# Bay, Hot, & Sweet



## Aprilswissmiss

Now, where it all started: October of 2014. My neighbor, knowing I had been riding horses since I was 9, asked me (I was 15 years old at the time) if I was interested in coming along with her to see her new horse, Noah. For anonymity, let's call my neighbor Susan. Susan had recently gotten back into horses, 30 years and 7 kids later. She adopted Noah from the MSSPA. Interestingly, Susan's sister who had never done anything with horses in her whole life, copied her sister and adopted April from the MSSPA at the same time. I was told that Susan's sister had intentions of adopting April and training her to become a top dressage horse (LOL!) because she thought April was pretty and that alone would make her a good dressage horse, and she clearly had the skills to train a green horse. She also changed April's name to Missy, because it was obviously superior to "April." :icon_rolleyes:

On October 25th 2014, Susan and I went to visit Noah and "Missy." This was the first time I ever met her (1st photo). She gave off a sweet and curious but high-energy vibe, if you can't tell from her eyes and ears in the photo.

The next day, we went back, and Susan gave me permission to ride Missy (2nd and 3rd photos). I never did meet Susan's sister. Missy was sweet and attention-seeking, but _so_ fast. She was incredibly speedy around the round pen - not in a dangerous way, just clearly unbalanced and green. If I remember correctly, I was told she had less than a dozen rides on her at the time, but she was very accepting of the saddle and bridle so I'm not sure about how accurate that is. It is in her nature, however, to just be fine with anything someone asks of her.


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## Aprilswissmiss

Very quickly, Susan started building her own little two-stall stable in her back yard. By that point, her sister had decided she no longer wanted Missy (just a couple weeks after adopting - big shocker!!) so Susan decided to adopt her as a companion for Noah. She was so eager that she moved them both in on November 15, less than a month after adopting them, while there still wasn't even a roof or complete siding on the stable. Noah loaded no problem - Missy took two hours. Trailering was definitely not her favorite thing - she started to show her feisty side!

When we got there, the horses settled in just fine into their new makeshift stalls. We took them for a walk through their new pasture, which also was not complete, as you can tell by the single-strand electric fencing in the background. From that day on, I was so happy - for the first time in my life, I could look out my window and see horses!


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## Aprilswissmiss

Starting late November and into December, I started riding Missy at least a few times a week. Susan let me have free-range to do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted with Missy, since she had no interest in training a green horse. I was absolutely thrilled to have a project! I had projects before, but never right in my back yard, and often those horses would be trained for a month and then be sold often to my dismay.

She was an amazingly sweet and friendly horse - she always wanted attention. This sometimes translated into pushiness, but she was often just fine. I could take her out of the pasture and ride her in the very large, open sandy area of my back yard. By that time of the year, there was a bit of snow on the ground, but not enough to stop us. She was very responsive - still fast, but never did anything bad. Unbalanced at the canter, but we worked through it, and we got along very well.


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## Aprilswissmiss

As most everything gets sooner or later, things got bumpy in an unfortunate series of events. First, in January, Missy busted through her frozen-jammed stall door with so much force that she split open her shoulder. The vet was called out and, since at that point she was in theory "my" horse, I was going over there twice a day to clean her wound and re-administer antibiotic cream. I'd never seen a horse so good for vet treatment - I would go out there and clean it up and apply it without even having to put a lead rope on her. In this time, I got to just sit and spend time with her, over which we bonded. If she saw me walking down the path, she'd come running to the front gate and wait for me.

In the meantime, Noah began bucking Susan off during just about every ride, to the point she lost all confidence and was afraid of riding him. She asked me to ride him since I was not currently riding Missy, which I happily obliged. I had no problem with him myself, with or without a saddle, so I believe he was testing Susan and continued to buck her off once he realized he could once. She still got a chiropractor and saddle fitter out for him, which didn't improve his bucking, so she got a vet out to send out his blood for a broad panel of testing - the result was "cancer."

Not wanting to/having the capacity to treat him, Susan sent Noah back to the MSSPA. In exchange, she brought home two mini donkeys to be Missy's companions. Missy absolutely adored them, and so did Susan. So much so that she got a third by the end of January, and then another in early February. If someone tied twine (looking back, I don't know why we did this) to Missy's halter like a lead rope and handed the twine to a mini donkey's mouth, Missy would follow them around and let them lead her anywhere!

It turned out, as Susan found out _after_ sending Noah back to the MSSPA, the testing company the vet had sent out Noah's blood samples to had mixed up their samples and Noah actually did not have cancer, nor anything wrong with his bloodwork. At that point, though, Susan was very happy with her donkeys and saw no point in changing what was working for her.


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## Aprilswissmiss

In March, Susan built a division in the pasture to keep the mini donkeys and Missy separated. The mini donkeys had access to one stall, and Missy had access to the other. This was particularly because one of the mini donkeys was pregnant when Susan bought her (foal born in April - photo at the end!), so she didn't want to worry about Missy inadvertently harming the new foal whenever it was born. Missy was not a fan of this setup at all, since she couldn't spend time with her mini donkey buddies anymore, and spent nearly the whole day, every day, pacing the fence line. After not riding Missy for a couple of months because of her healing shoulder and the incredibly deep snow, Susan asked me if I could continue riding Missy so she would maybe be a little less high-strung.

As you might imagine, taking an already-anxious horse out of the pasture was enough of a task, let alone exercising her - especially when there was still snow and ice on the ground. For the first few days, leading her out was impossible without getting run over or the lead line getting pulled clear out of my hands. She would take a step forward, then shoulder her way in front of me, turn around and bolt for the stable. For a couple weeks, all I practiced was walking down the driveway and back. After that discussion was settled to the point I could accomplish an in-hand walk with only a few backward glances, I started putting her on the lunge line in our makeshift "arena," which was really just an extension of the pasture with the entry point closed off. She would seem fine until she wasn't: she'd hear one of the donkeys bray and then all hell would break loose. For example, the first picture was when she was relaxed enough to roll in the snow after a short lunge. Then as soon as she stood up and shook it off, she bolted straight for the stable and ripped the lunge line clear out of my hands. I was just lucky that she has always been highly respectful of fences, so all she did was run around the arena screaming with the lunge line flying out behind her. Eventually she was alright on the lunge line as well, without any bolting.

In April, I mustered up the courage to get back on and ride for the first time since December. There was still snow on the ground. I don't know why, but I figured I would ride her in the same open, unfenced area as I did in November/December. I barely had the chance to get on before she bolted straight for the stable. With only one foot in a stirrup, I eventually came off at a full gallop and (thankfully) hit and slid on snow. I slid a good distance, as you can see in picture 2. When I caught up with her at the stable, which really wasn't that far away - maybe 500 feet, she had obliterated her bridle by snapping the leather in multiple places. Well, so much for that. I texted Susan, who was more than understanding and was just grateful I was making an effort to get her exercised.

In my mess of irrational teenage hormones, I swore to myself that I'd never sit on another green horse again (lol). I had no motivation to continue her training. It felt like two steps forward and fifty steps back. Not to mention the fear of causing injury to myself.


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## Aprilswissmiss

Back to square 1. After a week or so, I got back to working with Missy in-hand and on the lunge line in late April. No snow on the ground anymore made this an easier task. For a while, that's all I did: practiced getting and keeping her attention on the lunge line without a massive upset. She started to do really well, even better than she was before I got thrown.

In May, lots and lots of groundwork and a new bridle later, I was confident enough to get back on. This time, though, in our makeshift arena. The experience was like riding an entirely different horse. For the first time (not just in the new year, but _ever_), I was able to walk her on the buckle. We got some light trotting in, too, which was also phenomenal, comparatively speaking. Second photo was taken during this first ride.

Although with many more hardships ahead of us, this was the first major breakthrough that made me feel like I was doing something right. She taught me a lot just in those few months. The first of which being the helpfulness of establishing a relationship without any other expectations, like I did when I was over every day just to visit and hang out with her. The second of which was the importance of groundwork, which I had never been formally taught, since up until that point, I had only ever ridden under a trainer. And often, trainers teach you to ride, not to dilly dally on ground work. The third of which was to keep looking forward even when everything felt like it was crashing in reverse. And overall, I felt for the first time what it meant to have a heart horse: despite all the moments that were downright dangerous, she taught me just as much, if not more, than I taught her, and at the end of every day, still offered her affection no matter how much explosive crashing had happened just hours before.


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## whisperbaby22

I will be following.


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## Aprilswissmiss

June through August was full of assorted experiences, learning about ourselves and each other, getting in lots of good exercise, and just being plain silly. I was riding her every day unless the weather did not permit. If too hot, I'd let her loose in our makeshift arena and we'd just run and play around.

After we established ourselves well in the arena, we began trail riding through the many nearby wooded trails. I was surprised to find that right from the start, she was not the least bit spooky, and she was very confident heading away from home without a trail buddy. This was a drastic difference from her dangerous bolts back home just months before. Off we went, exploring beautiful trails and riding through flowery fields like you see in the movies.

One day, Susan thought it would be a great idea to cut her long, flowing mane. She didn't really know what she was getting herself into. I showed up as usual and her mane was a jagged mess. I texted her, "Decided to cut her mane?" and she replied back "Let's pretend it never happened." :rofl: I pulled her mane to make it look a bit less jagged, but still nothing comparable to the mane she had before.

Some ideas, looking back on them, were probably not so smart. Missy had long had an aversion to being tied, especially cross-tied. For whatever reason, I figured one day it would be a good idea to cross-tie her to a birch tree and a white pine, both rather small. Flexible enough that she wouldn't necessarily feel as restrained, and if she decided to fight it, wouldn't be able to break the tree or the ties or herself. Again, looking back on it, probably not a bright idea, but it did work! No more tying problems to anything after that.

Missy had also had a long-standing hatred of farriers. My guess is no one regularly handled her feet in between farrier appointments while she was at the rescue. When Susan adopted her, part of her adoption page said "requires sedation for farrier visits." The first farrier visit Susan scheduled (way back after she first adopted her), they did not sedate her, and the farrier left bloody. As sweet as she was, she did not appreciate her feet being worked on. I think all she needed was daily hoof handling/picking and getting used to being held still, as she greatly improved fairly quickly and no longer mauled farriers.


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## Aprilswissmiss

All of these experiences led up to August 10th, the day after my 16th birthday.

My dad woke me up to tell me: "Missy's going back to the rescue today, you might want to say good-bye." Absolutely no warning. Susan had decided a few days prior, but my parents told her to wait so I could at least enjoy my birthday before she left. I won't get into all the emotional stuff that followed, but as I'm sure everyone can understand, it was gut-wrenching and heart-breaking. Susan had decided she really did not have any use for this horse, and since her mini donkeys were less expensive and more entertaining for her, she called the rescue and arranged for them to take her back.

I was given a few hours to spend time with her and go for one last ride. I went straight out to the trails and we had one last long gallop down the sand strip you can see in the second photo of the above post. Then we rode back, untacked, and I handed her over to Susan as the rescue's trailer pulled in. The rescue workers were very dismissive of me, despite all the work and training and time I had put into her (probably just misdirected frustration at having to pick up a horse they thought they'd put in reliable hands, but upsetting nonetheless), so I decided to just go home and let them take care of it.

In the weeks following, I desperately fantasized about finding ways to visit her, adopt her for myself, or anything that would keep me in connection with her. The rescue was about an hour away, and at the time I did not have a car nor any means to keep her myself, so none of these options were realistic. I had to settle and just keep on keeping on at the stable I had been riding at for the last few years.


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## CopperLove

Following now! As I was reading through, I inadvertently "liked" your last post of the thread before the others, about Missy having to go back to the rescue, oh no :frown_color:


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## Aprilswissmiss

I guess Susan felt bad, because she offered to drive me to visit her a few weeks later. Apparently the rescue's trainer was having a difficult time riding her. She was a dressage lady, and was not appreciative of how fast April's natural trot was (her name returned to the original one she had all of her previous life once she went back). I had grown used to riding her huge Standardbred trot, and the trainer was appreciative of me riding her so that she could get some updated photos for her adoption page.

It did not help that the new trainer (being divvied up among all of the rescue's rideable horses) was only riding her two or three times a week, whereas I was riding her six or seven times a week. After all, she is quite a hot-blooded horse, and just about never ran out of expendable energy. On top of that, I am sure the dressage trainer rode her with much more contact and bodily loudness than I rode (given her dressage background), and I believe that also got April wigged out a bit.

Probably for the above reasons, or maybe something else I haven't considered, the day I went to ride her she was much more excitable than how she had been when I was riding her. I did not _want_ to keep a lot of direct contact, but I found myself having to or else she would just spitfire around the arena. For some reason, the two pictures below are the only ones I ended up saving of the ones she took that day.

And that was the last time in years I got to see her. Not too long after, I saw she had been adopted again by a couple who operated a lavender farm (wow!) and who wanted a couple horses to trail ride with.

Just for fun, and because I forgot before, I'll include the picture of us about a week before she was returned to the rescue. She is a very smart horse and very easy to ride bareback and bridleless (if you can survive her trot!)


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## Aprilswissmiss

It's about time I got back to this thread!

In late April (ironically) of 2019, four years after I last saw April, I suddenly thought about her and where she ended up, for the first time in a long time. Out of curiosity, I visited the rescue's website to browse their "successful adoptions" horses page, figuring she would be on there and I could read up on her a bit. Hmm... Strange... Couldn't find her, guess she had been adopted so long ago that they took the profile down to make way for the other adopted horses. So I opened up the "available for adoption" page just for fun, to see what horses they had there.

My heart stopped when I saw it: her profile under the "available for adoption". I double-checked I was on the right page - indeed I was. Her adoption profile read:

"April has an in your pocket personality; she is very friendly and loves attention. April is also very willing to learn and does well when she can be worked at least 4 days a week. She can be strong-willed at times, is quite forward under saddle, and so she requires an intermediate to advanced handler/rider. April has ridden both English and Western and recently had training doing walk/trot work under saddle."

And there I was, an emotional puddle just like four years before on the day she left. All logic went out the window, and before I knew it, I had sent an email to a lady who ran a private boarding facility out of her home stable just a couple miles away with a spot open, and also an email to the rescue, asking if April was, indeed, available.

