Paradigm shift

Barn tales, Life with Circe, Life with Jezebel, OTTB, Vet
Its been a rough week. Weather, sucks, blah blah blah. Its not just the weather though. I've been stressing out about the baby Bo and all things horse. Waking up at 4am fretting and worrying. Yeah, thats going over well in my house </sarcasm.  In an attempt to try to get all my horsey ducks in a row. My trainer gave me the name of the chiropractor (actually a vet, chiropractor, acupuncturist, horse bio-mechanic guy) she uses, he sounded pretty good. When I researched him up I saw he has a lot good feedback from people I respect. I watched a video of him working on a horse and I thought he might be a good fit for us. I called expecting to get his service and leave a message,…
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Attack plan: Step one

Life with Jezebel, OTTB, Vet
[caption id="attachment_971" align="alignleft" width="225"] Derp[/caption] I have a multi pronged attack plan to figure out/deal with Jezebels acting out issues. Vet, Chiro, Saddle fitter, training. Yesterday I had the vet out. The plan was to give Jez the once over and see if there were any physical issues that could be the cause of her, kicking out, bucking, rearing and all around bad attitude when working. It was the first time the new vet was going to evaluate her. We went over her history with the right hind and what issues she  currently having so that Dr. L could get the full story. Then we went to the lunge. The ring was an icy, slushy, snowy mess but i was determined to get her out there on the lunge. Which…
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Time will tell

Life with Circe, Life with Jezebel, OTTB, Training
[caption id="attachment_943" align="alignleft" width="300"] Hi mom![/caption] It was finally unfrozen enough to ride! I had been going down and hanging out with the girls but riding was kinda not an option. I made arrangements for Michelle to come work with them both. Nobody had been on Jezebel since i got tossed though i had lunged her to make sure she was sound. The last time, she looked stiff in the right hind and left neck but not really off just stiff. When I got out to the field i was greeted by a happy Circe and Jez with her blanker half off making a fashion statement. Ha! I guess she didn't want to wear it. I brought them both in and they were amazingly good. Sometimes bringing in two horses…
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Ground work day

Life with Circe, Life with Jezebel, OTTB, Training
[caption id="attachment_918" align="alignleft" width="225"] Have you met my horse "spooks-a-lot" ?[/caption] It was ground work day and by that i mean lunging. I'm still a little sore so i didn't want to ride and well riding Jezebel is on the back burner for right now aways. When i went to pull the girls from the field all of the horses were on the cow side of the field. They share the field with two beef cattle (Suzy and Jenny) there are gates separating the two areas but they are open 24/7 and they all mingle. The cows have their own run in but not today, today they horses had taken it over. All 9 of them were on the cow side invading the cows space. As i walked up i…
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Rainy days

Life with Circe, Life with Jezebel, OTTB
[caption id="attachment_911" align="alignleft" width="300"] Hi mom, can we go for a walk[/caption] It rained all night and into the day. The horses were kept in. When I got to the barn they were both happy to see me. I love how Circe is really starting to let her personality come out. She also knows she's my horse. Nickering to me when I arrive. What a sweet pony. I looked at the ring to see if I wanted to let the girls run around and stretch their legs. It was all sloppy and way to wet. I didn't need anyone slipping. I decided to walk them each up and down the driveway. Jez was up first and was really good. Even though this was just a little stretch your legs walk…
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A donut without a hole is just a danish

Life with Jezebel, OTTB
[caption id="attachment_903" align="alignleft" width="300"] Tacking up on rear day[/caption] I woke up at about 2am with a start worried about Jezebel. Being sore all up and down my left side from my tail-bone to my atlas vertebrae in my neck didn't help but really it was because I kept thinking and worrying about my girl. My mind racing with what ifs. What if shes injured again, what if were in for another layup, all the hospital paddocks are full how will i get her on restricted movement of thats what i need to do,  what if this rearing thing is permanent, how much is it going to cost me to fix this and on and on and on. I do worry about her and rightly so but this was just…
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Pain, agression, disobedience?

Life with Circe, Life with Jezebel, OTTB
[caption id="attachment_895" align="alignleft" width="300"] The red-head and my better half[/caption] It was a lovely 50 degrees outside and after a big breakfast my better half and I headed down to the barn. His lesson was canceled do to the place being the venue for a horse show. The plan was for me to ride both girls with lots of time being spent in the back half of the ring. I tacked up Circe first and lead her to the ring which was empty. I hopped on and she was really pretty good. No spook, no zoom. Sure there was head tossing when i put my leg on and sure she got behind the bit a lot and often did her giraffe impression but after about 20 minutes she worked though…
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The wild ones

Barn tales, Life with Circe, Life with Jezebel, OTTB, Training
[caption id="attachment_890" align="alignleft" width="300"] Circe being good[/caption] It finally melted... the snow, it finally melted. I made plans with my trainer to ride both the girls Saturday afternoon. Sunday is our usual day but she was working down the road with a friend of mine and her horses so we switched it up. Besides it was sunny and warm and by warm i mean it was 45 degrees out. Being the first warm day in what seemed like forever and a weekend the barn was crowded. Everyone wanted to ride. 2 people were riding up the driveway, another was tacking up for the trail and the resident natural horsemanship guy at our barn had back to backs at the same time as my girls training rides. We elected to split…
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I’m on a horse

Barn tales, Life with Jezebel, OTTB
[caption id="attachment_877" align="alignleft" width="225"] Jez View[/caption] Finally! I rode my horse! Okay I mostly walked because the ground was harder then i thought when i first got on and i didn't get to ride the red-head because she has much more sensitive feets then the wild one. But i did tack up and get on. We did one trot set but that was all because i was worried about ice. It was about 25 degrees when i got on and gave it a go. Jezebel was a real trooper and for a horse that hadn't been ridden in a while because if weather she was a right good girl. No spook, no zoom, just happy to be working. If you can call what we were doing work. I was just…
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The good one

Barn tales, Life with Circe, OTTB
[caption id="attachment_827" align="alignleft" width="225"] The Circe Effect[/caption] It was Circe's turn to get clipped. I had done Jezebel the day before and was really happy with how successful it was. Circe is a pretty fuzzy and furry horse. The plan was to give her a little relief when it came to getting too heated up and to shorten the time frame it took to cool her down since she is in actual work (weather permitting) over this winter. Circe is supposed to be the easy one out of my two OTTB mares. Shes the one that wasn't phased by moving to a new place, she walked right into the confined scary wash-stall for a bath and stood for it with no complaints straight away. Circe has been easy to handle…
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