Is there an opposite of wordless Wednesday?

Words-only Wednesday?  Well, that's what I'm going with. So Wednesday is normally lesson day for me.  With Jazz just having had her teeth done, and her ulcer healing, and her ouchy toes, I wasn't sure about my lesson this week.  That is, I wasn't sure until Monday night when I was getting ready to let Jazz go and I ran into my instructor.  I explained my reservations that she'd be ready to ride by Wednesday, and having already cancelled last week's lesson because of Jazz's teeth, I was a little bummed about missing again this week.  My instructor suggested the obvious solution, that I could ride her lesson horse (who does the walk-only lesson immediately after mine normally anyway) for this week.

So today I followed the instructions she had texted and went out into the gelding pasture to get the big bay.  The real struggle was knowing which big bay was the one I wanted.  The lesson horse, Duper, is one of the "triplets" (affectionately nicknamed so by the barn manager who spent much of the winter bringing in the three nearly identical big bay horses with no white markings and attempting to get them in the correct stalls). Luckily, because of the drizzly weather we've been having lately he was wearing a rain sheet.  The instructor said Duper would be the one in the navy shedrow.  So, I ventured into the strange pasture (by which I mean any pasture that isn't the one and only pasture Jazz has lived in in the two years we've been at this barn), confident and looking for the big bay in the navy shedrow rain sheet.  Mickey, another of the triplets, was closest to the gate, wearing a green rambo blanket, so I knew from forty paces he wasn't the one I was looking for.  As I kept walking, I saw the fourth bay gelding in the pasture (he's one of the "quadruplets"), with no rain sheet.  Then I saw the bay in the blanket I was looking for... or rather, I saw two.  Two identical bays with no white markings wearing the exact same navy shedrow rain sheet.  After staring at both of them, and, despite feeling a little silly doing so, calling out Duper's name to see which one responded, I decided on the closer one.  I was fairly sure because he looked a little more familiar, and the other horse had a kind of wavy mane and I didn't recognize his face as much.  I got him into the barn, about 75% sure of my decision, and waited about ten minutes for my instructor to arrive and confirm that I actually had the right horse.

Luckily, I did.  We groomed him and I tacked him up, and after struggling to pull on my field boots, we were off to the arena.  I should probably mention that it was an English lesson, so I got to pull out my breeches and tall boots that have been gathering dust since the end of last summer when I last rode English.  So, I checked the girth, took down the stirrup leathers, and climbed on the mounting block to get on a horse waaaaay bigger than I was used to.  It was a little different being both in an English saddle and feeling very high off the ground.  I've gotten pretty accustomed to Jazz who might just brush 15 hands if she stretched.  My trainer said he might feel more forward and energetic than I'm used to since he's an OTTB.  He was forward, but in a really good way.  We worked on taking a contact and some slight bends to the inside and outside on a 20m circle.  It was really interesting because though it's obviously something you hear about with horse people a lot, I've never really done any work with contact before.  Duper was really responsive and took the contact beautifully; I couldn't have asked for a better demonstration. Then we moved to posting trot, and it was suddenly apparent both how big my horse was and how very long it's been since I rode English.  It wasn't horrible, but there were a lot of nearly-missed stirrups and slightly off-balance moments.  Lots of helpful little tips and hints from my trainer later, I was starting to get the hang of it a little.  It still wasn't the prettiest of posting trots, but at least it was better than my sitting trots.  That got a bit scrambled at times, but also not horrible.  Just work that needs to be done, that's all.  It also occurred to me that most of my English lessons last summer were technically in a treeless saddle, which make it much easier than a regular English all-purpose.

Once the trot was passable, the instructor asked me to canter.  I started off on the left lead, I put on my inside leg, put my outside leg behind the girth, clucked, and he took off into a big, beautiful rocking-horse canter.  I tried to pay attention to everything I'd been told at the canter, keeping contact with my hands nice and quiet and half-halting with my outside rein to slow down, keeping my heels down and my leg on, and working on balance and sitting up straight.  It went really well, and we changed direction and cantered to the right.  It was also beautiful and rocking-horse, and it otherwise felt much the same as it had to the left.  By then my lesson time was up, and I hopped off, thanked the instructor, gave Duper a big pat, and passed the reins on to the girl who has the lesson after me.

Of course, I couldn't leave without seeing my Jazz-horse.  She was good and wet from the steady rain that was pattering on the tin roof of the arena for my whole lesson.  I brought her in, and just like Monday, she was hesitant to come into the barn because of her feet, but they did seem better than they did Monday, so I'm hopeful it will be a nice, short recovery until they're feeling 100% again.  I picked out her (incredibly muddy) feet, gave her a quick groom, and tossed her back out with her friends.  I also brought in my friend's two horses to pick out their feet and look over them quickly because my friend is away.  An all around good day at the farm, especially considering I got to bring in three more awesome horses than normal.

Riding? Yes, I'll hold

I suspect the fact I'm getting daily single pageviews of my page but no specific post means I've got a reader or two awaiting an update on little miss Jazz.  My blog has been broadcasting a lot of radio silence lately, and most of the reason for that is that I've had a lot of balls in the air where Jazz is concerned.

My last post was about my first lesson with my new trainer and Jazz's crazy head tossing.  I was trying to downplay it, but I was positive it was primarily an issue based on her teeth.   So, we had an appointment scheduled with the vet today to get Jazz's teeth done.  

Snoozy Jazz. 

She got two doses of sedative. 

Horses are such majestic animals. 

Exhibit A. 

Lots and lots of rinses.  Jazz was apparently saving a lot of grass for later.  

Maybe I should go back and redo my bit it up blog hop... 

Once she was done she just stared at the wall for a while. 

