This weekend at the barn I was accosted with one of the biggest dangers known to man… someone trying to give you a puppy. It took every ounce of restraint I had, but I was able to walk away from her (after taking a few pictures and sending them to the SO of course). The key is to not make direct eye contact… it’s a known fact that puppy eyes steal your soul. We already have two dogs, a 9yo and a 7yo, so it really probably isn’t the right time to add a puppy into the mix. Boy she was cute though and I was super tempted.

Otherwise it was a pretty typical weekend. Saturday morning was a semi-long flatwork session, and Henry was really superb. I think he likes his new shoes. When I got on Sunday morning for my lesson he was feeling a bit tired though (the humidity was pretty high). Because of that we kept the flatwork as brief as possible then went right to work. Our o/f warmup was a simple figure eight over a small vertical, jumping it at an angle.

The first time over we were a bit too bold with our pace, but once I compressed the canter a little it worked out really well. Henry’s always pretty game to jump on an angle. After that we did more of a square figure eight… the goal being to get the horse very straight over the jump even off a quite short (the turn was only about 2 strides away from the jump) approach.

That also went pretty well, although now I was whoa-ing a little too much instead of continuing to come forward out of the turn, which made for a couple really deep distances.

Then we strung a course together. Same vertical went up to about 3′, jumping off the right lead. Then left turn to an airy oxer (about 3’3″), back to the first vertical again, right turn to the outside in-and-out which was a forward one stride, around to a vertical to vertical short two-stride.

Again I started too slow, which made the one stride pretty gappy. For some reason I was having a heck of a time holding onto my right rein and it completely slipped through my hand coming into the two stride. I also biffed the distance so between those two things I abandoned ship instead of trying to jump out. I had the same problem the second attempt… it’s like I start out too conservative with the pace, then build as we go. And having a very short two stride right after a pretty forward one stride really pointed that out. Tricky course design, Trainer… very tricky. Finally we did manage to get it right, so we ended on that note. I will say that we really nailed that single oxer every time, which is pretty amazing for me because normally I’m of the “big single oxer in the middle of nowhere – I shall change my mind 9000 times on the approach and end up totally eating it!” type. Henry gets a bucket of cookies for being super game the whole time, even with my mistakes, and even though the jumps were on the big side for him, and even though he was tired. Good po-neigh.

After that he got a nice cool bath and a long graze. I also spent some time this weekend trying to figure out our fall schedule. Basically so far I’ve got a jumper show (low stuff, I don’t think he’s quite ready to show in the higher division offered at our local shows), a hunter derby, an eventing derby, and a schooling horse trial. We shall never be bored!

Since I’m off today I’m headed out again… we’ll see how tired he feels. Hope everyone else is enjoying a long weekend too!

 

 

With the farrier. As in, now he recognizes him on sight and stares at him lovingly with stars in his eyes the entire time he’s there.

Why, you ask? Cookies. I counted and he got no less than EIGHT cookies off the farrier by making his super irresistable “You give me cookie now, yes???” face. Farrier also talks to him, fly sprays him, rubs him, and tells him how fabulous he is. I guess I can’t blame him for being in love. But really, when Henry started licking the back of Farrier’s neck and laying his head on his back with his eyes close in pure bliss (while Farrier said “Umm… buddy…”), I came undone in hysterical fits of laughter. He loves him a lot like this:

Want to see what that looks like? Well, minus the laying his head on his back part, because I was laughing too hard to take pictures of that.

 

On a more exciting note, my Aztec Diamond stuff arrived yesterday! Will do a full review next week after I’ve gotten a few rides and a wash or two in.

 

 

 

I’m sure everyone has seen this goofy video by now about what your helmet choice says about you.

 

Look… I love my Speed Air, I really do.

And I know this is supposed to be a joke.

But I dunno y’all…

I just don’t get it.

I don’t understand what she’s trying to say about me.

 

 

 

Warning: this is a kinda lengthy diatribe comprised of a lot of personal opinion.

Like everyone else, I’m a big fan of keeping horses sound and happy for as long as possible. My first horse was purchased as an older, been-there-done-that jumper. Being a teenager I really didn’t know a whole lot yet about how to keep a horse sound long term, so it took until he was starting to come up pretty sore in the hind end before the vet was called. He flexed quite lame in both hocks… it was past the point of prevention and now to the point of treatment. Hock injections were the only option. The first injections lasted him a year, the next lasted 6 months, then after that they were wearing off in just a few months. That was when I decided to retire him.

I learned a lot from that horse about how I want to manage my future horses, especially the young ones, to help ensure future soundness. I will admit that sticking a needle in a joint scares the absolute crap out of me and I think our sport in general is way too blasé about it, thus I’m a big believer in doing everything possible before it gets to that point. Over the years with lots of horses and lots of different experiences I’ve narrowed it down to my 4 big things:

Feet, footing, turnout, joint support.

Feet have to be well balanced and maintained meticulously. If that means a 4-5 week shoeing cycle, so be it. If that means some kind of special shoeing to help support a conformational or gait abnormality, lets do it. I just can’t/won’t deal with bad farrier work.

Footing… I really believe that bad footing is the worst thing for a horse’s long term soundness. It’s so imperative that it be even, the right depth, well maintained, and of proper material. Years of working in bad footing or even just sub-par footing can have really detrimental effects on a horse’s long term soundness, whether it be too much concussion on the front feet, too much strain on the hocks, repeated micro-tears in soft tissue, etc. I won’t board at a barn with bad footing and I won’t go to a horse show with bad footing. That’s made me the subject of ridicule at times and I know I’m a nut about it, but footing. All horse people should try to educate themselves on what makes the difference between good footing and bad footing, and reading this article is a good start. It’s amazing how many people just don’t know the difference. And IMO the good footing rule extends to turnout as well. I’d rather mine stay inside for a day than be turned out in slick mud. Overprotective mom? Maybe.

As far as joint support, I’ve never been a big fan of oral supplements. I really think that they pee/poop most of it out, and that stuff is not cheap. With the past couple show horses I’ve had I developed a great love for Pentosan, which is an IM injection. Watch this video. The basic gist is that it can help both prevent and repair damage in the joint. The best thing is that if you can get a prescription for it you can order it from Wedgewood for only about $14 a dose. Much cheaper than oral supplements, you know the horse is actually getting it, and IM injections are easy. Pretty much all of my horses over the age of 6-7 that are in work go on Pentosan.

The reason I’m rambling about all this is because it’s been on my mind a lot lately as I’ve made a few choices for Henry. He’s been great, soundness wise, knock on wood, but I want to keep him that way. So I got vet and farrier to team up to figure out some shoeing changes that will help support him a bit better (bar shoes for the crooked legged, very naturally low-heeled creature) and his Pentosan injections start today. Let’s face it, even though he’s only 7 and he didn’t race, he spent a lot of time in race training and now he’s a jumper… neither of those are easy lifestyles. If doing a few little things now to go the extra mile will give him better quality of life well into and past his prime, it’s totally worth it to me. I’d rather prevent problems now than treat problems later.

This is not to hate on people who do IA injections on their horses… not at all. I absolutely believe in doing what needs to be done to help the horse, and if Henry really needed it I’d do it in a heartbeat (and probably then make some changes to his lifestyle/program as a result). This is geared toward no one in particular but really just horse sports in general. I obviously had way too much time to stand there and think while the farrier was doing his thing last night. 😉 My stance is merely one of trying to get people to pause and assess their program, asking themselves “what else?” or “what can I do now?”, thinking of it in terms of preventing problems instead of reacting to them after the damage is already done. I wish someone had asked me that 15 years ago.

Soapbox dismount.