I've mentioned this once or twice over the last week, but Speedy and I will be gone this weekend to participate in yet another Christian Schacht clinic. When we rode with him in December, Speedy was really fussy on the first day, and I felt a little disappointed that we weren't able to show off our improvement.

For this trip, I am going to start out feeling a lot more humble and a lot less eager to show what we've learned. If our canter work really has improved, Christian will be able to tell. If my position really has gotten better, again, he should be able to see it. I won't need to tell him.

If you're anywhere in the Ventura area this weekend, come on out to audit, or better yet, come and ride! The first ride begins at 10:00 on Saturday; I ride at 12:00. On Sunday, I ride at 10:30. The weather is predicted to be rainy, but White Birch has a large covered arena so even the auditors should stay dry.

Since I've been riding both Austin and Marty in jumping saddles for the last month or so, I wanted to work on lengthening my leg this week. That leg position in a jumper saddle is pretty tough. My body is feeling the new angles, and frankly, there's a lot of complaining about it.

As I rode Austin the other day (two days after our little tumble), I felt myself uncharacteristically whining about riding. This is haaaaard ... Normally, I relish hard; I thrive on the challenge. I even have a hard time getting off my horses because I like riding so much. 

When riding Austin, I time my rides as I don't want to over-do anything. I set my watch's chronograph: we walk for five minutes to start, then we do thirteen minutes of walk/trot work, all of which is followed by two minutes of walking to cool down. It's a twenty minute workout.  

Those first five minutes are fine, but somewhere during that thirteen minutes of dang this hurts, things start to well, HURT. I am not going to lie. Sometimes I sneak some walking into those thirteen minutes. If I don't, I really think I might die of some weird muscle spasm. 

With Speedy being a bit wonky for a few weeks, I hadn't used my dressage saddle at all. This had me worried as Speedy and I are heading to Ventura for another clinic with Christian Schacht over the weekend. I was worried that with so much work in the jumper saddle, my position in my dressage saddle was going to suffer.

Thinking that I needed to stretch out my tense and cramped legs, I took the stirrup leathers off my saddle completely. I love that I can get on Speedy after two weeks of just hand walking and two short lunge sessions without even batting an eye at riding without stirrups. He's a total rock star.

The instant my butt settled into that buttery soft buffalo leather, I gave an audible moan of happiness. The bliss! I dropped my legs down along Speedy's sides and reveled in the deliciousness of a long and draped leg. Heaven!

I don't know that Speedy was all that enamored with the return to work, but I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. Sorry, ladies, but I really don't see a switch to the h/j side of things in this girl's future!

It's been three days of no stirrup bliss. If you would have suggested that riding with no stirrups would ever feel good, I would have laughed derisively at you and thrown tomatoes or something. But being without stirrups did feel better than cranking my knees and hips into such an unnatural and painful contorted position that those jumping saddles require. 

And lest you think that all I did was tootle around swinging my legs in joy, I should point out that I've been working on my sitting trot (still horrible) and canter departures. Even without stirrups, it was still more comfortable than riding in a jumping saddle. For the clinic, I will definitely have my stirrup leathers back in place, but for the next day or so, I am working on stretching out my kinked-up legs.  

Yah for no stirrups! Feel free to call me crazy.

I talked to my vet over the weekend, and I got the go ahead to "substantially" increase Izzy's work load. Thank goodness because this is what a bored horse looks like ...

I am not exaggerating when I say the interest in the box lasted approximately forty-five seconds. I checked the time stamp on the series of photos. You would think that a box from Smartpak would have kept his interest slightly longer than that, but alas, it did not. 

Before I got the go-ahead to put Izzy to work, I had already decided to lunge him at a walk and easy trot. It was when I told my vet later that day what I had done that he agreed Izzy's wound had reached a point where movement was not going to interfere with the healing process as long as I change the bandage after exercise. 

I had made the decision on my own after seeing Izzy doing back flips in his small paddock. I decided that controlled exercise is better than what he was doing on his own. I feel much better with the vet's endorsement however.

