The boys have had some tuneups this week. Monday was dentist day. Nay Nay was power floated without any sedation because he’s cool like that. Subi got drugs because he gets stressed out. Jiminy? He probably would have been fine, but after his choke 2 weeks ago, he got some dorm gel just because he’s lacking a little trust right now.

Jiminy needs to be seen in 6 months as does Subi (old man has some loose teeth that might be reaching end of life plus some other old man teeth issues) while Nay can be checked though likely will be fine for a year.

Yesterday? Fall vaccines. All went well until I walked outside at 6:30 to do stalls before turn in and found this pathetic site.

He wasn’t colicking. He sort of passed the cookie test. I stuffed a cookie in his mouth and he chewed without enthusiasm but he did eat it even if he chose not to take it from me. And after cookies, he followed me to the gate.

When I did bring him in, Nay did pick at dinner, but without his regular enthusiasm. And he felt hot.

That said, I didn’t expect the thermometer to say his temp was 105.4. So I took it twice and got the same result. Immediately I called the vet office and somehow the on call vet got back to me 30 seconds later (new record).

Plan was NSAIDs (banamine or bute) and check temp in an hour for some progress. There was a tiny bit but I moved forward with plan b of an alcohol bath which seemed to really help. Eventually he was down to 103.2 which he stayed at most of the night. After a second dose of banamine, he finally dropped to 102.3 this morning and 101.5 when I turned out.

But seriously? 105.4?! What the hell?

He’s still not feeling 100% and while he attacked breakfast, he didn’t finish. That said, the Cookie Monster has resurfaced… so he’s definitely on the mend. And next year? We’re pre-treating with banamine before fall vaccines!

Well, not quite.

Still, Nay Nay is really starting to get it. When we first introduced jumps, I really questioned whether Nay was going to be a hunter. I thought we might have to take up low level dressage.

You see, he sort of freaked himself out and crashed into the jumps, they collapsed, and he panicked. I mean, maybe I’m exaggerating? But not entirely. He was OK with poles or cross rails, but more that that? He could quite get it. We had a pretty bad lesson where he felt overfaced and… After that we took it back, but… Now, we didn’t ask him to do one thing that he couldn’t walk over, but still…

After Nay’s time off for ulcers, we eventually reintroduced some jumps. We had a REALLY good lesson where he did great (he loves this plank fence that’s both inside and out) and did great with flowers. But, the next ride? He felt a bit overfaced and all my uncertainty came back (which didn’t help him). So, we took it back to cross rails and he did great. Confident and fabulous. Plan was just jump cross rails until he was 100%.

At some point, we started adding back solid fences. It was hit or miss. Not crashing miss, but hesitation miss. But, we always got over it. Then, when I rode on my own, I started walking him over stuff before I got as I set stuff up. Somehow, whenever my trainer tried to walk him over he’d nope out of it, but me? he’d happily follow me anywhere. We started walking over flowers, and boxes, and gates, and all of the above combined. Jumps got wider (I started struggling to get over… LOL). Nay didn’t care. We’d get on and walk up and over. Then I’d point Nay to them and instead of walking over? He’d pick up the trot and trot himself over. Hesitation just… gone. After the trot, he’d start dragging me to his fences because jumping evidently is fun.

This weekend the weather was gross so we spent Saturday in the indoor with his “older” girlfriend Fiona. Since everyone has been outside as of late, the footing was a bit choppy. But, not terrible. We stuck to 2 singles (nothing huge) and eventually strung them together at the canter, cantering 2 fences together for the first time.

On Sunday, another first! Nay was definitely tired from Saturday so instead of working at the canter, we stuck mainly to the trot (the canter just didn’t feel great with the footing) and strung together a 6 fence course, adding in the outside line to our 2 fences from the day before (we repeated the one and jumped the other both ways).

All in all, 2 successful rides. Nay Nay just continues to gain confidence and impress.

I’m very behind on blogging. I think I got tired and then decided I didn’t care? I had some good rides and then took most of last week off because work tried to kill me and I gave up and then had a bunch more fabulous rides this past weekend and a lesson this morning. So I guess it’s time I blog? Or not?

