The saddling breakthrough

So, this may well end up reading like an ad for WOW saddles, but after today I thought it would be nice to show the changes in Assegai over the past three years. The WOW dressage saddle I bought two years ago has contributed in no small part to these changes and are worth revisiting.

When I got Assegai, he looked like this, a green broken 3 year old:

As you can see, he's low on muscle and has obvious deep wither pockets and no topline. He became increasingly aggressive over the first twelve months, a combination of pain caused by an ill-fitting saddle, chronic pain from injuries in the paddock before I got him and a sensitive soul. At least, that's my reading of the situation.

Age, work and a fair layer of fat have made him look like this:

The WOW saddle, and a beautifully fitting Pessoa jump saddle (couldn't afford two WOW saddles!) have made a huge difference to Assegai's topline, contentedness and in some way to his development and training. From the first fitting, Assegai started lifting more through his back, going forward more willingly, just trying more.

It has been frustrating - Assegai has got to be the touchiest horse going - but today was breakthrough day. As Assegai has changed shape, grown bigger and stronger, he's needed re-fit after re-fit, as I posted about earlier. Today, Julia brought her A game. :)

Two things have made a massive difference. The first was a slight change in panels. The old panels had a gap at the top, the part that forms the channel of the saddle. And this is supposed to allow more room for the musculature to move under the saddle. But for Assegai this appears to have been uncomfortable, as the Julia fitted panels that formed a snugger fit in his wither pockets. Because the pommel articulates the panels should fit quite closely.

The second change is the purchase of one of the H-girths from the WOW range. I think this has been the greatest change to date. The girth is made of two narrow padded leather straps connect on the sternum by a connector strap. The idea, from memory, is that the girth sits either side of the pectoral muscle, preventing pinching and discomforat and allowing the horse to use those muscles.

As soon as we started walking, Assegai wanted to stretch out and down, but not drop his back like usual....he went forward into trot without raising his head, happily blowing and staying on the bit. It felt amazing. He even pulled a pretty hot medium trot out of the bag!

So, I actually feel a bit excited. I've got an Official dressage comp coming up in a few weeks so I'm really interested to see what he can do. Gotta say, the WOW is probably the best investment I've made in my riding. Starting to save up for one for Rose. :)

Happy riding!

Hurray - exams are finished!

I've been a bit quiet on all fronts over the last couple of weeks due to a) exam prep and b) tidying up our damn house so we can put it on the market. While it's been really exciting to think we're going to move to our very own farm, there's been a bit of a dampener in the realisation that we have to sell this one!! And my other half is not known for his thrifty living ways - he's a hoarder, though nowhere near as bad as those freaks on TV!

So, lucky Assegai has been having a little holiday. And Rose has been helping! But this morning was our first ride and it was a doozy. Both of them were a bit on the fresh side, frankly. I've been feeding Assegai marshmallow root to see if that helps with his permanent case of the grumps. Marshmallow root, slippery elm and aloe vera gel are all supposed to be good for ulcers and there is some evidence Assegai may suffer from them, like 80% of performance horses.

It should take a couple of weeks for any change to be seen, but there is the odd positive sign at this stage. He's a lot less lethargic (though that could just be the break) but maybe not less grumpy yet. :) I had a good lesson with Ben Netterfield the other day (did I blog about that already?). In between all the gossiping and chatting about our favourite cross country riders to watch (the general consensus was Stuart Tinney - an 'operator', as Ben called him) we managed to get some really lovely canter work out of Assegai. I still have to work on my bloody hands - now they're dropping too low after me working so hard to keep them down!

I've just entered Berrima, Intro, and am all excited. We're booked in at a lovely B&B for the Sat night so it should be pretty great. I've also just popped an entry into a local dressage comp and now have to get Assegai's dressage card re-issued as one of the tests is official. Add it to the list!

Maybe I'll see you out there - happy riding!

What a week!