I used my thick cotton lunge line for the work. It's a round rope that is soft, heavy enough for rough play, and long enough to let him make wide circles.

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to talk with the trainer who put the first sixty days on Izzy. She confirmed what I've been seeing: he's not afraid, and he's basically lazy. He's also a bit stubborn and likes to argue when he doesn't want to do it. With that said, I can tell that she did a lot of really good work with him. Even though she didn't do much lunge work with him, he still knew what it meant and was happy enough to follow the rules.

When I bought Izzy, I saw him zip around in the round pen like a giraffe. He never relaxed or showed the movement that I suspected he could offer. And when I got on him in the round pen, we just walked a few steps in either direction to prove that he could carry a rider.

When he was with "the trainer" up north, I worked him in the round pen a few times, but he was pretty tense up there, and I still didn't get to see a nice forward trot or canter.

When I put him on the lunge line for some walk and light trot work, I got all giddy inside. He didn't offer a beautifully lifted back or anything, but he did show me a glimpse of the nice movement that I knew he had.

This was the first time that he's been on a lunge line in quite some time. He was remarkably well behaved and only pulled a few shenanigans - crow hops, head tossing, etc. And while he did try and pull away once or twice, as soon as he felt that tug on his halter, he immediately halted and turned to face me. 

I had him walk for a few minutes, and then I sent him into a quiet trot. I laughed out loud when I saw how slow and easy he moved out. Right from the start his trot showed rhythm and balance. He didn't pull or lean on the lunge line, and he was quick to look to me for a whoa cue. In fact, I had to do a fair amount of kissing and clucking to keep him going. I don't think he's much of a bolter.

Now that we can officially work on the lunge line at all three gaits, I can help him burn off some of that extra energy by long lining him and maybe putting him in the side reins. The bridle and saddle are not far behind.

Although I shouldn't say that quite so loudly, but I do so with the utmost gratitude and humbleness. It took only a few days before Speedy was sound at the walk, but it was the better part of a week before he was sound at the trot as well.

I've hand walked him every day for two weeks, adding a short trot out down the blacktop each day. I meticulously noted a percentage or grade to indicate his soundness level. At first, he was grade three lame, obvious at the walk. But over the course of the week, his lameness was downgraded to grade one, and then I recorded his degree of soundness at 90%, 95%, 99%, sound with a (?), and then just sound at the trot. 

My farrier watched him jog out last Tuesday, and while he thought Speedy looked sound, I saw an unevenness to his gait. A few days later, he looked even. On Saturday and Sunday, I lunged him for a few minutes at all three gaits and he still looked good. 

I finally saddled him up on Monday afternoon, but I pulled my stirrups off. I wanted to get a really good feel for his soundness at the sitting trot. It also just felt good to be back in my dressage saddle with a super long leg.

We did some free walk to start out, and Speedy felt 100% sound. His stride was long and even, and he was enthusiastic about moving out. I then asked for a trot which he offered willingly. The more I focused on my position, the less I worried about his soundness. It's easy to feel a lame step when you're trying to find one. I quickly realized that he felt good.

I've cancelled my cancellation of the Christian Schacht Clinic, which means we're going (this weekend!). I did consult with my vet, of course, and he said to ride him. Since he improved so quickly, combined with the fact that we were never 100% certain it was the CL last year, the vet thinks there's no sense wasting time with a healthy horse until he proves that he's not a healthy horse. If he comes up sore, then we know there's something going on with that collateral ligament.  

I really appreciate that my vet didn't over-react. We're taking a "cross that bridge if we get to it" mentality.

It doesn't happen very often, but on Sunday, I hit the dirt. Thankfully, both of us are okay. I say both of us because I was riding Austin, the neighbor's horse, and he fell on me while doing some trot work.

Have you all seen this video that's making the rounds on Facebook? If not, it shows a rider doing a pretty tough jump course, and the horse stumbles and falls, trapping her beneath him. The horse remains motionless as other riders and grounds crew rush to the rider's aid by flipping him over, freeing the trapped rider.