Then she rested her whole face on it and contemplated her entire life for about fifteen minutes. 

Anyways, there were, as expected, some hooks that were most likely the source of a lot of our issues.  Those were sorted out, and Jazz should be a lot more comfortable now.  

What was there and unexpected, was something else.  An ulcer on the right side of her upper lip (which I unfortunately did not remember to photograph).  The vet said she had maybe bitten her lip or something, and it looked a lot like the horse equivalent of a canker sore.  And as a person who suffers from canker sores, I fully understand why she was not having any of this 'flexion to the left' nonsense recently.  

I couldn't find a good diagram of a bit, but a bitless bridle is the same basic idea. Just in case you never stopped to think about the mechanics of bit pressure; when you pull one rein, the bit puts pressure on the opposite corner of their mouth. So, pulling on the left rein puts pressure on the right corner, hence Jazz's all-but-total refusal to co-operate and bend her head left in the bridle lately.  

So, with any luck, her little ulcer will clear up in no time and she'll be right as rain again soon.

Oh, wait.  Jazz also got trimmed on Friday, aaaand she's a tad footsore.  The vet looked at her and said they just seem a little too short.  So that's unfortunate.  She does seem okay on softer arena footing, though, and its not the end of the world.  Everyone makes mistakes, and my trimmer is very good, so a little time will fix her up nicely.  Now all we do is wait.

At least I've got kittens to entertain me in the interim.

Babies!

Trim day

Well, after Jazz's less than agreeable attitude towards doing feet Tuesday I was a little nervous for how she would do for the trimmer this week. It went surprisingly okay. Far from perfect, but not bad. Certainly not the hour and a half of pure hell and stress that was her final trim with a previous trimmer, but I'll get to that. 

I started Jazz with a new barefoot trimmer last July, and I'm really happy with how her feet have improved.  They are almost entirely new growth now, and they are just night and day compared to what they used to be.  She has actual heel bulbs now! She can walk on gravel without being footsore!

Of course in classic new blogger fashion, I have no reference photos because I had no blog to post them to at the time, but trust me, they look way better.  

The trimmer herself is definitely a character.  She is very excellent at what she does, and is definitely a knowledgeable horsewoman, but I am very happy I discovered her when I did and not earlier. That isn't to say that I wasn't interested in the best possible care for Jazz and her feet, but I needed to learn a thing or two before I was ready to meet her.  This will become clear in a moment.

Flashback to almost two years ago: Jazz was 3 and still at the horse rescue.  There was a lady who owned two of the rescue horses that did the trimming there.  She was new to it, and was practicing trimming on the horses at the rescue.  I wanted to get Jazz's feet done one more time before I moved her, and the trimmer was there, so I decided to have her trimmed.  This was the first time I would actually be holding Jazz for her to get her feet done.  In the past, the owner of the rescue had always brought her in whenever the trimmer had had time for her. So it was me, who was wholly inexperienced, holding my young horse, who was not having the best of days.  Needless to say it didn't go well.  She reared, fussed, squirmed, and generally acted like the young horse she was.  And I, not knowing what to do, attempted to discipline her properly (read: in a highly counterproductive manor).  It went poorly all around. Jazz never calmed or settled, I got frustrated and had to step out several times, and advice was being thrown at me from all around.  It ended in tears and a very poor trim for Jazz.  Apparently the trimmer's mentor had just recently told her that she had been leaving the horses' toes too long, so unfortunately she overcompensated and took off way too much toe.  Jazz was sore for over two weeks, and I was traumatized, so I can only imagine what she went through.  Poor horse.  That was a definite low point of our time together.

Anyways the point of the story is this: remember how I mentioned the advice coming from every which way? Well, the trimmer at one point started palpating her back around her withers and declared that she was sore and probably it was because her saddle doesn't fit.  Well, that freaked me out a whole lot, and I tried to contact a chiropractor and just generally went a little nuts thinking I was wrecking my horse.  That has traditionally been my biggest problem working with Jazz; whenever she used to act up and I would get emotional about it, I wouldn't think, "what is wrong with this horse she's nuts", I would think "I'm wrecking her this is all my fault she will be ruined for life because of me and she will be labeled a problem horse why did I ever think it was acceptable for me to be in charge of a young horse".  So needless to say someone telling me that the saddle I had been putting on my horse and riding in might be physically harming her threw me into a bit of a tailspin at the time.

So flash forward to the trim this week.  I commented on how Jazz always stands wonky when you pick up a front foot.  She cocks a back foot, and I can't usually get her to stand square and balanced.  The current trimmer replied that it was probably because she lacked strength in her loins.  She palpated her loins, and there definitely seemed to be something to it, but the next thing she said was that it was probably an issue of saddle fit.  Don't get me wrong here, I am open to listening to the input of other knowledgeable horsepeople, and I have every intention of talking to my contacts who are more knowledgeable than me about it, but my reaction was significantly different than the last time I was told my horse is sore and it was probably caused by the saddle.  I highly, highly doubt that it is a saddle fit issue.  To be fair, I haven't checked the fit for a few months, but I have checked it multiple times over the two or so years I've been using it, and have been told multiple times by my riding instructor and others who have checked it that it, "fits her like a dream".  So considering that in addition to the fact that I haven't tacked her up and ridden her in over a month at this point for reasons I won't be getting into (read: if the saddle was hurting her, which I do doubt strongly, it is a significant amount of time for it to still be bothering her).

Which leads me to a new feature: Things I am getting better at with horses:

Thing #1
Considering all the facts before freaking out completely when people tell me something is wrong with my horse

I did remember to take a picture just as we were about to leave.  I just got positively swarmed out in the pasture.  Someone is definitely giving out treats.