The photos below were the ones posted on her MSSPA profile, as well as the ones I had snooped off of their Facebook page and other random photos on their website. The first one is what seems to be from her previous owner at the lavender farm in the four years between, and the rest are from the rescue. That first picture from the lavender farm owner gave me a hint that she had ridden her with quite a heavy hand, and possibly undone a lot of the training I had put on her, especially as her adoption description made her seem like she was barely green broke! I also have no clue why she's carrying a dressage whip on a horse that's already a total spitfire.


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## Aprilswissmiss

The barn owner I contacted got back to me. I first told her about the situation I was in, being currently horse-less but potentially adopting one. I thought about how ridiculous it sounded after I sent the first email. "What? Am I really adopting a horse?? No, I'm not, I can't adopt a horse. I've never owned a horse before. I'm a college student with two part-time jobs. But I can get a horse, right? _What's stopping me_? I'm already in this deep!" She invited me to tour her property, which I did. Cute little quiet farm, maximum four horses at a time, 24/7 turnout. Perfect to keep an Arabian cross a little less spazzy!

She said she would hold the open spot, and she gave me her farrier and vet contact info. I talked to both of them, who both said they would be more than happy to take me as a new client and stand as references during the adoption process. I talked to a friend whose boyfriend trailers horses and would be very happy to trailer to Maine and back for a small sum. Again, my brain went, "What am I doing? Am I insane?? How deep am I going to get myself into this before I realize I can't do it? Well, I _do_ already have a reserved boarding spot, vet and farrier references, a job... _What's stopping me?_"

The MSSPA was slower to respond. They got back to me, and said "Yes, April is up for adoption. Here's an adoption application." That's when it hit me really hard: I'm actually to the point of filling out paperwork for this horse! Am I actually following through with this? Holy crap! I filled out the adoption application and waited. And waited. And waited - for weeks. I got sick of waiting and sent them another email. Just a "hey, you said you'd review my application! Helloooo!"

They returned my email with the between-the-lines implication that they were sort of surprised I followed up with the application with so much determination. I explained to them my history with her, and told them all sorts of things I wouldn't have known about her without spending lots and lots of time around her. They started taking me more seriously then, and invited me up to visit her, despite their policy against out-of-state adoptions.

And so I did - I made the 400 mile drive up from Pennsylvania to Maine to visit her. The photos speak for themselves. She dropped her hay to come to the front of the stall when she saw me, and she went straight to resting her chin on my shoulder and taking a deep breath - they way we always used to relax when I went out to sit with her.


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## Aprilswissmiss

The trainer heard about me and came out specifically to meet me during my visit, and to see me ride April. With just myself, the trainer, and April in the arena, I tacked up while we chatted, and I hopped on. She told me that my email messages were forwarded to her, and she was blown away by how accurate I described April and her behaviors. As we chatted on while I rode, the trainer went from "You seem like you know her a lot" to "Hold on, I can't even ride her that well, and I've been training her for months!"

While we were untacking, the barn manager and adoption advisor came down to talk to me. They had been watching me from the viewing area without me realizing, and said, in no uncertain terms - "We've been watching you. You can just take her, we've never seen a better fit!" They explained that she had gotten a _lot_ of adoption applications because she was one of the very few rideable horses the rescue had, but everyone who applied either didn't follow through or came out and were completely unable to handle her, let alone ride her. This is also why they took so long to get back to me about the adoption application, because they figured I was just another person who was reaching too far above my capabilities.

They told me that because it was such a good fit, they'd waive their no-out-of-state-adoptions policy just for me. Any doubts I had up to this point vanished. There was no going back now!


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## Aprilswissmiss

Just one week later, I drove back up to Maine again to bring her home. Only two days before I had planned the trip, my friend with a truck and trailer bailed on me, leaving me to hunt down a shipper within 48 hours. I am so glad, though, that I found a shipper willing to make the trip for me at the last second. The fee was $750, and I'm not very familiar with shipping fees, but I think that $750 for a 400 mile trip planned less than 48 hours in advance was absolutely worth it.

April has never been a fan of trailers - and I can't blame her. Every time she's stepped on a trailer, she's ended up somewhere completely new. It took two hours to load her using every trick in the book, the first being a big butt load of patience (didn't work).

June 2nd, 2019 - April made the 400 mile trip down to PA! We arrived just at sunset, and she unloaded like a pro. Stepped off, took a glance around, then dove for the grass. She settled down and spent the first night in the barn. The two photos were taken right after she got off the trailer.


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## Aprilswissmiss

June 3rd - First full day at the new stable! The BO turned April out for a few hours in her own pasture, where I captured the first hilarious picture right as she was getting up from a good roll. In the afternoon, we turned her out with the other three mares, and she fit right in.


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## Aprilswissmiss

It's now been almost a year since we moved April down to PA, and much has happened between then and now, but I certainly don't think I'll be able to take the time to detail it all. We've spent the year getting to know each other again, re-establishing ground manners, and getting back in shape. We've been exploring trails and suburb developments for the most part. I think she would make a great endurance horse.

A few days ago, I dragged my boyfriend out to the stable. It takes a bit of convincing to get him to come with me, but once he's there, his affection towards April shines through! I chose a pretty bad day to go, though, because the barn's neighbors were in the process of tearing down a metal barn only yards away from one fence line, the other neighbors were mowing the grass against the other fence line, and the BO was spraying weeds in the arena.

Despite all this, April was really brave to go out for a short hack in the pasture in between all this commotion while I asked my boyfriend to get a picture. I'm not fond of my defensive leg position here, but with all the spooky things going on and riding slightly downhill, I don't blame myself too much.


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## carshon

Just a question out of curiosity. I know you mentioned being a pre-vet student. Will you go to vet school close to where you live now or will you have to move? You start vet school this fall correct? Just wondering if another move is in the cards.

BTW - April looks amazing! So shiny and fit!


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## Aprilswissmiss

carshon said:


> Just a question out of curiosity. I know you mentioned being a pre-vet student. Will you go to vet school close to where you live now or will you have to move? You start vet school this fall correct? Just wondering if another move is in the cards.
> 
> BTW - April looks amazing! So shiny and fit!


Thank you!

I just graduated with my Bachelor's degree in biology. Since I graduated in three years instead of four, I'm taking this next academic year as a gap year, taking that time to continue my job at a vet hospital, and currently applying to vet schools to start in Fall 2021. I'm applying to the vet schools in the Northeast region; Tufts, Cornell, UPenn, plus a few others I still need to decide on that are outside of the region but still reasonable, perhaps like Virginia-Maryland and Lincoln Memorial. Ideally, I would like to stay in the Northeast so as to avoid trips longer than a one-way day's worth of driving to check out apartments and boarding barns before I move.

If I got accepted to UPenn, I could theoretically commute to the vet school and not have to move myself or April. That being said, I don't appreciate that the New Bolton Center is an hour drive away from the vet school/small animal facilities, not within commuting range. I would probably have to get an apartment somewhere in between the triangle of the vet school, the New Bolton Center, and my current boarding stable, which would all be about a 30-45 minute drive away from the theoretical apartment. However, I wouldn't even be going to the New Bolton Center for the first two years anyway, but organizing a move after my second year just makes it even more complicated. And do I _really_ want to commute 45 minutes one-way from Trenton to Philly every day for the first two years? Am I willing to sacrifice my mental health to live here rent-free?

Essentially, the whole concept of attending UPenn is very complicated, even though it's the closest. At that rate, it might just be easier to get up and move myself and April to a new stable, apartment, and vet school entirely! Although, the hardest part about moving would be trailering April and finding a new boarding stable that is as reasonable, cheap, and drama-free as my current one. And - there's no guarantee it wouldn't be just as complicated somewhere else.

I figure I'll just have to sort it all out once I see where/if I get accepted. Input is always welcome!


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## egrogan

Well, any of those vet schools would give you a great launch into the professional world.


Philly is one of my favorite US cities, and I think by far one of the most underrated. I loved living there and I think if I were to end up back in an urban location it would either be Philly or Portland (your Portland, not OR Portland :wink. I was not riding at all when I lived in Philly though, so no help on logistics of having a horse near there. Plus, it was almost 15 years ago now so I'm sure my recommendations would be out of date anyway. I will say though I have a couple of really good friends who rent rooms in their houses occasionally, so if Philly does become "the place" in the future I can make connections if at all helpful.


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## Aprilswissmiss

egrogan said:


> Well, any of those vet schools would give you a great launch into the professional world.
> 
> 
> Philly is one of my favorite US cities, and I think by far one of the most underrated. I loved living there and I think if I were to end up back in an urban location it would either be Philly or Portland (your Portland, not OR Portland :wink. I was not riding at all when I lived in Philly though, so no help on logistics of having a horse near there. Plus, it was almost 15 years ago now so I'm sure my recommendations would be out of date anyway. I will say though I have a couple of really good friends who rent rooms in their houses occasionally, so if Philly does become "the place" in the future I can make connections if at all helpful.


My issue is just commuting in/out of a city and keeping my horse nearby. I'm currently living with my boyfriend rent-free in the suburbs, and _wow_, do I dislike the suburbs! I grew up in middle-of-nowhere Maine and suburbs are already a lot for me. "My" Portland (lol) was BIG to little-kid me, until I visited Boston. My barn is already a 45 minute drive from where I am (outside of Trenton) and if you take one step closer to the city, the boarding prices skyrocket into the 1000+ per month.

Thank you, I will certainly keep that in mind!


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## carshon

Thanks for letting me pry into your plans. I was just curious. My daughter is now a Sr with an Animal Science Major/Chemistry minor and will also be starting the vet school application this fall. She is not graduating early as the vets at the clinic she works at and has shadowed at told her not to. There are so many differing opinions out there! She has worked at our local vets since she was 15 - but can't officially do any shots etc because she is not a licensed vet tech (our state is really strict) and she has also shadowed at other facilities but has become friendly with 2 vets at another clinic by us. And everyone has a different opinion!! Her preferred schools are more in the Midwest where we live and taking her horse to school is important to her but everything will depend upon location and costs.

I can't relate to the suburbs but I have been to Boston, NYC, DC, LA etc for work and after a week or two dealing with traffic and people and more people and did I mention people? I cannot imagine trying to commute and get your work done.


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## Aprilswissmiss

carshon said:


> Thanks for letting me pry into your plans. I was just curious. My daughter is now a Sr with an Animal Science Major/Chemistry minor and will also be starting the vet school application this fall. She is not graduating early as the vets at the clinic she works at and has shadowed at told her not to. There are so many differing opinions out there! She has worked at our local vets since she was 15 - but can't officially do any shots etc because she is not a licensed vet tech (our state is really strict) and she has also shadowed at other facilities but has become friendly with 2 vets at another clinic by us. And everyone has a different opinion!! Her preferred schools are more in the Midwest where we live and taking her horse to school is important to her but everything will depend upon location and costs.
> 
> I can't relate to the suburbs but I have been to Boston, NYC, DC, LA etc for work and after a week or two dealing with traffic and people and more people and did I mention people? I cannot imagine trying to commute and get your work done.


Your daughter has a lot going for her, that's great! One of the best things a vet school applicant can have are the sincere recommendations of multiple vets. I have brief assorted vet shadowing experience with various small animal, large animal, shelter, and exotics/zoo vets, and over a thousand hours working part time (full time starting this month) at the vet hospital for the past year. There are very few opportunities for even certified vet techs in Maine, so I couldn't get a vet-related job until I moved to PA.

I only graduated early because I came in with 40 AP credits that covered all of my English and math gen eds, plus a little bit of chemistry and history. Basically, it knocked out my entire first year of credits and then some, so I didn't _have_ to work harder than anyone else for the remaining three years (except I still did 19 credits a semester to take honors and other fun classes). I wouldn't recommend it for someone who has to cram a lot of extra credits in just to graduate early, but it worked out really well for me, especially to save a year's worth of tuition $!

I'm very lucky that my vet hospital/state regulations let me do almost all the same things as the certified vet techs besides monitoring and administering anesthesia. I can give vaccines (except rabies - must be done by a vet), draw blood, place IV catheters, take body and dental radiographs, perform dental scaling/polishing, calculate/draw up/give SQ/IV/IM injections, recover patients from anesthesia, plus of course all the regular vet assistant things. I'm even luckier that I came in with nothing more than my job shadowing/volunteering for previous vets and this place gave me paid on the job training to do everything I've learned. They've even included me in all of their professional training sessions that all of the other techs have had like CPR certification/brush-up, dental radiographs and cleaning, various product lunch-and-learns, and paid me for the hours I spent in them.


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## Aprilswissmiss

I had plans to go out to the stable yesterday, but I was called in to work a 10 hour overtime shift. Instead, I went to the stable in my scrubs after my shift was over because that wasn't going to stop me!

The sun was less than an hour away from setting when I got there, so we stuck to the arena and just did walk/trot. I spent most of the time working on her sensitivity to slow/stop aids and getting her to find her own relaxation. The first 20 or so minutes were just walking, stopping, backing, stretching on the buckle. She was giving me a nice, stretchy, relaxed walk. I just need her to learn how to get her mind in a more relaxed state and translate that to letting her body fall into a more relaxed state as well. When she senses any smallest inkling of an unintentional cue that I'm going to be asking "go," she is already _going._ For a while, I've gotten that down to her _not_ going, but instead getting ahead of herself at a really choppy walk and waving her head in the air. Yesterday, she offered more stretchy walk than usual, which I loved.

When I did pick up the trot, she fell into a beautiful stretchy s l o w trot on the buckle, which is difficult to ever get her to do. The downside of this is that we had only trotted one long side before someone close by in the neighborhood shot off a firework :evil: No more stretchy trot! I can't say I blame her. All she did was scooted forward and we continued on, but at a more tense and brisk trot.

We spent the rest of the session just working on her trot to walk and walk to halt transitions. Once I got just a few strides of a half-stretchy trot again, we ended the session on a good note with lots of pets for keeping her head screwed on after the firework.

Her buddies were hanging out in the arena for most of the ride. There are pastures on either side of the arena with gates open at both ends, which I don't usually close when I ride since I like riding in and out of the arena, so sometimes the others wander through. They were also all fine during the firework - good moral support.


