After 48 hours of bute and two applications of liniment, Tristan’s weird stomach swelling is down significantly. Not gone yet – at least not when I checked right before I left for Maine – but way better. Whew.
My horse is so inexpressibly weird sometimes, you guys.
The farrier was out last week, and Tristan has his winter snow shoes on.
By way of an illustration of how wet & heavy our snow has been this week. Taken on Friday afternoon, and it’s still snowing.
My record for riding in December has been pretty abysmal, so I was pleased to get out for another ride last night. Bareback again, with a wool quarter sheet underneath. We’re still on the loosening/fitness plan, if only because I can’t string together enough rides to work harder on that.
So: 15 minutes walk, 5 minutes trot, 10 minutes walk, 5 minutes trot, 10 minutes walk last night. All bareback. I felt pretty good about most of it; he had a couple of zoomy moments but nothing he didn’t half-halt out of. He relaxed pretty good over his topline about 2/3 of the way through, and though I never got really true long & low work out of him I feel good about what we did.
Unusually for my barn during the winter, last night there were four of us working in the ring! One adult on a lovely tall hunter, and two kids on ponies going zooooooom. Since the trainer takes ~20 horses south for the winter, we’re usually less than half full during the winter, and it’s the quietest time of the year by far. Not this winter! The adult on the hunter is a local trainer who has brought about six of her clients and horses to the barn for the winter.
She was VERY nice and her horse was just lovely, verrrrrrry hunter type-y (a lot of you guys would’ve loved her). The kids were nice and pretty darn good at ring etiquette, but wow, did I fall out of the habit of riding with other people! Especially since there were jumps set up and it’s not a huge indoor to begin with. Eep.
We made it through just fine, though, and my schedule is starting to open up, so here’s to more bareback December rides!
On the one hand, things are going well: Tris is healthy, happy, fat, and well-cared for as we head into the winter.
On the other: I’ve hit a bit of a slump. December has been a disaster for riding so far, as was the last half of November. I string together two or three days of riding and then I have to go out of town. Or, like today: I took the day off to get to a series of appointments. Two of the three were canceled due to our impending snowstorm.
Great! I thought. I’ll re-route my afternoon and after the first of the appointments, stop by for a few quick errands that need to get done, and then head to the barn. Except, fiance to my car to work today because of said snowstorm; it is 4WD, and bigger and more solid, and I feel better having him drive it when he’s got a long commute on Vermont’s poorly plowed roads.
The storm hit with a vengeance by 1pm – it really seemed to go from overcast to whiteout very quickly. I worked my way through my short errands on the city and main streets, and within an hour even those streets were ugly and slippery in fiance’s smaller, lighter Prius, even with the snow tires on.
So I headed home, and I’ve been puttering away on the kind of necessary household tasks that have been piling up these last few weeks.
I can’t help but feel that if I’d really wanted to get to the barn, I would’ve. Some of that drive and fire that pushed me a few years ago is gone. I’m not sure if I’m overall tired and stressed from work and life, if the work Tristan is doing right now is not lighting a spark, or if I’m just in a temporary lull.
I’ve been reading a lot of blog posts recently by people suffering the same thing. I think in horses we work so hard – and read so often about others working so hard – that it’s a tough thing to admit, and to cope with. When do you need to slow down, when do you need to take a break entirely, and when do you need to get the hell over yourself and push through no matter what? I don’t have answers for myself, unfortunately.
Why is it that as soon as you put yourself on a no-spending budget, you find things to covet?
It is snowing sideways in whiteout conditions outside, and I can’t stop sighing over these boots for barn chores.
These all sound amazing, and I’ve put them on my calendar. I’ll do as many as I can – we’ll see!
December 11, 2014: Bits and Bridling
Bring your bits or other headgear and share stories of what worked when (and what didn’t!). We will discuss the families and actions of different bits/bridles and how they work.
January 8, 2015: Yoga for Equestrians
Get ready to have some fun and learn some great exercises to improve your riding.
February 12, 2015: Trucks and Trailers
What do you drive, what do you haul, and why? Learn about the importance of trailer safety, tips for truck/triler driving, and maintenance. New technologies and innovations.
March 12, 2015: Horse Agility and Groundwork
Simple and fun things you can do with your horse that will help to prepare you both for riding season, improve your bond, and your horse’s manners.
Do you have a favorite pair of winter breeches?
After a black hole in the middle of last week due to work and life commitments, I got (literally) back on the horse over the weekend for some more work.
Mostly we did some basic, easy conditioning style rides. Long marching walk warmups with trot intervals, focusing on keeping him loose and stretching through his neck and over his back. 5 minutes of trot, 5 minutes of walk. Repeat. Working on my own equitation: stay loose and soft and deep in my leg, not the jerky bouncing about of my ankles that I fall into so easily.
It’s been cold here: highs in the 30s, lows in the 20s overnight. We’re on the slow downward spiral to winter. More snow at the barn over the weekend, but none of it stuck for long. Fiance went skiing yesterday, so he’s happy as a clam. Me, I mostly want to drink endless pots of tea while under a blanket. Tristan is wearing his midweight most of the time now and happy as a clam.
I’ve been using a slightly different quarter sheet, and I really like it so far. It’s all wool, and the kind that goes underneath the saddle as well. So there’s wool + saddle pad + sheepskin half pad under the saddle. When I take the saddle off, his back is definitely quite warm. He’s been more willing to stretch out, and earlier. I feel like I’m finally understanding what people mean when they talk about cold-backed and warming the back up.
It’s not that I didn’t understand the need for a warmup: I am obsessive about long walk warmups. But the actual physicality of a warm-to-the-touch back is something new for me. Until now, I would definitely not have characterized Tristan as cold-backed, but I may need to revisit that slightly.
Today: massage and more conditioning, tomorrow possibly some longeing, Wednesday off.
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