Lyme Re-Test & Other Things

Those that have followed this blog over the summer months know that back in May, Willie was bitten by a tick, and that after a brief pre-emptive treatment of doxycycline and a six-week waiting period, I got him tested in July, when he was diagnosed with a "strong positive" for Lyme. We treated him with doxy for another six weeks, and then as required, I waited another six weeks to get a clearer result. It ended up being a few extra weeks as I could only get the vet out last Monday, but more on that in a minute.

The vet called Tuesday night with the titer results. Willie's titer came back at 1:5,120, lower than the result of 1:10,240 last time. Because of the way Lyme works, there is no clear-cut "yes/no" test; the number just reflects the amount of antibodies in the horse's system, or the current presence of the disease. Many horses, particularly in the northeastern US, have been exposed to Lyme over the course of their lives, and would likely show a slight positive if tested at random. The titer ranges up to about 1:40,000 or so; the lower the ratio, the lower the exposure.

I don't know how low we could possibly get that number, but at this point treating him would be more trouble than it's worth. He has shown no symptoms other than the bite reaction and his initial fatigue and funk when starting the doxy. While Lyme can be very sneaky, and worse, prone to recurrent flare-ups, the vets and I feel that he seems to be in the recumbent stage and it's better to just leave it be at this point.

The 6-week treatment cost about $600, and antibiotics are hard on the gut, even when you feed a probiotic supplement to balance them out. Plus, getting Willie to eat them was a royal pain, and when he previously thought a good sloppy mash was the best thing in the world, he is only now cautiously interested if I offer him one, as I like to do daily in the winter months.


Unrelated to the Lyme, a few days before the vet came out, Willie was a little not-quite-right. We trailered out to a new park to go riding, one with steeper and rockier trails than we're used to. It was a cold, damp day and he rode in my trailer with another horse for the first time in ages, instead of having a large box stall to ride in all by himself, so when he was a bit pluggy at the start, I blamed the weather, the trailer, and the footing for his attitude. He was still happy to be out somewhere new, and when we found soft, grassy areas, he stretched out and galloped eagerly, in my mind, confirming my suspicions of the above.

The next day we headed to more familiar fare, our old stomping grounds near the Horse Park. It was a warmer and sunny, and I thought he'd be much happier out and about and jumping his favorite things on much kinder footing. He seemed a little bit tired after the day before (maybe 15 miles on terrain he's not used to) but perked up when we got to the park.

A few minutes into the ride, however, he was puffing and sweating, and though his ears pricked forward and he pulled me to the jumps, something was not right. He had been body clipped the week before and is fairly fit -- the weekend of our Hallowe'en fun we considered doing a 25-mile CTR, but abstained after riding around on all that pavement the day before -- so he should not have been struggling with less than 20 minutes of light work.

I dismounted, loosened his girth and noseband, and led him back the mile or so to the trailer on foot. He still seemed quite happy, and he stopped to nibble the grass here and there as I let him. We packed up and went back to the barn, and when he'd had time to settle from the trailer ride, I temped him -- no fever, he was at 98.9, which is normal for him. (Like me, he tends to run a bit lower than average.) His gut sounded good and his appetite was fine, although his manure was not passing quite right -- smaller, softer piles than normal -- and he was urinating more frequently. But since he wasn't in distress, and I had a killer headache, I decided to turn him out with his friends, where he could move and graze as he pleased, and went home to nap for a few hours.

When I came back to check on him, I checked all his symptoms again. Everything was normal except for, again, the manure, and when I did the skin-pinch to test for dehydration, he was tenting a bit -- the skin was staying in the pinched-up position for a few moments instead of immediately snapping back into place. His gums were the normal color.

Despite the fact that his appetite was quite good, and he was otherwise bright and perky, I called the vet. After I described his symptoms, the vet said that he was not too concerned, and to walk him if I felt a need, but otherwise just keep an eye on him like I had been. I gave him a small dose of electrolytes, smearing the gel on his tongue to encourage him to drink, and hung out at the barn for a few hours to observe him. Finally, my headache was winning over again, and since my horse was insisting he was fine no matter what my gut said, I left him in a stall so that I could keep track of his manure and eating/drinking overnight.