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## Aprilswissmiss

Yesterday was another day of scares. Wow, this neighborhood is getting LOUD during social distancing and quarantine.

The entire two to three hours I was at the stable, there were police sirens going off just a few blocks away, loud music playing, people yelling random things over a megaphone, even some occasional construction-like bangs. Obviously some sort of party by the way the police sirens were made to sound like music, probably a drive-by grad party that have been very popular around here. Even a few cars drove right by the arena completely covered in long shiny streamers (amazingly, no spook from that).

April was completely distracted the entire time I was grooming, tacking, and riding. Not spooky, just curious about the commotion. By the time we got to the arena, she was balking at anything and everything, counter-bending and staring down wavy cat-tails behind the arena. Usually she focuses once we start trotting, but not today. When she spooked and planted her feet and flung herself sideways away from a small area where the stone dust spilled onto the grass as I asked her to move across the diagonal, I had enough of her shenanigans and made her march her butt out in a big, serious, working trot around the adjacent pasture. Photo below shows where she planted her feet in front of the spilled stone dust.

Got back to the arena, no more balking or spooking, but still had her head in the clouds. All she wanted to do was canter and gallop around the arena. Despite knowing I was picking a losing battle against the Arabian in her, I decided I wasn't going to fight her for the rest of the ride, so I dropped the reins to the buckle and let her canter and gallop to her heart's content both directions around the arena. After about twenty minutes of this, she settled herself down into an extended stretchy trot on the buckle, finally a bit more focused. Another ten minutes of trotting and she came down to a stretchy walk with a seat cue. We walked out on the buckle both directions for about five minutes, at which point I decided to end on a good note and got off and hand-walked her until she cooled down.

Not the best ride, but every ride is a learning experience!


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## Aprilswissmiss

I finally have enough time to post about Sunday's stable visit!

We went out for a ride on the trails. I was pleased that April didn't try to rush in the places she normally tries to move up a gait without permission. She did, however, use her big spook-stop quite frequently - she'll be going around with her huge floating trot until _wham_, she slams on the brakes and comes to a stop for just half a second, then continues trotting on. The low-growing plants with the huge foot-long, flat, shiny leaves are popping up like crazy out of nowhere and April isn't used to them. I do have to admit, her spook-stop is better than a full spinning/bucking/bolting spook that other horses might do, but it's jarring! I'm thankful to say that she's never gotten me off this way - thank you, all the bratty ponies of my childhood who gave me seat glue. I have gotten in the habit of sometimes holding one side of my reins crossed between both hands so that if she stops suddenly, it hits her neck before my face does.

After the trails, we rode through the suburbs and down the paved walking path. Lots of walking, too many people to do much trotting. It was a great day for bike desensitization. April even stood still patiently while we waited behind a little boy learning to ride on training wheels down a narrow part of the path. It was also a good day for suburb desensitization, with all the people out and about opening their garage doors, mowing their lawns, hanging bird feeders, etc. I was proud when April didn't even glance sideways as a man weeding his flower bed suddenly popped up just on the other side of a solid fence we were walking along, nor did she spook when a dog came flying and barking out of a house and across the unfenced yard right behind us (was appreciative of invisible fences in that moment).

The whole ride was 6.1 miles and 1 hour 20 minutes. 

When we got back, I worked on hosing down her face without her getting upset and letting me rub fly spray into her ears. She's generally fine with ear-touching, but gets suspicious when she sees the bottle, even though I don't use it directly on her face. Both issues improved well in one session but she still needs more sessions for consistency.

I'd like to think she's slowly building her topline, but I might just be imagining things, especially since the horses were put back out on grass about a month ago and she could just have added fat in a few convenient places. As always, I'm very open to others' input, especially those who don't see her all the time!


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## Aprilswissmiss

Today was incredibly hot (88 F) and I decided to skip riding. I went to the stable after my morning vet hospital shift and within five minutes, my scrubs were sticking to me with sweat. Instead, I just spent some time working on her feet in the shade (still too hot for my liking). I swear her feet grow faster than most other horses - I feel like I'm cutting back her bars and rasping every single weekend, and then the next, they need to be brought back again. And that's on top of all the daily wear she does on them being turned out 24/7, and walking over gravel and concrete every day for feeding. Her Arabian hooves are hard as rock, even her soles. Which is nice - I have a sound horse with solid feet. But I can feel my knife dulling with every cut. I am actually very thankful for the thunderstorms that rolled through in the past few days since the moist ground softened her feet just a touch below the rock hardness and made my life a tad easier.

She's never been a fan of the crossties. It's something we've had to do a lot of work on in the past, but she stood very nicely today, even when a group of motorcycles drove by. Telling by how she took off when I turned her back out, I don't think she was only cooperative because of the heat.

Uneventful day, but a good day!


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## Aprilswissmiss

Sunday was absolutely gorgeous! Going from 88 to 75 degrees makes a huge difference. Lots of photos!

April and I went out for a group trail ride with the BO and one other boarder. Both of them barely ever ride their horses, so their horses were quite out of shape and almost the entire ride was walking. I could feel April itching to move out, but she was very respectful and rode on a loopy rein for just about the entire ride. Given the lack of confidence of the other two, April took the lead for most of the way, although she is just as fine following as she is leading.

We started out on our regular trails. The boarder's horse barged forward when she heard the stream - she loves, loves playing in water. Later, the BO got in some great bird desensitizing and rode straight into a sitting flock of black vultures! That was quite a show and made for a good laugh. 

We reached an area I had visited before but never crossed because of the "no trespassing" sign. The BO said "Oh, I know this farmer, he lets us ride on his property" and we found ourselves on some absolutely beautiful, impeccably maintained trails. This included a flat mowed grass track that circles around the farmer's central fields in a rounded rectangle. According to Google Map's distance measuring feature, the track is exactly a mile long. It also has some equally well-maintained pathways that cross through certain areas, making smaller tracks embedded into the larger one.

There were a few natural/woodsy trails that branched off of the track that we also explored a little bit of. They are just as beautiful, well-kept, and mowed as the track. Wow, we are lucky! I can't even express how thrilled I am to know of a few more miles of trails on top of the ones I already ride regularly, which are admittedly rather boring by comparison.

Once we got back to the stable and were passing through the hay field, the horses were diving down every few steps in an attempt to just get a taste of the hay that was cut the same morning. I can't blame them for the temptation, even the humans were taking deep breaths of it!

Total ride was about five and a half miles and two-ish hours. I can't wait to go back to that track alone and take it for a little test gallop. That would also be the perfect area to get more trotting miles in without having to turn around and go back and forth.


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## carshon

My horse would have been gone and away from those birds! great pics! so happy you found more trails to ride.


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## Celeste

My horses would have spooked at the birds. They might have spooked in place, but they would not have been happy.

As a veterinarian, I have a little bit to mention about vet school. I took my horse and found a cheap pasture boarding, self care place to keep her. I really did not have much time to ride. My sister came and got her and kept her one winter just to save me the driving on iced up roads. 

Several things.

1. Spend this year deciding whether you want to be a veterinarian. What you are seeing is likely the reality of small animal medicine. If you love it, you'll love it.

2. A free place to stay is great. But commute time is terrible. Vet school is so busy and hard that you really don't need to add in two hours a day in a car. 

3. Is your boyfriend willing to move with you? And still pay rent? Getting married saved me from economic disaster. Lol. That is not why I married, but it really helped not having to pay rent, food, etc. 

4. It may be impossible to work while you are in vet school. I know one guy that did. He passed, but he had a hard time. Vet school is a full time job.

5. Student loans are available. You may not be much richer than you are now for several years after graduation while you pay off your loans.

6. Veterinary medicine is getting better and better as a profession. 30 years ago, they were paid dirt and worked half to death. There was little respect for the profession. It is so much better now. I am hoping that it will continue to get better and better.

Best of luck. I just read your entire journal. You remind me of a younger me. Dang. I wish I were younger.


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## Aprilswissmiss

Celeste said:


> My horses would have spooked at the birds. They might have spooked in place, but they would not have been happy.
> This particular flock of vultures is always somewhere on the trail in huge numbers (meat processing plant nearby) and April has decided they're her friends. BO's horse (in the photo) is completely unflappable. Other boarder's horse _did_ spook at them on the way home and the rider fell off. She's a good sport, though, so she got right back on.
> 
> As a veterinarian, I have a little bit to mention about vet school. I took my horse and found a cheap pasture boarding, self care place to keep her. I really did not have much time to ride. My sister came and got her and kept her one winter just to save me the driving on iced up roads.
> 
> Several things.
> 
> 1. Spend this year deciding whether you want to be a veterinarian. What you are seeing is likely the reality of small animal medicine. If you love it, you'll love it.
> I think I'm beyond the point of doubt! Whether or not I get accepted after I apply this summer is another deal. I worked with a handful of large animal and equine vets in high school and thought that's what I wanted to do. Then I took this small animal job over a year ago just for the experience and I _love_ it. Right now, we are understaffed and overscheduled, and since I have the most flexibility of my coworkers, I've been taking the brunt of the overtime hours, working multiple 13 hour shifts in a row. Yet I still get up every day at 6 am looking forward to getting to the hospital.
> 
> 2. A free place to stay is great. But commute time is terrible. Vet school is so busy and hard that you really don't need to add in two hours a day in a car.
> I agree, commuting is rough. I commuted about 30 minutes for my junior year of undergrad and 50 for my senior year. I definitely don't want to do it again, but I'm capable of it.
> 
> 3. Is your boyfriend willing to move with you? And still pay rent? Getting married saved me from economic disaster. Lol. That is not why I married, but it really helped not having to pay rent, food, etc.
> My boyfriend is also applying to vet school, so moving together completely depends on where/if we both get accepted. If we both end up in the same place, we absolutely will. We lived together for a year in an apartment splitting rent and a year in his family's house and both have gone great.
> 
> 4. It may be impossible to work while you are in vet school. I know one guy that did. He passed, but he had a hard time. Vet school is a full time job.
> I've had a budget and savings plan since I started undergrad and if all continues onward as planned, I'll be entering vet school with a significant amount saved. The bulk of my savings are intended for living/horse expenses in vet school. My overtime hours are putting me months ahead of my plan, so that extra will be set aside for big emergencies to avoid dipping into savings. When my car was wrecked last year, I was able to dump $3000 out of pocket on a used car in the same week and continue on as if it never happened. What I'm getting at is I believe I'll be able to afford to live without a job in vet school. Freshman year, at least, I won't even bother thinking about it. Summers will help make up for it. I did spend one semester working two part-time jobs while commuting to school and taking 19 credits of high level biology classes and ended the semester with a 4.0, so I think if getting a job is ever a financial necessity, I could manage - perhaps at the expense of my mental health.
> 
> 5. Student loans are available. You may not be much richer than you are now for several years after graduation while you pay off your loans.
> Oh yes, I am all too familiar with rising tuition costs and the necessity of loans. I have undergrad loans that covered what was left after applying my presidential scholarship and living off-campus to save money. My parents don't have the financial capability to cover any tuition costs directly, but co-signed my loans so I wouldn't have any trouble getting them.
> 
> 6. Veterinary medicine is getting better and better as a profession. 30 years ago, they were paid dirt and worked half to death. There was little respect for the profession. It is so much better now. I am hoping that it will continue to get better and better.
> I haven't heard this one before, actually, outside of the specialties. My boyfriend's vet/hospital owner stopped doing vet work many years ago because he graduated in the 1970s loan-free, built his own hospital almost immediately, raked in the dough, then hired other vets and sat back and watched it roll in. As opposed to my vet/hospital owner who graduated in the 2000s with hundreds of thousands in debt (even at her in-state school), built her own hospital ten years later, and despite booming business, is still paying off her loans and spending nearly every waking hour either treating animals or talking with their owners. This is the unfortunate truth of modern vet school prices. Even more unfortunate is that my state of legal residence does not have a vet school, so I have no in-state tuition option, and I might not be any better off than those 30 years ago. Respect is another thing - I don't have much experience to compare old versus new.
> 
> Best of luck. I just read your entire journal. You remind me of a younger me. Dang. I wish I were younger.


Thank you for taking the time to write all this! I always appreciate hearing the perspectives of different vets. If you ever have more input, please feel free to chime in - particularly about surviving vet school with a horse in tow. What do you practice?


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## Aprilswissmiss

carshon said:


> My horse would have been gone and away from those birds! great pics! so happy you found more trails to ride.


Would you believe me if I told you the horse in the bird photo has less than 20 rides on her? She came from the south severely emaciated and untrained a little over a year ago. The BO pointed to her in a single photo of about a dozen slaughter-bound horses, said "I think that black one is cute," had her shipped up with zero history, put weight on her, and ever since has just taken her right out on the trails maybe once a month. Sweetest horse in the world, very easy keeper, dope on a rope but far from shut down. The BO lets me put my beginner friends on her on trail rides and she never takes a step out of place. BO always says "I just wanted a darn pasture pet but now I feel like I _have_ to ride her!!"


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## Celeste

I graduated in 1983. I have done so many different things it is crazy. Practice ownership is not for me. It is too easy to talk me into feeling sorry for people and therefore losing money. 

I have done mixed practice that included doing C-sections on cows, working with horses, dogs, cats. Goats. I always swore I would never work with goats, but I seem to be the regional goat expert. Accidentally. I once took a tumor off of a large goldfish for a sweet little old lady.

I have done all small animal. 

All large animal. 

I have done way too much volunteer work for a cat rescue that my daughter used to work for. All that time that we both invested and money that I invested, and the manager of the place embezzled over $100,000 from the rescue. When it shut down, we decided that we were done with that. Too much heartbreak. And we now have too many cats. (She lives next door.)

I taught in a veterinary technology program for two years. Did a lot of parasite research there. 

Now I teach at a small college. (Undergraduate anatomy and microbiology). 

I work at a small animal practice on the weekends. 

If I were just starting out and had your energy, I would do all equine. That is where my heart really is. 

My body is thinking about retirement before I am too old to do enough riding. 

If you end up living with or marrying a veterinarian, starting a practice might work out for you. In the long run, you will make more money.


