Summertime

Summertime is challenging because my child is home from school and I go back to full time parenting.  I will be doing the happy dance in two weeks when school starts back up!

Lots and lots of things have happened.  I haven't written in a long time not just because of time, but because I've been doing so much and things have been changing rapidly.  So, here's the highlights....

I picked the name Enzo.  He seems to like it and it makes me giggle when I say it.  Plus, he can have the nickname Z.

He foundered.  Ugh.  Luckily, I caught it super early and he's fine, with clean x-rays.  However, vet has said he must be in regular work and have limited grass.  Limiting his grass isn't too hard as they have a great dry-lot available, but it does mean he doesn't get to hang out with his buddies.

I've been riding five to six days a week up until two weeks ago when I had a stomach ache and was transported via ambulance for an emergency appendectomy.  Suddenly, I couldn't work my pony.  Lucky for me, I had a friend who was available and she's been riding him a few days a week until I'm cleared for riding again.

Ambulance Selfie!

However, that really made me step back and look at my situation.  First, it's important to note that I have done a TON of ground work and relationship work and my horse and I are a team now.  We are at an entirely different place in our relationship.  We're riding outside.  We're purposely doing scary things.  He ground ties.  It's been incredible.

Proof of outside riding!

BUT...I don't have a lifestyle that is conducive to five days a week of riding.  And the barn I'm at isn't a barn that has a program available that he could be in.  It's just not the right fit.  He would be perfect for what I WAS doing, which was riding in a program working my way towards dressage shows.  Throw in some trail rides and he'd be a happy boy.

So, I'm putting the word out to my pony people.  Currently, I am not advertising him on the big sites or on Facebook pages because I'd like him to go somewhere recommended.  I would also love for him to go somewhere where some form of natural horsemanship is practiced or at least somewhere where they don't ride with a flash noseband just because that's what everyone else is doing.  :)  His personality has really come out in the last few months and he's a sensitive, people pleasing kind of horse.  He deserves a rider who will honor that.

His best match is a confident rider who will give him regular exercise and love.  He could probably do half days on grass with a grazing muzzle as long as he's getting regular work.

Stats are 16 hands, 13 years old, 1/2TB, 1/4 QH and 1/4 Percheron.  Has been a lesson horse previously, but I don't think he loved doing that.  Loves trails and arena work and has a wonderful, easy trot.  $2,000.  Perfect home a must.  Currently, I don't have video because I'm just talking to friends and friends of friends.  If I end up 'marketing' him, I will get better pics and videos and all that.  He's boarded in Fall City right now, if anyone local is reading this.  :)

The Name Game

You know what?  I've always hated the name Licorice.  I let my previous trainer talk me into keeping it because she believed you don't change their names once they have them.  Having worked a LOT with rescue animals, I'm all about starting a new life with a new name.

Also, Licorice just doesn't roll off the tongue.  There aren't good nick names.  It feels trite.  His original owner was a young girl, so it's probably like my first dog who got the moniker "Holly Jolly Christmas".  At least it had a decent nickname with Holly!

So...I've decided to change Licorice's name.  I have a front runner that I'm trying out this week, but if anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them.  I love the big Italian names (Valerio!) but they were too fancy for Licorice.  His personality reminds me most of (get ready for corny here...) Black Beauty, but I can't name him that...because, no.  But he deserves a different name.  He's a kind hearted gentleman with a lot of try and a bit of a sensitive soul.

Anyone with experience with this, let me know how you let the rest of the world know (like your barn, friends etc.).

What name goes with this face??

We've completed a week of training with a new trainer (J) and had a lesson with the other trainer (E).  I'm getting such good stuff.  As we were walking around the property with Licorice on a gorgeous sunny day, I laughed and said "Are you ever surprised people pay you to do this?"

E smiled and said "I'm more of a relationship counselor than I am a riding instructor."

And she is.  She's expensive, but worth every penny.

My big take away for this week, that I got from both E and J separately, is about energy management.

E describes it this way:

You and your horse get to have a combined energy score of 10 at any given time.  You need to not go over 10 or under 10.  If it's a windy day or your horse is distracted, his energy may be at an 8.  So, you need to go in with an energy level of 2.  (note, this is not saying that you would be a lump, but that you would be very grounded and level with your energy and be pulling your energy down and not out).  Then, as your horse calms down, his energy may go down to 5 and you may need to bring your energy up to 5 to meet him.

On a hot day, when he's tired, your horse may only have a 3 so you may need to bring your energy up to a 6 to get him listening to you.  Sometimes, if he's really checked out, you may need your energy to be a 9 if he's only at a 1.  However, if you go up to 9, he's likely to switch from 1-5 pretty quickly, so you must adjust your energy.

