Long Time No See

It's only been over a week since I've been out to see Cody and Axel and in that time Axel has turned black once again as his winter coat is starting to grow in. Cody is getting all the white fuzz on his belly and between his back legs. Winter is almost here! When I was in Maine last week I got an email from Patti stating that Axel was sore again and lumpy. He's always been lumpy from what I can tell so I wasn't too concerned. Last night he was still a bit sore but in retrospect I think he was stiff from not moving. And he was lumpy or his existing lumps were swollen. I cold hosed his foot for awhile to see if I could get the swelling down any. Axel enjoyed a snack in the lawn while holding his left rear foot high in the air to try and avoid the hose. When I was done he actually walked pretty well. I chose not to ride him and we're giving him 1g of bute for the next week to try and get the swelling down. Hopefully he'll be back to himself next week (and hopefully the beans will be out of the field so we can go for a canter).

Much to Cody's dismay I chose to ride him. I don't think Andrea has been out to ride in a while so I think he thinks he's on vacation. I decided I wasn't ready for a fight on the road if he was feeling ornery and I wasn't in the mood to mount and dismount a million times to move manure since one nasty neighbor has decided that manure doesn't belong on country dirt roads. So we went down the back hill instead. I mounted at the middle of the hill by the first stretchy gate. We got to where the trees start on the sandy part of the hill and began our circles. Cody didn't want to go in my direction and I didn't want to go back to the barn. After several circles and a couple failed attempts to go down the other hill we finally made it down to the bridge (all in the rope hackamore). We crossed the bridge and only had to do one or two circles on that side to get the right momentum to go up the hill. We trotted part way up the hill and then walked the rest. We had what was supposed to be a trot but turned into a canter in the meadow on the top of the hill. He wasn't totally with me as far as downward transitions up there so we did another loop and tried again and got a nice trot.

We did a few more various loops around that area and worked on "stand" near the hill to go home. That might have been a futile lesson. Down the hill went fine, crossed the bridge, went in the other direction back to the barn. But as soon as we got to the first part of the hill between the trees there was no walking to be had. We did one circle but it didn't really make a difference, Cody was in his "you think I'm walking but really it's a trot" gait. When we got to the last stretch of hill and he still wouldn't walk I thought "fine we'll trot up and then turn around and do it over and over until he walks." Well he thought "I'll canter gallop and buck and maybe she'll get off." (First time he's ever bucked with me on I might add). I did get off, and we did more circles at the top of the hill and changed directions over and over. Then we walked back down the hill where I remounted (shoulda done it at the top I suppose) and then we walked back up the hill.

At that point I decided the barn needed to be not such a nice place so we went out to the side pasture next to the barn and next to the rest of the herd and we rode out there. We trotted for a while, did some serpentines at the walk, tried at the trot but it was a little spastic. We even had some slightly faster than collected canters (no bucking). One of the canters he might have been disuniting which we noticed on the lunge last time so I stopped that. I dismounted away from the barn, led him around for a while to cool off, loosened his girth away from the barn, did some backing up through two bushes, and finally brought him back to the barn.

Will any of that stick? Probably not, but oh well. He was pretty good in the rope hack. He's very responsive to neck reining just also very stubborn to get back to the barn in the process. I don't think the ride would have been any better (or worse) with a bit and I don't think he would have listened to me any more with a bit. I think maybe the benefit of the rope hack with Cody is that now he doesn't have that bit or shank to pay attention to or try to eat constantly. So I'm hoping now he will listen to his rider more. Wishful thinking right?

A Good Ride

After Sunday's wet trail ride we had left all the blankets and whatnot laying around the barn to dry. So when I got there last night I got everything put away and discovered that some of the lead ropes were still wet and my grooming box was still damp and had water in the bottom of it.

The horses have decided to see if they can find any grass in the one clump of trees in the pasture. The clump of trees that is not cleared out at all. So when I went to fetch Axel, he along with part of Kalani, Papillon, and Daley were hiding in the trees. That's the first time I've seen anyone in there, it's pretty thick and hard to get around. It was reported that the horses were quite cranky yesterday after the trail ride on Sunday but Axel seemed to be in an acceptable mood and followed me willingly back to the barn. No one else followed us though.

After I groomed Axel and scratched some of his bug bites we went out in the yard where he helped mow the lawn while I cleaned out my grooming box. He was not pleased when I was done and wanted him to go back into the barn. I finally got around to switching back to my regular dressage blanket instead of the nice white one and I re-situated the therapy pad under the saddle so everything is all ship shape now. Axel has apparently grown into his dressage bridle. Originally we thought it was way too small but now it seems to fit alright. I doubt it would fit with the flash but I haven't found any reason to use a flash so it's probably lost in my tack trunk anyway.

When we got out to the pasture to school Steph arrived to work on some lunging with Kalani in the same pasture. I let Axel have several slow paced warm up laps at the walk. I worked on not nagging him so much if he was going in the right direction. He was tending towards the gate though so our mosey had to come to an end. We had our usual disjointed and random trotting. The pasture is just enough bumpy that Axel can't keep a good steady pace and kind of stumbles all over instead of trotting nicely. After a bit of that I asked for a canter on a long stretch. Axel gave me the canter, didn't protest and it went quite nicely. I asked for a canter a second time. This time I was pretty sure I even got the other lead (albeit the wrong one). Because I wasn't totally sure I asked one more time, I got the left lead in the correct direction. I switched directions, asked again, this time I got the right lead. Yipee! I just about flew off his back when dismounting. Two canters on each lead with no bucking or putting his head between his legs, that's a winner in my book. So Axel got un-tacked and left to graze right then and there.

Steph was still working Kalani who was doing a fabulous Saddlebred interpretation with his tail so I got Cody out to do a little ground work. I don't think we've done anything since Andrea started riding. He was a little wound up about it and not terribly calm. He also was having issues going to the left. Speeding around and when I asked for a canter he'd disunite after the first stride. He was looking slightly off so I think part of it was just sore from the trail ride and getting reshod the day before. Once he gave me a real canter we stopped that and worked on just a little bit of backing up and standing still. And then he got to graze a bit too.

Mud Everywhere!

Where to even start? As usual we did our best to meet at the barn and get everything loaded up on time if not early and I think we actually succeeded this time. However it was raining and so we probably stood around a bit longer hoping it would stop. When it didn't really, we hooked up the trailer and loaded horses and were on the road about 10 minutes after we planned to actually be at the park. For this trip we went with Cody and Axel in the front and Kiko and Kalani in the back. Cody got in with a little help from the tapping stick, no big deal. Axel is always a champ and jumps right in. Kiko and Kalani had a bit of trouble but nothing major. I just managed to get stepped on by Kalani as he decided to exit prematurely. Ended up with a bruise on my thigh that you can't actually see.

At some point the rain let up, the horses were tied to the trailer at the park happily munching away at some hay. We were all getting our paperwork turned in and having some lunch when it started raining for real. And it rained and rained and didn't show any signs of letting up. Though once we finally gave in and went to tack horses it did let up for a while. We managed to make most of the ride either under the trees out of the rain or with just minor sprinkling. We didn't, however, miss out on any of the mud. At one point we came to a spot in the trail that was mud all the way across. A really wide part of the trail too. Anne and Cinder tried to make a new trail through the trees but ended up in some low area and Cinder went up to his chest in mud, Anne bailed and they both decided that was not the place to cross. We finally managed to get everyone across the mud on the opposite side. The trip back Kiko decided to jump over the mud which was an interesting feat to say the least.

Overall the ride went well. Cody managed to walk most of the trail with only a few minor bouts of needing to trot in place, and it was the first time Andrea rode him in the rope hack and the first time he was ridden in the rope hack with all sorts of unknown horses around. Axel found his soul mate when it comes to trail rides, Alissa's horse Pacman is just Axel's speed. Darrel might have been pushing Axel a bit to walk up but I think if he was given a choice Axel would have hung back with Pacman all day. Kiko was her normal sane self and didn't even bat an eye when other mares joined our group. Kalani had a few issues just with the new horses and not knowing them and wanting to check everyone out. Other than that everyone survived (and there was not spastic cantering for me yipee). It would have been nice if the weather was better and perhaps more people would have made it out but we did raise over our targeted amount for We Can Ride so that was great! And we found a nice new leg of the trail. We usually head East on that trail so this time we opted for West. From that particular parking lot to the end of the trail to the West is about 3.5 miles. So it was a nice short little round trip (7 miles total). The East leg of the trail from the main parking/camping area to the highway is about 6.5 miles so that's a lot longer and, as we found out, a lot sandier. The West leg is wide grassy trail which is a nice change of pace. Had it not been raining there would have been a lot of nice spots for trotting or cantering.

