Category: stupid human tricks

stupid human tricks · supplements

Mixed Bag

AmandaLeave a comment

The good:

Very, very good ride last night. We were both tired at the end, in a good way, and Tris is getting more and more responsive to the aids, more willingly forward, and more engaged through his hind end inch by inch. I focused last night in particular on making sure that he himself reached out to the bridle, rather than me stuffing him into it. The trot was particularly good, and there was one glorious stride in the canter when I felt his inside hind reeeeeach, and then we lost it again. Good news also in the canter is that he is picking up his leads waaaaay more consistently than he did before his time off. Not sure if my riding has changed/improved or if his soreness was throwing him off. We had a terrible time picking up the correct lead, particularly left, last year.

I also seem to have unlocked a key, rather embarrassing, problem with my position that R. targeted right away in our last lesson. My hands were moving far too much when I posted, and it was annoying him. Since then, I’ve been concentrating very hard on getting movement in my elbows and keeping my hands steady and it has paid off with a horse that is dramatically steadier in the contact. Funny how that works!

Finally, so far the Tums regimen seems to be correlated with positive rides, and he is showing zero effect from being pulled off the Previcoxx. I’m cautiously pleased enough to have stepped down his joint supplements to a multivitamin for the fall and we’ll keep an eye.

The bad:

He’s chipped his hind foot much further and it looks godawful, though at least it’s not hurting him in any way. Oh, pony.

I struggled all day with whether I would go to the barn last night, even after three days away for work out of state, and I was just so tired and burned out I couldn’t face doing things any more. I got home, made bread, set it to rise, and during the machine kneading and first rising I had a cookie and glass of milk and read a few pages of my current book and by the end of it I was ready to head back out. I’m glad I did, but I hate not wanting to.

The ugly:

As I mentioned, massively stressed out, tired, burned out, you name it. I’ve had a headache for several days, I’m not sleeping terribly well, and even when I do get sleep it doesn’t put a dent in my overall sluggishness. My left eyelid is twitching almost constantly.

So last night I groomed, tacked up, got on, rode my warmup, and while cantering about thought, hmmmmm, why are my bangs flopping against my forehead like that? That’s really annoying.

Then realization dawned: oh, shit, I’m not wearing my helmet.

Literally the first time in who knows how many years of riding that I have not worn my helmet on a horse. The first time. EVER. I was not one of those daredevil kids who jumped on bareback and galloped away. I had one of the original ugly white bucket helmets with the snap on visors. (God, that thing was awful.)

Needless to say, I pulled him up immediately and marched us back to the barn aisle to get my helmet. Goooood grief.

not-so-quiet-freakout · stupid human tricks

When to push, and when to back off

Amanda4 Comments

I thrive on rhythms, and I always feel off-kilter until I’ve settled into a new one. I like the zen, repetitive tasks. Not all the time, but I’m often calmest and happiest when I’m carrying momentum through my day from a simple job well-done. Washing dishes. Kneading bread. Compiling budgets.

I feel like Tris and I have finally settled back into a working rhythm. We’re carrying through from a full warmup on to quality work, raising the bar each time. We work a little longer, a little harder, and there are small quality improvements even in our base work. He’s getting a titch more forward, I’m coordinating my half-halts slightly better. Even with my job expanding through all areas of my life (3 hours of work on a Sunday night, yay) I’m finally able to capitalize on the proximity of the barn and spend long chunks of time with him each day.
One problem I haven’t entirely solved yet, and it’s really been an ongoing problem with us from day 1. When do I push him through and when do I back off? I am always keenly aware that he is not a horse who thrives on work; he’s not a Thoroughbred who will pace the stalls unless he is ridden hard each day. Nor does he especially enjoy the challenge of dressage. I feel like I start with a shallower reserve of good will and cooperation than many other riders. And that’s okay! I adore him, we work together, and he is so many other wonderful things.
However. After I’ve strung together three, four, five intensive rides in a row I start to worry about diminishing returns. I skip a day, or I go out and just hack him for 20 minutes. Or in the middle of a ride I feel like he’s done well, and I don’t want to burn him out, so I cut it shorter than I’d planned. Then I spend the next day castigating myself – how can I expect to get anywhere if I slack off like that? Couldn’t I just plan better, or ride better so I don’t frustrate him so much, and how will I ever measure up to what I want and hope for if we keep crawling along at this snail’s pace?
I’m a high drive person, but I don’t have a high drive horse. Besides and beyond that, horses are not like video games, which you can play endlessly and repetitively until you’ve mastered a skill. They’re not books, which are happiest and best when you bury yourselves in them for unmoving hours. 
Somewhere in here there’s a balance. There’s a combination of intensive work, hacking for fitness and strength, and plain old recovery time, physical and mental, that will give us the gestalt we need. I just wish I could find it instead of feeling I’m constantly playing pinball with it.
farrier · stupid human tricks

