He's a Tough Old Boot

A few weeks ago we had a heatwave that was packed with extremely high humidity.  The heat index was 105 one of those days.  The temperature also significantly jumped up from where it was when the heatwave started.

Wes isn't a fan of the heat.  1.  He's Canadian and 2.  he has always lived where there was a real winter.  The south Georgia heat wasn't the most comfortable climate for him.  He would be sweating before the sun came up and at one point he began to lose some weight and it was a little tough to get weight back on him.  We thought that what we were seeing then may have been the beginning of the end.  I thought we had maybe began to see the point where an older horse begins to fade by becoming a hard keeper and going downhill from there.

There was never any other issue with him though.  Mentally he is fine, he hasn't gone senile at all.  He's a bit stiff but Pentosan Gold keeps him loosened up and after years working his whole life, it was par for the course.  He has all his teeth, in fact, when he got them done earlier this year the dentist was surprised that he still has 75% surface left at his age (27).  He eats fine, he gets up and down fine.

When we came up to New Jersey we saw an immediate change in him.  All of sudden the weight came back and he was his shiny, dappled self by spring.  It was clear that taking him out of the heat turned the clock back on him probably because the constant load on his system decreased so much.

The point of all of this is that it is a known fact that heat and humidity combined are not his friend.  That type of environment is hard on any big horse.  The heat can be handled, it is the combination of high humidity and heat that is the problem.  The day the heat wave started Wes seemed to be having a little trouble breathing.  His breathing was just slightly labored.  He was sweating, eating, drinking, pooping, and bossing Mochs so we just tried to keep him as cool as we could.  He was hosed off several times a day, had a big barrel fan in front of him, got alcohol baths, hydration hay, cold beer in his dinner at night, alcohol baths, and extra electrolytes.  He seemed a bit lethargic but that also could very easily have been a result of the heat too.

They insist on hanging out in a stall together some days.

He recently blew a nasty abscess out of the top of his left foot too.  No idea what could have caused it but it was in the same foot as last time only on the other side of the foot.  He also had a really gross tick bite that had gotten swollen.  Both of those were healed by this time though. The Other Half suggested that maybe his system was just a bit taxed lately from getting over the abscess and was trying to catch up.

He seemed to feel a bit better, and never got worse with his breathing.  By the end of the week all four legs stocked up and he seemed a little out of it, but still being his normal self beyond that with his daily routine.  He did start to go off his dinner a little bit at the end of the week but was still eating his hay.  The heatwave broke, with the humidity dropping significantly and the temperature dropping enough to feel a difference.

Wes perked up, his legs all went down, he was back on his dinner grain but then after a couple days the slightly labored breathing came back, even with standing under the fan in his stall all day.  At this point I knew something else was going on, he also began to lose weight.  I took his temperature and it was just slightly elevated.  The vet came out the next day and couldn't find anything obvious.  She did some breathing tests and listened to everything and there were no significant findings but she agreed something was off with him.  She pulled blood and by late afternoon we had the results.

He had Anaplasmosis and was getting over it on his own.  I was relieved on one hand because we had an answer and the treatment is easy and effective.  On the other hand I felt horrible because on its own Anaplasmosis sucks, but in a heatwave too?  His changes just perfectly coincided with the heatwave and since we knew his history with that type of climate we had every reason to believe it was some type of heat stress.  If this would have happened in cooler weather the vet would have been called the first day.

Both of the mares have had it here.  Mochs acted like she was on her death bed and wouldn't move or eat.  Klein had our first November here.  The only reason I knew something was up with her was because it was November, and I noticed some odd breathing while we were standing in the pasture.  She wasn't doing anything and it was cool out, there was no reason for this breathing.  She was still eating, drinking and acting completely normal.  I took her temperature and it was 105.9.  The vet was there within an hour.

