Sunday brought an 830 am lesson with my trainer. I told her I took a hit to the confidence the day before and that Roscoe might be sore. The plan was to work on canter. Roscoe was a bit put out with my spur choice and decided to protest by not transitioning.
We worked through that by moving him and suppling before tackling the tougher stuff…canter serpentine. He is getting smarter about the difficult stuff and will just change leads or break, so it has been a process. We started with shallow short curves which were improved since the last time she saw them. It took a bit of timing since a really nice Morgan gelding was having a lesson at the other end. We moved onto two curves. Right was okay, left is much harder.
Roscoe says this is hard
She then added some trot lengthening where Roscoe thought he knew better. A discussion turned him into an inverted teenager before he finally attempted to do the exercise. His final one was probably the best of the weekend. I would not say he was a 100% at the lesson, but it was good for him to realize he can still work. At least I felt somewhat better going home.
Roscoe was thrilled that we were taking him home to a stall bedded deeply with sawdust. He has very specific standards. Once we unloaded the car, cleaned the trailer and put him out with the boys, we had a little time to chill out. Our Magna Wave friend was coming to treat Griffyn, who my sister was bringing, on her day off. It seriously pays to have her down the road. Since she was coming I asked if she could treat Roscoe again and hopefully help him recover better. She did and both red boys enjoyed the treatment.
Sadly the cavaletti lesson and other factors continued to cause issues in the weeks that followed. We had to call in the big guns. More on that later.
After the first lesson I was feeling good, riding the positive wave of my trainer seeing growth even after a month of riding only 5 times. My mom and I settled him into the stall, which Roscoe said did not have enough sawdust for a good roll, and then headed to the arena to watch the cavaletti lessons. This camp divided people into groups of three or four for four sessions. I though the lessons were ½ hour to 45 minutes, but they ended up being an hour… ish. Not going to lie there were a lot of poles and it was interesting. As we watched it got intimidating. The instructor was an event rider who demanded perfection but did not give much direction. I could see areas that would be hard for Roscoe and I due to our weaknesses and the fact that we had not cantered poles a bunch. But he and I normally enjoy cavaletti and there was a chance for jumps.
Sadly this lesson fell into the category of a bad choice.
The instructor could not stay within the scheduled times and went over a half hour the session before mine. So my 4:30 lesson did not start until nearly 5:00. And yes we stood around with tacked ponies for that half hour. The lesson started well with working trot over the poles and finding our spots. Then she had us work one at a time doing canter circles over the single poles. That was not bad, though we missed some of our spots. What was tough was her directions were hard to follow. I remember dressage tests and jump courses, but could not get her directions.
The next step added a curved bounce line of poles. At the trot Roscoe wanted to cheat and we worked to get it right. At the canter to the left we did better than I expected.
The bad choice really became apparent when we switched directions after 15 minutes of standing. I should have insisted we start with the lowest setting, but she had it rolled to the middle height. Going right is when I lose his shoulder when we are stressed. Needless to say we jumped over the end of the cavaletti and had major misses. I tried counting which the instructor was big on, we missed. She said he was going too fast and I was messing him up. Confidence direct hit. I approached a couple more times and passed the poles not comfortable with the probable outcome. She said if you pass again you will never get him through. I got him through, but without watching the video I can’t even remember how it went. I was beaten and done. I kept apologizing to Roscoe for choosing to continue this lesson and put him in a bad spot.
I was the happiest when it all ended, sad to say.
The next time I have a bad feeling about something I am going to refuse to do the exercise. It was overly ambitious to do for a second lesson with horses that may not have ever done such specific work. Unfortunately, Roscoe felt the effects of the lesson the next day and is even still be dealing with something now. Roscoe got a ton of treats and his dinner. Mom and I still had to get to the barn and feed the rest of the herd.
I don't shy away from sharing the good, the bad or the ugly and all of these apply so I included all the videos except the early flat minutes.
The next morning I was so glad not to be riding with the cavaletti instructor which was the normal camp setup. My trainer changed it around so that her students rode with her. My mom and I did mention that we did not think the cavaletti lesson was suitable for the situation and the lack of punctuality was a problem. Turns out we were not the only ones to say something. I am the kind of rider that puts a fair amount of trust in the clinician to guide me to have the best ride I can in that moment. That does not mean it has to be perfect, but if I or Roscoe do something wrong, I would hope for direction on how to fix it. I am still kicking myself over this lesson.
February turned out to be a total bummer of a month for riding and a bit for life in general too. So I looked forward to a weekend of riding at Sprieser’s camp to close out the month. Roscoe and I both had our Magna Wave PEMF therapy on the Tuesday before and we were supposed to have a saddle fitting on Thursday . Well the saddle fitting got put off to March, very sad, so I was going to work that day. That plan changed though.
