Since this is the first year i don’t have an indoor and its been the coldest winter on record for my area in 20 years, so i decided to get the ponies some quarter sheets for those really cold days. Im trying not to miss any riding days just because any one of us might be cold. I loved the colors of the Cavalero Exercise Sheet by Moxie so i splurged and by that i mean i bought it on sale, because i buy almost everything on sale. Its a sickness. I got the large which was rated to fit my 16+ hand OTTBs. Boredeaux and gray for Jezebel and i wanted the navy and camel for Circe but i couldn’t find it in her size. So the girls were just going to have to share the one. I cant ride them both at the same time anyways (yet…ha!)
Pros: This is a beautiful exercise rug. Its top quality and the underside is of a fleece like material that feels so good i’m considering getting a blanket by them as well. It fits true to size the large fit my girls just as it was supposed to and it’s just stunning out of the package. The colors are muted and almost look matte. Which gives it a little more class then if they were loud and bright. Very classy little rug for a really good price. I bought mine on sale for somewhere around 40.00 but they retail at 64.00 If i can find the colors i want for Circe i wouldn’t hesitate to by it at off the rack prices.
Cons: The only con I have it they didn’t make enough of these and they sold out in the large too fast.
Lowdown: If you want to give your pony a little extra warmth in the winter riding months but don’t want to go full out with a super expensive all wool quarter sheet, I’d recommend the Cavalero Exercise Sheet by Moxie. Its classy on the outside with a rather awesome color selection (when they are not sold out that is) and they feel like your favorite fleece lined hoodie on the underside. Both of my horses wore them and never complained, not once. That is saying something.
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 was laughing and said out loud “are you all cows today?” they were. I grabbed my girls and lead them out one in each hand. Usually this is something easily accomplished but today Circe was in a snit and though i was able to take them both together she spooked a couple times at pretty much nothing.
Jez was first up and the footing in our outside sand arena was pretty much perfect. Only one other person was at the barn tacking up her horse. I love it when its quiet like that. I put Jez’s lunging cavason on her and out to the ring we went. Jez was perfect! Sound in both directions, (yay!) easy up down transitions, listening to me the whole time ears forward and happy to work. No fuss no muss, my wonderful willing pony was with me in the ring. We worked for about 20 minutes and then we did some carrot stretching and she was a little tight on the left. Good to know. Then it was Circe’s turn.
I have only lunged Circe in a rope halter but today i put her lunging cavason on her. I bought it as a barn sale at the neighbors and i wanted to try it out. Circe was not thrilled with this. Shes super sensitive in general and having the lunge line not under her chin and coming off the nose band was freaking her out. I elected to work her though it. Though i’m all about making adjustments to deal with her hyper sensitivity i’m not all about catering to her whims on stuff that is easy for her to learn to deal with. Circe is a body language lunger. Small steps she walks, bigger steps she trots. If i move slow, she moves slow, if i move fast she moves fast. You have to be very aware of your body and what signals you are giving her. Today she was all zoom and defiance. If i stood still she would trot, If i moved my body at all she would trot really fast, if i took any steps it was canter time. I tried to calm her with my voice and was being very careful with my body language and that seemed to work for a bit but she would inevitably get all hyped up and then break into a canter. I would stop her and she would turn to look at me then i would point in the direction i wanted her to go this mostly worked except for the time she decided to rear. Yeah thats right she freaking reared at me. What is the deal with all the rearing horses in my life right now?! Not acceptable and i told her so and made her move out on the lunge.
