Well, I'm utterly rooted. But triumphant! The weekend proved really great experience for us both, and has given me confidence that we just need to keep working on the same big issues before things will get to where I want them.
I was drawn to do my dressage at 12:50pm-ish so I actually managed to get there around 11:45am, which, considering I was leaving behind two little kids, a husband, two dogs, two horses and seven chickens, wasn't bad. A bit later than I would have liked, not knowing how Tux was going to react to the whole thing, but not bad. I plaited up before I left so I really didn't have to do anything to him except brush the mud off him (didn't have the time, weather or facilities to wash him!), saddle up and squeeze into my jacket. My poor old jacket....I've had it since I was 18 and it's seen me through two post-pregnancy/breastfeeding periods, and not very well! I really struggle to do the buttons up these days - might have to invest in one that can cope with big boobs!!
Anyhoo....dressage was remarkably un-bad. Considering he just would not trot only a couple of months ago (possibly weeks ago, now I think about it), he pulled out some very nice trot-work indeed. The judge was not a fan, however, and simply gave us 4, 5 or 6 for every movement, very few comments and simply wrote, 'tension throughout test', at the end. Not what I'd call a helpful, encouraging or even polite dressage judge. And of course she printed her name illegibly so I don't know who she is. I'm so glad I get to experience these judges so I can do a far better job of judging myself. The sad thing is, she's probably quite experienced. At being discouraging.
So, equal 30th was our placing after dressage (out of 34 - there were actually a couple of poor souls who scored worse than we did), but our spirits were high after a fantastic night sleep. I had such an aching back after walking the XC course twice and traipsing around fetching and carrying, not to mention riding, that I popped a couple of panadeine and chugged a stubbie of good ole Tooheys New, and promptly fell asleep before 6pm. Fully clothed. And stood my mate Tricia and her son Jett up for dinner. Not good ju-ju. Sorry Tricia! Luckily, the motel did a pretty decent chicken minion room service and I got a late dinner when I finally woke up a couple of hours later!
The showjump course was absolutely perfect for green horses and riders - a basic figure of 8 with a lovely two stride double at the end. Tux was a complete tool in the warm up and just kept bolting every practice jump, especially once he got to the other side. I was a bit nervous about how that would play out in the ring, but he actually pulled his shit together and jumped pretty nicely. Considering. We had a rail at the first element of the double because he only noticed the second element as he was taking off over the first and dropped his back legs on the pole. No biggie.
XC was an absolute blast. It was truly mountain goaty and had some great variety for the little grades. Usually every jump is a log of some kind when you're doing baby grades, but this one had ditches and little houses, even a little log to jump into the water (open-flagged so you could just trot into the water if you weren't up to the log - we did the log). Really awesome. And Tux ate it up, though we did have a couple of arguments about how we were going to do things. I won. But the arguing did put us almost 40 seconds over time. Also no biggie for our first one, and lots of things to work on.
His hooves seem to have seriously become high performance. The ground was very forgiving across the country, except for a bloody great steep gravel road that Tux simply cantered down. Quite balanced and controlled, no ouchy moments, no stone bruises. The horse is a machine. We did have one big slip at the end of the course as he was getting very tired and was just starting to quit listening. I had to haul him around to get over the last and his whole back end went out from under him. I don't blame a lack of studs, quite the contrary, shoes and studs would have been pretty useless in the soft going and gravel. We had the advantage for sure!
Very happy we stayed together and I didn't get a dunking in the freezing water on quite a chilly day. It was a great weekend and I'm quite looking forward to more stuff with him. We've got a local dressage comp this Sunday and I'm interested to see if he will be a bit more settled. Next weekend is a XC clinic with Sam Lyle and the following weekend is Wagga Wagga Horse Trials and we step up to Intro. I'll keep you posted!
Monday, 5 August 2013
Thursday, 25 July 2013
Blah....winter blows
So, I hope you guys are getting more riding in than I am! Moving to your own farm seems to mean a lot more driving (dropping off small people at school and heading to the coalface) and a lot less riding. That's not to say Tuxedo has any problems with that scenario, though I doubt he would have been so ok with having all his fur shaved off if he'd known how little he'd be ridden. And I daresay I wouldn't have clipped him if I'd known that too!
The change of feed has produced the most remarkable change of character in that crazy horse. Even though I'm only riding him twice a week (and that's if the weather isn't Antarctic-like) he hasn't been a complete prat on my weekend workouts. I thought it pretty unfair to expect he would make much improvement when he's only being worked intermittently but the last two rides, both over a week apart, were remarkably similar. Yes, there's still the stupid bouncing around when transitioning up into trot, and the yucky pig-rooting and disuniting canter before he gets a stern talking-to. But he's not crazy like he has been. This is the first time a change in diet has produced such a change in behaviour in my experience. I won't be so dismissive of diet in the future.
