Megan & Lily

Good Girls

2007-10-07T21:15:00.000-04:00

Lily had a her fifth ride finally. I hadn't really had time to do anything with her for a week or so and you could really tell the first time back at work. I didn't ride her that day as she was clearly not that tuned in. Two days later it was a completely different tune. She was fantastic on the lunge -- really listening and relaxed.

She was slightly less cooperative when I hopped on; she really doesn't want to turn left at all and she didn't want to trot to the left either. She crow hopped a little in protest, but straightened out when I growled at her. We worked a little in the ring then walked out around the farm a little. She's really doing great and we're going to keep taking it slow.

Megan has been kind of tense and flailing about lately so I've really been concentrating on making sure I'm not contributing to the tension. I put out some ground poles and just trotted and cantered around the ring with no contact, then started picking her up a little and asking her to go round and soft. I was actually chanting out loud, "I'm asking but not holding." So clearly I sounded like a moron, but it did help a lot. I stayed soft and asking and she responded beautifully so I cut it short and went out to walk around the farm for the rest of the ride.

She's signed up for her first outing with me in the saddle at the end of the month. Any costumes idea would be really welcomed!

Wheeee, in which Lily Trots

2007-09-23T22:14:00.000-04:00

Lily's fourth ride was so good we tried out second gear and went for a little trotting. It was our first ride outside the covered arena and she was a little star -much more forward. She's so funny. I didn't have time to do anything with her on Saturday after I rode Megan and she was quite put out about it. She came barging out of the gate ready to go for her turn. So, today she got to go first and then she got extra special butt scratching after I was done with both of them.

Megan is coming along super. We ramped up to 45 minutes of walk and trot work today with a little bit of canter. She still can't canter in the arena worth a hoot, but I cantered her outside a little and she felt pretty good on straight lines. Tomorrow I'm going to get some poles and set up some caveletti to really get her working from her hind end. We'll do that once or twice a week and see if we can get her strenghtened behind. We're going to ease into it though. I'm a little sore from the riding we've done this week, so I imagine she is, too.

I'm so tickled with both girls. I love that they both really enjoy being worked with and having a job.

A Year and A Week

2007-09-20T12:27:00.000-04:00

I just browsed back through the archives and realized that yesterday marked 1 year and 1 week since Lily joined the family. What's really kind of weird is that I actually rode her for the first time exactly one year after seeing her for the first time. dee do, dee do I had no idea when I decided to climb on her, the significance of the date.

Last night was her 3rd ride and she was once again just super. This time we had Tempo in the ring with us to provide a lead. She followed him around the entire ring and did a couple of little patterns. She felt like she thought about objecting once or twice, but never did. The coolest thing is that she walked right up to the mounting block and stood quietly for me to get on. It took me weeks to get Megan that cooperative and that was after she had been ridden for 2 months by a professional.

I hope she stays this easy!

Back to Work with Megan

2007-09-19T13:53:00.000-04:00

Life with this horse is definitely a roller coaster, but we're riding up again! After a year of muddling with her, we went to see a big dog and finally got some answers that make sense. It was a 7 hour trek up to Lexington, KY and the Beast gave us some drama by dripping (small) puddles of fuel whenever we stopped, but Megan did great.

She should have been happy as she was staying in nicer digs than we were! The Taj Mahal of vet clinics it was. She was taken off Sunday evening for her spa treatments and we went to find our Courtyard Marriott and some food.

Our 9 a.m. appointment came and went as the vet had been delayed with mechanical problems on a flight out London the night before (feel the dollar signs adding up, yet?) We were called in at noon, but had to cool our heels another 45 minutes or so in the lobbying drinking their private labeled water, surfing the net on the complimentary connection, and watching the news on the flat screen tv. Yep, Miss Megan was in high cotton! We watched several horses getting lameness exams and each was lovelier and more athletic than the next. Finally it was our turn.

Megan held her own in the classy company. She comported herself as very much the lady and walked and trotted about while 2 video cameras (ours and theirs) recorded her every move. The vet, who is quite renowned on dealing with Wobblers Syndrome, was SUPER nice. He took all the time in the world with us and listened closely (there's a novel approach) to my descriptions of her behaviors/issues. After hearing me out and observing her, he felt very comfortable taking a conservative approach to her treatment and seeing if fitness and maturity would resovle the issues.

We took some more x-rays of her neck and he went over each of them with me and explained in detail what he was looking for in doing measurements to determine if there was any narrowing of the channel for the spinal cord. He explained that he was looking for factor of less than 50 and did the math on each of her neck vertebra. The narrowest two sites each had a factor of 51. He also went over the myelogram that the other clinic had done with me and showed me the area that had him concerned and explained why and also why the film wasn't conclusive in his mind.

All that said, he DID see neurological deficits during the walking/trotting tests with Megan, but he didn't feel that she presented like a typical Wobbler. Sooooo, the program is to treat her for EPM again and also to put her back into work and push her to develop fitness - Lots of riding out up and down hills and work in heavier footing. Doing this will not hurt her or make her less fixable if it turns out that she can't work out of her weakness. She can always have surgery at a later date if we decide to try to pursue that option. But he really felt like she'd be able to be the event horse that I had hoped she would be. I wanted to hug him, but settled for a handshake!

I also got the green light to breed her if I want. She would need to be suplemented with trace minerals in the last trimester of her pregnancy to help the foal store copper and zinc in its liver that it can then draw on while it is nursing to maintain strong bone development.

So to recap, in the course of year we've gone from put her down, she's going to fall and kill you to she needs a $10,000 surgery to ride her and get on with life with a few ups and downs in between. I think the vets that looked at her initially were very well intentioned, but there is no substitute for the experience of decades of working with and observing horses with a particular malady to have a better grasp of the implications of that malady in terms of degree/severity. It was worth every penny and every mile of the 14 hour round trip drive to gain the benefit of that experience.

When I climbed on Megan last Wednesday after not sitting on her for 2 months, I wished with all my heart that she would be cleared to be rideable. It just felt like coming home to sit on her; she suits me to a T. My wish came true; we're back on track and now I have TWO lovely girls to ride. I'm still pinching myself a bit after all the gloom and doom...

Lily's Second Ride

2007-09-15T17:35:00.000-04:00

Lily's quiet acceptance of being ridden was no fluke. After a couple of days off to think about things, she was ready to go again. I hopped right on and with a Zita there to provide some encouragement to move forward, we were off. She was much less sticky about going forward and we didn't have a single inkling of any resistance.

When I get back from Kentucky we'll get Tempo, her buddy horse that we were leading her off of, into the ring with her and she'll learn to go more forward from following him. She's being a great pupil!

Lily's First Ride

2007-09-12T21:06:00.000-04:00

Miss Lily has progressed in leaps and bounds for the last month. From ponying to lunging with side reins, she's taken it all in stride... with the exception of continuing to view the deck/observation area next to the arena as where the devil lives. For the last few days, I've been standing in the left stirrup and letting her get used to the feel of weight. She certainly didn't seem to care, so tonight I eased on over and sat up... to which she said, so what?

Getting her to actually move was a little trickier, but she finally started walking freely forward and thinking over the new experience. Lots of pats and praise and cookies -- the baby girl is officially on her way to being a sport horse.

I also rode Megan for the second day in a row. She had the last 8 weeks or so off. She was so unsteady and unhappy after her myelogram that I couldn't ride her and then I just got busy with Lily, but with her Rood & Riddle appointment coming up next week, I wanted to see how she was. She's such a good girl -- despite not having the saddle on for 2 months, she was quiet and happy as could be to have a job again. She feels a little wallowing, but she also has put on at least a hundred pounds during her "vacation" so it could just be that she's so out of shape. We'll know more next week finally.

Meanwhile, YAY Lily!

Lily Up to Bat

2007-08-07T14:49:00.000-04:00

With Megan on the disabled list, Lily is getting a crash course in big horse life. Last Thursday we stuffed her on the trailer (with the aid of 2ccs of ace and about 2 hours of convincing) and transported her to the barn where Megan is.

In the course of 72 hours, she learned about coming in and out of a stall, standing on cross ties, bathing and grooming on a wash rack, ground driving, the indoor arena and saddling. She's truly getting the whirlwind course and she's lapping it up! I would bet that I'll be on her in another week. If she gets overwhelmed of course I'll slow down, but for now she's simply eating up the attention and everything I'm asking of her is no big deal. I swear she looked at me yesterday and said just get on already.

Thankfully both of my saddles fit her. I had to have the new jumping saddle reflocked (stuffed with wool) slightly but the saddle fitter thought they would both work for her which is so funny since she and Megan look so different. I'm just relieved I don't have to worry about saddle shopping.

The other big revelation besides just how wonderful her mind is, is how darn BIG she is. I just didn't think she was very big. She's still skinny and lanky and in the field she seemed small. Well, from the perspective of 2 feet behind her honking huge butt when I'm ground driving her, sister is NOT petite. Once we get some more meat and muscle on her, she is going to be even lovelier -- all but a bonus since I'm most in love with her willing generous nature.

Megan is also happy to have her back and they are loving being turn out buddies. They are obnoxiously attached to one another, but not so much that Lily doesn't focus on me when I'm doing something with her, so I'm not bothered by it.

Dejavu

2007-07-20T15:00:00.000-04:00

I was rightly chastised for not blogging lately, but like my friend katiebod, I hate to post about the bad things.

The verdict is in and conclusive after 11 months of not quite right for Miss Megan, she does have Wobblers Syndrome. On Monday she had a myelogram which showed compression in two areas of her neck (C3-4 and C6-7 for those who want the specifics). I'm still waiting for the recommendation of one of the foremost experts on the syndrome. If he thinks she is a surgical candidate we'll decide whether or not to proceed with surgery. If she does have the surgery, it will be done in Kentucky and she will be there for 2-3 months for rehab.

So here's what this means -- Megan may or may not be treatable to riding soundness. If she is, she will not be an event horse -- it would likely be the jumper ring or dressage arena at best. Megan MAY be a candidate for breeding, but it's playing the odds that her condition is environmental rather than genetic. You wouldn't really know the answer until her first foal was riding age... and let's face it, I'm not sure I could raise one to find out it had the same issues. Megan is not in pain per se and would be very comfortable as a pasture pet -- surgery or no surgery.

No decisions yet, but lots of sadness. Unfortunately, the myelogram proved very hard on her and she has a very sore neck and is a very unhappy, uncomfortable pony at the moment. It's weird to so quickly go from riding every day to being grounded and treating an ailing pony.

All of the Brady family animals saw a vet this week and Lily got the go ahead to start into a training program. She'll have to step up to the A-team over the next few months and she has some mighty big hooves to fill. I still need a few weeks to process the sadness over Megan and make some decisions there, but it is nice to know that Lily is waiting to lighten my heart and carry on.

Full Circle

2007-06-21T11:55:00.000-04:00

Last weekend Megan moved back to the barn where she grew up. While we wait in house sale limbo, full training was stretching beyond what I had planned, so now we're on our own. As I trotted her around the familiar arena, I couldn't help but think what a difference a year makes.

I read back over my blog entries from this time last year and we've come a long way baby! Despite the health scare time out and the hi-ho Silver issues, Megan has grown into a solid citizen who is just a pleasure to ride. Sure we still have our ups and downs -- lately her nice canter has gone missing -- but that's just part of the journey.

Progress report:

Gone are the butterflies, riding her is very comfortable and fun.
Steering is now fully functional. This time last year we had none, nada.
Walk, trot, canter and jump with ease and relaxation -- woohoo.
Still groans and complains... a LOT, but that's part of her charm. :-)

Most importantly, she's happy and healthy! As soon as the weather cools off, I'm looking for some shows to enter.

Happy Birthday Lily Spot!

2007-06-04T10:01:00.000-04:00

Lily turned three on Friday. We celebrated with lots of treats and some pictures. Pretty soon her life of leisure will end, but for now she's just growing and enjoying being a horse. Doesn't she have a sweet face?

I like this picture of introspective Lily. "Soon I'll be a big horse!" Well she's already a big horse, but not so much a grown up horse. I looked at some pictures of Megan when she was 3 and I think Lily still has a LOT more growing to do. Baby girl is going to be a tank some day.

I can't wait to have her home where I can work with her every day and then get her started under saddle. I'll probaby wait until later in the fall to get her started under saddle, but the sooner we get started on ground work the better. She's so sweet and amiable that it will be great fun.

I'd Rather Ride than Blog!

2007-04-29T22:01:00.000-04:00

Where did April go? I've been having the best time riding the most awesome horse ever! Megan really is doing terrific and every ride is a pleasure. Yesterday I had my first jumping lesson in 7 years or so. We started with baby steps and basically jumped the same small jump 20 times or so. She was awesome and I was rusty, but joyful that jumping her is not at all scary. She feels so solid and game. I'm really looking forward to going on with her.

