Anhidrosis

The weather last week was insane! It was consistently between 105 and 110 degrees every day! Needless to say, I didn't get much riding in! I was camp counseling all week so my schedule wasn't very permissive anyway. I lunged Gambler for about 20 minutes on Wednesday, but that was all the work he got that week; we were both drenched in sweat by the end. I hosed him off every day, but didn't ride because of the heat. 

Friday, however, I was hopeful! I went out to the barn around 6pm fully intending to ride. When I caught Gambler, I noticed something was wrong. He was breathing very heavily and deeply. I of course freaked out, my mind going to worse case scenario. It took my two hours to cool him down. Hose, sweatscrape, repeat. 

The purpose of this post is just to say, please please PLEASE be mindful of the heat and how your horse is taking it. Don't ride if your horse is hot and always cool them down correctly after a ride.

A lot of people make the mistake of just hosing, and then turning out. Please hose your horse off until the water coming off them is not hot. And sweat scrape. For the love! "Researchers showed that cool to cold water poured or sprayed over a horse's skin wets the horse, and the very thin layer of water actually contacting the horse's skin is super heated quickly to the horse's body temperature. The rest of the water being sponged or dumped or sprayed on the horse merely sheets over that initial one- to two-cell water layer on the horse. The initial water actually acts like a raincoat and does not allow other water molecules to contact and cool the skin, so the horse can in fact become hotter even while being cooled off." (VeterinaryNews.com)

Also, I think Gambler has anhidrotic tendencies. Agh! He wasn't sweating enough last week, considering how heated and distressed his was. 

Here are some things that I learned about anhidrosis and how to treat it. 

• Guinness Beer! Yes, weird. Apparently something about the hops helps; the darker the beer, the better!
• OneAC or Let 'Em Sweat are good supplements
• The biggest thing is getting the horse out of the heat! So stalled with fans is always best
• Sponging on the legs/poll and chest
• Give the horses salt or electrolytes (gatorade, holla!)
• Apple cider vinegar!

Not sweating can also be caused from a thyroid issue. However, the causes/treatments are still not conclusive. Best to check with your vet! I am happy to say Gambler has now started sweating normally and is not breathing heavily - must've been our nasty heatwave!

John Wayne and Lucky Luke

Luke :) 

We got two new horses in today! They were not what I was expecting at all... When Heather texted me this morning asking me to come out and ride two new horses, I was expecting a new dressage prospect. Nopety-nope-nope.

Two polo ponies! That we are going to teach to jump! :)

Heather and her sister had gone to a polo school in Upperville this morning to ride lots of horses (they have over 90!!) to decide which ones were best, and these two were their top picks. Lucky Luke and John Wayne!

Luke meeting Gambler :) Love this picture! 

They are currently in the upper field, to get to know the herd over the fence. We also don't have stalls available for them yet! So they will probably just hang out up there for a while. John Wayne is very hard to catch! It will be interesting catching him when he is in the big field!

They are both Chestnuts. Lucky is 15 hands and John is 15.2, and a lot stockier. Heather got them because there is a leaser who is thinking about getting a horse for her family.

Well, I got to ride both of them! It was so much fun. They are both still a little confused about direct reining, but were both so good.

I love polo horses. They are so unflappable. They have a pretty rough life as polo horses, so I think they will be so happy to have a fun, relaxing life here! They were both super well behaved on the ground.

They also had no idea what treats were! Or a bucket of grain that we were shaking to try to catch them! They will love their new pampered life!

JW on the left, LL on the right 

So, what we did in our ride was pretty simple. We started off just walking around the ring and I kept encouraging both of them to stretch down, as they naturally carry their necks pretty high and are tense. John was really good about this! Then, we did lots of trot work, mainly on a smaller circle. They were both great about this. I was able to canter Luke on the small circle as well, but with John I cantered him around the whole ring. They both have never been ridden in rings before! So going in a circle was kind of confusing to both of them! But they both picked it up very well.

