Happy Halloween!!

Due to some family issues going on, I went to the barn before Halloween and took these pictures, but figured I'd wait till today to post them.

I love Halloween, because it's the only day you can put anything on that you desire, and people can't call you out on it. Plaid and stripes? No problem. Fairy wings and a water gun? Great. No one can say you're crazy, since it's a costume!!
Haha!!

So....I thought long and hard about what to make my horse dress up as for Halloween. Now, he's sorta white, and really big, and loves to mow down anything in his way to get food. So....I searched through my spare fabric reserves and spent many a minute sewing it. I dressed him up...any guesses as to what his costume is?? Ok, ok, a sailor collar isn't a good enough hint...

Maybe seeing his hat will help...

He's the StayPuft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters!!!

 He was such a good sport for the whole thing, holding still for his sailor collar to be put on, and then I showed him the hat, and after trying to eat it, I held it over his head. I plopped it on and he lowered his head and held still while I tied it under his throat. I snapped a few pictures before relieving him of his embarrassing getup, but he seemed unaffected by it and probably would've worn it for as long as I asked.
This was just for fun, no costume contest or event, just because I could. I've already got plans for next year....

YES!!!

That's what I said on Saturday afternoon...at least in my head. Ok, so here's what we've been up to:

Altivo and I had a lesson last week with our instructor about how a horse can possibly be in a horse trailer without breaking it. (in case you don't remember, here's the blog posting explaining that...) So, my teacher brought one of the lesson horses with us to be a trailer buddy. When horses are riding in a trailer, some of them can be more comfortable if they are with a friend, so we made sure to put the trailer buddy in first, then loaded Altivo up.
He went in without fussing, but wasn't too excited about letting the divider close near him. After some encouragement, he allowed it to close and lock, and we stood outside the trailer to make sure there wouldn't be any anxiety attacks on the inside.

He made it that far! We then drove around in a large circle, and ended up where we started. We stopped, we listened. We got out, we listened. All quiet. We opened the trailer, and unloaded him. No issue. Now, this was important, since I had secured a slot in that very same trailer for the impending Saturday- a trail ride at a lake about 20 minutes away. A. Trail. Ride!!!!!!! Trail ride!!!! ahem. Trail ride.

Saturday came, and I could barely contain my excitement!! This was one of the reasons, maybe even the MAIN reason I have always wanted a horse- to go wandering around the wilderness on horseback, taking in the scenery, and discovering trails. All total, there were 3 trailers, and 7 horses. We made it to the lake, and unloaded Altivo.

The look on his face when he looked around was that of shock and amazement. His ears were perked forward, his head was up, and he sniffed the air, trying to figure out where he was. He wasn't scared, just curious.
He must have been quite a sight to see, since some people who were returning from their rides came up to meet him, and one of them even asked if riding him was possible, since they didn't think draft horses were able to be ridden. Say what?? Oh, sillies.....I educated them, and they were very nice with a pretty palomino. 

After tacking him up, I stared at him, trying to figure out how to get on him....mounting him is a pain as I'm 5' 4" and he's 16.2 hands...so I looked around....and found....a picnic table!


I led him to one of the picnic tables nearby, and he stood nicely while I hopped up. All 7 of us started down the trail that would lead to a lovely 2 hour jaunt. Oh, there was one thing he did NOT like!!

 Yes, a yellow wheelbarrow was parked near a muck pile, and as we came around a corner, it seemed to appall Altivo that anyone would make a wheelbarrow YELLOW. He startled, looked at it, quickly determined that it wasn't food, and walked on.  I'm aware that with alot of horses, the words, "Horse Eating" maybe be applied to the beginning of an object to describe things. Like, "Horse Eating Balloon", or "Horse Eating Mundane Object", since, being prey animals, they tend to fear things that to us, seem silly. One of the horses on the trail ride startled at a large rock, so therefore, it became a "Horse Eating Rock". Get it?
Well, nothing beside the wheelbarrow wanted to eat him, even when confronted with a lone cow. (HF calls it a steak-horse, and anytime I think of that, I giggle.)

Anyhoo, we meandered through the lovely countryside, up hills and down them, over a fallen tree, and to a lake bed. And he didn't trip once! I asked for a trot several times, and he happily obliged without the use of a Motivation Stick (aka Mr. Spanker), and he seemed to have a good time. Both of us, being out of shape, were dragging a little on the way back, but I can't wait to go again!!!

