Timing

Oh, hey, welcome back. The entire month of August was booked and busy, but I still have two lessons to recap!

Lesson 1:

This was a follow up to the last lesson I wrote about where we touched on the changes for two seconds at the end--except this time the entire focus was changes. 

For the l-r, the main theme was patience. It's easier for me to get him straight and forward this direction, so I just need to put the aids on and wait. It's okay if he buffers for a few strides and has to process what I'm asking. As long as he stays straight and quiet, I'm not allowed to panic and start doing weird things with my body in an attempt to throw him onto the new lead. 

For the r-l, things took significantly more brain cells on my part. For instance, what is straightness? Don't ask me, that's for sure! I kept arguing with MB that I felt like Opie was bent into a C shape to the right as we came across the diagonal, and she kept insisting that this was false. Either way, I didn't feel like I had a single stride where I could fairly ask for a change so I would turn him back to the right before we got to the end of the ring and come around again. And again. 

We eventually decided on a putting a pole on the diagonal so I had a straight line visual. Aim for the pole, aim to be as straight as the pole as we ride alongside it, and then use that straightness to ask for the change. This did help with getting the feel of straightness on my end. It didn't help eliminate the weird karate chop that he does with his front leg in the change. 

MB wanted me to try asking with my left leg instead of my right. That way the right leg got to stay on 100% of the time because Opie's most favorite thing is getting me to take my right leg off. It took awhile to get the canter built back up to big and jumpy enough, but we went in with the new plan and...he actually changed half a stride early behind, but! The front end did nothing weird! So we ended right there, that was a big win for him. 

Overall a 10/10 lesson. A lot of troubleshooting, but for the first time it felt like a horse learning changes instead of a horse panicking and guessing about everything and flinging his body everywhere instead of giving us the chance to help him. 

has been doing a lot of hard work building his grass belly

In between that lesson and the one yesterday, we've been doing actual fitness work (because he's been sound and coordinated enough to motor on out on the trails in both the trot and canter!), but mostly a lot of work on the basics. 

We spent one whole ride working on bringing back our perfect halts because the EPM has really fucked with the RH. He's most comfortable with it parked underneath himself/in front of the LH. Standing square genuinely got hard for him even just out and about in the wild. I've done a ton of posture work--and obviously strength work--and it's improved when he's not under saddle, but we still have work to do. 

The RH has also gotten worse from the EPM as far as how he travels in general. From his conformation he's always brought it under his midline too far, but now--unless he's walking 2mph--it's waaay under there. To the point he has to be ridden in a pastern wrap or he hits himself so hard he starts bleeding. My farrier has done what she can to keep everything rounded off, but it's definitely a mechanical thing. Every step is thinking, "Can I push the RH out even more?"

I did one more ride on the changes by myself with one change asked for each way. The l-r was a stride late behind, but straight and patient and had good jump so that's a win for where we're at right now. The r-l was straight and way less weird than usual so also a win! Mostly I've been working on the transitions in and out of the walk from the canter. In the up, don't hang, but don't chuck the contact away either. In the down, patience again (clearly not a virtue Opie or I naturally come by). It's okay if it takes three-plus strides of collecting the canter before the walk transition comes. Better that than being like, "We transition down NOW" and then it just pukes into the earth. 

Lesson 2:

I had MB ride Opie for this lesson. I got back from vacation on Monday and Opie decided my right leg is actually fine, it's my left leg that he has no interest in. I was able to bully him through that a little bit and ended on a good note. The next ride was good, but then Wednesday's ride was A Thing. 

My original plan was to work hard on the trot because we've been doing so much work on the canter lately. Once I got on, he was super stuck in the shoulders, so the ride developed into loosening his front end up. At the walk. With a lot of following a big open left rein around like a 2yo. 

The frustrating thing was, he did everything right. And it made him so upset. Every exercise I asked for, he was bang on. I'd go to tell him what a good boy he was and before I could finish he'd be like, "I HATE IT IT'S HORRIBLE!!!" Like, bro, what is horrible? Doing a good job and getting praised? It's not computing. I got stuck in this cycle of, "Let's try this exercise. Wow, you did great! Ope okay doing great and releasing just made you mad and lock up again. Let's try this exercise now. Okay, so good! Ope, nevermind." 

I ended up getting off and sticking him on the longe for a quick spin just to have somewhere to end because I didn't have a solution. Thus MB doing the ride in hopes she could figure him out a little better. 

Her theory was that he's so used to working with tension that he would freak himself out letting go and didn't know how to do the work without that as his safety blanket. She also called him a contrarian which is an incredibly apt description of this horse. He'd really rather explore his options and ideas first before trying yours. You can get him on your side, but there's a lot of negotiating to get there. 

I got the report that he felt sore in his right neck and shoulder from our PEMF lady which explains the resistance to stretch his neck around to the left, and both MB and I felt that as well under saddle, so he's going to see our massage lady Monday to hopefully release anything he's got going on there. 

swamp ass of the head

In the meantime, his other main focus is on not melting all his hair off. The humidity this summer has been next level and everyone's bodies are over it. Opie is now sans fly mask and hind fly boots because the sweat is leaving rubs. He got a rub from his saddle pad and the reins yesterday. The day before I left a big spur rub on him which I've never ever done before. I swear he's at the point if I look at him wrong his hair falls off. Yay for light colored thoroughbreds.

Right Side Breakthrough

We had such a good lesson on Thursday!