Most of my spare time has been spent either prepping our house to sell or looking at horse properties. I'm getting so excited at the thought of having both girls at home and having our own place. Today I looked at 2 real possibilities. One is nice enough and pretty turnkey and the other is more raw, but has definite WOW factor!

Lots of big decisions and exciting changes on the horizon. Dreams do come true...

No Show

2007-04-02T22:19:00.000-04:00

Well technically we went to the show, but we didn't show. Clear as mud, eh! Despite never making it into the competition ring, Megan had a great weekend and handled herself with much aplomb.

Friday was a little interesting. The first trip down to the ring was a bit hairy with Megan's tail up over her back and snorting loudly at all the commotion. We decided a bit of lunging was in order, but no sooner did we get up to the lunge area that all the stuffing went out of her and she was back to normal. She warmed up in pretty heavy traffic --lots of kids on ponies -- and never lost her cool. Then it was into the ring with nicely decorated fences. She jumped them all without a second look and also got her changes! She might be a star! ;-)

We decided not to show on Saturday, but did get her out to warm up again and she never put a foot wrong. We finished with an extremely nice, quiet jump over a good sized oxer and gave her lots of pats and carrots!

The plan was to do the pre-greens, 2 foot 3 inches, on Sunday. Just as I got her down to the ring all tacked up, the heavens opened with some much needed, but ill-timed rain. Between all the horses crowded in around her as everyone tried to get out of the downpour and the sound of the rain on the roof of the indoor arena, Megan lost her cool. By the time Ricky got on her to warm her up, it was clear her mind was elsewhere. He decided that she had been so good all weekend that it wouldn't serve any purpose to push the issue. I agreed wholeheartedly. We're trying to keep all of this fun and exciting for her -- no need to rush. It's exciting enough to see how well she took to life as a show horse! Next time, we'll actually make it into the ring...

Megan did get to entertain her fans... and eat a lot, so it was a win, win for her!

Megan v. My Toe

2007-03-27T10:18:00.000-04:00

Megan:

My Toe (pardon the (lack of) pedicure):

I was clipping her legs when she struck at a fly and got my toe instead. Owie!!! Even my Ariat clogs weren't protection enough. I really thought I was going to see blood when I pulled my shoe off, but the bruises took a couple of hours to show. I think this is karma for my half marathon "performance," so I'm just going to suck it up and hobble and hope that it's better before the horse show this weekend.

Pics of the horse show on Monday, Monday, Monday!

I Love Spring

2007-03-22T20:47:00.000-04:00

Tonight was a perfect night. Between the time change making riding after work possible and the weather making it pleasurable, it just doesn't get any better than a spring night. Megan's forward button comes and goes but tonight it was on and every step was a pleasure instead of an effort. These are the days that make all the effort, dollars and time worthwhile. I may be gushing...

I'm going to change bits before my next ride to see if I can stop her from curling behind it. We definitely had periods of really good connection, but we'd lose it to the right at times when she wanted to fall in and attempts to correct it made her curl.

In Which Lily-Spot Grows Up

2007-03-21T11:07:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted much about Lily this winter. Her life has been pretty uneventful - focused on eating and growing. Grow she has. Most of the last few months, she's been in her blanket when I've been out to see her - so kind of hidden. Now spring is here and the blanket is off and by golly if she hasn't grown into herself quite a bit.

She no longer looks like a Yak although she doesn't quite look like a sport horse extraordinaire yet either. Gangly girl still has to grow into her long legs, but her withers have come up and she towers over me on both ends instead of just in the rear. Last night finished off the fifth day in a 5-day course of wormer to make sure her system is bug-free.

Getting a double dose of worming paste every day might turn a lesser soul off the sight of her tube-toting mom, but not Lily. Every day she has greeted me with ears pricked and kindly submitted to the tube. She got her revenge by making me wear half of it when she spit it back out.

In June or July, she'll learn the further joys of being a grown up girl when we start her under saddle. I have a feeling she'll greet that whole process with her ears pricked and her happy face on. Miss Lily-Spot is just a born charmer.

And a Picture to Prove It!

2007-03-08T16:57:00.000-05:00

Look at that girl go! I can't wait for my turn, but I will wait awhile so I don't screw up her!

NOW We're on Track

2007-03-07T22:16:00.000-05:00

Megan is doing very well in reform school -- no more attempts at rearing, going forward well and just generally much better all around. Today was her 2nd time over fences and I got to see it thanks to a couple of free hours from the travel schedule from Hell. (I also have a picture and some video, but no time to upload it.)

She is SUPER jumping. I've always heard that Irish Draughts are born knowing how to jump and she is no exception to her heritage. She is brave, nonchalant and very scopey. Apparently day one was a little clumsy and she wasn't sure what to do with all of her parts, but today was much better. She jumped everything she was pointed at with no hesitation - including funky flower boxes and a little staircase coop thingy as well as a gate. Girlfriend is flat brave.

I'm so excited to see positive progress! Woohoo! I'm not quite ready to be the one in the irons yet, but she is shaping up to be all I hoped for when it comes to jumping -- quiet, brave and easy. I'm ready for some easy...

Houston... We Have a Problem

2007-02-20T21:13:00.000-05:00

In the ongoing saga that is Megan, 2 steps forward is invariably followed by 2,3 or 14 steps back. The current "issue" is rearing. On 2 occasions she has reacted to being startled by rearing... apparently pretty aggressively rearing on the second occasion. This is not something, understandably, that Mary Bess wants to deal with when she has a full complement of competition horses that need to be ridden.

My first reaction was pretty frustrated and disgusted with nothing ever being easy with this horse, but after having some time to cool off and having a TERRIFIC ride on her last Saturday, I'm inclined to give her more time. Soooo, the next step is taking her to Ricky to work her through the rearing and get her started over fences and then see what we have.

I think the bigger problem is that she is not in front of the leg at all... and frankly, she hasn't had enough consistent work under saddle to establish obedience to the leg. That leaves no defense when she decides to balk and/or go up when something spooks her. If we can get her obedient off the leg and thinking forward, I think (hope) the rearing will be a non-issue.

I'm not looking forward to loading her on Saturday, but I am excited about having her closer to home and getting to work with her more myself. On the other hand, knitting is a good hobby, too....

I got your pictures!

2007-02-05T16:19:00.000-05:00

Okay, they kinda stink, but I got some pictures of Miss Megan's newly shorn self. You can see her little lip curling in the first one... she just had a candy cane and was hoping for more!

The color isn't the greatest on these. She looks washed out.

Still hoping for a hand out. You can see how short and sporty her mane is. Woohoo, no longer a woolly beast.

Megan Rocks

2007-02-04T09:33:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I got to watch her go under Mary Bess and then I rode her. Canter transitions are yet to come, but her trot work is beautiful. She has such an elegant outline and is just naturally right there, up, round and engaged. She felt great when I got on her, too. She takes a lot of leg to keep going which I'm not used to, but she's very rhythmic, soft and connected, which I'm also not used to. :-)

Mary Bess hopes to start jumping her this week if our weather will cooperate and let the ground dry out. I can't wait to hear how that goes.

My Kingdom for a Camera

2007-01-27T15:21:00.000-05:00

What a dumbasp I am for forgetting to take a camera out this morning when I went to ride Megan! She looks MAH-velous, simply marvelous. Equally important, she also behaved marvelously. My Wintec wonder saddle has given up any semblance of fitting her and was prone to slipping so we only walked and trotted, but Megan didn't put a step wrong. I am so PUMPED to be riding her again. I'll still be holding my breath for the next 6 weeks or so that she stays sound and happy, but today was just nice.

More about how she looks! Her mane is pulled really short and sporty. Ahh chemistry is our friend; no way to do that without drugs. She is a dappled pewter color that is stunning and she looks surprisingly buff for not doing any work for the last several months. She went from shaggy pony to elegant athlete with a few (a lot actually) strokes of the clipper blades.

Next week I have a new saddle coming in to try on her and I'm also going to watch her go under Mary Bess. Fun times, fun times.

Lily didn't get left out today either. She had a beautification treatment and tried her new bit and bridle for the first time. She wasn't in love with either, but she was in love with the cookies and scritches in all her itchy places. She's finally starting to even out a little and is looking less yak-like. Can't wait for spring and her metamorphasis to slick almost grown up horse. She's still very immature looking for her age, but it will come.

I Love Her Again

2007-01-24T21:39:00.000-05:00

Word from boarding school is that Megan is being a star. The bar isn't particulary high yet - walk, trot, canter and get used to cows, but M.B. says she feels great -- 100% sound front and back and is being a doll. Yay, gotta love it when your kid makes you proud.

Today she got body clipped and I can't wait to see her all cleaned up and looking like a big horse. Field board was definitely the best choice for her rehab, but it hurt my inner groom diva heart to see her so shaggy and unkempt. It's wrong that I'm almost as excited about her getting clipped as I am about her being ridden, but recognizing your issues is the first step to healing... or not.

Stubborn as a Damn Mule

2007-01-18T20:39:00.000-05:00

I took the day off work today to drop Megan off at the trainer. It was not the best day to take a field trip. The trailer had icicles hanging off of it and a steady drizzle was making the low 30 degree day even more miserable. So we hook up the trailer and grab Miss Megan blissfully unaware that we were entering into battle.

Megan DID NOT WANT TO GET ON THE DAMN TRAILER. And for the next hour Katherine and I used every trick in our collective book to convince her otherwise. We backed up, we circled, we tapped, we beat, we tied a rope around her middle and pulled. It was a pitched battle with equal amounts of stubborness face to face. Megan was just flat saying no, but we knew we couldn't accept that or she would be emboldened. Finally a lip chain and a horse who was just as tuckered out as we were and the battle was over. I was kind of happy to drop her stubborn ass off and leave her for awhile.

I think being in a program of work will fix this little issue, but damned if it wasn't miserable today. Lily stood under the shelter (the only one of us out of the rain) and watched. I sure hope she wasn't taking notes on how to resist loading!

Mary Bess, the trainer, assured me that Megan would be traveling lots in the coming weeks going out to school and such. Glad I'm not the one who has to load her next time.

Now that the day is done and I'm not quite as frustrated and angry, I'm excited that this show is getting on the road. I can't wait to see her going again. Pictures and tales from "boarding school" are forthcoming...

Today Guest Starring the Royal Lippizans

2007-01-11T13:06:00.000-05:00

My friend Kim is learning about the joys (and expense) of horse obsessions from her daughter Anna Katherine. Recently they attended a performance of the Royal Lippizans and snapped an explanatory photo of pas de deux for Katiebod. I always think these shows are magical to watch.

Here's a shot of an "airs above the ground" movement as well. Amazing stuff that once had a practical application on the battlefield, but now is just lovely to watch the display of strength, obedience and athleticism.

I kind of feel a bit sorry for the parents of children with horse obsessions. It's an expensive, time-consuming, life long addiction with no 12-step program, but it's also rewarding, empowering and soul filling, so I guess there are far worse things to have a yen for than horses.

When is AK getting a pony?

Baby Got New Shoes

2007-01-01T20:31:00.000-05:00

Megan didn't get her shoes until last Friday, so she's still living the live of leisure. Hopefully next weekend, I'll get to work her again and see about getting on. Shortly after that, she'll be entering full training and resuming the plan we had scheduled back in August.

Lily is driving my crazy in her refusal to gain weight. Between it being winter -- so no grass --and that she's growing again, she just looks skinny. We've upped her feed some and on Saturday we packed in some very nice timothy hay that we'll try to keep in front of the girls all the time. Hopefully she'll start bulking up soon!

The New Year's Resolution for both girls is to get them in age- and health-appropriate programs and start their progress toward becoming event horses. Here's hoping that this time next year, we'll be on our own farm with both girls under saddle and going well.

Ride that Pony

2006-12-18T20:42:00.000-05:00

Today was an epic trek to Birmingham to a vet clinic for second opinion on Megan. The verdict is shoe her, ride her and we'll see what happens. No neuro symptoms currently visible, but we're not completely out of the woods.

This vet feels it was unlikely that she had EPM. If she has Wobblers he feels it's a mild case and may resurrect after 6 to 8 weeks of being back in work. Or she could be just fine! Time will tell, but the good news is we'll be DOING something. She looked fantastic today, slow legged with tons of suspension in her gait -- really lovely. She was also a star about a 10 hour day of travel and examination.

She gets shoes on Wednesday and then we'll saddle up and see how it goes.

What a Week.

2006-12-15T09:22:00.000-05:00

Megan was supposed to go to the clinic in Birmingham for a second opinion on Monday, but over the weekend she went from lame to crippled. We canceled the appointment and spent the day agressively treating a severely bruised foot. By Tuesday night the poultices and soaking had done their job and she was back to garden variety lame instead of cut-my-leg-off-now lame.

