a smidge too left again, so off it came and she added more flocking to the front left panel. The last time I got on was short and ugly, but it confirmed the saddle was dead center on him. I felt like I was being pushed a bit too much to the right, but she assured me I was perfectly straight for the first time. I guess I will need to grow accustomed to being straight and even in my saddle for once.

She did look at the Bates as well and it was pretty clear from the start that there was a big pressure point right behind his shoulder where I had been seeing the dry spots after rides of late.

Overall she kept telling me what a great find this saddle was. I paid $1200 for it and she told me that new it would be $4,000 to get the same thing plus she had never seen one in this condition used for under $2,500. I guess if things don’t work out with Butt head I could at least make some money on this saddle.

As for the half pad debate: no half pad needed. In fact, she said I shouldn’t even need to buy a new girth now that it was flocked better for him and I still had one hole I could go tighter, but I’ll probably still buy a shorter one for my own piece of mind. She said that if he loses a bunch of weight this summer and gets more fit, I may need to get a half pad to help the fit of the saddle since right now he is pretty fat and the saddle is very wide, but as long as his shape does not change from where it is right now, a half pad is not only not needed but would be detrimental.

I’m excited to hop in the saddle at home and give it a real spin and see how it feels. With his atrocious behavior, I really could not get a good feel for it last night but I am optimistic things are going to be great. She wanted me to text her an update after a few rides and said we can always meet up again sometime to adjust as we both get more used to it.

Overall, I was so so pleased with her and her knowledge. She was just the type of professional I adore: kind, smart and willing to answer my one million insane questions without getting frustrated with me. I’m happy to add her to my list of support crew in this stupid endeavor.

Ok, folks…I’m having a tiny bit of a mental melt down over here and need some information from you all.

A bit of background. Eeyore is extremely sensitive to most things in life that surround working. He is the Princess and the Pea personified and will not hesitate to inform me when he disapproves of something. I had tried so many girths on him including fleece, cool tech, chafeless and leather and all were met with an inappropriate amount of displeasure. I finally landed on a ridiculously overpriced EquiFit memory foam lined anatomic leather girth that he adores. No more pinned ears and trying to bite me when I tack him up. No more issues under saddle (well, no more tack related issues under saddle) and all is right with the world.

He goes in a 50″ with the Bates and it was always a bit too small. Nothing major – I could get it on the 3rd hole from the bottom both sides without having a hernia while tacking him up but it always took a minute and required him to suck it in a bit and was difficult. I debated getting a 52″ but the price tag stopped me. 2″ and a little less grunting wasn’t worth it.

I’ve long drooled over several different half pads and see a lot of bloggers out there riding with a half pad under their saddle to help with shock absorption and comfort. I know which brand I’d buy and what color, but the deal breaker was my girth. If the 50″ was a struggle without a half pad, adding that bulk under the saddle would make it not usable and I couldn’t see shelling outing about $600 for a half pad plus a new EquiFit girth when things were going ok with my set up and I’m not jumping anything major over here. So no half pad for us.

Except…..

The Wexford, which I absolutely adore in every way shape and form, must have exceedingly long billets because the 50″ is now way too long. It is on the absolute top hole and uh…KC almost slid right off his side after he got super sweaty and shed a few ounces out on the hunter pace and the saddle slid right down his belly while she was cantering him. Embarrassing.

I now absolutely have to do something about this. But here is where my overly taxed and over thinking brain is getting fried.

I could purchase a new EquiFit girth in a smaller size and continue on with life as is. Or….I could spend that same amount of money on a half pad and keep my current girth which should fit with the additional bulk of a half pad. This has the added benefit of having a girth that would still work with the Bates since if I go the route of buying a new EquiFit I’d probably need to sell my current one to make up for it and then I wouldn’t have a girth that would fit that saddle at all. Ugh…my brain hurts.

But I’ve never used a half pad before and I’m not even sure I really need one beyond…wanting one really badly. Which is where you all are coming in.

If you use a half pad of any brand, why? Does it aid in the fit of your saddle or are you using it for concussive reasons? Or both? Do you always ride with one or just when you jump? Please educate me!!!!!

