Wizard Sessions 430, 431, 432, 433: Walking Distance

I got in touch with my regular vet last week and we had a good chat about what she saw in the x-rays (see previous training blog). She also talked with my farrier about a shoeing plan.

First of all, and this may or may not be related, but his Lyme Disease levels are much lower now than they were when we tested and treated him a year ago.

Basically, she has seen way worse on many horses, and she is optimistic that corrective shoeing and work will help quite a bit. She saw some very minor arthritic changes in the right knee. In the right foot, she did not think there was coffin bone rotation, per se. She said there was a change in the angle, but she was looking more at the whole picture, including the broken-back angle of P2 and P1. I was glad to hear this, because my farrier agrees with this assessment. My vet saw some very minor sclerosis of the navicular bone. It sounded to me like whatever issue he has/had was affecting the whole foot and the angles. Shoeing, injury, etc. Wizard’s body compensated, and we are seeing the long-term results in the x-rays.

Since we were between shoeings, my farrier came out and put aluminum shoes on his fronts, set well back for heel support, and a size larger to support his whole foot (aluminum because the larger size would make regular steel shoes heavier). He put snow rim pads on him. And the day we put the new shoes on Wizard, I saw him land consistently flat on the footing for the first time. He always tends to be toe first. It wasn’t heel first, but I was pleased to see flat!

So the short-term training plan is to let him get used to the new shoes and gently work him until my saddle arrives. I’m trying not to do too much circling, but when we’re stuck indoors due to the weather, it’s tough to avoid it.

Wednesday, 12/26/12 We worked indoors in long lines, and upon suggestion, I tried a little flash noseband attachment thingy, as an experiment. Wizard is very chompy on the bit, and the suggestion to try the flash was not in order to crank his mouth shut, but instead to steady the bit. Some horses don’t like bit movement, and a flash can help to keep things steadier. Wizard was NOT amused. He stuck his nose out, and leapt around a little when he felt rein pressure. We kept the session short, mostly doing bending exercises at the walk and a little trot work.

I’ve been at the barn for a lot of grooming sessions and sometimes quick hand walks in the park, but these are the actual work sessions he has had recently:

Thursday, 12/27/12

Years ago, when Wizard was doing more of his spinning and occasional rearing routines on the longe, a friend suggested longeing him in two lines. It seemed too complicated for my clumsy self, so I never tried it. Now that we’ve done more long lining work, it seemed like something worth revisiting.

We worked indoors again (%&*$%&$ winter &%*^&*% rain), and it was mostly successful. The biggest issue I had was him sucking back off the bit and geting behind the driving aid (whip) from time to time. I’m going to try a longeing cavesson next time out. Other than that, the two-line method was pretty neat.

Friday, 12/28/12

Wizard was tacked up in a bridle, surcingle, and longeing cavesson for this session. We were indoors (again). I used two longe lines, with the clips attached to the rings on the cavesson instead of on the bit. It worked much better. He was feeling a little fresh from all the rain and not a lot of work, and threw some pretty wild kicks when the longe line got too tight around his hind end. At one point, it also got shimmed up under his tail for a minute, ending in another kicking spree until his tail loosened and he got back to normal. We also experimented with the outside line draped over his back. I like the two-line method quite a bit, because it is closer to riding, and I have more control of his shape. On a regular longe line, I have no outside “rein” so he can pop his shoulder whenever he wants.

Thursday, 1/3/13

OUTSIDE- finally! The rain cleared, and a strong wind blew for a few days, drying things up nicely. I was going to go for a walk in the Assunpink, but I forgot to renew my permit, so we stayed at the farm and worked in the outdoor arena. I swapped bits to a fat loose ring snaffle, trying to make it as mild as possible for our groundwork. Over the bridle, he wore his cavesson. We warmed up at the walk on long lines, with me walking behind and also working from his hip. Then, we did a little light trot work, all with the lines snapped to the cavesson. The cavesson is basically as mild as a halter, and Wizard started to play, breaking from a big trot circle to a loopy, bucky canter festival. I was able to slow him down, but the force of him against the lines was hard enough that I was running pretty quickly to keep up as he slowed down. Okay, I guess he can handle a bit now! So we went on to the bit. He did his curling routine again, backing off the bit. I asked for a few transitions, which helped a lot. After a little gentle work, he began to stretch into the bit at the trot. YESSSSS. My goal with the long line work is to patch up some of the holes in his training, especially getting him to accept contact and loosen his back more. Today, I saw him doing a little bit of that. Now if only that saddle would arrive…

Wizard Session 76; JR Session 31: Little Lambs Eat Ivy

Thursday, 4/16/09

Before I went to the barn, my mom and I met a flock of spring lambs and watched a wonderful Border Collie named Riot do some herding.

Quicksilver Q-Eye-It Riot, HXAs, TD, RN, FDCh-Gold (aka “Riot”)

This ewe was watching an airplane

The weather was warm and sunny. I worked both horses in the dressage court, which is on the edge of the woods and past the paddocks. Wizard and JR are both quite good about working by themselves but they do get a little bit of that wonderful magnetic pull toward the barn when they are in high spirits. I longed JR first, tacked up in a bridle and surcingle. I warmed him up at the walk and trot before putting the side reins on him- they were on the loosest hole and barely even made contact. When they are attached to the saddle, they are a tad shorter but they are pretty long when they are attached to the surcingle. JR worked about 10 minutes in the side reins. I then attached one side rein to the bottom ring of the surcingle and attached the clip to a tied piece of baling twine under JR’s chin, hooked to the bit. The single side rein encourages different muscles from the traditional side reins and I like it as a cooldown exercise since it asks the horse to travel more long and low and allows him to reach his nose out more than side reins. When JR’s longeing session was over (a litle less than 30 minutes, including warmup and cooldown), I took him for a hand walk on the trails. My mom came with us. JR was fantastic! He’s a little reactive to sounds and sights, but he did not spook a single time. We worked on a little hill that is used for dirtbikes, climbing up and down it a few times. I took him back to the barn and gave him a good grooming- he’s still shedding.