My barn-mate who was riding her horse Snickers saw the whole thing and didn’t want to come into the ring with Circe acting like that. So i decided to just walk her around to cool her out so that others could work in the ring without being afraid of my hyped up red-headed mare. Thats when i noticed her flagging her tail at Eisenstein the 4 year old handsome Arab whose turnout on the other side of the ring and him going all gaga and getting all snorty at her. Oh shit she was in heat! The hot, cold, hot, cold weather threw my horse into heat in the dead of winter. Awesome. Hence the spooking at nothing, hence her getting all zoomy on the lunge and her general act up-ness. Its not an excuse for everything and in heat or not everybody works. If i have to work when i have PMS so do my horses but it helps me to understand where shes coming from. So i walked her around the ring while my barn friend rode her horse in the ring and Circe was as sweet as pie. She didn’t get in my bubble and didn’t walk any steps ahead of me. She was once again the doll baby pony i love and adore.
Then we had an ice storm last night. Ugh weather! That meant that todays training session with Jez was canceled with her trainer however as soon as the footing is okay shes coming out to work with Jez and see if we can fix/work on her current issues. I also have plans to call the vet out to give Jez the once over in case there is a physical element to all this fussing after i pick up her records from her current vet. I’m switching. My vet right now is awesome for lameness but they sent a letter that they are again raising prices and frankly i dont want to pay them. They are already the more expensive vet in the area. I’m lucky there are lots of good vets in the area to chose from.
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 I did some ground work with her. Making her stop when I stopped and backing her up when she took that one little extra step and got ahead of me. She also walked in deep puddles with no complaints. Yay, water progress! She was sweet and affectionate with me. You would hardly think she had just they day before dropped me on my ass from a rear. After her walk was over we did some carrot stretches. She was really flexible in all directions. Nothing seemed stiff. Nothing. Which is good I guess but I half expected her to be stiff somewhere and then I could blame the rearing episode on that. I’m still planning on having the vet out though just to give her the once over. Since it was sloppy no lunge to check for soundness, i;ll do that when the ring drys out a little.
Circe was next she’s not as good at stying out of my bubble as Jez but shes not bad. She’s a little more spooky as well. The heard of deer were out next door and she could see them. She was interested but she didn’t jump out of her skin like she has in the past. Good girl! We worked on her walking with me and not slightly in front of me and her staying out of my bubble. I couldn’t be happier with the effort she gives me. The temperature was dropping as I was walking up and down the drive and I was getting chilled. I put the girls away and went to yoga. Where I was a complete uncoordinated dork. Good times. It was a beginning class but clearly I was the most beginner there. I’m sure with a little time i’ll be down dogging it like a champ. My lower back only seized up once and i’m sure that was because of being dropped on my ass from 5 feet in the air. I did feel better though when i got home. I’m sure the stretching helped and i didn’t wake up in the middle of the night worried about my horse and all the ” what ifs” So maybe it helped clear my head a little too.
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 ridiculous. It was about 5am when i decided to put on the TV to see of it could lull me to sleep. How Its Made was on the science channel its my favorite put ya to sleep show. Engaging enough to keep your mind occupied not enough to stay awake to watch. Then I popped a couple of Aleve and bingo back to sleep should have done that sooner!
I’m gonna head on down to the barn this afternoon and check on the girls. No snow yet but it did rain all night and is still raining now but who knows what it looks like at the barn. If the ring is too sloppy wet then I wont put Jez on the lunge until tomorrow to check her out. I want to make sure I set her up for success. It’s worming day for my ponies so i can do that and I have my first yoga class tonight. This will be interesting because i feel like i got run over by a truck but i swear i’m not going to let any of this stop me from doing anything i had planned. I’m trying to be the ball, or the donut hole or whatever you wanna call it. Being raised a Buddhist (hippie parents, yo) i know all about over coming obstacles that are suddenly put in your way as soon as you are making progress. There some Buddhist word and theory for just that thing. Thats what all this feels like and i need to be in the moment and take steps not to be detoured from my goals for myself and my horses.
