Return of the scary white tarp thingie

So in an effort to bolster both my confidence AND Fiona's, we've spent 3-4 lessons in the last few weeks working on Fiona's archenemy, the evil white tarp thingie. Today, she touched it with her nose. That's a pretty huge leap forward. I think she's only a few more lessons from walking right through the thing. I might cry tears of joy when that happens. She is truly terrified of this thing...or she was. See my blog entry The Struggle with Strangles, third paragraph.

Just a quick update for today and hopefully I will be writing a "demise of the scary white tarp thingie" entry pretty soon. :) Night all!

Independence is Sweet!

Happy 4th of July everyone!!! I hope you are all cooking up a storm and enjoying the summer sun!

Fiona and I are doing really well! I even have video to prove it!! I walked her across the entire property last week and NO SPOOKS! Not one! She even put her nose on a horse trailer!...and then LICKED THE DARN THING! It was awesome, I doubled over laughing.

Today I was lunging her over a pole and she tried to roll it over with her nose and then chewed on it a bit. She's quite the character I tell you.

We've been working mostly on groundwork. We did have one ride last week because I hadn't been on her it a bit. She did pretty well. She thought about bucking at first with the saddle on, but she just thought it was too much work and stopped. I kind of like that she is chubby and lazy now. It is over 110 degrees here after all.

The groundwork lessons have helped immensely. I have realized that most of my fear was based on the fact that I didn't know what to do to get her under control if she flipped out. So we've just worked on controlling her feet, controlling her feet and more controlling her feet. It's REALLY helped. I feel much more confident with her on the ground. Our trainer moved a pole behind her a few weeks ago and Fiona shot forward, but I kept her head to me and she just turned her butt away and then stopped.  The best part about it was I never lost my cool. I didn't flip out and try to keep her moving...I just acted like nothing happened.

Drill team is on hold due to a injured instructor, so I am back to riding Fiona exclusively at the moment. I think it's probably for the best. She probably needs about 500 hours of riding before she can go out on the trail, so I better get cracking. I have started a riding log that I keep at the barn. It's very short so far, but it will grow. :)

So here's a little video of us working on the ground. Again this is not our finest work, but she is listening and she looks WAY better than when she had stranges a few month ago. Please forgive the nightgown look I am sporting, I am still transitioning wardrobe from 60lbs ago!!

Quick update, more later

Wow what a month.  I am happy to report that Fiona is over her strangles and back in fine shape. Her trainer has been doing a great job getting her muscle tone back up so she’s ready to ride again. While Fiona was in sick bay, the stables have been getting a major overhaul. There are new barns going in and a new tack room. The construction has been going on right outside Fiona’s stall, which has been remarkably good for her. The first few days she was NOT very comfortable with all the commotion, but now she just kind of ignores it for the most part.

Drill team is also going well. I rode Zach again two weeks ago and he was wonderful. He’s a little slow, but that’s better than the alternative for the moment. I am scheduled to ride him 3 times this week while his owner is on vacation. I am definitely looking forward to that. Apparently he has a little buck leading into his cantor. That should make the week interesting. J He’s already spooked with me once. It was nothing major, but it got my attention. He shyed away from a noise on the other side of a wall. There are houses on the other side of the wall and someone had the audacity (sarcasm) to make a noise in their backyard. It caught him off guard and he leapt sideways. I stayed on though and we kept riding. Good to know it’s not just my horse that does that stuff.

I am also continuing to watch a lot of Rick Gore’s videos. I like his approach to horsemanship. He really does take the horse’s needs into account first. It’s made me re-think a lot of what I have been doing and thinking about this process.  Check out the Gymkhana videos. WOW, that's all I am going to say.

I am going to try to take some more video of Fiona and post it soon.

The Struggle with Strangles

Well our training has been thwarted for the last few weeks by an outbreak of strangles at the barn. I had never even heard of it until it started getting past around the barn and I didn't really care about it until the horse next to mine had it, but first let's get caught up on how things are going.

Fiona's riding was going pretty well before she got sick. We had about half a dozen successful rides and one time where she bolted on me. Good news though! I stayed on, I got her stopped (got good reviews on my one-rein stop), and I kept riding. I was a wreck!, but I kept going.