And the barefoot transition has been seamless, really. The new hoof is growing down beautifully, with an obvious ring of happiness where the new hoof is coming in. I'll post photos of his feet (sans mud, I hope!) next time. Kirsten the wonder trimmer has been pretty impressed with his feet, that's for sure.
Poor young Rose is starting to get very heavy as she moves into the last trimester of pregnancy. This is when 40% of the foal's growing happens and she looks a tad uncomfortable. I, for one, hated the last trimester and found it very painful (pelvic pain) - Rose looks like I felt! Her feet are flattening into dinner plates as she puts on weight, too. It's very exciting and a little nerve-wracking.
Despite all the lack of riding I've managed to schedule myself a horse event every weekend in August. Harden Horse Trials next weekend in the newcomers class just to see how he copes with events, cross country and all that jazz. I've scored a lesson with Ben Netterfield this weekend and that will be the second time I've jumped Tux since I've had him.
After Harden is a local dressage comp (just a couple of Associate Prelim tests to give him more exposure to going out and performing in an arena), then a dressage judges seminar on the following Saturday and a XC clinic with Sam Lyle on the Sunday. (Deep breath) After that is Wagga Horse Trials where I've entered Intro, possibly suicidally, but with the idea that Wagga is pretty low-key and Tux is not a complete noob. And that's the end of August. Luckily, I've got September to recover, though fingers crossed I get a couple of lessons with Andrew Mclean who's coming up then for his yearly sojourn to the backwaters of the ACT.
I feel exhausted just writing that. I'll let you know how we go!
The change of feed has produced the most remarkable change of character in that crazy horse. Even though I'm only riding him twice a week (and that's if the weather isn't Antarctic-like) he hasn't been a complete prat on my weekend workouts. I thought it pretty unfair to expect he would make much improvement when he's only being worked intermittently but the last two rides, both over a week apart, were remarkably similar. Yes, there's still the stupid bouncing around when transitioning up into trot, and the yucky pig-rooting and disuniting canter before he gets a stern talking-to. But he's not crazy like he has been. This is the first time a change in diet has produced such a change in behaviour in my experience. I won't be so dismissive of diet in the future.
And the barefoot transition has been seamless, really. The new hoof is growing down beautifully, with an obvious ring of happiness where the new hoof is coming in. I'll post photos of his feet (sans mud, I hope!) next time. Kirsten the wonder trimmer has been pretty impressed with his feet, that's for sure.
Poor young Rose is starting to get very heavy as she moves into the last trimester of pregnancy. This is when 40% of the foal's growing happens and she looks a tad uncomfortable. I, for one, hated the last trimester and found it very painful (pelvic pain) - Rose looks like I felt! Her feet are flattening into dinner plates as she puts on weight, too. It's very exciting and a little nerve-wracking.
Despite all the lack of riding I've managed to schedule myself a horse event every weekend in August. Harden Horse Trials next weekend in the newcomers class just to see how he copes with events, cross country and all that jazz. I've scored a lesson with Ben Netterfield this weekend and that will be the second time I've jumped Tux since I've had him.
After Harden is a local dressage comp (just a couple of Associate Prelim tests to give him more exposure to going out and performing in an arena), then a dressage judges seminar on the following Saturday and a XC clinic with Sam Lyle on the Sunday. (Deep breath) After that is Wagga Horse Trials where I've entered Intro, possibly suicidally, but with the idea that Wagga is pretty low-key and Tux is not a complete noob. And that's the end of August. Luckily, I've got September to recover, though fingers crossed I get a couple of lessons with Andrew Mclean who's coming up then for his yearly sojourn to the backwaters of the ACT.
I feel exhausted just writing that. I'll let you know how we go!
Saturday, 29 June 2013
A 4 year-old 6 year-old
It seems that Tuxedo is the most green-broken 6 year old going. A very frustrating and somewhat scary ride at the moment, I find myself a bit exhausted and sore this fine Sunday afternoon. Yesterday was our first ever jumping experience together and (luckily) I chose a clinic with World Cup showjumper Sandra Tremier as the place to do it! He was a complete nutcase. Apart from a more extreme version of the rearing, sideways, piaffe/passage and pig-rooting that is now a normal part of our day, he also threw in charging around as a new experience.
We started off working fairly well, that is, big trot to little canter with lots of head tossing, back to big trot. Couldn't trot over the poles, had to canter. Couldn't trot towards a jump, had to gallop the last two strides then gallop away. Wouldn't halt without a lot of head throwing work. The most memorable feeling of the day was that of his forelock grazing my nose. Not noice.
