Mae!

Mae has, since June!!, been lame to some degree. All told, I haven't ridden her that much. Her lameness has resulted from strained ligaments in one or both of her front fetlocks.

We tried box rest, a mix of box rest and quiet turnout and full turnout. She was sound for a brief time in September, but it didn't last.

Anyway, she was vetted on Wednesday as being sound and recommended to longe her gently at walk and trot for 15 minutes a day.

Mae is hilarious on the longe. When you send her away at first, she usually squeals and humps her back with what I presume is excitement. Sometimes she squeals and runs, pumping her legs and scrambling around the circle. Sometimes she waits until she's done her first walk and trot and then flips out on her second trot when I ask her to pick up speed.

Today, I longed her outdoors in the snowy manege. The ground was firm but not frozen. She squealed initially but seemed settled, until...her second trot on the left rein. She went to trot and then jumped off the ground on all four feet, struck out both her front legs, and went to put her head between her knees.

I shouted at her to get down - it's like having a ginormous salmon on the line! And she did, and was fine after that.

I find it hilarious. I know not to let her get away with it, and I always correct her behaviour, but it's so funny, listening to her noises and watching her play. She's one fun girl, and I've never bonded with a mare, but she's pretty cool.

Winter! This winter!

The girls coming up to be fed.
Look! Schneeeee! Or neige, as I should say, in my current French state. I think I took this picture on the 1st November, so my last post about how hot it was neglected to mention that we'd had our first snow! The photo ponies are, l to r: Mae, Gracie and Amber, clearly not feeling the pose at that time.

Today when I went out to do the morning check it was -8c, so we're getting there!

The water buckets were all deeply frozen this morning so I went out with my bales of hay and my hammer and fed the horses and smashed their ice. When I went back a couple of hours later, they had refrozen, but Chelsea had kicked through her ice, Ella was in the process of kicking through the ice in the bucket in the big field, and Lilly had created a hole just about the size of her muzzle and was biting and crunching on the ice around the edge of the bucket. She's very enterprising!

Clipping has begun and Dee Dee and Tatoum, the two hairiest hardworkers are fully clipped out. It's nice to work normally and not end up in a gross sweat! Tatoum is still enjoying hardcore trails and also lateral work. She's working very hard at flexions to the left and I'm beginning extended trot and simple canter lead changes.

I'm working a couple of times a week with Dee Dee now. She's a 3.5 year old Kentucky Saddle Horse but she is not ridden gaited. She has a nervous mouth and tends to tuck her nose into her chest so she is being ridden in a combination of a bit and a bitless at the same time, so the signals are lessened on each area and she can focus on different sensations. I'm also working with her on listening to seat aids, as this effectively negates the need to pull on her mouth at all. In an ideal world, our horses would respond to tiny aids that were invisible to anyone watching. The tensing of muscles or an exhale. She is doing well.

Also doing well is Ella, who is also doing hardcore trails, although we had a blip where twice on the same trail she flat out refused to walk over a small ditch, having to follow another horse. Today though, we cracked it - literally, in the case of the icy puddles! - and she went over without a hitch. Ella has a new sense of self, it seems, with her increasing fitness and strength in her back. Where she used to be sluggish and uninterested, she is now prancy and has purpose to her paces. Her canter has improved to the point where she only pops out behind if she loses focus and spooks, and I do lots of medium size circling and straight lines with her to build this up. I recently learned how to ask a trained horse for a spin - thanks, Chelsea! - and the other day, as Ella has learned how to show a few steps of pivot, where she crosses the front legs whilst pivoting on the back, I put the rein to her neck at the halt and squeezed with the same side leg. Sure enough, she instantly gave me a few steps of crossover! I was thrilled, as I've never 'formally' taught her to neck rein, although we have done a little of turn on the haunches, as well as turn on the forehand.

My plan for her is to keep things easy, whilst increasing her strength and fitness. She won't be 4 until August, and she already knows a great deal, so I think it important not to keep adding things on to this until she has matured more. Over the winter I will work on the difference between tolt and trot, perhaps introduce some poles and logs to hop over, and do as many trails as possible.

Stormy the crazy has recently been clipped and become a barn horse. She'd gone through a good period but had rapidly become impossible to catch without coralling all the horses in the field at once and weeding her out! After that incident, she went straight into a single paddock and instantly became a 'please catch me!' horse, when she realised food came from the human! Her training is going from strength to strength, although of course she still has her 100% crazy moments, like being scared of a hose running behind her, or forgetting what 'over' means and then panicking, or a chain clanking on metal or, well, whatever scares her that day. But she's getting there.

Also, the big mare herd is much happier without her! With her, there were two distinct groups, her buddies, a momma and 3 year old daughter, and the other 3 Rocky mares. Stormy and her momma buddy would pick on the 3 girls and the girls would pick on the 3 year old. Now Stormy's outta there, there's harmony. The momma is the boss, the 3 year old is tolerated by the others, and there are no snake-faced attacks at the hay feeder. Bliss.

Winter? What winter?!

So, it was 18.5c today. It was my day off so I was running errands, not riding, but still! It's winter! In Canada! The snow will be here soon enough I'm certain!

I'm sat watching the Royal Winter Fair World Cup Qualifier. Pretty interesting. They just had the retirement ceremony for Special Ed and the tribute to Hickstead, both of which were very moving. I didn't know much about Hickstead, but I was fortunate enough to watch the CN International this year at Spruce Meadows - only on the TV, mind - but seeing him win from last draw, needing a clear round showed me exactly what a star he was, and the way Eric Lamaze gave him all the credit highlighted a superb partnership. I grew up watching horses like Milton, Dollar Girl, Jus de Pomme, It's Otto, Goldfever (to this day I'm in awe of Ludger Beerbaum's lower leg!), Mon Santa in show jumping and Hickstead is obviously up there with all of them. Horses such as Ready Teddy, King William, Murphy Himself, Bounce in eventing, all big hearted, big character champions. I like that a lot in a horse. Reminds me of Frankie's attitude, if not his scope. But he's only 14.3!

In farm news, we now have a stallion, a black, Rocky Mountain stallion named Dee. He's been nicely trained and will cover mares from April 2012.

Bond the wonder horse progressed on to more intense canter work, so intense it nearly made him piaffe, but he did well. He's now taking a break to see if that helps him mellow out.

Stormy the scared is working hard with us, mainly the other girl, not me! She's ridden 5 times a week now and is learning to flex and go steady between the reins, as well as a little bit of lateral work.

Ella's canter is literally going from strength to strength and I've even tried a little trot - as opposed to a gait - with her, which she's managed easily.

Tatoum, the big Canadian, is working hard on her lateral movements, mainly shoulder in and leg yield at trot and canter, but I'm introducing haunches in and half pass.
Tatoum and I, forging the way.

We discovered new trails on adjoining land last week, so we bandaged the horses up, donned the trail saddles, pocketed the marker tape and off we went into the unknown! Boy, was it thrilling! It was wet, muddy, rocky, boggy, hilly, everything you could want. I took Tatoum and we led the way, crashing through undergrowth, splashing through endless mud, leaping over logs and ditches. She's a brill trail horse, sometimes needs a bit of encouragement to cross rushing water, but she's game.