First Day Out

I turned Aspire out in one of the pastures for the first time since she's been at Ginny's.  I think she'll really like it and hopefully it will alleviate some of her tension.  She's been pacing the fence every time the other horses go out of her sight, even if they're in the next corral over but around the corner... I don't like to see her stressed and worried about being alone, but hopefully it will be a good experience overall for her if she can figure out she won't die each time the other horses are gone. 

Here are some photos of her in the field.  She barely got through the gate before diving into the grass :)

Forgot to mention...

I forgot to mention that yesterday we also worked on changes of direction and transitions and she did awesome! She was really starting to look for me to step out/back and invite her in to switch directions or lifting my "whoa hand" with the stick in it and cuing her to slow down.  She's not got it 100% yet, but I bet she'll have it in another couple days.  Woo hoo!

Moving Aspire and New Injuries

I moved Aspire on Saturday to her new home.  She did great loading, even before I asked her to get in she offered to step right up.  I sold my trailer the night before so this was a trailer she'd never seen before, so in addition to her limited loading experiences she had a new variable thrown in there and still did great.  She loaded and unloaded twice really nicely before I shut the center gate and let her haul loose (like I normally do).  After we pulled away is when she began circling and pacing in the trailer.  Could have been either because we were leaving her friends or because the motion/noise was a strong stimulant... or both.  When we arrived at Ginny's (the woman who owns the new place) she wasn't too sure about unloading, but after letting her look around a bit and throwing a handful of beautiful grass down in the drive just outside the trailer she was more than happy to unload.

I put her up in a corral where she'll be for a couple days until she settles in a bit and we make sure the hot wire is running through all the pastures before turning her out.  Today was the first day I got to really play with her since she's been there.  I took her out and hand grazed her for almost two hours before moving to the round pen for some play time.  It was really nice to have a level round pen with good footing to play in.  It desperately needs a weeding as it catches all my ropes and stuff while we're in there but it's a lovely set up. 

I turned her loose to just see what would happen if I sent her on a circle at liberty.  She definitely is an extrovert!! She went right into a trot and had no trouble cranking out a handful of laps before even changing the look on her face a little.  She wasn't panicked but she was moving!  When I looked at her hips she swung right around and faced me and came right in the middle to stand with me!! She was then stuck to me like glue!  I didn't expect it to go that great at our first real liberty session so I tried a few different things.  We got hindquarter and forequarter turns, a yo-yo (with a good bring back!), and sideways.  I was really impressed!  I then flagged her for a bit and introduced the saddle.  I've only played with the saddle twice before I think for a few minutes, letting her sniff it, walk between me and it, around it, etc.  Today I introduced it to her and then offered to throw it over her back and for the first time set it all the way on her! Very exciting.  She really wasn't terribly concerned about it, I even yanked it and let it fall of by her side with no issue at all.  Oh and we did some flagging in motion on the circle which was really difficult for her the last time or two I tried it and she was perfect!

I came back out for a second time today just to see her, the novelty of having her within a bike ride of my house hasn't worn off yet.  :)  She hadn't touched a lick of hay I left from this morning and I realized (as evidenced by the path she'd worn in the dirt) that she'd been pacing the fence all day since her horsey neighbors in the next pen got turned out sometime that afternoon.  I must have startled her or something as I walked over to her corral because she took off at mach-10 down the fence, turned hard left, lost her footing, and slid right into the fence and fell.  All four feet went through the hog wire (square holed panels) that line the very bottom of the corral to keep dogs in/out.  I didn't even know what to think except 'please don't start kicking!!'  I went over as calmly as possible because she couldn't see me from where I had to approach from, talking to her the whole way.  I climbed over the fence and worked her legs back through the square holes and tucked her nose back through as well.  She didn't panic, didn't kick, didn't even get up.  She didn't look like she was in shock like she did when Phoenix ran her through the fence, just maybe unsure of what to do next... I don't know.  But finally did did get up, kicking one hind leg through as she did, and yanking it back out hard enough to earn another cut.  She has a few nicks on her legs, one on her muzzle, and one up high by her udder that wasn't from that fall as it already looked maybe a day old (no idea how she did that!).  What is with this little horse getting hurt?? 

The main issue, besides the fact I don't like her stressed/scared/getting hurt is that at this place there is something called Clostridium in the dirt.  I don't know which strain it is yet, but I hear it is somewhat prevalent in the area meaning it could be at other places too and the property owners just aren't aware.  It's an anaerobic bacteria that lives in the dirt and the horses contract it through wounds and in some cases ingestion.  It's most common in a puncture wound, or perhaps even under a flap of skin, where oxygen isn't present in the body to kill it.  Only one horse has died from it out there in almost 30 years, but I'm still very cautious of it.  I've been washing out her cuts (she got some strange cut Saturday afternoon too) and applying Vetericyn to them for now.  I guess ointments can make it worse by inhibiting oxygen to the wound - which makes sense.  If a horse gets the bacteria in its system it's generally fatal every time... I'm still doing more research on preventative measures, handling open wounds in that environment, and early clinical signs of infection. 

Anyway, here are some photos that I took of her the first day at Ginny's in her new corral, and one from today of her smelling her saddle in the round pen after we were all done playing.  I wish I had someone else taking these shots or some video for me...maybe soon!  If any of you reading this have info on Clostridium I'd love to see it! 

Updates!

