Ouch!

Well crap.
T-Bone came up lame today. He's always had stifle issues, but it has been manageable. Today I went to lunge him and it was REALLY bad. So I put him in a stall and he's to get bute and stall rest for a day or two to see if that helps. I'm not sure if he slipped outdoors or something, or if this is his stifle problem blowing up in my face. Guess we'll see. In the meantime, I'm going out to ride tomorrow to work with other horses. So, at least I'll get some time in the saddle.

ugh.

It's cold, but that doesn't stop me

Finally got out to the barn today to ride the horse. My plan was to stick with the basics and make everything really easy for him. 1) Because it was friggin cold and 2) because I hadn't ridden him in a week. (Shame on me, but in my defense I had a busy week!).

To my surprise, he started out swinging over the back like a pro! The trot tempo was relaxed, even and fluid. But, I still stuck to my plan and worked on loosening, suppling, etc. with some serpentines, circles, transitions. Toward the end, we were both warm so I threw in some shoulder in and travers. Hell, we even did a nice travers down the center line. I ended up working a little on counter canter too, starting with the loop from First-1 and endding up doing the canter serpentine from Second Level - both leads! Sweet! It isn't perfect, he still tends to get tense in the neck during CC, but I think that now he has the concept down and has gained some confidence, he should start to relax and that will go away. Like most horses, he gets most tense in the neck when you introduce something new or difficult - but has you practice and get better, the "falling down neck" slowing returns. Annnnd it makes the easy movements even MORE easy. :-)

I'm hoping I make it out a few more times this week and maybe we'll start to go back to some more of the diffcult stuff. I have a lesson Saturday as well, so I can get some more feedback.

peace!

My cat.

Today I learned that my beloved cat, T.C. ("The Cat") has a heart condition known as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Bascially, his heart has enlarged and can longer efficiently pump blood through his body. As a result of this, T.C. has also developed a blood clot in his left hind leg. This clot is capable of traveling to other parts of his body at any time.

If he were a human, this condition would require a heart transplant.

Basically this means that my time with T.C. is now limited. The vets have said that because this was caught reasonably early, we may be able to extend his time left. But, in reality, it is still only a matter of months. (Unless he throws the blood clot). He will eventually enter into congestive heart failure.

There is no cure for HCM.

I can't even describe how heartbroken I am. He's my cat you know? We're buddies. He's been there for me through thick and thin, and has always been there to jump on my lap and make me laugh when I'm sad. My job now is to keep him as happy and comfortable as possible (he has some meds to help) ... and be strong when the time comes to make a decision, because no animal of mine will suffer. God bless him.

So, with that, I am going to back to eating unhealthy food and sobbing.

Today I was informed that I won a 2008 Morgan Dressage Association scholarship! $500! That will pay for a nice chunk of lessons. I applied for this way back in August or something, and had sort of put it in the back of mind. Wooooot!

T-Bone has had about a week off due to weather, and the fact that I've been working later and just can't make it out there after dark, when it's cold you know? So this week I'm going to try to be better about that. Even the weekend went to hell because I had to finish moving (FINALLY!) and the fact that I partied like a damn rock star on Saturday night and couldn't function most of Sunday. Yeah, I was that lame. Complete with hiccups.

sooo ... slow news day. Sorry.

The 3-beat gait

This week's award for "most improved gait" : The canter. Do not worry, I still remember the days when T-Bone's canter was rushed, a little hollow and somewhat unbalenced. The difference now is truly astounding to me. He now has a balanced canter reliable and solid transitions. And, in recent weeks we have really started working on collected canter. T-Bone's talent for this just floors me. It took him a mere week to figure it out. Now all I have to do is squeeze with my legs, half halt a couple of times and the horse literally canters on the spot. He is so animated and it's the coolest feeling! Yesterday's lesson we started to introduce the canter-to-walk transition. (this means NO trot steps at all). This is a border-line upper level movement, simply because of the amount of collection required to perform this. I wouldn't say we nailed any transitions that would score a 7 or 8, but for the first tries T-Bone did really well. His best gait is definately the canter and collection comes easy for him. woo hooo! I need to start incorporating more counter canter into my work, so that we can start to prepare for flying changes.
We also worked on more lateral work, which is starting to get more difficult. Travers on the wall is no problem at all - but ask us to do it down the center line - total disaster! ugh. Need to work on that. It's good to see where the holes are now, tho, so they can be fixed and you are better off down the road. He needs to be quicker off my leg for half pass too, we seem to make it to the center line and then it sort of "dies off".
I'm off to ride and work on more of the above. Maybe I'll write a non-dressage post later on. Sure to be much more interesting then lateral work. Maybe.

