Catching Up.

It's been a while since I've done an update. So, here's the rundown since my last post.

Last week, the week before Christmas, Gus had his hooves done again. And again, I'm not really impressed. I feel like I can't get anywhere with the farrier... it's like a one-way street, as far as communication goes. The toes especially seem to be too long.

Here's the photos, in the usual order:

Looks like that wavy line may finally grow out. Next trim perhaps?

Then on Thursday, Gus saw Dr. K again (the chiropractor). He was out in the same places again. Mainly in the poll, withers and SI region. We didn't have the grazing muzzle (aka Hannibal contraction) available, so Gus was a bit more of a pain then usual. But, he's ubber sensitive when it comes to body work, so it's a bit understandable.

Dr. K was pleasantly surprised with how good Gus looked. She suggested going three to four months until the next visit. This last appointment was at three months. I'm thinking we'll see how he looks at three months out and go from there. Sooner appointment if needed, otherwise we'll wait it out.

As far as riding goes, I had a good lesson last Wednesday. Warming up on the lunge line, we had two cavalletti poles set up at 18' intervals. One in was raised on a bloc and basically Gus had to trot and canter through the line. The goal was to avoid that dreaded extra step at the trot that Gus tends to throw in at the end. Ehh, sometimes he nailed it and other times he botched it. Once we had a couple nice trips, we reversed directions and repeated the other direction.

Undersaddle work consisted of mainly working on straightness in all three gaits. It's much more difficult then you'd think. Especially when you don't have the rail to help keep all the parts in line. Gus was a decent enough sport though and we managed a couple nice strides of straightness. Definitely did not have nice, straight lines - yet. That's the goal.

Today, undersaddle work was a disaster. Gus was so preoccupied with dust and light. He kept shying away at the shadows on the arena walls and footing. What a goofball. I did make him trot and canter through the 18' line of cavalletti poles. Kinda interesting, to say the least. I think if I want to use the poles in the future, I'll make them on the long sides ...

Gus is still on an anti-food strike. He's really not wanting to eat his grain at all, especially not in the mornings. So, in order to see if we can trick in him into eating, I've decreased his grain in the mornings from 1 1/2lbs to 1lb and kept him at 1 1/2lbs at night, for the time being. He does tend to finish his grain overnight though so if worse comes to worse, we'll just up his PM grain (which I was going to do in the first place and kinda forgot to day when I set up grain for the next three weeks).

Here's a few random shots of Gus from earlier this month:

And now, on to Mr. Gringo. Today was pedicure day for Gringo. He was a trooper, like always. For the most part, I'm pleased with how L does Gringo's hooves. There seems to be a bit unevenness once in a while (as far as not being symmetrical when viewed from above) but overall, I'm happy with Gringo's hooves.

Here's the photos from today. Keep in mind that they are taken on an uneven surface ... hence the crookedness to some of the photos:

I also was able to get some body shots. Definitely nothing spectacular ... but it's hard to photograph a horse who won't stand still using a cell phone. One of these days I really need to drag out the real camera again.

Here's hoping for the best for both my boys in 2012. I really do deserve (as do they) a year free from the headaches and stress that I've been dealt these past few years... truly I do.

Quadrille 101

Yesterday was day 1 of the start of our winter quadrille season. It was a blast. Simply put, a quadrille is a group of horses and riders performing in union. Instead of being just four riders though, we had six this go-round. Organized chaos... and at times not so organized.

I was really pleased with Gus though. He's such a trooper. We got into the arena about thirty minutes before the practice started, mainly so I could spend a few minutes lunging Gus and getting him all warmed up. Definitely thought it was in his best interest to be nice and limber before starting the practice... considering his the oldest and most arthritic horse in the group. Haha. Nearly two hours later, we were finally done. Gus was exhausted, and I wasn't too far behind him.

Other then that, Gus seems to be doing well enough. He's getting his hooves done again on Wednesday so I'll reserve any judgment until then. Needless to say, I've not been happy lately.

Gringo is still doing okay. I feel bad that he's truly been on the back burner. I owe him a nice, long grooming session one of these days. Maybe on Christmas... we'll see. I desperately need to get some photos taken of Gringo (and Gus, for that matter) so I'm hoping to try to get that done soon... hard to do though when I'm the only one out there.

Regarding the quadrille - it sounds like we're going to try to make this an ongoing Sunday afternoon thing at the barn. The next two weeks are holidays, of course, so nothing is planned then. But going forward, the barn will be having practice sessions. Can't wait!

It's Thursday!

Which means two things.

1. Yesterday was lesson day.
2. Tomorrow is Friday.

Yesterday's lesson, to sum it up in one word, was amazing. It all started off like it usually does - me hurrying to get to the barn before my lesson starts at 6pm. I managed to get to the barn and get Gus ready all before the start of my lesson. Even managed to get in the arena about 5 minutes early. Whohoo.

We began, as usual, with lunging. First without side reins and then with them attached in their new found position (high at the dee rings and low between Gus's front legs). B really wanted me to get after Gus to keep him from dropping behind the vertical and losing contact. I tried as best I could to keep up the impulsion from the hind end, but that's easier said then done when you've got a horse who tends to ignore the whip.

