A New Start to Riding

It has now been a year since I really went for a ride on horseback.  I miss it...a lot.

The last ride I had on Orion before he threw me last summer was a couple weeks into May, about a week before the infamous bucking fit that eventually turned into a piece of the DSLD puzzle that led to his diagnosis.

I rode Kit once for a few minutes in the paddock, but that's it.  Zip.  No more.

I've been catching up a little bit on some of my blog reading lately, and reading about people riding has me itching to go and do it.

So saddle up and get ready for some riding stories (hopefully soon!) because I'm determined to get back into it!

Theories Of Why All Hell Broke Loose

So, in my last post, I told all about what happened when I tried to get on Orion at the new place.  I've talked at length with a few people that I trust in all matters horse and otherwise about it, and these are the things we have come up with.

1. Boss horse who thinks he's a badass mentality
2. Seclusion from other horses during work
3. Pain
4. New place
5. New blanket
6. Bee sting/fly bite (But really, no.)

1. Boss horse who thinks he's a badass mentality.
It quickly became clear, pretty much from the moment he was put in with his new herd, that Orion is going to have a much higher spot in herd dynamics from what he used to be.  In every other place he's ever been in, no matter how many or what kind of horses he was with, Orion has been at the bottom of the totem pole.  No respect from other horses.  Bullied constantly.  Wouldn't stand up for himself.  Most of the time not allowed a primary spot in the barn with the other horses, or really even to hang out with them in the field.  For a time, he had a buddy who was pretty much herd royalty and didn't take crap from anyone, and that helped him out a little.  After that horse (who was very old) died, Orion still had lingering privileges that he had gained when buddied up with him.  Also after he died, he started standing up for himself more.  Not enough to rise to the top, but enough to keep from constantly getting his ass kicked and to allow him to socialize more and make new friends.

So, imagine my surprise when he immediately seemed to take the lead with Merrill and Vanna.  Huh.  Oookay then.  I had joked around beforehand that it would be hilarious if he became boss horse....welllll.... I didn't really think it would happen, and I definitely didn't think about the consequences it might have on our dynamic.

It had been discussed in the past that his overly pushy, stubborn demeanor (which came out a LOT in the early days, whether from the ground or under saddle) might be coming from the fact that he couldn't be assertive in the field, but with little old me (or any other person if you want to compare their size to his), it was obvious he could get his way just by throwing his weight around, threatening to bite or kick (or in some situations, actually biting), and just overall acting like an asshole.  I worked with him from the ground A TON to form a bond and still gain his respect.  I learned the hard way that I couldn't just be his friend.  I had to be his leader, because while I wanted a partnership first and foremost, there had to be a leader in the dynamic, and it couldn't be him.  I learned just how aggressive I sometimes had to be from the ground.  When we started riding more, it was a whole new learning curve of learning just how aggressive I sometimes needed to be when he was under saddle, and over the course of a summer when I was actually able to work with him a lot, he started behaving really well for me no matter what we were doing.  As free time dwindled and I was forced to go out less and less, those manners started to dissipate.  I learned pretty quickly that if I hadn't been out there for a while, I needed to do some serious back-to-the-basics work for the first part of our visit; otherwise, he had the idea that he was still in control of everything he did, just like he had been for months in the field with no work.

I write all of this because this is the basic process I have been through with this horse for the past three years.  He's grown better through leaps and bounds and has definitely had some two-steps-back situations, but altogether, he's a very different horse than when I first met him.  But all of that work was done while he was in the same herd, with fairly consistent dynamics, at least as far as he was concerned.

This is why I feel like this is one of the biggest reasons he acted out when I got on him.  Our bond and respect for each other has ALWAYS been stronger from the ground because that's where we've done the most work together.  His respect for me from the saddle has always been shakier because we've done less work there.  So it makes sense that he was being good, calm, collected, and giving no signs of what was to come when I was dealing with him from the ground that day. We haven't had a problem with that in a long time.  It wasn't until I got on him - literally THAT SECOND - that he blew up.  A close friend recently said that it seems like he was in the mindset of, "It's MY body, and I'll do what I WANT," which obviously did not include riding in a new place.

2. Seclusion from other horses during work.
This was something I honestly hadn't given a whole lot of thought until after the fact.  At the old barn, the paddock that we groomed, tacked up, and did any kind of groundwork in, was just on the other side of the fence from the field where the other horses were.  So even when we brought them "in", they were still able to interact with their friends from the other side of the fence.

Cut to the new barn: It's a good long walk up the road from the field the horses are currently in.  He couldn't interact with his new friends.  He only had me and a big, unfamiliar barn.  Yes, we did a bunch of stuff there that morning before this happened.  Yes, I loved on him and spent time just trying to get him to chill and relax further so he would associate this new place with those kind of things, in addition to the work we'll hopefully be doing there.  But in retrospect, even though he was calm, the whole time we were there, he was staring up the driveway, back the way we'd come from - back toward the field and his friends.

My other top theory is that he knows I can't stay on him for more than a few seconds when he bucks.  He knows that.  He's done it to me four times now (including this last one).  Once was on our way through an empty field to get to some trails, and he didn't want to leave the barn and got pissed at me when I wouldn't let him go back.  Once was when he got bit by a ginormous horse fly (I barely stayed on for that one) in the paddock.  The other time was last fall when we had the Gator/four-wheeler incident (that was one buck that technically didn't unseat me, but it came damn close.  What actually did it was when he whirled and fell into the ditch).  Then there was this, which was by far the hardest he's ever bucked with a rider.  I think he knew he could throw me so he could go back to his buddies, which is exactly what happened.  He didn't wait around as he has when I've been thrown or fallen (I've fallen more than been thrown) in the past.  He was there for maybe 30 seconds before he trotted up the drive and back to his herd.

Not okay.