Then, we moved on to trotting some poles, and building up to a little jump! Lucky was not into actually jumping the jump! Which was kind of funny. He did jump it once. John was a different story, he loved it! We had to get the jump bigger until he actually started jumping it, but he was so good! Oh man, I am so excited for the next few months! We are just keeping John, because Heather's sister found out that Lucky has an old injury. Perhaps when he goes back, we'll pick up another one.

Enjoying their new life already! :) 

In any case, it is going to be so much fun! I am so glad that I get to start getting back into jumping!

Calves... Burning...

So. I had a lesson with my friend Madi today. I will probably talk about her a lot on this blog. She's honestly one of my best friends. She has helped Gambler and I through so much, and has stood by us through thick and thin. She rides Gambler for me on Saturdays, which is such a blessing and a help. Gambler really loves her, even though she makes him work really hard! Madi - if you're reading this; I love you. You're amazing. Thank you for everything.

Today, I rode Gambler in his new Myler! He seemed to like it a lot! He needs his teeth done, I think. He hasn't had his teeth done since September, and he's been grinding his teeth a lot. Maybe I need to retreat him for ulcers. BLAH. Always something! Luckily, I am camp counseling this week so making some extra money.

Anyways. Gambler was pretty good about being tacked up. It's so much easier when there is another person to help me. He was also great about the mounting block; again, because Madi was holding him. We warmed up with our normal serpentines, figure eights, and the like. He started off so stiff. I think partially because I haven't ridden him since Tuesday; I don't know. So I worked on just having him open up, alternating leg pressure.

Oh! It was so funny, I tapped him with the crop on the butt for the first time ever... He wanted to have a meltdown, but wasn't sure how. I could tell he was thinking about rearing, but he didn't, luckily. He is such a good boy. He backed up a little, but stopped within a few seconds, and walked on afterwards. We took the crop back a few minutes later, and he was a perfect gentleman. Note: I am not some mean person who is always smacking my horse with a crop. I have started carrying the crop lately but honestly it is just a mental thing for him, even though he has never been hit with it before, he knows that when I carry a crop, I am expecting him to move forward and that I could use it as a reinforcement. No, I am not some animal abuser. I believe that if you hit/smack/discipline a horse once, and it doesn't work, from thereon out, it is "abuse". I use that term reluctantly, because obviously it's not abuse unless you're repetitively hitting your horse, but it is not necessary, nor going to get you results if it doesn't work the first or second time.

Madi also had me working on not just using my heel, and using my calves. Hard work, I tell you! My calves are going to be burning tomorrow, hence the title. But, it was so interesting to see how much quicker Gambler responded and dropped his head low, stretching out more. It was great to see. I am going to continue working on that this week. Hopefully my calves will get more toned, to boot! We finished the ride with a walk up the hill. It's very interesting, Gambler is much more apt to bend correctly and stretch out in the field. I guess he just likes it there better.

We finished the day with a nice hose down, stretches and of course hugs and pictures!

This horse makes me smile, so, so big 

Being goofy while hosing down! He's not amused by my antics

Shenanigans

I was really hoping that my first post back could be something about how stellar and wonderful my horse is, but alas. Don't get me wrong, he is definitely stellar and wonderful. He just choses not to be a lot of the time. Teenagers, sigh. That's probably what my mother thinks about me a large portion of the time, too!

Before I tacked Gambler up, I decided that we were long overdue for some loose work in the ring, so we headed down to the ring. He was SUCH A BUTT when I was opening the gate, he JAMMED his head into my chest and nearly knocked me over. Jerk. So, I backed him up like sixty feet, and then he was more than happy to give me my personal space. When in the ring, I sent him off at a trot, and it took about five minutes for us to join up, which is longer than usual. After that, I decided we'd work on the mounting block, even though he wasn't tacked up. I didn't get on him of course, seeing as I didn't have my helmet on, but I would just stand and lean on him. My new means of making him stand is that whenever he moves, I send him off at the trot for a few laps, switching directions one or two times, and then trying again. He pretty quickly decided that standing still was a much better option, so hooray for that.

