Dude, where's my canter?

Grazing ... "nom nom nom ... oh a kitteh!"

Houston, we have a problem.

Hampton's left lead canter has slowly gotten worse over the past 2 weeks or so (it started before the move to the new barn). At first, he was just wonky on the lunge line. Then he got wonky under saddle on the left lead. Today I rode and BOTH leads were wonky.

Wonky = terrible, lateral, unbalanced, shuffle-y type horrid canter. Like, if this was his canter I would not score higher than a 3 or 4 for canter work in a dressage test.

He is trying to tell me something. I mean, just last month he has a gorgeous, rhythmical, very nice canter for a young horse. What went wrong? Did I ruin him? I have changed nothing as far as tack or routine. He did switch barns last Tuesday ... but like I said, the issue was festering before that.

Here are my ideas as to what could be causing this:

1) His back is sore. And simply that. I double checked my saddle, and it still appears to fit OK. But I do plan on having the chiro and massage therapist come out to work on him. I can't find any signs of soreness in his back with my hand or curry comb. He shows no signs of discomfort with mounting, or girth tightening.

2) He is going through a growth spurt. He's still just 3, he could be growing and is just totally unable to balance his gangly legs right now.

3) His feet are off balance. He is due for a trim, but his hooves are not obnoxiously long or anything.

4) He has EPSM ... the metabolic disorder, similar to rhabdomialysis. (spelled THAT wrong, that's for sure). The disorder is somewhat common in warmblood and draft breeds (of which he is both!) ... and early symptoms include muscle soreness (check) and unwillingness to go forward (also, check ... although not bad). The barn feeds round bales of oat/grass hay, so all that starch could have suddenly made him symptoms worse. As for grain, he gets Equine Senior right now because I am scared he will get skinny like he did last winter. I am thinking I might go ahead and switch him to a EPSM diet just to see ...

"There she goes with the camera again ... ugh"

5) My riding/training has ruined him. Or, he's rein-lame (as in, this is totally a training issue).

So the plan for right now is to take it easy. There are no apparent issues at the walk or trot, so I am just going to spend time riding him at a walk around the farm. We are just going to forget about the canter until I get something figured out. He shows no other signs of lameness, just this awful - MAKE ME PUKE canter. Does anyone have experience with EPSM? I have been reading up on it, but would love to hear personal experiences.

Get your rump under you.

Hampton out in the field.

Hampton is really, really happy to be living outdoors again. His facial expression is brighter, but at peace. He no longer has a defeated look about him. Yes, he does have some bite marks and dings ... but no nasty fresh ones since last week. So hopefully he found is spot in the pecking order.

As far as riding, he has been doing well. We have been working on more uphill-ness and really getting his hind end to step under. My instructor said I have taught him all the basics, now it's time to move on. Our trot to walk transitions were pretty sloppy - so now I think trot - trot - piaffe - walk. Obviously we don't really piaffe (yet), but thinking of that really helps me keep his butt under him. Then walk 2 steps - trot off right away. It's boring, but really good for him.

On Thursday, we are going to start teaching him piaffe steps (just the very beginnings of it), because it will hopefully help him get that butt under him. His canter (while SO SO Improved) is still quite croup-high, which isn't good for me because it's easy for him to buck - and won't score well at shows.

Took a gander at the 4-year-old test for next year. We can ride the test, just need to fine tune the whole thing. Especially if we are to compete against multi-thousand dollar warmbloods.

On the home front, I found a house  near downtown (near my real job) which I think will work out (fingers crossed!). Crazy lady from Barn A continues to drive me up the wall. When I am finally out of there for good, I think my stress level will go from 10 to 2. She is off her rocker, let me tell you.

Anyone seen my blogs?

I signed on today and my list of blogs I am following has vanished. WTF? Anyone else have this problem?