The peanut gallery were very supportive and nice but not particularly helpful. "You're a braver woman than me!" was Gay's best line. But she's always the most positive person. When we bounced a one stride double she yelled out, "Well, he's going to be a great eventer!"
I was, I'm almost ashamed to admit, reduced to tears by the middle of the second session. We were working on a little course, and it was just so damned exhausting being on this crazy horse, tearing around the place, barely keeping his feet in the wet. Did I forget to mention it was raining the whole day??
But. And there's a big but. There were moments of brilliance. For one thing, he does have the most incredible, powerful movement. And he's not worried about the jumps per se (no shying or cat leaping). And, after taking out an upright on his chest (Sandra jacked them up to about 80 or 90cm because he just wasn't noticing the littler ones), he actually calmly popped over it the second time. Then bolted off, but not as out of control as before!
So, there is some serious talent in that nutcasey thoroughbred brain. And Sandra (and Ben Netterfield) stated pretty baldly, "You've basically got a 4 year old, and a green one at that. He doesn't know anything so you'll just have to teach him." Awesome.
On a bright side, his feet are fantastic. Had Kirsten the trimmer extraordinaire out this morning and she thinks they're brilliant feet. Big frogs, becoming concave and the flare is growing out quite quickly. All in all very good. Rose's are getting flat under the growing weight of that beautiful big foal in there. You can see it moving in her belly sometimes. So exciting. I feel like it's a filly so I'm trying to think of names for her. Suggestions?
Still planning our first event to be Harden doing Newcomers. I'm tempted to enter Intro but I think that might be a mistake. Our control issues really need to be sorted out before we really need to worry about the jumps at all.
Happy riding! Hell knows I need it!
We started off working fairly well, that is, big trot to little canter with lots of head tossing, back to big trot. Couldn't trot over the poles, had to canter. Couldn't trot towards a jump, had to gallop the last two strides then gallop away. Wouldn't halt without a lot of head throwing work. The most memorable feeling of the day was that of his forelock grazing my nose. Not noice.
The peanut gallery were very supportive and nice but not particularly helpful. "You're a braver woman than me!" was Gay's best line. But she's always the most positive person. When we bounced a one stride double she yelled out, "Well, he's going to be a great eventer!"
I was, I'm almost ashamed to admit, reduced to tears by the middle of the second session. We were working on a little course, and it was just so damned exhausting being on this crazy horse, tearing around the place, barely keeping his feet in the wet. Did I forget to mention it was raining the whole day??
But. And there's a big but. There were moments of brilliance. For one thing, he does have the most incredible, powerful movement. And he's not worried about the jumps per se (no shying or cat leaping). And, after taking out an upright on his chest (Sandra jacked them up to about 80 or 90cm because he just wasn't noticing the littler ones), he actually calmly popped over it the second time. Then bolted off, but not as out of control as before!
So, there is some serious talent in that nutcasey thoroughbred brain. And Sandra (and Ben Netterfield) stated pretty baldly, "You've basically got a 4 year old, and a green one at that. He doesn't know anything so you'll just have to teach him." Awesome.
On a bright side, his feet are fantastic. Had Kirsten the trimmer extraordinaire out this morning and she thinks they're brilliant feet. Big frogs, becoming concave and the flare is growing out quite quickly. All in all very good. Rose's are getting flat under the growing weight of that beautiful big foal in there. You can see it moving in her belly sometimes. So exciting. I feel like it's a filly so I'm trying to think of names for her. Suggestions?
Still planning our first event to be Harden doing Newcomers. I'm tempted to enter Intro but I think that might be a mistake. Our control issues really need to be sorted out before we really need to worry about the jumps at all.
Happy riding! Hell knows I need it!
Tuesday, 18 June 2013
Jack Frost has landed
Happy winter everyone!
It's not particularly freezing (yet) here at Dragonwood, and has been really wet over the past couple of weeks - a very welcome change given how dry it had been leading into winter.
The horses have all settled in really well and are now good mates. It's interesting being able to observe their herd structure this close (I can just look out the window!!) and see how complex horse social behaviour is. I thought it was very linear - ie horse A was 'dominant' over horse B who was dominant over horse C. But my little herd doesn't work that way. Rose is the boss and Tux is next and Persia yields to Tux and Rose. But when hay goes out, Persia sticks with Rose who lets her eat her hay, while Tux is excluded. Rose lets Tux eat with her too, but clearly Tux and Persia aren't friends and Rose is more tolerant of Persia who is NOT tolerant of Tux. Interesting....there's an alliance for personal gain...
