Real Life

Well, I'm about 12 weeks out from graduation and I've been working at an amazing clinic for the last couple months. It's been a huge change from school. I can't be happier at where I ended up - it was a massive source of stress for me that I didn't have a job offer until a few weeks before school ended. Then I ended up with two offers from two amazing local clinics, both of which were my dream jobs. I had the hardest time deciding between the two, but now I'm working at such a great place. It's still an internship, which I didn't want to do in the first place, but it's been great and I'm glad I chose it. I have a pretty good support system at the clinic. I'm riding with other doctors part of the week, and going solo the other part of the week.

On one hand it's been amazing, on the other hand it's been overwhelming, exhausting, and terrifying. But, I'm glad I chose this career path - it's the best!

The horses are doing well. My baby is officially two years old! She's looking pretty good most days, but very awkward others. She wore her bridle for the first time without incidence. The lunging training is slowly progressing.

2 year old glamour shots

Love this face

Saddle pads are not concerning. Lunge whips are definitely concerning.

Rose gold everything

Loving how she's developing

Real life is a tough balancing act. I can't wait to do more with this girl and get more training and adventures going!

Update Overload

I'm not even sure where to begin, it's been a while.

First off, most importantly... I passed my boards!!! In less than 5 short months I will actually be a DVM. It's crazy that it's finally almost here - exciting, but mostly terrifying. But that's another post. It's been a really long 4 years!

Lots of things have happened the last couple months:

Jetta did this. Because she's an idiot. Apparently her neck cover came off partially and when the BO called the horses in for dinner, she started running with the other horses, then obviously her neck cover was flapping around and "chasing" her. So the logical thing to do would be to run through the fence, right?

Such a dumb dumb

Luckily she ended up with no serious injuries, just a few superficial scrapes. The next day her legs were swollen, but she's a delicate flower and was never actually lame. A couple doses of bute and she was back to normal!

We went on a frosty New Years day ride which was lovely. But very very cold.

 I've been working with Maisie on groundwork and she's occasionally looking like a real horse a times. An awkward moose calf at other times.

Maisie got to go on another field trip to the barn. She got to hang out in the cross ties, where she's mostly trustworthy. And she got her first full bath! She was MAD about it, or as mad as a little baby horse can get. Lots of pinned ears and tail swishing, but that was it.

Finally getting almost trustworthy in the crossties

My two favorite nicknames for her: my baby string bean or baby noodle

Wearing Jetta's cooler

And then I had a bad day where I euthanized several horses in a row at school, so we did this:

And I didn't die. I never thought I would ride Jetta tackless simply because she's the kind of horse that likes to go-go-go and getting her to slow down is not her favorite. She's been a tough horse to train so while she's very responsive, she also doesn't have the most eager-to-please personality so I just resigned myself to not trusting her without tack, despite the fact that I love liberty work.

Speaking of liberty work, I do a lot of that on the ground with Jetta when I'm too lazy to ride and I've been having a ton of fun with it lately - Jetta is learning how to collect her trot and canter, in addition to changing the size of her circles while free lunging. I'm hopeful it'll translate to better transitions in the saddle!

How's that for a disjointed, overwhelming update post?!

(Kinda) Back to Work

After our last show, Jetta has been kinda great. I was pretty frustrated with our rides at the show since I know we are both capable of so much better. My ride after the show we even ran through a test in full (which I never do) to see if there was any bracing happening like it happened at the show... There was none, she was soft and compliant the whole test.

This is definitely not a new problem. One of the last dressage shows we went to before Jetta got pregnant she was AWFUL - I felt like our whole test was basically a barely controlled bolt, she was running through and ignoring my aids. I walked out of the ring knowing we deserved a 50-something % and a low placing... then we miraculously pulled off a mid-60 score landing us in 2nd place. So obviously her being a freight train doesn't look as bad as it feels, but we're never going to be able to progress in our training if we don't get it under control.

But her neck is starting to muscle nicely!

Overall though, I feel like I finally have my pre-baby horse back, the one who is ready to school second level and everything. She's by no means perfect at home, but we're definitely improving. She's getting steadier in the contact, her trot feels really nice most of the time, and our canter-trot downward transition is kinda there. Two things we're struggling with right now, oddly enough, is our stretchy trot - Jetta is willing to stretch down, but kinda takes off - and our right bend disappeared. Not sure where it went, but I think it's a me thing, that I'm hanging on my outside rein too much, so we've been working on that. Our lengthened canter to working canter transition is still very resistant, so we're still playing with that a lot while trying to not let her get used to a big fast canter all of the time.