A couple of weeks ago, Nay Nay decided that he no longer wanted to jump this one jump he loved. He didn’t want to walk over it or anything. Other stuff? Fine. His favorite jump? Nope. So I just hopped off and walked him over it. He followed me like a puppy. Since then, everything has changed. Before I get on, I decide what jumps I want to work on and we set them to our chosen height and fill (we started by removing flowers, now? we don’t care about the damn flowers) and we just walk over them before I get on. I walk, Nay follows me and all stress is completely gone. It’s like he saw he walk over it and suddenly something clicked and BAM! He realizes that we go over jumps? I don’t know but it’s working. Nerves and hesitation are gone. We’ve added several (5-6 difference fences) difference jumps with boxes and gates to our repertoire now. They’re tiny. Like under 2′, but who cares?

This weekend we strung together several into a mini trot course and mostly I had to work on keeping him trotting in between. He has enthusiasm for the jumps and often will canter out nicely, but the rest of the time? Nay thinks sleep is good. He also gets bored easily and while he’ll put out a good effort once or twice, he’s learned that he can also land in the trot and save calories.

Our right lead is hit and miss. Today we worked less on picking it up (there was a giant truck removing the barn’s manure pile and I was just thrilled that Nay wasn’t bothered by the that) and rather focus on landing the lead from our end jump. He had other ideas… We eventually got there. The thing with the right lead? Once we get it? His right lead canter is SO MUCH NICER AND MORE BALANCED AND EVEN than his left lead. It’s just picking it up that’s an issue. And then he gets stressed out. So… We’re still working on it. I’m going to see about getting some body work done and seeing if that helps.

But we’re getting places. Hopefully I’ll have some folks to ride with this weekend and I’ll have some updated videos. These are from a couple weekends ago and I feel like we’ve progressed so much already. But, media is media. LOL.

Nay Nay and I have had some pretty fantastic rides as of late. I just haven’t really felt like blogging about them. What can I say? I’m lacking media and work is picking up so…blogging is taking a backseat. But, I do want to capture some of what we’ve been doing.

To be honest? It’s not very exciting. We’re in green horse mode. So there is a lot of rinse and repeat going on, and that’s just OK with me. But guys? This horse is quiet these days. The quick and forward and up and down trot I was dealing with a month or 2 ago until we worked through that crap? Completely gone. It’s sort of like he realized this saddle doesn’t hurt and he’s back to being quiet and light and not draggy Nay Nay.

That’s not to say that things are perfect. That right lead is a work in progress. Bending to the right is looking really nice at the trot and we hold the bend nicely at the canter once we get the lead. It’s just picking it up. Building muscle is hard and Nay Nay has some muscle imbalance going on in his back. We’re going to test a few things to make sure that pain isn’t an issue, but, we’re suspect that if pain is involved, it’s pain from weakness vs pain from injury. So, once he builds that muscle? Picking up that canter shouldn’t be an issue. It’s not so much that he can’t, but rather some anxiety that it could be hard or might hurt. Once he gets it? Ears go forward and he’s 100% on board and OK, just significantly weaker.

We’ve played around with a little jumping work too. He’s a couple of lessons ago he jumped a gate for the first time. We practiced that for a few rides in which he then decided said gate did not need to be trotted but instead should be galloped. But, despite some enthusiasm, we maintained an acceptable pace without pulling. He also jumped a cross rail with a flower box this weekend just because. He didn’t care for it one direction (we took it as a 3ft fence), but happily trotted in the other way because???

In our lesson today, we worked on a circle over a tiny plank. We’ve worked on this on our own several times, but it was nice to tackle it in a lesson. The the left, we just trotted it several times as I stayed out of Nay’s way. To the right? Same thing until he landed on the right lead. At that point? We let him hold the canter and canter into the jump. I think we held the right lead 2 or 3 times before landing wrong. Our homework? Continue this exercise as the circle will help him build the muscle. If he lands wrong, start back at the trot.

I did have a chat with my trainer as sometimes I feel completely out of place among the $$$ warmbloods and all that. But, she reminded me that everyone has different goals and this used to be what she did all day every day. Green horses and ponies. It was only recently that she ended up with a barn full of AA hunters. I’m having fun, enjoying the journey, learning each ride (as is Nay right now), and it’s OK to have different goals. And, riding and training isn’t linear. We have good days and bad days. We improve and improve and then suddenly everything goes wrong and you suck as a rider, but then you progress faster and improve more before you plummet again. Regardless, right now, I’m happy where I’m at. Of course, I’ll be happier when that right lead is consistent!