Revenge of the *&@#(%@# scorpions

Y'all, I hate scorpions. HATE THEM. And we have a lot of them here.

I have the worst record with scorpions. I think I've been stung about 7-8 times. Fortunately, I'm not allergic to them, and every time I get stung it hurts a little less. Maybe I'm becoming immune? I haven't been stung yet this year, so I consider that a victory of sorts.

Then, the other morning, I pulled on a shirt to go feed the boys. It was one of hubby's shirts - a big, baggy t-shirt that had been laying on the floor overnight. I walked into the kitchen, and kiddo #1 said, "There's a scorpion on your sleeve!" Hubby was right behind me and grabbed a magazine to swat it, but it managed to escape up INTO my shirt sleeve in the meantime. Hubby swatted at it a few times (not knowing where it was, just took random aim at my arm) but he couldn't see it. I pulled off my shirt and found the scorpion stunned on the floor, where hubby finished it off.

Unfortunately, the little summabeotch managed to sting me about 8-10 times before we got it off me.

Bastard. At least he's dead.

I may have to burn the house down now. Perhaps that would get rid of them all.

Awesome Haffie is Awesome!

Paddy's been doing super amazingly well with the addition of corners and big circles to his workout routine. He's 110% and hasn't taken an off step yet, so I breathe a little easier every time we have a sound, successful ride. Fingers crossed that things continue!

Haffie is not impressed about being 110%.

The first few rides, we just did laps around the arena at a walk and trot. I counted carefully - two laps walk, two laps trot, change direction, lather, rinse, and repeat. Y'all, rehab is SO BORING. Ohhh how I wanted to do a circle. Maybe a teeny lateral. Shoulder fore, even! ANYTHING. But all of that was strictly off limits. Besides, I had my hands full with getting Mr. Haffington to do something between mach-one-Haffie trot and Western Pleasure Haffie trot. Seriously, the boy has no rhythm whatsoever. And also, he'd like his rider to hold him up, please. So much easier that way!

So we have been working on rhythm. Lots of sitting trot for me (with posting mixed in so I don't get stiff), lots of half-halts, transitions, and reminding myself to let go of the left rein, dammit. Paddy is very sneaky about changing rhythm too - you'll be going along nice and light, and then one step later you realize he's tucked his nose an inch in toward his chest, and you're being run away with at the trot. HOW does he DO that?!?! Big half-halt with seat and hand (and LET GO DAMMIT), then leg and back to the nice rhythm. Wait till he tries it again, only this time try to catch him before he actually succeeds.

Sneaky Haffie, I tell you.

This is a sneaky Haffie. Really. Even his EARZ look sneaky.

Now, after almost two weeks, I feel like we're getting somewhere. I've added 20+ meter circles in, and I've been asking for more push forward without rushing. The last two rides have just been beautiful - I feel like he's really coming over his back for 5-6 steps at a time, like he's finally relaxing and moving more fluidly. I'm also trying to be very cognizant of my body position and relaxing, and damn if he doesn't move better when I ride better. Strangest thing ever, I tell ya.

I wish I had pics or video of how he's going right now, but I apparently am the only person who rides after work or in the early morning. Lauren's schedule and mine haven't coincided this week, so no pictures to be had. Hopefully in the next week I'll be able to get some - I'd really like to see how he's going from the ground.

You will have to make do with this silhouette of us. His butt's not that big in real life, I swear.

Tomorrow, I'm going to call the vet and ask if maybe we can canter. Maybe please?

I got to ride SimonPants again!

Lauren and I are taking advantage of both being at the same barn and getting some extra ride time in. She’s riding Paddykins for me when I can’t get out and she has time, and I got to ride Simon for her last night. Let me just say it’s so AWESOME to ride an actual trained horse! I mean, I love Paddy, but Simon has all these buttons and this lovely, steady way of going and he’s just so much fun to ride!

Simon-selfie

If you’ve been following Lauren’s blog, you’ll know she’s worried about Simon’s mysterious hind-end weirdness, where he takes an off step every now and again. We’ve talked about it a lot, and she asked me to tell her what I felt when I sat on him.

First, and most importantly, Simon doesn’t seem to be in any pain. He was super happy to get out and work, very cooperative and tried really hard for me. I swear I’m going to turn him into a dressage pony!

One thing I noticed right off the bat was that my right hip was being moved around a lot more than my left, even at the walk. This is consistent with the vet’s report that he picks his right hip up higher than the left. You can actually see this if you watch the top of Simon’s butt as he moves away from you. Simon’s right hock is the one that’s in the process of fusing, so it’s possible that he’s trying to compensate for the lack of range of motion in the hock with more motion in his hip. Kind of like if your knee didn’t bend, you’d have to pick your leg up from your hip.

Simon is quite stiff laterally, meaning that he doesn’t bend much in his body or neck - especially to the left. Horses are generally more stiff on the side opposite from the side they won’t bend, and this makes sense if Simon is compensating more with the right side of his body and is therefore less flexible on that side. However, when I insisted that he bend, he tried really hard and gave me some super nice soft moments – what a good boy!