So when all was said and done we packed all our stuff back up and decided to put Cody and Kalani in the front this time. We thought Kalani was just too long for the back of the trailer. Turns out Axel is also too long for the back of the trailer but he did fine and it was a short trip. Another discovery was that Cody is quite calm when asked to back out of the trailer "lead rope over his back" style. In fact he backed halfway through the trailer by himself and then stopped and looked around for a person to guide him the rest of the way out. Axel still insists on turning around to get out. That one might take a while to get figured out.

A lot of luck

It is a great surprise that I don't hurt more than I do today. Last night's ride was quite the interesting one. It started out innocent enough. I brought in Axel and Kalani after watching them run up the hill to the barn. Axel has some how gotten himself a weird scab under his chest right where those two muscles line up to a "V" right behind the girth. Presumably he scraped himself with his foot getting up from laying down. In any case it apparently really itches and he really enjoyed me rubbing on it.

Tricia brought Oly over and we decided, since it's getting dark at 8pm now, going to the trail would be more hassle than it's worth. We tacked everyone up, did our best to get past the rest of the heard with Oly, and went down the back hill to ride in the meadow. Steph wanted to school Kalani at the canter and Axel needed a bit of that as well. The circle we ended up making was a little less than ideal, there was a pile of branches we had to jump over with each circle. It wasn't really big enough to have to jump but Axel must have thought that was good fun. More than once we jumped it and cantered out of it. He actually offered up the canter himself quite a few times. I still have a hard time riding his trot in a field like that, I never know where his feet are going (nor does he) and his strides are all uneven and bumpy but we managed alright. I think Steph even got at least one canter out of Kalani after a series of his cow kicking.

As we were schooling on top the hill Patti showed up on Daley for a ride so we decided to follow her through the woods and whatnot. She took the short cut down the hill and was going to go up the big hill. She asked what we wanted to do and everyone thought cantering was fine. Axel has been know to buck up that hill this year so supposedly I was ready for it. Well he bucked, and bucked, and bucked. And usually he gets tired and stops midway through the hill. Right about the time I expected him to get tired, I lost my stirrup and my balance and started falling forward. He kept going and I ended up staying on but had a huge pile of mane in my hand by the time I regained control. How I stayed on I'm not quite sure. I recall yelling, "I'm good I'm good" as I probably looked like I was about to end up on the ground.

After that portion of the ride Oly started acting the fool trying to scratch on the trees (turned out he had an itch under his saddle). He ended up acting like an idiot until we got back down across the bridge. Prior to that we went for a canter in the meadow on the straightaway. I figured after the hill bucking I needed to get some sort of good canter out of Axel. Daley lead and Axel followed close behind and it was a really nice calm canter. Right as I was pulling Axel up beside Daley so we could stop before the ground dipped, Daley spooked and jumped sideways towards us so Axel jumped sideways as well, he kept cantering and almost lost me a second time. Patti and I both managed to stay on even after loosing our stirrups and probably looking quite ridiculous. Steph lost her sunglasses while cantering and Oly tried to jump over them. So all in all it was probably quite the site. I decided that after 2 saves like that my luck may have run out and I needed to head back to the barn just in case.

After removing Oly's saddle twice on the way back down he finally started acting like a normal horse, we still aren't sure what his deal was there was nothing on him but he apparently itched like mad. I decided we needed one more canter up the sand hill so Axel cantered up, really well I might add and then Steph and Kalani followed. Tricia and Patti went around the opposite way and we met up at the middle of the hill. So 2 almost falls, 1 horrible bucking fit, and 2 good canters. We're hoping the trail ride on Sunday goes a lot better.

Guests

Yesterday since Loni was in town with Damin for the bachelor party we decided to go out and ride a bit while the boys were partying. I had debated on if I should put Loni on Cody or Axel. Usually I would put guests on Axel but since he's been a bit troublesome lately I thought maybe Cody would be a better choice for an inexperienced rider. So Loni and I fetched the horses from the pasture and got them both groomed up. We opted for western saddle and rope hack on Cody and dressage saddle on Axel (thank goodness for mounting blocks in the pasture). We started just in the side pasture to get the feel for things and see how it went. We walked and trotted a bit and everyone seemed well behaved and calm so we decided to venture out on the trail.

We did the usual trail loop minus the big hill (we took the short cut to the small overlook) and everyone was calm as could be. They both even walked down and up the little dip that they are notorious for trying to run. We even had a trot in the meadow near the end of the ride. Cody might have spent an inordinate amount of time with his head lower than usual. I'm not sure if he was trying to eat or trying to figure out the horse hair tassel on his mecate (I might have to retie that so it doesn't tickle him in the chin). And the more I think about it Axel had his head on the ground a lot too and not for eating. He kept smelling things that weren't visible at least to my eyes. There was one point when Cody tripped a bit and caught himself but scared Loni a bit. And on the way back I decided I wanted to canter Axel up the smallish hill between the woods to see if he'd do it without bucking. I told Loni I thought Cody would just trot to keep up but I guess I was wrong. He went right from a walk into a canter and gave her another little scare but it wasn't too major and he stopped right away.

We had a minor scare when we got back to the barn. Cody didn't see the horses on the way up and started freaking out once we dismounted. He actually ended up leading Loni back down to the pasture to find the rest of the herd. They were actually over in the new part of the pasture behind the house and he couldn't see them. All I could think was that the horses had gotten out again but I couldn't figure out how that was possible since we shut all the gates. Luckily Cody helped us find them.

When we got him back up to the barn and untacked we had brought some beer and apples as treats. I thought maybe the horse would like some Guiness but Cody and Axel turned up their noses and waited for the apples instead. We brought the bucket of beer out to the pasture to see if anyone else would enjoy some. In the end Papillon was the only one that drank any beer. Kalani and Kiko put their noses in it, Gunner put his nose in it and promptly backed away with the "smells bad" face, Poppy made the same "smells bad" face and Daley didn't care or grace us with his presence. So either my horses want ligher beer or they just don't like beer at all. I was kind of disappointed.

Axel's not so evil twin

It was cloudy and raining and not so great on Tuesday so I decided not to go to the barn, no one else was going to make it out anyways. So I made it out on Wednesday instead, and alone this time as well. The mecate reins I ordered had arrives so I wanted to try them out on Cody's rope halter ala "natural hackamore" style. Bosal's are pretty spendy and I'm not sure what size to get for Cody yet so I figured I'd try out the rope halter as a hack. The reins I bought are really inexpensive and really stiff. They might just have to be that way for a while, I was thinking of washing them to soften them up but since they are nylon I'm afraid they will actually get stiffer or just icky to touch. Guess that's what I get for going the cheap route! If this works out well for Cody I might upgrade to a sampson rope mecate if I can find one that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

So I hopped on Cody bareback and we just went for a quick spin around the side pasture. He was great. Very sensitive to leg and rein cues as well as each individually. He seemed pretty happy with the lack of bit as well. Despite his obvious want to go hang out at the gate with his friends he followed my instructions willingly. So I called the experiment a success and hopped off.

I gathered Axel and got him ready for some schooling work as well. As I was about to mount up Andrea and Patti arrived and sat on the step of the house chatting while I rode. We did some really nice free walk and a bit of trotting on a loose rein trying to get him moving freely. He has such a hard time finding where to put his feet, he's very unsure of himself and trips a lot. It might be time to start trotting over poles. When we had done some good trotting and worked on some collecting and figure 8s I started asking for a canter just going in a big loop around the pasture. Nothing too serious, no sharp turns or anything that should make things more difficult for him. He tried and was slightly annoyed mostly when passing the gate to the barn. I switched directions and got the same sort of annoyed response. Usually followed by 1 maybe 2 strides of canter. Finally I think on our third time in the original direction I got at least 4 nice canter strides, asked him to stop, and nearly jumped off him as a reward. We'll have to keep working on it, I think he just isn't sure of himself but who knows. At least there was no bucking or throwing his head down (sadly it might have to do with the fact he didn't have to catch up to anyone).

When I was done Andrea and Patti went to get Cody and Daley and were on their way for a little bareback ride on the trail. From the sounds of it Cody stood by quite patiently while Andrea experimented with methods for mounting bareback. I guess he was a very good boy.

Finally a trail ride/Ouch

We finally made it down to the MN Valley trail near the barn. Nathan had fixed the trailer brakes so Tricia was able to use the trailer and bring Oly and Cinder (Dusty/Dirt had thrown a shoe). So she and Lexi came down and picked up Axel and the three of us went to the trail. Lexi and I hung out with the horses while Tricia took the trailer back to get Kalani and Cody. 4 horse trailer and 5 horses doesn't work out quite so good so we made 2 trips. Luckily the trail is only 5 miles from the barn.

From the sounds of it Cody loaded really well. It looked like he unloaded just about as good. Just a minor increase in speed right at the end of the trailer but nothing major. He started out on the trail pretty calm. Got worked up a little ways in but as soon as he was in front of the pack he was once again calm as could be.

