And now a horse update

Happy fall and the arrival of spooky season everywhere!  We’ve certainly gotten a taste of fall weather, with temps dipping into the 40s at night and the wind whipping up all the vegetation in a fervor.  Leaves haven’t exactly started to change down here yet but we’re getting close.  As in typical Texas weather fashion, we went from summer to immediate fall overnight and now we’re back to summer again, with temps in the 90s.

The ponies are both adjusting to the change in temperatures in their own way.  Mae tends to thrive in the fall.  She’s so grateful for the relief from the heat and her coat starts to finally turn back into a shiny dark bay, instead of her sunscorched brown.  Even her rides have gotten more relaxed and less spooky, despite the wild wind and cooler temps.  She’s still barefoot and her hooves are growing out nicely and getting quite hard.  The farrier hasn’t had any inclination to put shoes back on her fronts so this may end up working out for the long run.

I have been trying to keep up with lessons on Dalton this fall, which has been tough because of travel conflicts.  In addition, Dalton has GROWN over the summer - not taller but wider.  He’s really filled out and his topline is coming in very nicely.  However what that means is that in the last few lessons we have had, his energy level has gotten in the way of a productive jump session so we’ve had to break it back down to basics again with more flatwork.  What starts off as a nice and easy warm up to small crossrail quickly devolves on the backend to a bucking fest.  Luckily I’ve stayed on when he decided to become a bucking bronco, may as well enter us into a rodeo at this point.

Top picture from September, bottom from March!

Why is this happening?  Our guess is that Dalton’s food intake and physical fitness means he has the ability to tell his rider (in dramatic fashion) his feelings about not being able to do what he wants, particularly over fences.  As I’ve said before, he loves jumping and also wants to do it his way (dramatically and at the highest point of the jump if you please).  Trainer lunges him before his training sessions and jumps him in a hackamore combination bit.  After his temper tantrum over the crossrails with me, we’ve swapped him from a two ring elevator bit back to a gag with a slow twist.  We’ve been cantering poles on the ground as a part of flatwork lessons and he has relaxed into that exercise instead of treating the poles like they are 3 feet high.  Taking a step back, breaking a combination into its component parts, and letting his brain adjust to the ask helps Dalton a lot.  For those of you with young horses, I’m curious if you’ve found that helpful when there’s confusion or an argument about a training exercise.

Of course fall temp swings mean that we’re on colic watch and all of us at the barn are on high alert.  Dalton had a stomach ache last weekend that I was luckily able to address quickly with banamine.  This is the time of year that I think defines what it is to be a horsewoman/horse girl/person with a crazy hobby/whatever you want to call it.  Possible grievous bodily harm to either yourself or your horse on the daily?  Bring it on.