Fortunately for me, Austin's owner was sitting on a bench watching me ride. Everything was going well. I was working on my h/j position (still enormously funny) while I put Austin through his paces. We had finished up with some canter work and were doing some trot circles and serpentines. He was getting a bit heavy in the turns and wasn't really listening to my half halts. 

As we came through the corner at a slow trot, I felt Austin lose his balance behind. He stumbled in the front, but I hoped he would catch himself. Suddenly, all I could see was the dirt fast approaching, and I knew he was going down. Initially, I worried that he was going to summersault on top of me, but he managed to gain a little bit of control. 

Instead of flipping over, he fell to the side with me still sitting on him. I hit the dirt softly, but my left leg was underneath him. He didn't move a muscle. I let go of the reins and dragged my leg out from underneath him. Once I was completely out of the way and standing up, he slowly heaved himself back to his feet. By the time he was back on all four legs, his owner was beside him checking to see if we were both alright. When Austin went down, I went out of sight, which worried her greatly. She thought I was completely underneath him. 

I've heard people talk about horses taking care of their riders, and I can now say it has definitely happened to me. I could have been seriously injured, but I know that horse was completely aware of where I was, and he did everything he could to avoid hurting me. Even though he was trotting, he tried so hard to keep his balance. I've mentioned before that he's a skyscraper. The dude is a solid 17 hands with a body to match his height. He's huge. 

Even so, he went down as softly as he could. And when he hit the ground with me underneath him, he held himself up so that he didn't put all of his weight on my leg. I was able to drag myself free and and stand up without a single smudge of dirt on any part of my body other than on my hip and leg.

We walked Austin around and he looked okay. He does have a bit of a stifle issue on his left side which we think caused his fall. We think the stifle may have locked up a bit, causing him to lose his balance in the hind end. His toe probably caught the dirt which caused him to stumble in the front. He's closer to having his AARP card than he is to being carded so these things happen occasionally. The farrier is scheduled for today so we know his toes were at their longest which might have made it a bit more difficult for him to break over with that inside hind foot.

When it was all said and done, we were both okay (me probably more than him). And like I said, I am SO grateful his owner was there to see the fall. I felt terrible as it was even though I know I didn't cause him to fall, but explaining that to her would have been horrible. His owner took the whole thing in stride though and encouraged me to keep riding him. 

I am not sure I could have handled watching my horse go down with as much grace and understanding as she showed. Have you ever watched your horse fall with another rider aboard? Have you ever fallen with someone else's horse? What did you do, or what would you do? I'd love to hear your story.

Nothing funny here, just working on the crack in Izzy's hoof. When I wrote the post about the custom shoes my farrier created, I forgot to show how much better the crack in Izzy's hoof looked just by trimming and shaping the hoof.

If I hadn't taken these photos myself, I would not believe they were taken just days apart. How has the crack sealed itself closed at the bottom? I am amazed at what a farrier is able to do to clean up a hoof. 

I don't have a way to measure, but it even looks as though the hoof is the same length from top to bottom in both photos. The flaring from the photo on the left has been removed, and the surface of the hoof wall has been smoothed by the rasp in photo two. So what happened to the crack?

My farrier returns in six weeks. I am wondering if the crack will be gone by then. I'll be sure to do a follow up post.

Nothing huge is happening on the Izzy front, but I wanted to give you a quick leg update. 

Each day that I re-wrap, which is every other day, I am so surprised by how much better the wound looks. On Thursday, there was a definite ring of new skin.

I am including the photo below, which is kind of gross (fair warning) because it shows something really interesting. When I wrap the leg, I soak a telfa pad with my vet hospital's version of White Lotion. It's an astringent that irritates the flesh over the open portion of the wound, which prevents the tissue from over-granulating. That's what proud flesh is, over granulated tissue.