Anyway, riding-wise this last few weeks have been very frustrating. Firstly, now I live out of town, I have to leave by 7:45am, which means I would have to be ON Tux by 6am. It's dark til 6:30am so that could be a bit pointless. Which leaves just the weekends, as I get home in the dark too. And I'm finding that Tux is not the kind of horse that is fine to leave for a few days. If I were to do that I think it would be a very slow and frustrating road to daylight savings!
Luckily, right over the road lives a world class French showjumper called Martial, who is staying with my friends Gay and Larry for a few months. He's agreed to ride Tux for a me a couple of times during the week until he heads back to France in 6 weeks. Totally saves my bacon!!
That brings us to the second part of the frustration. Tux is the tensest, most conflict behaviour-riddled, anxious and reactive horses I've ever ridden. Today, as my arse hit the saddle after mounting he launched into a most impressive display of rearing and bucking. Bizarrely, it doesn't feel like I'm ever in danger of coming off, but you do have that feeling of just holding on and waiting for the scary ride to end. No control, just a very tense and large animal beneath you having a meltdown.
Other than doing lots of ground work establishing 'park', 'forward' and 'back', repeating mounting over and over (I get on at least twice each ride) and putting him through exercise and exercise for the next few months, I don't know what else I can do. I've decided, after a particularly crappy episode today, that I will just keep blogging about his behaviour so I can recognise progress as it happens. It will take a lot of time and work to get him relaxed, responsive and obedient. That's the fun part, right??
I've been very lucky with the saddle situation having Julia Mclean from WOW onside. She's been out three times to fit Tux with both my existing dressage saddle, and a demo jumping saddle that we've tried a few different blocks and panels on. It's a vaguely annoying process, saddle fitting, for all involved, but SO worth it. I'm very lucky to have both the financial means to afford WOW saddles (at this point anyway!) and the support of Julia who is really the most amazingly generous fitter. Need a longer girth? Sure, have this one (it's new and she just swaps it for my old one). Need a jump saddle while you wait for yours to be constructed? Sure, have this one. Think the saddle is unbalanced even though the last fitting was only two weeks ago? Sure, let me squeeze you in between my interstate trips. Nothing is too much trouble. I couldn't recommend her more. :)
On another positive note, Tux's feet are a lot less sensitive now, despite the wet conditions, and this is really encouraging. I think he'll end up with high performance feet in a couple of months at this rate. :)
Rose is starting to look pregnant now and it's actually starting to get exciting as we enter the 8th month. Her elbow injury is possibly resolving itself - I'm keeping a hopeful eye on it and haven't noticed that weird double action as she walks downhill for a week now. Fingers and toes crossed. Woohoo!
Til next time, safe and happy riding!
It's not particularly freezing (yet) here at Dragonwood, and has been really wet over the past couple of weeks - a very welcome change given how dry it had been leading into winter.
The horses have all settled in really well and are now good mates. It's interesting being able to observe their herd structure this close (I can just look out the window!!) and see how complex horse social behaviour is. I thought it was very linear - ie horse A was 'dominant' over horse B who was dominant over horse C. But my little herd doesn't work that way. Rose is the boss and Tux is next and Persia yields to Tux and Rose. But when hay goes out, Persia sticks with Rose who lets her eat her hay, while Tux is excluded. Rose lets Tux eat with her too, but clearly Tux and Persia aren't friends and Rose is more tolerant of Persia who is NOT tolerant of Tux. Interesting....there's an alliance for personal gain...
Anyway, riding-wise this last few weeks have been very frustrating. Firstly, now I live out of town, I have to leave by 7:45am, which means I would have to be ON Tux by 6am. It's dark til 6:30am so that could be a bit pointless. Which leaves just the weekends, as I get home in the dark too. And I'm finding that Tux is not the kind of horse that is fine to leave for a few days. If I were to do that I think it would be a very slow and frustrating road to daylight savings!
Luckily, right over the road lives a world class French showjumper called Martial, who is staying with my friends Gay and Larry for a few months. He's agreed to ride Tux for a me a couple of times during the week until he heads back to France in 6 weeks. Totally saves my bacon!!
That brings us to the second part of the frustration. Tux is the tensest, most conflict behaviour-riddled, anxious and reactive horses I've ever ridden. Today, as my arse hit the saddle after mounting he launched into a most impressive display of rearing and bucking. Bizarrely, it doesn't feel like I'm ever in danger of coming off, but you do have that feeling of just holding on and waiting for the scary ride to end. No control, just a very tense and large animal beneath you having a meltdown.
Other than doing lots of ground work establishing 'park', 'forward' and 'back', repeating mounting over and over (I get on at least twice each ride) and putting him through exercise and exercise for the next few months, I don't know what else I can do. I've decided, after a particularly crappy episode today, that I will just keep blogging about his behaviour so I can recognise progress as it happens. It will take a lot of time and work to get him relaxed, responsive and obedient. That's the fun part, right??