Do you have those days where you feel truly challenged, like you're so crap at this sport you shouldn't even bother getting on? I had a day like that this week. Several, actually. It's been a week of distinct lack of sleep (thanks baby!) and very hot days (thanks climate change!) resulting in negative self-talk and lots of crying. All a normal part of parenting and riding, in my experience!! Luckily, my horses forgave me and behaved beautifully. :)

I had a lesson with Fiona Gruen on Saturday and we went through the test I was supposed to be riding (2A) at an adult riding club fun comp the next day. It was actually quite good as I hadn't done that with a coach since pony club days and I'd forgotten all the tricks you can do to make your corners look better, your transitions look more round and through and your halts square! Of course, I've forgotten half of it (Fiona's lessons are always packed so you only take in a fraction of it), but what I've retained is gold.

The other highlight of the lesson was the concept of using the strengths of the horse to achieve improvement in weaknesses. So, for Assegai, his canter is a strength now, and Fiona suggested using his canter to get a good trot. It was quite a fun exercise, because his canter feels easy and I didn't have to work as hard! After some good canter exercises, straightening him and making him use his hindquarters properly, we went forward into a swinging impulsive trot - in the main. He's not the most self-motivated horse so it all died after half a circle, but that was half a circle of awesome. :)

Problematically, sitting trot just wasn't working and Fiona commented that the saddle was not working well. It was moving quite a lot, the pommel was much higher than the cantel and it was no wonder I was bouncing around! Luckily, it's very adjustable (being a Wow) so I got onto the lovely Julia who is coming out in a couple of days to fix it up. Assegai changes shape through his wither pockets quite a bit as he gets stronger so the saddle tends to sit up on the muscle, necessitating a wider headplate and adjustment to the Flair panels to balance it again.

We made it to the MARC day but it had been one hell of a night without sleep the night before and I was literally the last rider in the draw for dressage so I kiboshed stressage for the day and thought I'd just do a couple of rounds of jumping. These days are good to get Assegai's confidence up as the jumps are little and there are good scary ones in there. True to form we had a stop, but it was corrected quickly and he jumped pretty well. I'm learning that he needs a lot of time to assess spooky jumps or jumps with a distinct problem to them so I need to just leave him alone, keep a supportive leg on but let him check it out. He's not dishonest, it's not naughtiness or disobedience, it's anxiety - he absolutely hates hitting jumps and he'd simply rather not jump it if he thinks he's going to whack a leg! I'm sure I will come to love this about him, but right now it can be annoying.

The ground was rockhard and the course was , um, interesting (literally a 180 degree rollback to get from 2 to 3!), so I left it after one round, packed up the family and came home! Nice day, though. Got to catch up with my mates, so that was a highlight!

I've started the process of planning our new property - where the stables and yards will go, where the fences will go, how we'll set up the water and so on. It's both very exciting and quite overwhelming! I'm using permaculture principles and trying for a plan that makes the most efficient use of time and space. I bought book by Jane Meyer (sp?) on managing horses on small properties and it's been gold. Highly recommended! As is her site: www.equiculture.com.au

So, lots to do! And I've got uni assignments and exams coming out the wazoo (that I should be working on right now!).

Happy riding!

Smoke on the water...

Happy summer, everyone - finally! It's feeling very hot, dry and ready to burn around Canberra. Quite disturbing, really! I guess this is just the beginning of climate change - hotter hots and colder colds, increased danger of catastrophic uncontrollable fires, floods and storms. And no one in Government seems capable of doing much about it. Depressing, much?

On a lighter note, it looks like we just bought a little farm! Very exciting to finally be able to realise a 30 year dream of mine and my partner's. We should be moving out there by May (very long settlement period which helps us since we need to sell our place), and I will no doubt be blogging about our experiences setting up a 20 acre block with no horse infrastructure and little else than a weatherboard cottage and 2 small dams.

I found two more articles of interest. They are both quite interesting:

http://www.thehorse.com/articles/31149/study-barefoot-trimming-shows-positive-effects?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=lameness&utm_campaign=01-09-2013
http://www.thehorse.com/articles/31164/hindgut-microflora-of-laminitic-nonlaminitic-horses-compared?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=nutrition&utm_campaign=01-07-2013

Not much to report, riding-wise. I haven't ridden for the last 3 days due to fire worries and a sick little bubba. Good luck with the fires and stay safe.