At around 3:30 AM, I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep. My mind works a little too much for its own good sometimes, and I always run through the absolute worst-case scenarios. What if he was colicking, and twisted something when he lay down for the night? What if there was a blockage, and everything that I'd already seen him pass was stuff that had already been past the block? What if he had a tumor growing in his gut, and that was why things weren't passing quite right? What if, what if, what if?

So at 4 in the morning I found myself in the barn, my sleepy horse blinking blearily at me from his stall. But he was happy to see me, and happy to snarf down the handful of grain I offered him to check his appetite. His TPR, gut sounds, and all were still normal. After observing him for a bit, and nabbing a manure sample before he could kick dirt and bedding all over it, I went back home to sleep some more.

The vet came out the next day, drew the blood for Lyme, and looked him over. He said he could possibly be fighting off the early stages of a virus, and indeed, he was a bit more tired than he had any right to be, but none of the other symptoms had changed. He drew more blood for a CBC (which came back unremarkable, except for the fact that his red count was just at the low range of normal) and said to keep observing him. My vets have figured out by now that I am wee bit obsessive and knew that I'd have them out there in a heartbeat if anything changed; but with no solid, definitive symptoms to go on, we couldn't do anything anyway. I added a bit of U7 and RedCell to his feed and put him on a 7-day Sand Clear treatment just in case.


The vet was a bit concerned, however, about some much more subtle symptoms. He noted that I'd already clipped him, and my explanation that he usually grew a heavy coat and worked too hard to wear it all winter. He said that between the coat growth, and the beginnings of fat deposits in some key places (his sheath and eyes), that Willie might be starting to show signs of being pre-Cushing's.

I don't know that I agree...

1. His eyes were a bit puffy that day, but only due to the spurt of warm weather kicking up his allergies -- it's why he wears a fly mask in the summer. They are normal-looking otherwise, and does not have the signature deposits OVER his eyes.
   
2. His winter coat has been known to get ridiculously thick in the past. But something I didn't think about until after the vet left, is that for most of the winters that I've had him, Willie was kept at a place with ridiculously short turnout, ending as early as 1PM at one barn. It always sheds out clean in the spring, and I only clip him for the selfish reason of being able to keep him in full work in the cold weather. This year he is on pasture turnout 24/7 (unless he's sick) and his coat was not quite as woolly, but it still grew thick enough to warrant clipping just after Hallowe'en.
   
3. As far as fat deposits go, well, quite honestly my boy is a little bit chunky. I've been riding but not quite as much as I would like, and he is thriving on all this pasture and good food nonsense. If he were jumping and galloping more I wouldn't want him packing around the extra pounds, but right now he's a juuust barely a 6 on the Henneke scale .
   

All the same, I don't think it would hurt to keep an eye on him and act, for the time being, as if he IS pre-Cushing's. I already had him on a fairly low-starch feed, and though he was getting a small portion (half a pound per feeding) of sweet feed to help his supplements stick, I've taken him off of it completely. He's seeing a large reduction in the amount of cookies he gets, and I'm finding/making more low-sugar options. Testing for Cushing's has to be done seasonally, so he should get done at the end of the month.


The good news is, whatever NQR oddness Will was suffering from, he seems to be over it. None of his pasturemates have shown any symptoms, which means it's not contagious, and after having off for a week he's feeling just fine. This morning he let me know that he hasn't been working nearly hard enough, and took off bucking and squealing around the pasture when I went to feed him and change his blanket. Goofy old man!

More good news, too: whenever the vets stop by I have them check Will's eyes. After last summer's mysterious affliction (check the "eyes" tag for all the posts) I've been monitoring him closely. Knock on wood, this time around the vet said the same thing that one of his partners did in the spring -- there are some normal age changes, but nothing worrisome, and no indication of last year's woes. Personally, I'm completely fine with it remaining forever an unsolved mystery, so long as it never comes back!



I am almost caught up with posts and ready to take on a blog challenge or two... If I'm feeling really ambitious I may even start up with the weekly riding logs again.

Our Hallowe'en Adventure: Part 3

Previous posts:
Part 1
Part 2


The drizzle had stopped, so we decided to continue into town. As we were riding along, we saw a familiar pickup truck pass us, brake, and then pull into one of the side streets up ahead. It was our friend D and her boyfriend S, come to make sure we were still safe and sound.

"You have GOT to see the town!" D told us. "The stores are all out on the sidewalk, and it's NUTS! You guys will get swarmed!"

