Cob Jockey

It's two weeks after my last post, and I'm still, rather unexpectedly, Disco-less.

I did see him though

To recap, I was driving up to Kate's to stay with her for a week and take lessons to learn how to ride my "new" horse before bringing him home that weekend. And I did get one incredible lesson on him. I don't know how much I processed the lesson itself vs just sitting there in awe of the way every little movement of my body said something to him and how easily I could access each body part. This was a horse that felt like riding a 2x4 in the spring. 

His balance is the most amazing part of it, for me. Connor never really achieved even the level of balance you see here.

 

The day after that lesson, we pulled him out for a lunch break trail ride. I should have guessed something was wrong when he took his saddle pad off and stomped on it while I was tacking him up, but I thought it was just normal Welsh cheekiness.

Might have been trying to tell me something, in retrospect

He took a couple of weird steps as we set off, but generally felt normal - until I asked him to trot, when it became clear something was very, very wrong.

I jumped off and checked for stones in his feet - nothing. I watched him like a hawk as the lameness would move from one hind foot to the other, with him yanking his foot off the ground in pain at times and at others the same foot would strike normally. "This isn't an abscess," I said pretty early, and Kate agreed with me.

His respiration rate stayed high that entire afternoon and he had a mild fever, and given the fact that it was Wednesday and I needed to bring him home Saturday, we decided this warranted a vet call. Kate's farm vet couldn't come out, but over the phone he immediately guessed Disco had eaten some Hoary Alyssum, a plant I hadn't heard of before because we thankfully don't have it in southern Indiana.

While we waited for a callback from her sporthorse medicine vet, I checked around his paddock, and did find a plant or two growing in a no-man's-land between paddocks, right next to some grazed down areas where Disco had stuck his head through the fence to get at.

With a potential suspect in our minds, we hauled him 45 minutes to Classic Equine, a brand new state-of-the-art veterinary hospital across the street from where GLEF, the big Traverse City horse show, is held. Our appointment started at 9pm and ended around midnight.

As we pulled him off the trailer, the vet asked "Mare or gelding?" I said, "Stallion," and he said oh, we've got a couple of other horses stalled around the exam area. "That shouldn't be a problem, he's an incredibly well-behaved stallion," I said, and I glared into the trailer, "Don't make me regret saying that." 

One of the vet's first questions when he saw me dressed like this and saw my hairy little pony was "Are you planning on doing Dressage with him?" and I still chuckle over that - what exactly about cowboy boots, a Breeder's Cup jacket, Carhartt chore leggings and a hairy little pony with a reining horse mane says Dressage? lol

 

I needn't have worried though - for three straight hours, Disco stood quietly and behaved like an old broke gelding. Never even called for the other horses, and the worst he did was get an emotional support erection when he was standing there bored. He made me proud.

Even with my horse's health hanging in the balance, I still found this vet appointment fascinating. It is absolutely insane to me that Kate has access to this level of emergency veterinary medicine without a referral.

It started out as a normal lameness exam, jogging in a straight line on concrete then lunging in a circle on sand. Then it moved to a computer-aided lameness exam and Disco got sensors on his head, right fore and top center of his hindquarters. I wish we'd gotten an image of the iPad they were using, but it tracked both the impact lameness and the push off lameness of each footfall. The vet (who was very experienced) watched the horse and the assistant watched the iPad.

 

 

It was obvious to see we were dealing with a hind end lameness, so next we moved to make sure it was the feet by blocking first the right hind and repeating the jogging and lunging, then the left hind.

"It's definitely both hind feet, worse in the right hind than the left," the vet said at one point. "What could cause a bilateral overnight lameness in BOTH hinds?" I said, "I just rode this horse yesterday, and he was sound." "Well, it's rare, very few things cause it, but we'll get to that," he said.

After some x-rays showed some mild stretching of the laminae, it was time to talk through it. The diagnosis was mild bilateral laminitis in both hinds. "So this is good because we can rule a bunch of things out that would be in play still if it was just one hind foot. We know it has to be something systemic."

"He's dry lotted and getting a handful of ration balancer morning and night. Another vet thought Hoary Alyssum, would that cause this?"