Axel was moving out a little more than normal, still slow but he did his best. It wasn't until we started cantering where I ran into trouble. The first short canter Axel plunged his head down between his front legs. I was able to pull him up and push him forward but it wasn't the best ride ever. Later on in the ride everyone decided to do another canter, this time they just kept going a lot further than I was prepared to sit. Axel continued to canter with his head between his front legs and no amount of me yanking on one rein would get his head up and I wasn't in the best position to force him forward more. I did my best but it was not pretty and I am pretty sure he was disjointed on top of it all. The third time I said "no thanks" no cantering for us. So somehow in everyone else's mind cantering away from Axel and I was a good plan. Axel proceeded to have a fit. I tried to get him to just walk or trot behind them but that turned into our spastic head between the legs canter again. This time I could not pull him up at all. The reins on my dressage bridle are so short I only had one had on the reins and I was fighting with all my might to either pull him up or push him forward but I was not winning the battle. When Axel finally gave in I got off to wait. He proceeded to call to them and run around me in a circle freaking out. To say the least it was not fun.

The return trip Axel would even throw his head down in a small trot. Punishment for that was circling. I think I only had to circle two times before he stopped with the head deal. Then he decided that Oly and Cinder and even Kalani were evil beings and if they got within 10 feet or so behind him he'd try and kick at them. Cinder actually got Axel moving out quite a bit for most of the ride. When that finally wore off he was still pretty fiesty. We had some interesting "collected" trots and even popped over a log.

We'll just say I've had better rides. There are not many parts of my body that don't hurt today. We decided to load our three horses first this time so Cinder and Oly didn't have to load and unload. So Cody went first, he needed a minor amount of convincing but got in pretty effortlessly. Axel jumped right in as usual. And Kalani just needed a little coaxing as well. The unloading was a bit different. In all reality it didn't go that poorly it just sounded like it. When we pulled up Cody turned on the volume and the welcoming committee and he traded cries as loud as possible. When he finally shut up Axel decided he had enough of the trailer and started shifting his weight back and forth squishing Cody in the process. Andrea was able to back Cody partway until Axel squished her against the wall and stepped on her foot. Cody flung his head up in the air and hit it on the trailer roof. Believe it or not, he then proceeded to back calmly the rest of the way out of the trailer. Axel can't figure out the backing deal so he walked out forwards but calmly and in control.

I just hope Axel is a little better behaved for Steph's dad on the WCR Trail Ride Fund Raiser. He should be fine, Steph's dad usually just walks and he's a horseman so he should be able to put the fear of god in the horse if he misbehaves. We're still not sure what other horses we'll have. With Kalani and Kiko for sale and Andrea maybe riding Cody, who knows. She can maybe ride Papillon if needbe. Time will tell. I ordered mecate reins partly for the trail ride as I don't have any long western reins any more and eventually I'd like to try Cody in a bosal. I might start with just the rope halter and mecate reins and see how that goes before I buy a bosal.

Cody the Wonderhorse

From Cody's rider:
"That boy just keeps getting better and better, I can’t help but brag to you about it all :>"

"So, yesterday was a good day for Cody. After work, I set up some ground poles in the round pen, groomed up Cody, and took him in there for some practice. He tends not to use the entire round pen anyway (likes to cut corners, and the un-impressive length of a carriage whip doesn’t help), so the poles were easy to avoid at first. It took some coaxing, some discouraging, and some urging, but after a few attempts, he was willingly going over them at the walk and trot, in both directions! He’s very smart, and figured out what he was being asked only after one or two growls from me :)"

"We then went out on the trail for a while, and again, only one sad whinny a few paces in, otherwise he made no protest. Walked the trails, cantered a bit, trotted some, and then creeked-it for a while. He walked right in! I think that tree that we squished by the first time has moved in further, so we couldn’t get past it, but we did head down the other way for a while and managed to get pretty deep in the water (like, my feet were dipped in!). Cody was a pro, though, and calmly navigated everything."

"Best of all: no prancing going back home. Fast walking, yes, but no prancing."

Cody gets more gold stars

Andrea had Cody out on Monday night riding in the dry lot area. I guess he did really well again but he keeps putting his tongue over the bit. So we're playing musical bits right now to find one that he will tolerate and not fight. If he was more consistent with his behavior I would consider switching to a bosal. Maybe it's worth a try anyway if I can find one and some mecate reins for inexpensive.

So last night Tricia and I went out and met Andrea at the barn for a ride. Tricia rode Kiko, I rode Axel, and Andrea rode Cody. We tried Corey's old bridle this time, it's a heavier bit, medium port, slightly longer shanks. Over all it went fine with that particular bit but it'll take a few more rides to really evaluate it. Axel was decent, still wants to eat constantly. Kiko was a bit on edge and I guess kind of jumpy. It didn't really show with Tricia riding but that's the report I got. We rode around the back hill as usual and in the creek a bit. Axel managed a nice walk the second time we went through the little dip in the woods. He once again made some feeble attempts to buck running up the one hill. Cody walked up and down all the hills like a gentleman. We tried some cantering in the meadow area and I got a sort of buck sort of canter. Trotted on the circle and asked for a canter there and was just met with attitude. I have yet to try a gallop or canter on the trail this year with Axel and I probably won't (we'll see). It's not the end of the world if he doesn't canter but it would be nice to make sure we had both our leads. We might need some lunge line work.

We messed around in the creek again on our way back. Kiko actually got in while mounted this time. We managed to get a bit further than normal. The water was super low so it wasn't much of a swim. And it's still really less than ideal with all the rocks. On the way back Cody only had to be asked to circle once and walked the rest of the way. When we got back to the barn we gave the three a shower with the hose which they followed up with a nice roll in the dirt.

The Cody Report

Cody's rider is house sitting at the ranch so she'll be seeing him daily for two weeks. Her report from Sunday:

"CODY! We went for a ride this afternoon for quite some time. Through the woods, in the creek, down hills, up hills--and he was great! There was only one sad whinny looking for everyone else, otherwise he started out really well. When we first went into the woods, he tried to wheel around and go back, but was coaxed otherwise. Other than that, he pranced a bit at the end, of which several "re-do's" eventually cured (although I think he was more dizzy and annoyed with me than convinced to stop and walk). He was great, really. I'm excited to be able to spend more time out here and work with him. I'll be watching for any soreness, will know more tomorrow during the aftermath, but so far, so good! We were gone for about an hour, so I felt pretty awesome about that."

From the Vet

The vet called back about Cody's xrays. He says Cody's soles are not thin, they are fine. He has a hint of laminitis, possibly having suffered a bout previous to now. There isn't much rotation but the coffin bone and hoof aren't parallel. He said maybe 1 degree of rotation but not much. However, he did note that Cody's pastern joint is not quite right and that I should get the xrays prior to the next trim so the farrier can take a look and alter his angles accordingly. He thought lowering the heel. Which is ironic as we kept thinking his heels were too low. So all in all, Cody is fine, the shoes help so that's where he'll be for a while. We'll probably pull the shoes this winter and see how he does in the spring.

Axel Wears a Harness

Went out to the barn early yesterday as the vet was going to meet me out there. My horses and Tom's horses needed their Coggins test done and Cody needed some xrays to confirm/deny laminitis and judge any rotation. The vet actually thinks perhaps it isn't laminitis, he didn't get a lot of reaction with the hoof testers. He's thinking maybe thin soles. I do have my doubts since he only showed up lame 3 weeks ago and would have had the same thickness soles for several years. But he's supposed to call with the results of the film this morning. Cody stood very well for the xrays in any case so they should look good. He flinched for the blood draw but wasn't overly worked up about it. Even Kiko flinched. Once again Axel was complimented on his fine looks. We were talking about Kiko and Kalani being for sale and how we thought why wouldn't anyone want Kalani. And that everyone seems to want Axel instead. The vet likes Axel's head.

So after the vet left we got out the harness we borrowed. We didn't think Gunner's harness would fit so the one we borrowed is a synthetic half draft harness. It fit pretty well, just needs some minor adjustments and is missing a few pieces. The one piece it's missing isn't too big of a deal, just the holdback or footman loop. The other missing piece is the check rein or overcheck. Sometimes not a bit deal but from the looks of Axel dropping his head to the ground, he'll need an overcheck. I'm not sure where we're going to come up with one. Maybe there's one on Gunner's harness we can borrow for the meantime.

So we fitted him up and ground drove him for a while. Then we added the pool noodles with some sticks inside them for fake shafts so he could feel what it is like moving around with stiff rods next to him. When he was bored of that Steph suggested the next time was adding the cart. I haven't talked to the caretakers yet about using their cart *and* I was a little worried. A cart on wheels seems like it would be easy to run away with. So instead we tied a wood pallet to the harness to see if he would pull that and how he'd react. In my mind I thought a heavy wood pallet is harder to run away with. In reality it's probably way more dangerous and way more heavy than pulling a cart but Axel is set solidly in his lazy ways so I wasn't too concerned. So he pulled and he didn't much appreciate it but he did it anyway. I wish we had a pull behind drag and he and I could practice by dragging the paddock every week.