There was a lot of MB yelling from her chair, "No, Carly! Carly! No!" She even got so inspired by how badly I was riding that she came and took the reins away--and I was holding the equicube so I was barely doing anything with them anyway.

Talent? Why, yes. I do have it. 

dubious of this claim

I was happy with Opie after our show, but I was annoyed with myself for my bad position. I knew at the time I was rolling my shoulders up to my ears, but I couldn't bring myself to do anything about it. And, of course, my hands were down in my lap being gross. So for our lesson I asked MB to focus on me instead of Opie and let's get some things sorted out.

We started with the equicube, my most favorite torture device. Opie loves it too in that it lets him stroll around like a llama acting like he has no idea what being a trained horse is, when in reality he has done a very good job at training me to do all the work for him. Once we got some good lateral bend going to the right, he gave in and went on the bit until we turned left and the real work began.

The problem is two-fold. He hates my right leg, and he hates moving his shoulders. So turning left where he has to turn his shoulders off my outside (right) leg without my hands there to guide him around is for sure impossible. MB wanted us to do a turn on the forehand to solve both of these things. For all the years I couldn't get this horse to do a respectable turn on the haunches, that was all I could get him to do. MB came and put both of our body parts where they were supposed to be going and I still couldn't figure it out. It's not like I've never done a TOF before, I just couldn't figure out the aids between the two without confusing myself.

Opie ended up getting sick of me, and while MB was standing in front of us trying to Show Me The Way, he gave me his "You're a fucking idiot" look over his shoulder and just went ahead and did one perfectly all by himself. With zero input or ask from me. MB and I were cracking up which I'm sure lowered his opinion of us even more. He's really embraced pulling the schoolmaster card on me lately. A couple weeks ago I was working on getting his canter rounder, and because it's me I just kept taking away and taking away. He finally calmly stopped in his tracks and gave me the same "You're a fucking idiot look" again like, "This is literally how fast you're asking me to canter. Zero mph. Do better."

I was finally allowed to give the equicube back so we could start trotting. To the right, bend the ribcage, bring the withers up, ask for a big boy trot. To the left, he has to accept the right leg. If he didn't, 10m circle to the right and then back to tracking left. Never take the right leg away. We finally got there after lots of repetition and moved on to the canter. 

he has complete disdain for my existence

For the left lead, lots of counter canter. The shallow counter canter loop from 1-3, and also lots of square turns. He was BIG MAD about the square turns, but they did the trick of getting him upright and off my outside leg. We went to come across the diagonal to carry on the counter canter and my bad riding made him do a bad change instead. We went back around to try for a good change because the ride before his canter felt so good I asked for one this way and he jumped cleanly over easy peasy. The second time around, he was late a stride, but otherwise boring. 

For the right lead, the canter was bang on right off the bat so we worked on collecting it way up and then oozing out of it. 10/10 nailed it so MB told us to see what our change looked like this way (his bad way). As soon as I turned in I went to straighten his neck and he fell through the change. 

MB was like, "No. Bad. Why." Because he needs to be straight to change, right?! "Stop pulling him into a straight neck. Just hold the right bend because the canter is so good and ask from that." He waited patiently for me to get all my own parts in order and then quietly did his little karate chop change and cantered off. So still not clean because he does the weird thing with his front leg, but at least on the aids and not upset?

We came around from the left again, got the haunches pushed to the right so the RH isn't ten miles under his mid-line, rode him forward, and quietly put the aids on. Nothing. Two strides later, still nothing. So I threw my body off the side of him and flung him into the change and made it late behind. MB said, "No. Bad. Just wait. If you had just waited he was set up perfectly and he would have given it to you. No flinging!"

all the grass and snacks for having to deal with me

He had two days off after that because I simply did not have the time for him, but this morning we worked in the canter on pushing the haunches out and bringing the shoulders in and all the drama of having a right leg. Which he was actually alright for! 

Also I don't know why blogger suddenly hates my phone pics. Fucking stupid platform.

WNYDA Summer Fest

We went to a show! 

And I finally have time to write about it!

Good grief, this past week has not slowed down for one second. Let's roll it back to last Friday and get kicked off with our in-hand work.

being a role model for his 2yo soul mate (that he'd
never met before) in the trailer next to him

Friday's Breed Show

Our GMO brought back a breed show last year after several years of not hosting one, and they thought it was such a success they added in an entire day for it instead of just an afternoon. It did end up running all day, and after another east coast show canceled, they added on a second day as well. This is good news because it was a complete cluster fuck to get organized and everyone was ready to kill each other by the end of it, but I do think they'll do it again next year. Which means another year for more ribbons!

Obviously Opie is practically ancient at this point and not eligible for any of the young horse or materiale classes, but there's no age limit for the amateur handler class or the breed specific classes. 

First up was the amateur handler class where you are being judged with the horse's score only being a tiny part of it. I knew I could do the running part just fine, it was standing this animal up properly I wasn't convinced of. They want an open stance, and Opie was like a dyslexic child with these fucking halts. In hand? Square! Under saddle? Open! Like, sir, bring that RF forward while I'm not on you.

would have taken this halt in our tests

I didn't fuss with him too much because I was too busy trying to get him to hold still for longer than two seconds. The judge was old and walked with a cane, and she started creeping around Opie in a very sus way according to him. I ended up getting the comment to not stand in front of him, but I couldn't stand off to the side or he would have left lol. The walk and trot triangles went as well as expected, and he was slightly better about standing when we came back around. We ended up with 8s down the board except for a 6.8 for his conformation (fair--he's built like a cow and a wiener dog had a baby). The low confo score knocked us out of what would have been first place into second. 

