Nay Nay and I had an unexpected little break.

Did a lot of this during his time off

I noticed some puffiness in his right hind a couple of weeks ago and decided to sit and try and see if it resolved itself. He wasn’t lame, it wasn’t hot, but there was definitely about a half an inch of puffiness in a tendon/ligament near his fetlock. He also decided to mysteriously lose his right lead for the 2-3 rides leading up to this time…

Anyway, I tried a bunch of stuff and in the end, the swelling stayed and Nay Nay continued to feel just fine and had no issues with his 2-week vacation. He was sound, happy, and didn’t seem to care what I did to that leg.

New bit sucks

I finally touched base with the vet and it’s been diagnosed as fluid in the tendon sheath/ a windpuff. The prescription? Ride the damn horse. Right now we’re trying to see if fluid disappears at all when riding. It doesn’t during turnout and it certainly doesn’t get better standing in his stall. But, the thought is it’s probably just chronic and stems back from his racing days. He wasn’t heavily raced (14 starts), but his legs are a mess (osselets in his front right and he’s been pin fired in both fronts). Despite that, he flexes fine and is sound (my farrier is shocked at his range of movement in his ugly leg… it’s just that, ugly). Down the line he will likely need maintenance, but for now? The vet feels 3 days a week of riding is perfectly acceptable and he can w/t/c and pop over jumps without restriction. The fact is, he hasn’t taken a lame step during this episode, I was the paranoid one.

So do ear bonnets

So, yesterday after 2 weeks or so off, we headed over to the barn to ride. Nay Nay was a bit… up. My trainer asked me to change my bit my last lesson. I did and Nay Nay hasn’t been a fan. We first switched into a single jointed full cheek (thanks Michele). Nay Nay HATED that thing. I could not steer at all. I’ve never felt this horse heavy in my hands either (he was in a double-jointed loose ring copper mouth snaffle). After 2 rides of pure hell on the flat (fences weren’t as bad in that I could keep him IN the arena), I decided to give up and purchased a double-jointed full cheek for yesterday’s ride. He still dislikes the full cheek, but he doesn’t object to the mouthpiece. I’m actually wondering if our missing right lead may relate to the damn bit?

Lots of feelings

Anyway, he was a bit… spicy on the ground and blowing me off so, against my better judgement, I tossed him on the lunge line. And, he’s lost the ability to lunge. Especially to the right. Mostly it is avoidance, partially it is extreme weakness. But, I don’t think it’s injury. Injury wouldn’t prevent him from walking. If I had thought more clearly, I’d have brought my halter out and lunged in that, but… hindsight. I think it’s all the damn bit.

However, once I got his brain installed? (really, it was hot, I wasn’t lunging for energy, it was a training thing… Donkey Kong decided that listening wasn’t part of his vocab… Success was walking in a small circle around me to the right because listening is necessary) I got on to a dead quiet horse. Steering at the walk was MUCH improved as was everything to the left. The right still worked, but significantly better. We didn’t leave the arena once!

We ended with a lovely but brief canter to the left just so I could see where he was.

And Nay Nay picked up the quietest, loveliest canter ever. Recently he’s been scooting past the viewing deck because that’s a great place to speed up. If I stay closer to the jumps, he’s better, but… This ride? Quiet, lovely, relaxed. After he cantered quietly by the viewing deck, I finished the canter across the center of the ring and called it a day even though we barely cantered half the ring. Sometimes you just end on a perfect note.

I alluded in my last lesson recap that I had a terrible ride on Nay Nay last Wednesday. He had energy, I had no brakes, and honestly, I just couldn’t control him. We are making some changes so the ride wasn’t entirely surprising, but it was still… demoralizing.

I took a lesson on Friday hoping to have that same horse so that I could learn to ride him, or at least get the tools to ride him. And luckily that same horse showed up.

The thing is, Nay Nay doesn’t do anything, but at the same time, it’s still not the horse I’ve been riding. And then I get tense which doesn’t help. So… Yeah. On Friday, when we picked up the trot? We went flying forward. Not the lovey puttering trot we’ve had as of late. New rule #1: if he’s fast? pull back immediately, not after 10 strides. Rule 2: start on a small circle. So, after it took me 13 strides to pull him up, we moved to a small circle and worked there for a while, woahing every other stride for a while, then every 3 strides, then every four strides. As he listened, we expanded the circle.

To the right, I started with short reins which helped and we quickly were able to move our circle around different parts of the ring, but, rule 3: be strategic and clear. Also, his lack of bend to the right worked in my favor as I also worked the inside rein to ask him to soften his neck. Honestly, the right is hard and explosions didn’t happen. We made our way through different parts of the ring and it was actually nice.

