Bitting

I decided a little while ago to start looking for an alternative bit for Shah. I agree that the ‘normal’ jointed snaffle that I ride him in is not a kind bit and it has been known to not suit a lot of arabs that traditionally have small mouths and big tongues. He does a lot of head tossing and I was wondering if a new bit might help.

So, our bit journey started this week with a hired PeeWee (thank goodness you can hire bits these days, rather than having to fork out for loads of bits that might not work). It sounded good and came recommended by others so I thought why not.

But after about half an hour in the school Shah started to complain. His head tossing became worse and he was helicoptering like mad. So I got off and changed back to the snaffle. He was slightly happier but now confused. I suspect he was finding it hard with the peewee to find his sweet spot of when he gets tongue relief so started to get annoyed and just ended up head shaking badly.

This means that the bit is now returned to the box and will be on its way back to the supplier tomorrow.

Next one on the list to try: Myler. I won one on eBay today (for a great price I must say) so I decided to buy one rather than hire this time. I can always sell it again if it doesn’t work!

If that still don’t work – it’s either onto a Myler combination bit, or just stay with the snaffle and take the good with the bad!

 

Back to work

After a successful first novice endurance season I decided to let Shah rest for a little while before starting up our training for the next season.

It’s been a good decision. I’ve been able to get on with some work, and Shah has been pottering around in the field, getting more and more bored. He’s now full of beans and ready to work – just a small snag – I suspect he’s enjoying the quiet life a little too much!

We started up our training last week and after being used to go for a hack once or twice a week for the past couple of months Shah was surprised to say the least when I put his saddle on two days on the trot! His face was a picture when we got to the gate “you have to be kidding, going out for a ride today again, we only did it yesterday”, his large eyes begging to go in and have dinner instead of exercising. As the weather was dark and horrible I took him in the school for a walk/trot session and it was like riding glue! He tried every trick in the book to convince me he really can’t go any faster than a donkey walk – made me laugh out loud several times

With some more days and walks under our belt we’ll be ready to start proper training soon and I’m sure he’ll get better once he starts to get fit again. I’ve designed a training schedule for the next few months which I’m hoping we can stick to and our first goal for 2008 is a training ride just down the road from us in February. It’s only 24km and, weather pending, I’m hoping it will kick us back into endurance gear.

There are a few looming clouds on the horizon that might stop our progress, his cough is one of them, but fingers crossed we can actually start at the beginning of the season this time.

If our training schedule works I will publish it here to keep a record of what we did to get fit for our first 65km ride.

 

How horses learn

Sue Gardner is holding a series of workshops this winter in the south east. Entitled ‘How horses learn’ they last 2 hours each over one evening a week, consisting of learning theory, video footage, simulation (the horse’s perspective) case histories and live demonstrations. The course aims at taking the mystery out of the ‘why does my horse do this’ and put in the knowledge to change unwanted behaviour.

At £10 per session (£80 for the full 8 weeks) it’s excellent value for money to learn something so useful for all horse owners and lovers. You don’t have to own a horse to come along, all you need is a keen interest to learn more. The workshops will be held at three different locations throughout Sussex and at three different week evenings.

Here’s a schedule of what’s going to be covered:

Week 1  - 12 Nov: The Evolution of the horse and its relevance to training.
Week 2 –  19  Nov: How Horses Learn –  the language de-mystified
Week 3 –  26   Nov:Pressure/Release, feel & timing.  How to develop these skills.
Week 4 – 3  Dec: Practical demonstration at a student’s yard.
Week 5 – 10  Dec: Simulation – Understanding the horse’s perspective
Week 6 – 17  Dec: Clever Hans – The Importance of body language
Week 7 – 7 Jan: Common behavioural problems and how to solve them
Week 8 –  14 Jan: Practical demonstration

I think this is going to be popular, perfect horsey therapy for those of us that don’t ride as much over the winter. So hurry and book your place soon!

Email Sue to book and to find out more about the course.

 

We’ve upgraded from Novice!

I’m so proud. After completing three novice endurance rides we have now upgraded to the next level in endurance, open. This means we’ll be able to go faster and do longer distances next season. I can compete open level this season but we’ve run out of rides that we can do down here in the south and I’ve decided to not do any more competitions this year. So I’m keeping him fit up until about end of October, then let him have a couple of lazy months where I’ll just ride him a couple of times a week. We then start fittening for next season around Christmas.

