When He's Good He's Very, Very, Good and When He's Bad He's ...

I should warn you that this post is an unabashed, unapologetic ode to Rogo, who isn't exactly an angel in many people's eyes (I'll explain that in a bit). This winter has been a turning point for him/us. It's been one of the most challenging times of my life, and he hasn't been easy, but it's worth it many times over. As you know, we've been at Fraser Equestrian Center for the winter. There are two big, game changing, developments:

1. Rogo is forward - as you may remember, I've struggled with Rogo being super lazy in the trot. He just wouldn't go forward no matter what - kicks, whips - nothing worked and it felt awful to try that way. You may be cynical and credit the spurs you see me wearing now. I can tell you that didn't get him forward. I wore them for weeks before there was a difference. The thing I believe made a difference was a coach who made me push him forward until he built the muscles and the muscle memory to go forward naturally. For weeks Sue would tell us every few strides, "more forward". Now if she mentions speed at all she is telling me to half halt on the outside to steady him (slow him a bit and get him on his hind quarters). When I mount, Rogo is raring to go and the first part of the ride requires a lot of half halts to keep him from running. He actually jigs :), so be careful what you wish for. He is so forward he had to have his feed cut in half and he is still an energizer bunny. How could you not love that? The other day Sue said to  me "he's gone from a diesel to a sports car and he's not going back". So, that about sums it up - after two years + of lamenting lack of energy / forwardness I've got a young horse with a go button. Heaven. 
2. The second big development, and of course hand in hand with the first, is that Rogo is developing roundness. He's been flopping around on his forehand for 2+ years and now he's learning to use his hind quarters. I can't describe how happy I am, how amazing it feels, that he's driving from his hind quarters. This is kind of flaky of me, but I'm so impressed and amazed by the feeling that I am literally dreaming about riding him almost every time I fall asleep. Keep in mind this is my first warm blood and first time starting a horse, so having this power develop is very big to me. It's a sensation I'd describe as having a powerful motor driving you forward. Rogo is big boned and has a strong jumper influence in his pedigree. When those hind legs start coming underneath him and sending us forward it's a feeling like I've never known before. I love it and I love knowing it's only going to get better as he develops. 

My niece flew in to visit my Mom who just had a hip replacement (thus I've been off blogger for a week) and she took the videos you see here with a phone. The quality isn't good but at least it's something for the record I want to keep (glare is from back door being open - it was 17 that day!). The first is just a short clip but you'll hear Sue referring to Rogo's power (he's been wanting to go, go, go). He isn't fast here; as a matter of fact I've slowed him to the point that he's slower than usual. Just for the record, once he gets warmed up and into the lesson he's all business. This isn't a spooky energy, it's a forward energy.
The next is of him doing 10 m circles down one long side and (supposedly) leg yielding up the other side. He pokes his nose out and goes on his forehand during the leg yield (he does it okay sometimes, but not in this instance), but he went like this all the time last fall. Anyway, this is pretty average fare for someone doing dressage, but it's big to me! (You'll see Brittany and Spider at the end. Spider is schooling PSG and he's spooking at my niece in the corner videoing. I think Spider is an Appendix Quarter Horse and he's very talented. He does very well in competition. I don't know how to edit it out.)

   

 Now, for the 'when he's bad' part - Rogo is very strong minded and he hasn't been, shall we say, 100% in favour of roundness and using his hind quarters. This manifests itself in the canter where he will suddenly, with no warning turn on a dime and veer off course, trying to leave the ring (and succeeding on occasion) and / or getting very strong/fast and refusing to turn. He'll also take the wrong lead which he'd never done before and even went through a phase where he'd try to refuse to canter. Generally anything to create a little chaos and avoid the intended work plan. It has taken all of my perseverance to stick with it. I feel bad because if anyone else is riding it is a little disconcerting to say the least, but I'm not giving up so it is what it is. It's gotten a lot better but it still isn't great.
So even though he's missed over a month (sarcoid surgery) out of the last four months, he's made great progress over all and even the 'bad' is getting better.

