10 Days In, Now Two Weeks Off

I am amazed. TJ is the kind of horse that only comes around once in a life time. We have been working under saddle for 10 days- well, more like 7 days of actual ride time (I gave him two days off during the week and then went home for memorial day weekend).

We have accomplished:

• Being amazing at the mounting block, and not walking off until asked.
• all hoofies are controlled by me on and off the horse.
• our walk quality is amazing and 90% self-collected
• We kick ass at w/t serpentines.
• Circles are less wonky- maybe 15% of our circles are proper 20Ms, 30% are ovals, the other 50% are just… roundish squares. We’re working on it. 😛
• SIDE-PASSES! Yes…you read that right! In two sessions TJ can sidepass with a forward thinking brain at a walk.
• Leg yielding! Because of our work with side-passes, leg yielding is “easy” and falling in place wonderfully at the walk and trot. He is far to green and butt-weak too attempt at canter. I wager once he has his canter figured out and strength it will be an easy modification done in one session.
• No more balance bucking! Our canter departs on lunge and under saddle are buck-less. I am so happy! I can ride out bucks just fine, but I would rather not. TJ threw one buck on Friday out of being pissy, complete with slashy tail. He was just mad I made his stand up around a corner. He’ll get over it.
• Transition quality, over all our transitions are prompt and balanced… the dreaded canter is still a little ran into, but with strength we will be more reasonable.
• Half halts… some days we got ’em on point, other days TJ thinks half halts are imaginary figments of an addled brain pretending to be functional.
• We rode outside! Twice. TJ was a super star. After our workout I walked him around the farm and driveway… during feed time! I just had to keep a slightly looped rein and relaxed seat. TJ will make a lovely trail horse in addition to his training program. I felt quite safe on my green bean.

Those are our main accomplishments as of late. I have noticed TJ is back sore after 3 days of work in a row. I liniment his back, stifles, hocks, hip bones and hip points liberally after every ride. He also gets 2 30c Arnica Montana after every other ride to help with pain. TJ just doesn’t have the cushion of back muscles to absorb my impact in the saddle. I try my best to manage my weight distribution and hold myself to avoid slamming into his spine. He also lacks the hind motor to power underneath himself.

Hopefully the next two weeks (I will be at a residential staff training for the Summer Camp I work for) will be filled with him just getting fat. His tummy has rounded up nicely from my barn’s 24/7 round bale and 5 LBS complete grain daily. I am hoping that 2 weeks of sitting a mowing down on spring grass/hay/grain will do him good and coat those ribs of his. I feel terrible every time a new person meets TJ, I feel obligated to say “I didn’t do this! I’m trying to get him fat, I swear!” Depending on his condition when I come back June 5th, I will either up his grain poundage or incorporate beat pulp. My Barn Owner has a 50 LBS bag of beat pulp that her show mare doesn’t like, might as well use that up!

Over all, I am so proud of TJ. I will be interested in seeing if TJ retains his skills after his vacation. I certainly hope so! I have a schooling show I am anxious to attend with TJ; even if it is just for exposure to the atmosphere. 🙂

Dentist and Gatsby

Over the weekend, TJ got an intensive education on ground tying, more haunch yielding and lateral flexion. I am not riding and haven’t for quite sometime because his feet are too bad and honestly I am trying to keep his exertion to a minimum. There is a seemingly huge shortage in farriers in my area and it has been a real b*tch to schedule an appointment before the end of June. Thank god the stars aligned and TJ is scheduled to move to my boarding barn on Wednesday, and our barn’s farrier worked it out to come on Thursday. I will be writing up a full farrier post later this week with pics!

But as I said, TJ and I have been bonding, grooming, and working on more stationary skills. Good news! He is now yielding his haunches to me consistently on the ground, backing readily (although not as prompt as I would like), and picking up all hooves! The back hooves were our tricky ones, but now he is perfect about them! It’s the front ones that are being troublesome. He does a stupid walk step thing when I pick up his foot… don’t worry soon we will knock that habit out!