So it's been a LONG time since I've written about Aspire. So much has happened with me lately, including graduating from college and starting a new job, that I haven't spent much time with Spy...the rainy, dreary weather hasn't helped either.

As far as her cuts from the barbed wire, she's healing really, really well! You can barely tell she flipped through a fence at all, with the exception of one or two remaining scabs. I am SO pleased with how fast she's healed and with minimal scarring...and so thankful still that the accident wasn't worse.

I've made the decision to move her from where she's at now to a new place in town. I have been torn with the idea of trying to reconcile Aspire and Phoenix and not messing with it to avoid any future accident. I just don't think I could ever feel fully comfortable with them together, unsupervised...even if we could help them get along in the arena with some flaggers and such. I love where she's at now, but with the fencing we just put up to allow some of the pasture to grow for hay, the horse area is much smaller and we have to keep the horses off it for most of the day. Before we could have one group on the pasture with the other in the arena so Spy and Phoenix never had to be together. But now we'll only be able to have horses on the pasture for 6 hours a day, meaning everyone has to be in the arena together... The new place I've found is close enough I can ride my bike too (yay!) and she'll have access to lots of pasture during the day and be in a pen at night. It's right near the fairgrounds and it has a round pen. The only draw back is that she'll be kept by herself, which isn't ideal...but we'll see how it goes.

Today I trimmed her feet and she did a lot better than last time. She let me hold her feet up for a lot longer and wasn't so fidgety which was nice. The more we do it the more each of us will get better - me at nipping and her at holding still.

I also did some stuff on the ground with her today. Worked on jumping around like a maniac, jumping jacks, stumbling around, etc - just being loud with my body and with zero intent. Also sent her on a circle in the round pen for two laps and got a really nice bring back at liberty. Then...our big thing was having her "park" next to the fence and I sat on her!! Not for very long, and with one leg and one warm on the panel so I didn't risk safety if she panicked or needed to leave. The ground was really uneven and I think with feeling my weight for the first time on the really terrible/uneven footing she just felt weird and shifted around a lot. I just rubbed her and got off, put her back in position, then lifted and lowered myself over her, rubbed with my leg, etc, sat on her, got up, on, off, rub, etc. She did really well. I am excited to see how she progresses and at what speed. I didn't anticipate doing a lot of the things we've done thus far, yet on the other hand there are a lot of things I didn't think would be so challenging for her that have turned out to be rather difficult (i.e., the circling game). Such a fascinating horse - I just hope I am good enough for her!

I've been trying to decide what focus I should have for us and what discipline or two I'd like to 'specialize' in with her and I'm torn between dressage/jumping and maybe some western sports like break away roping (I need to learn to rope first :), trail classes, ranch versatility, or WP... I want to do everything!

First Trim

Aspire has been doing really well the past few days minus a lot of herd bound behavior she's exhibiting anytime we rotate horses in the pen/pasture around her.

She quickly came around to the idea of letting me jump up and down next to her as if I'm going to mount and let me do jumping jacks next to her. She's starting to identify more clearly my neutral body language, my obnoxious but still means nothing body language (i.e., jumping jacks), and my 'attention please, we're doing something now' body language.

I trimmed her front feet by myself today. I've never done that before and I can see how it could build some pretty impressive hand muscles. Spy isn't quite good enough for me to trust putting her hoof between my knees (I don't like the idea of her rearranging my lady parts if she panicked) so I had to hold her hoof in one hand and operate the nippers in the other hand. Not the easiest thing, but doable. I decided to make this experience a big Friendly Game. I took her out to a nice grassy area and rubbed her all over, rubbed her legs, and then began by picking up her foot, holding it for a minute, putting it down. Then picking out her hoof and putting it down. Finally I prepared to take my first nip - which was admittedly more challenging than I anticipated. It took me about an hour, partially because I was still developing my one-handed nipping skills, and partially because I wanted her to not get worried and did a lot of rubbing her legs and letting her graze in between. I could tell when I got too focused on her foot that she could feel the pressure from me and began trying to wander away from me toward the other horses. It turned out to actually be really relaxing for both of us I think. She even did well with all the dogs and the goat running around her like crazy. She's really coming around nicely.

I'm trying to find a junk-y saddle to use to toss on her and let fall of, let her paw it, etc. I think she's pretty close to being ready to get all tacked up, she's even taking a rope in her mouth for my bridling simulations. I would like to put up the round pen before attempting to saddle her, that way in case something goes wrong she can't get away in a big arena with a saddle on if she freaks out and I can be there to be a leader for her and help bring her back and connect. I'd like to get someone to video or photograph for this day so look for pictures!

Also, our circles are going great - she's consistently able to maintain a walk on a circle unless she's already upset about something. A round pen again will really help with this so she doesn't try and pull out on the circle if she gets going fast and we can work on speed/emotional control and not yielding to the halter (and not dirt skiing) at the same time.

New Photos

Some friends meeting Spy during graduation weekend.



Aspire & her sheep, Gyro.






Yielding toward me.






Contemplating the jump.



The alternative way to cross the barrels.












Touch It Pattern.







Pick up your foot!



Put it down.










Play time is over.



Watering the sheep.

Day 8

Update photos on Aspire's cuts. All the swelling and heat appears to be gone now!!! Also a picture of how she's shedding out beautifully with dapples and one of her investigating my medical crate. :)