I might have forgotten to mention, when I brought up the parade thing? This cute little town goes all out for the holidays. They get really into decorating and celebrating. It's kind of a quaint little place that you don't see much any more, particularly not in this state.

We had been heading there anyway, but now it was apparently a must-see. And so we ambled on into town with the pickup tailing us, and sure enough, there were oodles of decorations everywhere, and the sidewalks were swarmed with trick-or-treaters. As I mentioned, "HORSES!!!" was the refrain of the night. We certainly surprised a lot of folks, but everyone seemed to get a kick out of it. Everyone complimented us on how quiet and well-mannered they were. We were fairly close to horse country, after all, and at least most of these folks recognized that this was not something every day horses would tolerate.

That pile of leaves is actually someone in costume!

Our friends parked their truck, and D took out Dom's camera and followed us around, snapping away. This was an added bonus for our night... We had been stoked about doing the trick-or-treat thing but as Dom and I are both bloggers, it was great to have some visuals to add to our posts.

We made our way down Main St, collecting a bit of candy and letting kids and grown-ups alike stop and say hi to the Meese. Our boys were so good about all of it -- "Hum de dum, looks like our mommies are up to their usual shenanigans." "Sigh. Hey, do you think that house will give us carrots too?"






Some people actually recognized us from our trip to the ice cream store over the summer. There are only so many crazy girls riding around on Standardbreds, after all..

There was one dark spot of the night... There was a sort of banked lawn, raised up from street level by a few feet, and they had a very elaborate graveyard set up. D suggested we pose for a picture there, since the decorations were so intense, and we agreed that it would make a cool shot, so we rode over and asked the folks sitting on the porch if it would be okay for us to ride up. We got a chorus of assurance, and so we rode up the bank and stood in front of the house for a shot... Unfortunately, Willie took that moment to do what horses do best, and the woman that apparently owned the house raised a shrill voice to ask us to leave.

Nooooes! BAD PONY!

"It would have been nice if you had asked first!" she snapped as we maneuvered the boys off the lawn.

"We're sorry, we did ask and everyone sitting here said yes --" we started to say.

She cut in, "Well I'm the owner and I never said yes!" Despite the fact that she HAD been sitting there with the rest of them...

Our friends talked with her and did some damage control, and after the pathway was cleaned up and she realized that she wouldn't have to sit with manure on her lawn for the rest of the night, the woman seemed placated. "No harm done," she supposedly said later. "It is Hallowe'en after all." I felt bad, but the mess got cleaned up and I chalked it up to one of those things -- lots of people think horses are awesome and exciting, until they poop. (In the interests of full disclosure, the boys did poop on one or two other lawns throughout the night, and when we offered to clean it up, most folks shrugged it off and joked, "Hey, it's organic!")

Eventually, word made it through the grapevine, and we were told we had a request from the town commissioner himself: Could we ride in the parade?

Yes, the same parade Dom and I had joked about before. It was getting dark and we needed to get back to the barn. The road was navigable in broad daylight... At night, with streetlamps few and far between, and cars unable to see our horses until they were practically on top of us, it was a deathtrap.

However, we were promised an escort back to the farm, and so we obliged. We had ten minutes to make it to the center of town, where the parade would be getting started. We marched along, mostly in the road as the sidewalks were already packed with people waiting for the parade. Folks waved and called out as we rode past -- two girls on horseback were hardly what they had been expecting to see! -- and we apologized for not being able to stop and greet them properly.

The parade started up shortly, and we tucked the boys into a local business's driveway to wait. The marching band went first. Ozzy was intrigued, and Willie decided that it was SHOW TIME!! and started to do his own version of a piaffe. I walked him up the driveway, uncertain how his old eyes would see everything in the dusk, but he stood quietly when I asked. After the marching band, drill team, and floats went past, the crowd started to melt into the streets, and we melted with them. Our friends tailed us by a safe distance, to make sure that no one accidentally crowded the boys from behind.

Who doesn't love a parade?

I say "accidentally," because you would think that two horses in the middle of the street would be pretty hard to miss? Apparently not. With all the noise and activity, folks were distracted enough that once or twice, we'd excuse ourselves to scoot past them, and they would turn and be startled to see us so close. Who'da thunk?