I've been very lucky with the saddle situation having Julia Mclean from WOW onside. She's been out three times to fit Tux with both my existing dressage saddle, and a demo jumping saddle that we've tried a few different blocks and panels on. It's a vaguely annoying process, saddle fitting, for all involved, but SO worth it. I'm very lucky to have both the financial means to afford WOW saddles (at this point anyway!) and the support of Julia who is really the most amazingly generous fitter. Need a longer girth? Sure, have this one (it's new and she just swaps it for my old one). Need a jump saddle while you wait for yours to be constructed? Sure, have this one. Think the saddle is unbalanced even though the last fitting was only two weeks ago? Sure, let me squeeze you in between my interstate trips. Nothing is too much trouble. I couldn't recommend her more. :)
On another positive note, Tux's feet are a lot less sensitive now, despite the wet conditions, and this is really encouraging. I think he'll end up with high performance feet in a couple of months at this rate. :)
Rose is starting to look pregnant now and it's actually starting to get exciting as we enter the 8th month. Her elbow injury is possibly resolving itself - I'm keeping a hopeful eye on it and haven't noticed that weird double action as she walks downhill for a week now. Fingers and toes crossed. Woohoo!
Til next time, safe and happy riding!
Saturday, 8 June 2013
Landed Gentry
Hi peeps!
It's been a long time - or at least it feels like it! So much has been happening and I'll try to cover it all.
First and foremost, Tux has now been barefoot for coming up to three weeks. The first couple of weeks seemed almost unbelievably easy. The last week, since the second trim, have been a bit more interesting. Kirsten took a little more than she was planning to as we had decided to forgo Bungendore ODE last weekend in the interests of sanity. More on that later! Since that trim, Tux's hooves are a lot more correct in shape but he's become quite 'footy' and finds it difficult to walk on the gravel road. He's perfectly fine on grass, bitumen and the mulch of the arena.
I've taken some pics from the last trim:
You can see that the feet are a generally good shape, though the off fore is a bit flared and high in the heels, and the hind feet are still a bit steep in the angle of the hoof, but are improving. Kirsten really set the shape up for the next few weeks of growth and change as his frog and heels start to take more weight more correctly, and his hoof becomes more concave. Hopefully, the sensitivity will diminish over the next couple of weeks. I don't think the rain helped on the day before the trim - they were standing in water for at least a day:
That makes hooves a little more porous and I suspect a bit softer. Certainly, I've found the ideal conditions for tough hooves is dry, hard, clay. And lots of exercise over it!
So, we were aiming for Berrima to be our first comp together but, after attending Manuela Mclean's clinic together, we realised there was a LOT of work to be done before Tux was ready for even trot poles, let alone a course of jumps! Tux is not a raving hot loon as first thought, but a pure stress-head. After getting past the initial couple of rides (only one of which I actually attempted myself, instead enlisting the help of the wonderful Martial (French Showjumper extraordinaire) to sit on the snorting beast, I've found underneath all that is a willing but confused and probably poorly trained horse. Yes, he holds an outline, yes he can produce a powerful trot and a measured canter, and yes he probably looks pretty good while doing it. But he doesn't understand most of the nuances of the cues from the bit - he's only got a basic understanding of what a direct turn is, preferring to turn stiffly from an indirect turn. He still won't transition from a walk to a trot without quite a bit of piaffe, pig-rooting and head-tossing. He finds it very had to maintain a slow rhythm and really struggles to stay straight and forward in self-carriage while not charging. He is very weak through the back, hindquarter and stifle and will take a fair bit of hill work to build all that up.
BUT. He is such a fabulous horse underneath it all. I feel the power in there, especially in the canter. He's going to be a cross country machine! And he's pretty trainable. The worst he does is a bit of plunging about and being an idiot. No bucking bronco work or truly dangerous stuff. I don't feel unsafe on him and he does start to listen. I feel like he needs a lot of time to get the basics right but, once we've got them, he'll be a champion.
So, Manu's clinic was very good, as usual, with great timing for me having just acquired a challenging horse. The first lesson was extremely helpful, focusing very much on establishing that slow rhythmical trot out of a walk, using trot/walk and trot/halt, and also 'almost' transitions - walk to 'almost' halt by stopping the hind legs and just as the last front leg is about to halt pushing on for walk again. This was really helpful as he was reacting well to the definite transitions but just taking up the super-fast trot with the head tossing and stuffing around straight away. The 'almost' walk gave him another correct answer - 'slow down' - that he hadn't contemplated. This seemed to clarify the rein aids for Tux a bit so that he didn't fight when I half-halted him as I was trying to slow him in the trot.
