Compartmentalizing

Rico sat around a bit this week as we wait until Monday for his hocks to be done. I rode him a couple times, and have plans to trail ride him Sunday, but it's obvious he isn't very comfortable.

On Wednesday I gave him a couple grams of bute and then hacked him in my jumping saddle. I let him pop over a cross rail a few times to give him something fun to do as we waited. It seems silly to let a horse with hock problems jump, but riding at 4th level is a lot harder on his hocks than a crossrail, or at least, that's what I thought!

You never know how stressful jumping can be...

I came to it at the trot first, because he thinks it's funny to stop and snort at jumps before he goes over. He charged at it like a hackney pony though, got a bad distance somehow, and absolutely LEAPT over it. On the other side he landed, went to put his hocks under him and start broncing, then tripped pretty bad behind. That seemed to get him focused and he proceeded to canter over it in both directions with perfect distances. Good jumping pony.


Anyway, with Rico being out, I had lots of time today! So this morning I went to town cleaning my room and I will explain what lead to this insanity:

I have a really busy life- working what feels like 24/7 (most of my day off today was spent on the phone helping two clients sign up for a show), riding Rico (which includes maintaining my arena), going to school full time, and driving a LOT since I live so far away from my life. I compartmentalize things pretty well in order to cope. When I'm riding Rico, I don't think about anything else, just what I'm doing with him. Sometimes I forget that I'm a student or a trainer or a pony clubber or whatever. I just ride!

Same goes for everything else in life. I feel like I put my life into separate boxes and only deal with one box at a time. Client calls me while I'm doing homework? Close my *school* box and open my *work* box. It works really well and is the only thing that keeps me sane. In the last couple of weeks, I'm not sure what is going on, but I've felt like someone has dumped all my boxes into a pile, mixed all the contents up, and is now laughing at me as I sob over my pile of shit. I find myself writing work emails while at school, stressing about finals week while riding my horse, trying to remember 4th level test 2 while teaching lessons! What is going on!?


Last night I flipped shit and started feeling the stress that I normally keep locked away in my DO NOT OPEN box (that's healthy, and I'm going to be a PSYCHOLOGIST! Except not a therapist, just a researcher and teacher...).

Everything to me felt out of place. I started thinking that I wanted a computer JUST for school and a computer JUST for work, I started freaking out about the number of items in my car, then I realized I had even more items in my room and that's when I lost it. This morning I woke up early on my ONE day to sleep in and started to clean. My mom came into my room to see what I was doing and I said "THIS ROOM IS A METAPHOR FOR MY LIFE" and kept cleaning. She left me to my insanity and suggested that I work on the kitchen too. Love you, mom.

I was quite successful! I threw away TONS of useless stuff, and even more stuff went into three big bags for the shelter. Half my stuff went in boxes in my closet just so I don't have to LOOK at it anymore. By the end of about 6 hours, everything was immaculate. My desk now has the bare minimum number of items on it, my bookshelf only has a few necessary books, my dresser drawers are all cleared out except some ear plugs and a book that I'm reading, my bathroom has only the stuff I'm currently using. Everything else is in boxes, in bags for the shelter, or in the trash. Ahhh I'm so relaxed now.

I also attacked my car, which is now ready to go down to the detailer soon. And I have made arrangements to figure out my computer situation. I want my laptop to be used for just school next year, so I'll hopefully get a desktop PC for photography, music, and work. That way when I'm on my laptop, it's purely school-related, and when I want to do fun things, it's all on the desktop. We'll see how this pans out, I have very little money to spend on a computer so I will be careful in what I do here. I may go the refurbished route with the help of the IT guy at my dad's work. We'll see... I may just chill out and be okay with my one computer.

Anyways, now I feel much better about my life's organization! Phew!

This weekend is the competition clinic that three of my wonderful clients are doing. Then we have the Woodside H/J show to school this week and next, a schooling show for a client's young horse who needs experience, then the big May Woodside dressage show, then the May Woodside event, then shows every weekend in June...

Oh and I'm graduating college at some point with all sorts of honors-y things that I am not aware I was getting. Hmmm summer is wonderful but when do I get to enjoy it?