The horses were totally set and ready to follow the band -- but we had the small problem of pedestrians in front of us. Since they were walking so much faster, we had to halt and wait several times, before letting the boys walk on until they reached the end of the crowd again. As the parade continued, people started to disperse, and we had more room to move.

Finally, the parade ended, and we booked it for home before Main St completely opened back up. Our escort followed, more or less diverting traffic and at least forcing the other drivers to slow down. The rain started up again just as we were riding up the driveway, but we managed to get into the barn before it started in earnest. The boys were pampered and fed and given lots and lots of well-deserved praise. We had not intended to stay out so late, but as usual, they handled it like troops and thought the whole thing was pretty amusing.

Thus ended another adventure with the Super Standardbreds. As usual, it's not something I recommend trying at home, but with a horse-friendly town, bombproof horses, and a good groundcrew for backup, it at least makes for a good story to tell!

Our Hallowe'en Adventure: Part 2

Continued from Part 1

Ozzy and Willie are a dynamic duo of Standardbred awesomeness, but for today's adventures we needed some slightly more authentic names. Thus, the boys were christened Loonie and Toonie for the night.

Fully dressed, with giggly girls and moderately sulky ponies, we headed down the road at about 4-ish, which is when the younger kids in my neighborhood always started out. We needed to get back to the barn before dark, so we wanted to give ourselves plenty of time to ride into town, hit a few houses, and ride back. For all our love of confectionary goods, we weren't in it for the candy haul, just the laughs and the experience.

We came up to the first subdivision, and the owner of the house was in the driveway cleaning his motorcycle. He had actually passed us on the road a few minutes before and hadn't even realized what we were dressed for.

"Trick or treat?" we called hopefully.

But he said their trick-or-treaters didn't usually start till later, and so they weren't ready yet, but he did call his family out and they gave our boys some carrots and we headed on our way.

We came up to the next subdivision and saw some children zooming along with their mother, so we decided to follow them for a few houses. I had brought a dressage whip to ring doorbells but it was no match for the grandiose porches of McMansion Land -- thus are the modern semi-rural parts of New Jersey. We figured energetic little feet would save us the trouble of having to mount and dismount, and in exchange for their services we'd let the kids pet and adore the ponies. (Seriously, never underestimate the power of the pony.)

But this street, too, seemed to think it was too early for trick-or-treaters, or maybe they were all just in town for the evening. Whatever the case, we were sadly unsuccessful, and we split off from our impromptu little helpers. We did run into another awesomely polite little boy who informed us that our ponies were in fact pretty cool, and that he himself would be going into town for the parade later.

Parade? Well you see, this small town has a Hallowe'en Parade through Main Street, all of about a mile long, led by the high school's marching band and drill team, followed up with some very small-time floats (mostly wagons with the younger school kids riding inside), and at the end of it pretty much anyone in costume is allowed to join the throng of masked marchers if they wish. Dom and I joked that we should do the parade with the horses, because it would have been hilarious, and wished our newest little friend farewell before continuing on into the next street of the development. We heard more children around the corner and so we knew there had to be some good trick-or-treating to be had. We snuck out of the treeline between two properties and a new wave of chaos erupted.

"HORSES!!!" would become the refrain of the night.

All the little trick-or-treaters dropped what they were doing to come and pet the Best Meese Ever. After the initial meet and greet, we headed up to our first candy house of the night, and were greeted on the stairs by people already handing out candy. Apparently their entire extended family was in from Brooklyn for a visit, and out came the cameras and phones amidst chuckles and cries of "Only in New Jersey!" Each of us Canadians got a small baggy of candy, and the Meese got more carrots and even an apple or two each stuffed in their mouth. We chatted up the nice folks and our boys chewed through their treats and freshly-manicured McLawn in bliss, completely undisturbed by the giant inflatable witch and other suitably horrifying things sitting to either side of the porch.

A light drizzle began, and we decided to move on to another house. We deftly managed to avoid trampling the next lawn's intricate "graveyard" decorations, complete with strobe lights and guarded by two ferociously bewildered Shih Tzus. Ozzy Loonie made friends with the dogs while Willie Toonie expressed his utter disdain for them, and we collected a few pieces of candy before moving further along the street.

One house had the front door open, with candy sitting out front but no humans in sight. We clip-clopped up their sidewalk, and when someone popped into view to see what kind of inane person was making clip-clop sounds up their sidewalk, we shouted "Trick or treat!" It was good for a few more laughs, and we finished the street after stopping at another house or two.

