Because Life Just Sucks

In my last Cadence-related post, I mentioned that we jumped again.  All was well, and that weekend (on the Saturday) we had a jumping lesson that was fantastic. Kept it low, mostly cross rails with only a few verticals all of which were 2'9 or less just to keep it easy.  The Mare was fantastic, and it was an awesome feeling being able to ride a horse who could actually trot calmly around the ring.  She had Sunday off, and we were supposed to have a dressage lesson Monday, but we all decided that it'd probably be pushing a little too hard so we cancelled the lesson and I opted just to lunge.  Bad decision...
Cadence was fantastic overall, but at one point in time something spooked her and she did her typical leap-4-feet-in-the-air freak out... and she landed on some soft/slippery footing & took a tumble with both front legs out behind her.  Or directly underneath, depending on how you want to look at it.  She hopped up, and was a little dazed but fine overall.  I kept lunging her to ensure that she was sound (which she was) and after rubbing her whole front end down with linament, put her in her stall for the night.  The next day she was sound, but had some mysterious swelling at the top of her front right cannon.  No heat, no lameness, no apparent sensitivity.  Just more fill.  I left that evening after spending the whole day fussing over her, and entrusted my baby to the care of my coahc and BO.  She was lunged on Thursday and ridden Sat, and all appeared to be well.  But even now, there's still swelling.  Never any lameness, but it kind of feels like small comfort.
Ideally, I'd love to take her to the vet and have them ultrasound and x-ray the shit out of her legs so that I can stop being so paranoid, but I just don't have the money to be spending hundreds of dollars on what appears to be nothing.  Peace of mind is great, but is it really worth it?  There's just this niggling in the back of my mind thnat keeps saying 'what if'.  What if it is someithing serious?  What if the other vet missed something?  What if...

On Lessons and Laziness

Saturday: Cadence and I had an awesome lesson.  Started to work on transitions again, and did a wee tiny bit of collection in the canter to improve her anter-trot transitions.  Her trot (and canter for that matter) have remained light and relatively relaxed, and she's been going beautifully & sans clammer 100% of the time.  Her trot-stretches still suck, but she's nice and supple (and sensitive... no grabbing/laying/ignoring going on) for her walk stretches.

Sunday: The Mare got the day off.  I came out to walk her & check her back, & all was well.  We went for an in hand hack through the corn field, and had a total spaz attack because one of the boarder's trucks was parked in a different spot.  A sure sign of the apocalypse...

Monday: Since all was well with Cadence's back, we went ahead with out plan to start jumping again.  Unfortunately, we could NOT have picked a worse day to start jumping again.  The wind was blowing at a gusty 50 miles/hour, which was causing the three big doors on the arena to bang and creak.  They had been opened because we'd been having such nice weather, but that meant they were only loosely chained shut... and thus the banging and creaking ensued.  To make matters worse, a few pieces of aluminum siding on the doors had started to come loose, & with the bad weather the BO was only able to do a temporary fix.  Thus, the noise built.  So with all that going on, I tacked Cadence up complete with a standing martingale (just to be on the safe side), and a fly veil to (in theory) muffle the noise.  I lunged Cadence briefly, and as she appeard calm, I hopped on.  Let the games begin!  Actually, the games never really started.  It was as if I'd forgotten to light the torch, or had thrown a bucket of ice cold water on top of it.  Banging doors and creaking metal could have been butterflies and daisies.  Actualy, the latter would probably have been scarier.  Either way, Cadence was so calm she didn't even bother lifting her feet over the small cross rail I'd set up to warm up over.  She went so far as to seem insulted by its insignificant size.  After a few more tries (I had to make sure that her lackadaisical jump wasn't an anomaly) I relented and set up a tiny 2' vertical.  She hopped merrily over this, and was so chill with it we even tried it in the canter.  That was a little more... exciting, and in typical Cadence fashion she grabbed the bit and dragged me to the fence.  We worked a little on settling that, and called it quits.  Overall, I couldn't have been happier with our ride!

2 Steps Forward, 1 Step Back...

... or so the saying goes.  It certainly feels like its ringing true for us right now.  Cadence has been building her muscle  back up at a shocking pace.  In two short weeks, her neck has muscled right back up & I'm starting to notice more defenition in her hind end too.

