It's beginning to look a lot like...

I am probably the worlds worst blogger and I feel like I may have opened a post with that previously, my apologies.
D currently has an abscess (again) but he is quite amazing when it comes to soaking his foot in the bucket hardly ever taking it out.
Otherwise we have been working on cantering without me feeling like he is going to explode. This does mostly rest with me because he is doing a lovely job and doesn't look nearly as huge as he feels. We are also working on cantering in a straight line which is quite different when we've been in a circle for quite a while.
I have a lot of questions regarding D and his blindness. We recently had to put him on a weight gain supplement because regardless of how much he eats he needed some additional weight. He of course started to fill out as soon as I got it, but his body structure and stance have changed a lot.
D tilts his head to the side most of the time which is cute and makes him appear to be processing whatever amazing thing you just said but its a change.
He is bony and has weird edges but its not because he is skinny it has something to do with the way he stands. Maybe he is atrophying??
Do the blindness and his weight have a connection? Is this what happens to horses with bilateral uveitis? How does one keep a horse in motion, etc... when he only moves with you on him or working him from the ground? Many of these questions are more of just my brain processing and don't really have an answer but these are the random things I think about and not just at night. :)
I love my horse but I wish I knew more about what is happening to him...

His leg all healed up now :)

Patiently waiting for his foot to finish soaking...

Autumn is in the air

  It's the beginning of Autumn today. I love Autumn!! If I am ever blessed with a daughter this will probably be her name. I'm not sure why but I love the smells, the crunching of leaves, the need to wear sweaters, boots and scarves. Its the perfect weather to ride your horse in, the bugs are fading and its not so stifling.
  This morning it was still about 82 degrees but there is a promise of fall weather in the air. My neighbors have been burning wood for the past several days and I love walking out at O:dark thirty on my way into work and smelling the remnants of their fireplace wonder. :)
For D and I fall means more energy, less bugs and the challenge of managing my work schedule with his need for work. We no longer have the worry of riding in the dark as long as its not too cold for me. One of the silver linings of riding a blind horse.
  D has had to adjust to less rides but he is handling it well. He lets me know in quite lovely ways that he needs to run and as long as I listen and give him an avenue for getting his energy out I don't go flying through the air. If I don't listen it can get messy. Arguing with your horse is not something I recommend no matter how excellent a rider you are. It just gets silly.
  D has been getting a lot of scrapes as of late and the nasty one from the beginning of August is STILL healing but through it all he proves that his eyes can be treated all I want but he will complain about every other treatment.
  We are working over ground poles again and every so often I feel like we can do it at a canter, we shall see. Somedays he is very balanced and all things in the universe are clicking well and other times we have to walk a lot so that he can refocus and remember that balance is essential.
   Just as balance is essential for my horse, it is essential for me as well. 99.9% of the reason D can manage his energy is because as his rider I am balanced and focused and okay with whatever he delivers because honestly that's all I can ask for, right?
   Enjoy the Autumn- its beautious!!

Go Big

Demetrias will be 13 in January which means he's kinda like a 19 year old guy- at least that's how I process the way he acts :) My horse never does anything half way, if he is going to wipe out, we'll go all the way. If he spooks there will be a lot of back leg action or he'll attempt to take out a fence. And yes, he still cannot see...

This past week D took a pretty good chunk out of his right front leg (inside). We're pretty sure he did it with his left leg somehow scraping the shoe against his right leg. My horse is calm and usually willing to do whatever I ask, however if he has an injury that is not his eyes he is sort of a baby about it. We can put anything on or by his eyes, he gets that I guess, but any part if his body?? Major drama...

Here is what I have learned about my horse though- grass takes care of almost all wiggling.
No matter how injured you are good manners still must come through ( he is 1200 pounds, lets be serious).
No matter how gross the injury and how much it looks like something from Sweeney Todd, it will heal and is so not as big a deal as what we have already been through.

This summer has been busier than I anticipated but D and I have learned a lot about each other and trusting. I have asked him to work multiple times with more than 2 days off. And you know what? Most of the time he handles it just fine.

Lots of rain requires that my horse really lifts his feet and pays attention, if he doesn't we fall. Neither of us enjoy this but it teaches him quicker than my voice commands and we move on.
Whinnying constantly still makes no sense to me but rather than fussing I am figuring out how to channel his energy and in a sense distract him from whatever he finds so worthy of chatting about.