Pain.
This is a new one that I don't really think I've discussed on here before.  I don't necessarily think this was the reason for what happened that day, but it is something I want to get checked out in the near future.

It was suggested to me last summer that Orion may have a condition known as degenerative suspensory ligament desmitis, or DSLD.  I've never had him checked for it because it hasn't appeared to cause him pain.  I have, however, been watching for it to see if the symptoms worsen....and they have.

The most obvious symptom is dropping of the fetlocks.  The condition usually develops after a tendon or suspensory ligament injury (deep digital flexor tendon strains, anyone?), and the weakening of the ligament causes the fetlocks to sink lower to the ground.  Going back through pictures, it's slightly noticeable in the first couple of years that I had him.  I didn't know anything about it until a year ago, but when I did find out, I decided to do some research and ultimately made the decision to wait and see.  The thing is, there's not a whole lot that can be done for it if he does have it.  There are some experimental treatments, but most of them are insanely expensive.  The only way to really diagnose it is through ultrasound, which is what I'm planning to see if I can have done.

The reason for doing this now is not that he appears to be in pain, though now that I have him closer, I plan on watching him very carefully to see if any develops.  The reason is because ever since I found out about this, I've been paranoid and anal about watching his legs every time I'm out there.  They do appear to have gotten worse since I bought him.  I was willing to admit that.  They weren't perfect then either (his conformation has always been wonky; it's just how he is), but they looked better than when all of this was brought up.  Before the end of May, I hadn't been able to do anything with him since the end of January.  I had taken out grain and gone out to pay my board and had always run out to check on him and say hi, but those visits didn't last long.  It didn't occur to me at those times to look at his legs.  When I went out by myself in May, I noticed how much different his legs appeared to be.  And in the next couple visits leading up to the move, I noticed it again - it was like it jumped out at me, which is what really made me take a step back and go, "Holy crap, that's bad."

That is what made me start kicking around the idea to have him looked at.  I was thinking about it before any of this went down.  Now that he's where I can go out at a moment's notice, I want to have it done.  Whether he has it or not, it will give me peace of mind in knowing.  If he doesn't, we'll know it's just bad conformation.  If he does.....I will give him the life he deserves until it's no longer good for him.  I won't let him suffer if that's what happens.  But I will give him the best life possible in the time he has.

I hate even talking about that possibility.  I was discussing it with my mom a few days ago and completely lost it and started crying, and so did she.  No one wants that to happen.  But it's a real possibility.  Maybe not in the near future - it may be years and years down the road.  But if he has DSLD, there's nothing that can be done for it, and there's a possibility that eventually, the only humane thing left to do would be to put him down.

I just hope with all my heart that it doesn't come to that.

4. New place.
I've heard this one suggested over and over again. I won't deny that it may have played a factor in some way, but really, I don't think this is what caused it.  From his behavior during every other part of the visit, I expected a little nervousness, maybe some jigging, or "WTF is that?" reactions - things he's done in the past when dealing with something new and a little scary - if he even did any of that.  I know a lot of horses have bad reactions to new places, but my horse has always been ultra chill about almost anything new put in front of him.  If he were to do anything in reaction to being in a new place, I really don't think it would have been anything as extreme as what he did.

5. New blanket.
The only difference in our tack that day was his new Western saddle blanket.  This has been suggested, but I don't think this was a factor either.  It was a different material than what we've been using, but not something different than he's experienced before.  It has wool padding, which we've used in the past.  I spent a good long while looking over it when I took the tags out to make sure there weren't any little plastic pieces left behind that could poke him, and by the time I was done, they were all accounted for and not in the blanket anymore.

6. Bee sting/fly bite (But really, no.)
This just occurred to me in the last few days, mostly because it's been a reason for him bucking once before.  But honestly, I don't think that would have warranted bucking of that violence.  Plus, the flies and other insects had been leaving him alone for a while at this point, as I had doused him with fly spray not once, but twice that morning.


So, those are my ideas.  If anyone has anything to share or add, please feel free to do so.  My shoulder isn't at the point where I can go start working with him yet, so I'm still in the planning phase of what to do when I can get back out there to do stuff.  Any help or advice is much appreciated!

All Hell Breaks Loose

Grandpa dropped me off at the pasture Orion and his new little herd were in. They were all standing close together, grazing quietly.  Orion looked up and watched attentively as I approached.  I set my bookbag, which contained my lunch, a few bottles of water, and some music for the barn, by a fence post and let the fence rails of one section down. I didn't have to go far to catch Orion, and I had to shoo the other horses away to keep them from leaving the field with him.  I tied him to the fence once he was out and quickly put the rails back up.

King of the new herd.

We walked up the road to the barn with no incident.  He was curious of everything, but not alarmed.  We went into the barn, where I tied him, brushed him down, checked and picked out his feet, and did some T-Touch massage to further relax him.  He was very looky, but not nervous of anything.  Even the BO's dog, who'd been lying in an empty stall, unbeknownst to me, didn't bother him when he growled lightly to let us know he was there. He warranted a long, curious look from Orion before simply being ignored again in favor of gazing longingly outside.

After loving on him for a while, I decided to take him for a short walk up to the arena so he could have a look at it.  If I DID end up riding him that day or any other, I planned to start there, so I wanted him to be comfortable there.  I didn't want his first look at it to be while I was on his back, where I know he has less respect for me than he does on the ground.  If anything startled him, I didn't want him to feel alone.  So to the arena we went, where he was curious but completely at ease.  There are a couple of barrels set up in the middle, and I led him over to those so he could inspect them.  His inspection included trying to eat one. -_-  Other than those, the rest of the arena is flat and grassy, with trees/bushes completely enclosing it on all sides along with the fence.  We stayed there for maybe fifteen minutes, while he meandered and grazed.

