Not much

Not much has been going on with Jen, or here for that matter. I've been working, working, working, and no time for horses other than feeding, cleaning, trimming, and loving on them. Jen is doing well, is happy in her herd, and still continues to gain weight more than 18 months later. Jen still fancies herself a Southern Belle. She is cold on these chilly New England fall nights, and I found her shivering twice on mornings when the temp. was around 35. She still dissipates heat as if she were a warm-weather gal. So she is getting the benefit of a light blanket on the chilly evenings for now until she grows more of a winter coat.

Here are a couple of not that great photos from today.

Jen has had a couple of more rides this past month. She is very eager for her turn to get to play. Mandy tacked her up with no problems, other than her bracing and getting worried when girthing up. I suspect that will take a good long time to overcome the old "kick in the gut" girthing process. But we went slow, one hole at a time, with a lot of reassurances, and she never moved a foot.

The last time Mandy rode her, she saddled her up and just did a few laps of the paddock. I noticed that when Jen had to reach forward with a front leg to step over a big rock (we have a LOT of rocks in the paddock, big boulders, ledge, etc.) she would get a grumpy face and flip her nose. So I slid my hand under the saddle, and noted that the medium gullet was too tight for her in the Wintec, and that her shoulders were interfering. So the last time we took her out, I remeasured her for the gullet size, and she measured right on the wide side of medium wide, so I decided to put the wide gullet in the Wintec with the thicker fleece pad (I really hate changing that thing, "easy-change" is a misnomer and it takes quite a bit of grunting, slamming, and swearing to get it back together). I looked more objectively at Jen's back, and she has the same conformation as her sister, Lakota, which is not a good thing. She has those huge shoulders that rotate about 4 inches under the saddle, and the same weird long withers, short back and forward girth-groove (sigh). But I was hopeful this would work for her. So after saddling up, Mandy led Jen around a bit to make sure her mind was connected, and they did fine.

Mandy REALLY wanted to bring Jen out of the paddock the last time, so we did. Jen was worried, she is an extremely herdbound horse, so considering that she did quite well. We left the gate in stages, taking breaks, turning back from time to time. I think it helped that the other 3 didn't really care that she left (although they stood at the gate and screamed for Lakota when she was out).

We made it out to the yard, and checked it all out. She was nervous, I could feel it, but she was well-behaved and tried to be brave. The ducks were flapping around, as were chickens, the goats, the goose was playing it up, it was a lot to take in for a horse that hadn't been out of the paddock in a year, and had only been out two or three times in two years. Then I took Jen for a bit, and asked her to move her feet around me, and we meandered her and there and I asked for her attention. Then Mandy laughed this weird laugh that only 12 year olds can manage, which caused Jen to spook and teleport a little, so I knew then that she was quite tense as I had suspected, but was trying to stuff it down and be brave. So I slowed down then, and just spent some time standing and petting her, chatting with Mandy, and relaxing. And then Jen started to drop her head, blow, lick and chew, and relax. Her head was about at my waist level now. I decided that was enough emotional stuff for her today, so we slowly brought her back to the barn, stopping along the way to look at this or that.

Then Mandy hopped on her for a short bit in the paddock. Jen was a bit anxious about that, and she had a real grumpy face as we walked through the paddock. Then we stopped for a photo op. Jen didn't look real happy, and she kept biting at Mandy's foot.

So I decided that the saddle still wasn't fitting well, and asked her to hop off. After untacking and putting our gear away, I decided at the last minute to toss the Barefoot London treeless saddle on her, just to see how it looked. It looked OK on her, so then I asked Mandy to hop on. We went for another short walk, and I was really blown away by the difference in Jen.

The Start of a New Season

Jen has continued to gain weight over the winter and is looking pretty darned good now. She no longer looks like a "rescue", though she does still have quite a bit of muscling to build up.

I have spent a lot of time just loving on her this fall and winter. No expectations other than politeness. She gets lots of rubs, and is told how much we love her. I speak softly to her while stroking her neck. She is much less anxious about life in general these days, though she still does tend to rever to anxiety of something gets her emotions up.