I haven't ridden her in the verbindend bit in a long time - I thought it might be our magic bit when I first bought it, but over time it was just a little too much bit for schooling at home. I put it aside to use possibly just at shows and then forgot about it. I pulled it back out again for the first time in forever and tried a ride in it and I'm not sure it was any better than the Myler. I think I need at least one more ride in it to decide if it's going to be a useful bit just to use in a show environment, so fingers crossed!

I'm trying to figure out how to budget some more shows into our schedule, but it's really hard since I'm not working right now and of course it's tough to schedule around 4th year rotations, but I'm hoping there'll be at least a couple shows in the books for us! Of course, I'm really wanting to ride lots right now since it seems we're on the upward swing in our training at the moment, but my rotation at the humane society is almost 2 hours away from home so I've been staying in the dorms which is a huge bummer. I miss my ponies, but I at least get to see them on the weekends!

Also, I went on this hike and it was amazing

Friday Field Trip

My truck is finally fixed!! I'm so happy to be mobile again! To celebrate, I decided that it was time to take Maisie on another field trip to Jetta's barn. The plan was to start teaching her how to pony, but it didn't quite work out...

Maisie loaded up and hauled perfectly. When we got to the barn, I left her in the trailer while I got Jetta out of the field. I tied Jetta to the trailer and unloaded and tied Maisie next to her. I was starting to tack up Jetta when she untied herself and took off, high tailing it back to the pasture. I was about to go after her when a GIANT horse fly started buzzing around Maisie. I couldn't decide what to do first, but I decided that Jetta wasn't going anywhere now that she was grazing back by her pasture and I really didn't want Maisie to get bit and freak out, so I stuck Maisie in her stall and retrieved Jetta. Stinker - you'd think the 12 year old would act better behaved than the 12 month old...

That side eye though

I tacked Jetta up and lunged her really quickly and discovered we had a problem - the sprinkler was going in the arena and I didn't know how to dismantle it so I could shut the arena door. I definitely wasn't going to try ponying for the first time in a space where Maisie could take off and make a run for it out of the arena. So I stuck Jetta in the cross ties and played with Maisie a bit. We walked around the property and eventually made it out to the field where the jumps were set.

Discovering how cool fans are

Maisie didn't even glance at the poles, but walked over them calmly and easily. I was so proud! We did that a few times and ended with walking over a tiny crossrail jump - baby's first jump!

NBD

By the time we finished walking around it was super hot (almost in the 90's) and the sprinkler in the arena still wasn't done. So I decided that this was a good opportunity for Maisie's first bath and then I stuck her in the cross ties while I untacked Jetta. She was great! She did not like the bath at all (shocker), but stood fairly nicely while I sprayed her neck and shoulders.

Still not sure about cross ties

Overall, I was super proud of my little nugget and next time we will definitely try ponying!

I tried to take a confo pic because she's finally starting to look like a horse! But nope- llama baby

Clinic Recap

It has been seriously forever since I have participated in a clinic! I was SO nervous for our clinic on Saturday - worried about riding with a new-to-me clinician, worried about Jetta behaving, worried about whether the money had been well spent, etc.

Luckily, I needn't have worried about any of those things! This was actually my first time auditing JW but I had heard nothing but 100% positive things about her from quite a few people, which I feel is rare in the horse world, so I felt fairly confident diving in without seeing her teach first.

I got to watch the two lessons before me and I thought she was very fair and encouraging. I had heard that she was blunt, which worried me because sometimes people who are "blunt" are actually "mean" but JW was awesome. But I also don't want someone that tells me how amazing my horse is while we're failing around, I really appreciate honesty while at the same time providing structure for how to improve. I've had bad experiences with clinicians who tell me I'm "ruining my horse", but I've had good experiences with very blunt clinicians who will yell at you until you follow their directions, so it can be a mixed bag of what works for me.

I did get a little bit more nervous watching people in front of me because she liked to use a leg yield at the canter to get the hind end more under the horse and engaged, and recently that has been a sure-fire way to get Jetta completely amped up and running away from me. Luckily that wasn't an exercise she had us do.