**

Edit: They have returned. Crisis over. :-)

An update

Hampton

The horse is enjoying living the life of a wild mustang again. Except that we are in central Indiana. And there is fence. And roundbales magically appear. Details. I checked on him yesterday and found that he had been picked on a little bit. He had a few bite marks on his neck and shoulder area. So I doctored those. Hopefully he finds his place in the pecking order and quits getting beat up. Part of me thinks he might start it sometimes because he loves to play and all the other horses are older and probably find him annoying. He is by far the biggest horse out in the field. It's actually pretty humorous. My instructor thinks he's 17.1 hands, but I'm not sure about that. I think he's still yet to really reach 17 hands but then again I'm used to seeing him everyday so he doesn't seem that big to me anymore.

I'll likely work him again on Saturday and over the weekend. Figured he'd enjoy a couple of days off to settle back in. I have no doubt he remembered the place though. He slipped right into the usual routine so easily. He reunited with his girlfriend, Lilly the Tennessee Walker, and they were grooming each other within 10 minutes.

I seriously need to get his turnout sheet cleaned before the weather gets too nasty. I don't mind if it's just cold, I just don't want him to have to be cold and wet. (They do have shelters, but he doesn't always think to go use them).

Me

I am frantically trying to find a new place to live ASAP. It's stressful but as soon as I get away from this current place, I know I will feel better.

Other than that, I'm trying to keep up with school and save some cash in order to get Hampton's papers together for our USDF 4 year old quest next year.

Um, Drama. x10.

Well, I have failed to mention much of anything about the current barn I am at because the living situation is pretty sweet and it's great having my horse basically in my backyard.

I'm not going to bash anyone here in the internet, but I will say the current situation has become intolerable. I have already started looking at new places to live ... and was considering moving Hampton at some point. Until today.

Here's what happened.

I had scheduled to trailer out to a lesson where I used to board Hampton. When I left this morning (from barn A), I casually said hey I'm taking off for a lesson, we will be back. Fellow boarder said OK see ya! While I was riding, the BO left numerous messages on my voicemail. Her tone of voice was snooty and inappropriate. She she she had "specifically" told me NOT to take my horse off the farm. Her main excuse was because he is not vaccinated (actually, he IS) and that because he is so young he would bring some some horrible disease and spread it to everyone else. Some other things were said, too. I'm sorry  but he is my horse, it's my trailer. I have worked so hard all summer saving for a trailer. I have been patient with his lady, who said I can't have an outside instructor come teach me. She said the vaccines would take a month to take effect ... that would have left me until November to get to go anywhere. And by then, too late because the weather is crap and things get iffy.

After tolerating a toxic, hostile and cold environment since May (because hey, the facilities ARE nice and I really loved having my horse so close by!) ... I finally snapped.

So I left Hampton at barn S. Yup, turned him right back out in the big field where he reunited with his former girlfriend and very quickly settled in to a roundbale.

So yeah. Hampton has moved barns and now I need to find a new place to live ... like ASAP.

In good news, Hampton was a SUPERSTAR for the trailer ride. I even unloaded him alone. After a small display of Arabian-like tail flagging and snorting on the lunge line, he calmed down and was his usual, awesome self (ok he did buck once at a canter transition ... lol ... naughty). But I was very proud of him. :-)

More as the drama unfolds. Ugh.

Great! Then not so great.

I rode Hampton in the outdoor sandbox last night and he was really, really good. He can be a little spooky there which cracks me up because when I take him out in the fields he isn't spooky at all. Just in the outdoor ring. Weirdo. But he was good, so this morning I decided to try for round 2. I didn't lunge, just got right on.

Things were going fine until the MORON paint in the pasture (which is right next to the arena) starts tearing around the field at mock 12. Tail flagging, his white fly sheet blowing in the wind. And he didn't stop. Kept right on tearing around the field. His warmblood pasture friend just stood there and stared at him - probably thinking the same thing I was. "Stupid, stupid paint." Hampton was distracted, head in the air, some snorts escaped ... but he stood for me. He listened to me and stood there. Dumb Dumb the Paint wasn't stopped, so I said screw the arena and headed for the Field of Hills - where we would be out of sight of Dumb Dumb.