Next time, if we move onto the cart, we'll need to get some helpers (so I'm told). One header, one person in the cart, a driver, and two people on the sides of the cart to move it around if it gets stuck some where. I think prior to that Axel will have to be ground driven in the overcheck and get used to that. I can imagine that won't make him terribly happy not being able to drop his head.

Just a visit

Jeff and I ran out to visit the boys quick after Steph's house warming party on Saturday. Can't go within 5 miles of the horses without stopping in for a visit, now can we? Everyone was without a fly mask but Axel so I removed his. It was covered in mud. I guess they were all getting tired of the masks and helping each other remove them. So we'll take that to mean break time.

We watched Cody eat his dinner. Darn horse eats with his mouth open. By the time he's done with his bucket of food there's more on the ground than went in his stomach. I watched all of the other horses and they don't seem to open their mouths so much when they eat. On top of it he looks around a lot so he takes his head out of the bucket and drops the food on the ground. Reminds me to not give him supplements, they will just end up on the ground and someone else's horse will eat it.

From Cody's Rider

I haven't gotten the full report yet but until then here's what I know about Cody's ride on Thursday: He was good last night only did his weird pace thing at the end of the trail ride. They went out with other horses he even behaved without Kiko. They took Papillon, Gunner, Daley and Cody. I guess he stayed in the back of the pack and was perfectly happy about it.

For Lack of a Title

I went out to the barn, all on my own this week. Steph and Tricia both had things going on. Patti wasn't even around so it was just me, the horses, and the flies. I figured I would ride Cody a bit if he was feeling okay. I lead him into the barn and he was walking like he was sore. So, as usual, my plans changed. I groomed him, fly sprayed him, and let him wander in the barn for a while with his fly mask off. I grabbed Axel and groomed him up as well and they both just wandered around until Cody decided he wanted to leave. Of course as soon as he walks out of the barn door he's walking in the paddock perfectly sound. I think I might have been hoodwinked!

I decided to do some ground driving with Axel and see how he'd react to the pool noodles I bought. We just drove normally in the side pasture for a while to make sure we remembered how. Our steering is still a bit wonky, lots of over correcting. I think hooked up the pool noodles to the sides of the surcingle, mimicing the shafts that would be on a cart. I carried one end for a while so they were just bumping his sides. When that didn't faze him I let them drag behind him, hitting the lower part of his legs off and on. We walked and trotted a bit and the only thing he was concerned with was the fact I wouldn't let him eat every time we stopped. He's getting pretty good at verbal commands, I'll have to start adding things like "Gee" and Haw." I think he appreciated me not getting on his back with all the bites he has. Someone has been picking on Axel a lot lately and his whole left side is covered in teeth marks. When we were done with the noodles we drove down the road a little bit which also went just fine. It's funny to watch Axel grow in height when he sees something "scary." The sprinklers were all on at the nursery next door and the closer we got the taller Axel got. That's all he did, of course, but it was fun to watch. You don't get to see those things when you're on his back.

It was still pretty early when I got back to the barn so I decided to hand graze Cody for a while. The lawn was getting pretty long in places so we helped clean that up for a while. Maybe that's not the best idea with a laminitic horse but we were only out there for 10 minutes at most and they'll be back on pasture soon. Plus who knows what caused it in the first place, I'm pretty sure it wasn't a food issue to begin with.

Cody's New Shoes

So I went out to meet with the farrier yesterday to see what he thought about Cody. Cody was a little slow going but he seemed sound still. He managed to get a little rub spot on his one leg from the boots. The farrier put the hoof testers on him and concluded that indeed he is a bit laminitic in both feet. Not exactly the diagnosis I wanted to hear but oh well. He put front shoes on him. For not having been shod in over 10 years, Cody did really well. Even with the hot shoeing. I should have had a better camera, the smoke that comes off the hooves with the hot shoe is pretty neat looking, stinky though. The flies were bothering everyone so they weren't standing quite as nicely as they could but I think Cody did really well. I think the hammering was a bit sensitive for him. So when I have the vet out for Coggins pretty quick here, I'll have to have him do xrays on Cody's front hooves to check the rotation. The farrier thought it was pretty minimal at this point so now it's just shoe and hope it gets better.

Axel did fine compared to most the horses. Everyone was having a difficult time. I guess Gunner is a bit of a tough cookie with feet. The farriers were trying to pass him off on each other. Axel must be getting himself into some sticky situations. His whole left side is just covered in bite marks from another horse. They probably aren't as bad as they look but I might not be riding him tonight. They are right where the saddle will hit. Hopefully Cody is feeling up to a ride with his new shoes. Pretty soon he's going to have more pairs than me!

From Cody's Rider

Now that Cody seems to be feeling good in his fancy boots, his rider decided to take him out to ease him back into riding. Here's what she had to say about it:

"Your pony is moving well! I went out to ride today, and Cody looks very good. I think those boots are really helping him move out. Herd-bound, he is, however--we walked up from the pasture by the creek, and suddenly a shrill whinny pierced my eardrum and the entire thundering herd came a-runnin' up the hill at full-tilt. I did coax him away and took him out on a short-ish ride that he wasn't entirely happy about when he found out he was the only one going. There was a point when he went in reverse, hard, despite any ideas I may have had about what we were going to be doing. But, we worked in the "mowed circle" for quite sometime, walking, trying to get him to bend and flex a bit, and convince him that I had better ideas of what to do than he did. There was the predictable prancing at the end, but for the most part, I think it was pretty constructive. I think he'll really start to calm down with more practice. Did not bute, he came back to the barn sound and relieved to have re-joined the party :-) I hope to get out this weekend sometime, so more updates to come."

Eureka! Part II

I feel pretty silly that I was out at the barn on Sunday with my good camera and I didn't take any photos of my horses. Anyway I was off to the barn on Tuesday as usual. It was pretty hot so we decided to just stay and ride there instead of going anywhere. Tricia brought just Dirt/Dusty/What's-his-face so she could work on his constant need to trot. I had Axel in the barn and Steph brought in Kalani. Cody wasn't moving much in the paddock so I brought him inside to see how he was doing. We put the boots on him Sunday and left them on. That darn horse was walking sound at both the walk and working walk. The last time he got Bute was Sunday. Assuming nothing changes, I take that to mean my horse is going to be shod with pads on Monday. The boots seemed to hold up pretty well even. I took them off to check them, no dirt and no rub marks. They seem a tad big, he kind of clops around and it sounds like he's wearing flip flops. I might have to get some pads for the inside of them to tighten them up a bit next time he needs to wear them. Until then, they are definitely doing the trick.

So we rode down and up the back hill. Dirt worked on not trotting. Axel worked on flipping his head with ever step he took (note to self, just put on the fly mask even if it doesn't seem that bad). And Kalani just went along for the ride. Axel did pretty well, moved out good, didn't do anything totally stupid. Dirt was fine since Tricia is able to catch him before he does anything wrong. We worked a little in the meadow but everyone thought we were too slow so Axel and I went and made our own circle in the meadow. He wasn't terribly pleased with that and tried a few wimpy bucks but that was about it. We worked on some figure 8s and bending and me not using the reins to turn, that went pretty well also. The only issue we really had was Axel forgetting all the work we did on not ripping my arms out of the sockets by yanking the reins. Guess he forgets easily with time off.

We ended the ride with a trip down the creek. Kalani needed practice and Dirt had shown some possible aversion to water so we figured a hot sticky day was a good day to try it out. Our creek isn't the greatest as it's pretty rocky. Axel has a hard time getting his footing and really just wants to walk on the bank and eat grass. Kalani and Dirt did just fine. Took Kalani a bit to get into the water with Steph leading but he did make a trip under saddle at the end.

On the way back up to the barn we had to dismount and do some horse shifting to avoid getting an audience. They took Axel and the other two up for me and I stood at the fence with Cody and some others waiting for the coast to clear. Cody spent his time beating up on Papillon and letting him know who was the boss. When I was finally able to open the gate for them Cody just bolted. Galloped up the hill, boots and all. I'd say my horse is sound once again.

Really big horses

Went out to see the draft horse competitions at the Scott County Fair today. The 8 horse hitches were pretty impressive. After that Steph and I ran up to the ranch to meet with a couple that are interested in Kalani. Steph and the two potential buyers took Kiko, Kalani, and Axel out on the trail to try him out. We're not sure what they are going to decide but Kalani's cantering issue might hinder the situation. They did like Kiko though so maybe they will be interested in her.