 

Bingo. The only symptom Disco didn't have that HA horses typically do was stocking up of the hinds, but everything else fit. 

 

"You need to check your hay carefully when you get home, it's very hard to spot when dried and it's unfortunately common up here. It's also not uncommon for 20 horses to be eating the same hay on one property and only one is affected. He'll make a full recovery in 2-4 weeks, but he CANNOT get any more HA right now." 

He sent us home wearing Cloud Boots and with strict instructions not to trailer him home that weekend to avoid stressing the stretched laminae any further. 

 

By headlamp that night, we did find some in the hay. Kate's hay guy was shocked when he heard, because he puts a lot of effort into making sure it doesn't make it into his hay, but anyone that has managed grazing pastures or hay pastures knows how freaking hard it can be to guarantee 100% eradication of something like that.

So it's possible he could have gotten it fresh by pushing his head through the fence, and it possible he could have gotten it in the hay. And I don't blame Kate for either one of those things. She's had him since March and given him nothing but the most amazing care and training. It was just rotten luck that it happened and that it happened now.

That Saturday, I went home without him, which sucked. Since then, he has been a little sounder every time Kate has tested him, and I'm hopeful that I can go get him sometime in November.

End of October, clearly feeling good

Ultimately, this was such an expensive and gut-wrenching thing to go through, especially since leaving him up there meant he couldn't show at what might be our last local Welsh show ever last weekend, but at the end of the day, I am so grateful that I'll be bringing him a fully recovered and healthy horse, even if it's just a few weeks later than I thought I would.

See you soonish

(By the way - this is the first time in 15 years of horse ownership that either of my horses have ever taken a lame step, and I know this, because I had to create a new "lameness" tag for the blog when I went to save this post. Which is pretty damn cool. Go Welsh!)

I'd apologize for my lengthiest time away from this blog in a while, but nah.

It's the second time in my life that I've made a massive job change and taken a house down to the studs in the same year, and y'all? Do not recommend. 

And I do mean "down to the studs"

 

Both have been immensely positive changes, but both hitting at the same time has me feeling like a hamster running a treadmill that's just a little too fast. The quiet pause that I need to draft a blog post never happens. Neither does eating or showering some days.

But all that said - I have so much to be grateful for and to blog about, even though I haven't been writing.

 

The original gangsta of this blog turned TWENTY in May. Aside from some grey hairs around his eyes and losing a little topline last winter, he's showing no signs whatsoever of aging.

Our newest boarder's 8 year old started leasing him a couple of months ago, with her lease fee being cleaning his stall for me, and I don't think I've ever seen Connor so happy. 

 

It's the happiest I've ever seen him with a job, and he's making all of her dreams come true, including showing for the first time at a local backyard saddle club show. She's very sweet and grateful and isn't taking this for granted, which makes it all extra wonderful.

Meanwhile, Kate has had Disco since March. In July, I managed to pull myself together enough to show him at NDPC in July. We were absolutely not competitive and never intended to be, but what a thrill it was to show at my favorite show for the first time in five years - and to be in awe of the work Kate has done, to get him to a point where his adult ammie owner can show up and go down centerline with 0 practice or prep at a major show.
 

PC: LIZ!!!! Who came all that way just to hang out and take some of the most incredible photos I've ever gotten of myself on a horse.

PC: Liz. No exaggeration about barely making it to this show - I accidentally brought full sheepskin-lined winter boots to a show with a heat index in the 110s and didn't realize I forgot white breeches until I was standing there in my underwear in the tack stall 10 minutes before I needed to be on.

Kate moving back to the Midwest last fall has been nothing short of divine intervention for me and for Disco. All the usual concerns about sending a horse to an outside trainer were moot, because she cared for him like I would. Just like when he lived with Maude, I never had to micromanage or ask for updates or worry that he was mentally or physically stressed. He was just...happy.

I mean. Come on you guys.

Each video I saw of Kate riding him, I saw not only his training progressing, but her bond with him deepening, to the point that it pains me a bit to bring him home. She has truly enjoyed bringing him along and bonding with him, and has told me several times that I have a horse for the future in him.