B ended up setting up two cavalletti, about 18 feet apart, raised on one end. Perfect distance, least for this old, stiff and arthritic horse, to canter through. And boy did he hate me for that. But cantering through those poles really did help him lift his front end and put more weight on the back end. After cantering the poles, we had a nicer trot.

After doing probably a good 20 minutes of lunge work, we started the undersaddle part of my lesson. Yesterday's lesson consisted of making Gus really round at the walk, to begin with. Then we proceeded to the trot, keeping it a nice, compact trot with lots of bounce (attempted to get the bounce... didn't always have it). From there, we proceeded to do a leg yield from quarter line to the rail, 10m circle at the rail to shoulder-in until the corner. Rinse and repeat.

It eventually evolved into LY, circle, haunches-in. The haunches-in though, was a lot more difficult going to the left then it was to the right. Gus, while moves better to the left, is much more bendable going to the right. Go figure. So the haunches-in to the left ended up more of a head-to-the-wall first, then I was able to ever so slightly adjust the bend so it was more of a truer bend.

Canter worked followed next. That ended up being short and sweet, because by now Gus was exhausted. He had a mini puff break after the lunge work (he was huffing and puffing from that), but he never did get his 5 minute walk break like he normally does. We both were a bit tired by the time we made it to the canter. So yesterday's canter work consisted of true canter. We did nice big 20m circles and doing a simple change of lead at X. We did try a few easy 1 loop serpentines, but Gus had other plans and kept swapping out leads. I now forget which direction he kept doing that on ... seems to me it was on the left lead, and B commented on the nice right lead canter he had last night.

In other news, we're back to no yawning again ... and no weird head twitches either. Not sure what's up with that, as nothing has changed except Gus being worked consistently in his BoB bridle (Hampton). Next week, Dr. K is out so hopefully she can straight Gus out again.

On Sunday, our barn is hosting it's first (in FOREVER) quadrille practice. I'm excited. Gus and I are going to play along, so it should be a lot of fun. Organized chaos, ya know?

It's COLD outside.

Kinda like how that song goes... "Baby, it's cold outside". Well, here in MN I think winter has finally arrived. It's really getting cold outside.

It's been a couple weeks since I last updated, but nothing has changed drastically. I haven't seen Gringo in ages (due to a crappy work schedule), but tomorrow we have a "date" set up - hopefully. Otherwise I will for sure be out over the weekend to give Gringo some much needed attention.

My lesson last week (November 30th), went over well enough. I can't remember what all we worked on, but I do know for a fact that we worked for a while on slightly raised cavalletti. Gus was so incredibly stiff and anti-forward, that the poles were probably only twoish "feet" apart (by "feet", I mean two of my size 10 foot spaces). As the lesson progressed, we were able to move the poles out a little bit more, but they were still much closer together then what a normal trot stride would be.

I think we also worked on the canter a bit. Can't remember for sure, but Gus's canter has been improving. Nothing spectacular, but it never was to begin with. He does have a nice left lead canter now though and most days his right lead looks good as well. We still have issues maintaining the left lead canter when going to the right (so in countercanter).

Between last week and this week, I was actually able to make it out to the barn a couple times. On Monday, Gus had just had his teeth floated so rather then riding, I opted to just lunge him in his halter. He was a pretty good boy. I was only really interested in getting him to move down and out, and we quit on a good note.

Tuesday, I was able to get some half-way decent work with Gus. I dragged out the poles again and set them at three feet and four feet intervals. The three feet ones were in a group of five, the four feet had just two poles. Gus managed the poles well enough, did a bit of stumbling though to begin with.

I had another lesson yesterday and I thought that it ended up being fairly productive. We did manage to spend about thirty minutes with Gus on the lunge line, trying to get the best configuration of the side reins. Final verdict? Between the legs and at the pommel (I use vienna side reins). With that configuration, Gus can't really hide behind the bit... and when he attempts to, I ask for more forward and he ends up popping himself back up at or near vertical. B said it was okay, in this instance, for him to be slightly above the bit.

Under saddle, we ended up working on the same principles. He needed to keep himself up and level (ideally his withers and poll were at the same height) and if he dropped contact, he was pushed forward to seek more contact. It sorta, kinda worked and we had some nice steps in there. Like B said, she hasn't seen Gus move so evenly in a while. Hopefully we're on the up and up again.

We also worked on some trot poles as well. They were spaced about 1 canter stride apart on the long sides, near E and B. We changed up from trotting over and doing 10m circles around the poles to doing a 10m circle between the poles. Gus definitely had some bad steps starting off on the trot poles but ended the lesson nicely. No canter work (except that which was done under saddle) yesterday.

And to amend an earlier post, Gus did have a round of Adequan back in May/June. I hadn't really returned to blogging back then so forgot to mention it. Anyways, after doing stifle injections (Legend IA mixed with some Depo Medrol) in both hind legs at the beginning of May, I opted to follow up with a round of Adequan a week later. Then in August, I do believe that Gus had another Legend injection, IV this time. Followed by another IV Legend a few weeks back. I plan on doing another IV Legend in another couple months, probably early February.