We continued back down the main road, contemplating trying the town or not. A friend of mine grew up in that town and had been in the marching band throughout high school, and on her invitation I'd spent the Hallowe'en there a few years back. I knew the streets would be closed off for the parade but wasn't sure how many people would be waiting for trick-or-treaters.


To be continued...

Our Hallowe'en Adventure: Part 1

Yes, I am very behind in posts... This time I have a valid excuse, at least for last week -- I had a migraine that lasted about seven straight days and I could barely even check my e-mail without going cross-eyed.

Since I've been eking out posts in bits and pieces and saving them as drafts, I'll start in chronological order. The last post was a teaser with only a few pics of us on our latest adventure -- trick-or-treating!



I didn't start riding until I was 11, and so I've always felt left out when instructors and older riding friends tell me stories about how they used to just get on their ponies and go riding when they were kids, sometimes doing half-stupid things like jumping mailboxes (to see if they could) and leaving the ponies on whatever lawn they were hanging out at, like we suburban kids did with our bikes.

Of course, now that I have Willie the Wonder Pony, I've been dying to make up for lost time. We've already ridden into town for ice cream and pizza (on separate occasions) and regularly explore the local neighborhoods, leaving a swath of new Standardbred fans in our wake. But there's something my horse-crazy little self was dying to do back in the days when riding was just a dream: go trick-or-treating on horseback.

Think about it, really. A horse is the ultimate costume accessory, not to mention an excellent way to cover ground quickly. More ground = more candy! Even though I am technically an adult I don't think you're ever REALLY too old to celebrate Hallowe'en by indulging in fun costumes and chemically-produced sugary goodness.

Since we were already friends with nearly all the locals, and we knew our boys were good about spooky things like small, screaming children, zooming traffic, scary noises, and flags that wave and snap in the breeze, Dom agreed that this was something we NEEDED to do. So we thought about costumes and planned it out for a little while, and eventually we decided to go with an inside joke, and be stereotypical "Canadians" riding our pet moose (or "meese," because everyone knows that's REALLY the proper plural of moose ;D).

[ An aside to all my Canadian friends and readers: I'm very, very sorry for the next few paragraphs. ;D ]

At first we were going to go all out, and be a lumberjack and an Eskimo, "going oot and aboot on our meese, eh?"

As Hallowe'en drew closer we realized that the only available Eskimo costumes looked like nothing so much as sure ways to get frostbite in unpleasant places -- and they weren't going to be any more appropriate for our plan than they were for, oh, anything outside of a holiday-themed strip joint. Our closets and those of our friends were all sadly devoid of clothing that might have done the job, and we couldn't afford to spend a ton of money on elaborate get-ups. We finally ditched the original plan, and just went to a craft store to buy $3 T-shirts and iron-on letters. ("O" on the back, "Canada" on the front.) DIY is the spirit of Hallowe'en. Or something.

Moose antlers of any sort were ridiculously hard to find, but finally we unearthed some early Christmas decorations and picked up some sparkly foam reindeer antlers for our poor, exceedingly tolerant, horses.


For the final touches, we stocked up on foam maple leaf cutouts, red and white ribbon to wrap around the bridles, and of course, copious amounts of glitter, applied with little to no regard to fashion, symmetry, or common sense. I found two small red tote bags (again, yay, early Christmas crafts!) that were just the right size to hang off an English saddle, and with some carabiner snaps they were secured and ready for action. For an extra giggle, we wrote "Eh?" on the bags in white glitter glue.


Most of the prep was done the night before, and then we finished when Willie and I got there the next day. We attempted to draw maple leaves on the front of our T-shirts with more glitter glue, but they sadly didn't dry fast enough and smeared a bit as we put them on. With our boys all bedecked, we had one final trick to make them mooselike, and we braided their tails up into mudknots, fastened with yarn and decorated with more ribbon. Sadly, we didn't do a very good job and their tails fell out before the first house, but I suppose it's the thought that counts.


(All photos by Dom)


To be continued...

Trick-or-Treat!

Best. Ponies. Ever!

Willie with the Flag

So far this is the only picture of Willie and me doing the Opening Ceremonies from last weekend. Taken by Bryce Leo:



One of my friends recorded two videos but they are on Facebook and she can't e-mail them... I may see if I can link them.