There was a lot to concentrate on - as always! Manu wanted me to 'lock my body' a bit more, basically turning on my core stabilisers, squeezing with my thighs to create the feeling of 'narrow in front' and this really helped keep Tux active and straight while strengthening my position so I was a lot more centred and could cope with his idiotic carrying on. I also focused on closing my hands to 'hold the little birds' as I was learning to do with Assegai, not opening my fingers but holding a light contact and simply closing my fist when I wanted to use a rein aid. That seemed to work well too in stabilising his head.
The second day was a private which was really great. Lots of stuff to work on. Slowing and controlling my rising was a big part of the lesson. Using that 'positive tension' and switching on my core was helpful and counting to myself so that I would simply rise in that rhythm no matter what Tux was doing. After about 10 mins we had a much more definite and stable rhythm and I was pretty stoked. We will work on that quite a bit, as well as 'wiggly lines' using direct turns and a real focus on allowing with my right rein to help his left hind come through more strongly. We even popped in a canter which was remarkably calm and well-maintained. He clearly finds canter easier and less stressful than trot. Interesting - also fed into our theory that it was confusion that led to his behaviour issues, not an inherent reactivity or 'being hot'.
All this means no Berrima next weekend. Major bummer, though I thought it would be a real stretch! Harden at the beginning of August looks like the first comp for us now, and that one is not a bad start. I'll still be judging at Berrima, though, as is now becoming my privilege to do every event, and I'm really looking forward to that.
The farm is slowing shaping up, little by little. The yards have been started, and will hopefully be completed on Monday. The first of our order of Electrobraid from How High has arrived and now I have to figure out what to fence with it first! Water troughs are next and a way of watering the horses must be devised (do we use the dam water, tank water, tank water from the stable to go only to the troughs, dam water trickle fed to a tank that will then fill the troughs by solar pump....the options are many!). We've gotten a few round bales of second season hay to help keep the horses' fibre up and reduce the pressure on the only paddock we have right now. All are looking well, fingers crossed they'll keep out of trouble!
Massive blog post over. Til next time!
It's been a long time - or at least it feels like it! So much has been happening and I'll try to cover it all.
First and foremost, Tux has now been barefoot for coming up to three weeks. The first couple of weeks seemed almost unbelievably easy. The last week, since the second trim, have been a bit more interesting. Kirsten took a little more than she was planning to as we had decided to forgo Bungendore ODE last weekend in the interests of sanity. More on that later! Since that trim, Tux's hooves are a lot more correct in shape but he's become quite 'footy' and finds it difficult to walk on the gravel road. He's perfectly fine on grass, bitumen and the mulch of the arena.
I've taken some pics from the last trim:
You can see that the feet are a generally good shape, though the off fore is a bit flared and high in the heels, and the hind feet are still a bit steep in the angle of the hoof, but are improving. Kirsten really set the shape up for the next few weeks of growth and change as his frog and heels start to take more weight more correctly, and his hoof becomes more concave. Hopefully, the sensitivity will diminish over the next couple of weeks. I don't think the rain helped on the day before the trim - they were standing in water for at least a day:
That makes hooves a little more porous and I suspect a bit softer. Certainly, I've found the ideal conditions for tough hooves is dry, hard, clay. And lots of exercise over it!
So, we were aiming for Berrima to be our first comp together but, after attending Manuela Mclean's clinic together, we realised there was a LOT of work to be done before Tux was ready for even trot poles, let alone a course of jumps! Tux is not a raving hot loon as first thought, but a pure stress-head. After getting past the initial couple of rides (only one of which I actually attempted myself, instead enlisting the help of the wonderful Martial (French Showjumper extraordinaire) to sit on the snorting beast, I've found underneath all that is a willing but confused and probably poorly trained horse. Yes, he holds an outline, yes he can produce a powerful trot and a measured canter, and yes he probably looks pretty good while doing it. But he doesn't understand most of the nuances of the cues from the bit - he's only got a basic understanding of what a direct turn is, preferring to turn stiffly from an indirect turn. He still won't transition from a walk to a trot without quite a bit of piaffe, pig-rooting and head-tossing. He finds it very had to maintain a slow rhythm and really struggles to stay straight and forward in self-carriage while not charging. He is very weak through the back, hindquarter and stifle and will take a fair bit of hill work to build all that up.
BUT. He is such a fabulous horse underneath it all. I feel the power in there, especially in the canter. He's going to be a cross country machine! And he's pretty trainable. The worst he does is a bit of plunging about and being an idiot. No bucking bronco work or truly dangerous stuff. I don't feel unsafe on him and he does start to listen. I feel like he needs a lot of time to get the basics right but, once we've got them, he'll be a champion.