We have another Cindy Ishoy clinic coming up in a couple of weeks and I'm really looking forward to that. I'm also looking forward to catching up on my blog reading again. Dear knows what I've missed. Coffee and horsey blogs are on the horizon...

Winter Horse Keeping At Home

This is the first winter we've kept horses at home for a few years. We've been boarding all three of them for the last few winters so we'd be able to ride them in an indoor over the winter. This year just Rogo is boarded and Dan and Savanah are at home. Doug and I love having them here. It feels empty when there are no horses in the back yard.
They've had a very easy winter. There's been a lot of ice and I've been driving so much to ride Rogo (a round trip is 3.5 hours) so this translates to time off for Savanah and Dan. I must say though, it is very tempting to jump on furry Savanah bareback for a heated seat ride.
We've done a few things differently this winter than we did other winters when we had them home. One of the biggest differences was that we rarely put them in. In the past, after about the first week of Oct., we'd lock them in their stalls every night and let them out in the morning. This year they may have been put in for the night about five times - only when it was REALLY cold or it was raining or snowing. They can go in on their own and we clean and bed their stalls everyday, but we don't lock them in. We're basing this on research reports we've read that it's healthier for them. This is very easy for us to do, because their stall doors open onto their turn out. They have heated buckets in their stalls and we can feed them in their stalls or throw hay outside on nice days.
I'm thinking about offering outdoor board as an option at the facility we're building. I'm curious about how people do this when the turn out isn't attached to a barn. I know that run in shelters are required, but how about water? I guess it would be necessary to run electricity for heated water tubs? And I wonder if it's standard to give free choice hay to horses kept outside 24/7? This would work for Dan, but Savanah can't have free choice hay. We tried it one winter and she ate steady and blew up like a beach ball - decidedly unhealthy. Also, we put our horses in when it rains or is below -15 or so (depending on the wind). Do some people leave them out regardless of the temperature? What about blankets? Savanah is like a wooly mammoth, hates blankets and they would be counter productive. Dan doesn't get nearly as thick a coat and loves his blanket - he gets in a snit if we're late getting it on him and then is happy and sweet once it's on. If they're out 24/7 how could you be sure they were dry under their blankets, that they weren't over-heating, etc.? I wonder if it would end up being more work than keeping them in a barn at night, because you'd still need to carefully monitor and check their needs, but it would be harder to do.
One of the other big changes we made was switching to haylage. We thought we had an agreement with our hay supplier to sell us hay all winter, as required. This solves the need to store large amounts, but mid winter he told us he'd sold all the hay. Not a good system it turns out. So we switched to another supplier who had only haylage. This is out first time using it. It was strange in that the the horses wouldn't touch it for about 36 hours (we still had hay left and gave them that). Then, they started gradually picking at the haylage we'd put out and fairly quickly they couldn't get enough of it. Now they love it. We feed a little less than hay as it is higher in calories. The up side of haylage is that it isn't dusty at all - I love that. Now they are completely on haylage (after a period of easing them onto it), are the same weight as before and look great. To be honest I think I should have done a little more research, but I asked horse people I trusted, read what I could and proceeded. It wasn't new to Dan as he was fed haylage when he was at Joan's. It was new to Savanah though and I need to be careful with her as she's colicked in the past and also she's a very easy keeper. I suspect she could get laminitis easily. One option would be to get the haylage analysed at the agricultural college so we'd understand the calorie and nutrition content, and plan from that in consultation with our vet. Great intentions but since it's working out I haven't made time. We'll have to figure out something else as the weather warms up because haylage can mold quickly once it's opened (in the cold weather it hasn't been a problem) and with only two horses eating it it is likely to mold before a round bale is finished once the weather gets warm.
Here are some pictures I took with my phone today. You can see that spring hasn't come to Nova Scotia yet.

Here is Savanah eating her haylage and looking very happy and hairy :) I wish I had a better picture of her face. She truly is wooly and I think it's quite beautiful. For comparison purposes I included this picture Maria Casey took of her in the fall (below). What a difference!