I do have an appointment with a Black Country rep on Thursday evening to evaluate the saddle and re flock it for me. I’m going to ask her all these questions and since there is a 0% chance of me getting a new girth before Thursday (the only tack stores that carry it are over an hour away and close at 6 pm which makes it impossible for me to get there on a weekday), I’m kinda stuck with a too long but works ok for now girth for the fitting anyway. I will be picking her brain regarding the use of a half pad with this saddle for him. Don’t worry! I will be working with a professional, but I also love the hive mind of the blogging community so please chime in here and educate me on your own use of a half pad and the reasoning behind it!!!

Nothing beats a sunny day on the trail with friends. KC and Bette met me at a gorgeous nature preserve in NC for a hunter pace yesterday and it did not disappoint. I was a bit worried how Eeyore would handle the controlled chaos of the parking area and spent a lot of time Saturday night debating on hauling him tacked or not. Dusty eventually told me “treat him like the good boy he is and tack him up at the ride like you prefer”. He was right. If I want him to be the way I want, I need to start treating him that way.

I planned my arrival an hour before our agreed meeting time so that I wouldn’t feel rushed in registering and tacking up. He was surprisingly pretty nonchalant unloading though I think having horses in every direction really helped him. The only time he lost his cool was when others were mounted and rode off in the distance without him.

Unfortunately Bette had some trailer issues and ended up pulling in just over an hour late. Eeyore was keeping it together as best he could but by then he was pretty hot and bored with the whole thing and most of our neighbor horses were out on trail. I ended up taking him into the field a few times to do ground work and help refocus his brain.

Once KC and Bette arrived and got checked in, it was time to hit the trail! Being a hunter pace, we had no clue how far the trail was or what to expect. This was the first time on these private trails and all I could see was an uphill start.

The start was backed up a bit with large groups of riders and I got a bit nervous about how he would take other groups riding off. He wasn’t perfect but after I parked him beside Bette on Mason he was ok enough while we waited our turn.

Then it was the count down and we were off! It felt like we should kick them into a gallop with the count down and all, but I wanted Eeyore to learn to control himself so I had asked KC and Bette if it was ok with them for us to walk and they were cool with it.

The trail itself was a gorgeous mix of wide mowed grassy paths and winding wooded trails. We found plenty of opportunity to open them up in long canter stretches and Eeyore was a very good boy throughout. He was a bit bargey when another group passed us and moved out ahead but really at 8 years old and with his last trail experience being in October (7 months ago) I’d say he was darn good.

We chatted about life, horses and future plans as we wandered along. There were several pretty scary bridge crossings that were basically elevated cement platforms with moving water underneath and no side rails and Eeyore went over each without hesitation even leading over a few of them. Really he never said no except at the very start when he was in the lead and saw the first ribbon.

By the time we hit the mandatory hold, he had the wind knocked out of his sails a bit and was really hot and tired. We waited in line at the water trough and he drank some good deep drinks while I poured water over him with my drinking cup. Only a few people were obnoxious and rude and we managed to get out of there without me killing anyone so that was another win in my book.

We all got ready to remount and tackle the last section of trail and I wasn’t thinking much as I grabbed the saddle and got ready to swing my leg back over Eeyore. KC had asked to ride him and the plan was to switch at the hold. Well, she had not forgotten that even if I had and politely pointed out that I was mounting the wrong horse. Hahahahaha!!!

I’m not sure I could have stopped KC from riding Eeyore LOL! She looked good on him

I happily handed her his reins, kicked Bette off her gelding making her ride KC’s borrowed mount Finn (also owned by Bette so it wasn’t like I made her ride an unknown horse so I could steal her saint of a gelding though I might still have done it LOL) and we all left the hold on different horses to finish the ride.

Eeyore was a really good boy for her, not a surprise – she rides fantastically, and we found plenty of places to open up so she could experience his lovely canter. For his part, my new ride Mason was a saint and I surprised myself at how comfortable I felt on a strange horse in strange tack cantering down the trail. Not that long age and I never would have done that.

The hold had been at the 2/3rds mark so we didn’t have much more to go. The trail got pretty steep and I wanted KC that Eeyore has zero sense of where his feet go and sorta just relies on gravity to get him to the bottom of hills not really caring if he ends up there in a heap. She did get to experience this though it was made worse by some idiots coming flying up behind us without warning.

I did threaten to send Eeyore back with KC and steal Mason but he doesn’t jump and I’m still hoping to do xc some day so that ruled that out. Plus uh well Bette owns Mason and so me stealing him and giving KC Eeyore wouldn’t really work our for Bette. 🤷‍♀️

He was too tired at the end to care about being on the trailer with no other horses around. Also, I had debated which saddle to use and ended with the Wexford. Besides needing a smaller girth it worked really well, was comfy even after all those hours and he was not reactive anywhere at the end. It’s a keeper!