It was good for me to watch... Willie was going much faster than I thought he was in the jumping part of his demo! Next time we do something like I'll be sure to get in a little more practice first, so I can do some kind of pattern instead of just circling the arena -- it might work in a giant ring but for a smaller venue it gets old fast! The feedback has all been great, regardless, but I always pick at my performances and find SOMETHING I could have done better.

Two Days, Two Events

...and one Rockstar Pony!

I had already known about the SRF's Open House, as mentioned in my last post. But Saturday was another unexpected event for us. My friend called me in the morning and asked if I would mind doing the opening ceremonies with Willie for another, smaller event, a fundraiser being held at the same farm. It would serve as a dry run of the Open House events, with the added bonus of being in front of mostly non-horsey people, so that if I completely bombed out, it would be less obvious!

Since I really love to do these things, I agreed. Willie and I snuck in, as I was supposed to be a surprise for the folks in attendance. I got him tidied up, then threw on my demo gear from the old days, including the blue quarter sheet. I was NOT having a good wrapping day so I substituted his blue splint boots for the red polos. I waited until the last minute to mount up outside, where it was starting to rain steadily. I didn't do much warm-up, as it was pretty gross out and I didn't want to get his boots and legs all dirty before going into the ring.

I made the unfortunate choice of wearing white breeches (traditionally we always did black, but I apparently lost my ever-loving mind and decided white would be a spectacular idea) so I had a towel over my lap and I was huddling in my not-as-waterproof-as-I-thought windbreaker while they prepared for me. Finally I handed off my jacket and towel, and picked up the flag, and in we went. We cantered around to "God Bless America," and at the end, stood in the center of the ring with the flag as they played the National Anthem. Willie was great, if a bit bewildered by the lack of warmup, but rocked it out anyway. I got nothing but positive reviews. In fact, afterwards, two ladies came up to me and hugged me, and the event organizer asked what my booking fee was -- to hire me for other events! LOL! Can you imagine?

I tucked Will into a stall with his wool cooler on, and let him eat hay and dry off as the event continued. He was stabled next to one of the adoptable horses, a blind horse named Duke, and throughout the afternoon visitors trickled out into the barn to meet the two of them. They got to learn more than they probably ever wanted to know about Standardbreds, horses, and adoption! I only swung by the indoor for a few minutes, to sample the lunch spread they'd offered everyone, but caught enough glimpses of the games, raffles, and other fun things going on to recommend anyone who has the chance to hit up an event being held by "All the Rave" from NJ -- they were really great folks!

Yesterday, as planned, I headed over to the SRF early to help set up. There were a few local vendors that were going to be stationed at tables in the barn aisle, so I cleaned up Willie and threw him in a stall to dry as I helped move tables and get things ready. After making a quick (and sadly, unsuccessful) run to the tack store to see if I could get a second bit, to save myself some time with tack changes, I checked on Will again. With nothing that immediately needed my help, I ducked into the office to re-roll my polos and polish my boots -- things I had intended to do on Saturday when I ended up doing the other event instead!

The speakers had gotten a little behind schedule, so our rides started a bit later than planned. Will and I were to do the "opening ceremonies" marking the beginning of the horse demonstrations -- English Pleasure, In-Hand (with music!), Pleasure Driving, our Eventing demo, Jumpers, and finally a parade of adoptable SRF horses. Our other friends from SPHO made up most of the other demonstrations of the day.

After being in the stall all Saturday and all yesterday morning, he was singing the BORED song, and fussed uncharacteristically as I tacked him up in the demo gear once more. We went outside and the second I picked up both stirrups, he set off at a hot rack down the driveway, revved up and ready for action. I swear, sometimes he gets it into his head that he's an actual SHOW HORSE! Haha...

I had just enough time to canter him around the edge of the farm for a few minutes, but then we grabbed the flag and headed in. Again, we cantered around to "God Bless America" and then stood in the center as the national anthem played.