Fiona did go to the obstacle clinic, but it was kind of short lived. She lunged over the stuff on the ground just fine after she circled a few times. I have never seen a horse avoid stepping on something and still look as "refined" as she does. She is SUCH a girl! I knew the white curtain obstacle would get her before we even started. It is basically a white shower curtain liner cut into strips that flaps in the wind. She did ok in the arena...just checking stuff out and stood their calmly. I handed her off to Sam, my trainer, and she walked her up pretty close to the evil shower curtain of death. Fiona tried SO HARD to not be scared. She started shifting her back end around just a bit. Then she bolted. Sam tried to step in and stop her, but Fiona ran her over. :(

We caught her and Sam took her to a roundpen. I lunged her in there for about 45 mins. She was FIRED UP! when she got in there, but she settled down after a bit. That's when Sam cleared the arena so she could work with "That Arabian" as one person put it. She got her to do some good things like walking over stuff.

Another VERY interesting development; Fiona LOVES cows!!...and they love her! Go friggin' figure?!?!! Cows are the only thing I have ever seen her sniff and step into, instead of shying away from. It was great!. Sam taught me to lung Fiona in circles and move the cows with her. It was really fun.

Oh and I started riding in the drill team at the stable! I am riding a different horse, an arabian names Zach! He is cute and friendly. I am grateful for his assistance while I am still getting Fiona ready. I am really hoping to ride her in the final show in the fall, but we shall see.

Now onto the bad news....ugh..

I told Sam, a few weeks ago that Fiona seemed depressed. She was also starting to toss her head during bridling, which she hadn't done in a very long time. About a week after I said that, strangles!

For those of you that do not know what strangles is, here's an interesting run-down on it: Strangles

It sort of like strep throat for horses, but it looks way worse. Fiona didn't abscess in the nodes you have to lance and drain...thank goodness. However, she drained through her nose and that can call something called chrondroids. I have to call the vet today and find out if she has to go into the vet (yay trailering! NOT) to get scoped and flushed.

The vet put her on antibiotics for 5 days and that has DEFINITELY helped. She got the lightest case of any horse in the barn that I have seen. She's been back to normal with the exception of her weight which is back down again. :(

If there is an up-side, this downtime has given me plenty of extra hours to read and watch horse training videos. I found a guy named Rick Gore. I watched a few of the videos on his youtube channel. He had some interesting stuff on herd dynamics and he clearly loves his horses. His language is colorful and I am sure a lot of people listen to him and think "This guy is a complete jerk!". If you can get past the language and the goofy laugh, he actually has some really good advice.

I find the herd dynamics interesting. There's definitely stuff to be learned by watching and knowing a herd of horses. They completely rely on order and hierarchy. The leader is always tested, and is required to remain vigilant. There's one video that talks about her dynamics that I found fascinating. Watch what happens when Rick leaves the herd without a leader. This is a strong indicator of how important a strong leader is to a horse.

That's all for now!

Whoa, I fell off the blogging truck

So it's been almost 2 months since my last post. That could be evidence that Fiona and I have made absolutely no progress whatsoever, but IT'S NOT! The truth is we have made amazing strides in the last 2 months. It's been almost too much to keep up with and that pesky job I have to maintain in order to support my horse habit, I haven't had much time to write.

Let me see where I left off here. Fiona was starting lessons with Samantha Lynch (http://www.samanthalynch.com/) and the first day was rough. Fiona didn't even want to be saddled, much less be ridden. Sam was able to muscle through and get the ride to happen. Since that time, Sam has been riding her 2-3 times a week. I have been doing groundwork for most of that time a couple of days per week. So Fiona's been getting a pretty good workout.

So a few weeks ago, on 1/28 I had what I would consider my first successful ride on Fiona. It was short and uneventful. It was so uneventful it was almost anti-climactic. It sort of felt like I went from an abusive relationship to a peaceful loving one. There was no drama, no fighting. We both just did what we were supposed to do.

Here are some very unexciting video clips of the ride:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlQkHq_wZQw&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL - stepping on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SDkZSQbb3Y&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL - little walking around getting used to one another.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkNpOLQIMGg - trotting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkNpOLQIMGg&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL - more trotting toward the end of the ride

I don't know why I wasn't MORE excited about it. It's a HUGE accomplishment..I mean HUGE! Well since then we did a few groundwork lessons on the property with Sam and 2 more AMAZING riding lessons.