After trotting, we… cantered. Rule #4: ALWAYS have a plan. The goal with the canter was to stay at the far end of the ring and not pass any jumps. Keep my reins short, and keep him slow. So, I picked up the canter and immediately got yelled at that I needed to shorten my reins and pull my left (?) rein and all sorts of stuff. Rule #5: having a plan isn’t good enough, you must FOLLOW THE PLAN. Eventually, we got the canter figured out and it was slow and nice. We also discovered I am pathetic and don’t know my left from my right, but that’s a post for another day.

The right lead? We started off with the correct length rein though picked up the wrong lead (which no one but me cared about). On a circle though, it’s HARD. That said, he was slow, responsive, and VERY GOOD. Eventually we changed the lead and started expanding the circle till we got around 2/3 of the ring. He was great! We ended with picking back up the left lead canter just to prove I could do it without antics. Done.

So my homework was to practice all of this. And to lunge before I rode in case he needed to get energy/anxiety out pre-ride. Way easier to do that on the line (or running around the indoor) vs with a rider. I was given the rules and the plan, I just needed to stick with it.

I went out Sunday with my plan. I put him on the line and he seemed slow, but…

I got on and… I needed to kick. Kicking wasn’t part of the game plan. WTF horse. To keep him trotting, I needed to kick.

I’m set for the horse I’ve had the last to rides and instead, I have “please kick to make me move forward”?!?!?!?!

I mean, he was fabulous. 100% fabulous. The best ride I have ever had on him. I tried to follow the plan as best I could (meaningful circles, deliberate track around the ring, etc.) but???? Who was this horse? We even popped over a jump because why not?

So, that’s where we’re at. Lesson later today. I don’t know who I’ll be riding. I’m going to lunge because…

While I thought of discussing the tale of 2 rides (Tuesday’s lesson and my ride on Wednesday), I don’t want to minimize the success that was my lesson on Tuesday but dwelling on the demoralizing disaster that Wednesday’s ride was. So, with that, let me talk about my lesson on Tuesday.

You guys, Nay Nay was phenomenal. I don’t even get it. Maybe I grabbed a different horse (who? No idea), but he didn’t put one hoof out of line the entire time we were at the barn. He exceeded expectations.

Breaking up text with a picture!

Normally, Nay Nay lives up to his name and, er, is a bit… vocal. He’s a screamer. He didn’t scream once. Not before I got on, not while I was on, not after we were finished, not on the trailer. He was a gem.

We rode outside. We weren’t alone. In fact, I started freaking out because what started with one horse eventually became 5 horses (including Nay Nay). And… it didn’t matter. We trotted. He was slow (not lethargic), just relaxed and happy. Putting out just enough trot. We made circles and explored the ring and took everything in. And you know? It was all good.

While we were trotting, one of the horses started cantering and eventually popping over some fences. This is when my nerves got to me. I haven’t cantered with another horse before. Been in the ring? Yes. Trotted some (sticking to one end)? Yes, cantered while they were cantering? Nope. I had expressed fears at the beginning and was told we’d addressed this today. I was later told, don’t invent potential problems, ride what you have now. 

This idiot like ornamental grass. Old picture because he’s gained a ton of weight… And that grass is really tall now. 

So, when asked, I picked up the canter. Did Nay Nay care? No. I did ask that no one run me over (or run up his butt), but some of that is PTSD from Subi because he cared and I did get bucked off (at a show of all things) from a horse running up our butt (into our butt) so… Lol. Nay Nay never changed his pace. He didn’t care. Life was good.

Both leads were the same. Even when a horse came cantering towards him nothing mattered. Seriously. I cannot explain how amazing he was.

must keep eating

We moved on and trotted the same little fence from my last post. We trotted it from both turns heading into the corner and he happily jumped over, cantering out. From there? We cantered over it, picking our canter up in the corner and cantering the long ride to it. And he was perfect. Life was good. He was very proud of himself.

Without going into details about Wednesday’s ride, I will say he wasn’t bad (though he did try and roll before I got on and while I was on at the end of the ride). He just had energy. A lot of energy considering it was 90 degrees and blazing hot. I rode Wednesday at the request of my trainer to test something out. He wasn’t mentally upset, but he had energy. I’m pretty sure that nothing I could have done would have tired him out. He also has had energy many of the last several rides (with the random exception of Tuesday). I’ve lunged him several times.

We trotted, he wanted to canter. At one point I just let him canter, but I can’t say it helped. I didn’t feel like I had brakes. I don’t like that feeling. I got to the point that I felt like we could walk calmly, stand calmy, and did a bit of trotting (after we walked and trotted and randomly cantered) and called it a day. He was done at that point (and hot and wanted to roll or canter) even though he had energy. I was done. And it was time to stop. I signed up for a lesson on Friday hoping that I have the Wednesday horse vs the Tuesday horse so my trainer can walk me through riding the Wednesday horse because I can ride the Tuesday horse without issue (though the Tuesday horse is much more fun).

