Nothin’ Much Goin’ On Lately

After the Descanso ride, Hoss and I have taken a little break from competing. Hoss went to the trainer for a month for polishing work, and DC went with him to be started.

After a couple of weeks, DC started showing signs of, not lameness exactly, but certainly being off. We suspected she had strained something in her leg, so I brought her home to rest and recover. After a couple of days, I started taking her for the morning walk again. She had been very unhappy to be left behind and wasn't thrilled about living alone either, so I took pity on her. After a couple of morning walks and doing our exercises given by the trainer, I contemplated her feet.

It had only been a couple of weeks since I had trimmed her, and I was very unhappy with how her feet looked. I thought about it for a while, and decided to go ahead and shoe her. Due very likely to a certain degree of neglect when she was quite young, and not getting the exercise she needed, her feet simply do not match. She has either a mild club foot, or what is known as a negative palmar angle on the other foot (essentially, the bone inside the foot is pointing up at the toe rather than slightly down; the only way I can know for sure is through radiographs, so at the moment I am content to simply see if I can fix this through external observation and correction). Her hind feet are a bit of a wreck, too, with one foot wearing off significantly on the outside, making it impossible to get level through trimming alone, and the foot was quite short, making me suspect it to be sore.

Having made these observations, I made the decision to nail shoes on her. She was very well-behaved about the entire process, standing quietly beside me with her lead rope tucked in my back pocket while I went around her trimming feet and fitting up shoes. She was great about getting the shoes burned on, though I didn't do a full burn like I'd do on a horse that's been getting it done for a while. Turning the forge on caused her a little alarm which she let go of easily enough. I expect her feet to improve with time, shoeing, and work. My observation over the course of my career is, when a horse is working correctly, its feet will improve vastly over a few shoeings.

I gave DC a day off from exercises, although took her on the morning walk. The next day I put her back to what we laughingly call "work." I noticed immediately she looked sound and much more confident than she had before the shoes. So I started doing a little more with her each day. I set up a saddle for her and started taking her on the walk with a saddle on. She loved it. I started working with her on being mounted and in not many days, I was sitting astride. Within a few days of that, she took a few steps. Now we're riding up and down the driveway. She would really like to go further, but I'm riding her in just her rope halter and reins, so I'm not terribly confident about taking her off-property quite yet.

DC will be heading back to the trainer for her last two weeks of starting work. Once that is done, she'll come home for conditioning and continued schooling to the level I am capable of. I am hoping to take her to Death Valley to do the limited distance rides, if not every day, then at least a couple of days. I'm confident she can fit up enough to do four slow LDs between now and the end of December.

Beth (my trainer, as previously mentioned) was concerned about Hoss's topline and the fact he really hasn't been interested in cantering. He'd trot everywhere, but cantering did not interest him. I squared off his hind feet some time ago to partially address the topline issue. He was over-using his loins and not using his butt to propel him forward. By squaring off his hind toes, I forced him to stop using his loins and start using his butt more. Still, I am not a trainer, nor am I a particularly accomplished rider, 100 mile finish aside. He needed time under Beth to get him properly collected and improve his appearance.

It took some doing, Hoss being the extra-stubborn Mustang he is, but Beth got him to come around. In just thirty days, his topline improved to the point he looks much more normal. His way of going is far better. Watching him free-lunge, his gait is much more relaxed and free-flowing. He used to look sort of like he was pistoning his legs around. Beth describes it as not using his body. He's also much more eager to canter.

Now that Hoss is home, we are working on the cantering thing. Right now our homework is to canter. A bunch. As much as possible. It's killing me. I am quite fit for trotting, but cantering? Not so much. Still I get him out nearly every day and we ride up to a section of wide, flat trail and canter back and forth. Most days I bring him home in a full body sweat. It's hot here, even in the evenings, and we keep going for 20 to 30 minutes each time. Hoss seems to be enjoying it for the most part. He especially likes it if I let him hand gallop up the small hill at the far end of the trail. He has his moments. He's pretty good while we're headed away from home, but as soon as we turn around, he wants to "Nazi" canter, meaning a rough, runaway sort of cantering. So we go back and forth a whole lot until he finally decides he'd better canter properly or we might be out there all night. Of course, there's always me to blame for not getting it right. And we are taking our weekly lesson.

A couple of days ago, I took Hoss out for our canter workout and while we were doing our back and forth cantering, he stopped responding appropriately to the bit. I was quite puzzled. I noticed a metal-on-metal sound. Upon investigation I discovered the curb chain on the bit had broken. Well. No wonder his response was off. Can't respond properly if the bit isn't working properly. So I cut our workout short and rode him home.

Our next planned ride is August 18, the Eastern High Sierra Classic. This is sort of a no-brainer. Having already completed all four days of 50s at Death Valley and the 100 at Twenty Mule Team, we are just this one ride away from being awarded the Fire Mountain Horse of Excellence award. Not going would be a bit of 99 yards and drown*.

Since this is a pretty significant ride, of course problems have arisen. Because we haven't competed for two months, and I haven't been going in to church three times a week, we should have been able to sock away some money and get all squared away. This was not to be.

My husband was recruited by a new company, making significantly more money than his previous employer. Part of the process was a required physical exam. Okay, fine. This I am not worried about. He's been passing physicals for this industry for five years. Then I get a call. He's flying back home, 24 hours after having left. The physical had included an EKG, which the computer interpreted as showing a cardiac infarction. Until he could get an echocardiogram and a stress test, the application process for the new job was stalled out.

Hubby had already been home and not working for three weeks, which is normal. Not normal is not going back to work at the end of those three weeks. He came home and started hitting up his doctors at the VA to get the wheels set in motion. Of course this took for-stinking-ever. Eventually all was taken care of. Not only was the echocardiogram completely normal, the stress test was beyond easy for him. He was finally able to fly back out to retake the physical, which he passed, and start the new job.

The fallout from all this has been a financial squeeze. I don't yet know when hubby will get his first paycheck, but I hope it's soon. We cannot survive on my income alone, let alone can I get to an endurance ride. So, keep your collective fingers crossed for us. I really do want Hoss to get that Horse of Excellence award!

*In middle school, the band director told this story/joke when someone came close to accomplishing something, then blew it at the end:
You take a boat and row out 100 yards. At this point the boat sinks. You start swimming back. You swim 99 yards and drown.