However, two things have been plaguing me.  First off, Cadence's bad leg (the one that always seems to puff up if her legs are going to be up for whatever reason) has been up a bit these past two days or so . So after our ride tonight (for which it was encased in a polo for support and a bit of warmpth) I iced the leg before rubbing it down with Green Cool and putting her away for the night.  As I'm at the clinic tomorrow, I won't be able to see if there's any improvement, but my coach has agreed to take a look at her tomorrow and let me know if her leg's still up.  Unfortunately, Cadence's back seemed a little sore tonight as well.  I can't tell if its because of her cycle (yay for raging spring heat!) or if its because of the work.  Either way, I'm out to ride her this morning after she had yesterday off.  Cross your fingers & lets hope it was just spring mareishness that caused the soreness symptoms.

I lied...

...I said I would post a video of Cadence being a wingnut, and I just haven't had the chance.  She's doing wll though, and on Friday we cantered again.  Her canter was good (though she bucked when we cantered left.  I REALLY hope she hasn't realized she can buck- I want to keep her using that nice short back of hers for good, not evil) but she was a little frazzled... or as some may refer to it: insane... after the canter.

Today's ride was a little more challenging, because whilst we were having our lesson (in the outdoor) the people who own the farm were taking their pool down.  Oh, and there was a horse eating death machine wood chipper parked near the ring.  Which was naturally tantrum worthy.  The lesson went well though, and allowed us to put some meaningful corrections in place.  Afterward, Cadence got bathed, trimmed, clipped, and shined within an inch of her life.  After shampooing, brushing, show-sheening, and braiding her tail, I turned the mare back out.  HOPEFULLY I'll return to a happy, healthy, not sore mare with a gorgeous tail on Monday.  In reality, she'll probably be sore and have rubbed her tail into smithereens.  Chances are I'll probably give in to temptation and go take her tail out tomorrow when our Easter company leaves.

In other news, I managed to break my foot Thursday night.  I broke my 5th metatarsal on my right foot getting into a fight wit the door-frame.  My foot came out a lot worse than the door-frame, unfortunately!  I thought I'd just burst a blood vessel, but when I mentioned this to my dad (who is an emerge doc) and asked him to take a look at it, he informed me I'd broken the bone.  Apparently its pretty easy to do.  It didn't hurt that badly... and was fine with only a wee tiny bit of pain when I walked on it.  However, over the past 2 days I've ridden 5 times & spent a lot of time on my feet.  Apparently, the bone doesn't like that and is now much more sore.  Ah well, it has tomorrow to heal, & I only have one horse Monday.

Calm to Crazy

That pretty much sums up my past two rides on The MAre.  Sunday Cadence's old owner came down to see her baby, and we had a lovely visit.  Cadence was calm, relaxed, and light in the contact.  Yippee!  I took the clammer out about half way through the ride, and Cadence carried on as if nothing had changed... just as light and soft (and calm!) as before.  Just the results we were hoping for.  Our rehab schedule said 20 minutes of w/t in frame, no collection.  She seemed to handle everything well, and the back still seems to be in good shape.

Today was a different story.  We were aiming for 30 minutes of w/t today, heavy on the walk.  It was gorgeous and warm out, and there was a lesson going on in the arena (with a horse that Cadence doesn't get on well with) so we decided to ride outside.  Seems like a good decision, but just before I hopped on the hay truck pulled in.  The hay truck is a big pickup (loaded up with hay) towing a big (HUGE) red trailer... also loaded up with hay.  The mare thought this was terrifying, and spent 10 minutes trying to trample me & perfecting her piaffe spooking.  Then when we'd regained some semblance of control we went out & circled the rig.  She happily munched hay straight from the trailer, but was still strong & jumpy.  We headed back into the ring & mounted up.  The first 10 minutes were spent attempting to walk (and failing miserably...) then when we'd gotten 10 steps in a row, we tried the trot.  Essentially, the whole ride was spent trying to calm her down and get her head 'back in the game'.  Unfortunately, when trying to wind down a hot headed energetic youngster while staying with in the confines of your rehab schedule, it rarely works.  She was evading me by curling up (which she has only done once or twice before... ) tossing her head, grabbing the bit (I was glad I had the clammer) and barging off into the trot or canter.  It was frustrating to go from having such good productive rides on Saturday and Sunday to this, but I know that this was not my mare & this was just one of those days.  Hopefully tomorrow I'll have my calm, light, sensitive, relaxed mare back.

Unfortunately, after Sunday's superb ride I decided to bring out the video camera.  I'll post the footage tomorrow probably, and you can judge for yourself.

Backs, Bucks, Etc.