So, Manu's clinic was very good, as usual, with great timing for me having just acquired a challenging horse. The first lesson was extremely helpful, focusing very much on establishing that slow rhythmical trot out of a walk, using trot/walk and trot/halt, and also 'almost' transitions - walk to 'almost' halt by stopping the hind legs and just as the last front leg is about to halt pushing on for walk again. This was really helpful as he was reacting well to the definite transitions but just taking up the super-fast trot with the head tossing and stuffing around straight away. The 'almost' walk gave him another correct answer - 'slow down' - that he hadn't contemplated. This seemed to clarify the rein aids for Tux a bit so that he didn't fight when I half-halted him as I was trying to slow him in the trot.
There was a lot to concentrate on - as always! Manu wanted me to 'lock my body' a bit more, basically turning on my core stabilisers, squeezing with my thighs to create the feeling of 'narrow in front' and this really helped keep Tux active and straight while strengthening my position so I was a lot more centred and could cope with his idiotic carrying on. I also focused on closing my hands to 'hold the little birds' as I was learning to do with Assegai, not opening my fingers but holding a light contact and simply closing my fist when I wanted to use a rein aid. That seemed to work well too in stabilising his head.
The second day was a private which was really great. Lots of stuff to work on. Slowing and controlling my rising was a big part of the lesson. Using that 'positive tension' and switching on my core was helpful and counting to myself so that I would simply rise in that rhythm no matter what Tux was doing. After about 10 mins we had a much more definite and stable rhythm and I was pretty stoked. We will work on that quite a bit, as well as 'wiggly lines' using direct turns and a real focus on allowing with my right rein to help his left hind come through more strongly. We even popped in a canter which was remarkably calm and well-maintained. He clearly finds canter easier and less stressful than trot. Interesting - also fed into our theory that it was confusion that led to his behaviour issues, not an inherent reactivity or 'being hot'.
All this means no Berrima next weekend. Major bummer, though I thought it would be a real stretch! Harden at the beginning of August looks like the first comp for us now, and that one is not a bad start. I'll still be judging at Berrima, though, as is now becoming my privilege to do every event, and I'm really looking forward to that.
The farm is slowing shaping up, little by little. The yards have been started, and will hopefully be completed on Monday. The first of our order of Electrobraid from How High has arrived and now I have to figure out what to fence with it first! Water troughs are next and a way of watering the horses must be devised (do we use the dam water, tank water, tank water from the stable to go only to the troughs, dam water trickle fed to a tank that will then fill the troughs by solar pump....the options are many!). We've gotten a few round bales of second season hay to help keep the horses' fibre up and reduce the pressure on the only paddock we have right now. All are looking well, fingers crossed they'll keep out of trouble!
Massive blog post over. Til next time!
Saturday, 18 May 2013
Day 1 Post-shoes
Today was Tuxedo's first full day sans shoes. So far, so good. The photos below will at least give you a good idea of the state of his hooves when the shoes came off. You can see a generally good shape, though with some angles and toe to change, and a fairly strong looking wall. His frogs are very fleshy and big, which is quite surprising for a shod horse.
I am increasingly impressed with this horse's feet. After I'm guessing on-off shoeing over the last couple of years, his hooves don't seem much the worse for it. Obviously, the shape and compression is not great, but he is not uncomfortable in any way and appears to be coping well.
I took him for a walk on the road today - gravel and sand. He was remarkable. A few short steps to deal with some sharper bits of gravel, which I would expect for even a hardened barefoot horse, but otherwise fairly good. His walk is not striding out, but that could be partly due to excitement as well.
I had Robyn the bodyworker out to see them both yesterday and, all in all, it was a pretty depressing visit. While Rose's pelvis appears to be really good, strong and relatively even, she has suffered another injury, this time to her elbow on the opposite side. I noticed as I was walking her down the road back to her paddock last week that her whole shoulder looked like it was popping in and out as she walked. It looked really awful, but she didn't seem particularly fazed. I texted Robyn who suggested it could be a couple of different things but I had booked her in for yesterday in any event so left it til then.
Robyn thinks Rose has injured the elbow joint or the strong ligament involved with pulling the leg forward (I think - I wasn't quite across what the actual injury is as it all went fuzzy after "may not be able to ride her much" and "there's really no treatment for it"). Basically, the joint is not working properly and, as it keeps moving outside the normal range of motion, the joint will wear out and major problems will ensue. There is a chance she will recover of her own volition, but there seems quite a big chance she won't.