When it became clear he wasn't worried about this place, I decided to take him back to the barn and start working with the bit.  Remember those goals I posted?  I wanted to get started on them right away.  Feet could wait.  They'd been recently trimmed.  Bitting could not wait, as I planned to start riding him around the property to acclimate him as soon as possible.  At that point, I still hadn't made up my mind if I would get on him that day or not, but I at least wanted to get him to take his bit more willingly than he had on our Sunday ride.

It took a while and a lot of attitude and giraffe-necking from him, but I finally got him to take it somewhat willingly four or five times in a row.  It wasn't perfect, but it was a start.  I planned to come out early the next day and do it again to reinforce the lesson.  

Gazing longingly outside and up the drive, probably wishing he was with the other horses.

By this point, he was taking everything in stride, and I thought it would be okay to ride him for a few minutes.  I wasn't going to push it for long, only maybe ten minutes to the arena and back.  I figured I'd hop on, figure out his mindset further, and stop pushing it if he seemed too skittish, which I didn't think he would be.  There were no warning signs of it.  I thought he might be a little more nervous when I wasn't on the ground with him anymore, there might be some jigging, maybe a little headstrong-ness...nothing like what actually happened.

I took him outside the barn and swung up onto my Western saddle.  That was it.  I didn't have time to get my other foot in the stirrup, collect my reins further, nothing... He immediately started bucking.  Hard.  He's bucked a small handful of times with me before, but there have always been reasons leading up to it, some of them nothing to do with me, and never like this.  Because I had no way to really save myself, I flew over his head, and I landed on the gravel driveway, shoulder first...hard.  Orion stuck around for a minute or two, then trotted up the driveway and back up the road to his herd.

I was left on the ground, crying and screaming...not by choice.  It was like I didn't have control of it.  I have never felt that kind of pain in my life.  I tried to get up, but I couldn't because my right shoulder wouldn't work at all.  Trying to roll didn't work either because I was dizzy and couldn't get my body to cooperate.  So I laid there, hysterical, for two or three minutes before I was finally able to half drag myself back to where my phone was laying on the ground, where it had landed as it fell out of my pocket.  I knew where it was because I could hear my music playing quietly from where it was laying.  Before you think it, no, I do not think the music had anything to do with what happened.  I play music around him all the time, same kind that was playing that day, and he's always liked it.  It's actually always seemed to calm and focus him.  I noticed it when I started playing it while doing ground work and have had it playing when riding him in the paddock at the old barn.  So this day, aside from being in a different place, was no different in terms of the music playing.  I have other theories, but I'll explain them later.

So anyway, I got my phone, took off my helmet, and called my uncle to take me to the ER, because by that point I was starting to think I had dislocated my shoulder.  I then called the BO to ask him if he could catch Orion, check him over, and put him back in the field.  Thankfully he works just up the road, and he was able to leave for a few minutes to take care of Orion.  There was also a neighbor who saw Orion trotting up the road, tacked up and riderless, and when he didn't see me go after him, he drove over to the barn to check on me.  He waited with me until the BO came back with Orion's tack and a couple minutes later, my uncle arrived.  By that point, the neighbor had helped me sit up (I had still been lying on the ground when he got there).  They grabbed my good arm and helped me up, and I was somehow able to pull myself into the vehicle on my own (it's high off the ground).

We went to the ER, with every little bump in the road pretty much causing agony in my shoulder.  They took me in, I told them my pain level was a 9 or 10, they took all of their usual data (my BP wouldn't register on the digital cuff, so they had to use a regular one because it was so low), and then they took me back to a bed for more assessment from more nurses and the doctor.  The nurses were awesome.  One of them came over and offered to clean me up while we waited, as my entire right side was covered in dirt.  In cleaning up my face and neck, she found a nasty scrape on the right side of my neck and a few scratches on my arm.  At some point, the doctor came in and said that based on the way I was holding my arm, I had probably either dislocated my shoulder or fractured my clavicle.

I waited some more, and around the time they came to take me back to x-ray, I lost all peripheral vision.  I told the doctor, and she ordered a CT scan, which didn't show anything.  Concussions usually don't anyway, but it ruled out anything more serious for the moment.  The vision loss lasted maybe 15 minutes before it started to go away.  It took forever for the x-rays to come back.  The doctor was badgering them to hurry up.  She impressed me this time around; I've had her before for other issues and wasn't impressed at all.  The only issue anyone had was that she forgot to give me pain medicine until I'd been there for a couple hours.  I didn't know if they were going to give me any, and honestly I wasn't all there at the time, so while I was thinking clearly about some things, like puzzling over what could have caused Orion's reaction, I wasn't thinking clearly enough to actually ask for anything.  It wasn't until my grandpa and uncle were finally allowed to come back, and I burst into tears upon seeing them, that the doctor remembered she hadn't administered any pain medicine yet.  She obviously felt bad and apologized profusely to me before turning to my family and saying, "She was just being so quiet and brave about it all that I never stopped to think about how much pain she must be in!"

A very short time after that, a nurse came in and gave me a shot in the butt (I HATE NEEDLES).  Shortly after that, I was moved to another section of the emergency room because they had another big emergency coming in and needed the space I was in.  At that point, I was just waiting on my x-rays to come back.  When they finally did, I think I had been there for maybe three hours, maybe a little less.  It turned out to be a clavicle fracture.  They gave me a prescription for some pain meds and an immobilizer for my shoulder, had me wait a while longer, then finally let me go.  But the fun wasn't over yet.  Ohhhh no.  I got to the waiting room and suddenly got dizzy, felt nauseous, lost all color in my face, and (thankfully after they got me a barf bag), got sick.  It was horrible, and I had to go back to ER bed I had just occupied for the last four hours.  They got me crackers and Sprite and sat with me while the concussion symptoms dissipated, including the tunnel vision that had come on while I was getting sick.  Then I got to leave the hospital in a wheelchair for the first time in my life because they didn't trust me not to pass out.