Anyways, Jetta was on her best behavior. We had a TERRIBLE ride the day before, mainly because I got the idea to try a new bit on her - just a plain loose ring french link that was slightly fatter than her Myler - thinking that maybe she just didn't like how thin the Myler was. Hahaha you would think that I had put the harshest torture bit possible in her mouth. She hated it. She finally got to the point that she could somewhat put in work, but it was not a very good ride as a whole.

At least we were matchy?

And puppy was perfect for her first trip to the barn!

At the clinic we did a brief warm up and she was paying attention to me fairly well. I didn't canter but we did some trotting, counter bending, shoulder-in, and threw in a couple halts. JW called us over and I told her a bit about Jetta - 12 year old Thoroughbred, had almost a year off for a baby, then has been under saddle again for 3 months. Not currently riding with anyone, we've been having trouble with our canter-trot transitions and lengthened trot. Currently riding first level. She's fairly hot, forward, heavy in the bridle and likes to anticipate things and get wound up.

She watched us go for a minute and started right in on our issues. While I normally find it annoying if a clinician gives me the same exercises that we've been doing at home, this time I felt it was more reassuring than anything that I was on the right track with her, plus she did it in such a way that the exercises were building on eachother plus I had a person on the ground to tell me when I was letting Jetta get away with doing stuff only part way.

We did some transitions in the trot - she had me start with a big working trot, only a little bigger than what we'd show with. JW labeled this as a "5" trot, then had me slow her to a 4, 3, 2, 1, keeping her rounded and on the bit. The main thing I've been letting her get away with is not keeping her round on both reins. I have her nicely on my inside rein, but let her drop the outside rein. We kept playing up and down with this scale of trotting, and JW would occasionally call out a number for us to go to or tell us to make a 10 meter circle.

At home, we've been doing lots of 10 meter circles, figure-8's and serpentines. We've also been doing bending and counter bending. This theme was reiterated in our lesson. JW had us exaggerate our inside bend and counter bend, getting Jetta to accept my leg. That's the other thing that we really need to fix is her not accepting my leg, instead she's running away from it. I've been trying to work on it at home, but I guess I haven't been as committed to it as I need to be.

Then we really got to work. Enjoy my artwork of our exercises:

First exercise at the trot

Second exercise with canter-trot transitions

We did these until we were getting more consistent transitions. Still not great by any means, but Jetta was staying rounder, definitely trying to do things correctly, and the quality of her trot had improved quite a bit. JW ended by saying that while I think Jetta likes to come up with avoidance techniques for everything (and while I don't try to let her get away with it, she still does in some capacity), she liked how Jetta wasn't resentful about anything. I'm just needing to expect more from her, focus on keeping her round and on the bit at all times, keep my leg on in transitions and circles (especially my outside leg!).

Some favorite quotes:

• "Good struggle!"
• "Don't fight with them... think of it as a clarification of expectations"
• "Why do you let her do that?" "I don't know" "Well figure it out!"
• "Is she bending on both reins?" "No" "Then why haven't you fixed it already?"

Overall, I enjoyed the lesson. I like that she didn't go easy on us, she seemed to easily pinpoint the two underlying problems we're having. Her exercises made sense to both me and Jetta and didn't make Jetta upset or make things worse. She wasn't mean though and seemed to think that I was competent despite my many failings and that Jetta was a nice horse. I would definitely ride with her again!

More Learnin'

Baby continues to learn about life, you know, the difficult stuff like fly spray and clipping and being caught.

She thankfully has improved since her vaccine reaction. She didn't really want to eat for a couple days and I was worried she just didn't like her new food. I gave her some probiotics and she bounced back a few days later and is now eating her new food! She is not food motivated in any way, so getting her to eat grain is difficult. I got her a ration balancer so she only needs to eat 2 pounds a day and she'll be set for everything she needs, but getting to 2 pounds might take a while. We finally moved up from 1/2 a pound twice a day, to one pound in a feeding so she's gradually learning to eat it!

She dropped a good amount of weight and looked terrible, but luckily gained it back. She still hasn't shed out her winter coat and it's been in the mid-80's a couple days here and she seemed uncomfortable and I was over it, so she got body clipped.

I usually think it's silly to body clip in the spring since they're going to shed anyways, but she was taking altogether way too long. All the other horses in the area were shed out except her. The surprise? She didn't care one bit about being clipped. She even let me do her bridle path and chin! She even stood super well for the whole thing since it took a while, letting the clippers cool off every few minutes. I'm kinda bummed - I got these fancy brushless motor clippers by Wahl thinking they'd be cooler but they get WAY hotter than my last pair of clippers.