After the Mare's massage, she was a little touchy in the spots that her masseuse (lol) really worked on.  However, once I hopped on I noticed an immediate difference.  Not a single buck as we trotted around both directions.  Her arena behaviour was good, but she was still forward enough for it to be mildly irritating.  Keep in mind I really like a forward horse.  I just don't like an unresponsive one.  So we moved out side and did some work going up and down two little hills on our property.  We walked & trotted up and down them, using the grass as incentive to really stretch in the trot.  Best trot work yet!
Then came Tuesday's ride.  I erm... may or may not have required a shank to simply walk my horse into the arena.  Apparently bits in mouths mean nothing to Cadence, and walk is not actually a gait either.  Nice try mare, but you WILL walk.  So with that being the precursor to our ride, you can imagine how the rest of it went.  We'd walk for a bit, but only a bit because then we'd start jigging, prancing, trotting, rushing, grabbing, etc.  She tried to be good, but was on energy overload.  Funnily enough, she was a total angel and trotted around calmly as the new boarder & her father drove out of the parking lot. Show off.
I'd like to ride tomorrow, but I have an allergy test in the morning & am feeling a little nauseous tonight anyway.  Hopefully I'm not getting sick, and fingers crossed the allergy test goes well!

What's Been Happenin'

Cadnce and I have been busy.  All my exams (save Psyche) are done, and I have...three days after exams to relax before starting into another semester of work.  A whole three days... Its like a long weekend in the middle of the week.  I'm torn between being excited, and disappointed.  3 whole days really isn't very long.  Anywho, It's largely irrelevant to my pony life, so who cares?
Little Miss Mare has been doing quite well.  She's back cantering (for maybe 5 or 6 circles) and we have our first lesson Monday.  Unfortunately, she's still got her cold (though it SEEMS to be getting better) and she's got some major thrush going on in all 4 feet.  Like her whole frog has rotted out.  I pick her feet every time I ride, and carefully maintain them since she's prone to it, but being turned out after a month of dryness in this wet gross cold weather seems to have taken a toll on her feet.
I rode Z again today (who also has this cold) and riding her always proves to be so educational.  MY coach asked me to ride her again tomorrow, so mehaps I can steal a few pictures.

Quick Morning Update:

Cadence has been doing well.  My last day of classes is today, so yesterday my BO graciously lunged her for me.  Excited to see how that went.  She's been going gorgeously, and in spite of her cough that starts up every time we trot, I've actually gotten some unbelievably nice trot work out of her.  When we first trot, she's rushy and tense.  She knows she's supposed to bend, so she bends beautifully in the corners, on circles, and on serpentines.  She's not truly supple though, and if you ask for a big bend anywhere random she gets frustrated.  However, if you just give her some time to sort herself out, she gets a beautiful trot on her.  The only issue is that its pretty big... and quite forward.  Still, I think its more of an 'appropriate' trot for her.  She's not light or extremely supple, or perfectly straight but she's good.

We also had a bit of... fun the other day.  Her bandage came of Sat, so her leg was up to balloon size on Sunday.  So much so that I wanted to lunge her just to make sure everything was fine, and she wasn't sore/stiff/anything else.  Her lunge work started off quite well, aside from three little canter strides she popped in before I could stop her.  Everything was looking pretty good, so I decided to pop a few canter transitions in so I could watch her push off her leg.  We started off to the left and things looked fine, so I turned her around to ask for the right so I could get an idea of 'normal' to compare it to.  She was slightly wobbly off it, but I attribute that more to her lack of muscle/balance ATM as she had some good ones too, and her stride overall looked perfect.

So anywho, I popped her around to the right, asked for a trot, and got... insane.  She bolted, doing her cow-hop canter (where they 'canter' but its really just a hop from the hind end to the front end... if that makes sense) for a few strides before bucking, squealing, and bolting.  Full out nose to the ground all four legs up gallop... on a 20m circle.  I tried to stop her by pulling her off balance, and she just kicked out and galloped faster.  She honestly just flipped a switch, and went totally bat shit crazy.  I tried speaking calmly and quietly, I tried shouting jumping up and down and waving my arms, I tried letting her 'go' (as a last resort) and I tried yanking her off balance.  She practically dragged me around that arena, and I may be small but I have a decent set of muscles when I need them.  She was so insane that she actually fall onto her LH hip 3 times, (once because I yanked her so hard in a wild attempt to get her to stop) which led to her hopping back up, squealing, kicking, and running harder.  

I have no idea what finally made her stop. It felt like it went on for hours, but in reality her little trip to cukoo land probably only lasted about 5 minutes. Either way, I was even more convinced she'd be lame after that little escapade.  She wasn't though, thank god, and everything looked good; not even any tenderness.  