So there you have it- OH!! And Monday, he had his teeth floated, and I didn't get photos cuz there's this pesky thing called "work" that I had to do, so that I could pay the vet....but, the vet said there wasn't anything remarkable, just the typical points on the teeth, which to me meant that they needed to be done.
And I'm working on Altivo's Halloween costume- stay tuned for pictures!!!

Improvement? We haz it!

So, first off..

An open letter to Altivo.

Dear Lazy White/Grey horse:
I cheated on you. I went on a trail ride on another horse. A mare, even. I blame HorseFriend. She's the one who threw a bareback pad on her Quarter horse and told me to hop on. She was there with her Morgan, so I can't lie about it- I have too many witnesses. Next thing I knew, we were out on the trail and I just couldn't help it!! I was a little scared, since I was bareback, and her mare is a little green, but her personality is similar to yours so I did all right. I know you won't really care since I bring you apples and pears but I just needed to come clean. Guilt is an awful thing.

We didn't ride for very long, really, and the brush wasn't that edible....so don't be mad, ok?

-BigGreenGirl

Ok, next on the update-
Big improvements with the big horse (my sister said he's as big as a bus....) since I blogged last!!

First, here's what we did.

1. I had a bodyworker touch him. I admit, I was skeptical that the bodyworker would be able to do anything for him, after all, a horse bodyworker doesn't seem to be able to do much, but really, it was interesting watching her. She lifted his ribcage, pushed and pulled on various parts of his body, and yanked on his tail. She showed me how to do certain moves sort of like a "horsie yoga" and how to stretch parts of him to keep things aligned and happy.

2. Asked the trimmer to back up his toes a teeny bit. Basically, he shaved down the hoof in the front of it slightly, so that it gives lazy horses who don't pick their feet up a little more ground clearance as they move.

3. Bought a new bit. This one is a sweet iron twisted snaffle. That means that the part that goes in the horse's mouth is made of "cold rolled steel" which rusts and supposedly has a sweet taste to it. I didn't get the bit for that reason, I got it because I wanted a twisted snaffle bit and the sweet iron one was the only kind in his size....Yeah. Most bits are 4-5 inches wide...he's a 6 1/2. sigh.  Moving on... Twisted means that instead of a straight piece of metal, it's twisted around to give the horse a different feel in his mouth. It doesn't hurt them, but it does make them pay attention just a little more. Here's a picture-

4. 2 times a week he gets a "schooling ride", where he is put through his paces by someone who knows what they're doing.



Now....all of this combined....and the tripping has all but stopped. I took him out this morning for a ride, through the sand arena, the pea gravel round pen, the dirt arena, the back pasture, and the gravel road. He tripped once in the back pasture, because he was staring at a cat in the field and not watching where his feet were going. I worked on trotting him and controlling his direction at the same time, as he seems to be rusty on it, and he trotted willingly and without issue.


I'm overdue for a lesson, but I was on vacation and then the weather got so insanely hot that I backed out of a couple- I can't concentrate when it's 100 degrees out and I'm on top of a 100 degree animal. But I'll blog about it when I take another lesson. Should be soon.

Oh, and I found yet another horse blog that I love- here ya go!!

www.horseandman.com

Altivo in the arena

Lesson recap!


 Actually, I've had 2 since my last post, but I'll lump them in together, since they were quite similar, just with different horses. Why am I not riding my big baby? No, he's fine, I'll get to that in a second. Both of these lessons involved trotting, and learning to post the trot. Posting is where you let the horse's gait raise you out of the saddle, in a timed and controlled manner to make the trot comfortable for both of you. It's a TON worse if you just sit and jiggle about for the trot, and I don't think the horse appreciates it too much either.


 So you have to time your muscles to "catch" yourself and lower your butt in time to have it thrown out of the saddle again. It's all about finding the rhythm of the horse and going with it. The first horse I rode while trying to post the trot was Casper- remember, he was the very first horse I rode at lessons?? He is a Quarter Horse, so his trot is very quick, meaning lots of little posts, rather than lots of time to find the rhythm. His advantage, though, is that he's small, very wise, and is sort of a "babysitter" for newbies.

Next, Chinook. He's a big Tennessee Walker, around the same height as Altivo, so I was familiar with that, and his trot is quite similar to my horse's. A very slow, even trot that is easy to follow, however, he's very eager to go, and may offer to gait for you, instead of trot.


