The 3 types of evasions

(This post is based off part of what I learned at the aaaaa-mazing JJ Tate clinic I attended in April. Unfortunately, I will never see the video that was taken that day. It's gone. But I did take notes!)

Horses evade work in 3 different ways. Note that evasion is different than out right disobedience (bucking, rearing, bolting, etc) and resistance. I consider resistance to be things like kicking out at the leg, bracing, etc. Resistance and disobedience tend to be much more obvious to the rider, whereas evasions are sneaky and can often times go un-noticed or brushed off as just a mistake or misunderstanding. It's our job as riders to figure out the difference and make appropriate corrections.

Horse like to speed up during leg yields like this guilty party?
Try leg yielding .. then walk (keep leg yielding) ... then trot again.
(also don't drop your shoulder, like this idiot)

1) SPEED
This can be speeding up, slowing down, or changing/breaking gait. Hampton uses speed evasions pretty frequently. Some examples: We are working on halt - trot - halt transitions. As I ask him to really push out of the halt into the trot, he canters. That is a speed evasion - it's easier to canter than to push off his hind end into the trot. He doesn't really do this anymore since he has gotten stronger. Or, maybe I want super collected canter and he breaks into the trot. Speed evasion. Or, one of Hampton's very favorites: During leg yield or half pass, I apply more leg and half halts because I want more dramatic cross over. He instead speeds up and basically runs to the rail. Total speed evasion. When I feel him start to "run" through lateral work, I will do a transition but keep asking for the movement. When he breaks into the trot from collected canter, I will usually give him the benefit of the doubt the first couple of times because sometimes it is probably just a miscommunication. I will just pick up the canter again. But after the third time, he will get a good pony club boot to the ribs.

Hampton doesn't invert. He would prefer to dive down in the neck. Meh.

2) INVERSION
This is something Hampton doesn't really do. He has a short neck, and is so downhill that inverting would probably take a real effort from him. He prefers to dive down in the neck instead, or just brace his entire neck. But inverting is such a common evasion among many, many horses. My friend's Arabian cross will invert at pretty much any opportunity. My old Morgan, T-Bone, was also excellent at inverting. In fact he would be quite inverted yet still round in the neck. Which is how he developed quite the under neck muscle. I just didn't know any better at the time.

Canter lengthening. Notice how the haunches are to the inside.
Very common problem. A crookedess evasion.
Probably also rider incompetence.

3) CROOKEDNESS
And here is another evasion that Hampton is a master at. He loves to be bent left, and would prefer that right bend was never required. Very typical and very normal. But he will avoid being straight to avoid loading his left hind. In fact he sometimes turns into an "S" through his body just to avoid this. I have become much more aware of this and it isn't as bad as it once was. This is turn affects all sorts of things such as flying changes, lateral work and halts. I would guess this is the most common evasion, because horses are already crooked anyway. And so are people. I use shoulder-in quite a bit to help gain control of the shoulders which is a major key to straightness.

Which evasion is your horse's favorite? :)

Vacation's over, mister.

Hampton is just about back to 100%. He has been on a light lunge routine the past couple of days. Today he was about 95% sound. Just a tiny little hitch at the very beginning which he worked out of.

There is still a tiny bit of edema, but moving around is the best thing for him.

Over the weekend he can go back under saddle easy walk, trot, canter.
Monday he gets new shoes and after that it's back to work!

Earlier this week, I decided what better time to ride your horse bridle-less than when he has a bum leg and can only walk around?! I mean, what was he going to do - run off with me?

I know what you're thinking "Famous last words Karen!"

But, no surprise here, Hampton was perfect.

Please wear sunglasses while viewing my incredibly pale legs.

I really need to work on steering, but he plodded along like a plow horse and stayed super calm. It was frankly very relaxing and a fun thing to try out since we have been stuck in "uppity - intense - these horsewomen are psycho - dressage land" earlier this year. Remember I am still part hillybilly from Indiana and, yes, I will ride in shorts and without tack once in a blue moon.

Even the boy wanted to ride! ( I was nice and gave him a halter to steer with)

In which Hampton promptly fell asleep.

He may not be the most fancy dressage horse ever, but frankly he is priceless. The boy is OK, too. :)

On the mend

Hamps is making improvement on the bum leg front.

Saturday morning

Monday morning (today)

While he is still swollen, I would say there is marked improvement! He is almost totally sound at the walk now. He is just a little stiff yet when I ask him to turn in a tight circle (like turn around in the aisle way or something). 

He continues to scarf down his antibiotics, which I have been hiding in carrots. He thinks has been a REALLY GOOD BOY lately at all we do is stand around in the wash rack while I feed him carrots! ha!

He probably has one more day of bute and hopefully we can cut that down or totally out all together. 

I did walk him in tack today for about 20 minutes. Just a bareback stroll. He was walking forward and swingy without any nagging from me. There was a decrease in swelling after our walk as well. So I think I will go back this evening and do the same. The movement seems to really help. He does get night turnout as well.

Gimme more carrots!

Just thankful this has run its course fairly quickly it seems and did not become a more serious issue. If you google cellulitis in horses, you will find some photos of some HORRIBLE cases. Infact horses can even become septic from this type of infection. Eeeps!

So I am totally ok with bareback strolls this week! 