When we finished, I had to book it back to his stall, as there were only about 15 minutes before our next ride. I had an AWESOME volunteer peel off all his tack as I changed from my red drill team polo to my yellow XC one, and Dom helped switch my bit from the demo bridle back to Will's normal bridle as I tacked him up in eventing gear -- mostly just a change to a blue saddle pad, and tossing on his Woof boots. I zipped up my vest and hopped on for a short warm-up. Willie knew what gear we had on, and knew that meant galloping. Having my vest on and stirrups shortened for jumping meant I couldn't be quite as effective as I wanted, so I didn't quite get him flatting in a "dressage" mindset as well as I would have liked, but after popping over a small vertical in the outdoor ring a few times, we were called to the indoor for our demo. I started with some very basic dressage moves then picked up a half-seat and headed for the jumps. We had our famous cone-brush jump set up, plus a blue gate, a black-and-white vertical, and a small square oxer, set at about 2'3". At first I made big loops, and then I tried to string the fences together in a much tighter course -- attempting to display the difference between XC, which has longer distances between the fences, and stadium, which has a much handier course. We finished up with a little more flatting (leg yield means move SIDEWAYS Willie!) and after I floundered around for a bit waiting for a cue that I'd probably already missed to tell me I had filled my timeslot, I finally just came down centerline and "saluted" and ended the demo.

After letting him catch his breath for a minute, I took him back into the outdoor ring to get some real dressage school in. It's awkward to attempt dressage in full XC gear, but he finally did some stretchy-sitting-stretchy trot transitions, and I took him back outside the ring and let him canter around the perimeter a few times. We were both happy with that, so I walked him out and let him hang out with Ozzy, who had been put to work giving pony rides all day, before finally tossing him back in the stall and untacking.

The day was pretty much over at that point... I hung around to help clean up after the crowds dispersed and the vendors went home, and then several of us went out to dinner. The rest of the night was marred by one of my infamous post-show headaches. I just get busy and forget to eat/drink like I should, and by the time I finish with my rides and can nibble on something substantial, it's already too late. It's just a fact of life for me when I show in warmer weather.

All in all, it was a great weekend! Willie made a lot of new fans and I got to dust off my drill team gear for old-time's sake... I've missed doing our demos, particularly when I go to an event like Dressage at Devon, where breaks are filled with drill team and quadrilles and color guard like we all used to do.

I was thrilled to pieces with Will, who has done lots of odd things but hadn't really worked with a flag for 3 or 4 years before I did a little schooling earlier this week. He carries the flag without batting an eye but we should work a bit on the hand-off... He's fine as soon as I have the flag in my hand, and if I approached him with it on the ground he probably wouldn't care. In the past, I've ridden him right up to flags planted in the ground and he's maybe eyeballed them but walked right up. But he's always been a bit uneasier with other people handling spooky objects, and I have to sidle him up to someone on the ground and snatch the flag from them before he has time to think about it, or he spins away. This gets it done but it's obviously not ideal, for safety reasons.

On an unrelated note, I did find out something interesting about my polo wraps yesterday... Apparently when the gear was divvied up and I got my "share," I was given two pairs from two different sets, one of which is much longer than the other. So my "bad wrapping day" on Saturday was just the result of the extra-long set around Willie's short front cannon bones. At least now I don't feel so bad, but leave it to my horse to have a "front" and "back" set of polos!

I have only seen one photo yet but I know several people were snapping away... As soon as I get some more I'll be sure to share them!

Open House: October 25

So this is kind of last minute, but I've fallen out of the habit of blogging regularly (a habit I hope to fix soon) and didn't think to do it sooner!

The group that I adopted Willie from, the Standardbred Retirement Foundation, is hosting an open house and "Oktoberfest" type event to help get the word out about what they do and how they run. There will be educational speakers, horse demos, and fun things like pony rides (for the kids) and wine tasting (for the grown-ups!). For more information, see the page on their website: http://adoptahorse.org/MDUpcomingEvents.html. You can also access the flier from their main page at adoptahorse.org. The address and contact info are posted on their site.

It runs this Sunday from 1-5, so if you're in or around central NJ, come out and have some fun! Your favorite wannabe-eventer Standardbred will be making an appearance, as will several other Standarbreds, including a few still looking for homes. :)

Trail Ride/XC School

Yesterday I took advantage of the beautiful weather and trailered Willie out to the park where we used to ride so frequently. Hunting season is upon us, and unfortunately this year Sundays are no longer restricted as they were in the past -- bowhunting, at least, is now permitted on Sundays in certain areas. So I threw on a nitro-green T-shirt I got from volunteering at Jersey Fresh one year, attached sleigh bells to my saddle, and off we went. At least it was mid-afternoon, which seems to be a less-popular time for the hunters to be out.