Moonlit Rides and Reminiscing

I'm not delusional, woo! Except that I wish my paranoia about my horse's hocks had been proven wrong. Last night I got home late, really late, I pulled in at 8pm but was on Rico at 8:15. I walked him down the road and back as usual (except with a lot more spooking because it was dark and cows in the dark are evidently horrifying), then rode in the moonlight! It was surprisingly bright, really bright, so bright that I could see a shadow under us. I was able to ride until almost 9pm because it may as well have been daylight, nice!

What wasn't nice was my horse coming up lame in his right hind leg. It certainly wasn't the lamest he's ever been, but it was quite noticeable, as was his inability to sit down on his hindquarters which made riding him a pain in the ass.

There was no heat or swelling, so I think I'm right in assuming that it's his hocks. He had them done last year in early July, so lasting 10 months is pretty good! When I got back in the house, I emailed my vet again asking to get his hocks done ASAP. I'll likely miss my lesson this week and next, as well as the competition clinic, but I'm not about to ask him to do 4-2 while he is lame.

In the mean time, he gets a NSAID called previcox which is the dog version of equioxx, previcox is super cheap and the only downside is that it's liver flavored... But Rico doesn't care, I think he'd eat liver if it was in his pan.


In other fun news, I taught 12 hours worth of lessons yesterday and am about to drag myself out of bed to go coach at Woodside's Spring Flowers combined test. I have three clients in it, as well as several kids who I teach regularly but who I'm not coaching. I'm lucky to have another two clients coming to help take pictures, video, and help hold horses. Love them! I'll need to figure out how to repay them :)

With show season starting for the kids, I'm missing jumping like crazy, especially over the bigger fences. The little painted horse that I ride for a client is slowly coming back over fences, but he's still stuck at the lower levels until he gets stronger. Last year, he and I were jumping 3'6 though! The height helps back him off since he's very hot over fences and makes really silly decisions sometimes. Now that we're stuck over 2' fences for a while, he's become a little unpleasant to jump. I wish I could tell him that I too would rather be jumping bigger... Silly horses.

Rico and I used to jump big too! Evidence:

Rico and I over 3'9 at CF

I did really love jumping that horse. He was kind of a pain since he was/is very lazy over fences, but he is so scopey and powerful that I never was nervous about the height of the fences since he could jump a hell of a lot higher than I could.

The only time I ever had him make any sort of effort to jump a fence was when I was unaware that someone had put up my 3'9 fence to 4'6 and he saw it before I did so I couldn't pull him out of the line. I was thinking "HOLY SHIT WHAT AM I DOING?" and he was thinking "Finally, a jump that is worthy of my greatness!" and he powered on over it. I got him to a rather short spot so he had to exert himself in the very slightest. But man we landed and it was the best feeling in the world... and then he went lame a month later, DAMNIT!

Left Lead Struggles

This week has been going quite well, up until about fifteen minutes ago when I went to check on Rico and the tendons in his left front leg were a bit thick again. When will this end?! I'm not sure what I'm going to do, but this week was so positive that I don't want to dwell on what his leg looks like right now. 

So this week I slowly put Rico back to full work with an extra focus on the canter pirouettes. I didn't do a lot of actual pirouettes though, most of our work concerned keeping his shoulders and the base of his neck up while adjusting his canter.

He keeps his neck up well at the trot though!

He really struggles to maintain the quality of the canter when I make changes in his stride length. When I ask him to go forward into medium, he goes a bit crooked and gets a bit on his forehand. When I ask him to come back towards school canter, he goes a bit crooked and drops his shoulders/neck while bringing his head up. Today I did transitions from school canter to medium and back on both circles and straight lines. He was quite obedient and I felt like we really got somewhere, especially to the right! To the left, however, he didn't feel all that great. I'm not sure what is going on, just a couple weeks ago, his left lead was very strong and his right was awful.

I'm hoping that the left is now tricky because it was his strong lead when I was riding him incorrectly, so he's having to change his musculature more than to the right. Basically, because his right side didn't have as much incorrect muscling, the changes in how he is going are coming faster because all he has to do is build the correct muscle. To the left, he is having to undo the bad muscles and then build up the correct muscle which is obviously taking longer. We'll see what Tracey thinks on Tuesday.