He's also continued to enjoy playing with his brother-from-another-mother, Castleberrys Opportunity Knox

Truthfully, I'm not ready to bring him home right now, even though 'now' has always been the plan. Originally, the house was scheduled to be done by now, and my partner and his kids would be moved in with me by now, and I wouldn't be living in a camper with no running water on the farm by now, and I wouldn't be driving across town to shower and eat every night by now, but...

Current status

 

We ended up getting started 3 months late because our first contractor had a true psychotic break with reality (long story), and so we're currently months away from the house being done. But the weather (and a local Welsh show I'd like to support) is forcing my hand - the snow is about to start flying in northern Michigan, and if I don't get him now, I might not have a good chance again for a while.

Kate's BTE photo from a summer northern Michigan trail ride

 

But first - working from Kate's house all next week while I take lessons and learn how to ride my "new" horse before I bring him home on Saturday!

 

See you soon little buddy. PC: Leah??? I think!

 

This is, I guess, less of a Waterloo retrospective and more of a "First 90 days with Kate" retrospective.

This is Disco's new LinkedIn profile picture

See what I mean?

I am at a loss for words to describe what Kate has achieved with him since March 5.

This DOWN TRANSITION, Y'ALL (The GIF sped the tempo up slightly, but it still looks amazing!)

Three months into training with her, he is the most educated horse I've ever ridden; there is such a difference between 'broke' and 'educated'. Connor got to Second Level, sure, but he did it without ever really achieving self-carriage, and so many of the foundational building blocks of Dressage just never developed with me doing all of the riding on him.

 

Disco feels light, forward, and balanced. Every photo of him I see, his chest is facing forward rather than down, and that's no accident: Kate's style of training emphasizes balance before anything else. He's almost never behind the vertical even for a moment, and the contact is SO alive and obviously meaningful to him. 

All of this gives Kate access to his body parts in the most fluid way imaginable, which is why the lateral work is coming along so well. He's already beginning to learn half pass!

This schooling show comment right here (not from Waterloo) is EXACTLY why I sent him to Kate!

The difference between how he goes with Kate riding him and how he goes with me riding him is so stark. He truly could show First with Kate and possibly even 2-1, but he and I together are a solid Training level pair. When I ride to my absolute best, he goes so well, and when I ride to my usual crooked baseline, he meets me there, confused but obedient. 

Insert potato riding, get potato horse

All that said, I could not have gotten him where Kate has gotten him on my own, which SO validates the decision to send him out, but I can learn to meet him there, and I'm hungry for that challenge. The way Kate trains him and the way she coaches me, I can see a path towards becoming the rider I've always wanted to be and feeling things I've never felt from a horse before.

 

For the first time in years, I could not stop thinking about horses for probably a week after Waterloo, and that felt so good. I truly can't wait to see what kind of horse I have when I bring him home in October.

Darn my GIF program speeding these up, it's really lovely at real-life speed

That whole weekend of Waterloo, I was struck by how different showing felt this time around, as opposed to the last time I did it five years ago.

Gone were the nerves, the score anxiety, the feeling that I "had" to prove something to someone. There is, of course, a bit of pride to it still, and a bit of wanting to show Disco well on behalf of his progeny and his breeder. But I couldn't bring myself to care about our scores in the 50s, or the score in the 60s -they just fundamentally didn't matter to me on such a deep level.

At any rate, I did tell myself that if I expected better scores, I should have, you know, taken a lesson within the last four years or maybe ridden regularly in the last three.

The overwhelming feeling I had was gratitude and awe. For the first time, I trotted down centerline on a horse I watched grow up from the moment he slid out of his mom, wondering for the next five years what it would feel like when we did this. We did it, and I was present enough to enjoy the moment as it happened.

I still absolutely took my participation awards home (low turnout in the Pony classes, sadly!)

 

I was also so grateful to be showing with Kate, something I never thought I'd get to do for all of the many years she lived in California, and enjoying hanging out with her fascinating (said with love!!) family and framily.