We did the typical Doxycycline treatment even it was on its way out, we wanted to make sure he kicked it.  All is well now and he is out running around with his womens and trying to boss Mochs like usual.  I cannot believe he just "got over it on his own."  He is a tough old man.  Anaplasmosis tried to kick his ass and he fought it off.

The Other Half said he told me so about the "that tick thing."  He said that was his guess, and it was right.

Wrong Again

Photo Credit:  Sherry Jankowsky

Ms. B just keeps getting better and better.  There was a short period of time where she started to back off from contact and not want to go forward at times when I would ask her to trot.  She doesn't do things like that for no reason.  She was trying to tell me something.  She was in a Boucher for dressage work and a french link three ring for anything else.  She doesn't need them.  They were a bit much for her.  At first she seemed to really like them but over time she started to kind of bounce off of them.

She isn't the kind of horse that wants to rip your arms out.  She doesn't need much.  I put her back in the french link full cheek and she immediately came into the contact and was seeking it.  She even has a little foam going on with it.  She went better than she ever has as soon as I made the switch.  One evening she had the best canter work yet.  The Other Half was there that evening and at one point I had to stop and sit there for a minute and gather my thoughts because I just had one of those "I'm so happy with this horse I might just fall off right now" moments.

She is coming back and lengthening in the trot now and completely understands the concept of a half halt and immediately responds.  Her canter cues are sinking in.  I used to have to stay off her back more and really get her organized before asking her, and if she broke at the canter I would have to kind of get her re-organized and then continue.  Now I am sitting and asking for the canter and she goes.  If she breaks, I just immediately ask her to pick it up again and she does.  You will see that in the video below.  The music was from an outdoor party going on by the ring.  We enjoyed having music and can totally see her one day doing a musical freestyle.

A post shared by Stacey C (@jumpingpercheron) on Jun 30, 2018 at 6:20pm PDT

Photo Credit:  Sherry Jankowsky

Photo Credit:  Sherry Jankowsky

Photo Credit:  Sherry Jankowsky

I also recently took her out for her first real adventure on some trails.  We went alone because I had no reason to think she was going to be silly.  She was great.  She really enjoyed herself.  We galloped a bit and she played in the river.  She took a minute to realize that the river was just water.  It is really dark and I think she wasn't sure it was just water.  But once she figured that out, she was splashing around in it and getting in chest deep.

One happy mare out adventuring.

A post shared by Stacey C (@jumpingpercheron) on Jun 24, 2018 at 6:25pm PDT

At first she was a little excited, but by the end she was cruising along on a loose rein.  We were passed by multiple vehicles, people on foot, and people on bicycles.  Nothing bothered her.  We even found Santa Claus...in the middle of the Pine Barrens.  We came around a corner to a plastic Santa in the middle of the trail.  It is probably one of the weirdest things I have ever come across while out riding.  Ms. B just kind of looked at it like "huh, that's dumb" and ignored it.

...Santa?

Ready to go again.

She had also been hanging on to some dead winter coat and was still needing to put a little weight on.  I started to think, oh here it is, here is the ulcery have to feed it like a furnace TB.  Though she has already been treated for ulcers and wasn't displaying anything indicative of it aside from a coat that was still lacking.  She had also been given a PowerPac not too long ago, so I was going to do a fecal to see if maybe we missed something.  Enter soybean oil.  Klein, Mochs, and Wes all get soybean oil on their dinner and have been for years.  So it was worth a try, it's an easy high fat source.
Two weeks later and she had filled out, ditched the last crappy pieces of coat and now looks absolutely amazing.  I honestly have never seen a horse respond so quickly or so noticeably.  So, there we go, foot in mouth.  She proved me wrong AGAIN on one of my TB stereotypes.

And hey, look!  Megan even came to try another horse at the barn so we got to ride together!  It has been way too long since the last time!

She's even good at selfies.  This was a secret selfie The Other Half took one day that I found on my phone.

Her personality just keeps coming out more and more as she learns that she is an individual and not an expendable instrument of income.