That is, if we make it to Tuesday. I need to figure out what is going on with his leg. It has been quite warm here (it's 4:45pm and still 78 degrees) and after his ride, I hosed him down and just threw him back in his paddock with no wraps. It was about four or five hours later that I went out to check on him. I was gone during that time so I didn't see what he was doing, maybe he just stood in the sun the whole time and it's just a bit of edema. Hmmmm.

High as a Kite

Rico is getting better! This weekend I started doing real work with him and today I managed to get some really nice work out of him amidst the craziness. I also got some pictures! 

Today Rico seemed fine in the cross ties as I got him ready (while watching 30 Rock, how am I going to exist at a boarding stable when I can't watch television shows in the barn aisle?), but when I went to get on him, all hell broke loose. Rico doesn't do well with days off, one is okay but any more and he's kind of sketchy to ride. Today there was a blanket (!!) near the mounting block and as I jumped on, he ran backwards and spun across the mounting block.

At the end of the driveway on our way out to our daily trail ride, there were two recycling cans and one overturned garbage can. We barely made it out the gate before he started snorting and threatening to spin. I wouldn't let him spin, so he stood up and then spun. What a resourceful horse. I turned him back around and he reared again so he could spin. So I swatted him and all four feet came up off the ground. That was it for me, he wasn't getting his fun trail ride if he was going to be an asshole. So I took him up to the arena and put him right to work.

He was high as a kite in the arena, of course, but he was manageable until my dad came home and spooked him as the car went past the horrifying garbage cans. Once back on track, I started with the walk-trot transitions and his trot got better and better. I asked (begged) my dad to come out with my camera and take some pictures and he agreed!!

I haven't had pictures since before my first lesson with Tracey and I was both excited and apprehensive about seeing how Rico and I looked.

 I was not disappointed!

Rico was good for the most part and I was cantering on the right lead when we passed my jacket and he spooked, spun, and bolted. My dad was surprised, since Rico galloped right at him, but he caught the beginning of it on camera. Super hilarious.

The most ridiculous picture of my life

Such a scared and athletic pony!

My slightly demonic laughter after he bolted

Once we got enough pictures, I allowed my dad to go back to what he had been doing and I did some more transitions and canter work. I played a bit with the corners that Tracey had us doing at our last lesson to prepare for the pirouettes and they felt great! I then messed with the pirouettes and they felt much better than they had before that lesson so I think we're on the right track for 4-2 in May or June.

What a good pony! I need to stop slouching...

So fancy

So I was really happy with the ride today despite the rearing and the bolting... I'm glad he's sound and having a good time I guess.

Stir Crazy

Rico is going a bit stir crazy with this week off. I attempted to longe him yesterday morning to see how he looked and all he did was bounce around. Amidst the bouncing, however, he was completely sound which was great to see! 

At least he enjoyed some delicious front lawn this week!

The leg started looking pretty bad on Tuesday, it was puffy and hot, so I called my vet and made an appointment for this afternoon. I felt like a little kid pouring out a piggy bank and trying to see if the coins inside could buy a toy, or ice cream, or an ultrasound for a ridiculous horse. I can definitely afford the ultrasound, but it would have made a nice dent in my graduate school fund (hah, who am I kidding? my horse show fund).

To my relief, and my bank account's, his leg was back to normal yesterday morning. I still want to be careful, but I think I'm going to avoid a big vet bill unless it really takes a turn for the worse. My vet said that if it shows any heat, swelling, or sensitivity, I need to call him. Last night it wasn't swollen, hot, and my horse is never very sensitive in any aspects of his life, so I feel pretty good.

After his antics on the longe yesterday, today I decided to take him on a ride down the road and then do some walk work in the arena. I'm a big believer in making the *easy* stuff, such as all the walk work, very good. However, I seem to rarely practice what I preach. Upon entering the arena, it was immediately apparent that we need to spend more time at the walk. He was quite behind the leg, and once as that was fixed, I noticed that he was very crooked.