I also met Eventing a Gogo IRL for the first time after following her blog(s) for the better part of two decades! Hers and Aimee's were the first two blogs I ever followed way back when I started blogging in late 2009.

Disco graciously accepts molestation from total strangers

(It was the craziest thing, I made an Instagram post and tagged her in it, and then she APPEARED AT THE SHOWGROUNDS like I summoned her Beetlejuice-style.)

Possibly most important to me out of anything,  I was amazed at how well my five-year-old stallion handled the atmosphere. Sure, I know he's been showing since he was five months old and has shown three different disciplines in two countries now, but you still never know. 

He went around in a flat/knotted halter all weekend, drank water like a champ, and caused several people to do double-takes and look underneath him after learning he wasn't a gelding. 

 

He was looky, sure, and a bit backed off at times in the warmup ring when these massive warmbloods rode close to us, but he was far and away a better show horse than Connor was at his first show, which is saying something, because Connor's always been pretty top notch.

His behavior in particular makes me so excited for what we can achieve together. He's just always ready to go to work, and I so appreciate that about him.

One more Waterloo post - riding takeaways next! 

My incompetence at reading a show bill saved my bacon bright and early on Saturday when the show office asked if they could move my 8:00am ride to 11:00am so we could do my pony class measurements at 10:00am. I couldn't believe my ears and felt like I hit the lottery with that one!

We had to do a jog for measurements which was a new one for me.

I ended up needing the time, as I had some fits and starts with braiding. The sewn-in braids I always did with Connor predictably did not work with Disco, and I switched to a running braid technique I had only ever practiced three braids of once. It ended up working really well, and I'll probably write a whole post on that at some point. 

This is a RUNNING BRAID. I'm still amazed. It wasn't too bad for my first attempt at it, although I'm me, so there are definitely improvements I want to do next time.

Kate had the genius idea of entering the same test for all four rides that weekend to really set us up for success. Even still, I'm not at all ashamed to admit that I waved the white flag of adult amateurism hard all weekend, and Kate was very gracious about it. 

Kate read my tests for me and videod at the same time, off of the same phone, AND showed her own Castleberry horse (Belgian WBx Castleberrys Opportunity Knox). I actually don't know how she did it.

 

For that first test, I had her warm him up for me (I actually didn't know you could do that in Dressage until Kate offered!) and for the first time, I saw that First Level horse she told me she had schooling at home. He was a completely different horse from when I rode him, and it brought into stark relief just how much my own riding would need to improve after I take him home in October. In a good way.

 

Pictured: potato riding

 

I also had Kate read alllllllll four of my Training 2 tests. My old trainer would have died of embarrassment, but I was incapable of embarrassment over that. The mental odds were very much stacked against me, and I was going to take every chance I got to offload some stress and ride to the best of my abilities.

This post is long enough, so I'm going to summarize the first three tests (with scores in the mid-upper 50's) as follows:

1. Baby horse does the thing
2. The canter aid is kick and pray right?
3. "Canter surprise", also, OMG there are HORSES OVER THERE DID YOU KNOW THAT

 

Kate had put a sophisticated canter aid on him (lifting the inside seatbone) that I am more or less physically incapable of doing on my weak side, which I demonstrated by doing leg lifts in the tack stall after the first test. As a result, the canter transitions were a bit of an adventure all weekend even though with Kate he picks it up wonderfully, and he never misses leads with either one of us.

That fourth test, though.

    4. Redemption

I went into the ring feeling confident we could put it all together, and we did exactly that. The showgrounds were a bit quieter, Disco was feeling properly bored, and Kate had helped us to a breakthrough with the canter transition in the warmup.

I had realized I actually haven't ridden many trot-canter transitions over the years. 5-year-old Connor came preinstalled with a walk-canter transition so good, I wasn't motivated to do much with the trot-canter. After I said that, Kate had me ask for walk-canters as if he was an educated horse, and the canter transitions got SO much better, even if they did have a few steps of trot in there.

More on this in the recap post, but "stop riding him like the barely broke baby you dropped off three months ago" was A Theme this weekend.

We ended up scoring a 62%+, and I told him he won the Olympics.

Takeaways post to come!