From Halt to Salute

Sorry for the delay in posting, but it has been rather busy the past few days. First, I would like to say that I am now officially done with finals week, and so spring break is calling my name!

And now, here is an account of my past few days with Monty, who, I’m sure many of you know, has a penchant for trouble and is constantly devising ways to give me a heart attack. Horses…

Friday

This was supposed to be a relaxing day, and I had already planned out that I was going to throw the double on Monty and hack around the property. He had other ideas. At about 9:30 in the morning I get a call from the barn saying that Monty had somehow cast himself into the fence, with his hind legs in the wire, and was trembling all over. They were able to flip him over pretty easily and Monty slowly got to his feet and seemed rather tired and weak. 

There were a few good things about this scenario and a few bad things.

Good things: 1) Whenever Monty gets stuck, which I sadly must admit has been a few times too many, he never really struggles. He will simply stand there, or in this case, eventually lay there, and wait for someone to rescue him. He is very patient and displays a remarkable amount of trust in his human companions. 2) He was not cut up and didn’t have a single hair missing. 3) He was stiff, but as far as we could tell, not lame. 4) That he was found so quickly - he couldn’t have been stuck for any more than 30 minutes.

Bad things: 1) That he was stuck in the first place and I could feel my ulcer coming to life as soon as I got the phone call! 2) That he was definitely stiff behind and a bit uncomfortable. 3) How in the hell did he get there in the first place!?

All of this aside, we had the vet come out to check him over and make sure he was okay. They couldn’t find anything wrong with him, and sent Monty off with a shot of banamine for the stiffness. As we contemplated ways in which Monty could have found himself cast against the fence we came up with seizure, narcolepsy, or, maybe he just laid down by the fence, went to roll, and caught himself in an unfortunate circumstance.

At this point, I have no idea what happened. He was oddly twitchy when I brought him in later in the day and had a slightly glazed over, unaware look in his eye. However, when I put him back outside he wasted no time in chasing his buddy around, rolling in the mud multiple times, and having a general good time. It is at this point in my life that I ask myself why I didn’t just get into dog showing…

In all, the events of that day are a mystery. I am hoping that it was an isolated incident, just an accident, and that it will never happen again. I have been trying to figure ways that I can ensure this will never happen again, but there are no promises with horses.

Saturday

I gave him some bute and just brushed and grazed him. Everything appeared normal today, so I did throw him on the line for a minute to see if he looked sound, and he did!! So, I told myself I would ride him very lightly on Sunday to see if he was actually sound.

Sunday

I got on him in the afternoon, not really knowing what to expect. Much to my surprise and great joy, he felt 100% sound. He was happy and forward and left off where we ended on my last ride.

All I wanted to do with him was some stretchy, deep work to loosen him up and let his muscles relax and become supple. He was more than willing to oblige, but he makes sure that I never forget, that above all, he is an overachiever. If I wanted to have him deep on a 20 meter circle, he kept offering me more, and more and more! I think our conversation went something like this, in the span of 15 minutes.

“Are you sure you only want this? How about a little more collection? Passage maybe? Really, are you kidding, this is it?” - All that I wanted was a deep, relaxed trot. And then we moved to the canter.

“Oh finally, the canter! How about that pirouette canter, we were working on that last time! No? Do want changes then? You MUST want changes! Oh, just a long side in the canter? That’s okay, I can change on the long side. No? What do you mean no? Why aren’t you asking me for anything!?”

We finished our ride with a very relaxed, although confused, horse. And our canter? Even though I wasn’t asking him for anything, his back was so relaxed, and his stride was long with excellent hind leg separation  - I couldn’t have been happier.

Monday

I had a pretty quick ride on Monday - it is finals week for me and I had one final on Monday and two on Tuesday that I needed to prepare for. 

Monty was fabulous! Forward, relaxed, supple and I think we had some of the best canter work we’ve ever done! He gave me a tremendous medium canter that climbed in front of me, instead of doing the normal rolling over his shoulder gig. He was so uphill in the canter, that the changes were easy, easy! I had a few counting mistakes on the tempis, but he reacted to every aid appropriately and promptly with straight, clean changes. All in all, it was a super schooling session.

I have been trying to figure out how to upload some of the videos I have from the Conrad clinic, but I haven’t been able to make it work. I’ll keep trying, and hopefully I will be able to get some new video of us soon!

Tip of the day: Go hug your horses and give them a carrot - everything can change in one second. And if you have been wanting to do something, take a lesson, go to a clinic, or go to a horse show, just do it! There are no guarantees, and if your horse is sound and happy right now, that doesn’t mean it will be like that in a week or even a few days. Just make the commitment and have fun!