Before clipping

So much hair!

Anyways, I was impressed by the clipping. I didn't attempt doing her muzzle since I know that's a really ticklish area and we did plenty for one day. But we have found her new nemesis: fly spray. She does not like it one bit and dances around, bolts and just generally hates it. So I bought a spray bottle and now we get to practice with water every day after she eats her food! Very unhappy baby, she would like you to know she is being cruelly mistreated over here.

Naked!!

She is 9 months old now and just hit 14 hands at the shoulder! She weighs a little under 600 pounds. We are getting better at being caught (she tends to walk towards me now in the pasture instead of immediately walking away), she is a pro at tying and loading in the trailer. She hates fly spray, clippers are acceptable, treats are still very meh. We need to continue working on trailering away from home, tying in the cross ties, and our new adventures will include ponying and a bath as soon as I have time!

That's pretty much a complete update on little Miss Maisie.

Jetta continues much the same. Our trot work seems fairly good and we had a great ride yesterday. The canter continues to be a mystery as to why on earth we seem to be flailing around. I waffle back and forth on "it's all me" to "my horse is being a resistant idiot" and I'm pretty sure it's 50/50. We are playing around with different exercises, stirrup lengths, and bits or lack of bits to try and find SOMETHING that works. I'm pretty bummed that this is the place in our current training that I'll be taking her to see the clinician this weekend since I'd love to work on stuff more towards preparing us for 2nd level, vs. "how to canter" like we haven't been doing it forever. But oh well, at least she keeps me humble!

At least our outfits are matchy

She's getting pudgy! We just cut her grain back finally

She's lucky she's pretty

When it Rains it Pours

Of course, everything always has to happen at once. As soon as I signed up for a show, Jetta started being AWFUL. Like, we hadn't had that bad of rides for many years. We completely lost all semblance of a half-halt and she literally couldn't do anything.

"How does one horse?" At least she's looking good!

After blundering around for 3 days, I realized that our half-halt was the main reason we were being a complete train-wreck in every aspect, so we reinstalled that. You'd think she'd have a solid half-halt after 8 years of being under saddle, but apparently not...

We're still working on it, but at least we're not completely awful anymore. Just slightly awful. So maybe we won't be a complete embarrassment at the show this weekend? Just a little embarrassing probably.

I tried to have a stirrup-less ride before it all went downhill. Do not recommend

At least our matching is on point!

We finally got our new vienna reins (more on that in another post) so we've been doing a fair bit of lunging. Even on the lunge line she just wants to go go go, so we're working on slowing down and stretching, hoping that will translate to under saddle.

Love this place

The most stretching we're getting right now

I'm bummed that of course this happened once I sent several non-refundable checks for the show and clinic, especially since I am SO EXCITED about them, but oh well.

Horses. So frustrating, it seems like we're always taking two steps forward then three steps back!


And then of course Maisie had to make sure she got enough attention too. She got her vaccine boosted on Sunday and then Tuesday night I tried to feed her grain and she wasn't interested. She's the pickiest, least food-motivated horse I've ever interacted with, but usually she tries to eat a little grain, plus she just looked out of it. So I took her temperature and found it to be a whopping 104F. Just peachy. I talked to one of the doctors at school and came to the conclusion that it was probably a vaccine reaction and gave her some banamine. An hour later she was still uncomfortable, but her temp was dropping, so that made me feel better.

She is now back to normal termperature, but still not interested in food, so I'm not sure what's with that. We did just recently switch grain to something better suited for a growing baby (per my recent nutrition class, which was AWESOME! I may need to do a post about it), so I'm not sure if she just doesn't like the grain or if there are lingering GI effects. She got a dose of probiotics, so we'll see how it goes from here.

And to top it all off, my BF and I decided to drive 8 hours to get a puppy last weekend. I fell in love with an Akita a few years ago and found a litter up for adoption. I loved one of the girls and they agreed to put her on hold and now we have little baby Kaida. So of course, who needs sleep around here?

She slept and cuddled the whole ride home

Loves rolling in the gras

Champion at walks

Puppy + sick baby horse + awful acting adult horse + majorly awful midterm + life in general = no sleep, lots of stress.