I even......drumroll please........... got on Fiona all by myself!!! Now that was exciting! I had Linda and Alison (a couple of lovely ladies from the stable) there for moral support and security. They were sitting there with their finger on the "9" just in case the sh*t hit the fan. It never did! The ride was great! Fiona fought me for control of her head a bit but for the most part it was a raging success. I have to say, I was pretty excited about that one. After the ride, Fiona even stood in the same place for about 10 minutes while I talked to Alison and Linda. She even ate hay out of the back of LINDA'S GOLF CART! This is the same cart she wouldn't even walk by calmly in August!!! It's crazy!

The 2nd and 3rd riding lessons were both great. We are both very comfortable with one another. Her trot and walk fit will with my riding style. She's not too fast, which everyone was really worried about. She actually STOPS if I get off balance or do something that confuses her. I will take that over a bolt any day!!

Our next big step is an obstacle clinic on March 12th, led by Samantha. I will probably lead Fiona from the ground for most of it. I am planning for her to be a rockstar though. I am going to saddle her up first and then if she does well, I will ride her on the obstacles.

We also had an interesting little lesson in respect with regard to food. Fiona tried to run my down to get to an empty bowl because she's never really been forced to have manner around mealtime. I backed the horse up about 15-20 times before she finally just stood there waiting for permission to move forward. It was a big step forward for us I think.

I feel like I am finally starting to understand how to gain her respect and trust...and confidence.

Wish us luck on the obstacles!!! Meta is going to come to the clinic and take pictures and video!!!

Steph

Off roadin' for the holidays

Since this blog has mostly been dedicated to Fiona, I am going to go off course a little this time. In short, Fiona is fine. I watched Samantha ride her today and it all went very well. She saddles Fiona in the stall and then bridles her out in the roundpen. Fiona's still sportin' an attitude about certain things, but no major misbehaving.

Anyway, these holidays have been WEIRD! We went to NC to visit my wife's family and experience our first white Christmas together. Hickory, NC hadn't had a white Christmas since 1947, so I believe this one was just for us! While on the trip, both my wife and I got some super virus similar to bronchitis but like amped up big time. We are both still hacking and coughing away. That's been a pretty major bummer, but not really that weird since lot's of people get sick when they go on vacation. I also got my wallet stolen. At first we thought we just lost it, but I found out today there were charges on my AMEX card so someone clearly just took it. Jerks! The charges were for gas and food, so it's sort of hard to be mad at them, but it's still crappy.

Here's the weird part; I have heard of the following happen to people during this holiday season. 1 person got thrown off a horse and broke his ribs, 1 person had a heart attack, 1 person had a stroke and 1 person died. I am not even kidding! All of these events happened between Christmas and New Years and none of these people were over the age of 60.

I met Meta's cousin Brandy on Christmas day for the first time. She was sweet and welcoming, bubbly and fun. She introduced us to her boyfriend, Shane and her massive dog, Cane! Cane is a pitbull terrier that breaks the mold in terms of temperment. When I first saw him I thought "Are we here to have breakfast or be breakfast?" However, he was just sweet as could be, not a mean bone in his body. We had a lovely breakfast with Brandy, Shane and Brandy's parents Steve and Diane. I couldn't have asked for a more inviting home to spend Christmas morning in. We had a lovely time, chatting with everyone and enjoying the amazing southern food. While I missed my family, I felt right at home.  That was the one and only time I met Brandy. A few days later, she went out and had dinner and she wasn't feeling well afterwards. She died the night of the Dec 28th, she was 32 years old. Everytime I think about it, it just takes the wind out of me. Our love and prayers go out to Steve, Diane, Shane and Cane.

I am also putting in a good word with the Big Man Upstairs for Jim, Curt, and the lovely gentleman who I met at the stable today but neglected to catch his name. May good health return to your ailing bodies and may the love of your family and friends fill your hearts. Let's hope the rest of 2011 is better than the end of 2010.

Rescuing Fiona: Happy Holidays, and here's to the best gift of all...

Rescuing Fiona: Happy Holidays, and here's to the best gift of all...: "I got an email from Samatha, who is riding Fiona this month. The email said that she rode Fiona AROUND THE STABLE PROPERTY!!! Apparently it ..."