Then there's Dan munching away, and a picture from my office window so you can see how wintery it still is.
I'm very interested in hearing about how you manage horses in the winter and anything you do to make the job easier.

Rogo's February Riding / Training

In re-reading my last post I seem to be obsessed with staying warm. That fits.
Back to Rogo's training - I didn't get to have a lesson today. Sue (trainer/teacher/ barn owner) texted this morning that it was -16 and too cold to ride. We had a good Feb. though. He is figuring out working from his hind quarters and is less anxious about it.
His feed was cut back before his surgery due to his bucking episode (the only one he's ever had since being backed), and he still has lots of energy and forwardness without the drama.
Due to the fact that he got very rebellious about being asked to canter in a rounder frame, we are still doing mostly training level work. On one hand this is discouraging given his age and time we've been at it, but on the other hand he is a different horse, which is very encouraging. After two years of dawdling along (check my energy level labels) he is beautifully forward - this alone is revolutionary. The other big change is that he is moving in a rounder fashion, using his hind end. Both of those things are fundamental to progress and I think must take a lot of effort and work on his part. He needs to move his balance from front to back and that can't be easy. It accounts for the canter issues I think.
So the status is that training level is all very good except that he is still bracing / resisting a bit during the first canter transition or two, and he may be difficult to steer some days in canter until he is warmed up, i.e. staying on a good circle.
I half halt to address the bracing. (There are lots of different half halts. I'm calling this a half halt for lack of a better term, but it isn't my usual.) It seems counter intuitive but it works. He's bracing, sucking back, and grabbing the reins. I take and give on the outside rein until he stops grabbing the reins and softens. I immediately give the canter aid and it usually work. After he's done one or two transitions they are better. Some days, once he's warmed up, he'll canter from a walk with a light ask.
To address the steering on a canter circle issue (wanting to go straight instead of on a curved line) I need to remember to use a strong outside rein and if I need it, to use my outside leg, even giving a kick if he is really wanting to get strong, or a tap on the shoulder to reinforce the turn. As we work at this he goes with lighter and lighter aids. As soon as he starts working with me I have to go as light as possible, because once he is steering okay, continuing with heavy aids makes it go bad again. And the heavy aids can cause or at least reainforce another avoidance issue - getting faster (too fast).
He'd been cantering fine for a long time, without any of these issues, but he was on his forehand. Getting him to rebalance more to the hind end caused us to encounter these training issues, but over all things are better - the quality of the canter when he 'gets' it is much better than before we had the problems.
We won't move ahead until things are really solid and it will make it easier in the long run.
He is advancing in some areas - he is doing ten meter trot circles, some leg yeild and some shoulder in.
We worked on ground poles a couple of times in February and that was fun for both of us. He did really well and it helped him get past his anxiety - yeah! We couldn't do too much cantering over poles though - he wanted to gallop. It will take more work but we enjoy it.
So, the big gains are in re-balancing more to the hind quarters and more forwardness. Those things are huge. He's a good boy to work so hard, especially with the health problems he's had this winter (sarcoid - things are still looking good on that front). I'm very happy with him.

Wrapping Up As A Working Student

I finished my month as a 'working student' and it was one of the hardest, but also most productive, months of my life. I've been putting off posting because there's just so much I want to write about that I couldn't find time and energy to start. I decided to break it into two posts, one about working at the barn and one about Rogo. Also, I'm going to try to keep it short and snappy, or I'll write a book :)
First - dressing for winter as a barn worker. You may remember this was a question / concern of mine going in (who wants to be cold for hours?) and I'm happy to report that with the advice you gave me, I was literally never cold the whole time, even though there were days it didn't get above -10 and I was out there for hours. Here's what I wore on the coldest days:

It was taken with a phone and is kind of dark, so I'll describe it: hat is rolled up - it can be pulled down over your face if you're going to be out for a long time, turning out, etc. A down filled jacket (it's a nice Eddie Bower jacket that I got for $5.00 at Frenchies, a locally famous line of used clothing outlets - I could write pages about my Frenchies finds) over a fleece top, insulated riding pants (in this case Elation, they were just what I had), breeches underneath for riding later. Light socks with wool socks over, inside Bogs. I have to give Bogs credit where credit is due. This is my first pair and I'll never be without them again. I ALWAYS get cold feet, and my feet weren't cold once, which seems like a miracle to me. They are light weight, water proof and warm. One of the other barn workers had Mud Ruckers, which seem to be of equal function. I think the key is that they are made of neoprene, so look for a pair of boots with that in mind if you have cold feet. The models to go for have 7 mm neo-tech insulation. Several people suggested options that might be cheaper and are comparable to Bogs in comments to an earlier post if you're interested. I got mine 20% off just before starting the month and I couldn't be happier with them. For gloves I wore insulated deer skin such as you can find at feed and tack stores and they worked well.
I'd say 95% of the time the down jacket would be over-kill. Most days I wore the jacket(s) that went with the insulated pants - two layers. An inside insulated layer and outside wind and water resistant layer. I'd start off with both layers, quickly take off the top layer as I worked up a sweat, and then take both off and ride in the fleece top I had on as a first layer. Also, I only needed the insulated pants two or three times. This insulated riding suit was bought half price in the spring about six years ago and I've worn it to death and it still looks fine. If you go to my pictures page you'll see me wearing the jacket when I found Rogo in Alberta as a two year old.
What I learned worked best for me most days is breeches as a first layer (the inside seam on long johns chafed my legs really badly when I walked in them all day), then I'd put something called power skins over the breeches. They are a Stanfields Underwear product. Stanfields is a Nova Scotia underwear producer and there is a factory outlet about 40 minutes from home, in Truro. It's one of my favourite stores! The deals are unbelievable. Anyway, the power skins are great - they are light weight with a really thin fleece lining and the outside of them repels things sticking to them unbelievably well. Hay and straw literally fall off of them. I discovered this by accident when I started wearing them on the outside instead of the inside of my breeches to avoid the inner seam on my leg. If anyone thought I was weird they were too polite to say :) It isn't too obvious - they just look like leggings and if you don't look closely they probably look like breeches. The other bonus of this arrangement is that you can just peel them off to ride and don't have extra layers inside your riding boots (I don't like winter riding boots - too bulky). Experienced barn workers often wear over-all or cover-alls. I'm not sure I'd find this a better option.
I also learned that as much as I love stalls deeply bedded in straw, they are just too much work for me. Although straw is cheaper, I would end up spending more on labour because they take a lot longer to clean. At home we have stall mattresses and use shavings and I can do both stalls in about 15 minutes. It takes me a least half an hour to do a good job on one stall bedded with straw, and although I've heard it makes great compost, the manure pile builds up very fast.
Turn out takes longer and is harder work than I realized. Our horses can go in and out on their own, so I haven't had to contend with turning horses in and out. The most I do is open or close a door. Turns out it's a pain :) Speaking of turn out, I'd read that you don't need alleys between the paddocks to separate the horses if you are using electric fence. At Frasers I was told you do need it. Any experience with this? Maybe it depends on how many and how frequently horses are coming and going.
I also got a reminder that I'll push myself too hard and it isn't a good thing. I was trying to meet all kinds if end of Feb. deadlines for tax issues and agriculture grants, and get ready for our dressage club annual general meeting, as well do management consulting at the other end of the Province, while doing hard physical work in the barn. Needless to say it didn't work and I backed off a bit on a few fronts.
I learned about the human side of things too - the importance of creating and maintaining a positive atmosphere, the key role good barn workers play, etc. Another bonus - Sue is a great cook and  after working in the cold all day she can put a delicous meal on the table for her crew in minutes. I've added several recipes to my repertoire! And speaking of food, for the first timer in my life I 'got' eating a good breakfast. It made a huge difference in my energy level. I met some great people, both other barn workers who I got to know better, and clients.  In the interests of honesty I have to say I missed several days due to business obligations, and I didn't do as much as the permanent barn workers. All in all though, it was one of the hardest, but best months I can imagine. The people there, Sue and the other workers were amazing to share this opportunity with me.
I got in some great riding for the month. I have a riding lesson tomorrow and I'll update and get back to my dressage training journal theme.