My mom came to check on me that evening (she would have been there before that, but I didn't get out of the ER until 4 and had made everyone promise not to call her until I could do it myself.  She was royally pissed about that, but my reasoning was that she would just be sitting in the ER waiting room not able to do anything, when it had become clear that, while painful, my condition wasn't life-threatening.  I didn't want to worry her.  That logic also may have been skewed by my concussion........)

Mom had to help me get ready for bed that night, and by that, I mean she had to cut off my T-shirt because I couldn't get it off any other way.  When she did, this was revealed.  It didn't hurt, which is why I hadn't complained about it, and there had been no reason to take off my T-shirt at the ER, so no one saw it until this point.  I didn't even know it was there, and Mom almost gave me a heart attack when she exclaimed over it.

The next day I went to see the ortho doctor my mom works for, where I was told that my clavicle "fracture" is actually a really nasty break.  See x-ray picture included with this post.  It apparently snapped and then was jammed together so the ends are side by side instead of connecting.  There are fragments all over the place.  I could feel the ends of the bone, and what I'm positive is at least one fragment, shift and grind together with the slightest movement, no matter how still I kept my shoulder.  It was a weird, awful feeling.  The ortho doc gave me a couple of very light exercises to do so that I can keep the muscles in my arm and shoulder from atrophying as much as possible.

The break and one fragment (perpendicular to the clavicle in the middle of the break) can be seen.  In another shot, another fragment can be seen that apparently exploded with more force and was lodged higher up in the tissue of my shoulder.

Scrape on my neck from the fall.

I have to go back for follow up x-rays on the 14th to make sure it's healing properly, and if it is, I'll not have to have surgery.  All of us wanted to see if it would heal on it's own before resorting to that, as most clavicle breaks will heal without surgery.  And if it does heal on it's own, I won't have to deal with hardware problems later on in life.  It will be two months before I can do normal everyday things that require shoulder movement (like washing my hair with both hands rather than one), and it will be at least three months before I can do strenuous activity with it, such as riding.

Side note:  Grandpa went back to the barn a couple days later to look for my coffee mug that I left there in the midst of all the chaos, and he said my helmet is done in.  It would have been done in from the force of that fall anyway, but most of the black foamy part around the bottom is shaved off on the right side.  Apparently the right side is majorly scratched and scuffed up from where I slid on the gravel as well (this also accounts for the mark on the back of my shoulder, though I have no idea why I didn't feel anything from that).

So, that's the reason I haven't been able to write until recently.  That's what happened.  I'm going to stop here for now, because the next logical thing to discuss is why it happened, which is a long discussion, and this post has already been long enough!  You can look for that in the next day or two.

Poor Harry, waiting to be picked up the morning after and not realizing I'm incapable of doing it right now. :(

The Last Ride

Rewind from my last post, back to last Sunday, the 22nd.

I stayed with Chelsea Saturday night, went to El Gran for dinner and drinks, then headed out to the barn on Sunday morning to tack up for our last ride together on Orion and Kit at the old barn.  The only issue in getting started was Orion's reluctance to take his bit because the big brat knew he could prolong leaving the barn if he did.

Finally, after much struggling, it took a team effort of Chelsea, Linda, and I to coax him into taking it, and we headed out.  Chelsea recently got permission to ride on an old trail that Orion and I used to love and go on until the land changed hands, and we stopped going because we didn't know the people and whether or not they were okay with us riding there.  So with newly acquired permission, we headed up that way.  There were lots of new things on the way that didn't used to be there...large trucks, timber piles, and a group of people, among other things.  Both horses were a little nervous but not enough to really act up.  With our guidance and words and pats of encouragement, they kept it together.

It turned out that no one had been on the trail since Hurricane Sandy blew through almost a couple years ago.  Jeez, it doesn't seem like it's been that long! Time flies!  There were downed trees, but other than those, the trail was in relatively good shape.  We had to get off to lead the horses under two trees before getting maybe 2/3 of the way up the first leg of the trail before it branches off and coming across a tree that we could go under or around.  Both horses handled it relatively well.  The first tree presented a problem the first time we went under it, on our way up the hill.  Kit, with her pony shortness, cleared it just fine.  I had to lift it up slightly to let Orion pass under it, and when I thought he had cleared his saddle horn (I was riding Western), I let it down slightly and turned to walk him the rest of the way away from it.  Bad move.  Apparently he backed up slightly when I let the tree down, and he wedged his saddle horn under it.  I heard Chelsea yell something as she was looking back at us and heard Orion suddenly scuffle around behind me.  I glanced back and just had time to jump to side as he came barreling out from under the tree like a bat out of hell.  He just barely clipped me with his shoulder as he started to go by, and I fell.  He ran into Kit's butt, and she swung around and glared at him as if to ask what the hell he thought he was doing.  He immediately looked chastised and calmed down as I was climbing off the ground, still holding his rope.  I didn't have a mark on me, somehow, but I was peeved.  Chelsea later remarked that her favorite part of the day was me ranting and ending with, "Why the hell is it that every time we ride, I always somehow end up on the ground??"

The rest of the ride progressed just fine.  It was great being able to ride in the woods again (since last fall, most of the trails that we normally go on had been closed to us, so when we did ride, we had to ride on the road - a back road, don't worry - but it's not as good as riding in the woods.  Orion gets bored on the road but loves the woods as much as I do, if not more.).  The only other slight issue was overcome pretty easily, and I was proud of us for it.  When we got to that last tree, Chels rode Kit up the hill a little ways to see if we could ride around the uphill side of it.  That was a no go, but Orion almost had a panic attack at the possibility of his herd mate leaving him and first tried to bolt up the hill after her, then when I thwarted that, he almost crashed into a bush, contemplated jumping down the hill on the other side of the trail, then just ended up spinning a couple circles when I pulled his head toward my leg to keep him from doing anything stupid, as it was obvious he had stopped thinking logically at that point.  By that time, Chels and Kit had picked their way back down the hill to us, and he immediately chilled out.  I got off and led him down the trail in anticipation of having to lead him under the next tree on the way back.