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## Aprilswissmiss

Celeste said:


> Goats. I always swore I would never work with goats, but I seem to be the regional goat expert. Accidentally.
> I like goats. Though I think I just like goats for goats, not sure about the vet aspect. The only vet experience I have with goats is from helping a mixed practice vet sedate a whole herd of them to lance/drain/disinfect all of their CL abscesses. I had a lot of fun but that's only one isolated experience. Is there any business for vets that specialize in goats? I feel like half of the job would just be disbudding kids left and right.
> 
> I have done way too much volunteer work for a cat rescue that my daughter used to work for. All that time that we both invested and money that I invested, and the manager of the place embezzled over $100,000 from the rescue. When it shut down, we decided that we were done with that. Too much heartbreak. And we now have too many cats. (She lives next door.)
> WOW! I can't believe money like that would go unnoticed long enough for that person to accumulate so much.
> 
> If I were just starting out and had your energy, I would do all equine. That is where my heart really is.
> I had my heart set on equine when I was in high school. I'm not so sure anymore after my fantastic experiences in small animal. I job shadowed a vet who specialized in equine dentistry and equine reproduction and something about it turned me off. It wasn't the vet work, it was just the way the vet conducted herself and how cliquey she was with her one or two techs and how off-putting she was to everyone else. I also job shadowed a mixed practice vet who did most of his work in equine acupuncture and chiropractic. That was really neat stuff, and certainly not something I'd be opposed to doing.
> 
> If you end up living with or marrying a veterinarian, starting a practice might work out for you. In the long run, you will make more money.
> I already believe business owning is not for me. I see my vet/hospital owner running around every day utterly overwhelmed. She shoves her business management things in between her appointments, which inevitably leads to her running late to her next appointment and being even more overwhelmed. Being a vet and dealing with all the pets and clients for indefinite hours while juggling a personal life is already hard enough. Adding on top of that inventory orders, practice bills, oversight/hiring of employees, replacing broken equipment, having the last say of who gets life-saving discounts and who doesn't... I'd rather let someone else pay me so they can take care of all the rest and I can live with a little less stress. Even if I don't make as much money.


Overall, I feel open to many areas of practice and I'm leaving it up to my vet school experiences to help me make a decision. I know multiple vets who changed specialties, so I know I'm not necessarily restricted to whatever I choose at the starting gates. Given my long-standing ties to shelter pets (my mother worked at shelters for 20+ years, still does) and my great experiences volunteering at a shelter clinic, that is something I would consider. The possibility of loan forgiveness after ten years at a non-profit doesn't hurt (yes, I do understand that is merely a possibility, and people get denied all the time, but it's nice to imagine). I tend to handle euthanasias and heartbreaking cases much better than most and I thrive in fast-paced environments. I do understand the money is not as great as compared to most associate vets, but I've seen a lot of the New England job posts for shelter vet positions actually offering reasonable fresh-out-of-vet-school salaries.

Guess I just have to wait and see where life leads me!


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## Aprilswissmiss

I've got some catching up to do!

I had some saddle fitting issues that I finally addressed on Saturday. I posted about that as a new thread. Until I find a new saddle, I'm riding in one of the BO's extra saddles that fits April (of course with her permission).

Saturday saw perfect weather. A great day for some exploring. There's one trail that crosses a road immediately perpendicular to a bridge on that road, and I thought I glimpsed another trail on the other side of the bridge. We crossed and found a small grass field that we also crossed. Adjacent to that was a small crop field (if I had to guess, strawberries?) and a road flanked the opposite side of that. On the other side of the road was a huge lot full of buses (very glad to find out that April might as well think they're invisible!) and beyond that was a huge and amazingly manicured grass field. Even more beyond that were equally manicured grass fields dotted with trees and bushes. Absolutely gorgeous! There were no houses in sight so I am assuming this is owned by the town in some way, probably part of the same property with the buses. We have found ourselves another perfect place to let April gallop on occasion.

We also hit the track that we discovered last weekend. Without having to worry about other people's out of shape horses, I let April open up. My idea of "opening up" was a leisurely canter... April's idea of "opening up" was a flat-out gallop. It's not like she wanted to get anywhere, we were riding away from home! She just enjoys the thrill - as do I, but her occasional squirrely reactions make me cautious. Needless to say, there was a good 45 second span of thinking "what would happen if April spooks or trips or bucks right now?" I am not particularly fearful, just observant of the immediate reality. It took some convincing to get her to slow down, she was just having too much fun (thankfully not any kind of fun that would get me hurt).

Yet another highlight of our day was when we followed an old overgrown trail and found a tunnel made of bushes. Me being me, I said "Yup, let's do it!" despite the branches barely clearing wither height. April did not hesitate when I asked her to move forward. The trail was a _lot_ more downwardly steep than I thought. Only 10 feet in and with my body pressed flat to her withers and neck, practically upside down with how steep the trail was, I hopped off. April practically had her hind hooves inches from her front to stabilize herself on the grade. We walked the rest of the way down. At the bottom was a stream that could be crossed to reach another trail that I already knew about. Since I didn't want to take that trail, I asked April to turn around, I got back on, and up the tunnel we went!

I was beyond proud of her through this whole ordeal. She followed my difficult and scary request without hesitation, went down carefully enough so as to not fall straight down or get my head chopped off by the branches, waited patiently on a steep grade in a cramped tunnel while I got off, walked the rest of the way down without running me over, calmly turned around in another tiny space, waited patiently while I got back on, and climbed both of us back to the top with no fuss. She exited with twigs littering her mane and forelock and certainly got poked more than her fair share throughout the tunnel but did not seem to mind in the slightest. _This_ is what I would expect from a once-in-a-lifetime trail partner!

Total was 7.9 miles in 2 hours.


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## carshon

The vine tunnel would be a no for me. We do ride in a really cool Small Shrub tunnel and I must admit that last weekend my daughter almost got rubbed off of Sawyer in said bush tunnel. That's what she gets for riding a really tall horse!


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## Aprilswissmiss

carshon said:


> The vine tunnel would be a no for me. We do ride in a really cool Small Shrub tunnel and I must admit that last weekend my daughter almost got rubbed off of Sawyer in said bush tunnel. That's what she gets for riding a really tall horse!


I plan to ride through there again! When ridden from bottom to top, it is not so bad (top to bottom just doesn't work out!) and there is a trail that approaches from the bottom, so I will just go that direction only around that loop from now on. If April was an inch taller than she is, I definitely wouldn't be going through there. I think it is a great place for learning how to be careful in steep and claustrophobic areas.


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## Aprilswissmiss

I forgot to add something to one of last week's posts. On the group trail ride, where we usually cross a road there were two police officers helping out a guy with a flat tire. We had to squeeze our horses around them to reach our trail and one officer said to us "Wanna trade? We ride the horses and you can take the cruisers around town for the rest of the day?" my BO responded with "If you're okay picking up big poops, it's a deal!" and he said back "That's what he's for!" pointing to his fellow officer, who only heard the last few words of the conversation and looked utterly disgusted :rofl:


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## Aprilswissmiss

I've gotten even more behind, uh oh!

On Sunday, I asked the BO if she could drive her trailer into the arena so I could work on April's trailer loading confidence. She has not seen let alone stepped on a trailer since a little over a year ago when we trailered her to PA. Before that, I had watched her load twice. All three times, it took two to three hours to get her to load. I suspected Sunday would be the same, so I blocked off a good chunk of time to just spend going really nice and slow with her, no negative experiences, time was no object.

Started out just hand walking her around the arena to get her focused on me and not worried about the trailer. Then let her walk by the trailer door without facing it. Then asked her to walk up to the door but not step on, just walk away. Then re-approached and asked for one foot up - lots of praise, asked her to back off and walk away. Then re-approached and asked for two feet up - lots of praise, asked her to back off and walk away. Then re-approached, two feet up easy, a few seconds of thought, then all four feet up!

From the time we entered the arena to the time she had all four feet on was _eight minutes._ That included the time we spent dilly-dallying without involving the trailer. *It is absolutely amazing what a year of groundwork and trust building can do!* Since I had already set aside so much time for this, we spent another half hour practicing getting on, backing off, turning around and stepping off, and standing patiently. Never any issues.

I know from her previous loading experiences that she gets claustrophobic if she hits the end of the line while approaching. She always yields very nicely to poll pressure unless a trailer is involved, and I didn't want to push that just to create a negative experience. The whole session was done with slack in the line. Every step she took forward was completely voluntary. I let her have some time to goof off, too, like when she tried to make a snack out of the rubber mat.

After that, we went for a quick ride out on the trails. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos from that. We went out and did the mile track once left way around then turned around and did it all over again right way around, all trotting and some cantering minus walking a short gravel spot. She has had a lot of steam to blow off recently! Total ride was 5 miles in about 50 minutes.


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## Aprilswissmiss

I visited the stable Monday night after work so I could be proactive and get a cardboard cutout of her back to bring when I found the time to go saddle shopping. She was fine with the flapping cardboard, the BO's lawn mower and weed wacker occasionally passing by, the neighbor's construction vehicles starting up... But the stool I took out from the tack room? _Deadly!_ Guess who's getting a stool desensitizing session in her near future!

Tuesday, we practiced front and hind end yielding, first on the ground and then ridden bareback in a halter. She's getting much better at being able to move her front and hind end independently and reliably. Combining the two for a smooth side pass is a different story - do you want me to move my back end away? Front end? How about toward the pressure instead? Step up? Back up?? Ahhh! How about sideways? Oh, that's what you wanted! She is definitely improving, though. By the end of the session, she would reliably side pass a few steps, just not gracefully. I'm very proud of her progress with that.

After that session, I went out and bought a used saddle - update is in the other thread. I love it!


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## Aprilswissmiss

Wednesday, we tried out the "new" saddle for about an hour's worth of a ride. It was a quick walk/trot/canter around the arena, walk/trot/canter around the field, then popped a small log jump a few times. Love this saddle!

Saturday, I didn't even bother riding. We had a storm about to roll through so I fed/fly sprayed/watered the horses, cleaned some tack, and left. Nothing exciting to post about that except for my boyfriend came with me so we could head over to a family gathering with his side of the family (yes - even amidst the "ronastrictions," as my dad likes to say). He likes the horses more than he cares to admit, and although wary of them (which is smart), will still gladly feed and fly spray a horse or two when asked and sneak in a small treat when he thinks I'm not looking. He still likes the shy barn cats a little bit more than the horses, and despite seeing them no more than three or four times in the past 6+ months, still says (in response to me saying "be careful, they don't like people") "I'm getting them to like me more with every visit, just you watch!"


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## Aprilswissmiss

Sunday was absolutely hot and gross, but that didn't curb my excitement to take the old Stubben out for its first trail ride!

I am getting sick of the branches that swat me in the face every time we go around the edges of the crop fields. The farmers left about ten feet of unplanted border around all of the fields last year which was the perfect path to ride on and gave us good clearance of the tree/brush line. This year, they didn't leave any - they practically planted the corn into the brush in most places. The path in the first photo below is as good as it gets now. That makes for a lot of branch-dodging, and I got so fed up that this time I snapped the old dry ones down. April didn't mind one bit and stood perfectly still with the reins resting on her neck during the unexpected commotion over her back.

Unfortunately, the lack of paths has also forced us to ride between the corn rows in most places. On this ride they were tall enough that April swept up a big mouthful of corn leaves in one uniform motion so quickly and without hesitation that I couldn't gather my reins in time to stop her. Now she thinks corn leaves might as well be as good as straight sugar cubes, and traveling through these fields without leaving a path of destruction is much harder than before. I don't even know how we're going to access trails once the corn is taller than she is.

We went down across the stream and up the recently discovered power line trail. Beautiful day!

We also rode around the track once in each direction. The farmer left out his tractor with some heavy machinery I don't know the name of. April was making googley-eyes at it, but walked right by it both ways without any problem.

A rotating lawn sprinkler on the way home was a different matter entirely. She was huffing and puffing and dancing from across the street. We had to cross the road toward it and walk on the sidewalk immediately adjacent to it to get home, and thankfully April pulled herself together and managed to pass with little fuss though I could feel her head exploding. The water sprayed her as we passed, which fortunately did not negatively impact her reaction, but she didn't appreciate it.

Our first trail ride in the Stubben was great! April and I have no complaints about this saddle, and I've never felt more secure, even in western saddles. Total of 6.3 miles in about one hour and 45 minutes. A lot of walking because of the heat.


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## Aprilswissmiss

As a side note: The _one_ thing I don't like about this boarding stable is that the BO requires all horses to have a breakaway halter on at all times during their 24/7 turnout. Biggest concern is just them getting it caught on something and the halter not breaking. Second concern is the crazy amount of hair loss April gets where the halter rubs her face. Third concern is that she is _always taking it off._

The rubbing got so bad on her cheeks and jaw and behind her ears (one time it even broke skin), even with fleece halter tubes, that I loosened her halter just a single hole in the hopes it might take some pressure off. The next morning, her halter was nowhere to be found. The BO put a backup halter on her. The morning after that, she sent me these photos. While they're absolutely hilarious, I'm still so frustrated that it's impossible to find a middle ground between keeping her halter on and preventing it from seriously rubbing her face. I'm contemplating getting a cheap rope halter and making a rope halter breakaway attachment out of an old stirrup leather (which I know will break under pressure because that's exactly what it did to me while riding at a gallop last year) in the hopes it will be lighter and thus less rubby than her current halter (which was found and put back on her a few days later).

If anyone has any recommendations, please feel free to chime in!


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## egrogan

Glad the new saddle is working out so far! Unfortunately I don't have any advice on turnout with a halter. I wouldn't like that either.

Your post about the cornfields gave me fond memories of the barn where I used to board my mare Isabel years ago. We could ride several miles around and through a series of cornfields that grew to gigantic height throughout the summer. There was one track that cut across a large field that felt like being inside a maze. 










This is how tall those fields got:

















Sadly, one day I headed out on our regular ride, and there was a barricade at the entrance to the field with a bunch of posted signs. I think it had to do with people hunting there, but it was clear we could no longer ride there. The owner was an out of state PO box so no way to ask permission. When we lost access to the bulk of our riding options, that was when I decided I had to leave that barn, which was a shame as we really liked it there.


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## carshon

Can you ask the BO if you can use a breakaway neck collar (like a broodmare collar) instead of a halter? If April is easy enough to catch the collar should work just as well as a halter. 