Understanding, teamwork, trust... they take time and only he and I can do it. That means that when we struggle we must figure it out but it also means that when it clicks. We have completely come together. Riding is a partnership that leaves no room for ego. D and I can go from together to an absolute mess in a matter of seconds... no idea why but I know that together he and I will figure it out. After all that's what this is supposed to be about.... right?!

LOVE this picture!!!

Second day, Saturday, now swollen

Swollen kid :(

First look, Friday morning

Sunday, puss is actually a good thing....

Summer Time...
I love summer because it allows me more time to ride. I hate summer though because of the heat and amount of bugs that both D and I have to ward off. The difference for us in the summer though is that my schedule stays relatively the same my stress level however, does not.

D and I have been working on balance. Seems like we should have that all together now, right? We've been working for awhile and cantering and all that but his crookedness has come back out it seems because we are working harder. That's my theory anyhow. So we are back to leg yields and trying to keep his body in a straight line rather than a S curve- so much easier said than done.

Just like with people, working in the wrong position hurts a lot. But putting your body back into the correct position also hurts and is rather hard.

Last week D had his second group lesson and it did not go exactly as I had hoped. He has been riding with other horses in the ring the majority of the time but lessons had been private and on Mondays when the barn is closed. We've moved him back into Wednesday night lessons with 2-3 other horses. The first week he managed himself quite well despite all the distractions. Last week he started off well and then had a moment. That moment involved taking off and hitting the fence but managing to stay up right in the swerve. We worked through it, I did not get off but it wasn't our best. That's okay.

The leg yields have been our home work this week. And as is the case sometimes home work is fine. D has energy and wants to run. But lack of balance translates into times of falling over because eventually a slant will cave.  I don't like when he falls but it doesn't freak me out the same way anymore, either... he gets up and tries again and is usually slightly better at listening the second time around, which is always helpful.

D has never had the option of not working. He wants to work and has never hesitated (unless of course he thought a goat was in front of him:) ).  Summer time provides him with a slightly less stressed rider and a bit more consistency to work on what balances us...

Spring Fever

I have to remember, I have to remember that my horse is a 12 year old thoroughbred and while the majority of the time he behaves. Sometimes, he doesn't.
Yesterday was one such day. No matter what I did, how I distracted him he would not settle into work. D has this new habit of whinnying. Most of the time this is when he is wanting out of work, bored or feeling alone.
My blind horse who is still shaky on his feet when not concentrating carried on to the the point that I had to do a flying dismount. He then proceeded to run and call out for the next 20 minutes.
Here is what I learned- I really really just wanted to ride my horse yesterday and no amount of cajoling or "tough" riding could correct his behavior.
My horse, while handicapped, is still young and has the desire to run in his blood. As I was sitting on his back I was looking for him to respond as my partner, to remember who was on his back but all thoughts of working with me and cooperating were at the back of his mind.
D is my horse
We are partners
But instinct will ALWAYS trump training... I think this is what took over my horse yesterday.
I am looking for a better ride tomorrow, after all, we have a canter to perfect.

Schedules

As a teacher D will go days in a row sometimes without getting any work due to my hectic "after work" commitments. This week, being spring break means that he will see me nearly every day. I am not sure that it makes a ton of difference for him but it is good for me. he does like getting to graze so much though. :)

I am doing a "stay-cation" this spring break which is mostly my choice :) but being at the barn provides my outing for the day, my workout and my chance to interact with the people I like best.

A few weeks ago Kim started D and I back on canter work. This is sometimes really easy and other times it is a balance in riding a freight train. :) D loves to canter and has a lovely one if we transition as we should and not as bronc riders. If we start in a way that I can balance him which mostly means setting him up right and getting out of his way. It also helps that he lets me guide him rather than trotting so quickly afterwards so that he can pull himself into another round.

Cantering for D and I right now does not last very long, it does not cover the whole ring, it is a very short happening. But the point right now is the transition- are we being sane about it? Is he listening to my commands or on the forehand? When I ask him to bring it down can I immediately relax my grip in his reins or is he prancing?