Next Monday we'll try again to make the trek to Birmingham and hopefully a stop to the vicious cycle she's in. The lameness in one leg/foot causes her to over use the opposing leg and then she bruises or injures herself on that one. I still think the initial problem is the left front and our detour down neurological lane was a sidebar to what we were initially dealing with as the primary issue.

Oh well, she's happy. Even at her most crippled, her ears up and she's searching for cookies, so we muddle through each problem in turn and hope that soon enough we'll be out the other side and finally riding. If we aren't riding by March though, my plan is to breed her and let her spend a year/18 months on the mommy track while I focus on Lily. I busily picking out her baby daddy.

The Power of Positive Thinking

2006-12-04T08:31:00.000-05:00

Didn't help. Megan is still extremely lame and I'm frustrated to no end. We still did our work at the walk as she seems comfortable enough and moves out with a free stride. Up and down the hills we went. We also went out on the trail and walked for a total of 40 minutes. Most of the time I had the side reins attached and she marched along with her back up and stepping up from behind working the areas we KNOW are weak. That leaves what we don't know... Next week, a trip to sporthorse clinic in Birmingham is on the agenda. Time for a second opinion and more diagnostics. Keep your fingers crossed for a resolution that's fixable.

Lily is my hero. She has big hooves to fill in keeping me from being devastated by the situation with Megan. As depressed as I was after seeing how lame Megan was, I left the barn on a happy note after working with Lily. Lily's intensive training regime is that I take her out of the field once a week and ask her to do something new. This is not the recommended course, but darned if she doesn't eat it up. This week was cavaletti (a series of 4 poles on the ground spaced evenly apart). I had zero expectations that Lily would do this or do it well. I walked her through the poles once or twice and then asked her to trot. Now, most horses in my experience have to be set up just right to get them to trot the poles. If they can cut inside or outside of them and avoid them, they will. Not Miss Lily. I was far from organized in my approach to this, but damned if she didn't hunt those poles up and trot through like she had been doing it all of her life. We did it several times and each time she perked her ears and ate them up. Whatever happens with Megan, Lily is a star in the making and she makes me very happy.

Out of Famine, Feast

2006-11-27T22:07:00.000-05:00

What a difference a weekend makes! I go from having 2 horses that I'm basically doing nothing with to having 2 horses that need jobs. Yesterday Margaret showed me some stifle building exercises for Megan. She'll do them with her 2x during the week and then I'll do them both days on the weekend. We also agreed that Lily needs a job, too.

Next weekend we'll hop on Megan (for the first time since early August) and see if we can do the exercises from her back which will be better for her and far more fun for me. We're going to disregard the lameness as emblematic of her hind end weakness and work her at the walk on the hill and over cavaletti very gently to build strength and then see what happens with the lameness.

Lily will get fitted out for her very own bridle and will start more regular ground work in preparation for getting on her in the future. Fun, fun, fun!

At Least She Looks Good

2006-11-25T14:58:00.000-05:00

So another day of Megan looking not quite right in the front. She was pretty clear that she wasn't interested in going forward especially with her left front leading the way. Color me befuddled, which isn't a very pretty color, kinda muddy...

Since working her was cut short, we spent some time in the beauty parlor. She now has a lovely, banged, completely tangle free tail, so we have something to show for the day.

Lily couldn't miss out on the beautification so her tail got the works, too. She's learning to stand on cross ties and this was a great opportunity to just have her hang out and learn the ropes. She has the prettiest tail, so thick and heavy. It's going to be gorgeous when all the sunburned orange grows out. It's blue black on the inside. It's now also tangle free and freshly banged. I got them both to trot away from me so I could admire their lovely tails... Hey, sometimes it's the small things that count.

I Love My Girls

2006-11-24T21:58:00.000-05:00

Went to the barn and worked both girls today. They were both wonderful. Okay Megan was lame, but she was very, very good. Lily just outdid herself on all fronts.

On Wednesday, when Bootcamp v2.0 for Megan kicked into gear, things looked pretty good. When I first lunged her to the left she took 3 or 4 REALLY lame steps, but then worked sound. I thought she might have hit herself or something. Nope, today she was consistently clearly lame on the left front. (I knew it was the left front even if I don't have my vet degree by golly.) She was sound to the right and sound going straight, but on the circle to the left, there's not doubt that we've got a problem of some description. We'll see how it looks tomorrow.

Since we couldn't do much lunging, I took her for a walk along the powerline for the first time. She seemed to thoroughly enjoy our little trail walk.

Lily comported herself very well when Megan was working and almost as well when it was her turn. I haven't lunged Lily in at least a month. I've pretty much just been petting her, grooming her and leaving her to grow. The first few lunge attempts were pretty sketchy at best, but for whatever reason during the last month of no handling the concept of lunging sunk into Miss Lily. She walked and trotted nicely in both directions and only occasionally got overwhelmed by the distraction of Megan calling and running and bucking like an idiot (nice on the lame foot). I was extremely pleased with Lily.

Why can't it ever be simple?

2006-11-21T19:10:00.000-05:00

Today was Megan's recheck at the University. I was hoping for a simple, she's cured go forth and enjoy or she's continuing to improve maintain the status quo and we'll see you in a month. I got option 3 which is she's continuing to improve, but now we see this other problem and we really don't know exactly what issues we're dealing with so try this. This being continue to medicate and start working her consistently to see if the new issues resovle with conditioning. That's not really a bad news report at all, but it's more complex than I'd like.

The "new" issue is actually the issue we initially went to UGA for 3 months ago. She's ever so slightly lame. We thought it was the left front, but the vets see it in the right hind. She's also really loose in her stifles, but that's because she hasn't been working at all. So the Rx is, work her, but don't ride, regularly for the next month to strengthen her stifles and continue to treat for EPM and take her back in a month. Sigh, I'm really over the all day treks to Athens.

As for the neuro issues, she's now grade 0 (no deficits) in the front legs, grade 0/1 in the left hind leg and grade 1/2 in the right hind leg. This is improvement in all but the right hind. I personally think they are seeing things on that one. Her entire right hind leg is crooked (her toe points to the outside) so mechanically it just tracks differently. I brought this up, but the vet disagreed. We may have to agree to disagree if she continues to imrove in all legs BUT that one.

Megan has become quite the star about the vet school. Today she unloaded at the same time as a llama and didn't even flinch. She was stalled across from a couple of very amorous cows and didn't get worked up over that either. (At least we had cow porn for entertainment.) She did all her tests with a totally ho hum attitude -- just another day at the docs.

What, Pray Tell, is a Pas de Deux?

2006-11-15T15:43:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the jargon Katie! A pas de deux (pa day do) is a test performed by 2 horses where they mirror each other's movements. It's a rather amazing thing to watch, very harmonious and beautiful -- if all goes well.

Lily (I always want to call her Lucy for my old, much loved mare) and Megan were trotting around me side by side in a perfect circle even though I had nothing to control them other than my voice. It was purely a fluke that they were synchronized, but they often trot around me like I'm lunging them if I ask them to at liberty. It's much easier than chasing them all over the paddock trying to get them to trot or canter so I can see their movement.

I feel like a bad mom today with all the rain, but hopefully they have the sense to stay warm and dry in their shelter.

Okay So She's Not a Yak

2006-11-13T15:21:00.000-05:00

I got in trouble for referring to Miss Lily as a yak. She is in an unfortunate looking growth phase at the moment, but yaks probably aren't nearly as sweet as Lily. We went for a little walk about yesterday and she is such a charming character. She's going to be blast to trail ride because she's as curious about what's around the next bend as her future rider is.

Megan was a sweet heart, too. She worked on the lunge in side reins for the first time in quite awhile and was perfectly pleasant and well behaved about it. She's certainly dead broke to voice commands which can only help when I get back to riding her. Fingers crossed for a good report next week. I'm itching to get her scheduled in full training after the first of the year, but don't want to jump the gun and jinx myself.

One more sweet thing -- I turned them both out and asked for a little trot to see how they were feeling after their trims last week. They both trotted around me in a nice big circle showing off their pas de deux sans any halters or lunge lines. We could take this act on the road.

Spoiled Girls

2006-11-08T19:24:00.000-05:00

Today was farrier day for the girls. That gave me a great excuse to leave work early and see them in the daylight. I ended up having an hour to kill waiting. Lily is still in Yak mode, but all of sudden she has rediscovered her canter. Since I've had her, she really hasn't been inclined to canter or gallop more than a few steps at a time. I think her growth spurt had her so out of balance that she just wasn't comfortable.

Today, she was a cantering fool and what a lovely canter it was. She was up and effortless and swapped leads fluidly while playing around. It was lovely to watch and exciting to think about riding in a year or so. Megan was sure that Lily was getting too much attention and started barreling around herself to show off.

Once Eric arrived, Lily was up first. She was really good, other than trying to bolt over the top of us once and using Eric as a prop the entire time -- i.e. there is room for improvement. Next up Megan. What a pig I've raised. I've only myself to blame that she wants me to hold her head up the entire time. She nearly fell down leaning on Eric -- who isn't really capable of holding up 1400 lbs of piggy mare. Manners, we need some manners! Thank goodness it was just trims for both, so the torture was short. I guess a little bootcamp is in order before the next appointment.

This weekend they are both in for an abrupt interuption to their life of leisure. I finally have a weekend at home and time to torment, err work them.

Where did this Yak come from?

2006-10-30T13:33:00.000-05:00

Poor Miss Lily has entered a rather unattractive stage in her development. Bless her heart, her little (well not so little) parts just don't match up at the moment. Baby girl has a lot of growing left to do and sometimes the in between stages are really scarey!

Megan never had an ugly stage. Megan is Donna Dooley. You know that girl you grew up with that was cute in kindergarten and every grade up til graduation. Lily is Laura Ingalls. I feel for Lily, I was Laura Ingalls, too -- with big old buck teeth and unfortunate hair dos that live on in yearbooks hidden under my sofa. This, too, shall pass and her front end will catch up with her back end and she will look like a horse again someday, but at the moment... pure yak.

Lucky for Lily, we don't have a date for school pictures and her growing pains and bad hair do aren't being memorialized for all time. Ain't so bad being a horse...

We'll just take pictures from a distance for awhile.

Family Portrait

2006-10-17T09:30:00.000-04:00

If only we could have gotten the three dogs in this, too, we would have had our Christmas card!

As you can tell from the body language getting cooperation from both girls simultaneously was touch and go. Thanks to our friend Gordon for catching the moment brief as it was!

The girls are doing great. Lily learned about blankets this weekend with a minimum of fuss. She may have had one on before; I'll have to check with her birth mother on that. Either way, she wasn't totally thrilled with a big old blanket being thrown up on her, but a few carrots and pats smoothed her over and it was no big deal.

Yahoo! Good News!

2006-10-09T17:51:00.000-04:00

Today was Megan's recheck at the UGA vet hospital. After 6 weeks of Marquis, she has shown improvement. Steve and I watched (and videotaped) all of the field tests and I'm very optimistic that she will recover fully. The vet started with the leg placement tests and Megan stood like a Gumby doll. I don't put a lot of faith in that being a positive sign of neurological deficits. Megan is an agreeable girl -- you tie her legs up like a pretzel and she isn't going to protest.

The next tests were in a straight line -- no visible problem. Onto the circling, she showed some signs in her right hind only. The tail pull test was mildly postive to right side and completely normal to the left. The tests going up and down a rather steep incline raised the vet's concerns over the front feet on the downhill only and then only mildly (I think it's just how she moves). Still showing a little ataxia on the right hind. We then moved over to another area where she was led up and down a pine island with concrete curbing in a serpentine along the curb. The test was did she know where her feet were stepping up and down off the curb repeatedly. (I certainly would have fallen at least once.) She never did anything other than take an awkward step occasionally when she was distracted -- overall read: normal.

The diagnosis in August was grade 1/2 of 5 deficits in the front legs and grade 2/3 of 5 in the rear legs. Today's diagnosis was grade 0/1 of 5 deficits in the front and grade 2.5 in the right rear and grade 2 in the left rear. Overall the vet thought she was much improved. The course of action is to do another month on the Marquis and recheck. The vet isn't totally ruling out Wobblers, but she is less focused on that as the issue.

We still aren't to ride her, but did get the go ahead for ground work to resume! After several nights of no sleep and imagining the worst, I couldn't be more relieved and hopeful!

Lily the Fearless

2006-10-03T09:15:00.000-04:00

Cost to move flight up by 2 hours -- $50; getting to see the girls before leaving town again -- priceless. Yeah, I love cheesy takeoffs on those Visa ads, so sue me. Bumping up our return from birthweek celebrations in the Keys left enough sunshine to get out and see the girls. Lily's legs are healing nicely with no new scrapes so I guess the lesson is learned.

She was pretty adamant about not letting me touch them when the wounds were fresh and sore, but last night she stood nicely and let me inspect. It's all basically big scratches and healing nicely. After a good grooming, when we went on a trail walk little Lily and I.