We completed two of our novice rides at Firle Park a week or so ago and I was absolutely over the moon with Shah’s performance – plus not doing too badly myself if I’m allowed to say. I had, in my infinite wisdom, decided to compete on both days because one of the other rides we were going to do had been cancelled and I needed three rides for my upgrade. So, we were down to do 40km on the Sat (25 miles) and 32km on Sun (20 miles). Both rides with company I’m glad to say – it helps a lot when energy levels decrease and it’s nice not to be alone in case something should happen.

So I arrived on the Sat with a horse bouncing full of energy wanting to run. This was a different ride to our previous one, lots more hills (this is the South Downs) and harder going but as we train occasionally on the downs we weren’t faced by the thought. And Shah did well. Vetted in with heart rate 44 and our usual show trot. After starting with a large spook at one of the cross country fences he pulled and pulled for miles, really wanting a gallop early on so after a while I gave in and he had a blast up a hill. He then regretted it himself, noticing how much energy that actually took out of him – smart cookie!

Shah tired earlier this time, probably due to the big hills, and we took it at a slower pace as both horses (Sidney, 18 year old TB/Irish cross who just loves to follow Shah’s grey bottom) were quite tired towards the end. Both of us quite happy to see the finish at the end of our 4-hour ride. After sloshing, drinking and relaxing we vetted in with heart rate 46 (brilliant!!), usual show trot, slight dehydration and slight girth chafing but still good enough to complete. We got our first grade!!! Only a grade 4, but still, I was delighted. Horse in tow, nearly falling asleep in the trailer, we went home for the booked massage (for Shah that is…) and enjoyed a quiet evening relaxing and preparing for the next day.

Getting up Sunday morning I felt much better than after the last competition, in fact my muscles hardly ached at all! I’d like to put that down to better preparation, drinking lots of green tea to boost the antioxidants in the muscles, and doing lots of stretching the week before plus stretching and massaging afterwards on the first day. Shah looked strangly at me when he saw the trailer was out – again, you must be joking! But he went straight in as usual and behaved absolutely impeccably the whole day. Having 40km in your legs does wonders to the usual fizzy, impatient, arab, brain. I could even tie him up outside the trailer with his haynet without him moving about – bliss when you’re trying to get organised.

This time Shah had learned his lesson. He knew not to gallop – didn’t even ask for it. He knew to pace himself, starting slow and just keeping going steady pace. And he knew to drink much more, at checkpoints and in troughs on the way. This resulted in a nice steady going, not fast at 9.7km/h average speed, but all I wanted was to complete and we did. Vetted in the morning with heart rate 43 and came back with 44, which was even better than on the Sat. No dehydration, no chafing (using another girth) and usual nice trot. So, came home with a grade 3 on the Sun, wow, I never expected that!

I was also delighted to have won (yes, won, first time we’ve ever won anything) the award for Best Shod Horse on the Sunday!!!! Many thanks to my excellent farrier, Liam, who was delighted when I told him.

Next season and new competitions now beckon. I have learned a lot this season and should hopefully now have the knowledge of how to extend our training programme to reach the fitness needed for the next level of distances. To progress to next level, advanced, we need to complete one 65km ride and one 80km ride. Not as easy as the novice level, and we will probably need the whole season to do it – but it’s a great goal for next year. Ultimately I’d love to do a proper race ride (or endurance rides as they’re called – the terminology within endurance is very complicated for some reason), where you’re judged on who’s over the finish line first rather than heart rates etc. but you have to be advanced to do that. These are only run as rides of between 80km and 160km. The 160km (100 miles) is the ultimate ride any endurance horse can do, and it is this distance they ride in international championships. The European Championships, by the way, in endurance riding was held last Sat, 8 Sept, and the UK team came 5th, which is excellent!

In between now and next season I will be picking up on natural horsemanship again, a good opportunity to go back to some of those ground exercises…

There are some great Parelli programs on Country and Horse TV (Sky and online) if you haven’t noticed yet. Loads of great tips and advise.

 

Some pics from Ashdown Forest

Taken by Radfoto (these are the ones I bought as I like them):

Coming up the hill – Shah just noticing the photographer…

Me trying to smile for the camera while keeping it together…

All 4 hooves in the air – yipppiiiee!