Week One As A 'Working Student'

With A Sub-theme of Rogo getting back to work...
Thanks for all of the great comments on my last post. I'm going to cut and paste them into my design file. The advice is great! I have many good ideas and leads to make our facility functional and safe. Now, to focus on my preparatory education :)
Last week went by in a blur. The degree of tiredness I felt Mon., Tues. and Wed. was something I can't describe and don't remember ever experiencing before, and they were being easy on me! Tues. was probably the worst - I was exhausted from Mon. and had to do it all again. I was literally holding onto the wall in a stall at one point and trying not to throw up. How tired was I? I remember trying to say something to one of the other women working in the barn and the effort it took to make my lips move took all my concentration. And I slurred! Who knew tiredness could affect speaking?
I don't want to make it sound like they were working me hard. I didn't have to do it, and I only did about half of what the regulars did. I wanted to experience and do as much as I could though. I have a much better idea about reasonable expectations for future employees and a HUGE respect and appreciation for barn workers. In my defense I'm mid fifties and have been working at a desk for decades. They're early twenties and in amazing shape.
Miraculously by Thur. I found my stride. Early afternoon it dawned on me that I wasn't going to hit the wall that day and I was actually enjoying myself.
I learned about feeding:

• individually prepared for all 27 horses in labelled containers 
• organized into the order of the stalls for ease of feeding
• mix bran and alfalfa cubes with water in wheelbarrows; feed one morning, one night
• soak and add barley to the bran
• all horses get one scoop of the above plus a cup of green tea 
• other feed(s) and supplements as required
• rinse and dump wheelbarrows outside
• feed first thing in the morning and again when horses come in

I learned about turn out:

• the order of turning out matters. Some horses don't like to be out first or left last, while others don't care
• Figure out which horses might get along together, or turn out individually
• take two flakes of hay for each horse s you lead them out, for eating throughout the day

Cleaning stalls and daily managing the manure pile:

• the stalls are bedded with straw. Remove all soiled straw, and pile what's left in a row in the middle of the stall
• at the manure pile, dump off the end of the board which directs where to dump. Spread out  what you dumped. This helps keep adding in layers.
• sweep the edges of the stall; scrape the floor if it is getting built up with residue of hay seed, etc. Sprinkle lime if needed
• clean the water buckets and feed tubs; fill water buckets
• add lots of new straw and hay

The other workers also groom and prep training horses for Sue to ride and sometimes warm them up for her. I did a little grooming.
Now, for Rogo...
Mon. was his first time under saddle since his surgery over a month previous. He was a good boy and did some good work. He got better every day, and by Thur. we had one of our best rides ever. Sue says we'll hit first level this year. I hope so. I know we're late, but we were without lessons for a long time and good basics are soooo important. We've made good progress since being here, even with all the time we've missed. I'll try to get some pictures or video soon.
Here's a picture of one of my fellow barn workers, Bianca, sharing kisses with Rogo (he loves it!).

It was around -20 this morning and didn't get above -10 today (if that) . I was in the barn all day except for a short lunch break and I stayed warm. I'll write what I've learned about dressing in a future post.
I'm behind in my blog reading and commenting. I'm too tired at night! :) I'll look forward to catching up with coffee when my working student gig is over.

I Have Some Big News

But before I tell you, I want to thank everyone for the great response to my last post. I got some truly fabulous advice on dressing for long hours of working outside and in a barn. I went back and labelled the post so others and I can find it. The comments are a wealth of information from some very experienced people. As a matter of fact I think there's a good magazine article there!

Okay, back to my news - remember when I wrote a wine fueled wish list for 2011? Hmm, written one year and one day ago - am I oddly energized by February? Check off #3 on this list: Develop a business plan that would give me financially sustainable access to an indoor full size dressage arena for winter 2012/13 (remember, it's a wish list). Find close to it for 2011/12.