I'm pretty devastated. She is such a promising mare and I can't quite get my head around what it all means. Second opinions are always worth getting so I may well get around to doing that, but she's almost 7 months pregnant so it's not like I'd be jumping on her anytime soon so the urgency just isn't there.
To top it off, it turns out Tux has a similar problem but his is the degenerative kind and it's in the early stages. Apparently, problem elbows are just starting to be diagnosed (like navicular syndrome 20 years ago), so I'm hoping more research will be done around this issue and treatment options become available in the future.
In the meantime, I'm starting to feed them both MSM, which I fed with some success to Assegai, and magnesium chloride, which is apparently very important for all sorts of things - more on that next post! It's not that Tux is not rideable - far from it - it's just something to keep an eye on down the track, and he may not have as long a career as another horse without the problem. I will try to find out more and post it.
Moving the day after tomorrow - EEK! So much packing, but so little energy. It's hard to get excited about moving two geriatric horses out to a property with no arena, no jumps, no water troughs, even! I shouldn't whinge, not in the slightest, as not very many of us get to live on a property within half an hour of work, but I'm just a bit down on it all. Horses are always a gamble, aren't they!
Off to watch Eurovision to cheer me up. :)
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| Near fore |
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| Near fore |
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| Hind hooves |
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| Near fore underneath - showing those big frogs! You can see the flare and flat shape of the foot. |
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| Off hind - you can see the absence of weight-bearing wall on the outside. This could be our problem hoof, thinks trimmer-extraordinaire, Kirsten. |
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| Off fore underneath - bit dirty to see but he wasn't being especially co-operative at this point! |
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| Near fore inside area. The chunks missing shouldn't pose too much of a problem though you can see the bit of flare to the shape of the hoof |
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| Off hind, I think! |
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| Near hind with a bit of nail still stubbornly embedded |
 |
| Off hind outside. |
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| Near hind from the front. Looks quite good. |
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| Off hind. The shape is quite vertical. Could be problematic from a weight-bearing point of view. |
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| Off fore. |
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| And this is Tuxedo! |
I am increasingly impressed with this horse's feet. After I'm guessing on-off shoeing over the last couple of years, his hooves don't seem much the worse for it. Obviously, the shape and compression is not great, but he is not uncomfortable in any way and appears to be coping well.
I took him for a walk on the road today - gravel and sand. He was remarkable. A few short steps to deal with some sharper bits of gravel, which I would expect for even a hardened barefoot horse, but otherwise fairly good. His walk is not striding out, but that could be partly due to excitement as well.
I had Robyn the bodyworker out to see them both yesterday and, all in all, it was a pretty depressing visit. While Rose's pelvis appears to be really good, strong and relatively even, she has suffered another injury, this time to her elbow on the opposite side. I noticed as I was walking her down the road back to her paddock last week that her whole shoulder looked like it was popping in and out as she walked. It looked really awful, but she didn't seem particularly fazed. I texted Robyn who suggested it could be a couple of different things but I had booked her in for yesterday in any event so left it til then.
Robyn thinks Rose has injured the elbow joint or the strong ligament involved with pulling the leg forward (I think - I wasn't quite across what the actual injury is as it all went fuzzy after "may not be able to ride her much" and "there's really no treatment for it"). Basically, the joint is not working properly and, as it keeps moving outside the normal range of motion, the joint will wear out and major problems will ensue. There is a chance she will recover of her own volition, but there seems quite a big chance she won't.
I'm pretty devastated. She is such a promising mare and I can't quite get my head around what it all means. Second opinions are always worth getting so I may well get around to doing that, but she's almost 7 months pregnant so it's not like I'd be jumping on her anytime soon so the urgency just isn't there.
To top it off, it turns out Tux has a similar problem but his is the degenerative kind and it's in the early stages. Apparently, problem elbows are just starting to be diagnosed (like navicular syndrome 20 years ago), so I'm hoping more research will be done around this issue and treatment options become available in the future.
In the meantime, I'm starting to feed them both MSM, which I fed with some success to Assegai, and magnesium chloride, which is apparently very important for all sorts of things - more on that next post! It's not that Tux is not rideable - far from it - it's just something to keep an eye on down the track, and he may not have as long a career as another horse without the problem. I will try to find out more and post it.
Moving the day after tomorrow - EEK! So much packing, but so little energy. It's hard to get excited about moving two geriatric horses out to a property with no arena, no jumps, no water troughs, even! I shouldn't whinge, not in the slightest, as not very many of us get to live on a property within half an hour of work, but I'm just a bit down on it all. Horses are always a gamble, aren't they!
Off to watch Eurovision to cheer me up. :)
Sunday, 5 May 2013
Check it out - I made it into print!
http://www.an-eventful-life.com.au/eventing-news/dressage-judge-speaks
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