We arrived back safe, sound and while hot and thirsty, happy. Eeyore got a bucket of water with Cool Down in it back at the trailer which is my favorite way to end a hot ride for my horse. He drank deeply from am offered bucket and dug into his hay bag before dozing off while I got everything put away. He was pretty tired but happy and I’m hoping he learned a thing or two during that outing.

Having the right equipment makes life easier.

I remember back in my competitive whitewater days, I had a very old, very well travelled closed canoe that I purchased for $75 and fondly named Fugly. That thing was old school and even after spending many a summer evening covered in resin and fiberglass, that boat never did fit me right.

Then one day my coach convinced me to stop being a tight wad with my money and buy a boat better suited. My eyes were set on the Junior National Championships for a second year and the thought of showing up with Fugly again wasn’t appealing. We found my Norma Jean, a smaller, newer and more streamlined vessel that I still have to this day.

The first time I took her in the water it was like coming home. All my technical flaws didn’t magically go away, but some did and it was easier to execute everything. My turns between the gates was quicker and better timed. Upstream gates were more easily ducked under saving precious seconds. She cut through the water cleaner.

It was my first lesson in making sure your equipment is the best suited for your own body type and athletic style in your chosen sport.

Last night I threw the Wexford up on Eeyore. For a brief moment I debated riding in the Bates since it had been nearly 10 days since I last rode him and after that much time he is usually pretty expressive. Then I thought that would be the perfect time to test this thing out and see how secure it really was. Sure, it may leave a few questions as to his comfort but by now I’m pretty familiar with his attitude and figured I could tell the difference between “I always assume I’m fully retired after any time off at all and now I’m angry that I’m back to work” and “Ouch! This is pinching me! Take it off!”

The ride went about as expected. He started off pretty amenable to life, coasting around at the walk and trying to look at anything and everything that would avoid having to pay attention to my requests up on him. Typical Eeyore stuff.

What I did notice right off the bat was that my lateral aides were not only easier to use but were also getting through to him louder and clearer. My legs naturally dangled straight down and I wasn’t fighting the need to constantly bring them back to use them. I always tend more toward my legs being forward and braced so it wasn’t necessarily a Bates issues but it also wasn’t being corrected in it either. In the Wexford I never had to remind myself to bring my leg back under me.

In fact, at the walk at least, he gave me some of the best bend on a 20 m circle to date.

Until he realized this was going to be work and flipped me the bird that is. I have his number on that one though. Typically I will let him canter. A lot of times once he gets moving and gets his initial ADD knocked out of him he settles into “OMG I’m going to die! Can’t breathe. Can’t move” mode and life gets good again. Not always though. Yesterday he needed more of a reminder of who is boss here so after we careened around a while fighting each other, I made him do rapid fire transitions between walk, halt and trot randomly and allowing only 3-5 steps in each before changing.

That got his attention real fast and soon enough he was once again pliable. He never fully settled but again it had been 10 days and I gave him some leeway there.

What I loved though was that in the Wexford my posture was naturally and easily more vertical. The Bates always has me slightly forward which made getting out of the tack to jump easy but made things like sitting the canter really hard. Plus I naturally tend to tilt forward in a defensive fetal position so it isn’t necessarily the fault of the Bates but again it wasn’t helping either.

In the Wexford, my legs hung down and my back sat straight. In fact, I was so vertical I worried I wouldn’t be able to get out of the tack to jump. When we did canter, I wasn’t magically relaxed and flowing with him but I also wasn’t posting and fighting to just get my butt down and in the seat either. I was connected and being connected allowed him to lift his front end up and slow down so I wasn’t feeling like we were going nowhere very fast.

I did manage to pop him over a few jumps and liked how I could follow him better to the base and didn’t feel like I was already half way up his neck before take off. It wasn’t hard to get out of the tack either.

Overall, I’m as in love as I remember from my trial last fall. The structure suits my anatomy and helps ease some of my natural flaws and tendencies without creating new issues. I’m not all of a sudden a Grand Prix rider but I’m also feeling like I’m not fighting my tack either.

Having the right equipment matters. I learned this decades ago but can’t seem to remember it.