After taking a short walking loop around one of the fields next to the parking lot, we started off with a short canter up the hill going away from it, and stopped to hop up the little bank like we always do. I attempted to keep Will's bouncy little coffin canter going directly to the approach, but after not jumping XC for a while, the cluttered groundlines and landing backed him off a bit, so he trotted up to it instead. Some unexpected gravel added to reinforce the washed-out part of the trail forced us to walk up the rest of the way, but once we hit the "grid" at the top of the little valley, we picked up a trot again. I looped around the back of the grid, where the forest really starts, and we cantered over the stone wall, before completing the circle and heading out for the track. I let him walk down the path leading to the track, as it's washed away and become progressively rockier over the past few years, and once we were out on the track I let him pick up a little trot.

There's a path cutting through the center of the track, with a few jumps along the way, so after taking a quick detour to check the footing on each side, we hopped a little vertical made of small logs/branches and cantered through the track, down to a tiny coop in the treeline connecting two of the fields. Will bobbled at the coop, a bit surprised by its sudden appearance in our path, but with a tap from the crop, he rocked back and leapt over it. I let him trot away, then circled back and took the same route in reverse -- back over the coop with no hesitation, then cantering to the vertical and making a right turn onto the track. I let him go just far enough to give him a pat and a "good boy," then we slowed to a walk, turned around, and walked to the next turn, where we picked up the left lead canter and held it for about a third of the track.

I was going to let him stop by the lake to get a drink, but I wasn't the only one out enjoying the weather, and there were too many cars and boats in the area -- Willie's fine with them, but we wade in at the loading area and I don't like to hold people up. Riding into a crowd when I'm out on my own is probably not the safest idea, either, because you just never know who might be out there... So off we went, to walk another third of the track, then get a brief left-lead canter up the hill, back up to where the grid was.

We wandered into the forest, and I was going to let Will get a drink at the lake landing that's there, but found new signs declaring the area off-limits. Even though I've been riding out there for years and never saw such signs, I decided not to push our luck... We went back through the woods, cruising over another small jump or two, and stopped in the creek to offer Will a drink there. He splashed a bit and took a sip, but wasn't really interested, so I decided to head back to the valley and do one more round of cantering before we called it quits.

At the top of the hill, I asked for the right lead, aiming for that slow, bouncy "coffin canter" with the intent of keeping the rhythm no matter what we came across. We went back over the stone wall, this time in the other direction, cantered around the back of the grid, and cut through one of the paths between the trees, trying to find some small jumps I knew were there. I missed my turn, but just went to the next path over and found it again. We did a brief stretch on the left lead, which still isn't as slow or balanced as the right, and then finished up with one final lap on the right lead. We called it quits and took the long way back to the parking lot to cool out.

He was still a bit sweaty when we got back, due mostly to his thickening-but-not-yet-fuzzy coat, so he got a nice bath with a Sore-No-More brace at the farm, and I tossed on his cooler and took him out on the front lawn to graze while he dried.

My own back was a little sore by the end of the night... I have been making a conscious effort to ride in progressively longer stretches of two-point again, but it's been quite a while since I did so much riding out in the open. My newfound saddle helps a LOT with that -- but that's a story for another day!

We both enjoyed the ride... It was much needed, and long overdue. Some local clubs may be having open XC schooling days soon, and I think it would be great for us to get back out there again. This year was such a bust as far as shows go, and I wouldn't mind as much except we haven't been able to do much useful, consistent schooling lately, either. I mostly ride to keep him fit and give him a job.

I know I am still behind in some posts... Now that I've somewhat settled into a rhythm with the new job I'm going to try and make this week a catch-up week. I have been following along with most of my blogs in Google Reader, even if I haven't been commenting!

Busy

The good news is... I found a part-time job!

The bad news is I've been trying to get used to my new schedule, and between that, barn-shopping, and getting in some major volunteer hours at the local showgrounds, I've been busy!

Willie is doing great, and enjoying the suddenly brisk weather because it means he gets to wear CLOTHES! Yeah, I know he doesn't NEED a sheet just yet, but he loves to get dressed up and it makes my life a bit easier when it comes to keeping his coat clean and dry.

Regular posts (and the second installment of the stretchy posts) to resume shortly...