Skating on grass

Today I had a lesson with Ben Netterfield, showjumping extraordinaire, smartarse and all-round good guy, in the searing heat of Canberra. It was, without doubt, bloody hot! Too hot for the flies, even, which was the only plus about the whole thing.

The last jumping session I did with Assegai on Thursday was a bit of a mixed bag, with me practising like mad the 'sit still, support, do nothing unless you have to' mantra Ben had installed in our last lesson. Once the jumps went up, though, Assegai seemed to lose all confidence and began crashing through them and getting tense and hollow. I asked Obi Ben about this reaction....

He watched me jump a couple of fences, including the one stride vertical to vertical I'd set up, about 80cm or so high, and advised that Assegai was finding the going slippery. This time of year, the ground is rockhard and the grass is very dry, creating skating conditions. I know it's like that on the front hill of Equestrian Park at Canberra ODE (aka 'The Prairie') but hadn't felt him slipping at all at home. Ben seemed to think the slipping got worse the tenser Assegai got, creating a bit of a vicious cycle of tension and badness for all.

We talked about what this meant barefoot-wise and I was surprised to learn that Ben had kept a few showjumpers barefoot in his time. He was quite open to the idea of keeping Assegai barefoot and said to cross the shoeing bridge when we really had to down the track (like when the jumps go up past piddly height!). I mentioned the concept of rasping tread into the hoof wall (see pic here: http://barehooves.webs.com/barefootperformance.htm) and he thought that was worth a try. Awesome!

The lesson went well, focusing very much on calmness, supportive leg, just letting him work out the fence as it goes up. Ben calls horses that react to a change in height as 'having a tape measure' and it's quite interesting how these horses really notice and respond to height change. I will treat it as a positive that Assegai reacts to a change in the fence height. Hopefully, this will make him careful - he hates to hit a rail already, hooray! But it does make him quite freaked out about hurting himself, understandably.

Got the ponies trimmed today and took a couple more crappy pics. The first one shows the way Assegai wears his front hooves square at the front - we think it's the breakover worn in as the wall grows a bit too long. This is before the trim:

I was talking with a friend who trims her horses herself and found it really interesting hearing her technique as it differs from my trimmer's significantly. There seems to be two main camps in trimming:

1. Load the hoof wall at toe and heels, or
2. Trim the wall down to the level of the sole, allowing the sole to also bear weight.

There are obviously lots of other variations but this seems to be a fairly major difference and both camps hotly contest that theirs is the right way (like so many aspects of equine care!). For Assegai, I've found the second way makes him sore and lame, but the first works great. Here's what it looks like after trimming (please excuse the crappy pics - the sweat was making my fingers slip on the phone!):
NS Hind

 OS Fore

 As you can see, the wall is most definitely forming a weight-bearing ring around the sole with an obvious channel between the wall and sole. The bars are the same level as the frog. If anyone wants to know more, leave a comment. In fact, feel free to leave comments in general! Yes, this is a very self-indulgent exercise, but the intention is to be helpful....

Happy riding! Keep hydrated! (Beer and gin and tonics count....)

Happy New Year!

Wow, another year has come to a close. What a year! I had a baby, took 7 months off riding, passed another 3 law units (not long to go now!), started my little boy at Montessori school 5 mornings a week, started back at work after a year off doing a PhD, went on mat leave (they must seriously love me at work!), got my filly in foal, resigned from a board, became acting Chair of another (how does that even happen!!), finally got my dressage judge accreditation, planned a wedding (well, still planning....sigh), paid off my credit card (hooray!).....and that's just what I can think of right now. It's been a hard year for most of us, full of trepidation and uncertainty, disappointment and resilience. Here's to a new year of promise, achievement, positive change and reward for hard work!

My new eventing buddy and I sat down yesterday over a very noice brunch and planned out the first 6 months of next year in our quest for 1* domination. She, it was decided, will go to every bloody event in a 4 hour radius. I, however, can only go to events where I don't have to camp due to baby restrictions. She will assist at said events by holding the baby while I ride - leaving my very understanding husband-to-be at home with our young man. Sounds easy, right?