A post shared by Stacey C (@jumpingpercheron) on Jul 2, 2018 at 12:20pm PDT

This just cracked me up.  Yes, very classy with the sound effects.

A post shared by Stacey C (@jumpingpercheron) on Jun 25, 2018 at 12:01pm PDT

Photo Credit:  Sherry Jankowsky

This face in the pic above gets me every time.  Every time I come into her sight this is the face I see.  Ears pricked, wondering what we are doing that day.  She is always interested.  When I go out to get her and call her name, she will turn and walk to me with this face.  If she is in when I get there this is the face I see peering out at me.  She is a horse that is present.  She isn't out in lala land wondering what her friends are doing or pouting about maybe getting fed later than normal.  She cares very much about what we are doing and is there to listen, learn and give her all, as long as you are willing to listen to her too.

Here is another great pic by Sherry that captured that face perfectly:

Just FYI, Sherry is a professional photographer (I know, it's obvious through her photos) in the South Jersey area and she does a variety of shoots from Sweet 16's, to weddings and other social gatherings, and everything in between.  If you are in the area and would like her contact info for your event, let me know in the comments.

I think we just got to a really good spot, and I think our progress will take off from here.  She is clearly insanely athletic, and some people are wondering why she's not out jumping 4' courses yet.  We did school some xc, and she was great.  And we have jumped some small stadium jumps.  However, her flat work needs to get better.  How in the world am I going to be able to communicate with her around a course if she doesn't have the basics down?  So, I'm 100% ok with still being on the flat right now.  I have other horses I can jump, and I do.  It doesn't have to be her right now.  I want to give her the respect she deserves and that is to let her tell me when she is ready.

The plan for now is to continue putting in the dressage work and hit some schooling shows soon.  I will also continue taking her to new places to mentally give her a break and let her see some different scenery.  When her dressage work gets more solid she'll start going through grids.

Rated Dressage Debut

Some of you know that I have decided to wander into the rated dressage world with Klein this year.  Klein has just been amazing with her dressage work lately and has seemed to have found a new level of balance.  We're genuinely enjoying ourselves.  I have never done a rated dressage show but after having so much fun with it lately and knowing that the Percheron Horse Association is now part of the USDF All Breed Program again, I decided to make that our goal this year.

But, what about Eventing? What about it?  We've evented for quite a while, all over the country too.  And quite honestly, I'm still just absolutely disappointed in Eventing right now.  I had a little shred of hope that something may change, then the announcement of the Nations Cup U.S. Eventing Team came out the other day.  I also found this blog that Sinead Halpin wrote for The Chronicle last week to be telling:  Prioritizing What Matters While Chasing the Team Dream

Am I still jumping Klein?  Yes.  Regularly.  I'm not saying we won't do some jumpers because we love jumping and that's not going to change at all.  Here's a jump school from a couple weeks ago:

From our ride this afternoon. A lline of 5 one stride verticals set at 3ft? #kleinmaredontcare she could do this all day. That turn to the line is also half of a 10m circle. Her balance is insane these days. All that #dressage work is paying off. #Klein #mare #percheron #shesnotaclydesdale #drafthorse #hearthorse #horseofalifetime #bamf #oghorse #jumping #horsesofinstagram #maresrock #jumpingpercheron #blog #GoPro #helmetcam #grateful #dieliving #dieliving♠️

A post shared by Stacey C (@jumpingpercheron) on Jun 8, 2018 at 11:22am PDT

I'm ready to learn new things.  Klein is limited with eventing.  Training is her limit.  Yeah, I have schooled her at 4' but it is obvious it's much more than that to go out and do a 3 phase.  She can make the time at Training no problem, she can jump all the Training things, Training dressage is definitely no problem.  But, that's her limit, for safety reasons.  Plus, what does she have to prove to anyone?  Nothing.  The fact that she has won recognized HT's at Novice as a full Percheron is ridiculous.  The fact she can school at 4' no problem is also ridiculous.  She does things I could have never dreamed she could do, or would do so incredibly well.