When I remove the telfa pad two days later, the wound is always covered with a thick gooey substance that has the texture of glue. This goop is the irritated tissue that would have been proud flesh. For lack of a scientific explanation, it gets melted off.  Weird, huh?!

I use pieces of the cotton sheeting from the last bandage to scrape off what I can, and then I wet a hunk of the cotton and scrub away the rest of the goo. It comes off the wound easily, but I have to use my fingernails to get it off of Izzy's hair.

Once I scrape all of the goo away, I use a final piece of dampened cotton sheeting to gently wipe the entire lower leg to remove any dust, loose hair, or other particulates. When the wound is clean, I gently lay a White Lotion soaked Telfa pad over the wound and wrap with a few layers of brown gauze to hold it in place. And then like I've been doing for nearly two months, that gets covered with a fresh sheet of cotton and an entire roll of brown gauze before it's finally finished off with a roll of vet wrap.

Wound care is certainly a slow and steady process, but this protocol is definitely working. More updates to come ...

That's Jaime Osbrink, World's Greatest Farrier ...

This visit was a bit special because we had all sorts of issues to address. Jaime's been doing my horses for a long time. I don't need to be there as they are always very well behaved. Jaime knows what to do, and he certainly doesn't need me telling him how to shoe my horses. That's his area of expertise, not mine.

The last time he was out however, Speedy had an absolute meltdown. We think we know why (not having Sydney there combined with a very noisy gardener), but the end result was that Jaime got hurt and Speedy was a few nails shy of a complete shoe job. I've spent the last six weeks working with Speedy by hammering his feet daily and plying him with treats for being such a good boy; he'll do anything for treats.

Fortunately, Speedy feels that his world has been righted, and to show us his appreciation, he was a very good boy. To make things go easier for a return to good-boy-land, Jaime did Speedy's front feet, put him away, did Izzy's feet, and then finished up with Speedy's hinds. We both took a sigh of relief when Speedy dozed through the application of his hind shoes.

When I told Jaime that Speedy was again lame on the right front, and I felt it was from the twisting and twirling that he does in his paddock, Jaime decided to shelve the shoes he had already prepared and opted to make new ones. Instead of shoes with a groove down the middle, he thought it might help Speedy to have a flat shoe which offers less traction and friction. So as he paces and spins, his feet should slide a little and not "grab" at the dirt which causes torque on the collateral ligament (we hope).

It took Jaime about fifteen minutes to make the shoes. Since there is no groove down the center, they should slide a bit more as he spins and paces which might be easier on the collateral ligament. If it doesn't help, it won't hurt, so it's a good experiment.

Izzy's feet also needed a custom shoe. Since he's lived barefoot on irrigated pasture his whole life, he had some pretty good flares going. As the foot got wider and wider, a crack developed down the center. Izzy had one set of shoes when he was first started as a four year old, and his second set came while he was with "the trainer" up north.

I don't know all of the details, but I was told that Izzy proved to be quite a handful for the farrier and ended up needing to be tranquilized. I've spent the last six weeks working on Izzy's shoeing behavior. When he first arrived, he didn't pick up his feet when asked, and when he did, he was quite heavy and prone to jerking them back whenever he felt like it. All of that is pretty standard for colts who haven't had their feet messed with regularly.

Izzy isn't a baby anymore, and I expect my horses to stand quietly for the farrier, so I spent a lot of time teaching him to hold up his own feet. I also placed them on a mounting block to simulate the farrier's stand, and each day I used my hammer to whack Izzy's feet and then held them between my knees like the farrier does.

My vet prescribed a tube of Dormosedan Gel in case we needed it, but Izzy was nearly perfect. By the time Jaime got to the second foot, Izzy was definitely getting bored, but he expressed his boredom by flinging his cross ties and trying to nibble anything within six feet. 

While "the trainer's" farrier did get shoes on him, he did not address the pancakes that were Izzy's feet. I suppose that was better than cramming them into shoes that were too small, but still. Jaime's plan is to "squish" (poor word choice, but I can't think of another) Izzy's feet back together which will take the pressure off the crack down the center. He has plenty of heel, he just has way too much width which is putting pressure on the toe, acting as a wedge.