I look awful, he looks cute

This morning, it came to me that I might be feeding him too much alfalfa. Nay Nay isn’t being bad, but he has had so much energy (and isn’t being bad about it, but he probably doesn’t need all that protein for the amount of work he’s doing right now). He’s put weight on really fast once we cut the grain and his body stopped fighting his feed. But, perhaps he doesn’t need as many pounds of alfalfa right now. That’s a lot of freaking protein… When I start to calculate the amount of alfalfa forage he’s eating, it’s a little much. I might have created my own problem here without realizing it. I was so worried about his weight that… Oops.

So my thoughts are to replace his alfalfa pellets with alfalfa timothy pellets. Or, I could replace half the alfalfa pellets with orchard grass pellets. He does get a flake of alfalfa hay each night that’s about 5-7lbs (I should weigh it, but it’s super dense and flakey and…) plus orchard alfalfa hay because that’s all he’ll eat.

In terms of pellets:

• Alfalfa pellets are min 16% protein
• Alfalfa-Timothy pellets are min. 12% protein
• Orchard grass pellets are 8% protein
• Timothy grass pellets are 8% protein

So yeah. That’s where I’m at. Open to all suggestions. I just calculated how many pounds of alfalfa he’s eating and… I’m not sharing the number. Tuesday he didn’t finish his dinner on Monday night or Tuesday morning. Just saying.

Next door neighbors setting off fireworks into my woods and making jokes about what they set on fire doesn’t help…

I’ve been struggling a little bit with confidence and motivation lately. Riding, it’s a head game. I haven’t been helped by being completely overwhelmed by work lately (I’m still at home and anticipate working from home through at least July 15 when we hope to begin some services on campus — this still means will be working remotely, at least in part). Somehow, I just have too much going on and I’ve internalized a lot and… It’s just put me in a bad place.

Riding and horses should be my escape, but I’m still getting to know Nay Nay and he’s green and while not unpredictable, my brain isn’t convinced he’s not. So I’m waiting for an explosion or a bolt to happen. It’s terrible but I just need time.

This cutie is always smiling

I tried to schedule a lesson last week and my trainer was…unreachable. Communication isn’t her strong point. People used to have set lesson times which made it easy to fit other people in. Then the pandemic happened and people started riding at weird times. Then people just started signing up on her schedule when they wanted to ride. The issue with this? If you text her when her schedule isn’t in front of her? She doesn’t schedule you and usually forgets to get back to you. This happened twice last week. I gave up. Then felt bad for myself and didn’t go out Saturday because I was in a weird place mentally (I also didn’t realize all this scheduling stuff, just figured that she wasn’t looking at her schedule and forgot–one of the boarders filled in the details).

Will work for food

I went out Sunday knowing that a million people were going to be at a show. The first schooling show in a while and the barn would be empty. I hadn’t ridden my horse in a week. Not ideal. I did some lunging and he was pretty good, but Nay gets bored and loses focus pretty quickly and starts screaming… He does it out of anxiety and he does it out of boredom. It’s freaking annoying. After trotting and cantering each way, I got on.

We were joined by another horse and Nay was thrilled. He’s decided he loves having 1 other horse in the ring with him, especially outside. So I got on and found, for the first time ever, Nay had energy. We trotted and circled and changed direction and occasionally cantered a few steps, but he had energy. That said, he never did anything.

Eventually, we walked and let the other horse jump. Then we cantered. I rode like crap and could not sit back (tension), but nothing happened. I have no idea why I’m so pitched forward. Part of it, most of it, is being outside. I have this complex about the outdoor. But part of it is just staying out of his way and that includes a light seat. But I don’t need to be so far forward!

To the right? More of the same.  That said, he was feeling crazy good going to the right and tossing his head in celebration. What I got out of the right was that if he’s up and feeling good, but only tosses his head and keeps his hind end in check? It’s not really too big of a deal. So that was good.

When I got on, I put a fence down to a tiny little vertical and decided I’d work on that. We jumped it one way without issue (no video) — he carried me over a few times, then launched himself over because why not give it 150%???

I did get video of our 2 attempts to the right. The first time? He decided that trotting was overrated and cantered the last few strides because why not canter in on a horse who isn’t confident over fences… LOL. He was having fun.

He also had a crazy amount of energy. When I changed direction to trot it again, he took it as a sign to canter so struggled to bring him back to the trot again. So the next video is me telling him he as energy with him trotting nicely.

Before I left for the day, I did sign up for a lesson today. Cross your fingers I don’t die. I definitely need to ride more.