Anyway, the point is, Klein is much, much less limited with dressage and concentrating on dressage right now is in no way, shape, or form saying we're now DQ's.  A couple people have asked like competing seriously in real dressage means Klein is a dressage only horse now.  I'm not sure where you guys get that idea, but that is false.  She is still jumping, she is still galloping, she is not stuck in the sandbox, so calm down.

We had our first rated dressage show last weekend.  We had a great time!  Klein did First 1, First 2, and Dressage Seat Equitation.  She scored a 64% on both tests and a 70% in DSE.  The judge absolutely LOVED us.  In the DSE she said she wanted to take me back to her farm with her as a working student.  She said Klein has incredible balance, a massive amount of potential, and should be piaffing no problem.  Her biggest thing for me to fix was my rein length.  My reins were consistently too long which made for some inconsistent contact here and there. Still, 64% on both tests was fine by me, those are All Breeds qualifying scores, and the DSE score is also a year end award qualifying score.

I also know little things that I could have done better as well and will work on.  Knowing the tests better is one.  While I didn't have any errors, I just feel like if I knew them a bit better I could have been better prepared for some of the movements.  For example, in First 2, as soon as you turn right off the center line the first lengthening starts at M.  I could have prepared her a bit more with a better half halt there but my mind was still turning off the center line.  So, small fixes can clean our scores up.

She ended up winning both tests and DSE at that show.

A few days later we hit our next rated show and did First 1 and First 2.  This show wasn't too terribly far away so I figured we'll just knock out some more rated scores for All Breeds and year end award from the three different organizations we're in.

I should have given her a bit more time to warm up at that show for our first test but we still managed a 63% on First 1.  I think our bend could have been better and so could a couple of our upward transitions.  Normally she doesn't look at much, but something had her attention just slightly (this was a farm neither of us had ever been to before too) during our free walk.  She wasn't completely distracted, but just enough to make our free walk a little inconsistent.  Again, easy fixes, thankfully.  No major issues anywhere.  I felt like she was a bit behind my leg for that test and that was my own fault for not really asking for enough in our warm up.  All this is, is helping me learn my strategy for these shows.

Shortly after that we rode First 2, and scored a 64% on that test.  With that one, our leg yields were lacking a bit of reach.  Again, just a bit behind my leg.  The judge did make a comment on that test that our canter lengthening needed to cover a little more ground, so we'll work on making that happen in our next lesson this week.  While I think our scores can easily be better, I am really happy that I don't walk away from these tests wondering why we got the scores we did or the comments we did.  I can feel what I need to fix, and I can make the adjustments in the warm up between tests.

We were pinned together with the Open riders at that show and we were 1st for our First 1 test and 3rd for First 2.

"If you don't stop taking pictures, and start taking these braids out......."

We're going to continue to collect a few more rated scores before it consistently gets super humid and hot here.  I also wanted to get them done so that I'm not scrambling in the fall to hit certain shows for certain scores.  This way I'll have what we need and we can move on to Second Level.  That will give us time to work more on that and not worry about shows in the hotter months.  I am still being careful with competing her in the hottest months.  The heat and humidity are harder on the bigger horses.  She'll work through the summer but I am very careful about what time of the day she is working at and her work/rest ratio.  Ms. B and Mochs I don't have to worry so much with (note I said so much, aka I still worry and am careful with them too) in the heat.  Mochs was born in South Georgia and lived there the majority of her life, and Ms. B., well, she's a thin skinned TB, she'll be fine.

I also just found a new dressage instructor that I am really excited to be working with.  Not only with Klein, but with Mochs, and Ms. B too.  I think we will learn a ton from her and I can't wait to not only learn, but to apply it and improve/progress.