Lily is such a pleasure to just hang out with -- she walks nicely next to you and is interested in the scenery. She occasionally reaches over for a snuffle, but mostly just takes in the sights. Last night, the sights included deer bounding across the power line cut and that got her attention. She stood and stared -- probably thinking she'd like to be out bounding around, too. A couple of steps of prancing that abated with a gentle tug on her halter and we finished our walk.

Megan served as our spokesmodel for how to behave when your sister takes a little walk. She whinnied once and trotted the fence line a little, but didn't tear anything down or injure herself. Hope little sister took note.

Young Love

2006-09-28T16:35:00.000-04:00

The girls have decided that they get along... a little too well. Yesterday I took Megan out to lunge her in the ring and Miss Lily was so chagrined at being separated from her that she commenced to tear a gate down. She was successful in flattening the gate, but we got over to her in time to prevent her escape. It wasn't so hard to do since we were only about 30 FEET away. Chill girl, if you can see her, you can deal.

Lily also had scrapes on the front of both hocks that I just could not fathom how she was doing. The field is pretty dummy proof in terms of ways to hurt yourself, but she was finding something that was just gnawing her back legs to bits. Turns out she is kicking at the boys next door and pulling fence boards down on the recoil. Doh!

The plan is to put a solid wall between the paddocks in the turnout so that if she kicks her leg isn't going through and getting caught. She so darn bossy that it's getting her in trouble. I think if they were all in one field she would surely rule the roost even though she's the youngest and smallest (for the moment). Missy don't take no guff.

The girls are pretty cute together though. They are like velcro ponies. At one point their necks were intertwined and they were both looking at me like siamese twin horses -- very cute. I'm going to have to figure out a plan for sneaking Megan away on the 9th for her trip to the vet school without Lily tearing the field down.

Girls Gone Wild

2006-09-24T13:29:00.000-04:00

Yesterday Megan moved to the new farm and the girls were together for the first time. I wanted to give Lily a little time to acclimate and gain her confidence before meeting Megan. Perhaps I gave her a little too much time! Miss Lily was definitely not going to let Megan be the boss of her.

They ran around a little bit but settled pretty quickly. After an hour or so of letting them get to know one another, I walked in to give them a pat and scratch. They both walked toward me eagerly but about 5 strides out Lily gave Megan a look and marched up to get scratches first. I'm not sure if Megan will continue to demur to Lily's looks, but it was pretty funny to see the big girl backed off by the little upstart.

This morning Lily is still in charge and Megan has a big old bite mark on her butt. So far Lily is ruling the roost. Megan was definitely tired after spending the night out for the first time in a year and her canter was not as pure as last weekend, but she'll hopefully acclimate soon and her recovery will continue to improve.

It started to rain so I turned Lily back in with Megan and headed out. They both followed my car beside the fence so I went slowly and chatted with them. Megan decided a roll was in order and then another one and then a third. Not to be outdone as soon as Megan was up, down went Lily. She was up and down three times, too. Funny girls. Megan stood in the corner of the field and watched me pull out. I'm sure she's wondering what the deal is with her new lifestyle.

What's in a Name?

2006-09-20T11:10:00.000-04:00

One of the things that first charmed me about Spot was her name. It's simple, direct and descriptive, but once I met her I had a hard time calling her Spot. She's so sweet and elegant that it didn't work for me as I thought it would. After a weekend of intense deliberation, she is newly dubbed Lily... or Lily-Spot if you are my husband. She'll keep Spot in her competition name which will be Spot On.

Last night we hung out and took a trail walk. What a brave girl! We headed down into the woods and then out on a power line easement for a little stroll to see the world. Lily was unfazed and so well behaved! I'm sure Megan, the glutton, will be terror to walk on the easement as she'll be diving from one clump of grass to another. Lily just ambled politely along taking it in.

When we got back to the barn we had a little grooming session and she decided that fly spray is not evil and stood quietly for its application. Next stop was seeing Megan, who also got a good grooming and lots of treats.

Saturday is moving day and both girls will be united. That will be a blessing as I spent more time in the car last night than I did combined time with both girls!

Marking Time

2006-09-18T11:41:00.000-04:00

Do you remember the childhood ritual of backing up to the door frame while your mom or dad scratched a line to show how tall you were and track how much you'd grown? It's a little harder to do that with a horse, so my friend and I track their progress by taking pictures every six months or so. Yesterday, Spot (soon to be renamed) had her first photog session and Megan had her 3.5 years photo taken.

Spot 26 months

Megan3.5 years old

For comparison, Megan's 2 year old and 2.5 year old shots are below. Somehow I failed to get the 3 year old shot, but these suffice to show how much she's developed.

Megan 2.5 years old.

Megan 2 years old.

What fun and no door jambs were marred in this process!

Share the Love

2006-09-15T09:55:00.000-04:00

Megan doesn't know it yet, but she has a new sister. Introducing Spot...

Spot came off the trailer from Texas a little dazed and confused. She's from south Texas which is suffering from a drought and the trees aren't as plentiful and tall and the color scheme is varying shades of brown. She's a bit overwhelmed by the alien landscape she's found herself in.

Didn't take her long to figure out that grass is a girl's best friend.

She came in Wednesday and I am in love. She's sweet as can be and loves to be scratched and rubbed and loved on. Yesterday she got a good grooming and a walk around her new digs and she was good as gold. She's very people oriented and when a large horse fly got after her, she kept coming over to me so I could help her get rid of it! Very cute girl. She needs groceries and time to grow and she'll get plenty of both.

In a couple of weeks, Megan will join her at the new farm. Megan's not inclined to share the love... or the treats, but she'll learn. What nice girls they both are.

Anatomy of a Good Roll

2006-09-11T09:21:00.000-04:00

Megan is here to demonstrate the anatomy of a satisfying roll... Ready?

First we have to find the right spot.

Okay now you lay down carefully.

Get a good stretch going...

And then onto your back.

Getting up is not the most graceful move...

So be sure to finish big with a buck and a twirl...

Ahh, life is good.

Green Acres is the Place for Me

2006-09-05T20:20:00.000-04:00

Oddly Megan's illness makes me wish for a farm more than ever. Tonight we popped out to the barn to deliver her meds. A quick brushing and a few treats left us both wishing for more. Her expectant little face was hanging over her door as we left. I can't wait for the day when she and Spot live at home with us.

Sometimes I feel like I'm wishing my life away because I always have a plan for what's next. For a while now that plan has been a farm. Next spring we'll put our house on the market and then hope it sells so we can farm shop in earnest. I find this transition both scary and exciting. I grew up on a farm so I know a bit about what to expect in terms of life changes. Most of them I can't wait for and the biggest of those is having the day to day responsibility for the care of my girls.

To me the best part of having horses is not the riding (good thing considering the circumstances of the moment); it's taking care of them and just hanging with them day to day. It's hard to do that when they are at a boarding barn and I buzz in to work them and then head home.

Sleep well baby girl. Some day soon I'll be able to poke my head out the back door and say good night -- can't wait.

Denial is Nice but it Doesn't Last

2006-09-04T21:13:00.000-04:00

Well I wore denial well for a few days, but on Wednesday I put Megan through some light work and the evidence was more than clear to my eyes. She is definitely compromised. I just have to hope it is EPM and the medicine we have finally found a way to get in her is going to work on healing her.

The key to getting the paste in her a generous helping of molasses. It sure makes a sticky mess, but she jumps right on it when she gets a good whiff of the molasses. She's eating it happily every evening, so that is a positive.

This week I'll get her remaining shoe pulled (she's stepping on herself and yanking her shoes off) and then she'll just get to be a horse of leisure for a while. At the end of the month she's moving to a new farm that Margaret recommended. She'll be out on grass 24/7 just enjoying being a horse. She'll also be joined by a new baby sister. Spot (see pics here: http://www.oneofakindhorse.com/aurorapage.htm) ships in in a week or so. Then I'll have two beautiful girls. A year from now, hopefully I'll have two healthy girls, but in the meantime, Spot will have to fill the role of healthy horse.

It is hard to adjust my thinking from finding a trainer and planning shows in the spring to starting over again with a new baby and tending to Megan's health. It'll all work out in some fashion and hopefully I'll be loaded for bear with a double threat in 2008.

Home Again, Home Again Lickety Split

2006-08-27T22:26:00.000-04:00

Okay so the plans have changed. Rather than doing the more extensive test under general anesthesia, Megan came home with a bag full of meds to be treated as if she has EPM for the next month. It's killing me to remain the dark of whether or not she has Wobblers for 28 days (at least), but the a conversation with the vet who had spoken with my insurance company put things in pretty stark terms.

If we had proceeded with the test tomorrow and she had shown definitive evidence of Wobblers, the vet's recommendation would have been to euthanize her rather than putting her thru the stress and dangers of waking her up. My insurance company would not support euthanasia (i.e. pay the claim) as she is not yet considered Grade 3 for neurological symptoms. On the other hand the insurance company will pay for treatment for EPM based on the current symptoms and a blood test. This treatement will run nearly $1000, so it's no small thing.

So we treat and wait and see -- yeah that's gonna kill me. (I'm gonna learn all about limbo K-Bod) On the good news side we brought her home today and it's hard to believe anything is wrong with her. Tomorrow when it's not so late, I'll paste in the symptoms for both EPM and Wobblers, but suffice it to say she shows NONE of them. She should be unsteady on her feet, depressed, prone to stumbling and falling. (The discharge papers have in all caps that she should not be ridden as she is a danger to herself and a rider -- they also urge extreme caution in handling her as she may fall at any time.) Well bollocks on all that. We put her in a paddock and she promptly laid down and rolled and leapt to her feet and took off bucking and running. A few minutes later she turned her neck to her haunch and scratched an itch while propping on three legs. This horse is far from unsteady on her feet.

The meds are all oral and getting them in her is a real treat ... for an observer. The first is a liquid that you put in a big syringe and then inject into her mouth. Steve got lots of laughs out of watching me get slung around and covered in the white medicine. I looked like I'd showered in it by the time we were done, but I think I got most of it in her -- only 3 more nights of that one thankfully. The second treatment is a paste in a huge honkin' tube -- no sneaking up on her with that one. More flailing about the stall, but the deed was done, 2 down and 26 more to go. The bright spot was vitamen E gelcaps. She needs 10,000 units and each pill is 400 units -- do the math, that's 25 gelcaps to convince her to eat. Eat them she did, out of my hand, like candy, YES! At least one thing won't be a battle. We stocked up at Sam's to wage the war of getting her treated. Four liters of Coke (a new one on me, you mix it with the meds and feed and they like the cola so much they slurp it down... in theory) and two giant bottles of Mrs. Butterworth's syrup. She may not have any teeth left at the end of all this, but she'll by golly get her meds.

This week Katherine is going to come out and do some of the neurological exams so that I can see and understand what her deficits are. I'm choosing to hope (yes, I may be reaching) that this is all just a misdiagnosis. As much as I respect the vet at UGA, I'm hoping she was just flat wrong -- stranger things have happened. But then I also play the lottery so I don't require much in the way of odds to think positively... Better to spend 28 days in the bliss of denial than mourning her every day.

Scared Silly But Not Giving Up Yet

2006-08-24T21:38:00.000-04:00

Today was Megan's vet school appointment. I went in worried about her left front foot and came out worried about her life. What a day. The lameness exam didn't reveal any definitive lameness but all 3 of the attending vets agreed they saw something funky in her movement. Almost on a whim one of the vets reached down and placed one front foot in front of the other ... where it stayed. The primary vet was taking a phone call, but when he uttered an abrupt "oh no" I knew something was up.

After a series of neurological exams I was informed that Megan exhibited nuerological deficiencies. These are not the words you want to hear. The examining vet felt the most likely cause is Wobblers Syndrome -- a progressive degeneration and a very low prognosis for rideability or ultimately survival. There is a surgical option, but it is dependent on the number and location of lesions in terms of success and it's very costly with no guarantee of reversal of the symptoms.

After bawling my eyes out and leaving her there for further diagnostics I came home and did some hard core googling. After reading extensively I'm just not convinced that this diagnosis is accurate. She crossed the first hurdle -- radiographs of her neck did not show any obvious areas of constriction. The next hurdle will require that she go under general anesthesia and have a dye injected into her spinal column. The dye will show areas of compression within the spine on xrays.

The jury is out until the results of that test which we may not have until Monday -- that'll make it a long weekend for sure. I'm hopeful that it will be negative after reading further and finding that she really doesn't exhibit any of the symptoms other than those they saw in the neurological exam -- she doesn't trip or appear off balance, she doesn't have any trouble getting up or backing up, she doesn't exhibit any muscle wasting.

Of course even if she doesn't have Wobblers, the neurological symptoms are still worrisome so we won't be out of the woods even then, but far more hopeful at least. It was certainly a day that poked big ol' holes in my dreams for her. It was so hard to swallow when I went back into her stall to tell her goodbye for the night. There she stands so beautiful, strong and full of life... hard to believe I may never ride her again, may never feel her canter or jump, may be faced with losing her. More than I can wrap my mind around at the moment...