While they were out and about I collected all of Cody and Axel's old tack to bring back to Canby this weekend. I'll have to clean it up some time this week but that shouldn't be too big of a deal. It lightens my load a bit in the tack room. I'll have to pick up a new curb chain for Cody and possibly a neoprene girth if the regular one doesn't work. Eventually I might need a breast collar too but we'll see. I'm hoping when Kalani sells I will be able to buy his western saddle for Axel.

Cody is still off on his front end, still both legs/shoulders. He's on a minimal amount of bute to keep him comfortable but still be able to tell if he's improving or getting worse. He definitely gets worse when he's turned out on the hill and has to walk up and down a lot. We still have a week and half before the farrier is out so I put his boots on. We'll try that for a few days and see if there's any improvement. He did look better even after only a few minutes of wearing them. So we'll see how he's doing on Tuesday when I go out. At least if this helps it implies that shoeing him for a while with pads is a good option. I just hope he doesn't wreck the boots in the mean time!

Murphy Hanrehan

Wednesday we decided to venture out of our little comfort zone and head over to try Murphy Hanrehan for some trail riding. I was lucky enough to have Tricia and Steph fetch all the horses and gear and I just met them at the park as it was on my way. Tricia brough Oly and Lexi had her new horse (Dirt, Dusty, whatever). I rode Kiko and Steph was on Kalani. It's a pretty nice area, the camp ground part is really nice. The part of the trail we took was a bit rocky (bring boots if Cody ever goes) and some of the horses were having issues. Kiko had shoes on so we had no problems at all. It was nice to finally have a calm relaxing ride. Kiko was an angel while every one else came up with issue after issue (mostly the rocks).

After I got used to the fact that Kiko moves out a lot more than any of my horses things were fine. I even had her in the back of the pack which we'll blame on my "slow butt." The only potentially scary thing that happened was on a nice flat strech we decided to canter. Kiko took two strides of canter and then bolted into a gallop which I was not ready for. She then dove into the weeds for no apparent reason, made it back on the trail, and came back down to a trot when asked. Not sure what that was about but it was Kiko's first gallop under saddle.

Too many flies

Cody was looking better last night. Still a little iffy when he walks but he's moving around and doesn't seem to be bothered. They've figured out how to get him to take paste bute so now they're at least getting it all in and it's helping. I'm still hoping this lameness is just a pasture injury and will go away soon. Someone suggested that he did a "bambi" during the rain storm we had right before he turned up lame. I brought him into the barn and groomed him up and used the remaining fly spray I had on him. I even dug out the fly masks and cleaned them up for him to wear. The flies were pretty bad and he couldn't walk a step without flinging his head all over to rid him self of them. He pleased as punch to stand in the barn with me and even made a request that I scratch his forehead with the mane/tail brush. I filed his hooves a bit more (I'm still not very good at it and don't really get much off) and turned him out. He stood at the dutch doors with his head in the barn the rest of the evening watching me. Pretty sure he just wanted back in where the flies weren't as bad.

Axel looked pretty good so I groomed and squeezed a few drops of fly spray out for him. Steph was working on getting Kalani to figure out the canter in the round pen and everyone else was helping throw hay. Axel figured he better stay and help with the hay but I tacked him up anyway and we went out to the end of the pasture to ride a bit. He was feeling pretty good, quick even. But the flies were bothering him quite a bit so we didn't work long. Just some nice walking and some trotting. He'd take a step or two that wasn't quite right but he was mostly sound so that was a nice change. Particularly nice considering he's not on bute just that supplement, so a little off isn't a bad deal. I put the fly mask on him before turning him out too. It's only minor relief but at least it's something. I just think a fly sheet would be so warm. I still might get some fly wraps for his legs. That black horse is a magnet for flies it seems.

When we were done I watched Patti give Cody his bute for the night. He's still not a pro but she's got him figured out pretty well so it isn't quite the hassle it used to be. I'm wondering if he'll eventually stop flinging his head up with all this attention and let us de-worm him peacefully in the future. I think he is figuring out that people's attention = less pain. He's been a bit more affectionate lately, doesn't walk away when being caught, and asking for spots to be scratched. Not the "always on duty herd boss" Cody usually is.

Eureka! I hope.

So Cody ate his bute on Monday. And I think he ate most of it last night as well. In any case either one actual dose of Bute is helping or he's feeling better on his own. Last night he was looking pretty good as far as his ability to walk. I brought him into the barn to try and file his hooves down a bit as we were thinking they were too long. Of course looking at the photo I took the angles don't look nearly as bad as I had thought (outside opinions are welcome on the topic). My photo of the other foot isn't a very good representation so I left that one out. This photo he does have all his weight so his pastern angle might be a bit more than normal but shouldn't be too far off. So maybe it isn't hoof angle that's causing issues, maybe he just over did it in the pasture or something. Time will tell. We plan to keep him on the bute through Friday and then see how he does over the weekend. I think I'll keep filing his feet each time, at the very least so I can get better at it. It would be nice to keep them filed between farrier visits. He was very patient while I tried to figure out how to hold his hoof and file at the same time. I think he appreciated the fly spray and standing in the slightly less buggy barn all the while watching Kalani get his butt kicked in the round pen since he's been such a pill about cantering lately.

When Steph was done chasing Kalani around ;) we decided to go down to the creek. Axel had been sweating just standing in the sun and Kalani was pretty sweated up from working in the round pen. Wisely we opted to throw the synthetic saddles on, neither of us wanted to sit on their sweaty backs without one. I think I'll purchase a synthetic western one of these days, the Big Horn saddles that Kiko and Kalani use are pretty nice, lightweight, fit good, and are comfortable. Axel was moving pretty good again despite his lameness on Sunday. But he's pretty off and on as far as that goes with his ringbone. He's always very willing to jump right in the creek and then stand there and eat grass off the bank. Kalani was slightly less willing as he hadn't been in the creek before. Steph attempted to ride him in but he wouldn't take the plunge so she got off and lead him in which worked much better. She remounted and we walked down the creek a little ways. Axel was determined to get back on the bank and eat grass plus some parts of the creek are rocky and he has a hard enough time walking on flat ground. So he make a break for it every chance he got. Kalani took the whole creek business in stride. Stopping a few times to figure out what was going on when he started sinking in sand or there was a bit more of a current. He even found some spots in the creek where he was up to his belly in water.

Kalani's first reaction to getting in was to stick his head under the water almost up to his eyeballs. I found this to be very humorous. He then tried to blow bubbles with his nose. Overall we think he enjoyed himself. He didn't paw or try to roll, so I think that's a good sign. Fortunately (or unfortunately as it was sweltering) neither Steph nor I got very wet. And here's my second sales pitch of the post, I had used Kalani's saddle and pad and Kalani had on Kiko's. Kalani has a plain wool pad which I put on Axel's sweaty wet back. When we were done riding that wool pad was dry as a bone. I guess wool pads really do wick moisture. I might have to pick one of those up, I think the plain flat wool "underpads" aren't too spendy compared to most western saddle pads. And I think Fleet Farm now carries Reinsman tack.

Could it be?

Rumor has it that Cody ate most of his Bute last night. From the caretakers: "so we mixed the powder with water, mixed it with one cup of Lite Balance, and then mixed in two cups of regular senior feed. He ate almost the entire amount!" And this was still the apple flavored Bute. Yay Cody, hopefully he feels a little better today then.

Lame Again Lame Again Jiggity Jig

So on the way home from the farm last night I check my email (yay for phones will internet) and find an one from the caretakers:

"Sorry to have to say this, but Cody is extremely lame. He can hardly walk - it's terrible to watch. We've tried every combination of bute/feed/water/applesauce/molasses/paste all weekend long - but he will only eat a small fraction of whatever it is and refuse the rest. Axel is looking sore again, too. We gave him bute and applesauce in his feed and he ate most of it (all except 1/2 cup maybe). Hopefully he'll work out whatever that's about overnight!"

So I convinced Jeff to swing by the ranch on the way into the cities so I could determine if I needed to make a call to the vet or not. Axel was happily eating hay in the furthest hay feeder and probably pretty pleased that everyone else came up to see what was going on so he could stay back and eat in peace. His lameness just being the usual flare up of his ringbone. Cody, on the other hand, was standing in the paddock trying his best to keep the flies away without moving. I asked him to walk and reluctantly he moved forward, very slow, sore, and tentative. However, not nearly as bad as the email had sounded. Apparently they had some bute paste and managed to get at least some into his system earlier in the day so he wasn't nearly as off as he had been. Patti came out and walked him for me after I picked out his hooves. There was no heat or pulse but he still stands like he's foundering. His appetite is fine and he's drinking water like normal, just takes him longer to decided that it's worth the pain to walk to the feeder or water tank. I tried his boots on but that didn't provide an immediate improvement. He didn't "improve" much with walking but became less tentative the more he moved around. He picked up both feet for me, let me stretch him and bend him and had no issues with any of that. So we're still thinking shoulders.