Teamwork

The Other Half finally came home!  Hopefully he stays for a while this time around.  He ended up helping me with a horse I had just started riding who wanted to give me a dirt nap every time I got on him.  I have no idea what was up with him.  He was pulled from a kill pen so there is no telling what had gone on prior to arriving.  He seemed like a pretty level headed guy, until one day I watched him dump someone within about 10 seconds of them getting on him.  And by dump I mean went full rodeo and was not going to stop until he launched his rider.  He continued to run around bucking after he got rid of his rider too.

There was really no reason for it, well, I mean obviously there IS a reason but nothing obvious.  It wasn't tack, it's not a physical issue.  Any time a new horse arrives at this barn they get the full once over and if ANYTHING and I mean ANY LITTLE THING needs done, it gets done.  Teeth, chiro, injections, weight gain, de-worming, feet, surgery for an injury, etc, etc...  If they need it, they get it immediately.  This guy looked like crap out of the kill pen but now?  Now he's as shiny as a new penny and had a hay belly from enjoying life on some NICE pasture with his new friends.

Following his new BFF in.

Tack fit wasn't an issue, and I highly doubt it was anything physical because he looks great and moves great.  Also, after I saw that massive explosion with the other rider I decided I would start getting on him bareback.  I can sit quite a bit bareback and my main reason behind it is that if he explodes there will be no chance I can get caught up and dragged.  I started riding him before The Other Half got back so I really couldn't take the chance of getting injured because the farm isn't going to take care of itself.  I was alone so I really needed to not be hurt so I could take care of our farm and our horses, and our house, etc...

Even bareback, Romeo had a BIG problem with being asked to go forward to any degree.  Leg or voice, he wasn't having it.  His response was to toss his head and start hopping around.  So, it wasn't tack, it's not physical, and it's also not because he is red (I think the red horse stereotype is a load of b.s. and I refuse to believe it).  I decided to just stay the course with him and walk him around as much as I could after he would try to dump me to show him that, one, nothing bad was going to happen, and two, dumping your rider isn't going to get you anywhere.  He never did manage to launch me though.  He came close to succeeding once, but never did.  And when he would try I would just tell him to quit and ask him to go forward.  I wouldn't get after him because I am 99% sure that would re-light his fuse.

Then The Other Half came home...he has always been the animal whisperer.  I told him what was going on with Romeo and asked him if he would just lead me around on him to see if we could actually get him consistently moving in a straight line around the ring.  It worked.  Though Romeo seemed to immediately approve of The Other Half.  So The Other Half had the idea we should just see if he would follow him around the ring with me on him.  He was totally fine with that too becasue he just REALLY wanted to hang out with The Other Half.  He would play hard to get with me if I had a halter and went out to get him, but The Other Half was able to get him.  Then after a week or two Romeo would come in to The Other Half when he would call him or start walking out to him.

He couldn't have been happier following him around.

In the ring, Romeo was happy to follow him anywhere.  So, for a few rides I let him just follow his new bff.  Gradually the hopping around started to become less and less.  We even had him walking over some cross rails and ground rails, making it into a game for him since he liked to follow The Other Half anywhere.  The Other Half would start off walking next to us, then he would just walk off and let us go and Romeo was finally relaxed and listening to me.  He would let me put my leg on and if he stopped, instead of having a fit when I asked him to move forward, he just moved forward.

Romeo taking a carrot from The Other Half's mouth!

I really believe that his problem was that someone was rough with him in his prior life.  My theory is that someone rode him with some big spurs on and would jab the hell out of him and that is why he had such an issue with any amount of leg.  I never rode him with spurs either.  It just took him a bit to realize that whoever that person was, wasn't in his life anymore and that he could stop expecting bad things from us.

I'm happy to say that Romeo has found a happy home as a trail horse, which I think he will enjoy very much.  If anything doesn't work out, he comes back to that barn, which The Other Half wouldn't mind.  I think Romeo has found just where he belongs as a trail horse that can happily lumber along and relax.