We went right into our Thoroughbred class where Opie was the only participant. He was better with the judge stalking him this time, but still defaulted to squaring up. She liked absolutely nothing about him and scored accordingly, but we still got our champion neck ribbon for showing up.

the pinned ears really help

we borrowed a bridle from MB to look the part

Saturday Performance Show

I got on with about thirty minutes for warmup for 1-1. This is more than I usually allot myself, but I am notoriously horrendous about warming up at shows. I forget every exercise and just end up loafing about with zero plan. Not this time, bitches! I was focused, and we did crazy things like multiple transitions and cleaning up our mistakes until they were better instead of just letting them slide. I got the canter feeling really good and through, and we went into the ring going forward instead of like we'd been standing around doing nothing for the past ten minutes like I usually do.

I did, however, heavily lean into the fetal position. For the entire show. I could even actively feel myself rolling my shoulders forward, but I couldn't convince myself to do anything about it. I got the horse sorted out, maybe next time I can get myself sorted out as well.

The test was a boring cake walk, as it should have been. We got 5s for our trot lengthenings which we're still (re)developing so there was no expectation there, and a 5.5 for the left lead canter depart which was (intentionally) early. Otherwise 7s down the board and a 6 for gaits because he did be looking a little wonky there at points. I don't know at this point. Legit do not know what else to do for this horse. Hopefully his doxy gets here this century and cleaning up the lyme helps him again. Just under a 66% for third place.

We nailed the warmup again for 1-3. More walk work this time around since he'd already been ridden once and it had gotten incredibly hot. He felt a little tighter this time, probably not helped by more horrible hands and rounded shoulders. 

We got a 5.5 for out sketchy attempt at a stretchy trot, which I was personally pleased ended up back at the letter we started at because we took a dang tour of the ring for the "circle". Geometry as a whole felt lacking in this test as I cheated where I could to keep him happy. I probably could have asked him for more, but that was not my goal for this show. I wanted a boring, pleasant experience for the both of us and that's what I ended up with. 

Everything else scored 6s and 6.5s with a handful of 7s thrown in--like for both canter lengthenings which we had been working really hard on.

He actually got a 7 for gaits on this test so who knows. This test was under the judge from the breed show the day before and everyone was complaining about how low she was scoring and how she hated thoroughbreds and on and on. I made my goal to break the 60s with her, but he cruised through with a 63 and change for another third place and the comment, "Good potentional!" 

There was nothing brilliant to write home about in either show, but again, not my goal. I will say I'm very pleased with the scoring from both judges. I felt like they were bang on for the directives of the level, and not looking for or rewarding the unnecessarily over-collected and chased around horses. It's first level. It's not supposed to be exciting!

Our score for 1-1 ended up getting us high point OTTB for first level and high point OTTB overall for Saturday's show, so well done Opie!

missing our 2nd place ribbon, but yay neck ribbons!

So overall we're calling this a success! The fact that we made it there for both days is a win in and of itself. That will be it for showing this year. I had originally planned on doing another recognized show at the end of this month, but show entries have increased so fucking much it's insane. Combine that with still shelling out money for his vet bills, and still trying to get him to 100%, it doesn't feel worth it. We'll hopefully start building up some consistency and come out next year ready to swing towards some bigger goals.

Refinement

We did some more refining to our still sort of shitty and definitely still weak riding in our lesson yesterday. The main theme was that you gotta be quicker than that...about everything. 

And bonus was Pivo decided to keep up for the vast majority of the ride and save the video afterwards.

In the walk, we warmed up with the leg yield pattern from 1-3. The focus was not letting his neck bend in really any direction, let alone the ten different ways in ten different places it wanted to. That didn't come together until about the hundredth repetition when the walk finally started getting collected and he filled my right rein which in turn made him straight. I also had to ride the 10m circle in a circle shape instead of protecting his sensitive feelings and let it turn into an amoeba shape.

The trot.

Ohhhh the trot.

I know the root of the problem is tension, and the tension is coming from (likely) his recent Lyme flareup, and still just not being as strong as I want him to be. So he gets tense, sometimes he looks uneven again to the left, and he struggles going forward with how tight he gets. 

To the left, MB had us leg yielding towards her and doing a little counter flexion to get him off my right leg (and get over me sitting on his right side), but not worrying about sending him out big and bold. To the right--full send. To the left--just be soft and supple.

The canter was alright--that seems to be his happy place right now. We did brainstorm an excellent test riding trick while working through his anxiousness in the first canter-trot transition in 1-3. At first I thought he was getting worked up over anticipating going back to the canter. You trot at X and then walk at C in this test (except the second time when you do a simple change at X because this test is fucking stupid and has no flow to it). He comes down to the trot fine, but by the time we go to turn in the corner he's having a menty b. 

Turns out it's not anticipating the canter, it's anticipating the change of bend. Just, you know, something I spent ALL WINTER LONG working on perfecting. But that's fine, we can forget that ever happened, Opie. Happy to play into your drama. 

When we figured that out, I just started changing the bend as we cantered up to X so by the time we got to the corner in trot, he was already positioned how he needed to be. That completely solved the issue! He may suck at changes, but he's got a super counter canter lol. 

We ran through 1-3 after that. It was...better than the last lesson. Again, the change of bend got us, this time picking up the trot after the free walk and having to go into the leg yield. The leg yield this direction is usually butter, but he got upset and stuck this time. Also the whole first half of the test was just blah. It took me until the final trot work to develop any real connection or suppleness, and the work was just crappy because of it. Not a test I'd be happy about paying lots of money to get judged. I KNOW the work is in there, even with his current state of ennui. Getting it locked in in one to two laps around the ring before throwing all the movements together is the holdup.