We mostly walked up and down the hills, a little trotting and one canter up the big hill. At one point, 4 deer crossed right in front of us! Again, Hampton stopped - stared, snorted - and stood quiet for me. When I was sure the deer had gone into the woods, we continued. Again, I was proud that my 3 year old listened to me and stopped. At this point I was like "Damn, someone has it out for me today!". But of course then decided to push the limit and do a trail ride in the woods, too! (Hampton's first time in the woods ... by the way ...)

No one ever trail rides in the woods .. I'm not sure if it's because there is a barn full of chickens or what. So the horse path was ... not really a path anymore. My roomie came with us (on foot) to help clear out some branches and whatnot. My goal was to get to the creek and go creek stomping.

At first things go well. But we had to do a lot of stopping and standing so roomie could clear out a path for us. At one point I tried my own path and got in a fight with a long-hanging branch. I was very, very happy that I wore my helmet. I was basically un-hurt except an annoying scrap on my upper right arm. We finally reached the creek bed - WHICH WAS OUT OF WATER! Ugh. FAIL!

At this point, Hampton's patience was empty. Cue pawing, dancing, head tossing, fighting me, a mini-rear and snorting. I decided to head home before I got tossed. Once we were walking forward again, he was just fine. He was tired of standing around and .... he had to pee.

I worked his little snotty butt back in the arena because I did not want to reward him for going home. And he copped an attitude AGAIN! SO much so that I swatted him a good one on the ass and in return got two HUGE bucks. I lost both stirrups and nearly bit the dust. Thank you pulley rein! I anchored myself and off we went - he adjusted his 'tude pretty quick and we did some cantering and trotting. Wasn't our best, but I'll take it.

When I untacked him and put him back in his stall, he peed like a racehorse. Guess that was part of the problem.

In other news, I finally bought a horse trailer! (pics to come soon). We are trailering out Tuesday for a lesson. I hope we both survive.

I say jump, he says "How high?"

Cantering along!

After Monday's lovely ride, I decided yesterday would be a lunge-only day. But I shook things up (whoa look out!) and snuck out to the pasture with hills and found a decent spot to lunge there. Figured we could both enjoy the lovely weather and dust-free outdoors, compared to the barn which leaves me hacking and coughing from the dust. We aren't allowed to water down the aisles so ... suffer we must. (The arena gets watered a few times a week, thankfully).

Trrrrrrot!

The grass is really long which made Hampton pick up his legs pretty high - thus making him look fantastic! I had to smile ... then wish I could make him trot like that normally. *sigh* Lunged him up and down very small hills. Then, at the end I took the side reins off and decided to see if he would jump the log on the ground. It's a fallen tree that is just about perfect for a little cross country jump. The middle still needs cleaned up to be safe, but the ends are fine. I set myself up to lunge the horse over the higher end (it's probably about 2 feet), clucked - and off he went! Jumped it like a champ! I laughed and stopped him and walked back to the barn. Guess I don't have to worry about jumping small logs on trails. No problem there. lol. Maybe in a few weeks I'll grow a pair and jump him over it under saddle.

He got today off with some extra hand grazing and time wearing his new magnetic hock boots. Tomorrow I'll probably be stuck indoors because it's supposed to be rainy and windy I think ... so groundpoles it is!

... and here is a cute photo of my two cats. Grover (belly up) and Simon.

Does anyone have suggestions for dealing with a kitty who poops on the floor on a consistent basis? I won't name which one it is but his initials are SIMON! Yes, he's diabetic. He's been to the vet, glucose levels good. Checked out otherwise healthy. But I clean up his poop nearly everyday. (He does pee in the litter box, THANK YOU LORD!). I've changed litter brands. I've tried liners. I bought HUGE litterboxes. Not sure what to do? I really like the cat but it's becoming a real P.I.T.A.