May 24- More MUD +bits Ride 62,63,64

My training journal says:
MUD MUD MUD MUD Beer grain MUD

Cleaning up the grain bucket.

5/16 Ride 62. Rinsed him off decently. Very sloppy everywhere. Finally got the Courbette saddle from Hawaii. Tried it on him and walked without stirrups (I had left them on the old saddle) in the indoor arena. OK fit but pinching withers if he raised his head.


5/17 Ride 63. Outdoor arena with Courbette with homemade tester half-pad (memory foam bath mat cut in half lengthwise). Walk/trot, walk over poles. Sore-footed, definitely from standing in mud so much. Good-natured. Refresher in standing for mounting, turn on forehand, back, whoa. Today preferred front of arena and wouldn't approach the back corner nearest the pasture which is usually a favorite place to stop and watch Beatrice throw a fit that he's gone.


5/19 fed grain in pasture. MUD MUD MUD

5/24 Ride 64. Rinsed legs again, better manners this time. VERY stiff picking up both hind feet, wanted to stretch forward instead. Slipped in the mud? Seems likely. I don't think I can get the horse chiropractor out before the farrier comes on next Friday. Very short easy ride in half-flooded round pen (I will take a shovel to it next time I swear) with bareback pad and new Western bit. Trying to introduce leverage bit but he hated the single-joint mouthpiece and he hated the double-joint copper mouthpiece one today. I should sell them both and buy a Myler... Very fussy and easily distracted, but he has not had a lot of exercise lately with the footing being so awful.

At least the grass is growing nicely, and Sherlock gets to enjoy some hand-grazing as we walk to the barn and back. This picture as about as clean as he ever got this month. And still had mud in his mane.

The best part of the day- snack time

May 9- MUD

We returned from a wonderful but exhausting trip to LA, we drove this time and spent a day in BC with Mom and Mike.

And it was raining. And it has continued to rain all week. And it's likely to snow tonight. Crazy.

galoshgalosh

5/5 Sherlock was allowing the other horses to share the shelter until he saw I had carrots, then he drove everyone off. Lots of grumpy faces but he didn't actually bite or kick anyone. I cannot find my jelly-scrubber mitt. It's a soft rubber grooming mitt that Sherlock loves- I can even get mud off his face with it.  Went to Murdoch's to get a new one and they didn't have any. Went to Saddle Up and they didn't have any. Oh well. Plenty of time.

5/7 Early to work, so went to Foxcreek to get a jelly-scrubber. They were out of them, despite the owner and the clerk and me all staring at the wall of grooming tools willing it to appear. I don't know why we insist on continuing to search when we have looked at every single thing five times already and determined the needed thing is not there.






5/8 Day off work. SO I went to Colorado Tack to get a jelly-scrubber. YES! They had two left in stock and I got them both, so now I have a backup. $4 item and I drove all over the county to get it. Planned to buy some sandbags to improve the pasture drainage, groom and feed. Took one look at the hardware store lines and went home, drank tea and finished reading both Small Favor and The Third Man Factor.

Bea, Max and Sherlock demand carrots

5/9 Bought my first-ever pair of galoshes and went out to the stable with my new jelly-scrubber. Drainage has actually improved, it has cut a channel now and is running off instead of standing water at the gate. Mud at gate might be shovel-able tomorrow. Sherlock was ruling the shelter as usual, but he, Bea and Max all emerged for some carrots.

I got him cleaned up a bit with the awesome powers of the jelly-scrubber, he rubs his face on it quite happily. Still a lot of mud but cleaned up his topline where he's most likely to get rainrot. He really needs his legs rinsed and dried. I hope early next week it will clear a few days and give me a chance to get him totally dry.

A river runs through it today

April 17- Ride #59, 60, Spring in Colorado

Where does the time go?

March 28th Ride#59- Sherlock and I took to the indoor ring again. I lunged him over the trot poles until he was calm about them, then mounted up, warmed up and trotted the poles several times very nicely. No leaping, no trouble. A bit stiff picking up hind feet, BL Solution in grain.

Protecting my herd. 

March 30- Cat, Liz's OTTB in re-training, added to pasture. Lots of galloping and chasing. Sherlock and Max guarded Beatrice and stayed mostly out of the way.