Debriefing afterwards, MB said I was only allowed to sit the trot if I got the trot we ended on going around the ring:

Otherwise, do my best to make him look soft with a more open frame and hope the judge actually judges like it's only First level. Mostly though, I have to figure out how to be quicker to put it all together. Which would help if the horse helped. Which would be helped by curing all his physical ailments with a magic wand. Someone make that happen, please.

Test Riding

Continuing with the never ending theme of not being able to build any momentum, show entries went out, we managed to run through 1-3 two whole times, and then once again everything has come to a grinding halt.

For once (knock on wood! x100), the horse isn't lame! So that's a small win. He is, however, ungodly feral. Add on your choice of insane heat and/or nauseating smoke in the air, and things are feeling rather stagnant over here.

"hi, i see dead people and live people and every
molecule in existence and they all bother me."

We did our first run-through of 1-3 in our lesson two weeks ago. The lesson didn't start well (spoiler: or end well). He decided he couldn't turn left, and the fact that I would ask him to do so was incredibly insulting. We went on a smallish figure eight at the walk until he got it and then proceeded to try in the trot. This did not happen. We eventually just gave up and moved into the canter at large. He ended up being fine for the canter, and he was marginally better in the trot afterwards so we moved on to doing the test.

I hadn't actually made the time to learn learn this test at that point. I felt like I sort of knew it enough to skate through it with MB calling out as I went, but that was quickly proven false. And for the record, what a stupid fucking test. It has zero flow to it and the transitions are random as hell. This was getting me flustered that I couldn't remember it, and Opie was already having a menty b so he was more than happy to join me in complete meltdown mode.

We got through the whole test, but it was horrendous. There were stops and starts galore, much leaping, and little steering. Oh, and crying. There were definitely multiple crying breaks. Discussing with MB when we were done, she agreed he was being a bit of a bully and he does get better when you call him out on it. But it was also hot as hell and I was not in a good head space. It's tough for me when Opie turns into such a twat over such simple things I know he knows. Objectively I know he still has a ton of strength and fitness and coordination to regain, but he CAN turn left for fucks sake.

Also the heat does me no good and I was legit having a meltdown over the fact that I've lost weight to the point that my boots no longer fit me and they were flapping against my leg and distracting me and I don't have the money for new boots because all the money goes towards this ungrateful animal's vet bills. 

So. Totally thriving. 

We had one more ride-through last Monday where we did a light warmup and then I went into the test with the mindset of, "We are going to do each movement correctly no matter how many times we have to repeat it." This approach would not work for a lot of horses. It works great for Opie. Here is the movement, black and white this is how it is going to be done, and when you do it we move on. It took probably thirty minutes to get through the entire test, but we left each movement feeling REALLY good about each one. 

Then it got hot as balls, and then smoky as balls, and he had off for the rest of the week. 

We did a light walk ride Friday to make sure the leg yield sections were crisp and clean, and a few laps of going in and out of stretchy trot. Sunday I wanted to ride the test again, but we ended up getting stuck in the halt. 

This isn't the first time he's pulled this particular move. We'll halt, and he'll get himself so contorted or locked up that he truly can't physically walk forward out of it. And he knows that so he starts panicking. Then we're just stuck in the halt with the only way out being launching himself into a rear or flinging himself sideways which neither of us enjoys so he starts panicking more. It's a delightful cycle that usually ends with him trying to sit down like a dog until I get off and lead him out of it. WHY he does this, I could not tell you. Welcome to Opie's brain. 

not a lot going on behind that side eye

Once I dismounted, proved to him he could simply walk in a straight line after halting, and got back on, we went into the test. It was actually pretty alright to start. The fucking jigging in the walk is going to make me brain him as the walk is one of the spots he's always able to pick up big scores. He always anticipates the return to the canter much earlier than he needs to which is going to take some creative test riding to hide. His simple transition at X is a stunner though! But then we couldn't finish because he couldn't turn left again.

On top of everything, throughout that ride and our ride yesterday, he was crazy spooky the whole time. Spooking at people, farm equipment, traffic, you name it. This horse is only ever spooky when he's having a Lyme flareup so fiiiiiinee, Opie. I'll just add that to your never-ending tab. Conveniently another boarder had the vet coming this morning and I was able to have them draw blood for a Lyme titer while they were here. What even is money at this point? Opie be spending it like it makes itself.  

He got a walk ride in the double today to hopefully reinforce that walk--NOT JIGGING--is a thing. We'll see if it sunk it during tomorrow's ride.

Look At This Horse

He's out here doing stuff!

Like warming up with no head bob:

Cantering to the left better than the right because we like to change our strong direction on the daily:

He did struggle quite a bit with the right lead on Sunday:

He hadn't been ridden in over a week because of the heat, so he was feeling lit for his first ride back. This mostly came out in the walk--aka the jiggity jig. I try to redirect to something else instead of just picking a fight about continuing in a straight line and still not walking. This means we do a lot of TOH which, over the winter, he finally got the hang of not pivoting or crossing over behind:

He's still braced because he was lit but look at those little hind feeties doing their job properly.

We also ran through our first full length test start to finish since...August of last year? I'm still aiming for a show at the end of the month doing First, but we all know how planning and horses goes lolol. Regardless, 1-1 is a super friendly little test so we started with that one.