Patti is borrowing some bute tablets to try tonight instead. Our thought is maybe the unflavored is going to be easier to conceal than the apparently nasty apple flavored bute he won't eat now. I don't think I'll be having the vet out at least for now, I'm pretty sure he'll suggest bute so we already have that covered we just need to figure out how to get him to eat it. We might try some cold hosing and maybe some linament rubs on his shoulders to see if that does anything.

After some discussion with Steph we think maybe what is happening is that his hoof angles have changed too much. His toes have been pretty long lately with the new farrier and with his heels getting lower and lower the change in angle might be causing him pain up in his shoulders. It seems like the diagnosis fits. So right now we're going to get bute in him, try and file down his toes bit by bit before the farrier returns, I'm going to meet with the farrier this time and see what he thinks (he'll probably need to be shod with wedges til winter to get the angles back), put him on Axel's supplement when the bute fiasco is over, and possibly even add some DC-Y to his diet (which would be good for Axel too but spendy so we'll see). Our other thought is to put him in those boots for a week of turn out and see if that helps. I don't want to do all of this right away or we won't know what is helping so it'll be a matter of trying different things.

But it looks like I'll be riding Kiko or Kalani for a little while at least until Axel is feeling okay again.

Andrea Rides Cody

Last Thursday (7/3) before Cody's lameness Andrea went out for the first time to ride Cody since our little trail ride. Here's her report:

"Went riding on Thursday with Patti and Dal, and Cody was practically angelic. We didn't go into the woods for fear of the gnats, but we rode around in the field-y part for a good 45 minutes or so, Cody lead the group, Cody was the last horse, and Cody was in the middle--very well behaved at all points.

Only when we turned for home (going up that final hill to the stretchy gate) did he decide he was annoyed. Some prancing was involved, then sidepassing, and when I tried to straighten him out a bit, there was a tiny little jumpy-buck-like motion, but nothing too serious. We then circled a tree and tried it again at a walk, and it was much improved. He walked very civilly into the barn :-)"

Now if only he could stay sound then this more than once a week riding is really going to be great for him. Leave to the "children" to go lame right as company is arriving.

She went out again this Wednesday and he wasn't really looking any better:

"So, I went out to Pinto Creek to ride tonight--though opted not to ride Cody due to his apparent soreness. His stance was even looking kind of sad, with his left front leg positioned further infront of him than his right. I took him around at a walk for a while on the ground with his long leadrope, just trying to see if it loosened up with some movement on level ground, but I just didn't think he looked sound enough to have a very happy or productive ride. I also didn't give him any bute, although Patti and Scott said that if you wanted to give it to him for the next couple days, they'd be willing to administer whatever dosage you'd like, just let them know. Again, I was just being cautious and not wanting to push him through pain, because it really did look like walking was painful for him today."

I'm slightly worried despite the assurances that if he really was foundering to the point of rotation and having to stand the way he's standing, I would have felt a lot of heat in his hooves. We're still thinking it's his shoulders right now. I told Patti to give him some bute last night but I guess that didn't go so well:

"You know the look on a person's face when they were SO ready for dinner, but the food was disappointing? That's totally the look Cody had, applesauce notwithstanding. He was not going to eat it, not more than two bites, anyway. How about molasses? Good for two more bites. Dumped that out and tried just sprinkling plain ol' bute on it and that was good for about two bites....then he was totally done and annoyed. I don't think he got much of the bute, sorry."

Kids, I tell ya! I'm starting to think I'm going to have to put Cody on that same supplement that Axel is on. Cody is getting up there at 18, but he really should still be in the prime of things as he has a pretty easy life.

Collecting Lame Horses

Stephanie pointed out that I seem to be collecting lame horses lately. Tuesday we went out to the barn and I planned to ride Cody in the pasture a bit. Patti mentioned that she thought he was off. So I walked him around a bit and sure enough he was lame. Steph thought he was off on the left and then he switched to being off on the right. There doesn't seem to be any heat in his hooves. He doesn't have a problem bending any joints. Our best guess on this one is his shoulders and probably just arthritis that the chiropractor had mentioned in the past. We put his boots on just to see if it was maybe a stone bruise or something like that and he did improve his gait but was still a little off. I ended up riding him bareback in the pasture just at the walk to see if he'd work out of it. He didn't seem too bad then. And his boots worked really well but they make a funny noise that makes me think they aren't staying on all the way but there was no rub marks or anything so who knows. As soon as I dismounted he was back to walking funny.

Axel of course is still not quite right in the rear on that leg with the ring bone. He walks pretty good. I saddled him up and rode him in the pasture as well. His trot is all off kilter though. Granted the ground was not even but he wasn't quite working out of it this time. He's a lot more willing and happy on the trail so I guess he ignores his pain then better than just plodding around in the pasture with me trying to get him to do things properly.

Steph spent the whole time working on Kalani's canter which he would just refuse to give her. She finally resorted to lunging him so she could get something out of him before stopping but he just went around in a tizzy. When I was done with Axel I finally got on and she lunged him while I was on his back. It still took him a while to work out of the fit his was having but he did finally calm down. Not enough to try a canter, the trot was still a bit spastic and me without reins, I didn't think a canter was in my best interest.

Cody's new rider

I've asked one of the We Can Ride staff if she'd be interested in riding Cody whenever she's out at Pinto Creek. She goes and rides with Patti sometimes so I thought it would be fairly convenient for her. So Tuesday she came out to witness the chaos that is Tuesdays at the ranch. Tricia brought Meaghan to have a riding lesson on Poppy. So while Steph taught her lesson we hung out and scratched horses. Axel was feeling a little off on his front left but we figured it was probably just the arthritis. When everyone was tacked and ready to go we ended up with 5 horses and riders. Andrea on Cody, me on Axel, Tricia on Kiko, Steph on Kalani, and Meaghan on Poppy. Axel worked out of his soreness quite easily. He wasn't quite up to his feisty self that he had been a couple weeks prior but he was moving out a little more than normal. He also progressed from fairly well behaved to obnoxious by the end of the ride. Constantly trying to eat grass, flinging his head due to bugs, and just being a regular space cadet. Evidence would be the scratches on my arm and lip from running into numerous tree branches. I actually had a hard time getting him to walk up the hill on the way home.

Cody wasn't an angel but he also wasn't totally horrible either. He gave Andrea a taste of his annoyance at having to ride, the huffing and puffing, sweating, and bit avoidance. But he was comparatively calm and she had him walking down hills pretty well. So hopefully she'll have some time to go ride him once every or every other week.

I guess Kiko was being a little bit of a handful herself. Poppy started out pretty quick but realized she couldn't keep up with the big horses and calmed down a bit. Kalani must have been just fine as I didn't hear too much from his direction. I ended up using Axel's new bell boots finally, I haven't had a chance to clean his old ones yet. Kiko has moved into the blue bell boots so she doesn't remove her shoes. And I donated Axel's combo boots to Dirt (Lexi's new horse) as he's wearing bar shoes right now and Tricia likes to have him in SMBs when she trail rides him. I'm too lazy so far to take the white saddle pad off the dressage saddle so we've been trail riding in style. I've gotta dig out the ear nets one of these days as well.

Next week we have no Tricia so I think we are going to take some photos of Kiko and Kalani for their sale ads. I thought I had another idea of what we could work on but it's not there. I think Steph wants to work on Kalani's canter more so maybe we'll just do some schooling.

Kiko and Kalani

I decided to make a separate post for Kiko and Kalani's videos. These will hopefully get put into an FLV so they look a lot better before we really start advertising them for sale. But if you're interested in my awesome video editing skills you can witness them here.

My kingdom for a seat saver!

A person should probably work up to a 4 hour trail ride in a hard western saddle. It's probably not the best idea to bite it off in one big chunk. But I never said that I usually do the smart thing. Rather than deal with Cody's trailer loading issues and Axel being possibly lame still, I just went up to Tricia's and we took Oly and the new horse out to Lake Rebecca park. The new horse is Tricia's niece's horse. His name is Rocky Top Scotch (or something like that) but they haven't come up with a barn name for him yet. We went through a plethora of ideas while we were riding though. Too bad I can't remember half of them.

On my way up to her farm I was getting a little concerned at the weather. It was raining in one part of Farmington, sunny in the next. When I got to Waconia it just started downpouring. By the time I got to Watertown there was no rain at all. I have learned my lesson being so far away from everything, that the weather could and probably is totally different on the other side of the cities. I was right about that. We made good time packing up the truck, loading the horses, and getting to the park. Then we had to clean the mud off of both horses. What is it with buckskin/palominos that make them roll in the mud more than any other horse?