Just after crossing under tree #2 on the way up the hill.  You can see it in the background, and you can kind of see Orion's sunburned pink nose.  Poor dude.  I need to get some baby sunblock for him.

He smacked his sunburned nose off a branch as he tried to grab a snack and split one of his scabs open. -_-  After that, the only thing he was concerned about as we walked back was his stinging nose and trying to scratch it on every single thing in reach. Including me.  Brat.

When we got back to the tree that he had been stuck under on the way in, Chelsea and I stood around for a few minutes trying to find another way around it to avoid the same thing happening.  What I eventually decided to do was to loosen the girth, slowly slide the saddle sideways so the horn wasn't sticking straight up, and see if Orion was freaked out by it or not.  Dude stood patiently.  I got a what-the-hell-are-you-doing-to-me glance and an ear flick at one point, but then he was unconcerned.  I then took him to the tree and lifted it with the hand I was holding his rope in (I thankfully had my long lead rope with us on this ride), held onto his girth to keep the saddle from sliding under his belly with the other hand, and clucked him through.  He was slightly confused for a minute before slowly ambling under it, unsure if that's what I wanted him to do.  Good boy.  It was an awkward situation, but it worked.  I was especially proud of the fact that all the work I did with him last summer on staying with me, not walking ahead of me, seemed to pay off at that moment.  It wasn't the best moment for that lesson to kick in, as I actually needed him to walk past me, but it was nice to see that he at least thought about it.  He wasn't scared or really even that nervous; he just seemed confused.

Once we were on the other side, I tied him to a tree and fixed the saddle.  Ohhhh if only you could have seen the evil death glare I got upon tightening the girth back up.   He was not a happy camper.  I'm pretty sure he thought he was done for the day when I loosened it the first time.  But after pointing and warning him about being an ass, he sighed and turned back to watch Kit amble underneath the tree to us.

By this point, we could hear wood saws going down where the timber piles and people had been. -_-  We decided to walk the horses back so that they felt like there were more numbers of us for safety, because the saws were loud, and we were going to have to walk right by them.  They did fine, with a couple snorts and wary looks toward the people, who thankfully stopped to let us pass when they saw us coming back up their driveway.

After that, it was smooth sailing.  I put Orion below me on the hillside and hopped up on him (I'm short, he's tall, and even with a Western saddle, I still find it difficult to get on him unless I do this or have something to stand on.), and we headed home.  We even rode through the spare field to get back, which is something I haven't done for a while because we almost always have bad experiences when riding there.  No problemo.



We faced challenges, and we handled them fairly well.  Most of them were due to circumstance and not anything with us, so I was happy with how it went.  All in all, it was a fun and interesting last ride, and I couldn't have been happier.

Orion had three days left at his home of the past two years and ten months.  I told him to enjoy it as I put let him back into the field with his buddies, and then Chelsea and I packed up the majority of my barn stuff and took it to the new barn.

It was a great day. :)

Riding, Sunburn, and Monsters

I wrote most of this on Friday, but I didn’t get a chance to post it, so here you go:

Today I went on my first ride at the new barn.  Not anything too exciting, just around the arena (we have an arena! :D).  Orion isn’t moving out there until Wednesday (squeeee!), so I rode the BO’s little 3 or 4 y.o. mare, Vanna.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of Vanna until we were done and had put her back into her stall, where I couldn’t get a great picture of her, so you’ll meet her later.  For visualization’s sake though, she’s a sweet little Paint mare.  Really laid back – as in, we brought the horses to the barn, I put her in cross ties, and she promptly cocked a hind foot and pretty much went to sleep. 

The day dawned pretty well.  For once I was wide awake when my alarm went off at 7:45a, and I was ready to go by 9a.  We stopped at the office to pick up my paycheck, then picked up Chelsie and headed out to the barn.  Walked up the road to get the horses out of their field (one of the fields is maybe a quarter mile up the road from the barn) and dodged the geese that were meandering along the road next to their pond.  Dear lord, when we were bringing Merrill and Vanna through, you would have thought we were stealing their whole pond from them.  Most of them just scattered across the pond and dove into it headfirst, splashing and honking and flapping as they did, but one stood on the bank across the road from us and hissed and hissed and hissed like we were the biggest threat in the world.  Finally he decided to join his family and booked it across the road to hop into the water with them – hissing the whole way.  Once that was over, we continued with our walk back unhindered.  When we got back, I tied Vanna, and as I mentioned above, she chilled and waited for whatever we decided to do next.

The other girl who boards there, who is quickly becoming a good friend, had her OTTB, Merrill, tied a little ways down the aisle from us.  He was also in super-snooze mode most of the time when we were getting ready.  They ate their breakfast, drank some water (actually, Vanna decided it would be fun to upend her water bucket all over the rubber mats in the aisle, so apparently she wasn’t very thirsty).

When we started to tack up, we ran into a problem.  I was given permission to ride Vanna, but her tack was nowhere to be found.  We found a bridle that didn’t look like it was going to fit her well, and the bit that was attached to it looked way too harsh for her sweet, easygoing nature. Plus, when I held the bridle up to further scrutinize it, I noticed that it had more than just the beginnings of dry rot.  At that point, I just said screw it, I’m not using this thing.  At the first bit of pressure, it probably would have snapped apart.  I later found out that the BO, who only recently bought Vanna, hasn’t bought any tack for her yet and is planning to do so in the next week or so.  So for the time being, I used Chelsie’s Wintec English saddle and made a makeshift bitless bridle with an old set of reins and her halter, and we decided to just ride in the arena rather than the road so that I’d be in an enclosed semi-undisturbed area if she decided to do anything crazy.  We really didn’t expect her to, but it was a precaution.  I always ride with my helmet, so between that and my gloves (rope reins), I felt pretty safe.  And of course, baby girl didn’t do anything crazy.  She wasn’t exactly sure how to react to the different pressures that were being put on her halter, but she slowly caught on.  She mostly followed Merrill anyway, so it was just a relaxed ride around the edge of the arena while we talked and laughed at the horses.