March 31- Excellent for farrier! Really perfect. Much praise.

April 2- Snowing. BL Solution and Banamine in grain.

April 4- Shedding Season begins in earnest. Groomed, tight belly due to weather.

April 6- fed grain

April 8-Tried hangs-on-the-fence feeder but Sherlock was very flinchy about it. Worried about the electric wire probably even though I hung the feeder far away from the wire. Had to hold the feeder for him and groomed some afterwards.

April 11- Small birthday celebration. I brought 2 balloons to torment Sherlock with and cupcakes and apples. He wouldn't try a cupcake- sticky! And rubbed the purple icing all over my shirt.

April 12- Sherlock was grazing at the very back fence of the pasture and couldn't hear me calling him over the wind, or was obsessed with the tiny bit of grass available. He seemed quite startled when I appeared 10 feet away. Caught him up easily and took him over the the broken waterer, got on bareback and rode back to the gate. SO I guess that's ride #60 even though it was just a minute. He did fine, a bit nervous in just the halter but did fine. Beer grain and his usual.

Sherlock ruling his little herd of Beatrice and Max. 

April 14- Happy Birthday, Sherlock! Mints and grooming.

April 15- Snowing. Grain with Banamine and offered blanket but he was too busy claiming piles of hay from the other horses. I know once the hay is gone he'll hog the shelter all day, so didn't push him to take the blanket.

March 27- Spring arrives, Rides #55-58

Early March was snowy, rainy and muddy.
March 8 Ride #55 I brought Sherlock up to the roundpen, which was half-flooded but still better footing than the arenas. He had a good time splashing, and then I rode for a few minutes. Not as confident going through the water with me on his back. I think that's a balance issue.

The next day my car broke down on the way home from work. This made it hard to visit the stable. Not only was I dropping Gray off at work before going to work and then picking him up in the evening, but his little car did not do well in the very muddy barn parking lot.

March 14 I brought Sherlock up to the barn for grooming and grain, and free-longed in the indoor arena. Lots of bird sounds, and he was a bit spooky. Had trouble turning left.

Setting up the jumps. Not too daring today.

March 15 Ride #56 Sherlock was a bit grumpy and tight-bellied from the weather changes, I rode Western about 30 minutes in the outdoor arena, mostly just walking with a little bit of trot. Very "poppy" trot transitions, stiff. Walked and trotted both single poles and crossrails, calmly very nice. Good forward walk today, practicing some gate skills. Whoa does happen but not very exact, same with backing up. A bit sticky in the corner closest to pasture- Bea was crying the whole time.




March 17 Ride #57 Tried out a used Borelli saddle, really a better fit even though it seemed very wide. Walk/trot a little nervous about work noise outside the arena. More willing at trot today in different saddle. Back/trot transition improved the trot transition. Sidepassed nicely.

March 19 Free-lunged walk/trot/canter until he got sweaty.

What's with this "bit" thing again?

March 20 Vaccination clinic. I free-lunged Sherlock a few minutes then brought him up to the barn to wait with a dozen other horses.A bit fussy with so many horses around, some throwing fits about the shots, but did well. Excellent for shots, even let them check his teeth after one nervous head toss. Vet would like to see him gain some more weight.

March 21 Grain in pasture. Looks good, no reaction at injection sites.

March 24 Ride #58 Rode about an hour indoors (needed the shade today). Fussy for cinching, tight-bellied. Used bit for first time this year. Lots of bird noise in rafters, he was nervous at first but settled a bit. Wanted to look out the door facing pasture, but went past well enough. Rode well, poppy trot transitions but good strong trot and maintained pace in turns much better. Desperately need to put stirrup straighteners back on this saddle, my feet were cramped up after riding. Grain.

March 2 - snow and Ride #54

As expected, large blizzard 2/21. His leg looked good, no swelling after the stoppage of Banamine.
My friend T moved her horse to another barn. She was really getting treated pretty poorly. Boarder wars. Gotta stay out of them. Enough people left recently that I moved my tack into the main tack room for more space. Did like having the locked door, but I needed more room.

2/22 Still snowing. Here's a link to the horses running at mealtime. Sherlock is one of the blue blanketed dark horses. Likely the one that gets run at my the guys feeding. If you see a group that 3 dark horses, 2 blue blankets and a purple, that's Bea in purple and Sherlock and Max.