The trail was pretty nice. No one else was there and most of it is closing starting the 7th of July for repairs. So we squeaked in right under the wire. It was a little buggy in some of the lower areas but only one really bad section of the 9 miles. The only bad part is there is only one picnic area along the way and no tie ups for the horses. The new horse is a little excited and liked to trot as much as possible. He was tough going down hills and he just kind of scrambled down them tripping and not paying attention. Other than that he seemed fine, nothing really bothered him at all. Even when Oly spooked at a few things he was calm about it. They did both spook at a tree when they turned to look at it a motorcycle zoomed by on the nearby road and they both jumped sideways, the new horse landing on Oly causing a bit of a chaotic mess. But they came out if it well and were just as calm afterwards. We kept our ride to a walk and a trot, not sure how the new guy's canter would have been. He's a smaller horse so it could very well be pretty choppy.

Near the end of the ride, about the time I thought I might die from hip and knee and rear end pain, Tricia and I switched horses so she could see how the new horse was. Now Oly has gotten himself a bad reputation. Something about trying to kill Tricia when she first got him. I had actually ridden him right after she bought him (pre homicide attempts) but hadn't been on him since. She's worked him through his issues and now he's a pretty solid calm trail horse. The difference in how he felt now from when I first rode him is pretty extreme. He still moves out but he's got a much calmer feel about him. We even had a trot near the end of our ride. It started raining about 10 minutes before the end so we trotted up pretty close to the end of the trail. Oly has a very nice trot, easy to post and not frantic. I'll have to ride him again sometime.

After regaining my ability to walk we loaded up the horses (the rain had stopped right as we got to the trailer) and stopped at the DQ on the way home. I'm a glutton for punishment so I decided as long as I was sort of in the neighborhood I would stop by Pinto Creek on my way home. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do but I figured I'd think of someting. Patti was feeding when I arrived so I groomed both Cody and Axel while they ate. It had rained there so trying out the hoof boots on the road wasn't going to happen (wouldn't want to get them dirty already!). I finally decided on riding Cody in the side pasture to see how he was doing. Surprise surprise he did really really well. We still had our usually dance around the mounting block. But the ride was nice. He was interested in the other horses but was listening to me. We did some circles and some figure 8s. We even went around the tree and worked a tiny bit on the other side of the trees away from the herd. I worked on a loose rein with lots of leg and that seemed to go well for Cody. Not quite as precise as it probably should have been as far as getting our turns when they were asked but he never ran off out of a pattern. I only worked him for a few minutes, he was being so good I wanted to be sure to end on a good note and not push it. We rode to the opposite side of the trees and dismounted there (at a good solid halt). I then untacked at the mounting block to practice our halt there as well. And I led him out to where Kiko was standing and turned him out at that point. So overall it was a successful ride. And my dressage saddle is way more comfortable than that western I had been riding in.

Movie Stars

I got Jeff to come out with the video camera to take some video of various things. First thing he taped was Cody experiencing his new hoof boots for the first time. Application of murphy's law #1: Cody pretty much walked normally with the boots on. He did step a bit higher than normal, with the back feet, the ones *not* in the boots. Of course the horses get trimmed today so I hope the boots aren't too big now that he's got them dirty. I measured after a trim so I should have the right size. Maybe we'll take a ride down the road next time and see how it goes.

Then Steph got on Kiko to do some riding for her sale video. She did pretty good. No funny business much to Jeff's dismay. She's not quite up on the cantering thing but she did pick up both correct leads so we called it a success. Hopefully we can pull some of the more interesting things off that clip as Cody was standing in the pasture making horrible perverted noises every time Kiko would pass by (she's in season). And something bizarre happened where Poppy got scared or spooked, freaked out a bit, then laid down to roll.

Application of murphy's law #2: Kalani was not having the canter. Everyone's feet were so long and Kalani kept interfering. He did fine at the trot but when Steph would ask for the canter he'd do this cute little butt hop thing and then kick out at her outside leg. It was quite entertaining. We might be reshooting that one when she can get him to canter properly. Neither of them have been in work since last year so they need some fixer upper lessons.

Application of murphy's law #3: Axel decided he was lame again. I broke out the tall boots, white breeches, velvet helmet, and Axel had the white saddle pad, dressage bridle, and white polos. We looked good! He of course was back to his slow half asleep self. We walked around the pasture to warm up and it was apparent ole "thigh master" was back. Every step I had to use leg to keep him moving. What happend to the past two weeks where he was full of himself and trotting all over the place not wanting to walk. I fully expected to get some video of Axel trying to buck me off after the last two weeks. I asked for a trot and got a very lame gait. So we warmed up some more and tried again, still lame but not as bad. The only thing I can figure is that on the trail rides he had plenty of time to warm up before he started offering up the trot. I probably could have worked him out of the soreness but it was so hot I was already sweating and tired from just keeping him moving at the walk. We might have gotten 15 seconds of a nice sound trot on video so here's hoping.

So Jeff will probably have to come out and video tape again some time. I probably won't be sporting the white breeches but I could keep Axel in the white saddle pad and dressage bridle. Probably skip the polos though they make him look like he has a lot more action than he does. Hopefully I can get him to get me some of the video clips sooner than later and I will add them to this post.

Another Frustrating Night

One day we'll have a breakthrough and both of my horses will be nice, well-behaved, calm animals. Not sure when that will happen though. Last night was another trying night. Tricia brought Cinder and Oly and her neice Lexi. While I decided to do some ground work with Cody, Steph gave Lexi a riding lesson on Poppy in the round pen (part of her birthday/xmas present or something). I didn't want to ride Cody until we had a chance to ride him and another horse (not Kiko) out and see what his attitude was like. And adding in all the extra horses isn't going to to start us out on the right foot. So we went over to work in Tricia's trailer.

He was a sweaty mess by the end. He's gotten to a point where he'll willingly put in two feet
but that's it and he'll stand there calm then all of a sudden fling himself backwards. So then we circle and do some change of direction then try again. Two feet, calm, back out and back in a few times then he flings back wards so we circle. Rinse and repeat. So finally Tricia was standing there watching, he had two feet in and she walked towards him randomly and he jumped in. So we tied him and she shut the door and we tried to give him some grain. He wasn't really interested in eating, he wasn't that calm yet but he wasn't pulling on the trailer tie at all and he wasn't pacing. He was standing there sweating and occassionaly looking out the window at his herd. So after what we figured was as calm as he'd get we opened the door and backed him out. He backed calmly and slowly the whole way, two back feet on the ground then flung himself backwards. So we went right back in and surprisngly he went with no question. We stood at the front of the trailer for 15 seconds or so and he was pretty calm considering so we backed out one more time slowly. This time he got all four feet on the ground without flying backwards so we stopped for the night.

I brought him over to hose him off since he was so sweaty. It was just dripping off of him and I figured he'd just go roll anyway. Goofy horse stands just fine for the scary hose. Unfortunately as I was turning on the hose, he somehow got behind me or something, I can't remember, and as I turned around he moved his head and just clocked me in the face. I now have a bit black welt and a rope burn on my forehead. I should have taken a photo of it last night it was probably a lot worse, it's subsided a lot now. But man it still hurts. He didn't hit my jaw at all but I swear all my teeth rattled on impact. I turned him out and Steph and Lexi were finishing up with Poppy so she got to go out as well.

I had already groomed Axel so he was standing there waiting more or less patiently along with Kalani and Oly and Cinder. We tacked them up and headed down to the trail. Axel seemed to be feeling okay to feisty on the scale of horse attitude. He had a hard time staying behind everyone on the way up the back hill. He was back to his normal slow way down then trot to keep up through the meadow area. As soon as we got to the first little hill in the woods, I collected up my reins and got a buck. Buck buck buck down and up the little hill. The best I can figure, this is not a pain response as he started before he had to do any work walking down the hill. After that he was a little more feisty but not horrible. We made it down the really big hill as slow as possible. I always feel like I'm going head over tea kettle especially on Axel. It was like a vertical drop down. Everyone decided to run up the next side, Axel chose to buck. the. whole. way. It is really hard to pull a horse out of a buck when he's going up hill. Heck I would think it would be hard to buck up a hill period. He and I walked back down and tried again. More bucking. Popular opinion is that he's not using his hind end and pulling himself up the hill. A winter and 8 weeks off from actual work has apparently caused him to forget everything we worked on in the past two years.

The rest of the ride was a little sideways. Axel was good and worked up now and would buck (really wimpy) every time I squeezed the reins. We did some circles in the meadow and he did pretty well. A few minor hiccups and even bucked himself into a really nice right lead canter that I maintained for a while. Left lead, not so much. And let me tell you, Axel's counter canter is not something to be trifled with. Ug so horrible. He made one evil attempt at Cinder's life and all the horse spooked at one point to some mysterious nothing in the woods. The walk back down the hill was a little sideways interspersed with bucks as well. He's becoming quite the handful. Perhaps some more schooling work will get him back to behaving. Despite the crankiness he's still a much more familiar ride for me than Cody. I still don't know all the tricks Cody has up his sleeve so he's a little scary to ride. Axel is pretty consistant and easy to sway. Everyone said he looked really good though. He was moving out (for Axel) and seemed to be feeling good, maybe too good!