And I know you already know this but be very careful riding and causing damage to a farmers crop. In my part of the world (NW IL) there is no surer way of getting barred off of that property than to let your horses walk on or graze on corn or beans. And you would be shot if found in a field of alfalfa! I am sure you know this but wanted to mention it in case the BO gets a complaint of riders in the fields.


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## Aprilswissmiss

carshon said:


> Can you ask the BO if you can use a breakaway neck collar (like a broodmare collar) instead of a halter? If April is easy enough to catch the collar should work just as well as a halter.
> 
> And I know you already know this but be very careful riding and causing damage to a farmers crop. In my part of the world (NW IL) there is no surer way of getting barred off of that property than to let your horses walk on or graze on corn or beans. And you would be shot if found in a field of alfalfa! I am sure you know this but wanted to mention it in case the BO gets a complaint of riders in the fields.


I could ask, but I'm sure I already know the answer. She openly hates all halters that aren't flat halters, let alone collars. Trying a breakaway rope halter is already pushing her boundaries!

The BO knows all the farmers around this area and they've permitted us to walk the outskirts. A few missing leaves off of one plant probably isn't even noticeable compared to the ATV tracks someone left straight through the middle of the corn field the other day!! Completely flattened multiple rows of corn!


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## Aprilswissmiss

On Wednesday we stuck to the arena since I had to go to work right after and I knew I'd get carried away and end up late if I went on a trail ride. 

April doesn't particularly prefer arena riding. She certainly won't do anything bad or act upset, but she gets herself worked up. I don't know if it was previous experiences she had or what. So we started off by working on relaxing. The issue with getting her to relax is that she can 100% tell the difference between when I'm riding her on the buckle versus when I'm holding even just a couple inches' worth of reins, even though both involve completely looped reins. If she's on the buckle, she's glad to put her head to the ground and go half a mile an hour. If she feels the slightest bit of rein-holding, even completely indirect, she's constantly jigging.

So, we started off with just jigging = circle until she relaxes then going straight again. Though she sometimes offered a calm walk, I did not quite get the same amount of relaxation I have had in certain past sessions, even after twenty or thirty minutes of it. At that point I figured it wasn't going to change in this session and I should just move on to working on something else before we both get frustrated with each other.

We worked on lateral flexion at the walk (naturally arose from the circle practice) and then carrying that into the trot. I found she was very straight and stiff and did not want to offer a bend at the trot. This has always been a problem of hers (guessing she is used to bracing against hard hands of previous owner) but found that was only because she was dropping her inside shoulder as she tried to pick up her racing trot in a small arena. Once I lifted that shoulder up with some inside leg and inside rein, bam! Nice stretchy bend at a reasonably paced and balanced trot. I asked her to move up and got a fantastic, controlled, balanced canter as well - with a much better than usual transition that didn't involve a back-breaking trot in between. It feels counter-intuitive to put leg on a horse that already wants to go a gait faster than you're asking which is why I have a hard time remembering this.

Also, before our ride, I took a quick video showing April's reaction to the sights and sounds of heavy machinery running nearby. I think it's absolutely hilarious that she finds a stool significantly scarier! This also made me appreciate the stable's neighbor being a landscaping company so that she can get some free desensitization every day.

Photo is from after the ride, longingly looking toward her buddies but showing off her ground tie skills instead of running off.


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## Aprilswissmiss

Today, I didn't ride because the forecast was saying there would be a thunderstorm any minute, and it was spitting rain while I was feeding the horses. Instead, April and I just played around in the arena so that I wouldn't be rushing to untack if a thunderstorm started. I got a little clip of it here.

At 1:26, I asked for a trot but got a canter. I wasn't even upset because (despite the disjointed looking canter that followed, which I will take over a rushed canter any day) her walk to canter transition was completely balanced and seamless. I am disappointed that we were too off screen for the video to capture it. I wasn't upset about the little head flip and front end pop either because we were just goofing off anyway and that is the worst "bad" thing she'll ever attempt.


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## Aprilswissmiss

Yesterday was beautiful weather, but definitely hotter than what I find comfortable. 85F, felt like 90 in the sun.

We had a very pleasant trail ride. April offered a very nice rhythmic, medium-paced trot on the buckle for a good portion of the ride, which I was very pleased about but she was probably just slowed down by the heat. Paid attention to soft neck reining around tight turns, which she sometimes ignores if she's distracted. A small section of hand galloping on the track. The grass on some trails is getting so tall it reaches above my head while on horseback!

We came across a groundhog on one of the trails. It was sitting right in the middle of the path as we were trotting along, and since April likes to make friends with the wildlife, she did not even look at it funny - just tipped her ears forward while still moving out. It started running from us but stayed on the trail, so we trotted behind it for a short while at about a 20 foot distance before it finally turned into the brush.

On our way back, I spotted a wild "raspberry" bush and though I thought it was too early in the season for them, I figured that was because I was used to Maine's growing season and not PA's. I hopped off and went to go get April and I a mid-ride treat. Got closer and realized they were unripe blackberries. Oh well, we will just have to wait until they are ripe. April is picky about her fruits so I'm not sure what she'll think about blackberries.

All in all a very pleasant ride, up until we were walking on the side of the road across from the barn and she bolted (not a bad bolt, took off for maybe 50 feet then circled to a stop) when a semi came barreling up behind her :runpony: :| She usually does not budge at any kind of traffic, but I guess this was different because it was making some awful loud growling noises coming up the hill and April couldn't see it around the bend in the tree line. To top it off, there was a motorcycle behind the semi making even worse noises, so April took one big giraffe-headed puff at the motorcycle passing by after she stopped. I'm just glad her bolt was _straight_ rather than sideways into the road or the trees.

The ride was 6.2 miles in about 1 hour and 20 minutes. She came home looking like she was hosed off from head to toe with all the sweat. She agrees that 90F real feel is not ideal.

Thinking about getting a helmet cam so I don't have to hold up my phone and get a shaky image whenever I want to take a video on trails. Would just like a cheap one, I'm not trying to get high quality video. Any suggestions?


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## Aprilswissmiss

I have been away visiting family in Maine for the past five days and just got back today, so of course, no horse visiting. The entire visit was great up until this morning. (Warning: upsetting non-horse-related content)

Woke up at 4:30am to pack my stuff and start the drive to PA. Noticed my sister's door was open and sister was not there. Same moment, heard knocking on the front door, parents jumped up. Police at the front door to let us know sister (16 years old!!) is in an ambulance and on the way to the ER. Quickly figured out alcohol poisoning and (by searching her phone) parents found out she went out and got near blackout drunk with a "friend" then fell off his moped. Said "friend" dropped her off completely unresponsive and injured in our driveway. Passerby saw her and called 911, stayed with her until police and ambulance arrived, then ID found and police notified us. (We are in a rural area and are so incredibly thankful that someone happened to pass by at 4 am, _and_ noticed, _and_ stopped to help.) Our driveway is rather long and entrance is not visible from the house, hence why we did not hear her being dropped off/police arriving. I am back in PA now and parents are keeping me updated. She is still unresponsive but stable, nothing abnormal on cat scan.

I do not get along with my sister, period. That being said, I could _*punch*_ that "friend" who got her intoxicated, dropped her off a moped, then left her for dead in her own driveway.

Sad to say this is not the first time something like this has happened to her in the past year. This is not her first intoxicated ambulance ride. She has some severe mental instability and often becomes delusional and makes horrible decisions like this. She is medicated and seeing multiple doctors, psychiatrists, and therapists every week. I am incredibly mad at her for continuing to knowingly endanger her own life but am more mad at her idiot "friends" who let it happen.

My parents do not want to press charges because they almost did in the past and it severely damaged their relationship with her. I told them I don't give a single crap. They need to _at the very least_ press charges this time and hopefully also get a restraining order against those people. I told them the alternative would have been she died in her own driveway and someone would be charged for manslaughter.


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## Aprilswissmiss

And just to get me even more worked up: Someone sent me a post saying there are 52 slaughter-bound thoroughbreds on a breeding farm whose owner just died of COVID. They have trained mares/geldings, some mares in foal, weanlings, yearlings and 2/3 year old fillies and geldings who are all papered and FREE to whoever can take them.

It's taking a lot to fight the temptation.


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## egrogan

Oh geez, tough situation with your sister. Sorry you had to be part of it.


To put your mind at ease about one thing anyway- the TB post is a hoax and has recently re-circulated with the "Covid death" update. So, check that off your list of things to worry about!


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## carshon

I am so sorry about your sister. I grew up with a younger sister that seemed to draw drama to her. And her friends were - lets say maybe not the best influence. My parents were mostly in denial - my Dad worked all of the time and as my sisters and I hit our teen years our Mom decided to try and relive hers. I love my sister but got tired of being pulled into the drama so I distanced myself. My parents divorced when I was 18 and I stayed with my Dad and my sisters went with my Mom. The drama in her life has never stopped. My sister will be 49 here in a couple of months and her life is always in turmoil. I love her from a distance and give her advice if she asks. You can love your sister and not be an enabler. Sending prayers that she has a "wake up" call before it is too late.


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## Aprilswissmiss

Thank you both. I'm probably harder on her than both of my parents combined. They are trying hard to maintain what little relationship they have left with her (her delusions and pathological lies revolve around them being abusive and manipulative parents, which couldn't be further from the truth) so they try hard to give her space and still be supportive while monitoring her mental health. Unfortunately she has yet to find a balance of staying safe and staying happy. I'm the opposite of my parents and tell it straight to her that she's being a total idiot putting herself in danger and she needs to stop or one of these times she won't wake up. I don't care if I ruin my relationship with her, that already happened years ago. My parents can't have a relationship with her if she's dead.

I just feel so bad for my parents who have had to take countless days off to stay in the hospital with her/monitor her at home when she has these episodes. They put off moving because of her mental illness and the ambulance and medical bills she's accrued. They've had to borrow money from me before to afford the bills. They blame everything on themselves when none of it is their fault.
@egrogan, What a relief. I looked it up on snopes and found out it was a hoax right before you posted that.


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## Aprilswissmiss

I've fallen behind! A few days after I got home, I got a temporary side job pet sitting a bunny. I've been getting up early in the morning and staying up late after work to go feed/water/medicate the bunny every day. Aaaand... three of my shifts this week ended up being 13+ hours long because of emergencies.

On Saturday, April was fired up after not being ridden in about a week and a half. To make it even better, someone mowed down the previously 5 foot tall grass surrounding a certain stretch of trail and April thought that was scarier than anything (but thankfully cooperatively rode through it despite the dragon noises she made while doing so). By the time we reached trails she's allowed to move out on, I had given up on the idea of taking a nice calm stroll around. I let her get all her ya-yas out by riding around a loopy/criss-crossy trail area adjacent to the track. She chose of her own accord to gallop in most places, only slowing down to a canter or fast trot around the tightest of corners. It helped get her to more of a reasonable mental state but she was still pumped up for the whole ride.

She was very reasonable going through the corn, though. In the week and a half we were gone, the corn shot up to above my head while on horseback. The trees and shrubs are also trying their best to grow into the corn, so I have resorted to snapping off branches as we go to minimize the amount of them that hit my face.

8.6 miles in about 1 hour and 50 minutes.


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## Aprilswissmiss

Sunday was much better in terms of her ya-yas. She was very reasonable and got her head back in the game. We went out and rode the track twice (once in each direction), then jumped on a trail adjacent to it, came back and rode the track twice again in each direction then headed home. Overall a very pleasant ride. I'm typing this up over a week later so I must admit I've forgotten most of the details. I also forgot to take any pictures that day.

I forgot to shut off my trail tracking app after I got back to the stable so I'm taking an educated guess at the distance and time based off of the charts it provides. Looks like 10ish miles in an hour and 30 or 40 minutes? Seems fast compared to our other times, so something could be off. Or we could have just been flying that day.


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## Aprilswissmiss

I visited the stable on Tuesday but didn't ride (covering that day's chores for another boarder who was away). I was exhausted from Monday's 13 hour shift plus before- and after-hours bunny sitting. I actually took a 10 minute nap in my car after I parked, I was so tired! Combine that with this recent heat and riding wasn't in the mix.

Instead, I took some time to add to my iNaturalist collection by photographing some bugs in the BO's hay field. It was the most fun I'd had since visiting Maine. I realized very quickly I wasn't getting anything done by going "Oh look, a bug!" and running over to photograph it, but instead had much better results sitting in one spot and taking photos once they came up to me. My mental health really benefited from this session. Reminds me of the Thoreau quote: "Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder."

Here are the highlights:


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## carshon

Very nice pictures! We are in the throws of Vet School applications and my daughter is a stressed out mess. She is still working full time- preparing to go back to school in 10 days to start her job there and dealing with the application questions. Some of them are crazy!


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## Aprilswissmiss

carshon said:


> Very nice pictures! We are in the throws of Vet School applications and my daughter is a stressed out mess. She is still working full time- preparing to go back to school in 10 days to start her job there and dealing with the application questions. Some of them are crazy!


I've been chipping away at the vet school application since before I graduated and I am amazingly far from stressed out! All of my letter of recommendations are requested, my transcript is uploaded, the personal information is filled out, most of the experiences are logged, etc... All I have left are the essays and vet-specific questions and some minor updates here and there. If it helps, you could recommend to her to just take it 20 minutes at a time - don't sit down for so long that you get stressed, just do 20 minutes every day. It's what I've been doing and it's how I get it done stress-free while working a full-time job with part-time pet sitting, caring for/riding a horse (+miscellaneous at-home pets), and driving multiple hours every day.

Where is she applying?


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## Aprilswissmiss

Wednesday was more of a laid back ride. I jumped off multiple times to take pictures of wildlife for iNat. I am so thankful to have a patient horse who gladly complies and (usually) stands still enough so as to not scare off the fauna I'm interested in. At one point, while I was taking photos and she was grabbing mouthfuls of grass, something (I have no clue what) grabbed her attention and she stood like this, head cocked and mouth frozen mid-bite, for a good minute or so before acting as if nothing happened and resuming her munching. I can't help but laugh at her goofy expression.