With Windsor last week cancelled (due to the foot and mouth zones) we’re now on for Firle this weekend…

 

Our first ‘proper’ endurance ride

I haven’t been writing a lot here lately – sorry! We’ve been training hard to be able to start our new endurance career and i’m delighted to say that we completed our very first endurance ride this Saturday. I’m very very pleased and those who know us and know what journey we’re on will agree that this is a HUGE step forwards for us.

It was a beautiful day for it too. The sun was shining, it was just nicely hot, and the ground conditions good. The ride was in the Ashdown Forest (Winnie the Pooh country – but I didn’t see him and we didn’t have time to stop and play Poosticks) and the scenery was great. Much more hilly than I had imagined, but the heather was in full bloom everywhere and the hills offered some spectacular views. This is definitely one of the reasons for why this sport is so pleasant. You get to see the countrywide at the same time as spending time with your horse – life can hardly get better!

Our goal was to finish the 32km (that’s 20 miles if you’re a Brit) in around 3 hours, averaging about 10 km/hr. I wasn’t interested in a grade (if you want to know more about the rules, gradings etc. visit www.endurancegb.co.uk) but I just wanted to complete the ride within the time and vetting parameters. And we did. 3.16 hours, 9.8 km/hr speed, starting with a heart rate of 42, finishing on 55, which was perfectly fine for us.

Shah loved every minute of it. He was very excited, especially to start with, and he was convinced that this was a race and that he had to go full speed everywhere. This meant that the first ten minutes were interesting, well, quite scary actually as he was jumping up and down wanting to gallop. But we hooked onto a mum and daughter with nicely behaved horses and rode after them for a little while until I could confidently let him go and we then settled into a fast trot. After not so long we caught up with a lovely lady on a nice bay TB cross who we ended up riding together with for the rest of the ride. The horses went well together, it was her first ride too, and we were both happy about each other’s company, so much so that we’ve decided to ride again together for the next two rides. Shah led nearly the whole time, apart from those occasions when something scary came along and he needed to hide behind Sidney’s bottom! And Sidney knew which grey bottom to follow, at one point another horse came in between and he got most upset!

All in all a very fun experience. I’ve been told that they will settle once they’ve done a few rides and know what’s going on. I also think we need the longer distances for Shah to settle better, which means I’m aiming to fast track through novice this year and then go into open competitions next year. He was loony for about 10km, pulled for about 20km and didn’t tire until 28km, which was nearly home.

With the first ride under our belt I also now know what we need to practice:

• Fitness – he needs to get fitter so that we can bring the heart rate down, and so that we can keep a higher speed going for a longer time.
• Standing still outside the trailer – he seems to have to eat grass all the time while not riding, I might have to experiment with the feeding, plus train him to stand still while tied up outside the trailer.
• No galloping to start with – we need to be able to warm up properly and trot slowly to start with, I don’t want any injuries. Doing more rides I think will be the only way here.

We’re now looking forward to another two competitive rides this year – at least – and the goal is still just to finish within the time parameters, nothing else.

I’ve bought some lovely pictures from the ride and will post them here once I receive the soft copies.

Roll on Windsor and Firle!

 

More chiropractic work

After the first chiropractor’s visit I noticed a big difference in the way Shah was moving so I was curious as to what the chiropractor would say about our progress and how my horse would feel like to ride after the second visit.

And it’s just getting better! The chiropractor was pleased that Shah has started to build muscles in the right places and that he could make less manipulations than on previous visit. Phew!

The recommendation now was to continue our rehabilitation program, lots of hills, canters, poles and work that encourages him to use his back properly. And to take things very slowly, slowly, having lots of patience and don’t rush as that would only make things go backwards again.

I’m really pleased about the effect that the chiropractic work has had on Shah. He’s moving much more freely, I can get him to work much straighter (just needs a little encouragement to step underneath himself better with the right hind so as to not fall in over the right shoulder all the time), and to my surprise he found his backside last week! He finally realised that he has an engine in the back that he can use and I had a few steps of him working properly from behind – wow, what a feeling. It was like riding on cloud nine, there was suddenly so much spring in him that I felt like I was riding in top hat and tails at a large show somewhere, with him showing off his huge trot!