For some reason, this totally clicked with me and we've been having major success with just staying calm, cool and focused.  I even (with the help of a friend) got him in the wash rack and got his tail washed without tying him.

What what?

I'm a terrible blogger right now.  But, can you blame me?  I've been dealing with this.

Hives.  All over his body.  Over and over and over again.

I couldn't get the hives to go away, so we decided to try a pasture on higher ground.  Licorice's other barns were on hills and his new pasture was pretty marsh-y, so we moved him up the hill.  This is one of his new pasture buddies.  This horse is a big dog and just wants love.

Rohan!

When that didn't work, we went to the full armor again.  I finally found a fly sheet that can also be a rain sheet.  Yeah!  Perfect for spring.  So, after spending my $150 on it, it's been only hot and sunny and too warm for this.  Sigh.  Of course.

 Full armor + new pasture mostly did the trick!  So then there was this!  A saddle!!!!  Hurrah!!!

So handsome.

Which then led to this!  RIDING!!!!

 We have just started a 30 day training program with a trainer that I really like.  I'm hoping to get us back on track and go from there.  If someone comes along and thinks Licorice is their perfect horse, I am open to that conversation, but I'm not going to actively market him.  Instead, I'll put some more training on him and on me and get us out.  This summer is going to be awesome.  So spoke, so mote it be.

Like Dogs? Like Kids?

Licorice STILL has hives.  We are working on different angles and I'm hoping we turn the corner soon.  He looks awful.  All lumps and bumps.

We've had some great groundwork sessions.  I realized something pretty critical about my abilities and that is that it's not that I lack confidence, it's that I have anxiety.  I knew I had anxiety, but I thought confidence was the missing ingredient.  However, confidence is something you can gain through exercises, trust and time.  Anxiety doesn't give a crap about those things, it's a totally different beast.  One I'm very familiar with working with, but until I recognized fully that it was anxiety driving my discomfort and not confidence, I kept trying to train it out of me.

I have pretty good feel and pretty good timing.  My releases happen at the right time and even when I'm talking to someone else, one 'eyeball' is always on my horse.  I correct when I need to, am reasonably soft (this is ALWAYS a work in progress) and when riding, have a good seat and soft hands.  Licorice is not dangerous to me nor am I dangerous to him.  He's not a hot spooky mess all the time and neither am I.  I'm not sure it's exactly fun a lot of the time, which leads me to my newest pondering.

One of the people I'm working with for Licorice's hives heard that I was still thinking of selling him.  She basically dressed me down for it, saying that horses bond to their owners and that if I was having a hard time with my child I wouldn't give them up, would I?  Well, she's right.  Quite frankly, if my daughter was a horse, I probably would have sold her already.  (note to my child when she's old enough to find this on the internet:  you may use this for approximately five years of counseling when you're in your early 20s.  Then, someday, you may have a child and you can apologize to me with extravagant gifts.)

So, where do horses fit in?  Let's take out the 'horses cost a lot of money' line, because kids do too.  Also, let's take combinations that are dangerous off the table.  And let's also leave out 'horses are a hobby'.  I understand this is true for some people, but my horse isn't just a hobby.  I do puzzles for a hobby.  Horses are something deeper for me, and it DOES involve another being.

Why are they different than the commitment to dogs?  I had a border collie who I loved dearly, but she had some big issues (rescue dog) that we worked around but if she was a horse would I have traded her in?  I'm REALLY thinking about this, not just off the cuff with the whole time/money/life is too short stuff.  What makes the difference?

Dogs.  Children.  Horses.  All are beings and I believe they all have souls.  They certainly all have personalities.  What would life with horses look like if we DIDN'T trade them in?  I board, so I only can afford one horse so it's not an option to keep one and then get another one to do some of the things I want to do.  And why is WHAT we want to do MORE important than the horse/person bond?  My dog was NOT a family dog, but I just worked around it.  My husband is not a horse person...I wouldn't trade him in.

So, any thoughts?  I really would love to have a thoughtful discussion about this!  I recognize there might be differing opinions, so if there are, let's be respectful to each other.  And be open to thinking about things differently.....I know I am.

I Don't Want To Jinx It

but Licorice's hives were better today.  Crossing my fingers that maybe we're turning a corner.  But trying not to get too excited, so no exclamation points or talking too much about it.  I will quietly whisper "He had less hives today. Yippee." and then go build a shrine to the No Hives Gods and do a No Hives Dance while drumming with a chicken bone.   What?  You would do the same if your horse had hives for over three weeks.