So, I think we'll be doing:

• Berrima in March, Intro
• Albury in April, possibly our first Prelim if all goes well at Berrima
• Wagga in May, Prelim
• Canberra the weekend after, Prelim
• Berrima again mid-June, Prelim.

Looks good on paper (e-paper?) but I'm confident we can get up to Prelim by June. And all but Canberra are pretty easy-going courses so Assegai should get lots of confidence if I don't screw it up. :)

Hopefully, I'll see some of you there. Thanks so much for reading my blog! It's been amazing how many people have actually read past the first post. I promise it'll get way more interesting once we actually start competing.

For those of you on holidays and in need of some holiday reading, or for those of you hardcore enough to do it at work,  here are some really interesting articles from one of my favourite online mags, The Horse.com:

http://www.thehorse.com/articles/29430/conditioning-young-horses
http://www.thehorse.com/articles/30795/equine-performance-and-psychological-factors-linked
http://www.thehorse.com/articles/30905/creating-a-sustainable-equine-athlete
http://www.thehorse.com/articles/30951/human-barefoot-trends-what-can-they-tell-us-about-horses
http://www.thehorse.com/articles/31056/look-ma-no-shoes

You may need to sign up/register as a member for The Horse - it takes but a minute and the site is a goldmine. Interesting with the last two how, despite the research showing the benefits of barefoot, the disbelief of the researcher seems to downplay those benefits and they recommend barefoot only for horses with no imbalance or pre-existing conditions (there is no such horse!).

Happy New Year! Hope yours is way more debaucherous than mine!

Reflecting and scheming

So, it's that time of year - the reflection on the past and scheming for the future time. And it's been one hell of a year, 2012. I can only imagine what is to come in 2013!
Horse-wise, things have been quiet this year. I was pregnant for most of the year, which does kill off any riding intentions for me - I get quite morning sick, and I feel all weird about jumping on my young horse when I know he could turf me off any time! But, 3 weeks after the baby was born I had my first ride! Call me crazy, I know....but it's a matter of mental health!

Now that Assegai is 6 and has obviously enjoyed his time off, I am starting to look towards our future. I have to be honest and say that I seriously contemplated selling him on and looking for something 'easier'. He has a very difficult temperament (ie he's a complete grump and has built a solid reputation as downright aggressive around our agistment centre!), and he's also very spooky so he's liable to start stopping on cross country 50m away from a fence he hasn't seen before! I started to find it really frustrating (how many times can I be yelled at to 'get him in front of your leg!' before I have to just down tools and tell said yeller to get on and give it a go yourself! But, all whingeing aside, he's exceptionally quick to train, he can jump when he puts his mind to it, and after 7 months off didn't even put in a pigroot or a shy until several rides in when I felt stronger!

So, what is a good goal? I figured I'd throw caution to the wind and set my sights on 1* with Assegai. I want to ride at Melbourne 3DE and I figured, hey, it's only 110cm, right? (Insert derisive laughter here) And once you get to 1* you can crack on for 3*, right? (Insert derisive snorting guffawing here)

But, seriously. 1* it is. And that means I have to get strategic. It's one thing to just fang along doing Intro (EA80) and even Prelim (EA95), but getting up to higher grades requires planning, training, commitment and management - and an air vest!! I'm terrified of being involved in a rotational fall. They're the ones that kill you. Eek!

Fiona Gruen, when I sheepishly confided my goal to her in our first lesson a few weeks back, without batting an eye (I guess 1* seems pretty normal to people like that) said, "dressage and showjumping, that's all you should be doing for the next 6 months!" A bit deflating, since I love cross country the most - like all eventers! - and suck at both dressage and show jumping. But she has a point. I guess you have to practice most what you're least good at. Sigh. But with that in mind, my aim is to do our first Prelim by my birthday (June) and step up to Pre-Novice at Berrima in 2014. It's such a lovely, forgiving course and I've heard it's a good one to step up to the next level at.

I've also discovered the 'performance trim' being used by the odd higher level barefoot eventer (here's one such example: http://www.barehoofcare.com/annie.html). I'm keen to try it out in wetter conditions. We haven't had dramas slipping yet, but I'm sure there'll be a comp coming up where studs would be handy!

Hope you all had a great Christmas and a recharging holiday!