As soon as Opie turned up the CL he was like, "Awwwyisss." He was still a little tightly wound at this point, and he was all-in to channeling it into doing a dressage test because THAT IS HIS JOB AND HE LOVES A JOB FULL SEND BITCHES.

As soon as we whipped through the corner, I could feel him waiting to see what test we were doing. "Are we zooming across the diagonal? No, she says go straight. This must be the one we go into SI in for then. Wait, why is she still saying just go straight?!"

Dude was ready to throw down a Third Level test and all I wanted was a little tritty trotty down the long side so we could make a little loop-di-doo and head back the way we'd come to do it again. His stretchy circle sucked, but he didn't completely take over and zip away so that went better than I thought. His walk immediately wanted to be a jig so I got quite rude with him and made him halt before heading into our "free walk". 

Everything was messy and zoomy and barely under control, but you know what? We both had fun doing the thing again. There's a lot of cleaning up to do that really only comes from test riding, and I am A-OK with that. 

We ran through it again on Monday and while still too quick--especially through the transitions--it was a lot cleaner. This morning we did 90% walking. In and out of the free walk approximately ten million times without anticipating. Then we did a real stretchy trot with his little nose poked out and dragging on the ground. If we can keep those two things tomorrow we'll be in business!

I did end up ordering more meds to have on hand. Those should be here tomorrow, and his follow up vet appointment is Friday. He was pretty trippy the whole ride Sunday. The footing wasn't the best so it could be that--and he's felt fine since then--but I definitely want to have meds on hand to nip any flare-ups in the bud so he doesn't get the chance to get bad again. Fingers crossed!

Doing Dressage

Don't mind us, just out here clocking along working on our dressage like a normal riding horse pair.

despite someone's best attempts of getting out of
work, he was still sound missing a hind shoe and
my farrier was out the next morning to put it back on.

We've hit some big milestones like doing a whole ride of stretchy work--twice! We've also started incorporating collection work for the sake of working in collection, not just putting him together as snugly as we can because if we don't he will fall apart and go lame. 

We had our lesson this morning, and it was like an actual real lesson. It wasn't a "can you watch my horse go around and help me mask his weirdness?" lesson. It's been AGESSS since we did normal things!

slightly sus about these developments

I really wanted to work on our trot-walk downward transitions because they were never particularly good to start with, and they've returned to being quite braced and above the bit. We started off with a lovely quiet little trit-trot to warm up with. 

The day before had been one of our stretchy days and I put in a lot of work riding from half halt to half halt to contain the zoomies so we weren't just freewheeling around with his head on the ground but his legs going a million miles an hour. It took some time, but eventually the half halts went from every single stride to every other and on out until he finally got the hint and was able to maintain the rhythm himself. 

He was a Smart Boi and remembered that slow is the way to go starting out. He still struggles to the left pushing into the outside rein on a circle. You can tell that's a big weakness for him right now, but at least he isn't lame on the LF (knock on wood lololol). Once we got our nice slowness and bending established both ways, we took a quick walk break and then went to pick up the trot again to start the transition work. Opie said, "nah we're cantering next yeehaw bitches." Which was false. He got to do some turns on the haunches instead to redirect his tiny brain, and then we picked up our trot again.

managed to get our lesson in before it rained
unlike earlier this week when the weather ruined our walkabout

We did the accordion exercise: in and out of bigger and shorter strides on a great big circle. Ugh, he was SO GOOD for this. MB and I were feeling quite giddy because as he went on, his shoulders unlocked and he started offering his old Opie toe flicks while staying super easy and light to ride (although my abs were absolutely screaming, it was a delight to sit). MB was like, "He's doing dressage again! Real dressage!" Yayyy, Opie!

But then we had to also do the downward transitions. Which turns out if you can establish this amazing quality of gait, you stop your hips and the horse just stops trotting. Total snooze fest. To the left he needed the extra support of the outside rein really being held, but also super boring. Basics forever and always amen. 

At that point I did want to canter, but again we had redirect the tiny brain to distract him from that. This time we did renvers to SI, a reinback, more renevers, now we're just trotting so boring, and ope we're cantering. We started off going right--his stronger direction--and MB told me not to stay in the cute canter, ask for the big jump in the stride. We did the 1-3 canter work with the shallow counter canter loop followed by a 15m circle. Crushed that, tried a lengthening which he nailed but then couldn't come back from it without breaking which was fine. That's a weakness thing, easy peasy to work on.

To the left he wanted to get a little squirrely anticipating again, but he settled enough in the trot that I just asked for the transition and it was fine. Again, definitely still much weaker this direction, but he didn't get tense about anything which was a big win. He was fine for the counter canter, but we had to either keep his hind end straight or his head/nose straight. I let his haunches come in a little bit to keep his RH doing its weird too far under the midline thing, and that kept the front end straight so whatever. Compromise is fine for now. We attempted a lengthened canter, and he opened up about one inch, but he came back quietly one inch too so good boy. 

posture work is boring.
would rather be touching things.

His recheck is scheduled for mid-July, and if we need to treat again no bigs. I'm super impressed and relieved we finally found something that seems to be genuinely getting him on the right track. Hopefully it can continue!

The bar is low...

...BUT!

We may have finally.....solved? (heavy emphasis on the question mark lolz) one of the roots of Opie's problems.

just insert (drug laced) candies plz

Today marks one week of treatment, which means we'll be all wrapped up by the end of the week.

So far it's been relatively smooth sailing. Let's break it down day by day.