No News is, well, No News

2006-08-14T15:58:00.000-04:00

Megan's training is on hiatus while we work out a slight lameness in her left front foot. She was re-shod over the weekend and we hope that will make a difference. In the meantime, I'm trying to schedule an appointment for her at the vet school for more thorough diagnostics.

I've also been investigating training opportunities. I think it's in our best interests (hers and mine) to put her in training for 3 to 6 months and get us to a different place in her development.

In the meantime, she's enjoying her time off!

A Little (or a lot) Disheartened

2006-08-01T14:47:00.000-04:00

Last Wednesday I rode Megan again. And again we just couldn't get forward. I clicked, I clucked, I kicked, I tapped, I entreated, I cajoled... finally I cracked my dressage whip across her ass. That got a reaction! A couple of huge bucks that nearly unseated me, but by golly a reaction.

Last night I went out after a 4-day hiatus from the barn due to a busy weekend schedule. She was a lunatic. Flailing herself backwards on the lunge; bucking like a fiend. I KNOW she needs to be worked more consistently, but it just really isn't in the cards in my life.

I'm thinking I should consider either a.) selling her and getting a broke horse that doesn't need as much attention or b.) sending her to a trainer for 6 months or so to get past these formative stages. The problem with A is that I love her and think she is a fantastic horse in the making. The problem with B is she could come back from the trainer still needing to be ridden on a very consistent basis (and ka-ching). I'm really quite down about this.

Tonight Margaret comes out to see the saddle I have on trial and ride her; we'll see how it goes and I'll get her opinion, too.

Back in the Saddle Again

2006-07-25T11:39:00.000-04:00

Life has been a 3-ring circus lately, but thankfully the tents are rolled up and gone and we're returning to normal. Megan's normal is much improved with the training rides she got in my absence. Last night she was very steady in the bridle and workmanlike. I was pleased and impressed.

We weren't quite speaking the same language. She heard go when I meant whoa and delivered whoa when I was asking for go! I'm sure we'll be back on the same page shortly. She is very responsive and forward when we're in sync. I love how "on the muscle" she is; it's very much like driving a sports car. I've never had a young horse that was quite this naturally advanced in carrying ability and strength. Very cool.

We'll be back at it tonight!

Gone Fishing

2006-07-19T04:33:00.000-04:00

I managed a quick visit to see Megan Monday night and she looks great and seems happy. Margaret's notes from her rides while I've been gone are pretty funny. I particularly loved the illustrations of a hairy lungeing session. That's my girl!

After this week, life returns to normal and we'll get back to chronicling our progress more regularly. Got the word today on when the inspection tour for Irish Draughts will be in the southeast, so the new thing to fret about is how she'll do.

I think she's a lovely example of the breed, but I would since I own her. :-) No doubt I'll spend the next two months staring at her and worrying what the inspectors will think.

Do What?

2006-07-11T21:36:00.000-04:00

My friend Katherine has a new horse so I went with her tonight to see the new fellow and since I was hanging around she let me ride her other horse, Rocky. K and I have been riding buddies for years and usually trade out our horses on a regular basis just for fun. Lately though, we're at different barns and she hasn't ridden Megan yet and I had not been on her boy either.

Didn't know what I had been missing! Rocky is as comfortable as the day is long. His transitions to the canter are effortless and all of his gaits are just flat comfie. So I'm trotting and cantering him around and Ricky, K's trainer, asks me to try a lead change. Okey doke, don't know what I'm doing, but sure. Once we get them in each direction with no problem, Ricky says to bring him around to an X. That's where the "Do What?" comes in. I haven't jumped in at least 5 years.

Of course it's gotta be part of the plan if I want to event Megan. Two of the three phases of the competition are JUMPING after all. But it all seemed so far off in the future. Don't know what teleporter I thought I was going to find to make me comfortable over fences again when the time comes, but logic isn't always necessary in my world.

Anyway, I trot around to the X and over we go. We ended up doing it several times and progressed to cantering over it and getting the lead change after. It was actually great fun. What a difference to ride a quiet easy horse that doesn't rush to the fence or bolt afterward. I could really enjoy this I think! Ricky offered to set up a vertical and now I wish I had gone for it.

The take aways from today's ride? Getting Megan the right jump training from the start and keeping her confident, quiet and rythmic will help me transition back to jumping with confidence and how quickly can I invite myself back to ride a broke horse over fences. :-)

Anyone seen my Manolos?

2006-07-10T21:48:00.000-04:00

I knew that July was travel month so was thrilled to get Margaret lined up to ride Miss Megan while I was traveling about. Great plan and the first session was to be last Wednesday. I'm in the train at the airport when my cell phone goes off. Megan has pulled a shoe and is in raging heat to add insult to injury.

Farriers are the bane of my horse owning existence. The one who currently does Megan is terrific but he lives over an hour away and isn't available to replace lost shoes. This is the first time Megan's lost a shoe so it hasn't been an issue until now. The guy who lives locally is notoriously hard to schedule. He'll set a time and day and never show up. It drives me CRAZY, but I don't have any other choice, so I start the dance. Sure, I'll be there tomorrow... that was last Thursday, the shoe actually went on Monday morning. I'll spare you all the intervening dance steps. Suffice it to say that those steel shoes may not look like Manolos, but they are just as precious and I'd almost rather pay MB prices as go through the hassle and frustration of getting that darn thing nailed back on.

So we're back in business and Megan has recovered her long lost decorum that disappeared while her pal (obsession) Diva was in residence. The pterodactyl screams have subsided and the wild eye and flailing about are gone, too. Don't miss any of those.

My back decided to take a hike so rather than ride and work on my position, Margaret tried take 2 with Megan. It went really well. Megan was more forward and energetic. She was also a bit more fussy, but that's easier to deal with going forward. She really did some lovely work although watching I couldn't help but think that I'd give a lot (several pairs of Manolos worth at least) to fast forward 6 months and have her be more established. I really don't miss these baby horse moments and feel no pride of ownership in riding through them. I'd happily put her in full training tomorrow and take over the reins again myself in 6 months, but I really can't afford that option. My shoes are more DSW Wharehouse than designer, so I guess I'll muddle along as a do-it-yourselfer. Thank goodness I can get some help from Margaret and at least I have someone to commiserate with for the next few months.

This too shall pass. Let's just hope for no more lost shoes and a lot more consistency and we'll be through it before we know it.

Perfection Would be so Boring

2006-07-05T11:09:00.000-04:00

Margaret suggested putting a couple of lunge days into Megan's work week as an opportunity to get her really stepping under herself and forward without having to deal with a rider. Since it was hotter than Hades yesterday it seemed like a good day for only one of us to work.

Megan was already sweaty and cranky and it was only 10 a.m. She and Diva had worked themselves into a lather over a woman with an umbrella walking on the road by their paddock. Silly girls, that just means I'll put an umbrella desensitizing session on the agenda.

Off we went to lunge in the arena with two other horses being ridden. Megan was great. Worked super from behind, was forward and mostly stretching into the bit. She looked great. Change direction, work a little more and ask for a canter transition. All systems look great. Halfway around the canter circle, Vesuvius erupts, sunspots interfered with the transmission, it was time for Wapner, whatever it was it sent nicely cantering, soft and round Megan straight up into the air and flying backwards.

My sunglasses fly off my head and I'm skiing across the arena until I finally couldn't hold onto her and off she goes. Macho and Pele and their riders were terrific in the midst of this and all just stood quietly waiting for the melee to end. Megan charged up to a mirror and stood looking at herself until I retrieved her.

Back to work and no more problems. Lovely. What the heck?... It's been ages since she's used this trick. I don't think she found it particularly satisfying this time, but I certainly wasn't bored.

I'm off to DC for a couple of days, but Margaret is going to keep Megan on the straight and narrow. I'm looking forward to hearing how it goes!

Like Mother; Like Daughter

2006-07-03T21:01:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I know we're not technically related, but it always makes me giggle to think that sometimes people forget that when it comes to their pets. I had a friend who had a dog that developed epilepsy and the vet explained that sometimes it can be a hereditary condition. The woman sincerely said but neither she nor her husband had epilepsy in their family histories. Credit to the vet who nicely explained that he was referring to the dog's birth parents!

Anyway, mine and Megan's common trait is a lack of fitness. Margaret, who I've been riding with for the last month, came out today and rode Megan in anticipation of keeping her in work while I travel most of this month. Megan was very good and very cooperative, but straightness and balance are clearly just hard and a lot of that has to do with her lack of fitness. She has big strong muscles but no endurance and she just wears out quickly.

This is a new pickle for me as I've always had Thoroughbreds who get fit if you just talk to them about it. Seriously, Lucy could go from hanging out in the pasture to competition fit in 2 or 3 weeks no problem. It's a combination of being bred for endurance and also getting a very early base of fitness in race training.

Miss Megan is just going to need more consistent work to get there. Between Margaret and me tag teaming her maybe we can get her fitter and more able to deliver what we're asking.

Megan is a happy girl. Her friend Diva is back from being bred. Unfortunately the reunion will be brief as she goes to a new home on maternity leave this weekend. But no need for the girls to know that as they are enjoying being reacquainted. This morning they had a mutual grooming session that made me wish I had thought to bring a camera out. When horses groom each other they stand facing opposite directions and gently run their teeth up the crest of the neck and along the spine of the other horse in a massaging way. Horses who are good pals and trust each other do this and I always find it rather charming to watch. Sweet girls.

Good Times; Good Times

2006-07-02T22:01:00.000-04:00

Feeling a little nostalgic today as I think of how far Megan has come. I first saw her when she was even younger than the photo here. She was a wee fiesty thing with a big honkin' butt. Today, she's a big girl and that honkin' butt is even bigger.

Combined with our last ride we've now strung together two rather ho hum outings. Today I asked a little more in terms of length of time and correcting the wigglies. She was great. Very cooperative and attentive.

We came around the arena just as Jill was dumping a muck cart full of water (think big whoosh) and she didn't even acknowledge it. I think I jumped, but Megan soldiered on. Ditto a fat pigeon with faulty depth perception clanging onto the roof of the arena. No worries.

The only interesting challenge of the day was every time we came by E tracking right, she'd dive off the rail to the inside. WTF? Not once, almost every time until I got all Buffy on her a few times and she decided to forego that particular move. You know it's a good day when you start thinking about cantering. I haven't tackled that yet, but it's now on the list.

Stay tuned.

Go Megan, Go Megan

2006-06-30T10:15:00.000-04:00

Really, GO Megan.

Somehow we lost our forward button last night. Anbody seen it laying around? Megan was back in an agreeable mindset last night so after a few low key twirls on the lunge line, up I went.

We were back to the curling of the neck and putting her chin in chest. I just kept nudging and tapping her forward. She really doesn't seem to like her new bridle set up with the flash. I may need to look into another type of cavesson, but I really think she's just bothered by the flash and needs to get used to it. The flash attachment buckles around her muzzle under the bit and is to keep her from opening her mouth and evading the bit and possibly getting her tongue over the bit. She's very busy in her mouth, so of course she doesn't particularly like the flash. It also itches like crazy as she sweats under it. That's my princess and the pea girl for you.

Anyway when she wasn't fretting about the flash and an imaginary fly, she was actually really good. She walked and trotted quietly and was cooperative on riding some figures to get her bending and turning. Sometimes the turning was more wishful thinking than not, but mostly it was good.

The only unique development of the evening were halts that she decided were a permanent condition. You want me to halt? Okay. Well let's stand here for awhile, or perhaps forever. I really had to give her an aggressive whomp to the ribs a couple of times to get her moving again. I also used the dressage whip pretty sharply to reinforce a lighter leg aid. She was unfazed by all of the above. This is a problem I can deal with and it certainly isn't a scary problem so no worries; it's all good. We're nectar!

Shoulda Stayed in Las Vegas

2006-06-28T12:09:00.000-04:00

Six days off did nothing for the littly missy's attitude! I came back prepared with stories of woe about the poor mules that haul tourists to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back in temps over a 100. (My equine equivalent of walking to school barefoot, uphill in the snow as a child.) Megan was less than impressed. Clearly she knows a.) I'm not going to ship her off to Arizona; b.) she'd never get a spot in the mule line up as they would throw up their hands in disgust at her prima donna ways. I never believed that my mother was going to sell me to the Indians either.

The pampered princess acted like she'd never learned to lunge much less be ridden. Rather than try to correct her on the lunge, I just kept her going forward and stayed quiet, but insistent that she would keep going until I asked her to stop. She looked like a TB motorcycling around the circle. Unlike a TB she rather quickly wore herself out and started to look pitiful. By the time she recovered her demeanor and brain she was so sweaty and blowing that I didn't add riding to the mix. Yes, I'm a sucker.