Jen has been begging for some attention lately. She sees how much the other horses enjoy enteraction and one-on-one time with us humans, and Jen wants some, too. She would sit in my lap if I let her, she gets so jealous when the others are "chosen".

Today was Jen's day. Unfortunately, I left the camera in the house, but hopefully I'll remember next time.

We changed out the gullet in my daughters saddle and messed with girths until we got an OK combination. We decided to stay in the paddock to keep her emotions down for the first time we've done anything for about 8 to 10 months. She was only mildly concerned about saddling, but treats took care of that, she sighed and did a lot of licking and chewing. She took the Bitless with no problems at all (you may recall that she refuses to accept a bit, clamping her jaw shut and throwing up her head).

I stood on the ground and we practiced a lot of lateral flexion. Her first reaction to the feeling of any pressure at all from the reins is that her head goes up and she braces. I don't escalate pressure (start where you want to end up), I just take up contact and wait, while she works it out. The head goes up, it goes down, she tries pulling the rein out of my hand, then finally, the neck relaxes and she gives her nose. BINGO! instant release with a click, and then a treat. Yehaaa!!!! Repeat ad naseum.

Jen has a lot of braced default behaviors that is going to take a lot of time and repetition to undo. Did the same thing on the other side. Then hubby came home, so I stopped to talk to him for a bit. Jen fussed, pawed, fidgeted, and was trying everything to figure out how to get another treat. She finally settled down, dropped her head, relaxed, closed her eyes, and then it was time to reward her with more fun.I briefly repeated the lateral flexion on both sides, and she braced at first again, but remembered much quicker this time. I think I'm going to have to use this sort of thing for her for awhile, a lot of repetitions on one thing, then a break and do it again. She tends to forget between sessions, so hopefully a break and repeating it will break that habit. She also needs repetition, or she gets anxious wondering what the next behavior is that she will get rewarded for. She gets fizzy and tries too many things. Lakota, OTOH, gets bored, so we do something until she gives me a good try, or improves, then we move on to something else, and go back to the first thing (maybe). Interesting difference in horsenalities.

So then I had Jen walk along side me, and we practiced backing up a step each time I asked her to whoa. Interestingly, she settled down, relaxed and was very happy to be moving, where she was more tense with the flexion at a standstill. I think she was anxious about the other horses in her space while there was food involved. But she needs to learn to deal with that, too, and she actually was much better than she has been in the past. Then, rather than saying whoa and stopping abruptly for a halt, I decided instead to "breath out" and just "stop riding(walking)", and blow-me-down, but she whoaed beautifully and so relaxed! We practiced that for a bit, and it was fantastic, she was so soft and relaxed, very unlike herself, it was beautiful!

It wasn't in the plan today, but she was doing so well, I asked my daughter to hop on board. Jen is supposed to be her horse, I didn't know she had so many issues when I bought her, but I did figure she wouldn't be as perfect as the seller said she was. She hopped on board, and we walked through the paddock. At first, I did the leading, as we had to walk past the other horses grazing, and Jen can be pretty defensive of her personal space, I wasn't sure if she would act differently while someone was on board. But she was! She did fantastic! At first she braced and her head went up, but we didnt' ask for anything. Just stood there at the rock she mounted from, and scritched her withers while I rubbed her neck and told her what a good girl she was. When she softened and relaxed, we moved off. After a few laps, I gave up the reins to my daughter, although I walked alongside just in case I needed to snatch them. But she did beautifully, and whoaed on a breath out. Gorgeous!

But the BEST part, was we dismounted/untacked on the far end of the paddock away from the barn, and Jen was astounded! She sniffed at the saddle and mouthed it multiple times while my daughter wsa holding it, and I had the bridle hanging in my hand, and she turned toward me and put her nose right into the noseband. Awwwwww....... she wanted to keep riding!!!! Both of us were just so happy to see this, after the tense, anxious little girl last year. This is exactly how I wanted to leave her, wanting more, not thinking "When will this be over with?"

Darn, I wish I had the camera.