Merrill kept deciding it was time to stop, and Vanna just wanted to eat, until Merrill would get too far away from her, then she’d mosey on over to him.  I was, at least, able to get her attention when she did this.  Gentle repeated tugging of the reins, clucking, and urging with the legs got her to raise her head back up and move off fairly easily.  Eventually she caught onto when I wanted her to turn too.  I just had to pull harder on whichever rein I was using than I would have with a bit or a real bitless bridle, and a lot of pressure of the legs was needed.  But as I said, I only had to do this a little bit once we were in the arena because she prett my gloves (rope reins), I felt pretty safe.  And of course, baby girl didn’t do anything crazy.  She wasn’t exactly sure how to react to the different pressures that were being put on her halter, but she slowly caught on.  She mostly followed Merrill anyway, so it was just a relaxed ride around the edge of the arena while we talked and laughed at the horses.

Merrill kept deciding it was time to stop, and Vanna just wanted to eat…until Merrill would start get too far away from her, then she’d mosey on over to him.  I was, at least, able to get her attention when she did this.  Gentle repeated tugging of the reins, clucking, and urging with the legs got her to raise her head back up and move off fairly easily.  Eventually she caught onto when I wanted her to turn too.  I just had to pull harder on whichever rein I was using than I would have with a bit or a real bitless bridle, and a lot of pressure of the legs was needed.  But as I said, I only had to do this a little bit once we were in the arena because she pretty much stayed with Merrill.

She kept sideswiping poor Merrill with my leg, and once, I’m pretty sure I actually knocked him forward a little because she walked right up next to him and knocked my knee straight into his butt pretty hard.  It’s a good thing this horse doesn’t kick or care if anyone is in his space, because she definitely didn’t respect it, and I was only able to prevent these encounters a few times. 

Little mare also wasn’t the brightest on picking up cues from Merrill. Example: At one point, Merrill made one of his stops.  This time, however, it wasn’t for no reason; he needed a pit stop.  Vanna, off in her own little world, walked straight into his butt, ignoring my pressure to halt.  She didn’t run into him and back up; she ran into him and stood there with her face right on his butt.  Yeah, this didn’t end well.  He pooped.  She finally realized what was happening and backed up quickly….but not quickly enough.  Chelsie and I were laughing hysterically by this point, and for a long time after that, little mare was shaking her head and wiping her face on everything she could.  Apparently she cleaned herself up at some point, because when I untied the reins from her halter, her face looked clean.  But oh my God, the reaction at the time….priceless.

I intend to take some good pictures next time I’m out there, regardless of how much work has been done.  So far we’ve mostly been picking up trash.  It has become a junk heap for a lot of the BO’s stuff.  Spiders abound.  Apparently there’s snakes (black snakes).  I thought there was only one, but after looking at the pictures of the skins, by grandpa seems pretty positive there are multiple.  Non-poisonous snakes don’t bother me a lot as long as we can stay out of each other’s way.  Orion more than likely won’t be in the barn a lot without supervision, and I haven’t seen a single mouse in the entire time I’ve been cleaning and planning out there, so I’m calling it good for now.  Spiders on the other hand….*shudder*.  I know they eat the bugs, but I came across one that was almost the size of my hand the other day.  Big old wolf spider.  I almost peed myself.  There was definitely a scream and a lot of cursing, and I had to walk away for a couple minutes before I had the nerve to go back and kill it.  Not okay with spiders that big. Sorry. Plus, it was right next to the tack room where all of our stuff will be.  It’s got a door, but still.  Double not okay with that.  Pretty sure there’s another one skulking around the wash stall that’s around the same size, but in the second that I saw it before it ran from me last week, it looked to be a different body shape than the wolf spider I killed yesterday. *SHUDDER*

Anyway, back to the present…we finished up, put the horses in their stalls so they’d be out of the heat for part of the day (we left around 11:45a, and it was getting really hot), and headed back into town for a couple hours at the city pool.  It was time well-spent, and it was my first time at that pool in probably three years, so it was nice going back.  I have a few memories there, though not many, and it made me think a lot about how much life has changed in just five years.  It’s something I’ve thought about a lot lately (and written a lot about), and I’m kicking around the idea of posting some of those thoughts here in the near future.

But for now, I’m happy to say that I will have a lot more horse stuff to post on here in the future.  Orion is moving tomorrow! Squeee again!  I really can’t wait.  I’m trying to get  all of my thoughts in order, about what I want to do in addition to getting his feet healthier and being able to bit him and go quicker.  There’s so much that I want to do that it’s really going to take some time to wade through it all. lol 

I’ll also be posting a description of the barn tomorrow (a friend took pictures of it on Sunday, so if I have those pictures from her by then, there will be pictures…if I don’t have them, they will go up as soon as I get them)…and there will be a post of our move in the next couple days.  Thursday I’m really hoping I can go out and work with him a little bit and introduce him to the property more…

But at this point, I feel like I’m rambling.  lol  Stay tuned, and you can find out more about all of this more over the next couple of weeks.  There will be plenty to write about!

Mr. Merrill :)

Snake skins

 

Bunny!