The new shoes, a respectable size three, will support the outer wall which will prevent the sides from splaying out. This will stop the wedge-like effect that was forcing the crack to widen down the front of the hoof. The pressure will come off, which will allow the crack to stop forming. I could be wrong about this, but I believe the cut-out at the toe allows the sole to sink towards the ground which the has the effect of closing the crack at the top.

Notice how wide the bar stock is for these shoes; it's nearly twice as wide as the store bought shoes from above. I also really appreciate how Jaime sculpted the ends of the shoes to avoid the heel bulbs which gives them room to expand.

I've pointed this out many times, but it's nice to give myself a reminder: I have an awesome team supporting my riding goals. My farrier, along with my chiropractor, works hard to keep my horses sound and moving well; my vet provides treatment protocols that are effective and based on current knowledge; my trainers believe in my horses and support my goals; and even my saddle fitter keeps us all comfortable and able to work hard. And I definitely couldn't make this crazy equestrian life work without a supportive husband and a slew of good riding friends (you know who you are!).

Thanks to all of you for keeping Speedy, Izzy, and me on the right track! 

Don't laugh. It was fun, and I am going to add, hard. Since Speedy is out of commission for a while and Izzy has not yet been commissioned, I asked JL if I could take a h/j lesson on Austin. She loved the idea. I don't know for how much longer I'll get to ride Austin, it might be only another couple of weeks, but I am going to take advantage of the opportunity.

My reasons are many: First, it helps out Austin's owner by keeping him in shape. Second, I want to be learning something, even it's not dressage. And finally, I have been thinking about trying a little jumping with Izzy when the time is right. It would be a lot easier to pop over little stuff with a green bean if I'm not such a green bean too.

When I ride Austin, I use his owner's Pessoa jumping saddle. I didn't even bother to adjust the stirrup length. I've pretty much just ridden him with a dressage leg, although it's not been easy in a saddle that wants to put me in a more forward seat. The first thing JL did was to raise my stirrups a hole.

JL pointed out that since I ride regularly, I already have good riding muscles, but I was going to use some new ones when she adjusted my position. Boy, was she right! The first thing she did was have me get in 2-point. She adjusted my lower leg so that it was on the horse. ALL THE TIME? I asked. Yep. 

The next thing she did was to close my hip angle. In a dressage saddle, the rider sits up tall with a much more open hip angle. It felt really wrong to close that angle. She demonstrated by doing squats. The deeper you squat, the farther behind you your lower leg must go if you don't want to have your bum sticking up in the air. Try it. 

Squat down just slightly, maybe four inches. If you keep your back straight, your feet will be underneath you.  Go down deeper, as deep as you can. If you don't want want your bum sticking straight out, you have to close your hip angle and put more weight on the ball of your feet. Plus, the angle of the knee must also close to keep your lower leg under your seat.

The biggest chunk of work came in keeping my lower leg back so that it was under my new seat position created by closing my hip angle. When I closed my hip angle, my lower leg stayed hanging straight down, right where it would be in a dressage saddle.

Try this: Squat down slightly with your knees lightly bent. Now squat as deep as you can without adjusting the angle of your knees. That was me!!! Bum sticking out without my legs underneath me.

To help me get the feel, she had me imagine I was riding with just my thigh, no lower leg. She had me exaggerate this feeling by pointing my knee down and lifting my lower leg as high up behind me as I could and then pushing off of my stirrups with the ball of my foot.

WHAT THE HELL.

Basically, that was my response, but I did it. I did it horribly, but I laughed about it and kept working at it until JL was at least somewhat satisfied. Thankfully, there are no pictures to illustrate all of this horribleness, but I do understand what she was teaching me, and I will diligently practice as I ride Austin during the week.