I pushed him a little to see what might help him (or make him worse), asking for a little shoulder fore, some leg yield (without losing the shoulders, thank-you-very-much!), and some spiral-in-spiral-out on the circle. I asked for a lot of forward and a lot of inside leg action, even just on the straightaways and in the corners. In our first trot circle, on a long-ish rein with no forward, he mis-stepped behind three times. However, the more I asked for, the less of a problem he had – he only mis-stepped five more times in my entire ride, and always in places where the footing was a bit deep/churned up. It was always the right hind that took the funny step, and it happened mostly tracking right. It was also very, very subtle – more like a “whoops, I forgot that foot!” than an actual lame step. My guess (and I’m no vet) is that he occasionally has a bit of trouble compensating for the loss of motion in the hock, which results in a very subtle funny step that’s hard to see from the ground but can be felt from the saddle. The more he’s asked to engage, the less of a problem it is.

Not yesterday - yesterday was even better! Photo shamelessly stolen from Lauren when I got to play dressage with Simon once before.

Obviously, the solution is for Lauren to start riding dressage on her lovely dressage horse. Wink-wink-nudge-nudge. ;)

Paddy goes to rehab

Two posts in one week! Gasp!

In my quick drive-by reader's digest post of what's happened in the last three months, I mentioned that Paddy is recovering from a soft tissue injury. I'm pretty sure it happened during a ride where he INSISTED he wanted to trot at mach one-Haffie for about 45 minutes... we were out in a field, of course, not in an arena, but we blasted around and the next day he was head-bobbing lame at the trot. Several hundred dollars' worth of flexions, blockings, and xrays later, and the diagnosis was a soft tissue injury in the back of the foot on his right front. Mr. Paddy-pants got a month of stall rest and small-area turnout, followed by a month of unlimited tack-walking (in straight lines, on the road), followed by a month of trotting (in straight lines, on the road), starting with 5 minutes and adding 5 more minutes each week, till we were up to 20 minutes. 

On the road again... I just can't wait to get off this damn road again....

This month, the vet wants us to start adding gentle corners and big circles - which we obviously cannot do on the road. And she recommended that we use an actual arena* with actual flat footing, instead of our usual riding areas which do not have any improved footing.

*Yes, we plan to build an actual arena. We just don't have one yet, dammit.

I considered hauling out a few times per week and paying to use an arena, but the nearest one is a 30 minute haul and there's a $10-20 arena fee per use. Add in the cost of diesel, and it's not a cheap endeavor. So I looked at boarding. Um, when did board become $600+/mo with 3 hours of turnout/day? I should seriously charge myself more, lol! And then Lauren over at She Moved to Texas was all, "Come board where I'm at!!!" Turns out, they had an individual pasture board spot available for about half as much as most places charge for stall board! There's a decent sand arena and a nice grass arena as well, plus the place is huge and you can "trail ride" up and down the paddock rows. Lauren also offered to help ride Paddy if I can't get out there as much as I'd like (still gotta take care of the boys at home, lol). Of course, it's a H/J barn and I'm the only person there riding in a dressage saddle, but whatever. Paddy's cute and makes up for all my faults. ;)

I took him out on Wednesday, and Simon was there to greet us.

Herro BFF PADDY!!!!

I rode him right after we got there. He was a bit looky (not surprising) and very forward but happy to walk on a long rein and look around. We did a total of 8 minutes of trotting in 2 minute sets, with lots of walking in between. He was hot and sweaty after that, even though at home we're up to 20 minutes of trot - working in any kind of footing is harder than working on the road, lol! But the best part is...

HE'S SOUND!!!!! Totally sound and happy to work. HOORAYYY!

And also he's totally rockin' the tousled beach-boy look. We just need to add some water to the sandbox and he could do the blonde surfer dude thing.

I was a bit worried we might have overdone it, but Lauren rode him the next day and reported that he was 100% sound and er, very forward. That's my boy!

I'm hoping that things will continue in this vein and we'll be able to do 2-4 weeks of trot with corners and big circles, and then the vet will give us leave to canter. Fingers crossed! In the meantime, Paddy is already building his fan club at the barn, lol!

OMG! A new post!!!

Greetings Bloggy World!

Enough people have asked whether I'm still alive (I am!) that I figured I'd better get off my sorry butt and actually post to reassure everyone that everyone at Wyvern Oaks is OK. Truly, I never intended to take a three-month blogging hiatus, but it's been the strangest thing - I just haven't felt like blogging. At all. It's not that I don't have anything to say. It's not even that I don't have time. It's just that I haven't really been driven to sit down and write. For three months. Whoops.

Let's go with the reader's digest version of what's happened since I last posted:

• Cash and Red are doing great. Red continues to be put out by what he considers "boring" rides to keep others company, but Cash is happy to go on his weekly short hacks.
• Paddy is coming back from a soft tissue injury in his RF that happened about three months ago. We're up to trotting 20 minutes daily on a hard surface in straight lines, and this week we get to add big circles and smooth corners. I. Am. So. Bored. Those of you who have rehabbed s/t injuries will know my pain.
• Paddy's new custom saddle and bridle arrived and they are AWESOMESAUCE. Let me just say that having a saddle custom fitted to your pelvis and leg, not to mention your horse's back and girth spot, is the best thing ever. I have never felt so solid and secure, and NOT been fighting my tack. So nice!
• I pimped out some fly bonnets for Connor over at Cob Jockey and Ramone over at Viva Carlos. Bling EVERYWHERE!!!
• Hubby and I went to Australia for a jousting tournament, and while I was there, I got to meet Alicia and Romany over at The Young Horse Experience. She took us on an amazing trail ride through the Australian bush, and let me just say that Rommey is the CUTEST THING EVAR. Also, he's very large when you're used to a Haffie. ;)

As for blogging... I think I'm back! I've missed you guys!

Consider this a drive-by post. More details to come...