I've never seen a horse loose it like she did though... it was like all the excess energy she'd been holding inside her from her month and a bit of stall rest snapped- she just broke and had to let it all out.  Just so long as she didn't hurt herself, I'd rather that happened with me there, in the arena, and while I wasn't on her back.  Things could have turned out a lot worse.

Awesomeness in Mare Form

In case the title didn't clue you in, Cadence has been doing wonderfully.  Her walk is consistent, she's carrying herself, bending beautifully, and being relatively good (not rearing/bucking/galloping) about the spooky corner.  Her trot work is coming too.  She's pretty stiff, and has a tendency to get heavy & rush (aka trot like a STB) a fair bit, but overall I have my half halts (80% of the time), when I sit (which is a TON of work... her trot's pretty dang active) I'm able to use my seat and she's responding quite well to it, which unlocks some bend for us.  Last night we even got some lovely lightness.  Plus, her trot-walk transitions have been awesome!  Balanced, light, carrying, and not sticking her nose in the air... for the most part.  It's far from perfect, but considering she's trotted 3 times for a total of maybe 30 minutes all together (spooks included) I'm incredibly impressed.  Oddly enough, her right trot is much better than left... her right bend more consistent, her trot more balanced, her pace more regular.  Her trot to the left feels... crooked and her bend is a little stiffer and grabbier.  Its like I have the same mare I started with last winter... just she knows what I'm asking now.  Does that make sense?  She's sort of in the same place, but instead of 'fixing' and 'training' her at the same time, now I just have to 'fix' her.  Terrible explanation, but I hope it gets my point across.

I can tell my writing's awful.  However, I'm writing this while attempting to take in a lesson about magnetic fields & preparing for a test on thermodynamics.  So my sincere apologies for the awful quality.  I may be MIA for the next week an a half, as I have end of term exams and a couple final projects to finish up.  Sorry in advance for the absence.

Slowly Coming Back

Friday- I managed to coerce a family member into going out and walking miss Cadence for me as I was volunteering at the equine hospital and didn't know when I'd be done.  The Mare had been relatively good, so I felt fairly confident in leaving her in the hands of someone non-horsey, since I knew there would be other people at the barn.  BAD idea.  Miss Cadence TOTALLY took advantage and spent the whole time rearing, flipping out, spooking, and all that fun stuff.  Thank god they had a firm grip!
Saturday- Cadence started off pretty well, and aside from one little spook was being pretty good.  Then, someone inquired as to why she wasn't doing more.  After this point, she did 180's on her hind legs only, rearing leaps into the canter, bucks, head tosses, wild sideways scoots, and everything else under the sun.  None of it was full blown panic attack spooks, but more I am an insane 6 y/o mare who has been on stall rest for 1 month and I feel pretty damn good kind of spooks.  Relatively sittable & controllable for me; I only had to call heads up once.  At the end of the ride, I informed the onlooker that we had in fact walked, trotted, cantered and jumped!  How's that for back to work?
Sunday- Our first scheduled day of trotting, & t went pretty damn well if you ask me.  I had the distinct pleasure of coming down hard with a cold (seriously, yesteday morning I felt fine save for a bit of a sore throat.  Yesterday afternoon I felt like somebody had knocked me over the head with a bag of bricks, and lit my throat on fire.  Add one hell of a runny nose and some allergies into the mix?  One bag of roaring fun for me.) so I only managed to stick it out for 25 minutes of the ride.  Still, we did 4 or 5 little segments (like a few circles or the length o the ring) of trot and not a single stride of canter found its way into the mix!  There was lots of head shaking, prancing, and running through my half halts... and her trot was extremely exuberant (she'll have beautiful extensions once they're trained into her properly) with some pretty flashy high stepping knee action, but remained controllable if not sittable.  There were a few near canter incidents, but she kept it in check surprisingly well considering this was her first time trotting in... well, since x-mas when she had limited arena turnout.
That brings me to my final point- today Cadence starts back on limited arena turnout!  Hopefully my ride tonight will be slightly more... relaxed as a result.

Self- Carriage

I lied- I didn't post the pictures.  I didn't even have a chance to upload them till this morning, so I figured I'd just post them with today's post.

