Despooking and the Chiro Man

I've been a bad blogger this week because I've been out having too much fun with my horse and not enough time sitting behind a computer! You would too if you were enjoying the magnificent Texas springtime... I'm enjoying it while I can before summer comes and we all retreat to our air-conditioned buildings!


Last weekend our facility hosted a despook clinic and subsequent playday for those people wanting to go through our obstacle course on a timed and judged basis. This is the ultimate terrifying insanely crazy hard 4-acre obstacle course:



A few of the obstacles included: flapping tarps hanging from the side of the shed that you had to walk through, a carwash made of construction tape, flapping flags, a waterbox with neon colored floating balls in it, a teeter totter, boxes you had to get up and off of, tires you had to negotiate, a squeeze chute made of upright tarps that had pieces of hose scattered on the ground as footing, things tied to ropes that you had to drag, a carwash made of pool noodles, a bump gate that your horse had to push through, another push-through made of pool noodles, pinwheels, and a whole lot more. During the clinic, they even set off firecrackers and smoke bombs as part of the despooking process! (Don't worry, everyone did great!)

I brought Pangea over to check out the course on Sunday evening, and finally as the sun was setting, we had our chance to get on the course and see what she'd make of it. I didn't bother running it with the other folks in a timed way, just in case something freaked her out and she tried to kill me. (I truthfully had NO IDEA what she was going to do when she saw everything!) She gave me a nice prelude when I walked her up to the gigantic ball that was used during the clinic, and she didn't even bother to sniff it because it was so boring:



Once on the course, she did AMAZING. AMAAAAAAZING. Flags smacking her in the face in the strong winds? No big deal. Tarps flapping on her head? Whatever. Teeter-totter bridge... at a trot? Psh, I've seen scarier. Squeeze chute made of tarps that was touching her on both sides? That's cool. Pool noodle bump gate and carwash? I'll halt and stand immobile so you can snap a picture for all your friends to see:





What is the ONE thing she WOULD NOT under ANY circumstances do?

The water. The most benign thing out there. Of course. Wade through a 4' river the weekend before? Piece of cake! Puddle of muddy water in a small box? LAKE LOCH NESS. Won't go near it.

The ONE thing I was sure she wouldn't give a dang about... and she would. Not. Do it.
We tried until it was dark, to no avail. She just said no, and I didn't have enough time or light to finish pushing the issue. Instead, we trotted through the rest of the entire course. That's right, trotted! Just ran around 4 acres over teeter-totters, boxes, bridges, squeeze chutes, and a million flapping and rustling things flying around in the air. Dang, I shoulda done the playday! We woulda beat 95% of the people there! I think she went through it better than most everyone else!

Seriously, what a gem. I can't believe how "whatev" she was about everyone. She seriously did NOT care!



Sunday evening, I left Pangea to stay over at the work farm, and on Monday morning she got her customary AquaTread session and Theraplate. She is working now for 3 minutes as a power walk, 9 minutes at a maxed out trot, and 3 more minutes at a power walk to finish, plus her warmup and cooldown. She works out strong in the pool, and is only getting stronger and better. I think I'll stick with this routine for awhile, seeing as I like how the powerwalk pushes her out of her typical speedy little walk and encourages her to really stretch out and lengthen her stride more. Gogo had a huge rolling walk, but was lazy, and Pangea is the opposite: she has a HUGE motor on her but her stride length is shorter and less rolling than Gogo's. It's a nice pure 4-beat walk, to be sure, but the more we stretch out into it and let it roll, the better she does.

Pangea spent another night over at the work farm on Monday night, and on Tuesday, the chiropractor was out to work on her and a number of other horses. I have no idea when the last time she ever saw a chiropractor was, but if it was ever, it was years ago. What kinds of horrible things was he going to find on her?

Nothing. Pretty much nothing of interest was to be found on her. She had some minor lumber issues, some small stuff freed up in her neck and withers, and her right hip was a bit out. And.... that's about it.

Every single other horse adjusted got follow-up appointments, ultrasound and pool prescriptions, and instructions for rest. As for my girl? Give her a few days of just bareback hacking, and then get back to work. Easy!


How about that huh. Simple, simple, and simple.


Oh, and then a whole crapload of tornados came.




That was the view from the pool barn where I was swimming horses. We thought it wasn't going to hit us... and mostly it didn't, it passed over us and dropped about a minute's worth of scary hail on us, and then was gone. We didn't bring the horses in because we thought it was going to pass, and from the pool barn window I saw Pangea get nailed by a rouge hailstone and rear STRAIGHT up in air.... poor baby! I felt awful, but it was over in about 30 seconds, and she was back to eating her hay.