Lumpy and Bumpy

My poor horse is covered in hives from nose to tail.  I will try to get pictures today, but so far the hives just don't show up in pictures very well.

After trying steroids three times and having the hives return, I've decided to go a different route.  I'm currently working with an herbalist and doing a system detox for Licorice.  She warned me that it is very common for it to get worse before it gets better, so I'm only mildly freaking out.  Meaning I've only called her twice in the last two days.  Ha!  She thinks it will take another week or so to start turning the corner.

In the meantime, it's a constant battle to figure out the weather.  He needs to be wearing his full fly sheet and neck cover any time it's not raining, but this time of year it rains for an hour, then dry for three, then rain again, then dry.  The barn is almost 30 minutes from my house, so it's not really possible for me to go out there all the time.

While we're waiting for his skin to settle down, we've been doing lots of groundwork.  Licorice is finally getting the hang of lateral movement, though we're both pretty slow at it.  It's supposed to be gorgeous this week, so I'm going to mix our time up between doing groundwork and then me just hanging out in his pasture.  I'll bring a camping chair, a good book and just chill with my pony.

Curious if anyone has had a horse with allergies to bugs and what your experience was?  I know I could just put him on Benadryl, but I'm not a huge fan of covering up symptoms without getting to the root of why.  If this doesn't clear up in the next few weeks, I am going to look into allergy testing as I've heard there's a vet that does the skin testing for horses.  Interesting, but I'm sure it's not cheap!

Keeping Up To Date

I'm so sorry!  There's been so much good stuff and I have hardly written a word.  Let's see if I can be as un-wordy as possible and still catch you up.  I'm thinking a list.

1.  Licorice got his teeth done and while he was sedated, his sheath cleaned.  Vet said to try to keep him on half days on grass for spring, just in case.  Or put a grazing muzzle on him.  Lucky for us, another boarder left and Licorice got to move to his stall which is attached to a nice big dry lot!  So Licorice will have breakfast in the dry lot and go out in the afternoon with his girlfriend in the big pasture.

Poor sedated pony.  He found a scrap of hay that I was in the process of removing from his stall and almost fell over trying to get to it.  Silly boy.

2.  Another amazing lesson with E.  Licorice and continued to walk off our anxiety and have graduated to 'walking the trails'.  We have not graduated to calmly walking by the cow pasture, but my fire breathing dragon pony now at least will walk by them instead of stopping and then bolting.

Clearly, no cows were around while we took this picture.

3.  A few pictures from the interior of our new barn.

Not my tack!  But a heated tack room is a beautiful thing!!

What's better than a heated tack room?  A HEATED RESTROOM WITH HOT WATER!  Yes, I know.  I'm unreasonably excited.  I've been living in Porta Potty land for too long!

This is the wash rack.  I wish they wouldn't store the grain tubs there because the clutter makes me a little nervous.  When I'm ready to wash Licorice, I will move these out just to be safe.

4.  Licorice had a serious allergic reaction.  Vet thinks it might be a bug allergy.  There are lots of flies on this property since it is in the valley and gets a fair amount of standing water.  So Licorice got a steroid shot, a few days of steroids in his food and was prescribed a fancy fly sheet with neck cover.  My non horsey friends think he looks like a Knight's horse now.  The hardest part is that we are having spring days, which mean that the day can start out rainy (put him in a rain sheet) and then end up warm and sunny (needs the fly sheet).  I can't afford blanketing service and even if I could, that includes blankets in the morning and then in the evening, not a 'check in the middle of the day and swap out his entire outfit'.  

He had four of these and the hair on his neck is all weird and soft and thin.  Gross, huh?

 

5.  Another amazing lesson, where I had E ride Licorice.  She said he was lovely and that she thinks the tripping will lessen considerably once he learns to unlock his back.   Immediately after getting on, she said he tensed his back up and stopped moving his barrel.  Hmmmm...this makes sense why his back was so sore last year!  So, our focus is on getting his barrel moving by alternating legs.  First gently, then bigger and bigger.  It's sort of hilarious because you can tell that Licorice was a lesson horse and is used to spurs because I had to ride around thunking him pretty good.  He totally ignored me.  E, of course, got him going lovely right away, but at least he didn't kick up or crow hop.  We even trotted a tiny little bit, but with my hamstring injury I'm really only supposed to walk right now.

6.  I talked to my farrier and we pulled Licorice's back shoes.  He said if he's still sore in a few days, call him and he'll come out and throw shoes on him, but since I'm not doing much with Licorice he doesn't really need them.  Yeah for a smaller bill!!!  Finally!

7.  Licorice and I are starting to get it.  Really get it.  His manners are starting to come around and he even fell asleep while I was talking to someone.  Progress feels so good.