Cellulitis (dun dun dun)

When I walked into the barn this morning I knew right away something was up with Hamps. He is always standing by his door looking at me and wanting to come out and do something.

 (And by do something, I mean look out the barn door while his slave of a human brushes him and pampers him)

This morning he was pouting in the back of his stall. I walked in and was all like "HOLY SHIIIIIITTTTT" when I saw his hind leg.

ouch ouch ouch

It is giant and swollen and very painful. He was was very, very lame on it. He would sort of put weight on it to walk, but he would drag his toe in the most pitiful manner. Straight to the washrack we went for a good 30 minutes of cold hosing.

I could tell he was in a lot of pain. Instead of his usual, bright eyed "what sort of trouble can I get into" face that he normally has on, he stood quietly while I hosed his leg. He had this worried and uncomfortable look to his face and would every once in a while reach his head around to sniff me. Maybe it felt good?

I examined his leg and could not find anything of significance. He does have a couple of run-of-the-mill scrapes on his pastern (a day or two old) that COULD be the culprit here. There could be something that I can't find due to the swelling. Or, you know, his leg or hock could be broken. But I'm not going to go there yet.

What is cellulitis? Cellulitis is basically an infection under the skin. According to TheHorse, The disease process starts with a wound that allows bacteria to breach the protective layers of the skin and spread to deeper tissues. Interestingly, the hind legs appear to be more commonly affected than the front legs. Other contributing causes to cellulitis include external parasites (e.g., mites), disease of the lymphatic vessels in the legs, and other unknown factors.

A quick call to our vet and the treatment plan is SMZs, bute and cold hosing until I am blue in the face. I also wrapped both back legs for the night and put poultice on the fat one. Tomorrow we will reassess. If it has not shown any improvement, then our vet will come on out. He may need IV antibiotics, possibly an XRay. But I am hoping bute, cold hosing and some hand walking tomorrow will help with the swelling and pain.

I am going to so get caught up on Candy Crush with all the cold hosing
I am going to be doing

Hampton is very stoic so I know it must be incredibly painful for him to be limping around. Thankfully, he was not running a temp this morning and was being as obnoxious as ever about treats and his lunch.

Will keep you guys updated. This is clearly the most serious injury/issue Hampton has ever had. (Which I guess means I've been really lucky!) I think he will be just fine, but it's certainly something I need to keep on top of.

I have been hiding his SMZ pills inside carrots, which he eats up great! I guess it pays off to have a spoiled, mouthy treat whore sometimes.

Theme from the Bottom

I may have mentioned that lately the Porkchop has been displaying some ... less than desirable behavior.

It started probably over the winter when we started to work more on canter half pass and the changes. I would ask him for half pass, and he would suck behind the leg and hop up and down. Not rearing or anything, but a sort of stuck, hoppy, type deal. I thought he was anticipating a change and getting tense and crooked. So, I would abandon the half pass and just go forward.

Leg yieldin' But interesting to watch his left hind.

When we went to bootcamp, this hopping came back out. It was never about the change at all, it was about not wanting to go sideways. It was about ignoring my leg. So instead of just sending him forward, I demanded he go sideways no matter what. Don't care if he flops leads. Don't care if he is on the bit.

Porkchop did not like this. I had now called his bluff.

It resulted in a tantrum of rearing, leaping, hopping and general threats to be really, really naughty. At this point, the only thing on my mind is to get out of his face and send him forward BUT also sideways. This little issue is getting better the more I work through it. However, you better bet I ride with a grab strap now.

The issue is improving, and so is the canter half pass and leg yield. I am getting him to jump much more sideways now, and remain obedient and supple. I have not had to use my grab strap at all this week. Woo!

BUT ...

While I think most of this is a strength issue, I think we may have something else going on.

So I started from the bottom.

His feet.

Take a look at his hind hoof (this is the left hind). He has worn off the outside of both hind feet fairly significantly. Plus, the medial (inside) side of the hoof have flares. He wears down his toes, too. (Note he does not drag his feet when I ride him, but has a lazy, plow-horse walk in the field)

He is losing lateral support on his hind legs when I ask him to move laterally? Perhaps he does not feel he has a solid base of support? His right hock is sort of funky, is it bothering him? Stifles? SI joint? He has always had a snarky side to him, but such dangerous behavior is not his MO. I tend to think he is uncomfortable, or doesn't feel confident somewhere.

So, I am giving a new farrier a call. One who does custom shoes and was recommended by a friend. Our current farrier is great, but I think I'm at the point where if I am going to put hind shoes back on him, we need to make it right the first time. We need to get the flares under control and give him better support.

Then we'll see if that helps him. If not, I will move on up the leg - the hocks and stifles - and see if he is experiencing discomfort. He isn't lame. At all. This behavior only occurs during half pass and sometimes leg yield when I really challenge him. And it does not occur every day. I had really hoped not to put hind shoes on him, but frankly he is working solid Third level now and starting Fourth. He is just too big to continue on without some sort of support. Of course there is a laundry list of potential causes for this behavior from ulcers to lyme disease. But I'm going with my gut and starting with the feet. It could be that the work is just difficult and he is trying to figure things out.

I also have to face the fact that he might be topping out at this level of work. Do I think that is likely? No. But it is a possibility.

I'm also thinking about a round of Adequan for him. It's so expensive, so I'm still just thinking about it. Right now I think he is too young to do injections.

I can feel my bank account tremble in fear.