I have to say, Chinook was more comfortable, however, it was good that I rode Casper first. I had that tripping issue with Altivo- remember?  I have to admit that it made me just a teensy bit fearful of trotting...afraid that the horse I'm on is going to trip and fall and I'm going down with him. This, I recognize, is not good. I seem to be more comfortable controlling the horse on my own, and I think that it's because on the lunge line, it's a tighter circle, there's the element of turning fairly sharply thrown in there, whereas if I'm controlling the horse, it's in a larger area, no rope connecting us, and I have more balance. I talked to myself (don't we all?) and tried to tell me it wasn't a big deal, I need to relax, but I'll need to keep talking.





Ok, so the big guy is stumbling occasionally while under saddle at a trot. Y'all remember the blog post about the tripping episode....right? Well, here's a video of him, and it's not until the veeeeerrry end that he trips.....so if you don't watch it all I can't blame you...it's a giant white horse running in circles. I am unsure what to do since he doesn't have anything wrong with him that anyone can find....but that's why I'm not riding him in lessons. I need to be able to learn on a dependable horse who doesn't trip all over the place, and until we know what causes his fumble-footedness, I can't ride him in lessons. I know every horse is dangerous, inherently, but I'm not sure what to do for him, short of taking him to UC Davis for a full workup. BLARGH.

Self propelled guilt trip

It's been waaaaaay hot these past couple o'days, and I haven't gone out to the barn to see the horsie.

I feel bad!! Honestly, though, I'm not sure he's concerned, since he's still getting fed, and that's Altivo's main concern in life.

But, prior to my hiatus from the barn, I started training him to lay down for mounting. (Read the last post if you need to know why...)  I found a few videos on YouTube and immediately headed to the barn to make use of my new-found expertise.
Well, Mr. Lippy was more concerned about getting his treat than figuring out what I wanted, but he at least figured out the idea of lifting his foot up when lowering his head, so even if I ask him to lower his head for his carrot stretch, he picks his foot up.

I've got a lesson scheduled for tomorrow night, but on one of my instructor's horses. We both think I'm ready to move to more advanced things than walking in circles, but Altivo isn't advanced enough in HIS training to allow me to learn what I need to know. Once I get more advanced on a better trained horse, I can use those learned techniques while riding him. He hasn't shown any more tripping or falling episodes, so I've been riding him and walking him up and down hills and the steps in the outdoor arena.

Well, I know this wasn't a very exciting update, but have no fear, bold readers, I'll be back with more hijinks later!!!

Oh, and here's a link to a great horse rescue- the owner updates the homepage every morning, never archives it, so if you don't check it everyday, you don't get to read that day's post. He also never updates the horses for adoption on his ranch, but trust me, this guy is an angel, and his writing style is lovely!!

TB Friends

Till next time!!

Do horses get ADD???

Ok, so I wrote about my experience at the AFatGirlAFatHorse forums, but I'll re-post it here:

Well, the other night, Altivo was all saddled up, my teacher checked the saddle to be sure I'd cinched him up properly, and we started my lesson- all went normally, until she put him on the lunge line to trot him, so that I could work on my seat and balance.

All of a sudden, while he was trotting, he stumbled in the sand arena, and fell down on his front end, and I got lurched forward. My instructor quickly got him up, and I had put my hand out forward to stop myself from tumbling over him, and ended up gripping with my legs, holding onto the saddle horn with one hand and pushing against his neck with the other.

As soon as he got up, I dismounted so that she could lunge him and check him for any issues (there were none), and she chalked it up to his being out of shape, and I hopped back on. She trotted him with me up on him without incident after that.

Holy crud, that was scary!!! I was scared, but at the same time, dang proud of myself that I managed to stay on. It happened so fast that I have a hard time replaying it in my mind, and I know a fall is bound to happen eventually, but never having had one, it's unsettling to be reminded about it.

Ok, so, my amazingly awesome teacher and I talked about what could potentially be wrong....and I made a vet appointment. We still used him for my lessons, and I still rode him, but we only asked him to walk, no more than that.

 Then, a couple days later, the vet showed up, and she spent almost 2 hours with him. She had me trot him in various directions, she did flexion tests, where she held a foot in a specific way and then had me take off trotting with him, then she touched all of his legs, walking him up hills and over curbs, and then there were 10 essay questions. Ok, so I made that last one up.