Blind horses aren't suppose to canter, its too hard to balance them or they won't do it- has been said. If D isn't listening it is hard to balance him but that is also true at the walk. There has not been one single thing that I have asked D to do that he has refused... so we have a blind horse cantering.

Somedays we don't canter because he is anticipating. Sometimes I can only do one direction. Other times I can go both directions and do several transitions with my boy immediately walking around with his reins at the buckle- that is the goal.

But sometimes our schedules do not coincide. I am too busy and tired to get the appropriate response from him. Sometimes he has had 2-3 days off and just needs to run no matter how sleepy he looked in the cross ties while tacking up.

But for now, we do the best we can with the schedule we can carve out which means some rides are brilliant and others remind me that we are re-learning what it means to work when things are unseen.

Its February!!

Once again too much time has lapsed between posts. Ridiculous, I know... its been a bit chilly and rainy here in SC but we had an amazing day on Saturday so I feel as if I can complain nearly 70 degrees in February, woot woot.

D has been moving on pretty steadily. We've had some excellent lessons. Our most recent one will probably save my legs since Kim identified how I was holding him up too much and if I eased back on my reins he would have to reach for them and therefore balance himself. Since she is a genius instructor (person in general) this of course worked, saving my knees and legs and producing a really excellent big stride in my horse that did not involve him being on the forehand. It was amazing!!

In other news, he and Ayla seem quite happy in the pasture. She tolerates him and does look after him and so the companionship seems to suit. D has been by himself so it doesn't affect him much and Julian still comes down to the fence to hang out with him. :)

Grace has moved on. You'll see from the photo that she really grew up in a year. We hadn't been able to use her the way we hoped due to logistics and then there were just too many things that wanted to eat her. The opportunity arose for her to go to an actual goat farm and so we took it. We've been told that she is happy and has lots of friends, so we have an ending of an experiment but we never counted on being able to use Ayla as a companion so that has been cool.

One thing that D has been doing to me a lot lately is psyching me out. I have been having a time of it riding him consistently with my work schedule and even when he has only gone a day or two I am having a hard time gaging his energy level. Sometimes he is fine and other times even if he was worked the day before the boy just wants to run. When he communicates this with me by spinning I am less than thrilled but honestly when I get off and let him run, he is silly happy. My goal is to continue to learn his body so that I can avoid his spins since they are not my favorite and constantly re-injure my hand... but I prefer that over flipping through the air.

This week we were working really well and I got excited and decided to let him canter. I love to canter and D has a pretty amazing one but often leads his transition with a buck, just depends. Plus, balancing D at the canter is quite challenging. Not just for D, for any horse, the rhythm is quicker and a little different for the rider as far as leg work. Plus, D's answer to any feeling of unbalance is to go faster. This is not always a great combo but I was feeling pretty good about life and his level of listening so I asked him for it. We had the hugest buck, ever, all 4 fee left the ground... and ya know what? I didn't go anywhere. BUT the only one who saw it was one of the lesson girls and well, I'm not sure it aided her thoughts while on Choo :) This was one of those bucks that required a camera and validation. Ahh well, I stayed on and was laughing- silly horse. It also required him needing some time to get that energy out next ride.

D is still extremely unbalanced at times and some rides go better than others but he is maintaining. He looks good and is quite happy despite bright yellow dots in his eyes and we look forward to summer which means more time for rides however, we are not looking forward so much to the bugs. :) My horse is constantly teaching that our partnership is so much more than the riding. Its about our time together, the journey we are on and what we learn about each other as we forge ahead.

2012- New beginnings...

I am quite possibly the world's worst blogger but since this is mostly for my memory, hopefully I'm not keeping anyone hanging. :)

Demetrias is about to be 12, we've been partners nearly three years. Uveitis has taken a good portion of the last two but we are getting the hang of riding blind.

Demetrias now has a pasture buddy. Miss Ayla is our amazing master school pony and is great company for D.

We have been working over poles as of late and somedays he is amazing to the point that you'd never know he can't see what he is stepping over. I have a lot of things to remember and it is amazing how hard going over two poles in a circle is.

D and I are a team and on days when I expect him to be crazy he amazes me with his desire to work and concentrate on the task at hand. D is MORE than dealing with his lack of sight.