Poptart's brain is still exercising during his rest period! I am so excited that he finally got to the point where he can drag something! 8 months ago he was a very non-trusting fear kicker and to be confident enough to finally drag something behind him (where all the horse eating monsters live!) is so amazing :)
Saturday, February 27, 2016
Friday, February 26, 2016
Anaplasmosis, renegade hoof boots, and saddle pressure
It has been an interesting last few weeks. Most recently both Rogan and Poptart have Anaplasmosis, a tickborne disease transmitted by the deer tick caused by the bacteria Anaplasma phagocytophilum. This was discovered by running routine annual bloodwork on both horses and finding minor abnormalities in their white blood cell count, low platelets, and slightly increased muscle enzymes. While having their annual dentistry, sheath cleanings, and osteopathy session Dr. Ann-Marie (Rectortown Equine Clinic) thought Poptart's muscles felt unusually stiff and tight. In light of the muscle tightness and bloodwork abnormalities she suggested screening for tickborne disease; both horses tested highly positive for Anaplasmosis. Luckily both horses are mainly asymptomatic (horses can have fever, lethargy, muscle stiffness, anorexia, edema, and skin hemorrhage/petechia among other signs) and they are readily eating their antibiotics in their special antibiotic feed mash twice daily. In just a few weeks they should be back to normal.
Prior to this, Poptart's pair of hind hoof renegade hoof boots arrived. The quality of the materials seemed excellent, very top-end! I carefully read the instructions for correctly adjusting the cable tension and boots to your horse's hoof. After several hours of frustration of trying to adjust each velcro strap overhang to be between 1/2 - 3/4" and having the cable tension of the heel captivator piece be just right I was just about ready to send the boots right back. Then I realized the velcro strap can be shortened too, oh... Needless to say that solved the fitting dilemma. On the first trial run we had a hard 13-14 mile ride in the snow/mud/slush (and don't forget the loads of rocks!) with almost 5000' elevation change. I had to replace the old easyboot epics on the front hooves 3-4 times as they came off in the difficult terrain. The new renegades never budged. After the ride Poptart's feet looked excellent, no signs of rubbing or chaffing from any of the boots. Success!!!!
But then I palpated Poptart's back and I paid careful attention to his loin area as Dr. Ann Marie had found that on the right side his last rib was 'out'. Poptart was sore on both the left and right sides (maybe worse on the right?) at the edge of the back muscle, about 4-5" down from the spine. His sweat pattern was great but obviously we were getting some inappropriate pressure on the back. The next day I examined the saddle and Poptart and found that the bottom edge of the saddle bar at the rear of the saddle was putting pressure in the sore area, the saddle bar seems slightly steeper than Poptart's back :( I am working with David, www.aboutthehorse.com, the saddle-maker and he is fantastic and helping me shim the saddle to correct the problem. Right now the shims are in-route via USPS. I am looking at some other saddles too as my current saddle (while amazing quality and comfy) is almost 25 lbs and possibly not quite right (but maybe workable) for Poptart. There are some really nice, adjustable/shim-able, very light weight (10 lbs) endurance saddles on the market that might hopefully be a good fit. Poptart only weighed 806 lbs at the vet, and while he probably could stand to gain at least 50 lbs he will always be a small horse. I would like my total rider + tack weight to not significantly exceed 20% of his weight. At 850 lbs of horse that means all my stuff and I can only weigh 170 lbs (and right now I am 142 lbs of that!) so having a lighter saddle may really help us out long-term.
On the bright side, Poptart's back soreness should be gone by the time he is done with his Anaplasma treatment and the riding weather is not the best recently... so a good time for a break if one must be had! Hopefully, we will be full steam of head for No Frills 30 mile Limited Distance ride on April 23!
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
Diversity Training
I was fortunate enough to get home from work a few minutes early to day and it was still daylight!
Unfortunately it was 23 degrees and blowing snow flurries... I have been wanting to spend more time building Poptart's confidence with obstacles and different situations, but do not always have the time (read this to mean I take him on a trail/conditioning ride instead!) With my few extra minutes tonight I decided to see if I could adjust Rogan's harness down enough to adequately fit Poptart. Amazingly the harness had enough adjustment that it can fit both horses (Poptart may need a few more holes punched in it if he were to actually pull a load).
This was Poptart's first time wearing a harness or a crupper and he was a little nervous but never took a misstep. The straps touching his flanks and then the traces falling down around his legs bothered him the most, but he still only tensed and turned his impressively flexible neck around to see what was touching him. The crupper did not phase him at all. Someday I would like him to be able to pull my light horse-drawn arena drag, not for his 'job', but just so he is okay with things dragging behind him, as 'behind him' is where the horse-eating monsters come from :)
Monday, February 8, 2016
Training update
No drama today!! Poptart has started the trotting phase of his training and conditioning and it is going well. Today the pre-ride training plan was to start with 1 mile of walking to warm-up, then start 10 minutes of walk/trot transitions to progress towards eventually having beautiful balanced transitions using my seat only. Next the plan was to walk for a bit, then start a 10 minute segment of solid trotting with the focus on relaxation and engagement of the hindquarters resulting in forward rhythmic trot with an appreciable cadence. Then walk again for a while and do a second 10 minute trot segment, followed with a nice forward loose-rein walk to finish up.