(last) Tuesday: It was hot AF so we just did a bareback stroll.

Wednesday: I wanted to do our regularly scheduled lesson with MB the next day to get her eyes on him, so I figured I better put a saddle on him for the first time in about three weeks to see what we were working with. It was a mess. The footing was a little sloppy from rain, and he just could not settle. He couldn't soften, he couldn't focus, he still felt lame LF starting out on top of feeling tight and whacky behind. I was not feeling particularly optimistic.

Thursday: I went forth with the lesson anyway because MB isn't going to judge if he came out still looking Not Good. Plus she's very good at methodically talking me through unlocking Opie's crazy and coming out the other side with whether or not he can't or he just won't. 

had to do sitting trot to the left to control the zoomies

He did blessedly feel better right off the bat. We did a ton of stretchy walk where he felt a bit trippy up front, but he hasn't been able to stretch down without being dead fucking lame in ages so that was a massive win. Into the trot where we focused on keeping the rhythm slow. He still felt a little weird behind, but nothing notable with the LF which was another huge win. 

He had one big trip up front in the trot where we went sprawling for about three strides before he managed to right himself, but he went back to work for a few more minutes to wrap things up without issue.

right before he ate shit

Friday: Day off.

Saturday: We did our first canter! He couldn't turn right. At all. In any gait. But overall felt sound and relatively normal.

Sunday: I longed him in just his halter. He looked....herky jerky is the best way to describe it. Like his legs just weren't bending like normal horse legs? Question mark? I don't know, it was weird. He also looked like he had no control over his lower lip the whole time. It was swinging in the breeze like there was no connection between it and the rest of his face. Was he sleepy or relaxed? Those aren't really Opie things.

Monday: I finally succeeded in slowing down the trot. He's been zooming around probably looking good from the ground, but it's been half a centimeter from tipping to the point of no control. I'd rather have him slower and feeling more relaxed than blasting around looking powerful and about to fall down. Again. 

(this) Tuesday: We warmed up by running through the trot work from 1-3, but in the walk. The trot was in control from the start! We had a couple discussions about picking up the canter without being feral. The right lead canter was good--we could turn today! The left was a lot of being very angry that I wouldn't get off his right side (where I'm allowed to sit, so sorry), but once he snorted out all his rage over that injustice, it felt fine too. And then we finished with stretchy trot! Which has been sooooooo long in coming!

I'm hoping that we can go about our lives and rebuild strength yet again. And then maybe we can plan things? Knowing this horse probably not lol.

An Answer

Alrighty, we have a lot of catching up to do!

finally wore him down on the cuddle front, AND
managed to sneakily get it on camera

The new vet (Dr H) came out to take his turn at Opie. I messaged Hubby's cousin (Dr H's assistant) the day before to confirm they'd gotten all the imaging from my main vet (Dr A, keep up here) and the novel that I'd sent them on the history from this past year. She replied, "Yep, we're going over his xrays again right now!"

Which immediately made all my hopes plummet. I was like, here we go again. How interesting that we don't see anything either. We haven't been able to come up with any new ideas. Get a bone scan. Why didn't you do this or that. It's just his shitty hind end, you're going to have to wait it out. 

Of course neither of them actually said that, but I was all aboard the spiral out of control train. Legit already having a hopelessness meltdown. Between all the shit with Bobby and then all this shit in the past year with Opie, my brain is officially tapped out on getting answers from vets.

looking so good for being so useless

The next morning they came out, and I once again ran through a quick (lol) list of the things we've tried and treated. Dr H palpated all his parts and pieces in the aisle and said he felt absolutely nothing of concern. Great. He said he'd looked at all the imaging and everything was super boring--he hadn't even brought his xray machine because there wasn't a single thing that popped out that he would want to investigate further. Greatttt.

So we brought him into the ring where he watched him walk around a couple laps, did the tail pull neuro test, and then had him go out on the lunge.

Guys he looked SO BAD. SO FUCKING BAD. I started crying. It was the worst he's looked this whole time.

Lame af LF, stumbling and tripping and weird uncoordinated movement in both hind legs. We wrapped that up in a hurry and had him do the tiny circle neuro test. He was okay to the left. To the right, his RH kept going waayyy underneath himself with a hip drop that made him look like he was about to fall over.

Obviously at this point Dr H declared him neuro. In fact he thought he'd probably been neuro this whole time, he's just also had other things going on that we were chasing instead. He said Dr A and I did all the right things in the right order--no doubt his SI did need treating, and continuing to do the work I was doing was a good thing because if you don't watch him move he looks great--but the neuro was kind of skipped over. 

Dr H works with a different lab than the clinic Dr A works for so I had different options than just Marquis. A blog reader sent me info about this place awhile ago (thank you!!) that I had kept bookmarked, but honestly the website is super sketch and I didn't explore any further. It's a little different than the standard EPM testing, and they do their own compounded treatment.

We got his results back Monday and not surprisingly he came back positive for all the things--which most horses are going to test positive to exposure, but combined with how badly he's been doing it seems like a solid assumption that this is what we're dealing with. We got the black market (aka not FDA approved so they're not thousands of dollars) meds ordered and when those get here we'll will start the 10 days treatment. He'll have a follow appointment six weeks after that, and we'll likely do another round of treatment. 

In the meantime, in an effort to keep his muscle building and brain work going, he's been doing work on the longe line. He actually looks completely fine when he's in the vienna reins. The first couple steps are lame, but when you make him get to work and start moving out, there's nothing exciting to see at all. 

going right without falling over!