A good dressage seat is much more about an open hip angle and a long relaxed leg. The h/j seat seems to be the exact opposite. JL feels that this work will actually strengthen my lower leg when I get back in my dressage saddle. Even if it does nothing, it's sure a lot of fun to mess around with other riding muscles.

I know you all like photos, so I dug up a couple to show you open hip and knee angles angles versus closed hip and knee angles. The first photo is Charlotte Dujardin, even the H/J riders have heard of Charlotte. Look at how open her hip and knee angles are. She's almost standing straight up and down. I tried to find a picture of George Morris riding, but alas, my search didn't reveal what I was looking for. Instead, we get an image of Beezie Madden. Even I know who she is.

In the photo of Beezie, her hip angle is really tight, as is her knee angle. If her leg looked like Charlotte's, her bum would be stuck up in the air, and I imagine that the landing would hurt like hell.

As a side note, I did much better at keeping my lower leg back in the canter. Since I really wanted to get off of Austin's back, I found a natural balance which included a fairly correct lower leg.

Okay. So my take away from this lesson was that the more you close your hip angle, the more you must close your knee angle which puts your leg farther and farther back. So ... for the dressage riders out there. the opposite must be true. When we open our hip angle, we must open our knee angle.

I'll keep you posted!

Yeah, I know that's not quite how it's supposed to go, but that's what I've got - a square where I need a circle.

Let me back up a bit. On Saturday, I took Speedy on the first of what will become many hand walks. If you missed that post, find it here. Izzy cried and cried and then cried some more. He cried for thirty solid minutes. A little boohooing is okay, but after that it's just a 1,200 pound six-year old throwing a temper tantrum. 

Izzy has been with me for than a month now, and he has seen Speedy come and go. I am okay with a few tears as we walk away, but after thirty minutes, it's just rude. I don't do rude; my boys are expected to behave themselves, so I walked Speedy over to the trailer and left him tied up while I went and dealt with my fussing Zweibrücker.

I armed myself with my NH "stick and string" (mine is a generic model that cost me around $10.00 a few years ago) and the patience to stand there all day using it. I sent Izzy out of his stall and into the paddock and then closed the gate. My barn owner had the foresight to include a gate so that the inside could be separated from the outside - good thinking on her part.

With the gate closed, I effectively created a square "round pen." It's not very big at 24 feet by 24 feet, but the footing is good, and there's nowhere to run. I planted myself in the middle and sent Izzy forward.

Since he's on a diet of reduced exercise due to a healing wound, I could only ask for a walk, but that was fine as my purpose was just to get his attention and put him to work when I lost it. I was actually quite pleased at his response; this horse has some knowledge of how to behave in a round pen, even when it's a square.

When he tried to trot off, I stepped in front of his shoulder, raised my stick off the ground just slightly in front of him, and told him to walk. And surprisingly, he did. When he was walking, I kept my body language quiet and my stick lowered to the ground. The instant he whinnied, I got loud with my body and snapped the string to ask for a quick change of direction, and then another and another. And then I got soft and quiet and asked him to walk on.

As long as he was walking and not whinnying, I was quiet and simply kept him walking forward. After two or three quiet laps, I stepped in front of his shoulder, pointed in the opposite direction, and tapped my stick as firmly as needed for a change of direction.

I worked him for about twenty minutes. He had to do a few rapid changes of direction, but he definitely started thinking about what was happening to him. It didn't take long for him to start licking and chewing and lowering his head. Even so, he was pretty sweaty and foamy before we were through. 

Several times during our work, I was able to get him to stop and face me. I used the stick to scratch him and flick the rope end over his neck and back. He never totally gave up on longing for Speedy's return, but it was only day one of this exercise, and frankly, I was really impressed with how sensible he was.

Tying Izzy to the trailer didn't turn out to be much of a stretch for him. Taking Speedy away is definitely more worrisome, so that's where my schooling work will now be focused. I may not have a round pen, but I am pretty good at fitting mismatched pieces together. Round or not, my "square" pen will get the job done!