2/24 Weather warmed up- lots of snowmelt, pulled blanket off.

2/25 Rushed out early from work when it started snowing again. Sherlock was hogging the entire shelter and was barely even wet. Quick brushdown and blanket back on.

2/28 Ride #54 A little warmer weather and some sun. Good day to ride a little. Sherlock was a bit fussy about me cleaning his cut, just high energy. Free-lunged a few minutes to get his attention then saddled up. Just walking with a bit of trot, we worked on figure 8s, steering, stop and back. Good effort continuing to back up on cue "more", made it easy to start again without having to give the rein cue when he is getting grumpy. Good ride- he did want a carrot for every single thing a horse achieved, but I think me getting down is reward enough at the end of a ride. Grain afterwards and blanket back on!

Why not stay all day and hand out carrots?

Feb 23- catching up, Ride #53

My new saddlepad! He does look good in turquoise.

Jan 25- ride #53. After the saddle and pad experiments I found a used gel pad on eBay. It's Western and nice-looking. I could show in it if I want to later. So we tried the new pad with the English saddle- Sherlock was much more willing and eager to walk over a little pile of poles and trot nicely.  Still very poppy coming into the trot, not using his back well. Practiced braiding, he was great for mane and for tail, but very fussy about his forelock. Pleased his tail has really grown and gotten long and pretty.


While G and I were in LA for Wedding #1, I got a text that they'd like to move Sherlock into the big pasture after he'd been threatening a new boarder. Well, I thought the King of the Wusses was probably ready to move up. So Feb 2 I moved him. He latched on to the horses he knew- Max and Bea.
He has done well there, he was pretty hard on the new group of horses but he's risen to a high status without getting in too much trouble.

2/13 I went out to the pasture with grain and a small dose of Banamine in prep for weather change so he wouldn't feel colicky the day I was planing to go to our first schooling show out at Plane View. And  he had a cut. A pretty good one high up on the inside of his front leg. Took me a while to clean it and get a little ointment on it.  Came back at 4:30 pm to check it, more swollen and sore, limping. Cold hosed and more meds- B-L Solution in grain.
All that week cold-sponging when possible (it being like 25 degrees), walking and Banamine. Checking his temp everyday was good training.

2/20 Stopped meds,  swelling seems done. Blanketed in prep for snow. Started snowing overnight.
A day or two of good weather and more snow forecasted.

Snowy Day in big pasture. Sherlock, Bea and Max sprt-of sharing.

January 20- Ride #52 & padding

Saturday first day of saddle experiments. Very windy. Rode 1 hour in indoor walking, small amount trot and working on remembering what to do. Whoa a bit rusty, backing very crooked but improved, lateral work good. Stiff transitioning up into trot, "poppy" front end trying hard. Walk over poles good, wouldn't try them at trot. Steering NICE when I remember to look where I want to go. Mounting needs work.
Rode in Western saddle with new Gel pad, he did well in it once I realized the pad had compressed quite a lot, leaving the cinch very loose.
Also tried E's Stubben just like the one for sale. Seemed a decent fit.

Monday back for more experiments. Sherlock was for the most part grumpy and unwilling, weather changing often makes him a bit colicky. Really, he handled being cinched up 3 times pretty well, but did stop outright today when asked to trot so I had to get down and free-longe until he settled down.
Rode in the sale Stubben with a baby pad and these experiments:
1. Homemade cutback half pad by E. slippery, not long enough to pad the full length of bars of saddle. Saddle stayed VERY high, little compression but not much contact.
2. Memory-foam bath mat pad with cutout for withers- still not long enough, compressed maybe too much, saddle very close to withers. Sherlock quit with this pad on.
3. Gel shoe pads along bars. Not enough padding, Sherlock was uncomfortable and I stopped immediately.

I didn't like the sale saddle. Both of them seemed too big for me- I've been riding the same saddle so long I may just have to learn to deal with the difference. But it looked like it was heading for the same split at the cantle that I already have on my old saddle, and the billets were very weak and dry.
I'm going to have to get a back tracing made and start driving around to tack shops. There are a lot of consignment saddle places locally, and a good one in Colorado Springs, so I should be able to find something nice enough to do local shows for a few years.