It's hit or miss how bad he is when he's not rigged up. He always stumbles behind, but some days that's all he does and otherwise walks and trots around looking sound. Other days he's so neuro he can't coordinate what his legs are doing. He's had days where he can't turn right unless I'm leading him by the head on his right side and basically showing him where each step goes. He had a day walking ground poles where you could see him come up to them and just straight up buffer. Like he knew the goal was to get to the other side but he couldn't get his brain to figure out how to make his legs do that.

It's depressing and it sucks, and I hate it for him because every time he sees me he's like, "Yay what's todays activity let's go do things!"

he was so excited to get to be in the ring at the same
time as his favorite riding bro

I think he's also probably developed some chronic compensation. Him picking up the trot lame and then transitioning quickly to soundness feels more like a habit now. He's also been getting ridden and worked with either me or the vienna reins holding him up/together, so he's going to have to get strong and coordinated in a lower frame again as well. And, of course, is EPM going to be the final answer in this chronicle? The LF could be explained by it, but it could still be something else we haven't figured out yet. 

Hopefully this will wrap this shit up. We're all over it at this point.

Dressage from the ground

Over the weekend, we had a mini clinic at the barn that we all participated in, and that we all were humbled by. One of the boarders has approximately one million world champion titles to her name in showmanship and is an active judge, and she offered to teach us all some in-hand skills.

Obviously I was all aboard. My horse might not be able to trot around under saddle soundly (more on that later), but surely we were going to nail standing still! I am also--not to brag--quite qualified at trotting my horse out for people as he sees the vet about once a week lolol.

Spolier alert: we knew nothing.

trying to hide alllll the conformation flaws

The biggest takeaway I got was how similar it was our under-saddle work. It was basically in-hand dressage. Horse is gumby in the neck and you don't have him pointed in a straight line? When he halts his haunches swing out and he's crooked AF. Don't come into your halt with enough impulsion? No chance of halting square. Transitions jerky because your horse isn't paying attention/on the aids? Judges are going to mark down for that. 

Gah it was so interesting! Every flaw she pointed out, I was like, "Yes! He does that u/s too!"

just like in dressage there are 100 ways to eliminate yourself without
even realizing you've done it

There's a breed show at the end of July where they have Amateur Handler classes that we're trying to manifest our attendance at, so we covered both how to mask Opie looking like a crooked wiener dog and how to show him off on the triangle.

• He's cow hocked so the wider I could get him to stand behind the straighter he looked. However, we had to work within his comfort level because that's not a normal/natural position for him. I do think this will help strengthen him though. And she suggested working on him straddling two poles laid side by side since he's already mastered the single pole.
• 
  

• 

  a good boi for trying to be a wide boi
  
  

  
  
• In showmanship, you work off squaring them up off of wherever the RH lands because that's the leg you'll pivot off of. Opie's RH likes to land well underneath him (tying into whatever the fuck is going on back there), so that already wasn't going to work. Fortunately we're not aiming for showmanship rules so we had more leniency in standing him up.
• Don't hug the cones--the cones are lava! Even a sound horse is going to take a "lame" looking step or two if you whip them around the cones. Opie has no wiggle room there so big, sweeping turns with the cones as a general guide. 
• The right hand is always the leading hand up by the bit.
• Once the judge passes the girth line, then you can move around to follow them. Don't block their line of sight.
• Position yourself so you're facing the point of your horse's shoulder. Give them room, don't crowd into them. 
• To get smoother forward transitions, push the right hand forward and the horse should immediately move off. No tugging them forward! The downward from trot to walk should be a FORWARD transition, don't just quit. Into the halt, plant your right foot and stop. The horse stops with you. If they don't, they come back to where you've stopped, don't get dragged forward with them. 

getting him stood up correctly made it look like we shortened his
back by about 4 vertebrae which was needed when you're a limo

I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting, and honestly I could have been out there for another hour gobbling up everything she was saying. 10/10 recommended cross training experience, especially with someone who is so educated.

"hello, standing normal is hard plz give candies"

In other news, Riding Opie has continued to be consistent in his inconsistencies. Wednesday the LH was a little sticky right off the bat, but some lateral work at the walk loosened everything up and he was sound at the trot afterwards. Thursday we had a full lesson that he felt great in the whole ride. Friday my friend rode him and he was lame-ish LF. Saturday he was lame LF. Today he was lame LH.

No idea what the trigger is or the cause. Hopefully Friday's vet appointment brings something new to the table.

Joke's On Me

This is what I get for putting things out into the universe. Nothing good ever comes from it.

both of us in the throes of a menty b

On Saturday Opie had his saddle fitting appointment. You know, now that he was sound and being ridden more than one ride every month.

He was obviously super lame for it.

We snuck in enough trot work to check the saddle after she gave it a fluff and evened everything out--which he was, for once, easy to please over--but the LF was gimping away.

I gave him Sunday off, and then tacked him up Monday with the mindset that if he was lame again I'd give in and just go ahead and call the new vet. He was frustratingly not lame. I wouldn't say he was 100%, but he felt alright enough that I continued to waffle over if I should continue waiting it out or not.

they're getting switched over to their grass field
and everyone is feeling the spring crazies

Fortunately (I guess lolol), after doing a lovely walk warmup this morning, as soon as I picked up the trot he was Dead Fucking Lame. So lame! LF? Sure. LH? Certainly! 