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## Aprilswissmiss

Saturday was disgustingly hot and humid (upper 90s and about 105 real feel) and I couldn't bring myself to ride after running dogs and cat carriers in and out of the hospital all morning and then doing stable chores. April said that was perfectly fine, she would work on her yoga instead:


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## Aprilswissmiss

Sunday was equally disgustingly hot and humid, still real feel in the 100s, but I had more will power having no work that morning so we headed off on the trails. We did three laps around the one mile track plus some side-trails. April and I had some disagreements about speed on the track, as sometimes happens when she decides she is tired and would rather power through at a gallop and just be done than take our time trotting. I didn't mind letting her move out at a gallop the first couple times, but when she started trying it on her own accord, I had to continuously bring her back to a trot and remind her we're not out here to get ourselves hurt. It's not a going home issue because she will attempt this in either direction.

We also came across our friendly band of vultures, as usual, but that day there was one with its wings outstretched and that sight just didn't sit right with April. A couple spins and snorts later and the vulture closed its wings and started hopping away, at which point April said "Oh, it's just you" and started following it.

We did 7.2 miles in about an hour and a half.


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## Aprilswissmiss

The heat is just not letting up. Have I said enough times that I want to move back to New England?

On Wednesday, I decided to change it up and take a path we haven't taken in a while. We walked through the suburbs then down the walking path and back. Just walking. It was my failed attempt to keep my sweat to a minimum before going to work. I showed up with my scrubs sticking to my skin and I didn't even ride in my scrubs.

The ride was mostly just riding along on the buckle and taking our time. The one tricky spot was the long bridge. Not because of the bridge, but because of two kids screeching and jumping out of trees into the stream about 100 feet away as we crossed. That caused a bit of worry and jumpiness in April as we crossed but she handled it well and recovered quickly.

When we turned around and crossed the bridge again 20 or 30 minutes later, they were still there and April still handled it well but with more underlying worry than before. Once we got off, she was jigging trying to get away from the noises they were making. I asked her to walk but that just caused some more frantic sideways jigging. I asked her to circle and with her still playing the avoidance game, I had to up my ask to the point where she couldn't avoid it anymore, at which point she finally responded to my rein and dramatically whipped around and startled the absolute daylights out of a jogger who was coming up behind us about 20 feet back. The poor jogger leapt sideways and backwards 10 feet and stopped dead in her tracks, then reluctantly passed when I told her she could.

April and I had a little chat about rein communication to give the jogger some time to get ahead of us, and at that point, April was a tad bit calmer and much more attentive to me. There are times where she just knows she did something silly and goes "I'm sorry, I'll listen now, promise," then doesn't take a single step out of place for the rest of the ride, and this was one of those times, thankfully. I really appreciate that she is not the kind of horse to interpret my assertion as an opportunity to buck me off, even if sometimes I might deserve it.


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## Aprilswissmiss

Something that I have found enjoyment in recently is whacking horse flies. It's almost turned into a sport. The excessive heat has brought out all the bugs, and the horse flies are really no exception. I've been killing at least one horse fly per grooming/tacking session and I find satisfaction in it. One starts swarming, I watch it intently, wait patiently for it to land with the end of a lead rope in one hand, then as soon as it lands and before April's tail can swish it away, I aim the lead rope and swing and _whack!_ The bug bounces upwards before twirling to the ground, where I stomp on it for good measure. April either understands the game I'm playing or is ignorant of me popping her full-force with the end of the lead rope. Either way, she is a saint for allowing me to do this.

This is today's victory. They're getting huge.


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## Aprilswissmiss

I know these long pictureless notes are rather boring and repetitive. They help me reflect upon what works and what doesn't so that I can improve myself as a rider and horse person and thus improve the quality of April's training as well. I don't expect anyone to read these unless they are particularly interested.

I am slowly losing my willpower to go for long trail rides in this heat. Yesterday, for the first time in a while, we just stuck to the arena. It was a short ride of just walk/trot/canter in both directions but I left the session feeling proud of what we accomplished.

Often, April does not settle quickly in an arena. She would rather be out on the trails. Yesterday, though, something just seemed to click with us and she was more relaxed and attentive than usual. Part of that is probably me sorting out how she likes to be ridden in the arena, the other part is probably that this saddle fits her better than the previous one and she is a happier camper.

She did not balk at her least favorite corner for the first time in months. That probably has to do with no arena riding in quite some time and her losing her tension over it. That made a big difference in keeping her attention on me and not letting her drop her shoulder to fall to the center of the arena.

As I mentioned, a good portion of the difference in her behavior probably has to do with the way I rode her. It is so easy to fall into the endless trap of "What's over there??" "I don't know, April, focus." "But I can't! I'm a giraffe!" "No, you're not, straighten your neck out the way it's supposed to be and stop counter-bending." "If I can't look, I'll just _runnn_!"

Instead of trying to control her every move, I rode only on the buckle and just gave a gentle inside rein lift as a reminder to focus when she started getting distracted about things outside the arena. That helped lift her shoulder back up, get her balanced and soft, and also focused without getting frantic. Then I dropped the rein again as soon as she did that. I didn't care if she stepped on and off the track so long as she kept forward in the same general direction. Soon enough, on the buckle, she was stretchy and going straight at a reasonable speed. I let her pick up the canter on her own a few times in both directions and she did so with a smooth up transition and a steady rocking canter (what a pleasure to ride!).

Near the end, I asked her to trot some figure eights with neck reining and leg cues and she happily did so with a few momentary direct rein reminders. Overall, I was very happy with the session and we ended early on a good note.


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## Aprilswissmiss

Yesterday's ride was similar to Saturday's in that we stayed on the property for a brief but rewarding ride. Walk/trot both directions in the arena, very pleasant like the day before, then trotted straight out into the pasture (I keep the gates open since April never tries to dive out of the arena) to practice traveling straight and rhythmically while in an open space/without a fence or trail to guide direction.

At one spot, she tried to pull her trick of slowly gravitating toward the other horses (who were in the opposite pasture across from the arena) and bending her neck in the direction of my cues while still moving in her favored direction. I had to get a little more firm with my ask to get her going straight and non-evasive again but she picked herself back up and we did some very large, slow figure eights through the pasture which I was very pleased with.

We popped over the pasture's log pile jump a few times which we also haven't done in a while. I know jumping is not April's favorite but it doesn't kill her to do it every now and again to keep us both a little more athletic. First approach was at the trot and I am glad to say she was very confident in her approach and didn't hesitate one bit (she usually tries to refuse the first jump of the ride because obviously the log is hiding a monster) and cantered away. The rest were approached at the canter and I was incredibly proud of her balance and control - usually she gets so wound up that she drops her shoulder around the turn, makes a mad dash for the jump, then throws herself over it. I think she's gotten significantly stronger from our long trail rides in the past few months (and cumulatively since I got her) and it's really helping her balance which also helps her not to rush.

Since she took the first couple jumps so well, I upped the ante and went over them a few more times while asking for a specific lead after the jump. For the most part, she landed cross-cantering with the correct lead in front then corrected her hind end after a few strides. I blamed that mostly on myself for being quite rusty in my jumping skills that I haven't practiced in over four years. Even if I wasn't rusty, who would expect a perfect landing from a horse who just pops field jumps a few times a year? Just her approaching a jump with balance and rhythm and landing correctly in the front is more than what I would have expected from her!

What does come naturally to her, however, is striding. Well, partially. Most of the time she finds a relatively even distance on her own. When she doesn't, she always takes the long distance and never chips, and even the long distances don't feel long because her stride is already so large that it seems natural to her movement. This isn't a quality that would be favorable in a show-level horse since those horses would be expected to adjust per the rider's request, but again, we're not doing any shows any time soon and letting her call the correct shots is fine by me.

I always forget that she has a surprisingly round jump for a horse who likes to be so forward. It makes small jumps feel big, which for me is great for the sake of excitement at a lesser risk!

Here's all four horses spread out between the connected pastures, finding their own sweet spots to enjoy.


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## Aprilswissmiss

The equine dentist came out to float April and two other horses today. He does not sedate unless necessary, so the first thing I said to the BO when she asked if I wanted to schedule April was "He can certainly try, but she's going to need sedation." I assumed she would _definitely_ need sedation because (in previous homes) she needed it just to have her hooves trimmed and kicked one farrier in the head the first time they tried without sedation. Even now, she still gets weird about farriers holding her feet (tries to hop away, pretends like she's about to fall over, forcefully waves her leg around, etc) although she practically falls asleep when I trim her hooves. Anyway, I digress - my point was I figured she would flip herself over if someone put a metal device over her face and loudly poked around in her mouth without sedation.

Well, look who proved me dead wrong today! She did not take a single step out of place and I was so proud of her.

He said her teeth were quite rough despite her last floating being just over a year ago at the rescue right before I got her. I told him her teeth must grow as fast as her hooves. Now I'm worried she's going to go get herself even more fat than she already is with her mouth feeling better!

Interestingly, he said her incisors place her around 7 or 8 years old. All the rescue's paperwork says she is a 2009 foal (so 11ish now) which theoretically should be accurate considering she was rescued as a foal. He said her teeth are in better shape than should be for her age. I told him "Hey, if that's a prediction of her living a long healthy life, that's absolutely fine by me!" I've always been told by my old trainers that Arabs and Arab crosses age half as fast as any other horse, and that they can reach the peak of their athletic ability and maturity in their late teens/early twenties. I'll post a photo of me riding a little Arab cross I used to compete with - she is in her late 20s in that picture.

He also offhand took note of how great April's feet looked, which he was impressed with even more when I told him she hasn't seen a farrier since late 2019. Last year, I was learning to do them myself in between increasingly sparse farrier appointments (also learning during his visits) and once COVID started, I stopped getting the farrier out altogether. It may be coincidental because of the mud season creating abscesses, but (knock on wood) she has been sound all of this year while she had a few bouts of lameness last year, usually within a week after the farrier came out. Not saying he's a bad farrier or anything since there were times he trimmed and she was fine afterwards. Just a pattern I've noticed.


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## Aprilswissmiss

It's finally cooling down! By cooling down, I mean upper 80s. I never thought I'd hear myself say that anything above 80 is "cooled down."

I had this plan in my head that we were going to go out and do a longer than usual ride to celebrate the weather. That didn't exactly happen because of a few small but cumulating constraints. First, I don't know _what_ happened to my jeans. Like, half of them are missing. This morning I was forced to settle on a pair of jeans that are ripped along the inner seam of the thigh because I didn't want to bring my "nice" jeans to the stable. This became an irritant throughout the ride as my exposed skin kept sticking to the saddle.

Second, one of the other boarders showed up right as I was finishing tacking up, and in my introverted haste to avoid talking to her, I forgot to change into my riding boots. Instead, I rode in my sneakers. That became another irritant as my stirrup leathers kept pinching my calves through my crappy, worn-out jeans.

Third, these jeans did not have sufficiently sized pockets, so I had to store my phone in the front pocket of my scrub top during the ride. That meant as we were trotting, it would clunk down on the saddle with every post. April got irritated with that pretty fast. She was not startled by it at all, but kept turning her head back at me every few steps to go "What in the world _is_ that? Can you make it stop??" I then had to do all the rest of my trotting for the ride with one hand holding my phone still in my pocket. That is very doable since I am perfectly capable of riding with one hand but it got bothersome pretty quick.

Then that also created a problem with my trail tracking app since I bonked my phone on the saddle a few too many times and accidentally hit the power button and shut my phone off. Once I noticed, I turned it back on and started up the app again. I still think I didn't track at least a short period of the ride, though.

Between all things painful and annoying holding us back, I decided (after we rode a few miles doing some of our normal workload) we would go do some exploring at the walk. We went down to the one area I've only visited once before where we cross in front of the bus parking lot and ride through the manicured fields. At one point, I spotted a fox, rather dull short coat with a twig of a tail so I assume mangy. I sat watching it for a while and since it had stayed mostly still watching something move underneath it, I thought it might even be rabid, but once it spotted us it went running off nimbly in the opposite direction so I believe it was just having some fun watching bugs in the grass. Pretty cool behavior observation.

The times we did trot, I was very pleased with April's adjustability. There were a few times she moved up into her launch-you-into-space trot about to break into a canter, but I asked her to come back down and she did so willingly and offered a very nice medium paced trot. This was a pleasant experience considering she often tries to race and only momentarily comes back down.

We logged seven miles in about two hours but I have no clue how accurate that is considering the phone issue.

On our way home, I took a video of our normal path through the corn. If I turn my toes inward and keep my knees as flat against the saddle as possible, we pass through the rows with just about no room to spare, but we don't knock any stalks down.


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## Aprilswissmiss

Yesterday was much more productive than Saturday! I found my lost jeans and didn't forget to change into boots. What a world of a difference that made. I was also motivated to make a makeshift "saddle bag" (more like a plastic bag tied to my saddle in multiple places) to hold my phone so it does not need to sit in my pocket.

Does anyone have any recommendations for English saddle bags? Most search results yield the bags that saddles go in for saddle protection, not the bags that go on saddles for storing items during rides. I don't need anything extravagant, just large enough to hold my phone and a water bottle and also secure enough to not flop too bad at the trot. Do you guys prefer the front or rear bags?

We did our normal trail and track go-around and then headed over to the manicured field place. Instead of taking a left in front of the school bus station, we took a right to follow the road for a while. The sides of the road were very wide, straight, mowed grassy areas - the perfect spot to get some more trotting in. April was hesitant about passing the huge shiny business signs but she was a real pro for going straight through an unfamiliar area with cars passing by and still trotting on a loose rein like she owned the place. So proud of her!!

We turned onto another expansive public field down the road so trotted through that as well to find that the back of it was just a crop field away from the highway. Limits our riding possibilities but nonetheless interesting to come across unexpectedly!

Once we got back, we went to do our usual hosing off. I went to coil up the hose at the end and found I couldn't... Turned around to see her standing with _both_ front feet on the hose like she was playing some kind of silly game with me. I asked her to move over and she did, but replaced her front feet with a hind foot. Asked her to move again and she replaced that with her other hind foot. I swear she was doing it intentionally. :icon_rolleyes: I had to appreciate her sense of humor.

We rode 8.3 miles in a little under an hour and a half.