The storm that went over us went on to produce a tornado and completely destroy a large area right in the middle of the Metroplex (the area between Dallas and Fort Worth, a hugely populated area), decimating houses and tossing tractor trailers in the air like they were toys. There were over a dozen tornados in all, and hundreds of homes in the DFW area were completely leveled. Amazingly - no, miraculously - no one was killed or seriously injured. Thankfully these storms happened in the middle of the day on a weekday, so most of the inhabitants of the homes destroyed were at work or school. It's just awful that this had to happen in one of the most populated areas in the state of Texas.... you just don't hear of this kind of damage happening in the middle of a major city very often.


But we're all safe and sound, thankfully! We survived a terrifying obstacle course, a chiro adjustment, and some crazy tornados.... go us!!

Torture Day!

Yesterday was Pangea's weekly pool day, a few days later than usual given the fact that I did not wake up to my SIX alarms on Wednesday and was therefore late to work instead of early to the barn to pick her up on time. (Not my usual... I was totally thrown off all day long. Hate that.) Yesterday was also our first trot day in the pool, which I am very excited about - this should give her the strength and flexibility she needs to prevent Pogo Trot when she begins her warmups under saddle. The AquaTread puts a mean topline on everything it sees, I can attest to that!



She did a power walk for 8 minutes, trotted for 3, then power walked again for 4. Absolutely no need to do more than 3 minutes of trot... fitness will come in time. Soundness, strength and flexibility are all products of smart choices when it comes to fitness and there isn't any need to rush. We're not exactly training for Medal Finals or anything.

In terms of her conditioning, while I have started to very lightly play around with other speeds (mostly to just get an assessment of how she is feeling under saddle), mostly I am still doing all of my work at the walk. I believe in walking for fitness - those of you who read the Eventing-A-Gogo blog will remember our weekly 2 hour walk hacks to Dunkin Donuts - and did most of exclusively as roadwork in an effort to turn her tendons into iron. Of course, that did absolutely nothing for her as she blew both hind SDFTs out at the end of the season... so much for that idea. At least my mind was in the right place? Maybe? I try not to think about it too much anymore because it makes me too sad.


Aside from all that, I am super happy to report that her manners have vastly improved over the course of the past few weeks. She only needs to be scolded for naughty behavior once (at most, twice), and then she understands and doesn't try it again. Last week she was a pawing maniac in the barn, completely ignoring every reprimand I gave her in her persistence. This week, I tried a different tactic: completely ignoring her when she paws. This seemed to have a profound effect on her mind. I noticed that when she was pawing and I scolded her, she perked her ears towards me and occasionally nickered while still continuing to paw. Basically, any sort of noisy attention I was giving her was good fun, and she in her own way felt as though she was being rewarded for it. D'oh! How about we take two on that one. Her brain finally wrapped around this idea of "pawing = no attention" when we pulled up in the trailer for our swim date at the barn. She wanted to get OFF the trailer RIGHT NOW, so she started to paw as I went for the side door. And I walked away. I made it all the way into the barn before she realized I was no longer there, and stopped. I walked back. When she saw me coming out the window, she started to paw again. I turned around, and walked away. She stopped. I turned back around, and walked towards her. She started to paw again. I walked away. And so on until the wheels turned in her head and she stopped pawing the moment I started to walk away. "Crap, she is leaving when I do that... maybe I should stop it" would be what was floating above her head had she been able to produce a visible thought bubble. She eventually stopped entirely, and I unloaded her. The effect lasted on into the barn, where she refused to paw even once when I was walking around to and away from her. She did paw every time a horse got in or out of the treadmill, but with a verbal "quit!" from me, she stopped immediately. (Yes!!)


Following her pool session, she got a full on bubble bath completely with salon-style tail care, spritzed down with conditioner and fly spray as a finisher. Yep, our flies are out in full force... we've had spring weather for weeks and weeks and the bugs are mad crazy already! (Oh, and the black widows too... the black widows are EVERYWHERE. I'm amazed I haven't been bitten yet... I'm sure that time is coming, and you'll get to hear about a lovely story like this one.)


And as a final torture session, Pangea got to enjoy the Theraplate for 30 minutes while drying!






She was a good girl and walked right into the stocks with no issue. We keep the Theraplate there in the stocks because a) it fits perfectly and b) we can tie up a quiet horse and leave it to cook there for 30 minutes while we do other things without worrying about it moving/leaving/wigging/etc. If you've never seen a Theraplate, it's essentially one big humming, vibrating metal plate that you stand on for vibration therapy. Like hyberbaric chambers, Theraplates are being toted as the next big fix-everything miracle machine... only time will tell if that is true or not.

She was mostly a very good girl around standing quietly on her own little personal earthquake pad, save for a moment of uncertainty when it first begain. It feels incredibly weird at first, so I can't blame her! I think I will also start standing on it whenever I get a moment.... my back has been killing me and I need some relief!

What a good girl. Well, almost...



I was going to trail ride today but had a new client to attend to with several horses, so I spent most of my time doing that instead. We'll see tomorrow how she feels under saddle!