We may need another visit in a month or so, but the main problem now is mine. Changing muscle memory takes time and I’ve got to let him take that time in order to progress. I’m feeling very positive about things though and I’m pretty sure this will prove to be a turning point.

I’m now moving on to focus on his feet….but more about that another time as I’m gathering several opinions and doing lots of research myself. With the back sorted the feet should improve, I’ve also made some changes to his diet, and with the increase in exercise, all being well we should see an improvement. And if we don’t, well, then my research will have to continue. However, I’m quietly confident that I’m asking the right questions, it’s just a case of picking which answer is right for us now.

 

The equine chiropractor

Two weeks ago Shah was lame on his offside hindleg and we couldn’t see anything visible as to why he should be lame. No cuts, bruises, swollen areas, heated areas or anything that looked like he’d done something. After a day or two the lameness went and after a week I started riding again, slowly, but he wasn’t happy at all. He would walk along nicely but complained vigorously at any suggestion of a trot or canter. I knew that something wasn’t right so I went ahead and booked an equine chiropractor. We talked on the phone and agreed that it was possible that the problem was in the back.

The chiropractor came warmly recommended by several people and he’s known for doing a very good job. His name is Jose Gomez and he doesn’t have a website but if you’re interested in getting hold of him email me and I’ll reply with his email address. I can’t recommend him warmly enough. He’s a certified vet and acupuncturist as well as a chiropractor.

When he came yesterday he had a quick look at how Shah moves in walk and trot and he could spot straight away that there was a problem in the hip, on the side of the earlier lameness. The femur (thigh bone that connects to the hip) was out, probably happened when he was rolling in the field, which was causing him pain. Jose also found a whole raft of other problems, which I suspect have been there for a long time but no one else so far that has seen Shah has been able to tell me for certain about them so although it’s disheartening to hear how many things are misaligned and put out in his spine, it’s good to have finally found someone who can tell exactly what’s wrong and then also do something about it to put it right.

Here’s what was wrong with Shah:

• Femur bone was out (thigh bone), this was probably the newest problem, which is the one he was reacting against.
• Hip bone on both sides had dropped.
• Twisted sacrum.
• One neck vertebrae was out causing both shoulder scapulas to drop.
• Twisted head – probably giving him a constant head ache.
• Rock hard muscles all the way from the poll, through the neck and back because of the spine being so misaligned.

Most of these injuries and problems probably stem from when he was mistreated. Some might also stem from when he was a working stallion as they use their backs in a different way and don’t often get the after care they need. Because these problems have not been treated until now, they have slowly been getting worse.

In one way I feel really upset for poor Shah having been in pain probably most of the time. Think about what it’s like if you have a rock hard muscle or put one of your back vertebraes slightly out yourself, it hurts! That’s how he has been going for years. On the other hand I’m glad I’ve finally found someone who could tell me exactly what is wrong, and then put things right again.

Shah is now resting for a few days, turned out in his field, to get used to his ‘new’ body and I’m then introducing riding slowly again. We’ll be doing lots of long slow walks to start with so that he can get used to his body moving correctly. Then I have to do lots of pole work, hill work and canter work to re-build his back and bottom muscles in particular, as well as his belly muscles, which are needed to support the rest of the body.

I’m really hoping that this will be another big step forwards for us. It means I can’t start our endurance career as early as I would have liked but, all being well, we might try to do a non competitive ride in July as part of the rehabilitation program. And if everything is going well when Jose comes back in 2-3 weeks for a check up, we might be on track for some longer rides in August and September before the season is over.

If you ever are in doubt about your horse not feeling a hundred percent right, go with your gut feel and get someone out to have a look at them. Better safe than sorry. All horses that are in work should have their backs checked over every 6-12 months, depending on what type of work they do. That will keep them supple and happy.

 

We have wheels!

Not literally!! But I have finally invested in a horse trailer. The other week I bought a single Ifor Williams HB401 trailer (second hand) and I must say that I’m delighted with it.

As I will ever only transport one horse the single trailer does its job very well. It’s roomy and spacious for even a large horse but as Shah is only 14.3 he’s got plenty of room to stay stable while travelling. I also like that it’s light, has two windows in the front close to the horse’s head so they can see out while travelling as well as a lighter ceiling at the front to make it brighter inside the trailer. It’s got rear and front loading ramps and they are nice and light to work on your own which means we can confidently travel on our own. Shah travels well in it, he’s a good traveller anyway but seems pretty happy in it.