I’ll ride again today in it to try to see how he goes and if he has any sore spots from yesterday. I’m trying to get in touch with the BC rep in the area to have it checked and the flocking redone as well but I think we have a winner here folks!!!

You know what you never want to see when you go home mid morning to meet up with the equine dentist?

The appointment was originally set for Friday, but they rescheduled to Tuesday which ended up being better as I had taken it off to study for today’s Medicine Boards. I started off at Panera downing 60 oz of unsweet tea in 2 hours and taking many, many pee breaks. At least I was hydrated? Anyway…. around 10:30 am I headed home for a mental break (I had arrived there at 730 am) and to meet up with the dentist.

As I walked into the barn, she must have seen my jaw hit the ground and immediately said, while her arm was up his mouth and blood was pouring out of it, “This is ok. There is nothing wrong.”

Now I had been fully prepared to learn some interesting things about Eeyore since I knew his mouth was a bit jacked up and he has a history of being expensive any chance he can, but Pete? I was not prepared for that.

This equine dentist is amazing and I absolutely adore her. As she finished up she was muttering something along the lines of “Dusty says go ahead and distract. Sure, says the small animal vet with dental suite, X-rays and general anesthesia” I laughed.

Beyond that one tooth, Pete was great. No wave, no hooks, no ulcers, and a mouth that looks younger than his age. He got his sheath cleaned (I always pay anyone who sedates the boys to do this for me) and a good bill of health. He will be on antibiotics and a probiotic for the next two weeks as well as but for the next couple of days, but after he awoke he was already eating hay happily so I think he is no worse for the wear.

Then she moved to Eeyore. When I got him he had a known missing upper front tooth (he has 5 instead of 6 with no signs that 5 formed at birth or after) and a sideways upper front tooth as well. Also, while Gem and Pete have gorgeous white teeth, his are black and gross.

She sedated him, he fell immediately into a deep sleep and she looked at his mouth remarking “You should have named him Cleatus”. She also noted the missing tooth but, much to my surprise, she also said that the sideways tooth was a broken off at the gum line tooth now. Damn wood chewing. She was pretty positive it will grow down and eventually be normal though.

As for the dark color? She said that it is genetic. Some horses have teeth more easily stained by the chlorophyl than others and can be born with dark teeth. Other than that though, his mouth was quite good. No ulcers, no hooks, no wave. Pretty mundane and routine for once! She also cleaned his sheath for me finding several large beans and a lot of smegma. She recommended Excalibar Sheath Cleaner used once a month as well as sticking the hose up his sheath after every ride to keep it clean up there. With his breeding and skin color he is at high risk of penile cancers and apparently studies have shown that smegma contact on the skin increases mitotic activity and the risk of cancer sky rockets. Guess I’ll be very familiar with his junk very soon.

Last was Gem and I am a bit disheartened by her. She was amazing for the dental as always. She needs elephant doses of sedative, but will stand nicely even fully awake so she was given just enough to take the edge off and they did her mouth. It was over quickly and she had some hooks and the earliest stages of maybe a wave forming but that is all for her dental appointment. Unfortunately the vet was pretty concerned that she may have Cushings given her breeding, age and some recent new ridges in her front hooves (thankfully no founder or laminitis) and so we are proceeding with testing and she was pretty sure she will end up needing prascend. The nice part is that Dusty is a vet and the prascend company is running a promotion for free testing through Cornell I believe, so that won’t cost anything (we will be pulling blood on Pete and Eeyore too because why not?) and she also gave me a $35 mail in rebate on the meds too should we need them.

I’m bummed for Gem. It isn’t something I wanted to hear or something I hoped she would get in her early 20’s but here we are. She said that the meds make it 100% manageable and she shouldn’t even need a muzzle even with all the grass we have, so that is a positive but ugh. Poor Gemmie. Dusty will get the blood drawn and send the test off by the end of the week so we will have results soon and then I will be conferring with the equine vet about what all I need to be doing to keep her healthy and sound for another decade.

Oh! The dentist is also certified in equine chiropractic and acupuncture so I made an appointment for her to come do Eeyore mostly because I trust her knowledge and opinion 100% but also because he deserves it.

We had been on an every other year cycle for dentistry for the horses and she said Eeyore and Gem could remain on that but Pete will need yearly due to his now missing tooth so we will end up just doing everyone every year from now on. The only maintenance required for the year is the Coggins on all three and Dusty will do that for me by the end of the month. After that we will be good to go for another year!