Well, we won't really know if it's financially sustainable until it's up and running (although we've crunched lots of numbers), but all of the pieces are coming together for a winter / early spring 2013 opening. This list was the first time it made it to the surface of my consciousness and Doug (my husband) and I have been slowly but surely moving ahead with it ever since. Kind of weird eh? This past week we reached a milestone, but before I get to that here's a short chronology with pictures:

• we bought 135 acres of land in April 2011 very close to the Halifax / Truro corridor. It is the central place to be in Nova Scotia, with easy access from New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island too.

Doug got his life time dream (besides his Harley lol) - a John Deere tractor

 Here he is driving it across our front lawn just after it came off of the delivery truck. While we're on this picture, check out the cute little horse silhouette on the corner of the trim over the door. Doug made them for several spots on the house.

• I did surveys, newsletters and business planning to figure out user needs, market, costs, budget

 You can't make it out, but I think it's interesting. It's some of the results of the on-line survey I did re user and event planner preferences for a competition and clinic facility. If you would like the information just let me know and I'll email it to you.

We settled on a phase one program of: (1) a rental venue for competitions and clinics, (2) a small amount of boarding, particularly in the winter months when there aren't competitions and people need an indoor to train, and (3) a small amount of warmblood breeding (starting next year with one). We'll cater to all disciplines who want to use our facility.

• Doug started clearing land and is making good progress.

 This is kind of dark (my phone at dusk), but it's the future location of the arena. Everything else will be designed around that.

• And then everything fell into place this week - Rogo's looking good, we got the financing terms we wanted, the arena supplier gave us a competitive quote, and, ta da - the big news part - we ordered a gorgeous We Cover arena!!! It will be 80 feet wide and 216 feet long, with the riding surface being about 205 feet long (some space at one end will be for offices, feed, etc.). The supplier sent me these pictures of one they just put up.

 Ours will have windows in the ends and stabling on the sides. The buildings can have metal or wood siding. We'll probably do wood ends and let them weather grey, and we'll see about the stable siding - grey metal or wood.

This of course led to great excitement on our part and bubbly was in order.

It was fun to sit and talk about the coming year. We have great plans but it will be very hard work.

Now I'm working on a site plan. I was an environmental / park planner for many years and have a design degree in environmental planning, so I can actually do this. Of course an agricultural engineer is doing all of the structural plans. Here is a very rough design program. Keep in mind the plan is to develop the site over a period of years, so I want to include everything in the design so we don't realize down the road that the perfect spot for visitor camping for example has been used for an equipment shed.

 

Can you make this out? Did I miss anything? Feedback is more than welcome.

So that's the big news. I hope you don't mind me writing about business on my training blog. This blog is definitely staying a personal dressage training journal, but I can't help throwing other stuff in at times, especially when it's life changing. If you are interested in following our facility development progress I have a facebook page for it and a website coming soon. With your indulgence I'll be picking your brains for design ideas and have already gotten some from generous readers.

What Do Winter Working Students Wear?

Getting past my fear of faltering physically (I know expectations will be reasonable, but this will be quite an activity increase) my biggest fear is cold feet. I hate cold feet and I always seem to have them. Uggs were great when I discovered them, but they won't do for cleaning stalls and temperatures that go up and down as they have been this winter (cold AND wet). I'm thinking Bogs. Everyone here is wearing them. Are they popular in your areas too? Are they as warm as people say? They are supposed to be rated to -40 and waterproof as well. Any other suggestions?
Now, moving on up. What do you wear to work, and then ride? Do you start with long johns, then breeches, with insulated over-alls if it's really cold? Maybe the insulated riding pants with side zippers to slip in and out of easily (I have a similar pair with matching jacket but only ride in them if I'm outside and it's really cold)? Overkill?
Jackets I think I have covered - every length and fit, down filled, vests,... and lots of long sleeve T's and turtle necks.
Gloves? I have insulated deer hide that I'll probably wear, but maybe I need something warmer. And I must remember hats and scarves.

So those are my questions and I'm dead serious. I know how to dress for winter riding, and how to dress to look after our two or three horses, but hours in the barn will be different. If you have suggestions please pass them along. This is my first lesson for my own place! Hey, I can probably claim new purchases as a work expense!