What actually happened... the trail had much more ice/snow/slippery mud-slush than anticipated! We had a nice 5 min of walk/trot transitions before the turn-off to the water-logged and rocky single track trail, so the transitions were much more spread out and we instead practiced mud and water crossings. I also really appreciated the 'real-life' transition practice - I decided to use the trail to my advantage and whenever a 10 ft segment of trot-able trail appeared I used it to practice our transitions. I think it really helped Poptart understand the 'why' behind the transitions -- "if you don't decide to listen to my walk request then you will either slip in the mud-slush or stumble over rocks, etc." And that is what will actually happen in an endurance ride (at least in my mountainous rocky region)- we will have to do a million transitions to take advantage of every single step of trot-able terrain and when he really understands this new transition game over terrain he (hopefully) will learn to manage himself this way.
Unfortunately in the first bit of really decent mud-slush both of the well-broken hind hoof easyboots disappeared into deep muddy grave. More fortunately his new hind renegade hoof boots have already shipped out... so hopefully they will stay on better.
The remainder of our trot segments panned out about the same, I think we managed about 5-7 min of solid trot time before a slippery snow slush downhill section let us practice walking again :) But the transitions are great learning too!
Probably the best experience was playing 'leap-frog' with Wendy and Lynn. At first I practiced trotting on ahead of them and we learned the real reason of having a mecate rein with a popper (ie rope swatter). Poptart was not too keen to move out ahead of his friends but a small touch of the mecate to his hindquarters reinforced my prior seat/leg cue to continue trotting. It wasn't the most beautiful trot (yet!) but I was very pleased that he listened and somewhat willingly moved out of sight of his new horsey friends. During this period he initially was not 'forward off my leg' meaning he felt braced against me and not relaxed, but it was the very first time I have ever asked him to trot away from his friends. I am very optimistic he will continue to relax and then more softly move forward in this situation and then he will be able to start engaging his core... And when he is behind other horses we are starting to have steps of very nice trot :)
Poptart actually handled being left behind by the other horses better than having to leave them himself. He did request that we trot to catch up, but after I explained to him that we are going to walk only he offered a very nice forward walk on a loose rein (with only an occasionally, "please let's trot to catch up" request) He remained very calm and listened to the lateral flexion, stopping/standing, and hindquarter yields that I used to re-focus him on me and maintain our walk-pace. It was great practice to just barely see the other horses ahead through the trees and around turns. This gave me more confidence that he will be able to keep his emotions under control at a ride when he will have horses moving behind and in-front of him and we will need to ride our own ride and not worry about the others. Yay! More progress and I am proud of Poptart.
At the very end Wendy graciously allowed me to practice loading in her trailer so Poptart gets used to all types of horse trailers. He was happy to walk right in and came out easily! :)
What actually happened... the trail had much more ice/snow/slippery mud-slush than anticipated! We had a nice 5 min of walk/trot transitions before the turn-off to the water-logged and rocky single track trail, so the transitions were much more spread out and we instead practiced mud and water crossings. I also really appreciated the 'real-life' transition practice - I decided to use the trail to my advantage and whenever a 10 ft segment of trot-able trail appeared I used it to practice our transitions. I think it really helped Poptart understand the 'why' behind the transitions -- "if you don't decide to listen to my walk request then you will either slip in the mud-slush or stumble over rocks, etc." And that is what will actually happen in an endurance ride (at least in my mountainous rocky region)- we will have to do a million transitions to take advantage of every single step of trot-able terrain and when he really understands this new transition game over terrain he (hopefully) will learn to manage himself this way.
Unfortunately in the first bit of really decent mud-slush both of the well-broken hind hoof easyboots disappeared into deep muddy grave. More fortunately his new hind renegade hoof boots have already shipped out... so hopefully they will stay on better.
The remainder of our trot segments panned out about the same, I think we managed about 5-7 min of solid trot time before a slippery snow slush downhill section let us practice walking again :) But the transitions are great learning too!
Probably the best experience was playing 'leap-frog' with Wendy and Lynn. At first I practiced trotting on ahead of them and we learned the real reason of having a mecate rein with a popper (ie rope swatter). Poptart was not too keen to move out ahead of his friends but a small touch of the mecate to his hindquarters reinforced my prior seat/leg cue to continue trotting. It wasn't the most beautiful trot (yet!) but I was very pleased that he listened and somewhat willingly moved out of sight of his new horsey friends. During this period he initially was not 'forward off my leg' meaning he felt braced against me and not relaxed, but it was the very first time I have ever asked him to trot away from his friends. I am very optimistic he will continue to relax and then more softly move forward in this situation and then he will be able to start engaging his core... And when he is behind other horses we are starting to have steps of very nice trot :)
Poptart actually handled being left behind by the other horses better than having to leave them himself. He did request that we trot to catch up, but after I explained to him that we are going to walk only he offered a very nice forward walk on a loose rein (with only an occasionally, "please let's trot to catch up" request) He remained very calm and listened to the lateral flexion, stopping/standing, and hindquarter yields that I used to re-focus him on me and maintain our walk-pace. It was great practice to just barely see the other horses ahead through the trees and around turns. This gave me more confidence that he will be able to keep his emotions under control at a ride when he will have horses moving behind and in-front of him and we will need to ride our own ride and not worry about the others. Yay! More progress and I am proud of Poptart.
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