Best Laid Plans

Amanda2 Comments

After a weekend out of state visiting family, I had a routine medical procedure Monday morning. It was supposed to take 5 minutes and leave me in mild discomfort; it took 35, was excruciatingly painful, and my body crashed pretty hard afterwards to the point that my doctor drove me home herself on her lunch break. (<3 Vermont)

So I did not ride on Monday. I did not move from the couch until late Monday night. I woke up Tuesday morning feeling waaaaay better, though I slowed down through the day, and planned on a road hack. I got to the barn to find out Tristan had attempted vivisection of his left hind hoof, as seen below.

Luckily the farrier was there and finishing up with another horse and said he’d look at Tris next. Score. While waiting, I watched a lesson and seeing another rider sit the trot made me queasy – no riding for me after all. Farrier cleaned up the foot and declared it ugly but not worrisome. He’s mixing up gunk for me to apply until it grows out just to be careful but it already looks way better.

Today I am feeling well enough to for sure go for a hack…and it is pouring. We’ll see if it keeps up until I get off from work, but seriously, universe, I would like to ride my horse.
adventures with the vet · stupid human tricks

Sulking and other childish things

Amanda2 Comments

Not my best week ever. Oh, lots got done – nothing bad happened – but I’ve been off-kilter all week. NQR, as we would say about a horse.

Monday, I worked in the trainer’s barn (two barns on the property, part of the same farm, one big year-round where Tris lives and one smaller summer barn where trainer bases the fancy horses, different barn managers and staff b/c they are technically separate businesses – it’s actually much simpler than it seems). I did about 3.5 hours of turnout, mucking, watering, sweeping, etc. Not everyone crosses over between the barns and I was frankly flattered to be asked as handling a barn full of Grand Prix horses is not something everyone gets to do!

Then I dashed out to deposit a check (I still have moving hangover in re my banks, it’s been an ongoing frustration) and got back to the barn in time to hop on Tris for 45 minutes before his massage. Massage went well, identified a few tight/hot spots and got some stretches/exercises to shore up his abs in particular. I described the weird LH wonkiness of last week to J., his masseuse, and she found some spots of tension in his left lower back and then found what can only be described as a divot, about the size of the tip of my pinkie, over his left SI joint. Like he’d gotten bit and had a chunk taken out of him only totally healed over, etc. She was worried that he’d pulled apart some scar tissue or done some other internal damage, though he was 100% unreactive to lots and lots of pressure and is 100% sound.

Cue worrying, and I hung around the barn for another two hours waiting for the vet who was due that afternoon to look at a few other horses. She felt all over and had me jog him and declared him 100%, but didn’t have a good explanation for the divot. She suggested maybe we’d just missed it before and it looked ominous in the context of the LH problem, or that it had shifted slightly, but either way – no sensitivity, no soreness, no nothing. Keep on keeping on.

I spent about 9 hours total at the barn, and that was the last time I’ve been to the barn since. I worked two 12+ hour days in a row for our Independence day stuff at work (open long hours, playing historic children’s games, and marching in a parade) and then on July 4 we opted not to drive 4.5 hours to my family in Maine to celebrate with them but instead stayed in Vermont and slept in.

The day kept winding on and I did some productive things (scrubbed a toilet, baked a loaf of bread, tidied up a bit) but mostly I lay about and felt blah. It has been unbelievably, insanely wet and hot and humid here these last few weeks and it has finally cascaded to me not wanting to move, on top of my long work week. No easing on the horizon for work, either, if anything more stress, and I never made it to the barn. I got fussy and cranky and succumbed to the useless/lazy feelings that have been dogging me all week and are out in force today. I’m furious at myself for sitting around on a day off and not riding, and setting his rehab schedule back, and generally not getting anything done around the house. Big ol’ case of impostor syndrome all over the place.

Anyway. Back in the saddle tonight, and maybe I’ll chase away some of the blues.