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## egrogan

I just recently found my pommel bags that I oh-so-conveniently had stored “somewhere” for safe keeping two years ago when we moved, but stored so well I couldn’t find them :rofl: If you go to Distance Depot or Riding Warehouse and search for pommel bags you’ll see several options. I like having them in the front of the saddle because I want to reach the stuff I’ve brought with me while riding, and I find it easier in the front. I love having a water bottle holder! Lately I’ve also kept a bottle of bug spray with me. 

I keep my phone in my pocket, either in my vest or in a little pocket in my riding tights-wouldn’t want to lose it if we became separated and it was attached to the saddle.


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## Aprilswissmiss

Thanks @egrogan, I didn't know about those companies and that helps a lot in my search! I figured pommel bags would be easier for the same reason.

The only reason I'd prefer my phone be attached to my saddle is I ride in t shirts and jeans, so the only available pocket is (in the correct jeans) a rear jeans pocket. It obstructs my seat in the saddle so is quite uncomfortable and also is prone to falling out of my pocket that is only about half the size of my phone. I've had to get off more than once to search for my phone that got tossed during a gallop!


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## NavigatorsMom

Have you considered an armband for your phone? That way you could keep it on your person which is safer should you get separated. I know that doesn't help with the water bottle though!

Love your journal by the way, I just recently read through all of it. The way you and April found each other again after such a long time was so sweet to read about!


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## Aprilswissmiss

NavigatorsMom said:


> Have you considered an armband for your phone? That way you could keep it on your person which is safer should you get separated. I know that doesn't help with the water bottle though!
> 
> Love your journal by the way, I just recently read through all of it. The way you and April found each other again after such a long time was so sweet to read about!


For some reason I hadn't thought about that even though I knew they existed. That's a good idea. Thanks! And I'm really glad you've enjoyed reading!


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## Nubs

I enjoyed it also! Perhaps I’ll do something similar when I get my horse.


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## Aprilswissmiss

Yesterday after work, I figured I'd have some fun free lunging April and taking some pictures. I'll post a few here to show off her big trot. As for the buck photo, all I can say is I'm so glad she's never, ever once done that with me on her! And the last was when we were wrapping things up and she stood and did her big huffy snorts in the air for dramatic effect. Can you tell she's half Arabian? :rofl:

(The only thing I hate about the first two is how obvious her halter rub marks are, grrr.. wish I could just turn her out without one.)


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## Nubs

Beautiful horse, and that buck is huge!


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## Aprilswissmiss

Saturday started off a bit of a mess. We went out to ride in the pasture and April was acting much more squirrely than usual. She started out with big strung-out gaits and dropping her shoulder, rushing to take really tight turns when turning toward home and evading the pressure when turning away from home. With some circle work we worked through those issues, but then she got smart and decided she would still _technically_ do what I'm asking by not actually turning, but instead doing some very abrupt and uncalled for side-passes. Then when corrected in the same instant, she would just as quickly start side-passing in the other direction, making it impossible to keep her steady between my legs.

Does anyone else use the term "squirrely"? My old trainer used it to describe horses that weren't necessarily spooky, but took lots of convincing to stay straight and moving at a regular speed. I haven't heard anyone else use it before.

Anyway, once she was doing somewhat alright again, I figured we'd pop the log jump to give her something to think about. She landed with so much sudden intent of turning - she seriously still had her hind legs in the air with her front legs pushing left and neck ducking to the right - that she very nearly bought us both one-way tickets to Face Plant Town. I don't like keeping her on strict direct contact but after pulling that stunt, I picked her up, really made her think about picking up that dropped inside shoulder, and marched her back to the jump. She tried to duck again but couldn't, so instead was doing what felt like a very messy procession of lead changes in her attempts to duck to one side then the other over and over again while trying to turn home. She reluctantly agreed to go straight and we did so until we reached the far end of the pasture, then turned around and did it again. The third time around she did not do her ducking game having found it didn't work the previous time and so she got some enormous praise and we were done for the day.

On a brighter note, I got a video of her whistle recall after hosing her off. I let her go in the small paddock with the tack shed so I could clean up and put things away. She got worried about her buddies and stood at the gate looking for them, so I figured that would be a good time to test how strong her whistle recall really is and pulled out my phone to document. I trained her to come when called a long time ago and haven't reinforced it with treats in at least a few months, but she still came right over! You would never be able to tell she was dangerously herdbound at one point in her life.


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## egrogan

Yep, squirrelly or noodley when they’re acting that way.


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## NavigatorsMom

I use squirrely all the time to describe Nav :rofl: especially when he's focusing on just about everything else besides me! 

Aw, I love the video! What a good, sweet girl!


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## Aprilswissmiss

On Sunday last week I got a seat saver and took it for a spin! The saddle that I've had for a few months now is amazing and won't make me sore if we are mostly trotting and my butt is out of the saddle, but if I'm spending more than an hour sitting at the walk, my butt starts to get sore.

So that's exactly what we did. We went through the suburbs, down the walking path, then instead of turning around at the end of it, went around and did some more suburb riding in an area I haven't ridden in before, then also some crop field skirting before turning around.

No good opportunities to trot. Five miles in an hour and twenty minutes. Butt was perfectly fine at the end of the ride, yay! The only thing that I'm not quite used to yet with this seat saver is having a little bit less seat grip on the saddle.


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## Aprilswissmiss

Everything between last Sunday and today has been a blur and I haven't gotten a good chance to ride. For example, on Monday, I worked fourteen hours instead of my scheduled eight because a coworker called out when we were already understaffed and poop really, really hit the fan. I started pet/house sitting for one of my vets on vacation yesterday and her dogs are a bit high-maintenance. My boyfriend and I went out for a drive-in movie yesterday too (we had an amazing time!), so my usual Saturday ride just didn't happen. Today was rainy. Of course, by the time I was all done with stable chores and already half way home it stopped raining. :icon_rolleyes:

I feel really guilty when I don't ride April for a whole week because she's already fat with 3+ rides a week. She only gets one cup of ration balancer a day but 24/7 turnout on grass isn't doing her any favors.

I'm highly considering leaving my job due to poor management so I've added applying to other vet assistant/tech jobs to my to-do list. Sent out my first application today. Vet school applications are moving right along too. Wish me luck!


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## Aprilswissmiss

Yesterday's ride was a complete mess. Well, that's what I get for not riding her for over a week.

The second we hit the track, all she wanted to do was gallop. Half the ride was fighting to keep her in a trot. She wasn't trying to run from anything, just going to go with her pent-up energy. To make things even better, she was a total wingnut about completely random things in front of her on the trail, so as she was fighting to go as fast as physically possible, she was also slamming on the brakes unexpectedly every 30 seconds where a corn stalk had fallen onto the trail or a shadow just didn't sit right with her. Then, in her typical fashion, she'd leap back into a gallop not even half a second after slamming on the brakes. If I could change just one thing about her, it would be this super frustrating stop-and-go ride she sometimes gives.

At one part where I was asking her to walk, she took notice of a small excavator running in an adjacent lot. She's used to seeing heavy machinery (the stable's neighbor is some sort of landscaping business) so it didn't elicit any strong feelings at first. I took the photo below about a minute before all hell broke loose. She was fine until the excavator pulled out of the adjacent lot, right onto the road in the photo, coming straight at us until it was about 20-30 feet away. April turned and bolted harder than she ever has with me before, except maybe one of the first really bad rides I ever had on her years ago.

There is a 100% difference between her wanting to gallop and the bolt she did yesterday. When she does the former, I'm still able to take a feel of her face, get her to bend, disengage her hind end to a certain extent, etc. Whereas with this bolt, there was no flexibility, no sense in stopping her, it was just a matter of holding on tight and hoping for the best. Thankfully she came to her senses and stopped a few hundred feet down the grass strip before she hit the gravel road. We turned around again in the direction of the excavator, which was heading away from us at that point, and continued on our ride as normal.

We did 8.9 miles in an hour and 45 minutes. I'm starting to get in the habit of taking her heart rate a few times once we get home. Right as I got off, her heart rate was 56 bpm, and I don't know much of anything about these sorts of things, but I believe I read that under 64 is considered pulsed down in most endurance rides, so this isn't bad at all? About the last mile of the ride was walking, so it's not surprising it's low, but I'm not sure how low actually is low. I don't know what I was expecting, though, and I'll get a better feel of this once I get a more long-term list of readings for her.


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## Aprilswissmiss

I've gotten behind enough that I've forgotten most of what has happened between my last post and now.

I know at one point we went out and had an awesome ride in the pasture. She worked past her energy and squirreliness very quickly and offered a balanced canter and fantastic stretchy trot for the rest of the ride. That was probably a little over a week ago. The last ride I posted about must have gotten her yayas out.

We got just about nothing done this week. I believe I rode Sunday one week ago ? and that was the most recent ride. For the rest of the week, every time I got out of work, it started thunder storming so bad I had a hard time getting home... So, no riding until today.

Today was another "oh my gosh I've been storing up my energy and spooks all week just for you!!" ride. I feel like the more we've gone on long rides this summer the more she's gotten physically conditioned and the more she tries to fight me to gallop the whole ride. Then, of course, it really shows when I don't ride her for a whole week. Today was the first time she's fought me so bad on the grass strips that I could barely get her down into a trot (walk would be ideal) before hitting pavement or gravel on areas where we have to cross driveways. She just wants to _go_ and it would be really nice if she took it down a few notches.

I don't think it helps at all (for her weight or her energy level) that she's got 24/7 access to lush grass. Considering a grazing muzzle for her but the BO would strongly oppose. She got upset when another boarder was considering using one. Sort of baffles me how she insists on haltering horses for turnout but also can't fathom anyone using a grazing muzzle. Her mentality is fat horse = happy horse. Hers is a young, obese pasture pony that gets easily five times the amount of senior feed that April gets in ration balancer. I don't understand. But... Not my horse.

The only thing I could consider is muzzling her on the days I feed so no one complains about having to take it off/on for their feeding days. As in, put it on Friday afternoon when I get off from work, leave it on all weekend, take it off Sunday afternoon after I feed. I could be wrong, but I just feel like on 2 days/off 5 days will mess with her metabolism more than it helps, if it even has any impact at all. Opinions? Otherwise, I just have to wait until winter rolls around and she drops the weight on her own like last year.

BO sent a photo the other day of the horses waiting at the fence for cheerios.


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## whisperbaby22

It really depends. Some horses can take a change just fine, or it could really upset her digestive balance. I'd try a short time on the muzzle (if you can work that out) to see. 

Otherwise, just wait until you have a place of your own for your horses. It took me a long time in my life to get my own place, but well worth the sacrifice.


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## Aprilswissmiss

whisperbaby22 said:


> Otherwise, just wait until you have a place of your own for your horses. It took me a long time in my life to get my own place, but well worth the sacrifice.


That might be one long wait! A gap year plus four years of vet school, and I certainly won't be able to buy a horse-compatible property straight out of school... April may very well be retired by the time I've got it figured out! I have full intentions of owning a horse property in the future but for a while, I know I'm going to have to find a way to work with boarding facilities. The good thing is if all goes well, this time next year April and I should be in another state, which means another boarding facility where I just may have more ways available to manage her weight. Or not. We'll have to see what life throws at us. I'm just grateful she's not laminitic on such lush pasture *knock on wood*. :hide:


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## Aprilswissmiss

Today was okay in temperature but _very_ humid. On the bright side, the humidity practically glued my lower leg in place for today's ride!

April was fantastic. We rode out in the back pasture again. She started out with her typical rushing around but quickly settled in and offered tons and tons of pleasant balanced trots and canters, especially canters. She can have a hard time maintaining balance and rhythm at the canter for very long but did a fantastic job today, probably the best I've ever gotten from her. A few times she did act like she was about to drop her shoulder and take a turn faster than I asked but did a really good job of deciding against it.

Afterwards, I hung a plastic bag on her ear as I was untacking (she was really sweaty at the moment, don't mind that). I know she is okay with plastic bags but I wanted to see if I could push the limit. She didn't care at all. Lucky for her, I had some tostitos in my car and she got few as a snack for being so good.


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## Aprilswissmiss

Today's ride was very similar to the last. Rode in the pasture, started out a bit squirrely but settled in nicely.

For some reason, today I took notice of something small I did occasionally that made a big difference in the way she reacted, and when I started doing it consistently, she turned into a completely different ride in the best way possible. I noticed she was fighting the turns except for when I moved my hands sideways in the opposite direction of where I planned to go, which I've only been trained to do on driving horses before. The theory being, for driving, you're creating a tunnel in the direction of the reins and by moving your hands in one direction you aim the tunnel to face the opposite direction. Similar to neck reining but reversed in direction. She immediately stopped fighting and being squirrely and instead started stretching down, slowing down her trot to a lovely pace I've never experienced on her consistently before, and taking beautifully arced turns on a loose rein. WOW... big break through! I've always been yelled at by my old trainers when I crossed a hand over the withers on riding horses, but if it makes her this happy, I'm not going to question it!

Overall _best _on-property ride I've ever had on her. I hope this wasn't a one-time fluke.


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## Aprilswissmiss

We went for a trail ride with the BO yesterday! It's so nice to have someone to ride with every now and then.

The BO's horse was definitely going to be too fat to fit through the corn rows so we rode down the road to reach the trails through a back way. April did not like walking on the painted lines on the road and there was not enough space to ride on the side, so she rode straight down the dead center of the lane. Thankfully no one had to pass us.

The BO as well as her horse rarely ever get out so she always asks for us to "go easy on her." No problem! Almost all of the ride was walking. I showed the BO the grass strip where April likes to gallop and out of the blue she asked, "want to canter?" I was pleasantly surprised and off we went! What was hilarious is that usually the BO's horse usually has to trot to keep up with April's walk and canters to keep up with her trot. So when I got April up to a canter (which she kindly did leisurely so as to not leave BO in the dust) I looked back over my shoulder and couldn't help but laugh at her horse going faster than I've ever seen her go. It was barely a hand gallop but I've never seen her move her feet like that!

BO offered to video April and I galloping and I took the opportunity. She sat on her horse about half way down the grass strip while April and I went back to one end. All it took was a turn-around and an "Okay" and she immediately leapt into a gallop as if saying "YES, this is what I wanted!" She darn well deserved it for being so great and patient up to that point!


