Too busy to write

I've been really busy with non-horsey stuff (Thanksgiving anyone?) these past weeks and haven't been posting much, on the other hand there hasn't been a whole lot I've wanted to write about on the horse front.  But here's a brief (well, as brief as I can be) summary just to keep things recorded:

Uneven trot thing - doing much better, although there have been a few times she's once again been kind of stiff and uneven especially when starting out a ride.  Transitions seem to work really well loosening her up.  Also been doing a lot of turns on the haunches.

Behavior - she's once again starting to oscillate between almost completely dead to my leg aids and needing to be pushed every stride or absolutely electric, spooking and running away with me every few minutes.  I'm hoping this is one of those "two steps back before the big step forward" things, and the truth is that the other day we had a ride where she was pretty electric and just barely controllable at first but with just the right guidance was much more fun to ride than usual as I didn't have to push her constantly.  So maybe it's a matter of me becoming comfortable with her kicking it up a notch.

It's been a rainy week and she's hurt her hoof (see more below) so she had a couple of days off, then yesterday when I took her out to the parking lot to lunge a bit she had a spook and shouldered me off the path.  I'm pretty bummed that this is something that keeps happening - granted it hardly ever happens any more and when it does she doesn't actually run me over like she used to, but she's still not beyond shoving me aside and I'm painfully aware that this is evidence of her lack of trust and respect for me.  Anyhow I've been thinking about it and I think that my response when she does this is inappropriate and may be in fact making things worse - I tend to get aggravated, make myself larger and get her focussed on me (in hopes she won't run me over) in a fairly aggressive way, jerking at the lead rope, tapping her with my stick and reprimanding her or even giving a quick "Hey!" shout.  But if I think about it rationally, a whisper would probably do as well (or better) as a shout, and the truth is I can't expect her to trust me if my response to her being scared is effectively scaring her more.  So next time, I'm planning to try to keep my body language as non-threatening and neutral as possible and talk to her calmly, reassuring her there's nothing to be afraid of.  Whatever happens it will be a learning experience.

Dentist - so the equine dentist came over from Barcelona on her yearly visit and everything was more or less fine.  A few points but nothing to write home about.  Starbuck behaved nicely (the sedation helps) and it went much faster than expected.  Sandra Fortuny's my dentist, she's more expensive than just having the vet float their teeth but I really like her and think she does a really good job, plus she's really good and patient with the horsies.  She studied (she's actually a qualified equine surgeon) for a while in the US and did her residency at the animal hospital near Aqueduct race tracks.

New boo boos - her new bald spot is healing nicely and starting to have a thin layer of fur, and she has less fly-scratchy scabs than she does in the dead of summer, but she still has them.  And it's not surprising, as there are still a fair amount of flies.  I lent my fly mask to a friend whose horse has eye issues, but I'm thinking I may have to keep the fly mask on her year-round.  She's the scabbiest on her cheeks where she scratches herself with her hind hoof.  And what blog post would be complete without a new wound?  When I went to clean out her feet on Monday I noticed she was missing a chunk of her front left hoof and frog where I'm guessing she stepped on herself with one of the studs on her horseshoes.  It wasn't bleeding and didn't seem to hurt her when I probed it and cleaned it out, so I wasn't too worried but I checked with my vet and she recommended bandaging it with gauze and disinfectant for at least two days so that's what I've been doing.  After four days of bandaging she isn't lame at all and the wound has grown noticeably smaller so today I just cleaned it but didn't put a bandage on her and we'll see how it goes - she'll have a rest this weekend since I'm going to Madrid.

OK, I think that's all for now.  All in all we're making progress, I'm just going through a phase where I'm feeling very doubtful and inquisitive about what we're doing and where we're going, and especially about our relationship.  We're still at a level where I have to ask / nag / demand and I wonder how much of this is her, and how much of it is me (pretty sure it's nearly all me).  I know there's a better way to do things, and having just finished reading Alois Podjasky's "My Horses, My Teachers" I'm really motivated to try to find it.  But right now I'm completely at a loss as to how to motivate her in more positive ways - I'm getting better at this but she's just not the kind of horse that responds much to cuddles.  Anyhow it's simply yet another daily reminder of the mindblowing amount of things I still have to learn about horses.

Got to remember my mantra - Try different things.

Long in the Tooth

Today Starbuck had her first visit from the dentist (Sandra Fortuny)!  She's a woman about my age or a little younger who did her veterinary residency in the USA at animal hospitals near Belmont and Aqueduct racetracks, so she's seen a lot of horses in her day.  Both Starbuck and I appreciated her calm, professional "stallside" manner and she was also really instructive, explaining what she was doing and how to tell if problems arise in the future.

So first she sedated Starbuck since we decided that we didn't want her to come away with a scary memory of the dentist and I only had a couple of hours (it was on my lunch break).  Then she stuck her hand in there and checked her out-- apparently my baby girl has some wolf teeth which will have to come out in the coming year.  Then she did some light floating (rasping away of irregularities with a file) to see how Starbuck handled it (pretty calmly seeing as how she was way out of it).  Afterwards she used a speculum to keep Starbuck's mouth open while she really sanded down any points that might cause pain when they rub against her teeth and gums, and while she was doing this Starbuck lost her other front tooth... so I have a (kind of gross) souvenir!  At the very end the dentist took the speculum out to finish off with a small file.

Starbuck behaved like a real lady during all of this and only kind of protested towards the end when Sandra was working on her rear molars (she's still got her last molars coming in so that area must be kind of tender), I was so proud of her!  The vet says that not all horses behave so well even under sedation.  When this was all over (it took around 40 minutes) the dentist showed me how to tell if the teeth were growing incorrectly (holding Starbuck's mouth shut, I should be able to shift the lower jaw left and right 1 centimeter) and also told me to call her if Starbuck starts showing signs of having pain due to the wolf teeth so she can surgically remove them.  And I got a fancy report with a diagram of Starbuck's tooth wear and growth patterns as well as recommendations until the next visit next year.  And Starbuck got a nice long scratchy massage and an extra fluffy bed to sleep in tonight!

All in all an educational day and much less stressful than I feared!  Thanks Sandra!!!

Shopping

Today I went to get the bit I ordered, it's a D-Ring Snaffle with copper rollers and it has a nice feel to it.  I also got a Spanish style bridle this weekend, so I greased it up, attached it all and took off the noseband so it would be easier to put it on Starbuck the first few times and this is the result:

I personally think it looks pretty good!  Today I started just getting her used to it being rubbed on her face and neck, tomorrow I'll try to put it on her again (she was pretty skittish about it).  If all goes well, I'll lead her a little bit with it and then plan to longe her with the line attached to a halter over the bridle for the first time.  We'll see how it goes.

I also dewormed Starbuck again today with Maximec, it's about two weeks early but I wanted to deworm her before her winter coat came in.  She behaved really well and I think she actually liked the way it tasted... let's hope it keeps going so well every time.

She's lost another tooth, this one's the upper right encisor (the first was the lower left encisor).  The equine dentist is coming next week... that'll be a new experience!