On Wednesday my Mom messaged saying she had to bring Griffyn to the emergency vet. For the sake of friendship I can’t go into details about what happened, but he suffered a severe injury. My poor mother was traumatized and our small animal vet was not able to take him, nor any close by. My parents had to take him over an hour away to receive treatment. I went to the barn to take care of the horses and pick up Deliah. When I made it home, Griffyn was there pumped full of pain meds and looking like Winnie the Pooh in his red vet wrap shirt.
Poor puffy puppy
We were in a wait and see mode as to whether he needed surgery to remove necrotic tissue. I immediately contacted my PEMF friend and asked to schedule a time for him the next day. She was great and even came to the house. Griffyn received 20 minutes and looked less inflamed and my sister said he did not whine as much at night.
Inflamation way reduced
My what big feet you have
Needless to say the stress level was a bit high in our family. That made the weekend a little iffy for me tummy wise, but fortunately did not result in a full flare up.
One day his name will be spelled right
Roscoe’s first lesson was with my normal trainer and had quite the audience. My trainer watched as we warmed up with leg yields on the rail and shoulder in. She could see improvement which is always good to hear. She had us work on our lengthenings. He is getting better even though he tries to canter sometimes. In a few months hopefully he will resolve the urge.
Then she threw something new into the mix, renvers. I have heard of them in a vague way and knew only they were a four track movement. Beyond that I was clueless. We worked it at the walk first. Beginning in shoulder in and then changing the bend and aids to ask for the renver. This was definitely easier to accomplish with the mirrors.
When I went away from the mirrors it was a difficult to keep him together. We did have our moments of correct movement that felt amazing. Most of the time I felt like I was rubbing my head and patting my belly. Especially when we tried it at the trot. Going right we had to play with small bits at a time because he would get stuck. She was okay with 30 seconds of stuck, but no more than that.
To end the lesson we let him stretch at the trot. This was a mental and physical work session. One lesson done, two more to go.
Long time, no write. It has been a "too much happening, not enough time" thing rather than nothing to write.
Back in December Sprieser posted the dates for their Camps. This year they actually teamed up with an eventer to do a combined Camp. This meant Mom and I would have to go at different times. With inventory and the wet weather, we both signed up for the March dates. Well as March got closer, we worried about Rosemary. Last year she developed heaves due to all the mold around this time of year. We managed it last year with Cough Free and holistic remedies. This year was really bad so I gave in and purchased a nebulizer. It is just a budget friendly one with a small air compressor from Big D's. She is pretty good about getting her treatment once a day. Though she has managed to get her foot over the tube and flip the container during her impatient moments.
Sadly she was still belly breathing a bit and camp would not be good for her. The stall she would be in is really dusty. So Mom made the hard decision to take Roscoe instead. She did manage a couple rides before camp and worked out some things with him.
Her first ride was with the newer trainer Jess Idol. I really liked how she worked with them. Mom psyched herself out a bit about cantering, but she did some nice lateral work. Her second lesson was with Lauren doing a seat lesson. This was in the round pen. Roscoe thought the fancy gate would eat him, but he eventually settled. The fun began when Lauren pulled out the Posture Sling. They go over the shoulders and down to the opposite heel. They really seem to help keep you down and around the horse, while keeping you centered. Mom had been leaning forward a lot when asking for canter, but not with the slings. She did all three gaits and could feel a difference when they came off after only ten minutes. I looked up the slings afterward and they come in size ranges for about $130 for three tension band levels. Mom's final lesson was with Lauren on Sunday.
The posture sling
Pony boy was not happy we left him. They both did well and carried on from what they worked on in the seat lesson. Plus I told Mom to use the whip. Rosemary is a bit reactive about the whip, but Roscoe is fine with it.
As great as her camp was, we did get bad news. Lauren said they may cancel my camp due to lack of people. Turns out cornona virus had the final say, so no jumping camp for me. Instead Mom and I will go tomorrow for a lesson.
Meanwhile we have also been dealing with thrush in both of DaVinci's back feet. Thankfully Peggy had a bunch of thrush products since we have never dealt with it before. Iodine and Bannix twice a day for the first week or so. Did I mention there was a little blood and the front of his frogs were gone? Yeah it was scary. Then we moved to Iodine and Thrush buster twice a day for a week. Then down to once a day, just the Thrush Buster. As those got low, I ordered the Equiderma Thrush and White Line treatment. That stuff smells really good, lavender oil, and seems to have finished the job. My farrier looked at him yesterday and said to do a few more days. Of course as we start to see improvements in him and Rosemary, the rest of the world goes to pot.
I still have to go into work, but we can no longer do some of our jobs. It makes for a very long work day sometimes. As a DOD employee, I can't travel more than 100 miles away from work. On the plus side, since so many people are teleworking in northern VA traffic is so much more managable. I am taking advantage of the daylight to ride so light traffic is a big plus. Stay safe out there guys! We shall see how the coming days are.
Day two brought us riding bright and early. I actually love when I have the first ride. I get the whole arena to myself and it is so quiet and peaceful. Roscoe is not as distracted and we seem to work really well.