So I got off and called the next vet in the queue. I debated about who I wanted to come out. Between the racetrack, eventing/hunt country, and our proximity to Cornell we're actually pretty lucky when it comes to availability. What I'm most anxious about is bringing in someone new that won't listen to what I say. Like yes, his hind end is shit, and yes it can be looked at to be improved, but for the love of fucking god someone figure out this fucking LF.

I ended up settling on the track vet. For one, they're looking at a million lame thoroughbreds a day. I know they've seen some shit. But also Hubby's cousin works for their office so I knew I could trauma dump on her over the phone and get some insider trading by way of stealing a cancellation appointment for next Friday when they're booking out all the way into mid-June. 

some days he is clean, some days MB sends me video
of him being jet black 5mins after he's been turned out
with his tail bag hanging in shreds.

I'm not going to lie. I'm super frustrated. Actually I'm feeling rather pissed. It's been a YEAR. I have done everything we can think of and we've come up with absolutely nothing. The tech at my current vet was reading down the CVS receipt length list of imaging to send over to the new vet to look at and we were both giggling in a "holy shit wtf" sort of way. How have we done so much and this horse is still broken?!

Hopefully a fresh set of eyes will bring in some new ideas. Obviously I scratched our show at the end of the month, and while that's not the end of the world the situation as a whole is making me feeling resentful over my horse's continued useless existence. Objectively I know it's not his fault, but it is like, throw me a fucking bone here dude. 

Fingers crossed for next week! 

Nonlinear

In typical Opie fashion, we can't do things normally or easily. 

He was like, "I'm sound!"

But then, "I'm not sound!"

But also, "But not not sound enough to call a vet!"

While still being all, "You should definitely go home and cry after riding me lolol."

a perfect angel, has no idea what i'm talking about

Because really what else is there to do besides continuing to plug away--the whole fail forward thing--with my vet's blessing my plan was to just put it to him. Either break permanently already or let's fucking move on with our lives here, sir. 

Fortunately all his stupid body parts seem to finally have recalibrated and we're (for the moment at least) clocking along in regular work. 

With his return to First level at the end of the month, we've been working on all the things we have to hit in those tests. This includes coming back from a lengthened canter without flinging our head in the air or refusing to slow down in the slightest, shallow counter-canter loops without anticipating changes, leg yields without flinging ourselves sideways so fast that we've reached the other side of the ring in three strides, and most importantly all the speedy transitions that come from actual test riding.

i put him back in his fresh off the track opie setup.
he goes delightfully in a full cheek and figure 8
because apparently he's still a feral 4yo.

After the initial excitement over staring down the diagonal in the canter, the canter work has actually been the easiest to school. We've done a lot of the shallow serpentine work with MB over the years already, so he's familiar with doing that movement. He got told he was the smartest, bestest boy in the whole world a few times for quietly coming back to the trot at X instead of leaping through the air, and now he takes great pride in that transition. 

Where we're still getting a little spicy is moving out of the walk. We've been doing a lot of free walk to medium walk and back again to try to convince him that we don't always pick up the canter as soon as we're done with the free walk. But also at some point we do have to pick the canter back up again, grossly at First it's out of the trot so then we also have to sneak that transition in. There's lots to overthink when you're a tiny brained Opie Horse, and honestly First level has to be my least favorite to ride. 

The last couple of rides, I've really been working on the quality of the gaits themselves. Now that he's feeling stronger and sounder, I feel comfortable holding him to a little higher standard. Which is good because when he gets tense and distracted I can't even steer this thing let alone sit comfortably on him. 99% of the time the answer is renvers. So we do a lot of renvers. The other 1% of the time is just riding out his tantrum until he gets over it and magically remembers how to horse. 

how he looks when i insist my right seat bone
can be on his right back

I'm excited to have so much homework to do finally. While spending the winter walking my horse was great and all (it wasn't that great), I do selfishly actually enjoy riding and showing and fucking doing things. 

Now here's a little Opie story to leave you all with so you can appreciate his level of drama on a daily basis.

drama llama on alert

I brought Opie in for his PEMF appointment Tuesday afternoon. He met me at the gate like usual and I chucked him in his stall for a quick groom while we waited our turn. I started cleaning out my trunk when I was done with that, and as always his stall door was wide open because he's too dumb to leave it. He kept acting like he wanted to lie down and just like he was the sleepiest horse in the whole world. The bodyworker finally came over to our side of the barn and once he was in the crossties he used them to hold his head and neck up.

He was being sleepy but normal to start, and then he started shifting all over which eventually led to trying to throw himself on the ground. Now normally I would have been like, "Oh no this horse is colicking let me take care of that!" But it was Opie so I was like, you might be colicking.....but there's just as big of a chance that you're having a total toddler tantrum about wanting to take a nap and being inconvenienced by getting body work instead. 

He eventually got so insistent about wanting to lay down that we had to stop PEMF and put him in his stall where he cycled between throwing himself down and parking out. UGH OK FINE YOU MIGHT BE COLICY. I got on the phone with the vet while I brought the rest of the barn in (timed his drama perfectly to when I needed to do barn chores), and they said to give him some bananmine and if he hadn't improved in 45 minutes they'd send someone our way. 

By the time I got back over to his stall with drugs (absolutely not in a hurry because I'm sorry Opie but I was not convinced you were in dire straits) he was quietly laying down sleeping. I shoved banamine down his throat, skipped his dinner grain, and within ten minutes he was back on his feet being his usual ragey self.

"where is my dinner and the rest of my pemf sesh?!"

My guess is he had a little bout of gas that he thought he was dying from. However there is still the strong possibility that he really just wanted a nap. He can never be normal about anything.