The new shoes look nice, but no determination on the ankle wound yet. It was all scabbed over but not in a way I liked. It had a kind of weird tough callous that felt squishy underneath. It didn't feel healed just grown over. I'm from the old school of wound treatment, that you make it bleed until the new flesh comes in healthy and pink. So out came the iodine scrub to get rid of the proud flesh looking granules. (Hope no one is eating and reading.) It's kind of a funny process. Since the wound is on the inside of the left hind ankle, I stand beside the right hind leg and reach across. Megan hasn't offered to kick since she was a wee thing, but no taking chances. She doesn't really know how to react to the fact that I'm causing discomfort on one leg but standing by the other, so she does nothing but snort. It looked healthier when I was done, but open again. Sure wish this would go away...

I'm disappointed that I'm not able to be more consistent with her and frankly the month of July will be almost a total loss, but unless I win the lottery such is life and I'll have to find a way to deal with it.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

2006-06-20T22:19:00.000-04:00

Megan had Monday off while I took my weekly all-about-me lesson. The lesson went well. I think I may eventually remember how to ride. Energized with some ideas on riding a plan out to the barn I went.

I didn't bother with side reins and just let her trot and canter around in each direction on the lunge. She was mellow as could be. Just as I was getting on, Cindy and Pele were finishing up their ride. Pele is Megan's neighbor in the barn and her current love interest. Like a teenaged girl, she has to preen a little when her crush walks by. Preening and working are somewhat mutually exclusive. This conflict of purpose became our lesson plan for the evening.

Circle to the left? I can't Pele is to the right. Oh, oh, oh here he comes!! I'm gonna fall out of the ring and bump into him so he'll see me. C'mon Mom here we go. No we don't baby girl. Oh, oh he disappeared into the barn, I should stop and wait for him to come out. No, walk on. That final conflict elicited a little temper tantrum. She blew through all my aids and bulled off at the trot with her head in my nose. Whatever. Compose yourself. And she did.

The next 10 minutes were her loveliest work to date. She trotted round, relaxed and soft into the contact. I concentrated on keeping my hands low and following and moving her shoulders around the circles. Occasionally she'd begin to fall in and I focused on "brushing" her over and into the outside rein with my inside leg. Darned if it didn't work.

We also worked on some of those awesome halts and I worked on really staying soft in my seat and asking her quietly. They were consistently very nice. She stays soft on the contact and doesn't move a hair. No flinging of her hindquarters to the inside or outside like I'm so used to from my former mounts. She's just there. The next thing to work on is the downward transition from trot to walk. She interprets my aids as halt and the transition doesn't move smoothly to a marching walk. Gotta stop playing with that cool whoa button so much.

She'll have the next 6 days off and I wonder how she'll be when we pick back up again.

She keeps knocking her left hind fetlock and I can't get the sore healed up. I wonder if she's wearing her hind feet funky and getting off balance. Tomorrow she sees the farrier and it will be interesting to see if it starts to heal after the trim.

As the Hay Bale Turns

2006-06-18T18:23:00.000-04:00

Finally back in the saddle. After a week off with this and that and some seriously wigged out ground work, Megan was back in fine form. Today I could hardly get her to trot on the lunge she was so laid back, so up I went for the first time in a week. I was a woman with a plan. A simple plan, but a plan nonetheless. (My goal is to get as many sentence fragments as possible in a single post, let's all count along: 2 -- Somewhere a former journalism professor is spinning wildly in his grave. lol)

I just bought a wonderful book called 101 jumping exercises. No, the plan wasn't to jump, but it did include some ground poles. The book starts with the most basic of exercises using ground poles and advances. We need not worry with advancing for quite awhile but some of the ground pole exercises will definitely keep us busy. Today's was put two poles 10 feet apart parrallel (if you can spell it) to one another at X on the centerline in other words the poles create a chute of sorts at x facing B & E. (In the center of the rectangle, parrellel to the short ends if you don't know your dressage letters.) You are then to walk and trot 30 meter circles passing between the poles with a change of direction each time. Simple enough. (3) This proved to be just challenging enough to baby horse. The poles gave me somewhere to steer towards to keep us honest on our turns and also perceptibly straightened Megan's body as she moved between them. Miss Wiggly Worm would become straight for 2, 3, 4 strides before she started falling about again.

It was neat to feel her develop both bend and straightness using the exercise. We also worked on halting between the poles. Girlfriend has a whoa that won't quit. Actually it does quit, immediately, from behind and almost always square. Way cool. (4) If I stop my hips and pull my shoulder blades together - bam, she's still and under herself. We've got a 10 halt and not much else, but we are celebrating that halt.

Today's other positive development was spooks that did not result in bolts and bucks. Twice she spooked at activity outside the arena and both times it was a perfectly acceptable reaction not her normal over reaction. This I like very much. Maturity, could that be you?

Since we were on a roll, off we went on a trail "walk." I set off on foot to take her down the trail that leaves out of our barn and through the backside of the subdivision. There is constrution on two homes sort of flanking the entrance to the trail. Megan finds this very scary. She is sure that the USDA has missed the boat by not declaring Tyvek a horse eating substance. She's also sure that porta potties are the gateway to Hell. (She gets that from my side of the family.)

I wasn't sure I was going to get her past house #1. In true draft horse fashion, she planted her feet and stared... and stared... and stared some more. I finally tapped her hip with the whip and asked her to consider moving. Apparently her long look convinced her that although still dangerous, the Tyvek was sleeping and we could sneak past it. Next scary test was the dogs whose fence abuts the trail. This was cause for some whirling and snorting, but decorum was restored after another long look. Next a doll house and swimming pool to look at hard. (5, at least)

All in all she was actually very brave and on representation to all the scary things she could have cared less. What a good girl! (6) (I'm sure I can do better - another goal to shoot for.)

Two-Steppin'

2006-06-15T10:22:00.000-04:00

One step forward; two steps back or two steps forward; one step back? Hell I don’t know, we just backed up. I forgot my boots last night so couldn’t have ridden her if I’d wanted to, but seeing her demeanor, I didn’t want to. We were back to wild eyed and reactive.

I’m a little frustrated both with her and with not being able to work her consistently, for a myriad of very good reasons, but nonetheless we’re not consistent. To be fair, I did add a couple of new elements last night. First, I changed her noseband and added a flash on the advice of both instructors. She tends to suck the bit and then spit it out and she needs to learn to carry it consistently and NOT learn to get her tongue over it. I put the flash (a piece of leather that encircles her muzzle below the bit to keep her mouth closed) on fairly loosely but she was definitely testing it and reacting to it. My old mare, Lucy, reared up the first time she felt the flash, so by comparison Megan’s reaction was tame; she was just fussier than normal. Second, I tried out a new pair of sliding side reins. The reins attach to the girth between her front legs, go thru the rings of the bit and back to the girth on the side. They are supposed to encourage her to work more over her back and through.

Hated the new side reins. I did anyway; I’m not sure she was impressed either. I took them off halfway through the lunge session and tightened the flash up a bit more to stop her from cranking her jaws open to test the limits.

All and all the word for the evening was: FUSSY. She careened around on the lunge line and over-reacted to every attempt to correct her and get a more deliberate pace. I finally found a good note to stop on and she was blowing and huffing like she’d done a marathon. That makes me wonder if she’s still overall a little body sore and that’s the root cause of her fussiness. I decided to cancel our Saturday adventure and go on a shorter road trip with no riding and just see if we can re-engage her softness.

We’ll see what we have tonight…

Beauty Parlor Day

2006-06-14T09:57:00.000-04:00

Megan looked a bit muscle sore from her weekend adventures so we just had a beauty parlor day. A good grooming and some very minimal mane pulling to keep everyone happy and sweet. Miss Megan HATES to have her mane pulled and it is escalating instead of getting better. I usually try to pull a little bit every few days but she goes psycho girl at the hint of a back comb.

I usually just pull from the bottom and go up and down the mane with quick tugs. She stands for that pretty well. I got a tip on using latex gloves to save your fingers and a couple pair managed to find their way into my purse during a hospital visit this weekend. ;-) (Hey I'm sure the cost of the ankle wrap they sent home with us will be inflated enough that they won't miss a glove or two.) If it works, I'll spring for a box and go that route.

It occurred to me last night that even though I don't have human children, the "kids" that I do have are finding ways to make me pay for my youthful misbehaviors. I was a pretty good kid, but I typically got in trouble for one of two things: 1.) talking back (there's a surprise Honey) and 2.) wiggling when my hair was getting brushed. Satchmo, our Welsh Corgi, has the talking back covered and Megan has the wiggling (and thrashing and rearing and throwing herself into a tantrum) down over her hair care regime! Unfortunately she doesn't see the error of her ways just from smacking her fanny with a hair brush!

The first time we clipped her it took two people and a healthy dose of drugs. She still struggled like crazy and growled like a dog the whole time. That was over a year ago and she's much larger now. Fortunately she no longer objects to the clippers being within 5 feet of her person and will actually let me clip her muzzle and throat latch, but woe be unto you if you go for the ears. I'm not giving up and there's always chemistry to fall back on. Those ears are MINE.

It's All About Me

2006-06-13T13:33:00.000-04:00

Megan is still having some much earned R&R from her Saturday adventures and gearing up for a repeat next Saturday. In the meantime, last night was my first lesson where it was all about me! I rode the instructor's schoolmaster, Liam, and worked on my position and being correct instead of worrying about wild girl antics breaking out.

This, as Martha would say, is a very good thing. It's also a lot of work for out of shape girl! I thought I'd be even more sore than I am this morning. Tons of fun and a weekly treat that I'll add into the mix as well as working with Megan. I'm looking forward to riding her tonight and starting to try and put it all together a little bit more.

Megan's Big Adventure

2006-06-11T17:29:00.000-04:00

Whew, what a day. it started early at 5:40 a.m. as I crawled out of bed to get an early start on our trail ride day. It was forecast to be very hot so we wanted to be done by mid-morning which meant Megan and I needed to be on the road by 7:00. It seems funny now with all that's passed in the last 24 hours but I was a nervous wreck. Running to the bathroom, tense as heck as I worried about how my girl would take to the trail. The bathroom trips delayed our departure by 10 minutes, but not too bad!

Our ride was a friend's place about 1.5 hours away. She has a 400 acre farm with lots of trails and no mountain bikers! I have no problem with mountain bikers but it wasn't something I wanted in the mix for the first time out on my 3 year old. We arrived in good fashion with me in nearly full on panic attack. Seriously, you would have to question why you do this if you were this tense all the time. My friend Debbie was talking my nerves down. The funny thing is I was riding with an ER doctor, an ER nurse and a lawyer. All the bases were covered!

I had given Megan a does of Quietex before we loaded up and she came off the trailer lookie but not wild. Very reasonable in fact, so I'm very impressed with the product, it worked exactly as advertised. It's an all natural paste with a calming -- not sedative -- effect. I lunged Megan out in the pasture and she was up and interested but listening to me. Deep breath, time to get on. I won't go through every detail of the ride -- suffice to say SHE WAS GREAT. It was very hilly terrain and she struggled to balance going down hill and drug herself up the hills, but she wasn't bothered by dogs running in and out of the brush and right by her feet. She wasn't bothered by swinging branches or stepping over and around rocks and down trees.

The most exciting/gratifying part was crossing the creek. It's a fairly deep cut down to the water and then a wide creek with a rocky bottom. A lot of young horses (and older ones, too) object to just the approach, but after a momentary hesitation Megan walked right down and to the water and then into the water. Very cool and the absolute best scenario for a future eventer. She walked right in on the second time and really wanted to hang out and paw, but since I didn't trust her not to just lay down and roll I kept her moving. We ended up riding for about an hour and she was one tired pony by the end. She really struggled up the last hill and then was pleased to see the barn and trailer at the top. We walked back down the drive to let her see a large metal sculpture of a dog up on its hind legs. It probably stands about seven feet tall and is an unusual sight. She huffed and puffed a little bit and then decided that the grass at its feet was more interesting. What a good girl!!

About 20 minutes in to the ride I finally started to breathe and relax but I was still worn out from all the tension and little did I know that the excitement had just begun. We loaded up and headed home after a half hour of secondary roads we hopped on the interstate for home. Unfortunately we came to a dead stop in the first 1/2 mile. I called home to my husband, aka GPS Boy - Master of all things navigational -- the news was not good. The GA DOT website noted a serious accident that wouldn't be cleared for another 1.5 hours. Fortunately I was able to turn the trailer around in the median and head back to the exit where Steve plotted a new route home. Unfortunately the new route was long, winding and with lots of stops.

