Grooming Clinic!

On Saturday, I attended my first ever grooming clinic! Kate has a bunch of fun clinicians coming in this year and I'm hoping to attend many of them. This one was easy to sign up for, it was reasonably priced and I didn't have to bring a horse (barns in the area are just starting to open up after our bout of EHV-1 in the area, Kate's barn didn't get hit but they also locked down for visitors, which I had a lot of respect for). 

The clinician was amazing, she was a wealth of knowledge and you could see this even by just how she laid her hands on the horses. She has so much experience with horses, grooming for one of the world's top event riders. 

I figure I could use a grooming clinic
given that I have a gray horse lol

We started off with a discussion about being compassionate and empathetic towards our horses, knowing our horses well enough where we could see even a small change in their demeanor, and knowing the people who are responsible for taking care of the barn (as these people usually see our horses way more than we do). It was such a good reminder that our horses didn't ask for this life, don't owe us anything, and can't just tell us in plain English if something is going wrong with them. 

From there, we went further into detail about noticing little things about our horses. As an aside, the clinician had people ranging from kids in the lesson program to me, an upper level dressage trainer who is also a graduate A pony clubber, she did a really fabulous job catering to everyone, but I'll probably end up skipping over some of the more basic things she spoke about just in an effort to get this post out given my ability to post to my blog right now. 

I took basically no pictures while I was
at the clinic so you'll have to settle for
Loki the Kestrel on occasion

Anyway, she taught us what she looks for when she brings a horse into the cross ties and it brought back so many memories of the fact that I think I could probably still sculpt Rico's legs out of clay with my eyes closed. Rico taught me to always know your horses' legs ridiculously well. What they do in the cold, in the heat, before and after work, and so on. 

I don't know TC's legs nearly as well, which isn't saying much because I have also obsessed over them. TC's legs get puffy in the summer if he's stabled, they are always tight in the winter or now that he lives in pasture, all year long. In the heat, the veins on his legs do pop a bit, so they can trick you into thinking he's got a split or something. He frequently scrapes up his legs/bulbs of the heel, hocks galloping out of his stall like a weirdo. The one thing I don't normally do that she recommends is to feel the feet for warmth when you bring the horse out. I guess I just haven't had that many abscesses (it's very dry out here). 

He does do this frequently though

From there, we got into the actual grooming part, talking about what supplies she likes. I loved the idea of the posture prep curry, it's actually designed to use in a specific way that warms muscles up. She showed us how to use it and I immediately wanted to buy one for TC, he loves being curried and his back gets tight, so this will be perfect. Also, my current curry comb is a bit old and gross, so it'll be nice to have a new one. 

She also likes the hands on grooming gloves for the hard to reach places and for baths. I have these and don't tend to use them, but I never considered them for baths and am curious to try for TC's next bath. She also mentions that she uses them to softly curry the legs for any fungus-y stuff that may get on there. 

She had some brush recommendations too, nothing really specific but I have a general idea of what I want to replace TC's awful brush with. His brush is fine... but it's been fine since I bought him so I think I'd like to find him some nice brushes. This one can replace the not fine ones in my trailer. 

Took a picture to remember it!

We talked a bit about how to shorten manes. I don't pull any manes anymore, so I tend to shorten them with scissors. TC's mane has destroyed two solo combs (he literally dulls new ones out within half the mane the first time we go through it), so I don't use those anymore, just scissors pointed upward toward the crest. I am BAD at it though. For manes that don't need pulling, she used a simple grooming razor blade! So that got added to my shopping list (for the record, this was not an expensive clinic and we did get a little goodie bag, I am the one making it expensive for myself). 

I'm excited about this for Sunny too, because she also showed us how to shorten longer manes with it. His tends to get a little long and stringy at the ends, so again I've been butchering it with scissors. It looks terrible. He'll be very glad when I shorten it again properly! 

A woman working for wildlife reserve
came out to put some bird boxes up at
the ranch and brought Loki with her!

We ate lunch and chatted a bit before heading into bandaging and boots. I exceeded standards on bandaging at my HA and can still wrap a mean shipping wrap with flannel (which I jokingly told the clinician was my childhood trauma) and cotton/cheesecloth. But getting to see the event boots in person was fun! I'm definitely going to think hard about which boots I want to get Future Horse #2 for cross country schooling. 

I don't use boots/wraps on TC anymore because I'm no longer paranoid about his suspensory leg given that he's harder on it in pasture than I'll ever be on perfect footing. I also have 0 time available for anything that isn't absolutely necessary most days. But it was cool to see them. 

It was also fun to watch the kids learn about bandaging. I remember so well teaching bandaging clinics, helping kids through their ratings, and prepping myself for my HA in 2009. It was great. 

Bird lady also had baby hummingbirds!

I ended up leaving before the braiding section. I was quite tired and had a jumping lesson the next day to prep for! I also had TC to get out. 

Obviously, I groomed TC to within an inch of his life when I got him out that afternoon. I curried him in the way that she recommended and he seemed to really enjoy it. I noticed a bit that he was tight on the right side of his lumbar area, so that was good to note. I don't know if I would have noticed that if I hadn't been thinking hard about the way I was currying him. 

We just hit the trails for a fun, quiet ride. I focused on the initial topic of discussion, spending the time on the trail thinking about what horses meant to me and feeling really lucky that I have such a great one right now. TC has matured so much over the years. While Rico and I felt like we were an old married couple with how much we struggled to understand each other, TC and I feel like best friends. 

I know that this change has nothing to do with the horse, but with me and how much I've grown as a horse person. I'm grateful for Rico and everything he taught me, and I'm glad I can give him a fabulous retirement. But I'm also incredibly grateful for the bond TC and I have, which is different and in some ways, way more like home than the one I had/have with Rico. It's almost sad to think that, but I think that's just what happens when you get older and wiser and more open minded? I don't know, maybe I'll write more about this later. 

Beyond just enjoying my trail ride on TC, I also thought about how lucky I feel to be part of Kate's barn. Being at the ranch means I'm not really part of a barn anymore. Not that I felt super close with my barn mates at my last barn, but it can get a little lonely being at a private facility. I'm so grateful to be able to do things like my weekly jumping lessons and clinics like this so I get the best of both worlds: the peacefulness of being on my own at the ranch, riding my sweet perfect horse bareback on the private trails, and the friendship and companionship that comes with being part of a fabulous barn.