But she really looked him over, and figured out.....

He's lazy, bored, and has a short attention span.

Really? Well, as far as anyone can tell, yes. That, and he's out of shape, which could be a small part of it.
Unless he gets worse or this becomes a more prominent issue, then that's the diagnosis at the moment.

So I'm continuing to ride him, and we've noticed that he trips less and pays more attention when he's outside....I suppose I'd get bored turning in circles in an arena all day, but I will still continue to monitor his progress.

So BGG got curious....What is Giant Inattentive Horse like bareback??

I'll tell you...but first, I will tell you that as of last night, I had no clue. Let's rewind to yesterday, shall we??

I went to the barn alone yesterday. When I arrived, I realized, no one else was in the barn either. I'm pretty self sufficient nowadays, what with a very patient horse and all. So I tacked him up, and we went for a short walk around the property. He did well, though he tried to eat some yummy looking grass a couple of times...if only I'd thought to bring Mr. Spanker with me!!! I managed to yank him away with a sharp kick, and we finished our ride.
Then, I thought, I shall get on him bareback!! I removed saddle, saddle pad, breast collar, and put them away. I walked him out to the arena with his bridle, and I parked him next to the tallest mounting block there.
I took a handful of mane along with the reins, and looked at his huge back. I swung my leg up, and....

Stood there.
With one foot on the mounting block. One on the horse.
The horse stood there, calmly, waiting for the half mounted idiot on his back to either get on or fall off. It was surreal, how quietly he stood.

I hopped with my left foot. Nothing.
I used my right foot to try to heave myself over the rest of the way. Nothing.
I grabbed at mane and pulled at air. Nothing.

Then, something.
Altivo took one step backwards. One. With that one step, he dragged my foot off the mounting block and I was hanging on to his neck, in a sort of weird performance art-type pose. I'll call it, "Girl, unfinished".
I slid down the rest of the way, thanked Altivo for being as quiet as he was, and put him away for the night.

Now, tonight, I asked told BigGreenHusband that he was coming with me to be a stepstool. I bridled him, led him to the arena, and grabbed the tallest mounting block. I swung my leg over, and BigGreenHusband shoved my butt up, and poof!!

I was on my horse, without saddle or stirrups!!! He was comfortable, and wide like a recliner. His skin didn't shift alot, so I didn't feel like I was going to slide to either side easily. I had to grab on to his mane to steady myself about 3 or 4 times, usually when he was turning, but for the most part, I felt balanced and solid.
Granted, we only walked, since I'm not solid at a trot yet in a saddle, let alone bareback, so walking was as fast as we went.
AND....since this was the first time I'd ever been on him bareback, we stayed in the boring ole arena, because even though I wear a helmet, I didn't want my first fall off a bareback horse to be too ouchy. (ok, so I didn't fall off, but I like to be prepared...)

Photos or it didn't happen, right?

There me are!!!

It felt so free, to just hop on and go....but it seems to me until I have a ton more experience under my belt, in order to work on my posture and seat, I need to use my saddle more than not....but maybe a treeless saddle will be in my future???

Watch her go!!!

So I, being the diligent (over thinking really...) horse owner, cleaned out horsie's feet like I do daily (or mostly daily), and I came across this:

A piece of his sole just lifted right up, and I was told this was "Thrush", which seems sorta like athlete's foot for horses....my instructor had told me before that spraying apple cider vinegar on the hooves helps prevent it, so that's what I bought...I sprayed it on his back feet last night, and I'll do that every night from now on. He didn't seem to care, and it only takes a second.
I also started making him stretch- called Carrot Stretches- basically making him stretch to get a treat, which in turn helps keep him limber and flexible. Well, he didn't get it...still doesn't really get it. I want him to stand still and bend his neck to get his treat...he wants to walk in circles around me to get to his prize. So I ended up walking in circles with him for a little bit until he caught on. Day 2, same thing, he tried to walk around me to get to the treats, then realized I wanted him to stay put- he figured it out eventually. I'm hoping that in a couple days he'll catch on.
Also, I grew some HUGE carrots in my garden, so I cut one in half and let him chase me around the arena with it...

I'm glad no one was around, or at least I think no one was around, watching a heavyset lady run around a covered arena waving a giant carrot, with her heavyset horse trotting after her, waging a battle with himself between trotting for the yummy treat or being lazy and standing still.....