Lauren started us with some leg yields and then we moved on to going between shoulder fore and shoulder in. Moving Roscoe's shoulders has always been difficult for me. And in the beginning he was moving his hind end. By the time Peggy started the video, he was actually moving his shoulders. All that chrome looks pretty cool in the lateral work.
From there we started the tough stuff of making him shoulder in on the circle. We have tried this before with no results. This time I could feel him attempt the exercise. The hope was to get him to bring his neck down and his back up. Neck falling down was a term we heard a bunch. We did start to figure it out on a circle. He was more active and true when he put it together. We had a harder time maintaining it through changes of bend. I am amazed at the change of quality he has achieved in just the last year.
We moved on to walk to canter transitions. She had us activate his walk and do some walk trot quick transitions. I have only played with these a couple times before. He gave me one awesome one. This time he was a bit tired, so they were not as clean. Once we were in canter, we had to work again at getting his neck to fall down. Plus add in some half halts to get him to sit. I ran out of oopmf to hold us both together. But the times we did manage to keep the canter going, it felt really good.
Unfortunately the phone ran out of video room before we got to the right lead. I had to tickle him with the whip to convince him he could keep going forward when I half halted. This was similar to the lesson with Lisa last year. Roscoe is better since then. We just might be able to handle 1st level.
Lauren kind of redeemed herself with this lesson. I came away feeling like I accomplished something and with hope for the future. Mom had a good lesson too. Lauren even made her canter. We are hoping to do two semi private lessons a month, which will cost the same as if we each did one private a month.
Lauren also provided all the campers with a goodie bag. Everyone except DaVinci likes the cherry flavored cookies.
This year Mom and I each attended camp. This made the situation a little tougher since they scheduled us back to back. My ulcerative colitis have been super bad, so I was worried about having to run to the bathroom mid tacking. Luckily Peggy was able to attend and help me. The horses stay overnight and we leave the truck and trailer at Sprieser. I drove my car loaded with all our stuff and was able to find their stalls before the horses arrived. Good thing too since I only found Rosemary's. I walked the aisle twice, but there was no sign with his name. A staff member was just as puzzled as I was. She remembered his name. Eventually she found his name paper behind another horse's. She found a stall down the aisle from Rosemary and right next to the bathroom. Perfect for me.
Someday his name will be spelled correctly
The horses settled in just fine, chowing down on the hay provided. Mom and I had to work on chipping them out of the mud they gathered from the rain the night before. I could tell Roscoe had to pee, but he is not a fan of pelleted sawdust. God forbid he get splashed. When I got him tacked up, I asked Peggy to walk him in the grass. He had to pee before going into the indoor. NO PEE allowed! He cooperated after scoping out the area.
My mom rode right before me and Rosemary seemed to handle the work okay. We worried a bit about her heaves. I made sure to trace clip her so she would not get too hot.
Roscoe and I headed in for our lesson with Skye Finn, a new trainer to Sprieser. "This must be the Roscoe I have heard so much about," was the first thing she said. Uh boy, wonder what she has heard. Fair warning, the loud voice is Lauren teaching the other lesson.
Roscoe was full of it and distracted. He spooked at mom walking in, shadows and some mystery stuff. So Skye had us doing baby leg yields and shoulder fore.
Roscoe started to settle as we worked. He was still a bit tight in his poll. She had us do a clock exercises of moving his head to points on the clock to loosen him up. I was really wishing I had remembered my spurs. From there we moved to adjusting his trot open and close. Roscoe was deciding all this was a lot of work.
But there was no rest. Onto canter or maybe try to canter. He seemed to forget how his feet work. The tail monster was working overtime. When we finally got a canter, Skye said "he actually has a good canter." I guess he can still surprise people. She wanted to work his transitions. We tried to do a canter figure eight one direction, but my riding could not coordinate, so we changed it around and it worked better. He was still a little dramatic on his left transition. We ended with some nice trot work. Overall though he was distracted, he still did some nice work. I really have to lock down my outside rein so I can support him more.
We had a couple of hours before our cavaletti lesson. Mom and I were in it together. It started with going over poles on a circle and adjusting the number of strides between poles.
From there we serpentined over poles down the center of the ring. The cobs handled the turns well.
The next part is where it got dicey. Our cobs are pony sized, but they are not pony strided. Both have done cavaletti with horses and not had any issues. Skye ended up closing the distance on the three pole and the two pole to an insanely small stride. We always thought two poles, especially close together, were a no-no. Roscoe decided to just ignore the suggestion and go over both poles in one stride.
We were told to close up our stride. Considering the bad weather this winter, the horses are out of shape. So something happened to Rosemary going over the three poles. We could not see any injury, but she hurt for a little while. Mom eventually was able to get her going again, but the focus changed to Roscoe.
We moved onto some canter work. I can honestly say I let him down. A side effect of the colitis is malnutrition and it drains me. My pony takes care of me and does not hold it against me.
Day one was complete and we survived despite all of us being out of shape. We left the ponies eating their dinner and figuring out that they were staying. Tomorrow we had one more lesson. I was already feeling today. No pain, no gain.