Poor Megan. That kind of travel is very tiring for the horse. It takes lots of balancing in the trailer with so many turns and stops. I think I ground all the enamel off my teeth with the frustration of what I was putting my already tired pony through. Each stop and turn and abrupt deccelaration when inconsiderate drivers rushed to get in front of the trailer made me feel horrible. After 3 long hours we were home. Megan was more than ready to get off that trailer. You could see a quiver in her muscles and she was tucked up from the effort, but happy to be home. A quick bath and out in a paddock for an hour to get her land legs back. Lots of cookies and pats and apologies from Mom.

The excitement wasn't over for me yet. Steve had met me at the barn to help unload and unhook. We decided to head to lunch -- me in the truck and he on his motorcycle. I passed an intersection with a car waiting and worried that he might not see the bike, but thought he did and continued on. The next time I checked my rearview -- about 20 seconds later -- no Steve. I thought he may have taken an alternative route and quickly dialed his cell phone. It was a horrible moment when a woman answered with "There's been an accident." I could hear him in the background saying he was all right, which was good. The woman said he was up and moving around which I'm glad I heard BEFORE seeing the accident scene. The car had pulled out in front of him and he t-boned it and flew over the hood and onto the pavement. The bike was destroyed -- pieces all over the road. Amazingly, Steve was up and walking with just some gashes on his ankles. And there I was with no Desitin. Off to the ER for a spinal check and xrays of a very painful ankle. Thankfully no broken bones and three stitches and a tetnus shot later he was sprung -- sore but extremely lucky and thankful.

Of all the things I was worried about in the morning, none of them came to pass and what did was totally from left field. Certainly puts things in perspective.

What a Difference a Day Makes

2006-06-09T08:25:00.000-04:00

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy, I LOVE my horse (again). I was on the right track yesterday, the problem is me, doh. Last night I head to the barn to audit some lessons, but due to poor communication on my part I realize WE'RE in the lesson line up. Cue the butterflies.

I had some reservations about taking a lesson with Megan at this point. She's not doing enough yet and doesn't have enough endurance/attention span to last for more than about 20 minutes under saddle. I don't mind paying for an hour and only using a 1/2 hour but I really don't want to push her at this point. Thankfully, this instructor got that. It was really good timing to get a program check and to fix the issue I was having with her head disappearing to her chest.

So we start off with lunging and I show our routine. Got a few suggestions for advancing the ground work and asking different things and a timely reminder to be consistent in the voice aids. Then I hopped on and we started at the walk with a cooperative pony. Into the trot where the key nugget was delivered and voila birds began to sing and music began to play and all was well with the world. The key nugget you ask? Fix me of course. I was being too giving with the reins and confusing her. Megan wants contact; she wants a place to go; she likes the side reins and I was riding her more loosey goosey. The minute I closed my hands around the reins and put my elbows by my side she softened into the contact and carried herself in a lovely, balanced way. Shit, I knew that. Why wasn't I doing it? Just cuz...

Riding correctly trains the horse. You don't train the horse to be ridden correctly. Rinse, repeat.

Our homework is to step it up a bit and ask for more. I think it will cure the misbehavior aspect since when I do ask her for more I have her attention and the world outside the arena fades away for both of us.

Tomorrow is our first trail ride. Woohooo, now that's what I live for. Get out of the arena, walk through the woods, cross a creek and just hang with my pony.

Mirror, Mirror...

2006-06-08T11:16:00.000-04:00

...on the wall who is the crankiest of them all. I read somewhere last week that horses are like mirrors and they reflect back what you put into to them. Well if that's the case I was putting out lots of annoying and bitchy last night! It was one of those nights when your kid is determined to test your last nerve.

It started while we were tacking up. The ankle is back to normal proportions so back to business. Megan is schizo about having her ears touched. Some days it's okay, some days it's not. Last night it was not. There were also lovely cobwebs all over her ears that needed to come off. I have little patience with touch-me-not nights and things were off to a lovely start. Manners reminders were perhaps delivered with a less than loving tone.

Off to the ring, where Nazi Mommie insists that bratty baby girl pay attention ALL the time. This is a challenge for Hall Monitor filly who must inspect every car that goes by and the whereabouts of the flock of geese among other things. Lots of growling from me and mostly compliance from Megan. She has a big time tell when she is about to misbehave. Her tail lifts and the key is to re-establish attentiveness before it flags all the way up.

We had a few bolts and bucks on the lunge line that were completely uncalled for. Megan's turn out buddy Phinny is off for training and I think she's not getting enough social interaction and activity being turned out alone. She and Phinny are a perfect pair and really entertain one another. I can tell the difference in Megan since Phinny left last week and we'll just have to work through it until she comes back at the end of the month. Just because I know this doesn't mean I'm patient about it -- oops there goes that reflection thing again.

I really wasn't enthralled with the notion of climbing on bitchy filly but I badgered myself into it. Sure enough it was like sitting on a rock. Her back was tight as a trampoline -- mine probably was, too. She was curled up and primed for lift off -- all the fun I had expected. The good news was we worked through it, and while we weren't the most harmonious pair for the evening, relaxation was achieved. We just walked and did circles for about 5 minutes but enough to prove the point that bitchy don't pay! ;-)

Back in the barn for untacking and sponging off. Every time I walked into the tack room -- aka the cookie room -- Megan perked her ears and mimed the most loving, gentle, attentive and treat worthy filly on the planet. Really, she worked it harder than Zoolander; it was walk off worthy. Restored my good humor, but didn't get any cookies. Yeah, I was putting off some crabby...

Ankle on the Mend

2006-06-07T13:10:00.000-04:00

Megan's ankle was nearly its normal size last night. A little more cold hosing, more Desitin and lots of cookies were the order of the day. She'll probably be ready to go this evening. I hope to get in our inaugural trail ride this weekend or next. I think her education will proceed in leaps and pounds (figurative not literal) if we can get out and work on going forward and straight.

I love finally being able to plan and plot her training and put it into action. Good thing the poor girl doesn't know what's in store! She still runs to the gate to see me and I wonder if that will continue as our interactions are more about work. I hope so and try to keep it fun for her -- and the cookies don't hurt. If all else fails, bribery is your friend. Probably good I don't have human children...

Curses, Foiled Again

2006-06-06T11:49:00.000-04:00

After neglecting my horse all weekend I was ready to ride. I got to the barn quite late after going to see a friend of mine have a riding lesson. AK is 8 and a horsewoman in the making; it was really fun to see her post around on a big horse all happy and confident. I don't recall having lessons when I was little. The program was here is your horse, now ride it. I got run off with 3 times once on Christmas day on my Christmas present. Ran through the woods screaming my head off and then got back on and did it again. Doesn't say much for my IQ... but it all worked out eventually.

My husband and I drove down to where I grew up this weekend and I gave him a tour of places where we bought horses when I was little. I must have had nearly a dozen different ponies and horses growing up for which I am eternally grateful and richer in life (if poorer in the bank) for the experience. They ranged from Dusty the pony, who slid me off her neck countless times with the finesse only a shetland pony can have, to Spirit (who I named after an Eagles song -- how lame), who took care of me throughout my teenage years. Spirit was the best. I got him when I was 12 and he was 2 -- a horrible mix on paper but magical in real life. As I recall I just got him and started riding. No lessons, no trainer, no problems mostly. God takes care of fools and small children. We'd head out first thing in the morning and drag home at dusk. We raced Bobbie Jean and Domino down countless dirt roads and lazed in the pond on most summer afternoons. Best pal a kid could have had and catalyst for a lifetime of horses. Megan has big hooves to fill.

So back to last night, Megan came out of her stall with a big old fat ankle. Her left hind was about twice its normal size with a scrape and some heat on the inside of her fetlock. I think she knocked herself with her other hind foot. So no riding, just cold hosing and a dollop of Desitin, my cure all for everything. That's life with horses. I wouldn't trade it...

Rodeo Girl

2006-06-05T10:55:00.000-04:00

Yep, this space has been a little neglected, but then so has my horse. I've been home but for a bunch of different reasons, my days haven't included actually making it to the barn to ride. I did sneak out on Friday to get in a little ride. Snuck because I was home on sick with a migraine. It started to let go its hold on my poor head in the afternoon so out to the barn I went.

If you've never had a migraine, you're a truly lucky soul, and you probably don't know that the aftermath of a migraine shares some similarities with the aftermath of too much alcohol. Not the best state to try to ride in. I promised my husband not to ride if I felt too woozy, but darn it once you're tacked up you practically HAVE to ride. I actually did feel okay and Megan was very quiet on the lunge so up I went. The butterfly meter was zero, she's proven to be very cool with being hopped onto and stands quietly.

Into the arena we went and worked on turning at the walk. 10 meter circles and figures of eight at x (the center of the arena) while I chatted with one of the other boarders. Cindy was impressed with how well Megan was doing and we were talking about that -- tempting the fates we were. Two ENORMOUS houses are being built behind our barn and there's fairly regular construction traffic. Now that traffic goes right by Megan's paddock day in and day out so it's not like she isn't exposed to it.

Up drives a truck hauling a utility trailer with a pack of lumber on it and off goes Megan. I'm a little irritated by this, but she is consistently afraid of trucks pulling things. I think that's lame since she isn't afraid of the freakin' train that comes by hourly or the darn pidgeons making a racket on the top of the indoor roof. Heck, the pidgeons make me jump half the time. Anyway, it's her thing and up comes her head and off she bolts and then once again starts bucking. Argh. Her head goes between her knees and up comes her butt. I rode her out and fussed at her to stop it, but I'm really irritated that she throws the bucks in. That's more of a disobedience than a spook and I've got to work on a game plan to get this out of her bag of tricks. So far I've just been working on getting her stopped and then going back to work, but I do think she needs to go straight to work by getting her head up and booting her forward.

The weekend got away from me so I didn't get a crack at dealing with it in a more agressive fashion. Still have that to look forward to... sigh. Why did I want a baby horse? This to shall pass right?!?

Quiet Time

2006-05-31T10:28:00.000-04:00

It occurred to me yesterday that every since we embarked on life as a riding horse with Megan my every interaction with her has been to work her. So yesterday we took a break and just enjoyed being pals.

After knocking the major dirt off of her and a little cookie shakedown action (she's a treat ho) we just wandered around the farm letting her graze. This always amuses (and relaxes) me. I always try to direct her to patches of grass that I think look particularly delectable. You can almost see her thinking: "Girl, I don't go the grocery store with you to pick out a good cut, let me pick my own damn grass." So I did... mostly.

Megan 2; Matthew .25

2006-05-29T18:55:00.000-04:00

Another uneventful day at the barn. Another milestone crossed. Today was my first ride without any time on the lunge line first. I did walk her around the farm before hopping on and she was very good, so I just hopped up. We spent a little time in the arena doing walk serpentines and turning and then a bit of trot work with a couple of 20 meter circles. She did great, very attentive and responsive. She's still curling into her chest at times -- not really behind the bit as I'm not taking any contact, but dropping her head into her chest and grinding on the bit. Clearly this is tension, and I'm just staying quiet and asking her forward while bumping her head up. She's so light and soft that I really need to focus on keeping her coming from behind and getting her neck longer.

We also walked out into the paddock and around the arena. She was great and we ended with that. I'm really pleased to be able to drop the lunging and get her off the circle.

As I was tacking up it was feeding time so I put her back in her stall with her saddle and boots on to eat. Since I'm only riding her for about 15 minutes and mostly at a walk I see no reason to delay her dinner and pick a fight over that. Unfortunately this put me behind an already tight schedule and made me miss Matthew McConaughey stalking part 2. Another case of poor priorities, I sense a pattern.

So how did Matthew get the .25 you ask? Well I did catch a glimpse of him sitting on the picnic table outside his camper when I just "happened" to be in the vicinity this morning. That is one pretty man. I'm going to get kicked out of the girls' club if I keep missing opportunities to try and meet him.

Yes Honey, this means you have a total free pass to stalk Catherine Zeta Jones should she ever be staying in town. :-)

Ho Hum and That's Mighty Fine

2006-05-28T18:20:00.000-04:00

Saturday's ride was a total non-event and that's a very good thing! I didn't get out to the barn until high noon -- I got distracted cleaning out my bathroom cabinet. Sometimes my priorities are clearly whacked. It turned out to be a good thing; 90 degree heat is your friend when you have a baby horse. It's too hot for silliness.

The butterfly meter was about a 1 when I hopped on. It was too hot to work up the energy to be nervous. She was really good despite the potential for distractions. Just as I got on the other horses started being brought in from their paddocks. This is a lot for my little hall monitor filly to keep track off. Nosey Girl needs to know what is going on with all of her pals and sometimes she has melted down on the lunge when the horses start coming in. I just ignored the activity and rode my plan which was turning and transitions. We mostly walked and a bit of trotting in each direction. She did great and gave me her attention for most of the ride. She whinnied a bit, but mostly kept an ear on me and listened. Good girl. The turning is coming along and the transitions are lovely. She has a naturally square, correct halt. It's up to me not to screw it up.

She felt a little funky going to the right. Something to keep an eye on.

