Cob Jockey

I've only ridden Disco once since the Kate clinic, but boy do I have a legitimate reason.

At least it was a good ride.

Just after the Kate clinic, he started not finishing his feed. Long story short, I thought we were either dealing with ulcers or teeth, and started out treating it like ulcers, although I knew he already had a routine dental coming up anyway since he's on a 6 month schedule right now, so we were covered either way.

WELL. Guys. It was decidedly not ulcers. 

Disco has a fractured first molar, tooth 309 in dentist parlance. We have no idea how it happened. We do know that it happened in the last six months because it was normal at his last dental in February. And we suspect based on when he went off his feed that it happened in the last month.

Healthy 409 shown in the lower right for comparison.

My dentist immediately referred me to Rood and Riddle. We are equidistant to Purdue University and R&R, but she said R&R is who you want for this one. Before they saw the photos, R&R quoted me a range of prices between $2,300 and $9,000, because depending on how it cracked, it could either be done under standing sedation and one overnight in the hospital, or it could require the "most advanced extraction type" which requires fully flat out sedation and 3-4 nights in the hospital.

Unsurprisingly, my man has expensive taste. After seeing the photos, Dr. Tanner suspects the that the tooth is fractured in just about the worst way possible, with the root likely still present across the entire tooth, but the above-the-gum part missing across half of it. He needs to go fully under for this procedure which they called a Lateral Wall Alveolectomy.

As you can imagine, that hit me with a big thud. We were supposed to be sending him off to Kate's soon, not dropping almost 5 figures on a surgery. But it makes it feel better to know it's worth it: since the dental we've been soaking his feed, and he immediately started cleaning his feed pan again, so I know he's in pain.

They can't get him in until mid-October, and I have no idea when he'll be able to wear a bit again at this point. So, we're in a holding pattern for now.

HORSES! 

"He's not dull, but the quickest way to make a horse dull and resentful is by shouting all the time,"

There's a common refrain in basically every lesson you hear Kate Little of Better Every Ride (come at me, Google, she deserves it!) teach: horses think slowly but react quickly. Connor reacts quickly and explosively first and then he'll think, slowly and after the fact. New concepts took longer to get confirmed on him because of it - it often took more than one session before he would retain something new from ride-to-ride. 

Connor's part-leaser glowing after her first riding lesson in over 20 years

Disco could not be more different. He has this testosterone-fueled "Nothing can hurt me so I'm not afraid of anything" coolness to him that, at least in him, affords him the ability to think about a situation before reacting. He learns so fast and retains new concepts immediately, but reacts so slowly.

Photo by Liz

I often interpret this in the moment as Disco being dull - even large aids, like a whack with the whip, are met with a shrug. It has made working with him frustrating for me at times, because I'll apply escalating aids until I run out of aids and I'm left feeling like I don't have anything left in my toolkit.

Across four sessions, Kate gave me some incredible tactical advice - new aids and concepts that I'm using immediately with good effect. New ways of thinking about contact and balance even in the green horse. New moments of feeling, like feeling him truly step sideways in a leg yield for the first time and truly shifting his weight back in the halt. 

Working on his sticky "go" button by being "annoying like a chihuahua"

Those were all wonderful, but the biggest thing I got out of the clinic? He's only going to end up dull if I make him that way. As much as I think I've slowed down and softened my asks since I've become Kate's student, I need to go in even slower, even softer. He can back in the groundwork with the pressure of a feather on the knot of the halter, and he can learn to be that light in the rest of the work too, if I allow him the chance.

It all crystallized for me when I saw Kate ride him on Sunday. She got on and did the same exercises I had been trying awkwardly to do for the previous 20 minutes, but she did them differently. Loops in the reins when mine were taut. Escalating aids that moved to 'annoying' instead of 'louder'. Opening outside reins that invited him over warmly rather than tentatively. 

Disco completely relaxed with Kate on his back

She got off and had this huge grin on her face "He's REALLY cool. He's going to be something special." and I knew then that I needed to stick to my original plan of sending him out for training at this point in his career. 

He needs to learn the next set of building blocks from someone who makes learning easy for him and from someone so competent in the young horse starting process, they're able to effortlessly identify what's a phase and what's a career-limiting personality trait. That's not something you develop being an adult amateur that starts maybe two or three horses over a lifetime.

"You don't have to send him out," she said later. "You are capable of learning how to teach him this stuff." And the funny thing about that is that I describe Kate's lesson style as "whatever you feel like you can't do, she makes you feel like you can do it." Every time I thought I couldn't keep a stallion, or couldn't start baby Eva, or anything else, her lessons left me feeling like I could do it. 

There is something about having Kate in your corner that makes so much seem possible, which is why I didn't ignore the feeling of peace and certainty I felt as I watched him melt into the right answers under her on Sunday. That's all I've ever wanted for this horse - to make the right answers easy and to see how far he can go.

Whew. It has been a heck of a *checks notes* six weeks since I last posted.

But it was all worth it. The school did not get its approval and will have to be built somewhere much safer, the gym is still humming along, and the Kate clinic was absolutely epic in every sense of the word. 

Our city's art and architecture biennial had just gotten kicked off the week before the clinic. The exhibits are so good this year! Me, Kate and Liz had a blast exploring them.