Today, the equine dentist came out on a pseudo emergency  call- I swear there are almost ZERO equine care professionals. Last week I FINALLY tracked a reliable dentist down. I am adamantly against using vets as dentists for my own personal reasons. I was not disappointed! B was a fantastic individual to work with and I will definitely make a note to use her again! She felt TJ’s face and jaw musculature  thoroughly, watched his mastication as he ate grain, and got to work on teeth floating. All the while, B explained to me what she was doing and how TJ’s teeth will change after the service. She told me his 6s- the very front molar set- will always overhang slightly because of his jaw conformation. She said she did not want to file them down because it would change the alignment of his jaw and would need to be almost all the way to his gum. I said if it doesn’t cause him pain, do what you deem good for him.

We found a lump under his tongue that looked like a calcified puncture wound or a scarified hematoma- I should have gotten a pic while he was knocked out. But I didn’t. B said that this scarification won’t affect his eating or performance. If it does cause problems I can get it surgically removed. Of course I think cancer… but I will keep an eye on it over the next month to see if it enlarges or changes pigment.

After rinsing TJ’s mouth, B and I had an excellent conversation about equine dentistry and Arabs. I am very grateful for having found her, and was more than pleased with her work and interaction with TJ and myself.

After she left, I guided doped up TJ to the arena side where a lovely gentle cross breeze would hit him. He was very sweaty from the sedative. I gave him a long brushing, braided his tail, and read to him for 45 minutes. We read The Great Gatsby  by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Even when I was certain the sedative had worn off, TJ stood calmly. He only began to fidget when I stopped reading for whatever reason. It was a nice feeling to glance up and see TJ watching me intently. It made me feel that in his world, I am important.

Hey, I Just Met You

I knew him exactly two days and I decided that was good enough for me. I asked for a lease to buy contract that afternoon. He was named PJ- PJ Dually. His sale ad on the Facebook horse network was brief.

I didn’t care that he was an Arab, a grey, 16 hands or 6 years old. It was ironic that I picked him. I generally didn’t like Arabians. Greys were hard to keep clean. 16 hands was a little too tall for my 5’3-with-boots-on stature. And 6 was just leaving baby brain. What I saw long solid legs, good conformation angles and intelligent eyes. I saw an opportunity.

It was clear that my tried and true mount of 11 years- Apache- was ready for retirement brought on by ligament issues from a horse kick. I was finally in a position to get back into horses after 4 semi-horseless college years. I had nothing to lose. After near constant communication with PJ’s owner for 5 days I went out to see this scraggly leggy arab with clear black eyes.

He knew more than I thought. He was willing to work and had plenty of talent. He had qualities that I admired, but most of all: he wanted a job. Our first encounter was a grooming session, some respecting space excersizes, light lounging so I could gauge his gaits, and a test ride. PJ was honest in telling me what he thought. I got a buck out of him (it was the most baby of bucks ever) when I asked him pick up his off side lead. I got head flips when I blocked him from falling into the center of the arena. After these discussions, he took my word that I don’t put up with tantrums. Here is a clip from the end of our test ride:

I liked him. His personality, and his ability to shift from sassy to submissive as soon as a put my foot down. He wanted a leader and job, I just needed to prove to him he could trust me and the consistency of my standards.

I visited the Arab the following two days, addressing various issues and concepts. I wanted to test him, and myself. I wanted to see if we could forage a plausible connection in a few days- we needed to be able to communicate. I would ask him to do a variety of exercises (mounted and in hand). His response was the same:
Nah, I don’t want to.
Yes you do, Arab.
NO I DO NOT.
Sorry, non-negotiable. Do it now.
Okay, okay!
Excellent! Good job trying.
You sure? All I had to do was try? Oh… that’s not hard!

But I guess that’s how the horse has always been, and I am fine with working with that. Over time he will respect me and simultaneously trust my judgement and he will try. If I play my cards right, this gelding will try his heart out for me; because he truly wants to. He has the innate willingness to be a faithful partner.

With that I rechristianed him Taj Al-Jshabar– Crown of Bravery. Or just simply, TJ.