Tracey is always on my case about keeping my hands on either side of his neck, behind the bit ring. I tend to open my left rein and use an indirect rein on the right side. I always thought that this was my problem, but when I focused on keeping my body very straight, Rico still leaned on my right side. I found that I couldn't really turn left without neck reining on the right side. Hmmm, I wonder if his leaning right has ANYTHING to do with how difficult the right pirouette is... Yes this definitely should have been addressed earlier, I take full credit for how crooked my horse is.

One of the only half decent pictures of the right pirouette...
Notice how much he's over that right shoulder? Hmmm

After some strong half halts and bops off the spur on the right side, Rico was a LOT more rideable. I then went to work on the walk pirouettes, which weren't the greatest. He's probably still a bit rusty, and in the last week I've only done them on two client horses, both green, so I probably screwed myself up. I then went on to some lateral work and realized that he leans right in the half passes too! Gah! So we have some work to do this week...


In other fun news, I met with my new advisor for my MA program that I start this fall. The program isn't too bad, it's 30 units plus a thesis which means I'll only be taking 2-3 classes per semester. This is quite helpful for my work schedule; at this rate, I should be able to graduate without debt, which is insanely cool.

My first semester is going to be pretty doable, I take a general seminar with the program administrator where I get to start work on my thesis proposal, I take a statistics class with my advisor, and another class. For the last class, I can really choose anything available. I think I'll try to knock out a difficult class, like neuroscience or cognition, so that I can save the classes I'm stronger in for the spring.


Anyway, I'm stoked to be almost done with school, only 5 more weeks of class until finals! Except that my senior honors thesis hasn't exactly been started so that's fairly horrifying. Time to get down to business and start researching motivating operations! Which also happens to be the topic of my master's thesis too, so I feel like I'm killing two birds with one stone :)

Being done with school also means summer!! Which means not-as-foggy beaches

Neighbor Cows

As mentioned before, my neighbor brought in some longhorns! He has 20 acres and every year he offers to take on some cows so that he can enjoy them and the cows can enjoy a LOT of grass and attention. Last year we had some dairy cows and while they were adorable, I absolutely love these longhorns. 

Galavanting cows

There are eight cows out there now but a few of them are about to give birth so we should see some baby cows soon! Yesterday amidst the cold hosing, hand walking, and general worrying, I managed to grab my camera and take pictures of the cows when they were hanging out near my backyard.

Spotted cow

They're super cute, but I was warned by my neighbor not to get too close. They're sweet cows, and they don't mean any harm, but apparently people have been sent to the hospital by simply standing near them. I guess the cows don't have a good idea of where their horns are and they end up stabbing people if they go to get a fly. I did get to pet one on the nose though, but was prepared to jump away if the cow moved.

Painted cow

Itchy cow

There is, however, one cow that I'm kind of done with. She thinks that the best spot for the herd to be is the area of the pasture right behind my house. She goes over there and moos incessantly to try to get the herd to come over to her. She seems to do this primarily in the mornings about an hour before I normally get up. I'm sure I'll learn to sleep through the moos, but for now I won't need to set my alarm.

My alarm cow

Rico's leg is looking fairly normal. He's still holding a tiny bit of heat in his left fetlock, but there is no swelling. I threw my jumping tack on him along with all four legs booted up including bell boots, and took him for a long walk. When I got back to the arena, we did some trot work and he was totally sound! Yay! Tomorrow I'm planning on doing a light ride including canter, and have him back to full work on Wednesday where we can resume our canter pirouette work, this time without such tomfoolery.

I've also made a decision on what boots I want to get him! I made the decision last year to not put boots on him because I didn't like how hot his tendons got. The last thing he needs with his plethora of old injuries is the tendon cells weakening because of the heat. Because of Saturday's accident, however, I'm feeling like I do want him to have protection just in case he falls again. I know it was likely a freak thing and he's probably not going to fall again, but I feel like I'd rather be safe than sorry.

My main priority, besides protection, was that the boots needed to be immensely breathable to prevent his tendons from overheating. I turned to searching for cross country boots, rather than dressage boots, since cross country boots tend to be harder and more breathable. I found a few great discussions on COTH and have decided on the Premier Equine boots. I'm lucky that they are carried by Smartpak and are not very expensive! They also have 6 vents so I'm hoping that they won't heat up his legs like the neoprene and fleece boots do.

The cow I got to pet!