This year, we did four days of the Kate clinic, which we very nearly but not quite filled. We also had outside overnight haul-ins for the first time, which was good for all of us. Including Disco, who was very excited by having new horses around, and that's a great thing for him to get used to.

STAN SIGHTING

It was exhausting and amazing, and as always, a learning experience for me as a clinic organizer. There's no guidebook for this stuff, and Kate has been very patient with me as I learn a little more each year we do this. The weekend before the clinic, I managed to get the speakers working in the indoor for the first time since I've boarded here, which was a big improvement over the first year when Kate was losing her voice!
 

Mary doing groundwork with our little pocket rocket Nykur

Disco did wonderfully and we both got a lot out of it, but that will have to be a story for a different post.

It occurred to me recently that Disco is the absolutely perfect horse for me to learn how to start.

He's just so darn easy. I trust him under saddle more than I trust Connor, and for good reason: he doesn't spook, doesn't buck, doesn't bolt. 

Left him standing in place while I set my Pivo up, and Brynne marveled, "I think he's the most chill stallion I've ever met. Normally they're quite full of themselves, and he's just...not!"

I mean - this was his first ever "buck" under saddle during my lesson last weekend. 

Did you miss it?

His good behavior has meant that I get to focus entirely on the process of starting a youngster without dealing with some of the more challenging behaviors that often occur. And I need that - I'm not the most confident rider, and this is a big deal for me, to start one and not screw him up in the same ways I screwed Connor up.

What I haven't done yet is worry about where his head is. Brynne has been great for me in sketching out a roadmap of skills that we need. The first thing we needed was forward - go when I say go, maintain a given speed/gait without nagging until I say otherwise, and take me forward. Absolutely nothing else mattered.

Now that we finally have that, at my last Brynne lesson, we introduced the idea of following the bit, which is a precursor to a lot of other things. It's also something I was not going to introduce myself without trainer supervision to help me with the timing and just knowing how far to push it in the moment. It would be so easy for me to get against him or to not release in the right moment and leave him confused and frustrated.

Erring on the side of giving and letting him walk out of it a second too early rather than a second too late.

Brynne, who has started many young pulling breed horses in Dressage, gives me so much confidence and is such a good fit for us right now. On Sunday, she figuratively sat me down and said, "You're going to need to ride him a bit differently to teach him this skill. He needs a big, clear aid for this and the space between the reins to feel like he can turn. It's still effective riding, but it's not going to look like you'd ride a trained horse."

I needed to hear that, because I mostly have been riding him like I ride Connor, which is good and bad. Good, in that he's generally rose to the occasion so far, but bad, because when he needs me to be loudly clear, I sometimes am not giving that to him and it might make certain things harder for him to learn. 

Rocking vetwrap on his bridle because his forelock got stuck under his grazing muzzle halter and rubbed him raw last week

As she was walking out last weekend, she said, "I know it probably feels like you're not getting anywhere fast with him, but trust me, you're making a lot of progress and you're right on track. Just keep doing what you're doing and trust that this is just a stage."

...and what we're doing is creating sleepy baby horses

There is finally peace in our time.

Grazing muzzle time.

Connor has needed a grazing muzzle ever since he moved to this farm in 2017. I left him un-muzzled for the first three weeks just to see what would happen, and he quickly turned into a blimp shape. We've been using GreenGuards ever since, with brief, completely unsuccessful attempts with the Flexible Filly and Best Friends muzzles in there too.

Keeping the muzzle on him, though, has been a full-time job. He's a serial killer that I try to stay one step ahead of, but usually feel one step behind. He'd poke his nose out of the corners, break straps, step on it, get it off over his head, destroy scissor snaps, and no matter what I did, would bash the thing so hard into the ground, the sides would snap. I've had to buy a new one every year because he's so hard on them, and yes, if you just did that math, that's closing in on a THOUSAND DOLLARS IN MUZZLES since 2017. Thanks, buddy.

GG halter, leather GG insert, cheapo Amazon Tough 1 halter fleece, GG Houdini strap and corner twine, because the GG velcro isn't strong enough to keep his schnoz where it's supposed to be

This year, Disco got muzzled first, and I let Connor go as long as I could without one. This immediately cut down on shenanigans of all kinds, with both boys coming in with no marks for the first time in a while. And maybe Connor was grateful for that, because when I finally did muzzle him, he was...fine.

Who...is this horse?

No bashing. No getting it off. No shock-denial-anger-acceptance trying to rub it off on the ground. Just...polite grass nibbling. I haven't even had to replace any straps yet. I am SHOCKED. Stunned. Still in disbelief every time I see him politely nibbling with his GreenGuard unmolested on his face.

Not only that, he suddenly became easy to catch, too. Usually if you want to lead both boys in at the same time, you have to catch Disco, put Disco outside the gate holding the lead rope over the gate, then Connor will baaaaaaaaaaarely let you get close enough to throw a lead rope over his neck and catch him.

Morning bring-in at sunrise. Pink so I can find the bodies, I mean, boots.

After they were both muzzled? I catch Disco (who am I kidding, Disco catches himself. Walks straight up to me and waits every time he sees me. Is this real life?), ground tie him, then walk two steps over to where Connor is waiting and snap his lead rope on.

Like I said - peace. Unexpected, delightful peace.