Parades and Ditches

***I've had this written for a while, I just haven't had the time to add the pictures.  However, I decided to make the time to add them and post them today, because my boy hasn't made an appearance on here in too long.  This is one adventure I wish we hadn't had, but at least everyone came out relatively unscathed.  Have fun reading!***


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It's been a couple weeks a while since I've really updated on my life on here (though you can bet the quotes that I have posted and will be posting definitely have bearing in my life!).  I guess I should start with the biggest happening that occurred during Forest Festival weekend and that I am unfortunately still a little banged up from (maybe I should go to a doctor?  That's what I've been told, but I'm still determined to wait it out, as I'm getting better - it's just an extremely slow process.)

I went home for the weekend for the Forest Festival.  My band was invited to be the college exhibition band in the Grand Feature Parade and the marching band competition.  I was understandably excited and just as understandably nervous.  It had been five years since I marched that parade.  I remember how long and hot it was back then.  The difference now?  I was in a hell of a lot better shape back then.  It's something I'm working on (another slow but successful process), but I'm still not where I was back then.  Thankfully, we didn't have to wear uniforms this year as they're not in yet.  Instead, we wore our gold band T-shirts, nice jeans, and marching shoes.  Something else I'm thankful of? The piccolo is a very light instrument. :)

 We pulled the parade off without much of a hitch.  I was ready to fall over and die because of how hot I was by the end, but I survived and was proud.  The show went well too.  It was our first official performance on a high school field.  This meant that we were guiding to high school hashes rather than college hashes - something that is more difficult than one would think.  We'd practiced with them painted onto our own field, but our hashes were also painted on that field, so we were all a bit apprehensive about marching with strictly only high school hashes.  But we pulled that off too, way better than any of us expected to.

After the show was over, I was dead.  Seriously, I wanted nothing more than a drink and a bed.  I had wanted to stay and watch the other bands, but I just couldn't do it.  One of my best friends from home, Chelsea, met up with me after we finished, and we walked over to my family's new house to visit with my mom and brothers for a bit before walking back to Chels's car and heading to the store for snacks and back to her house to chill out for the night.

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At 6:30 on Sunday morning, we dragged ourselves out of bed (err...off the couch) to get dressed and head out to the barn for an early morning ride.  It was still foggy when we got there, but our horses were happy to see us.  My boy came right over.  I grabbed his halter, went to the field, and as I was turning back around after closing the gate, he was already walking over to me.

Chels and I decided to switch saddles because I'm buying a new English one from a friend, and Chels is thinking about buying my treeless one from me and wanted to try it out.  So she used it, and I rode Western for the day, something that saved my ass from being seriously injured later on.  I'm sad to say it, but I know if I'd been riding English, I would have been in a lot more trouble than I ended up in.

Both horses behaved perfectly all morning, through tacking up and warming up and heading out.  They were both eager to get out and get going and seemed to enjoy being out on a leisurely morning ride.  For the first time, it seemed like Chels and I might have a normal ride.  Everyone was being good, we were all relaxed, the dogs were with us and having fun, and everything just seemed perfect.  And it stayed that way.


The trees are changing majorly here.  Most have lost a lot of their leaves by now, but that weekend, they were in full color and still had them.  We got a lot of gorgeous pictures.  Chelsea's are better than mine, because she has a really nice camera that she brought with her for the first time.  She's always afraid to take it for fear of it being broken, but everything had gone so well initially that she decided it would be okay to try it as long as we were careful.  And we were.

A few miles up the road from the farm, the dogs flushed a huge coyote out of the woods.  We didn't even realize it wasn't one of our dogs at first.  They had all dove headfirst down over the hill after something a few minutes earlier, and we just assumed they were on their way back up.  Then we realized that it was bigger than our dogs and not at all built the same.  It was no matter though.  It didn't even acknowledge our presence.  It just hopped up over the hill onto the road and took off gracefully up the road ahead of us.  Then our dogs came barreling up onto the road after it, and they were gone for a bit.

A few minutes after this happened, everything was still going well.  Until a couple of ATVs flew around the turn behind us.  We got off to the side of the road to let them pass slowly and keep our horses under control.  Only they didn't really slow down.  As soon as he heard them, Orion tensed up and began shaking.  He was scared but keeping it under control...until he turned his head slightly and saw them, at which point his eyes got huge and before I could react, he bucked and whirled in an attempt to bolt.  The ATVs still didn't slow down, even though they had to have been able to see it all happen.  When he whirled, he slipped, and his front half ended up in the ditch, half-standing, with his hindquarters still up on the road, and his head, neck, and right shoulder, along with me, plastered against the rocky hillside.  My right leg was between his side and the hill, and my right shoulder, side and elbow got slammed into the rocks.  Thank God I was wearing a
helmet, but somehow I didn't hit my head.  I think it was because I was leaning forward so much in my attempt to stay in the saddle, because I was partway out of it.  I was hanging onto mane, reins, and pommel trying to yank myself back on.

The ATVs didn't slow until they were right beside of us, at which point they stopped, left their engines running, and stared at me in apparent horror at what had happened up until that point.  Chelsea was barely keeping Kit under control and screamed some expletives at them and told them to leave.  So they gunned their engines and flew away.  That was the last straw for Orion, and as soon as they gunned the engines, he jumped out of the ditch, jumping out from under me in the process, and went bucking up the road.  I hit the ground and immediately climbed out of the ditch.

There was so much adrenaline flowing by that time that I was shaking and felt like I was going to throw up.  My elbow was killing me.  It hurt so badly at first that I really thought I had broken my arm.  My whole right side felt beaten up, and I had thorns stuck all over my palms and fingers because there was apparently a thorny bush in the damn ditch, and I had the great luck to fall straight into it.  If I hadn't caught myself with my hands I probably would ended up with a face full of thorns.  (Bright side, I guess?  At least that didn't happen.)

Regardless, I immediately began cussing the assholes that caused everything, because while Chelsea told them to get their vehicles away, they really went away and didn't even make sure I was okay.  If Orion had slipped and not made it out of that ditch on his first try like he did, he would have come back down on top of me, because as soon as he lunged, I was down.