Falls are part of the deal and though I’m all about minimizing your risks especially now that I’m older and feel injuries more then i used when i was young and fearless. I’m well aware that you cant have horses and think you’re never going to get hurt, or run into issues you didn’t expect. I wear a helmet for that reason. Back in the olden days helmets were for jumping and horse shows only. I don’t need to be that reckless but i flat out refuse to let fear of an injury overcome me. I am not afraid of my horse(s) but i’m also aware of my personal limitations. Enter my trainer who will help me work though this, i’m lucky to have her. I will not allow any kind insidious fear response creep up on me and live in my head. I see too much of that as it is in the horse world. As things stand now i think this is a fixable problem and i’m going to take it as it comes, i’m not the first person to get put off because their horse reared, i wont be the last.
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 it all and was really a very good girl keeping her head down and not freaking out over leg pressure. We practiced her moving off my leg in both directions as i trotted down the centerline a few times. The i asked my better half if he wanted to ride her. The plan is for him to start cooling her out after her rides when hes at the barn to get a feel for her and so they can get to know each other. He grabbed his helmet and climbed aboard. They both did really good, i was super happy with how she listened to him and he asked the right questions of her. They walk halted and it was a really good start!
Then it was Jezebels turn. She was in a really good mood and super affectionate tacking up. I led her out to the ring, got on and warmed up at the walk and then the trot. She was pretty good. No antics like the day before. She felt a little stiff but after all her antics the day before that was to be expected. We did lots of circles and some serpentines and then my better half went to fill up the hay bags while i finished up with her. Thats when it took a turn for the worse. On the other side of the back of the arena an ATV was being used, Jez was not fond of this. I had her look at it and thought all was swell. I asked her to move forward and the head tossing began. I told her to knock it off and again asked her to move from the halt to the walk. Then she reared. I was kinda in shock. She went up fast and tall. I stayed on by some miracle. I was really quite surprised and just as i caught my breath and thought the whole thing was over she shot up a second time. Full on vertical with lots of hang time. I came off. Landed on my ass, left hand still holding the reins (will i ever learn to let go?!) Jez just turned to look at me like WTF are you doing on the ground and touched her nose to my nose. I wasn’t hurt, unless my pride counts. My better half came running after i called out to him and i got back on her with him ponying me from the ground. Jez started to head toss and was protesting moving forward. I urged her on and we got around the arena with her ready to go off at any second. I could feel her under me preparing to go up with every step and then i got off. I got my lunge line and put her on the lunge in full tack. She was fine going counter clockwise no fuss no muss but when we switched directions to clockwise i could see it. She was slightly off in the right hind and she was clearly uncomfortable going that direction.
I will have owned Jezebel for two years on February 15th and I’ve been put off her only three times in those two years. The first time she spooked at nothing because she was in heat. The second i was bucked into the fence and as it turns out because she had a 3 centimeter tear in the right hind suspensory and then today after she reared and i did my Zorro impression. I’d say i’m ahead of the game with a baby OTTB with her own opinions about things. Maybe shes injured, i dont know. Its more likely she’s sore from all the antics she pulled yesterday. She did a whole lot of kicking out with the right hind protesting pretty much everything so that would make sense. I texted my trainer and told her the story and the thought is to take a step back with Jez and try to figure out what her issue is and where its coming from. I’m going to make sure shes sound. I gave her bute will check her on the lunge tomorrow. When shes sound im going to work with her on the ground. Get her working and listening to me. Michelle is going to work with her under saddle and get her solid at the walk and the trot. This weather will not make it easy to do, were expecting snow again tonight.
I’ve never had a horse that reared. Rearing isn’t anything I’ve ever had to deal with before. Its all new to me. I was pretty happy i stuck the first vertical and if it happens again i think i’ll have a better handle on the whole thing and how to deal. This will not deter me, i love Jezebel shes my baby horse. If this is another injury i’ll deal and if this is all mental then we will work though it. Its not like i wont have a horse to ride while i work with Jez on the ground. Circe will just get more miles then expected this month. When I got home I took a Robaxin and my better half made me a cocktail.. a lime drop in my fancy Waterford martini glass or as i like to call it the horse persons cure all!