Wizard got an almost identical workout, warmup with no side reins, worked 10 minutes with them on, and a little work with the single rein set on the bottom ring. He was very responsive and seemed pretty comfortable in both directions. He rushed less to the right than he did last time we longed. He did get pretty excited when he saw Mary the Morgan come out to graze, but we worked through it. We then took a walk in hand on the trails with Mary the Morgan. Wizard was fantastic! He has a really big and fast walk, but I was able to rate it when needed. He did not speed up at all on the way back to the barn.

After both horses were cooled out and back in their stalls, I met with Danielle. She s a high school student who is interested in equine photography. I showed her how I do my basic liberty photos, using Mary the Morgan and Cee Cee the Quarter Horse as our models. Then I showed her how to get the most flattering angles for portrait work, and we practiced some doorway portraits.

Up until that point, Danielle was using her own camera (a Nikon- yay!). Then she used my camera :^) She did a good job! Check out her portrait of JR:

Portrait of JR, by Danielle

JR Session 19; Wizard Ride 63: Get On Your Boots

Monday, 3/23/09

Back to chilly weather here in New Jersey. Temperatures hit the upper 20s at night and the wind was gusty. The air is dry and there’s local concern of forest fires with the dry air and cold winds. Horses love cool climates, but the dry air seems to irritate them while they are being handled. I hand grazed Wizard for a few minutes as the sun set. When we walked back in the barn, his tail looked like a cat’s bottle brush tail after seeing something scary! I put a little conditioner on both horses to combat the static and dryness.

JR worked indoors on long lining, followed by a longeing session. Monday was his third time long lining and he’s beginning to get the hang of it. The first night, we only walked a few steps but now we can do some circles and change direction. Of course, he breaks into a trot and sometimes gets distracted, but he’s a good study and I expect him to keep improving.

On the longe, JR was frisky. He trotted and walked quite nicely but once we ventured to the far end of the arena and he felt that magnetic pull to the gate, he broke into a playful canter and hauled against the longe line, playfully bucking. I joked to my friend that it felt a little like fishing for marlin- not that I’ve ever fished for marlin, but a leaping palomino on the longe line must feel something like hauling a huge fish onto a boat. JR is getting fitter- he just started blowing and broke just a hint of a sweat by the time we were done. I cooled him out, groomed him, and put him to bed.

Wizard was again very sensitive to grooming on the crossties. He did not do anything threatening, but was clearly displeased by the brushing routine. Was it the static? Or was it the fact that I rode him three days in a row? Or was it the fact that this was the second session without Ulcergard? I’m still not sure.

On the longe and under saddle, I saw no problems in his behavior. He was a little stiff but he worked out of it. I also noticed the slightest bit of filling in his left hind fetlock, but it looked defined by the time I was done riding him. I longed him for about 10 minutes, then rode for about 20. We worked on about half the arena and I asked for circles in different parts of the ring. My goal was to keep him soft and introduce a little more leg whenever he felt like he was losing his rhythm. It worked well and he was comfortable with riding in different shapes. He relaxed quite a bit to the left but never completely relaxed to the right. He was obedient but not quite the superstar he was for the past two rides. When I was happy with the work he did, we cooled out and I brought him back into the barn. He was better about grooming after the ride.

I noticed that Wizard interferes (makes contact by touching one leg against the other) a bit on the longe and under saddle. I hear the click somewhere between 0 and 4 times during each session. I’m considering putting brushing boots or polo wraps on him to protect his legs. I tried a pair of Nunn Finer open front boots on his front legs. The sheepskin liner and leather shell are lovely but they slid down an inch or so while Wizard longed. I assume that the sheepskin needs to mold to his leg and wear down a bit before the boots fit him perfectly. Get on your boots, Wizard!

And for those who are keeping score at home, here are some progress photos of Wizard…

December 2008:

March 2009:

December 2008:

March 2009:

Wizard: Sessions 12 & 13… Lazy rider, lazy horse

I’ve read that cribbing is a sign of equine intelligence. That sounds about right to me. Whenever I take Wizard out into the arena without a plan, he thinks one up for us. He’s a naturally quiet and laid-back horse and he’s also quite deliberate. During Session 13, we quietly stood while I watched Mary being longed. While we waited, Wizard fiddled with the lead rope and eventually had about two feet of it in his mouth and chewed it like a piece of Big League Chew.

Session 12 was similar to Session 11, but with a little spice. Wizard heard something on the other side of the arena and did a few laps around the longe line with his tail flagged, trotting like he was in training for the Spanish Riding School. But he always stops on a dime when I ask. Wizard has plenty of WHOAH and a lot less GO.

Session 13 was quick and a little poorly-planned. We stood quietly in the arena while horses worked and then I longed him. I was lazy and did not tack him up- he just had a halter and a longe line. He behaved as always but he also stopped several times on the longe. There were lots of horses at the barn for team sorting so I think that Wizard was a little out of his comfort zone. And when he’s out of his comfort zone, he stops. But he got back to longeing every time I asked- it was my fault for being so casual about a training session.

Back to business for Session 14!