After I assured Chels that I was okay, she went to catch Orion, which she had to use treats to do because he was so out of his mind with fear, he was terrified of everything.  Except, apparently, food.  While she did that, I sat down to get myself under control and keep from getting sick.  I pulled the thorns out of my hands and then got up and went to find them, picking up Chelsea's trail bag on the way.  It had come off when Orion bucked and ran away from everything.

When I found them up the road around a turn, Orion saw me and immediately came to me and shoved his face into my chest and just stood there.  He was still shaky and scared, but he seemed okay other than that.  With that knowledge, I was just happy that we were both okay and that he didn't appear to be mad or upset with me for falling and "leaving" him when he was scared.  He stuck to me like glue after that.  We had to walk back because when he had bucked after I fell, he apparently stepped on his reins and snapped them.  One side was completely torn away from the bit, and there was no way to really rig it.  Thankfully, I had kept his lead rope attached to the saddle, so I still had something substantial to lead him with.

It was a scary experience, but the good thing is that no one was too seriously injured.  I was more worried about Orion than myself the whole time, but he is fine.  That happened two weeks ago.  All of my aches and pains have pretty much gone away with the exception of my shoulder, elbow, and occasionally my wrist.  The massive bruise I had on my elbow is almost gone now, but I still can't rest weight on it.  Moving my shoulder a certain way still hurts pretty bad.  And my wrist only twinges occasionally.  But they all do seem to be getting better - it's just very slow.

Scary Bushes

Monday, 6/3/13

Orion showed his spooky side today.

He was perfect the whole friggin' pre-ride dance of grooming, lungeing, tacking up, and - oh wait.  Heading out can't be put on that list because he was scared of a bush.  Really, Orion?  Really?

So we're walking through Linda's back yard, heading out to the road.  Linda's back yard is full of pretty flowers and shrubbery and a garden.  There's a coy pond containing coy and goldfish, complete with mini-waterfall.  There's also a gardening bench (I don't know what else to call it) that she uses regularly.  Birds fly everywhere.  There are paving stones to walk over.  Little mini fences around the flowers.  A giant wire archway over one of the human paths.  

And what does my usually nearly bomb-proof horse choose to be scared of?

A completely stationary, unchanged-from-the-last-time-he-saw-it, totally ordinary bush.

Wow.

He was giving it the hairy eyeball as we approached, which I didn't understand, but spoke soothingly to him of anyway.  He stopped and contemplated it with his head cocked to one side.  Ok.  Good.  Usually he works through it in his head, sighs as though he feels dumb for being weirded out, and walks on.

Not today.  He stares.  And stares.  And stares.  Finally I decide he's had long enough to think about it and urge him on.  He takes one step....and boom.

We're airborn for a second and land a foot or so to the right of where he'd been standing.  He then proceeds to do what I'm sure to observers would look like a really pretty half-pirouette and almost crashes into Kit.  Thankfully I was concentrating on my form and at the same time on keeping him from bolting.  I didn't really think he'd bolt, but then again, I hadn't thought he'd have a panic attack over a bush either, so....

After trying to make him pass it again and again seeing him give it the hairy eyeball, Linda approached and offered to lead him past it.  Figuring this would be the quickest way to get on with the ride, I allowed it and decided to work on the sorting out his fear when we got back.  On the way back from the ride...no fear.  -_-

The next ride I took him on was a different story.

Flashback

I've been looking about and reading a lot of new blogs lately, mainly by following the couple of blog hops I've participated in and by looking for an equestrian related 30 Day Challenge.  I found one, and in looking for others, found quite a few other blogs who have been/are still participating in the same one!

In reading one of them, I suddenly had a flashback to a ride that Chelsea and I did last summer when we decided to explore some of the trails around our barn that we'd never been on before.  

It was a mini-adventure.  We started up one that looked...somewhat promising.  It wasn't the one we were looking for, but we thought, "What the hell? Why not." and tackled it anyway.  Flash forward five minutes, and we're climbing up the side of a mountain. No lie.  Chels and Kit were ahead of Orion and I, and I kept seeing Kit pin her ears and try to turn around to go back.  She also kept trying to kick Orion in the face because he kept crowding her so close that he could have stuck his nose up her butt, and I had to constantly back him up to get him out of her bubble.

We continued for a couple minutes, up this frickin' crazy steep hill thinking, "It's got to even out at some point, right?"  Wrong.  It got steeper. *facepalm*  At that point, we decided enough was enough and for our horses' safety as well as ours (assuming we did make it to the top, who knew if there was going to be a safer way down?  We didn't want to go back down the next section of steeper trail.).  We turned them around and let them pick their way back down to safer ground.  Pretty sure Kit tried to bite Orion's butt once, as I felt his rear end jolt upward in a baby kick (he never tries hard to defend himself).

We tooled around in the woods at the bottom of the hill for a little while, fruitlessly trying to find the trail we'd actually been looking for to begin with, to no avail.  We were pretty sure we knew where it was, but the way up to it was a muddy mess and had branches down everywhere.  

So, in the end, we left the area and went on up the road to another wooded trail that we'd been on a couple of times before and both liked. I think it's Orion's favorite trail to date.  

It's the same one I later took him on for our first solo ride together at the end of the summer.  The one where he thought the bright orange hose that ran from the creek to the well was a poisonous orange snake that was going to jump up and eat him for its afternoon snack. -_-  He eyed it and snorted the whole time after I got him to approach it, then quickly high-stepped over it and craned his neck around to watch it some more in wide-eyed terror as we walked away.  On the way back out of the woods, he didn't give it a second glance.  Silly horse.

We enjoyed a lazy afternoon ride once we got onto that trail, and the day was considered a success.  We had a good ride and a story to tell later. Ha!