A creature of habit

More excellent work from T-Bone today. I havn't had a lesson in weeks (been really busy with my work schedule switching around), but I've been working on the same movements and developed a really nice routine. I think having the same routine each day gives T-Bone some comfort and confidence. Shoulder-in especially has gotten much better - rarely does he hollow when I ask anymore. Same with travers (which never really was a problem for him) ... and halfpass is really starting to develop. I love how working on the more difficult movements has instantly improved the easier things - like leg yielding and general cadence. Working on half-steps before doing any canter work helps tremendously with the collection. I have a lesson Nov. 24 and I hope my instructor is pleased with our progress and we can get additional homework to add to the equation.
T-Bone just moved into a new field and is now living with about 6 or 7 other horses. He hasn't lived outdoors in a big group since he was 2 years old. He has a few "battle scars", but not bad. It looks like he'll fit in just fine. He's smart, and knows that the rest of the horses are indeed bigger than him. lol. It's great to see how his attitude has changed since living outdoors. He is so much more laid back (he was in the first place), and rarely has his "trantrums" anymore where he screams and bolts at random times. lol. This could also be due to a saddle that correctly fits now. Or a combo of both. But he has such a good attitude about work now - even when the movements get tough, he just goes along with it and tries his best. It's great. I'm so lucky to have him.
And a mental note: I really need to worm the horse. Geez. A trip to TSC is in order this week for wormer. Must. Worm. Horse.
Peace out!

Time to twiddle the thumbs

In my opinion, a horse is the animal to have. 1100 pounds of raw muscle, power, grace, and sweat between your legs - it's something you just can't get from a pet hamster.

My life feels a little ... static right now, as it's come to that point in the year when horse shows have been over for a little while and I'm now feeling a little useless with nothing to prepare for. This summer was insane ... T-Bone and I went to at least one event (show/clinic) a month, sometimes more. The past couple of months were great to recover and regroup, but now I'm itching to get out again. But I can't ... because it's Indiana. And nothing happens in the winter. Ah well. I think if I went back and rad old blogs I would probably be saying the same thing during November. All I can do is stay focused on reaching our goals for next season (showing solid 1st/breaking into 2nd level). Plus, I guess I have other things in my life to distract me so I that I don't obsess over the angle of my shoulder-in for days on end. Winter is time for me to be a normal gal for once ... you know, and fret over things like boys, my job, friends, and what I'm going to do Friday night. I'm playing more guitar again, which has done wonders in lifting my spirits. Open mic may be in the future - who knows. It's been some time since I've played in front of an actual audience .. that is, if you count peeps at the Silver Dollar (RIP!) an audience. (Which is exactly what made it great). I'm also making efforts to get rid of my debt ... in preparation for the future when I want to purchase a house. I promised myself that if I could pay off at least half my credit card by Feb or March, I would buy myself a used waverunner at the end of next summer. This may be counterproductive, but I consider a waverunner to be a "stable" debt you know, like my truck payments. lol.
Well, I've written a pointless novel here. I do apologize. Maybe more mind-vomit to come within the next few days. Peace!


Today's lyrics:
Run now get away from me
if I can get my grip I'll pull you down
into the hell I call my head
you'll never get away
I sit down in my ugly place
and build walls out of fragments
from my past of all the people that I needed and loved that walked away