I also like the fact that they don’t depreciate very much. The trailer is not too old (manufactured in 1999) but in very good condition and as long as I keep it that way it shouldn’t depreciate much – something my OH in particular is very happy with!

It’s also light weight so you can tow it with a much larger range of cars than most other trailers. It only weighs 770kg and as my horse is only around 450kg we can get away with a smaller towing car. That said, as I only have a small car at the moment I have to hire a car for when we want to go out and most hire cars with tow bars are normally large estates or 4×4’s. So we now have regular conversations at home about which car to get next…

I was looking at buying a small horsebox instead of a trailer but the benefits of this trailer convinced me otherwise – and the fact that a friend of mine knows someone with a horsebox who said they were spending around £1000/year on maintenance, and that really put me off!! I know horse riding is an expensive hobby but with a £5k at least pricetag plus insurance, plus MOT, plus tax, plus upkeep, plus whatever goes wrong, that’s just too much in my book to spend on a hobby.

Good thing is that the trailer purchase enabled us to reach some more goals over the last couple of weeks. We can now strike off numbers 1 and 2 on the list below. We have done several longer hacks on our own, and although they are spooky and if I’m honest, scary at times, they at least are cementing our partnership and they are slowly giving Shah more confidence in me as the rider. And we travelled on our own to a friend’s for a nice long hack, in my trailer not in a lorry but still counts.

I’m now working on the number 4 on our goal list – we’re skipping number 3 as Shah is now well fit to go onto a proper ride – and I’ll keep you all updated as to how it goes, won’t be long now…

 

Crossroads

It seems that we have reached a crossroad. We have stopped (at least temporarily) our natural horsemanship lessons and are focusing entirely on endurance. Sue and I agreed that there’s not much more we can do with NH until I am confident enough to improve our ground work, which involves me braving and working through his intimidation tactics (including rearing, bardging and running over, which he only does when we do ground work or lunge, not otherwise). Also, if I’m going to focus entirely on endurance I need to put time in to get him fitter rather than just better schooled. I will continue to school him and I will continue improving the NH methods we’ve already learned, but the focus will be on hacking out. I know NH can make us better endurance riders but for now it’s a case of trying to put everything we know into practice and just practice and practice and practice to get better before learning new stuff.

Thanks to Sue we can now hack out much better on our own and we’ve reached our first two goals on the way towards doing proper endurance:

1. Being able to cross the main road at the top of our lane, safely, on our own – leading to longer rides.
2. Do a training ride to get a feel for how long endurance rides are, to see how fit Shah really is, and what he thinks about it.

Both goals were ticked off during the last week or so. The weather here has been glorious and I’ve taken the opportunity to ride more. Crossing the main road has been less scary than I imagined (normally the way) as he’s pretty good with traffic and knows he needs to stop. It’s just that when we get across the road and onto the next lane he has a tendency to nap. But so far so good, we’ve worked through all napping attempts!

We achieved the second goal this weekend. We did a 20km training ride at Plumpton, run by the EGB (endurance GB society) and had a real blast! Everyone at the yard went, all four of us, the weather was glorious and the horses loved the long uphill gallops! Even Shah got tired at the top of one of them – nearly unheard of so far! But he was still bouncing and jogging all the way down to the finish line when the other three horses were tired and just wanted to walk. That’s a good sign, he enjoyed himself and he was rearing to go again!

After our training ride he’s been pretty chilled out. He got a day off, just eating spring grass in the field and today we’ve been for a short walk up and down the lane. He was full of pickles as usual while out riding but he must have been tired as he was yawning like mad when we got back

After achieving my first two goals on the list, I’ve now had to set some new ones, here’s the list, let’s see how we do with these ones:

1. Do a long hack out on our own, including a good gallop across local fields.
2. Travel in lorry on our own to friend’s place for a hack out.
3. Do a non competitive ride, including trot up for the vet to prepare him for future vettings.
4. Feel fit enough to do our first competitive ride – novice level.

Hopefully, they are all achievable within the next 2-3 months time. In the meantime, back to work.