Tacking up was a little less good than usual. Gambler is finally consistently standing like a normal, sane horse for being tacked up, which is fabulous and makes me want to start break dancing and singing because he used to be so, so horrible. Today, he sort of was horrible, but not really. He was just really ADD and thought that Punch was way more interesting than being tacked up. So we had a slight conversation about that. By the time that I was taking him down to the ring, Sally had started feeding, and Gambler decided that there was no way that he would walk down to the ring. Sally ended up walking behind us and tapping him on the butt every time he stopped, and he started walking very nicely, AKA wanting to trot and run me over. Oh well.

Then the real fun started. And when I say fun, I mean, the whole long process of mounting. Yay. It took us, oh, forty minutes? And I didn't even get on from the mounting block, I got on from the ground because I was 200% fed up with my horse's stupidity. I don't think I've ever been angrier at him, honestly. I hate when I get angry at him, because then I do stupid things like yanking hard on the lead rope to back him up, and smacking him. Honestly, smacking Gambler sucks. I hate it hate it hate it hate it. I feel so horrible. Anyhow, we had a good ride! By this point he was covered in sweat from trotting so much and I was really fed up, so we just did walking; approximately a million figure eights and ten meter circles. We also did Training Test 1 at a walk, because I was bored. I'm surprised I remember it, because I haven't ridden it in almost two years. :D

When I was taking Gambler up to the barn, poor Lyric had a meltdown on the cross ties and as a result, Gambler freaked out (we were right behind her and when she broke free and bolted, so did he) and kicked me in the leg. I'm icing it now, and really hoping it doesn't hurt too much for me to ride tomorrow. I'm such an equestrian.

On a side note, I get to go observe Sally's new horses PPE on Friday! I'm so excited!

...Yeah, I'm a dork.

I'm Back!

Hopefully!

I really want to make blogging a priority this summer. Mainly because I'm just obsessed with my horse (please, who isn't) and, well, talking about myself and my life on the internet is oddly endearing. I've decided this blog is going to be 100% horse related from hereon out. My goal is to blog about every ride I have. Even though I have no followers/readers, whatever! This is for me, to look back on in 10 years, and laugh about.

So yay.

Not Every Day Can Be Perfect

...Yeah, that's what I learned today. Gambler and I have been having a solid block of awesome rides, and I think I've been putting too much expectation on us both. He used to be horribly behaved, and I got used to it to the point where I went to the barn expecting nothing. Now I've gotten into the habit expecting him to be perfect and amazing, and, well, it was a real downer when he wasn't today.

Isn't he a cutie? ;) 

Anyhow, today sucked for the most part. Pretty much the highlight of my time with Gambler today was when I went out into the field, he was lying down napping! I thought he was going to get up, but he didn't! So, I sat down on the ground next to him and had some quality time with God. :) It was perfect! I love how peaceful the barn is... I feel like my connection with the Lord is so strong when I am there! Praying is one of my favorite past times. No joke, every silent moment (and even some louder moments!) I have, I spend talking to Jesus. It's super awesome.

Unfortunately, the good part of working with Gambler ended right there. I took him into the barn and groomed him, which he was okay with, but he was being just horrible when it came to ground manners. My goodness! He was being so pushy, trying to run me over, etc. He hasn't been like this in a while, so it was a real downer. Trying to tack him up was an epic fail. He wouldn't freaking stop moving. I eventually gave up after my saddle almost fell off and got stepped on.

I took him down to the ring and did some lunge work. He was such a sassy jerk going clockwise, he kept trying to just move his hindquarters and he would get really pissy when I went after him and made him actually move. I got some nice trot and canter sets out of him going counter clockwise and we worked on vocal cues.