 Cadence looking toward the forest raring to go

Anyhow, Cadence got her stitches out yesterday.  The vet said her leg was looking great, so over the next 2 weeks we'll be gradually increasing her work while letting the top part of the wound heal.  Our ride yesterday was awesome too.  20 min (5 in hand, 15 under saddle) of walk, with lots of focus on straightness, suppleness, and self-carriage. She was truly carrying herself, and I was able to correct her when she started to lean on me (which was always on a turn) by lifting her with my outside aids.  I was very pleased.  Her halts on the other hand... need some work.  She locks up her neck, leans, barges, and grabs.  Eventually, once I get some semblance of lightness and bend, we continue on.  Once she was supple and carrying herself, her halts improved (or rather her transitions into the halt improved) but once halted we were back to square 1.  Tonight is more of the same, but with 20 minutes under saddle and 5 of hand walking.

What I like to call a bad idea

Pictures to come... I'll be sure to have them up ASAP


Guilt is an amazing thing.  It does crazy things to your mind, and impairs your decision making skills in (upon occasion) disaster-inducing ways.  At least that's what happens with me.  Guilt is really the only reason I can find to explain why I decided to take my high strung, hot headed, 6 y/o mare out on a hack... on her 3rd ride back after a month of stall rest.  Yes, not my brightest idea.  It wasn't until I'd hopped off her after having just sat one of the most terrifying bronc rides of my life (something touched her while we were walking through the forest, and she... exploded) that the fact I could have just hand walked her occurred to me.
I should have known that, no matter how amazing my girl is, that her pre-ride piaffing was not a good sign.  Nor was her attempt to hide behind me at the sight of... a truck that is not normally parked in the parking lot.  Yep, both of those should have set the warning light a flashing, but I soldiered on.  For the first part of the ride, things went quite well.  It was frosty, and in spite of the blue cloudless sky that had dominated the horizon for the majority of the day, dusk brought with it grey clouds that hung low in the sky.  Though only 4:30, the sun had already sunk behind the horizon when we started our hack, & pinkish-orange light cast long shadows over the slowly dimming land.
Though tense, the mare was pretty good.  Her brief bit of trot that she snuck in as I hopped on sent me into a panic; she had only 1 day left to survive her stitches!  If she did something now... but (not without considerable effort on my part) I slowed her back to a walk, and we headed toward the entrance to the forest.  She seemed to relax a bit as we walked into the forest.  Cadence power-walked on, and all seemed to go pretty well, until... she stepped on a stick.  This led her to brush into a tree branch, and set her into a full on bronc spree.  She spun around to face the way we came, and leaped forward before launching herself straight up in the air, rearing, and then bucking.  I landed on her neck, managing to almost stay in the saddle, and grabbed a hold of her neck thinking 'I must not fall off!' Fearing that if I fall, she would continue on with her antics and mess up something on her leg.  She was still spinning around and hopping up and down at this point in time, and I knew we were seconds away from taking off again.  No can do, Mare. As carefully as I could, I hopped off/emergency dismounted, while taking care to maintain a grip on my reins without catching her in the mouth. Once off, she trotted around a tree a few times (???) before I finally got her to settle.
Generally, I would have hopped back on at this point in time. However, my paranoia of her being injured was strong enough that I hand walked her for the rest of our hack.  Aside from a minor incident that involved her kicking out & bucking as we walked down the barn's drive (I have absolutely no clue what prompted this...) everything went pretty well.
Do I regret our little 'walk'?  Yes.  I REALLY REALLY want this whole episode to be over, and if she's somehow hurt herself with her little 'episodes' then I don't think I'll be able to forgive myself.  Howeve, I'm just trying to think positive; she'll be fine.  Stitches are coming out today.  It'll all be fine... it has to be.

What I must have looked like trying to stay on Cadence: (Just not NEARLY as pro...)

And We're Back

It seems I start my posts like this more often than not, but once again I feel the need to apologize for my absence.  Life has been crazy, and its only about to get crazier.  My exams start on the 25, and before that I have loads of end of semester work to complete.  I'll try my best to keep my blog posts to (at least) 3 a week... but (as I'm so often reminded) school is my priority here.
Okay, onto the pony.  Miss Cadence's leg looks fantastic.  Like unbeleivably fantastic.  Since her bout of colitis, all's been well with the mare, and on Friday I hopped on her back for the first time in nearly a month.  As of tomorrow, it will have been 1 month since she was first injured back in December.  On Tuesday or Wednesday, she'll have her stitches removed, and then we'll be just about back to regular work!  Well, we'll have about a month of rebuilding muscle and doing lots of straightening & suppleness work.  However, in her 2 'rides' (15 minutes at a walk) she's been bending and carrying herself pretty dang well if I do say so myself.
I'm going to attempt some pictures (and maybe a video) when I go out to the barn today, so If I'm successful hopefully I'll have something exciting to post tomorrow.