Photo Evidence :-)

2006-05-26T14:32:00.000-04:00

Finally downloaded the photos from the first couple of nights. The first one even shows a few stalks of the infamous butterfly bush... and hard core good pony vibes being sent!

The next one is as we are wrapping up and all is good!

Err well, that was supposed to be the order, but it's self evident that I'm a blogger dork. :-)

Houston, we have NO steering

2006-05-26T09:25:00.000-04:00

There is something just wrong about passing up a chance to go stalking Matthew McConaughey with your girlfriends because you want to go spend time with your horse! Yeah, I've got it bad!

I think it's dawning on Megan that her new "career" is not a temporary state! She kind of had that look of we're doing this again when I tacked her up last night. She still dove into the bridle -- one of her more endearing traits, she just can't wait to get the bridle on.

Lunging was like trying to talk with your grumpy teenager. She shied at air and launched into the canter like she was possessed. I usually try to keep the lunge session to 5 minutes or so to avoid stressing her legs on the circle, but don't try to out Irish an Irish girl. You show me stubborn and you will get stubborn back in spades. So we headed to the "scarey, horse-eating basketball" end of the arena and got a little reminder on manners and that silliness has its place and it's not when Mom is working with you. I really think she's just bored with this part of our routine and causing trouble to entertain herself, but I'm not quite ready to give up a little "mood check" before hopping on.

Our mounting block in the covered arena is in the corner next to the fence. Just over the fence is a butterfly bush -- according to Megan butterfly bush leaves are the equine equivalent of chocolate and a girl just has to have some. Rather than fight this battle I normally drag the block out but then I have to remember to put it back -- not my strong suit. Rather than fight the butterfly bush addict we headed out to the outdoor arena and I climbed up onto the retaining wall to get on.

Detour: Not only can I not get a leg up (yes, honey I know we have a bet on this, we'll see) but I most certainly cannot climb on this behemoth from the ground. I haven't mounted from the ground in at least 10 years and probably longer. I do have a keen eye for any possible mounting surface and in fact look for them on trail rides just in case I might have a need. My old mare would have sidled up next to just about anything if it would help me get on. Megan is not quite there yet and still looks at me a bit askance when I ask her to step over to whatever I've found to climb on. I see some cookie conditioning in her near future.

We did some circles and serpentines in the outdoor arena to work on the concept of steering. She humored me and I decided to head out to one of the paddocks where someone else was riding. The walk to the paddock was past a stack of jumps -- oooo scary, the garden -- what's that!?!, and in sight of the basketball goal -- look I can be a giraffe! Silly girl, but good. Walking alongside Comet was a little challenging. No this is not a horsey social outing; you are here to work. This is where our steering disappeared. Heck the whole head disappeared as she curled up like a rolly polly. Lovely. Nothing like sitting on a silly baby with no head. It's kind of like holding a steering wheel that just came disconnected from the car -- useless. Back to the circles and pushing her forward into the bit with my leg. She actually did REALLY well. She paid attention and tried very hard to figure out what Mom was asking. Communication would come and go, but that's entirely expected.

After 10 minutes or so of walking around the field we headed back to the arena to let Comet get back to work from babysitting us. I decided to save the trot for the arena where the barriers could provide an assist with steering. We still nearly fell out of the ring several times! She's much better to the right so that will likely be her better side going forward. Horses, like people, are usually left or right handed and have one side that is more supple than the other. You just have to focus on working both sides and increasing suppleness in the stiff side. We did one 20 meter circle (after a fashion) to each side in trot. The cool thing is she already shows willingness to come round and into the bridle for several steps at a time. As soon as she gets her balance with a rider, I think things will progress very quickly! Woohoo!

All in all it was a GREAT evening. I do think I'll have to add a butterfly meter to the blog so I can see how long it will be when my butterflies go away from mounting up and I begin to trust her more. Last night was probably a 7 out of 10 on the butterfly scale.

Pony Dreams

2006-05-25T14:23:00.000-04:00

Last night was a non-barn night so no new news on Megan, but I'm really looking forward to tonight and riding her again. I'm on the verge of becoming obsessed! :-) It's actually a great feeling and one I haven't had about my horses in recent years. My last horse was a very nice fellow, but we just never really clicked.

Vinnie was 1/2 Trakehner 1/2 Percheron/TB and all enormous. He was also mouthy and impertinent as all heck -- not my favorite traits. He was a lovely mover and was really coming into his own as a dressage horse when I decided he just wasn't for me. He found a lovely home with a teenager who thinks he hung the moon. I had a couple of OTTBs in the interim but never really bonded with either of them. I think when it comes to horses I really just like girls. My old mare was my buddy and so personable and attentive. Megan is developing along the same lines. She has more self confidence than Lucy but we've definitely bonded.

My friend Katherine and I spotted Megan in the paddock with her mom shortly after she was born and I was entranced. She was little liver chestnut spitfire and built like a brickhouse. I still had Vinnie so I lusted after her a bit and then moved on. Fast forward 18 months and I am horseless and looking. The lady who bred and raised Megan is a horse dealer and she had a 3 year old gelding that was under saddle and going that I went to try. He was a nice sort, quiet and agreeable, but not terribly athletic when we free jumped him. He was actually probably a great choice for me -- adult ammy, with not a lot of time to ride. I was all set to make the deal when Katherine and I set off down the hill to take one last look at Megan. We walked into the field and I started babbling about all the reasons she wasn't right and I should buy the gelding. K called me on it and basically said if I didn't buy her I'd always regret it. She was right and the gelding was forgotten.

That's not to say that I haven't regretted the decision a time or two. A year and a half is a long time to wait when you don't have anything else to ride. She has certainly been groomed to within an inch of her life with lots of beauty parlor days. Mostly it's been fun to watch her grow... and to dream. There's kind of a sweet spot right before you start them under saddle when you (or at least I was) are consumed by the art of the possible and what might be. You dream of how they are going to ride and what fun they are going to be. You haven't yet sat on them and felt them stagger like a drunk or tried to steer them about when they are totally clueless to the reins and the leg. But those dreams are what carry you through the next few months (or years!) of green as grass-ness. You just know someday she'll lift into the trot round and powerful just like she did on her own prior to being ridden, but you'll be lifted along with her and feel that power and you'll know your '76 Chevy Nova with no power steering (ask me how I know how THAT feels) has turned into a serious sports car.

Road Trip

2006-05-24T13:32:00.000-04:00

Last night was the first road trip since last fall for Megan. We had done some practice loading, but the couple of excursions we'd tried to do for fun over the winter had all fallen through. Despite only having a trailered a handful of times, she loaded right up happily and off we went. Thank goodness! Having spent hours fighting with recalcitrant loaders before, it's nice to have one so cooperative. She did sweat pretty heavily on the short trip over, so she was clearly fretting a little.

Once we arrived she unloaded a little high, but very reasonable since she hasn't been off the farm since September. I stuck her in a stall to calm down a bit. Her first order of business was to roll and then stick her head out the window and pull up some of the landscaping. Doh, food first of course!

I tacked her up to lunge a bit. She could hardly go forward for being such a lookie-loo. There was some construction noise behind bushes on one side of the ring that just had her a little fried as did the jumps. After 10 minutes on an egg -- no way she was going to the end of the line near the bushes -- she was still up but clearly not going to settle any further on the lunge. Ricky was ready to go since time was ticking away toward American Idol. Lol. He walked her around the arena a few times. One big startle near the fenceline with the construction nearly undid the other horse in the ring, but everybody mostly kept their cool.

Ricky asked me for a leg up. Now I don't really DO legs up. I can't seem to grasp the fairly simple concept. If I get one, I end up flailing about and half on and if I give one it's usually the same result for the poor soul that asked me. Sure enough Ricky ended up just laying across her which was actually his plan, but nonetheless I got Katherine to step in for the real deal while I held her horse. Once he was up, she looked tense but not unreasonably so. I'm sure she felt potentially explosive, but she never did.

She was once again not terribly forward and looked really out of balance. Seeing her under saddle really makes her look like the baby she is. It was fairly eye opening to see her next to the other horse. He was no small animal -- 4 year old Hanoverian just over from Germany. He is probably every bit of 16.1 or 2, but Megan is clearly just larger over all. It finally dawned on me what a big horse she is going to be. To which Ricky replied that he had said that the first day he met her. Yeah, but I was in happy denial where I would have liked to remain... darnit.

This was not the ride to admire her grace and beauty. She was falling all over the place between not knowing how to steer and being such a lookie loo. It didn't look like a fun ride or pretty! In fact at one point as Ricky was urging her into the canter, my comment was "Rack On". Not what you hope for in your dressage/event prospect! She wanted to stop every time she came by where the other horse and I were standing so it took a lot of urging to keep her moving. She did stand quietly while Katherine cantered the other horse over some jumps. Other than chewing the bit excessively she was happy to be a sofa for Ricky while he directed Katherine. That was an improvement from the fall, when she reared up one day while the trainer was sitting on her talking to some other riders he met on the trail. She can be rather impatient, so she'll have to learn to chill at times.

She walked, trotted and cantered both directions several times and while she never became nonchalant she did very well for first time off the farm. After the ride she stood tied to the trailer while I put on her shipping boots and then loaded right up again like a charm. She looked quite proud of herself when we got back home and I'm sure she slept well after all the new adventures. She got a nice bath and some carrot stretches and lots of pats. Another good day for the baby girl. Tonight she'll have off and then a nice ride at home tomorrow night. Let's hope this continues to go as well!

One other note, she looked completely sound last night. The new shoes seem to have eliminated the NQR moments which is very good to see.

Time to Ride

2006-05-23T15:33:00.000-04:00

Last week marked a milestone in my filly's life as she started under saddle as a three year old. She had been lightly ridden last fall for 30 days with the winter off to grow and play, but now her life as a riding horse starts in earnest. I plan to use this blog to chronicle our rides and keep track of her development.

The first ride was uneventful. I hired a trainer to go up the first few times cuz I was slightly chicken. :-) I lunged her first and she was attentive and well behaved. The trainer suggested a little Ace to take the edge off for the first ride, so we gave her .25 cc in the vein. She's a cheap drunk and was quickly a little woozy. Needless to say, that made her a kick ride for sure and quite comical to watch. Twenty minutes of walk and trot and she was done. Very nice.

The next night, I tacked up and lunged her in anticipation of the trainer arriving. Turns out he had been to the dentist and was sleeping off his meds. He woke up in time to rush over and hop on. No drugs for the horse, but a slightly drugged trainer! She was wonderful again. Lots of walk and trot and then a little bit of canter. The first few strides were a little hoppity hop, but she never gave a real buck and smoothed out into a canter. She really didn't want to pick up the left lead and after several mis-starts finally did and cantered nicely. I was next up for a walk and a trot and she felt great. Lots of horse in front of the saddle and nicely forward and comfortable; no steering but that will come.

Day three in training land was farrier day and time for baby's first shoes. She's been just a little off in the left front and her "connections" agreed that shoes might give her a better base of support and would protect her for the trail riding that's in her near future. She was a champ for the shoeing. She didn't like the smoke from having the shoes burned onto her feet. No pain, but the smoke from the searing of the hoof smells strongly and she thought is was quite objectionable. A treat distracted her and no real drama. She stood very quietly for the nailing and walked off sounding like a big horse. Size 3s for my (not so) petite girl.

The farrier asked to see her go so he could get a good look at that left front. So off I went to tack her up for first ride sans trainer. A little lunging and then I hop in the outdoor arena and we walk and trot about quietly. At this point I'm loving my horse! The farrier thinks her issue is a lateral suspensory strain at the navicular bone in the left front. The treatment for that is slow work, so our plan for light riding will progress and hopefully the issue will resolve in the next few months.

Megan then had three days off while I went camping. Apparently she used that time to reflect on life as a riding horse since the first ride back was our first bolt! It was an honest spook. Someone was playing basketball at one end of the arena and the goal was off to the side so not really visible but the noise of the horse-eating basketball and its occasional appearance startled her as we came around that end. She threw her head up and took off. I was able to pull her down fairly quickly but then she decided to throw in a few bucks. Very rideable and stern "MEGAN" got all four feet back on the ground. I put her back to work on the non-basketball end of the arena until she was attentive and responsive. Then I hopped off and walked her down to the other end and marched her around until the dribbling and shooting of hoops lost her interest. Another lesson learned -- there are no horse-eating basketballs. I really wish her spook wasn't bolt+buck, but perhaps she'll grow out of it.

That brings us up to last night. I tacked her up, but didn't dress to ride which was just as well. She was a little up and go-ey the whole time I lunged her and just looked a little tight around her eye. Could have been the pre-work mane pulling session that had her a little pissy. I did some modifications on the lunge and really got her working over her topline and from her back end so a very productive work all in all. Tonight is the first off-property ride. I'm trailering her over to the trainer's barn so we'll see how that goes. Hopefully all participants will be lucid and fully aware!

What a fun adventure!