I took another really crappy video on my cell phone of the girls trotting around us. Axel was desperate for some grass I wouldn't let him have so you get to see him struggle a bit.

When we returned we had the daunting task of deworming our four as Patti's had been done the night prior. Steph took the honors, thank goodness, I was not up for another fight. Kiko, Kalani, and Axel were fine as usual. Cody put up a fuss. How he knows we are coming at him with dewormer is beyond me. She was finally able to administer it by sticking her finger in his mouth for a while and he relaxed and she was able to shove the wormer in. So it looks like I'll be putting my fingers in his mouth every time I go out there from now on.

When all the dramatics from that were over we tried Cody's new boots on him. I was under strict orders to not let him walk in them as Jeff wants to be there to video tape the hilarity. So we just wrapped his feet in saran wrap so we could make sure they fit without getting them dirty in case we had to return them. His toes are really long right now but they seem to still fit so I think we're good on sizing. Naturally next week we'll be out there the night before the farrier, great timing. Expect some much better video quality of Cody walking around goofy in his new boots for the first time. They look pretty snazzy and everyone was impressed by the easy of getting them on him. I think Jeff might also be taping Kiko and Kalani who are both going to be going up for sale soon.

Naughty Naughty Horses

So the last time Tricia brough Oly out she also brought Rocket and the whole trail ride was kind of a mess. This time she just had Oly. I was taking Cody and Tricia's niece was going to ride Axel, his first real ride in 8 weeks. Cody was nearly in a full sweat while still tied before we even left the barn. I really can't tell you what/who was to blame for the idiocy that ensued, there were too many variables: new horse, no kiko, first ride in 8 weeks, storms coming, you name it.

The ride from the stretchy gate to the bridge was ok. Then Axel trotted down the hill right before the bridge giving Meg a good baseline for what was to come. Most of the ride was Oly in front, Axel in the middle, followed up by Cody. Axel was not his usual slow boring self. Cody was doing just okay for a while. Somewhere in the woods Cody decided he was only going to half pass the rest of the trip and Axel was getting annoyed at Oly. Neither Cody nor Oly would actually walk more than two steps before trying to trot. At one point Axel passed Oly, tried to kick him. Cody joined in on the fun and they both just attacked Oly and ran him into a tree with Tricia aboard. Cody found some new really fabulous dance moves that involved a little spin, just enough to get me off balance, and then a step in the other direction. He was pretty darn close to loosing me a few times with that new technique. He also brought out this really great vertical canter. Think piaffe, but canter not trot. In addition if Axel was behind him he decided to try and kick him the whole time.

When we finally got out of the woods into the clearing we went about our little schooling circles and then things calmed down, at least for Cody. Axel had been showing a bit of bucking on the trail, down the little hill and what not. While trotting on the circle he kept bucking, slightly larger bucks for Axel but still not too bad, Meg sat them just fine and circled him each time to let him know she wasn't going to stand for it. When he just wouldn't stop testing her Tricia got on and circled him several times. Trying to keep it nice and easy since he's out of shape and just off being lame. He, however, had different ideas, going anywhere from offering a canter on the correct lead, framing up and lifting his back, interfering front to back (something the short stepping Axel never does), bucking a bit, grinding on the bit, and executing trot to walk transitions perfectly. I can't even begin to explain what he might have been thinking. Perhaps over his vacation he forgot how to be lazy? Time will tell.

I can't figure out Cody either, on the trail he's just gung ho to get back to the herd. But in that circle, doing some schooling work he's pretty darn good and calm. My only thought is that he knows the circling isn't going anywhere near home, but on the trail we could, at any moment, be heading home and he must be ready for it no matter what. The rest of the ride back to the barn was as spazzy as could be. We did manage to get into the creek for the first time this year. We haven't had a change to scope out the footing ourselves so the three horses just got in, stood for a while, and ate some grass while they cooled their feet.

Once we bounced our way home, Meg rode Oly in the round pen for a while and I took Cody over to Tricia's trailer to see where he was at with that whole thing. He started out blowing at the trailer quite a bit, but put his nose on it. We did a few circles, which were not calm at all, and then tried to see how close we could get. Driving him forward he would only get right up the trailer but wouldn't step in. As soon as I stepped in he put both front feet in the trailer, quite willingly even. So I stopped right there, backed him out and we went back to the herd to get turned out. Next time we'll go for 4 feet. Granted we've done this before and he's fine for practice but not when we want to go somewhere. If we have time we'll put him in, drive down the road and back, and turn him out.

One of the next experiments is to take just Cody and Axel, or Cody and Kalani out on the trail. Eliminate the Oly factor and see how Cody does with Kiko. I feel bad since I know Cody doesn't like direct reining but when he's acting like a total fool it's really hard to let him have his head on a loose rein. I'm slowly getting better but I think he needs to start giving a little back as well before I'll feel confident about neck reining him. I have to say we are quite the misfits when we go riding. Cody is in a black dressage saddle, brown hunter breast collar, western headstall with rope reins. I'm in brown boots and half chaps, tan breeches, and black helmet and gloves. Axel was in a brown western saddle, brown english bridle, and blue bell boots on his hind feet. Soon we'll add black hoof boots for Cody, at least if we go where it's rocky, probably don't need the boots for the back hill, it's all grass. The boots are so funny, unfortunately they came after I was at the barn so I haven't had a chance to try them on him. He's going to hate me even more.

Back in the Saddle

So last night turned out to be just me and the boys. Tricia decided to stay home as it was pretty gloomy all day and Steph got a call back to work as she was pulling into the driveway. I started out grooming Axel. Patti and Scott put up trailer ties on all the posts outside, it sure makes grooming and feeding a million times easier. Axel is getting very shiny these days. Not sure if that's normal or if it's his supplements kicking in. But his tail was awesome, soft and easy to brush. The ends of his tail are about as red as Cody's but the top of his tail is jet black. In the right light I think he's getting his dapples again already. The black flies seem to have subsided at least for now (it was only 60F out) and I haven't found any ticks yet. Patti had sent me some photos of Axel's feet thinking they were getting worse as far as the mud fever was concerned. But turns out they were actually getting better. Last week they were really scabby. This week most of the scabs were gone. His legs are just always that lumpy. I picked the rest of the scabs I could and sprayed him with Betadine and sent him on his way.

I then groomed Cody who is also a very shiny horse this spring. He's not quite as appreciative of the attention and doesn't like to be tied away from his buddies for too long. I ended up talking with Patti for quite a while so it was a good lesson for Cody. After she left and Cody was groomed I went to get my ropes to make a bitting rig and some long lines. I think my bitting rig is a bit long and my long lines are a bit short (go figure). Cody had to stand tied through that and watch me cut and tie the ropes. I grabbed his snaffle bridle and the training surcingle and whip and brought it out to get Cody ready. He was not a fan of the whip and just about ripped the eye hook out of the post trying to get away from it. Yeesh, mistake number 1 I guess. When he calmed down I hooked him up to ground drive. He didn't exactly understand that whole deal. Which stands to reason as he hates direct reining. We made a few turns and I called it quits on that idea and went to the round pen with a real lunge line. I had been just lunging on a 6 foot lead but decided we needed to work on a longer line. A couple of issues we have lunging are 1. walking 2. staying out on the far side of the circle 3. cantering. The whip helped with 2. and 3. The walking we're still not great at. The downward transition from canter to trot was good, and trot to stop. But the trot to walk just isn't happening. He's still always too worked up about leaving the herd. I made a feeble attempt at some lateral work with the whip but my heart wasn't into it so I stopped. The mosquitoes were getting awful so after some fly spray we were done for the night.

I hadn't planned on riding, I had thought about it and decided against it, and then I changed my mind. I hadn't changed into my breeches and I was too lazy to get my helmet out of the car so I just grabbed a helmet from the tack room and a bridle. Way too lazy for a saddle so I took Axel into the round pen. He's sound now (as sound as he gets) and has been off of work for 7 weeks. Tricia's mom is going to ride one of these days so I thought I better get on and see what his attitude was like. He was a bit swishy (which could have just been the bugs) but otherwise he was really well behaved. Surprise surprise he even stood when I had to climb up the fence to get on. He moved out at the walk for once. We just did a few circles and a few direction changes on a loose rein and he was really good about seat aids. So there we have it. Probably a few more rides at the walk before we trot. And a few times at the trot before we head on the big hills. But Axel might be back in business. I still plan to ride Cody a bit more this summer though, he needs the practice more. And if we go out on the trails Cody might be my man as well. Depends on how this trailer loading goes. I have also finally ordered Cody's hoof boots. They should be here today and I can't wait to try them out. I think Cody might feel differently but it'll be nice to be able to walk on gravel without tripping.