Then, I decided to do some join up work with him. We've actually been making so much progress on that front. I haven't done free lunging with him in a while... But anyways, I could hear Jill starting to pour feed and I didn't want him to escape like last time, so I turned away... and he actually stopped and took a few steps towards me! Oh, my heart! It made me quite proud. :)

After helping with feeding, I rode Auggie in the field! It was a blast! First of all, I rode in a different saddle that actually fit me, so hooray! but anyhow, I had such a blast! I went out with Jill, and I always very much enjoy talking with her. We walked around part of the field, then did some trotting before some gallops up the hill! I've only ridden Auggie in the field once before, and it was just doing some trot and canter circles to work on bending, and that was a while ago. So, I had never actually galloped him! Oh my word... Unless you've galloped up a hill, there's really no way to explain it... But it is an amazing feeling! Auggie has a really powerful hind end, and I could just feel the strength and majesty coursing through him! It was such a blast... I am so blessed for this barn and all of the awesome rides I get as a result... So thankful. 

I work out with Dylan tomorrow, so Sarah is going to ride Gambler. Hopefully their session is much more successful than today. xD 

Opportunities!?

I'm so over this wind. Agh. Seriously. Go away!!!!! The wind was blowing in huge gusts today, so I didn't end up riding. I also managed to forget my girth and saddle pads at home after washing them last night, so I wouldn't have ridden Gambler anyway. I wanted to ride Lyric, but her sanity is limited as it is, so I wasn't sure that our ride would go very well.

Lyric... a true dork ;)

Oh! I meant to share this picture in my blog yesterday... She's such a dweeb. She literally stood with the bit in her mouth like this for a good ten minutes before letting go of it when I was untacking her. :D

Well, today was pretty boring as far as stuff at the barn goes. I gave Gambler his UlcerGuard, which he put up a huge fuss about again. He's been getting three flakes of hay with his feed since he has dropped some weight, and obviously in his mind hay > disgusting past mom has been forcing down my throat for the past three weeks. So, my horse finds it necessary to put up a major fight. Argh. UlcerGuard will be done Friday, and I think both of us will be rather relieved.

While on the topic of meds - good news! Gambler's fecal came back with extraordinarily low counts! I was pleasantly surprised and relieved... I have a toooooon of ivermectin that I bought on sale from Dover last summer, but it won't need to be used for the time being! Thank God for everything He has blessed Gambler and I with, including generally good health!

Some of the other horses aren't so lucky and are starting a heavy worming regime. Today Lyric, Riley, Sarah and Lucy were wormed. So, I helped with that, turned horses out, groomed Gambler until he shone, cleaned my tack and swept the barn.

My big piece of news though is, well, frankly just awesome. It comes with a bit of a story though, so some background; my barn owner has two horses, Petey and Duchessa. She was given Petey a number of years ago because he's an incredibly difficult horse to ride, and would rear and flip over when he didn't want to do something. Yeah. Kinda crazy. Anyhow, he's an imported Warmblood dripping talent, so of course Heather snatched him up and was doing great things with him, including Prix St George last summer. However, he wouldn't canter for some really odd reason, so she had him fully vetted down at Morven Park. Found out his suspensory's were pretty much dissolving. He's been just on field rest ever since then but every few months, she gets on him to see how he's doing. Anyhow, she is going to ride him tomorrow! Not only that... but... She said perhaps I can ride him! Assuming that Petey is sound and behaving well, she wants to see how he does with a less advanced rider, and I am her guinea pig of choice! I don't know if this will even happen, but I was so beyond honored to even be asked! Pure awesomeness... I'm so blessed.

Oh, and one last thing before I go finish reading my Bible for the evening and heading off to get some shut eye. I saw the most amazing scene this evening as I was waiting for my mom to come get me. I heard hoof beats and turned around just in time to watch the horses streak across the field! So gorgeous. They galloped all the way from the far end of the field (which is far... the field is 40 acres!) over to the fence and then ran some hot laps up and down the hill. Not only that, but Gambler was leading them! Man, that horse is FAST. It was just such an amazing, amazing view. I love watching horses run. It is so amazing, beautiful, there's just something so special. I don't know how people can look at animals like horses and not believe there's a God.

Well, that's it for now, cyberspace. I have a post about riding as a form of worship that I'm hoping to write soon, as well as a prayer request/medical post and a few others. :D