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## Aprilswissmiss

April had a good time pretending to be a cross country pony today! She had a lot of go but once I directed her focus toward figure 8s and popping the log jump, she felt almost like a nice schooled eventer and was quite responsive to my aids (she always listens to the "go" ones, but today she paid extra attention to the "collect" and "move off my leg" ones :smile. I have to wonder if she would be any good at cross country. Maybe if she was a little braver with unfamiliar obstacles. Her responses to things she's not expecting happen at lightning speed, although they are usually harmless. Just might not be harmless while hurtling toward a solid jump. And of course, she'd have to be good at dressage and stadium jumping to make the eventer cut, and I don't see THAT happening...

She is overweight, as I've stated before. Every now and then the excuse of "well, she's not as heavy as some other horses" crosses my mind but I know it doesn't justify anything. Today I looked back on her photos from five years ago and went OOF, yeah, it's not just my imagination, she is _fat!_ Although she might not look horrible compared to stockier breeds, I do have to remember she has an Arab frame under there.

First photo is from today, second photo is from five years ago. Was significantly slimmer but still without any hint of rib. I would love for her to look like that again. To be fair, she was being worked hard for at least an hour every single day and practically living off of air.


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## carshon

I think she looks better now. More muscled and filled out. The bottom picture looks like a thin horse with very little muscle. Her shoulders and rump are more filled out with defined muscles now as compared to the older picture.


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## Aprilswissmiss

carshon said:


> I think she looks better now. More muscled and filled out. The bottom picture looks like a thin horse with very little muscle. Her shoulders and rump are more filled out with defined muscles now as compared to the older picture.


I just have to wonder how much of that is really muscle versus chub!


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## Aprilswissmiss

Vet school applications were submitted this weekend and I start my new job tomorrow!

Yesterday was another pasture ride. Just for the heck of it and because it's been so long, I tried her in a bit instead of her hackamore. She felt lighter and more responsive (in a good way) and didn't get herself worked up like she has done with a bit before. However... She was chomping on it incessantly, rolling it back to her teeth to make horrific teeth-on-metal sounds that make me think she's about to break something. I don't recall her _ever_ doing that with a bit five years ago. I doubt it has to do with the kind of bit because it's the same exact type I used to ride her with at my neighbor's. Might possibly be the same exact bit if her tack stayed with her. Thankfully, she did not accompany the chomping with head-flinging or anything of the sort, it just seemed like something for her active mind to focus on. In one way that was good because it kept her brain occupied rather than drifting off to something else, which might be what made the difference in her responsiveness. On the other hand, the sound drove me up the wall and I don't think I'll be trying it again.

At the end of our ride, we crashed a vulture party in the neighbor's back yard. The dead raccoon was the only guest that stuck around. April let me take these pictures from her back.


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## Aprilswissmiss

It's not uncommon for April to have her halter over one ear when I show up. Today, I got these photos that really crack me up for some reason. I'm just imagining the dialogue between the other horses going:
"Do you think she knows she's wearing it wrong?"
"That's so embarrassing. Maybe we should tell her."
"No, hold on, a monkey is coming. I want to see what it does."
"Oh my god, she's walking up to it."
"Quick, act casual."


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## carshon

Cute captions! And I am sure you are relieved to have the application process complete! Now the anxiety of waiting for a response starts!


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## Aprilswissmiss

We haven't gone out on the trail in a while, mostly due to time constraints on my part when I was working on VMCAS. On Monday, we finally went back out. We came home with a good reason to stay home...


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## Aprilswissmiss

Today we rode in the arena. In contradiction to my last post, I was reminded why April is best as a trail horse. If anyone has any insight on this behavior, please please feel free to share.

I think I might have mentioned this in a previous post on this thread, but she is constantly counterbent when riding in a ring. She practically has her head hanging over the fence at all times. It is _beyond frustrating._

She's always done this.
She doesn't normally do this on the trail or in the pasture, just the arena.
She does it at all gaits (somewhat less so at the walk) in both directions.
She doesn't seem fixated on anything outside the arena.
She doesn't throw her head or pin her ears. She seems perfectly calm and happy.
She does this in any kind of headstall (bridle with bit, hackamore, rope halter...)
She's not frantic or acting like she's trying to leave. In fact, I usually ride with one, sometimes both gates open, and she has never tried to duck out of them, even when ridden on the buckle.
She doesn't do it to look toward home or the other horses, she does it around the entire arena.
If I try to use inside rein and inside leg to bend her to the inside, she gets really stiff and strong. At best, she will straighten out but fix her neck in place. At worst, she will fight me to continue bending to the outside.
The most frustrating part: she drops her inside shoulder around turns. This especially becomes an issue at a fast trot or canter. She'll fall to the inside so hard while keeping her head to the outside that she will stumble over herself in tight turns and almost fall flat on her face.

I really just can't think of a feasible solution for this besides avoiding riding in the arena.

I completely dropped the reins and trotted her around in the video below to show what she does.


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## whisperbaby22

Boy, she really does, doesn't she! I think some horses just prefer being out on the trail. And I am sure that rider preference has a lot to do with it. I just cannot keep a horse interested in the ring. When I was younger I figured that was the kind of horse I ended up with - in my old age I am now convinced that it has a lot to do with me.

Not that this may apply in your case. My experience with horses has been a lot different than many on this forum.


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## knightrider

I am interested to read people's ideas as to why she does that.

I also had a horse that couldn't be ridden in an arena. Unlike your mare, my horse would get so wound up, hot, and crazy that nobody would want to keep riding him there. I knew that when I bought him. Take him out on the trail, and he was hot and forward, but fun. In an arena, he was crazy.

I got him really cheap because he couldn't be rated over fences. He was like a locomotive. He'd jump 5 feet, but all on his terms --his speed, his direction. So, where we lived in Maryland, no experienced rider wanted him because he couldn't be foxhunted or shown. Beginners wanted him very much, but they were afraid to take his hot self out on the trail and wanted to ride him in an arena, which was terrifying. I had no interest in showing him, just wanted a super fun horse for my husband, so we bought him.

I kept him all his life, and when he turned about age 20, he got so we could ride him in an arena. He especially liked a young girl that was allowed to ride him. She showed him a couple of times, and he did OK for her. He was better for her in an arena than he was for me and my friends. My son at age 5 showed him three times, and won several ribbons with him. Needless to say, he liked kids.


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## Aprilswissmiss

My guess is it's kind of her version of daydreaming of being "anywhere but here." It's very different as 98% of all riding I've ever done has been in arenas on horses trained for/being trained in hunter/jumper. I am used to horses that couldn't care less about being ridden outside, let alone on a trail. April is different. It's not bad at all, it's just a change of scenery, and I'm glad that she's like that because I'm pushed to explore different activities that I haven't done much of before, like trail and distance riding.

She actually used to get really wound up in arenas, @knightrider, and the trot in the video is the calmest she's ever gone around in one. She really hates indoor arenas especially - she gets inconsolably spooky and flighty. Initially, I figured she was just going so fast in general because she was out of shape and unbalanced since she's offered more controlled gaits as she's gotten stronger. The other part might just be she is getting more confident in the arena (but that doesn't necessarily mean she likes it more). It is probably a combination of both factors. She used to have a very scary corner of this arena that is now merely a less-than-ideal-but-acceptable corner by her standards.

I can't complain much because she has shown major improvement in general since I adopted her. We've gotten the spookiness and rushing sorted out, and the squirreliness lessened on good days. She still tries to rush on open trails, but I have a feeling that she is always going to get so excited to run that it's just something I'm going to have to work with rather than overcome. Her counterbending in the arena is only annoying at worst, and at best it's motivation to get out and do more fun things instead.

Also, @knightrider, many trainers have taught me that the very hot horses seem to "mature" in their 20s and become awesome athletes, then live into their 30s acting as most horses would in their teens. I'm hoping such is the case with April! She is already a complete gem with beginners. I can stick absolutely _any_ beginner on her and they wouldn't find a safer mount. When I put someone who knows what they're doing on her, then it becomes "go time."


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## Aprilswissmiss

Sunday we just had another ride out in the pasture, business as usual. She is softer and more in tune with me (or conversely, me with her?) in nothing but a rope halter than she has been previously. I am very glad that she's not quite as stubborn and strong-willed as she previously was (they described her with those exact words on her adoption file :rofl where she would have just blown through a rope halter.

Monday we rode through the suburbs and the walking trail. I was hoping for a leisurely walking-only ride. That backfired on me. She got increasingly fidgety as the ride went on as I never let her trot out. When a jogger passed us going the same direction, April fought me to try to follow her. By the end, she was jigging down the sidewalk and spooking dramatically at someone's purple plants. :icon_rolleyes:

Here's the long bridge that April is the master of crossing. She demonstrated her typical startle-in-place-then-pretend-it-didn't-happen at 0:25.


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## knightrider

> She is already a complete gem with beginners. I can stick absolutely any beginner on her and they wouldn't find a safer mount. When I put someone who knows what they're doing on her, then it becomes "go time."


That was our Red Hot Chili Pepper exactly. I didn't start trying beginners with him until he was about 20, but his original owner said he would take beginners. I just was too scared of hurting someone else's child to try. Once I discovered how good he was with the kids, we even took him to a kids' camp one year and let the kids learn to ride on him.


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## Aprilswissmiss

Today was great weather. It's starting to cool down around here! We had a nice pasture ride and worked on keeping a steady canter. She did a fantastic job and I was really pleased with the ride.

Yesterday was my last day at my previous job. Tomorrow I start full-time at my new job!


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## Aprilswissmiss

I decided we'd jazz it up and April could learn something new, so yesterday we did some ground driving. Since I have absolutely no driving equipment, I DIYed some long lines by running twine attached to a lunge line through the loops on the old saddle with the wonky tree (since I don't mind banging it up a bit, and it's not doing any damage just sitting on her back with a loose girth for 20 minutes). Obviously not anywhere near ideal but it was fine for our purposes.

It was nice giving her something new to think about. All we worked on was whoa and hup-hup at the walk. By the end of the session, she was responding to both verbal cues before the physical cues. It's nice to imagine some day driving her but it'll probably stay in my imagination. Driving equipment is expensive! Although, I always have my old driving trainer as a resource if I really wanted to start her.

Ignore the caked dirt - I'm a grooming slacker when I know she's just going to go back out and roll in the mud afterwards.


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## Aprilswissmiss

We did some work in the pasture then headed out on the walking path today. I think the pasture ride before going out on the path helped take her down a few notches, since today she was a lot less jiggy on the path compared to last time.

We had a few good exposures today, one in particular being a kid on a bike that we had to pass. It was a little girl with her parents learning how to ride a bike. It was very colorful and flashy and had loud training wheels on it so I thought April was going to lose it. I guess her curiosity for little kids canceled out her fear of bikes, because she walked right by without concern.

We had a potentially dangerous oops moment mid-way through our ride. I let her move out and canter along the grass part of the path that runs parallel to a somewhat busy road. At the end when we were about to cross pavement, I was bringing her back down to a walk and as usual, she was fighting to keep going. When we got down to a steady trot, her hackamore just fell apart and came straight off her face. It dangled below her neck by the crownpiece and browband. She came to a stop immediately and gave me a "huh, that's strange" look. I hopped off and realized what the problem was, fixed it, and put it back on. She stood perfectly still next to traffic with basically no headstall. WOW, she really does have her head screwed on right when it matters most! (I know what happened to the hackamore and why it happened and it definitely won't be happening again.)

Overall, a great ride!


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## Aprilswissmiss

Yesterday we went for a trail ride with the BO. We explored some new trails we didn't know existed. It took quite a bit of road riding to find some.

A farmer kindly let us cut across his property. April saw a cow for the first time! She was very curious but not at all frightened.

We got a nice view from a huge weedy hill. BO said "I bet April would climb that!" and I said "That's a great idea!" and up we went. The BO was left standing at the bottom going "Wha-?!" but then decided to join us. It's hard to tell in the photo, but we were about level with the surrounding tree line.

We also came across a very old abandoned stable. All that was left was the foundation and some of the concrete walls. There were some remnants of an old paddock fence buried in the brush. I wish I had taken pictures of it - you could tell it was once a very nice property. The BO has lived in this town her whole life and said she used to ride there as a little kid. Someone is maintaining the trails around it but the old pastures are now dense 30 foot high forests.


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## Aprilswissmiss

On Saturday, instead of going to the barn, I volunteered at the NJ horse park for their combined driving event on marathon day. It's such a neat way to see so many different horses - saddlebreds, shetlands, warmbloods, fjords, hackneys, even mustangs and minis! - all at the peak of fitness competing in the same discipline. The highlight of the day was a six-year-old masterfully driving a pair of small ponies, one black and one white.

I learned that New Bolton keeps a herd of ponies for behavior research and sell off a couple dozen each year. Apparently they make fantastic driving ponies. We saw a small handful of them competing. The thought of buying one is so tempting. Trailer buddy for April and potential driving pony? Yes please! And April absolutely adores small equines.

Coincidentally, when I got back to the barn on Sunday, the BO mentioned another boarder trying to ground drive her horse. We got into a conversation about driving and she mentioned that she has an old harness I could borrow. I took her up on it to do some ground driving with April, a bit more formal than last weekend's DIY twine long lines!

I harnessed her up fully and she didn't care about anything. After I had fun playing dress-up, I took off everything but the saddle for ground driving. April thought the bridle looked funky from a distance so we went slow with it and I kept her halter on. Once it was on, though, she didn't even seem to notice the blinders. Yes, the bit is attached wrong intentionally - it hung too low when it was on the cheek ring. April is just half a head size below average horse and this isn't the first time it's created an issue! The noseband didn't fit at all even when it was all the way up so we just didn't use it.

Afterwards, I threw on a rope halter and rode bareback around the arena. I don't know what inspired me to do that but my legs are sore today. Posting her trot bareback is nearly as impossible as sitting it!


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## Aprilswissmiss

We hit the trails today and got a bit adventurous. For the most part, I stuck to places that the BO and I explored two weeks ago.

From the beginning, April was a bit on edge. A cat darted out of the corn chasing a squirrel right in front of us and April almost dumped me from how far she leapt sideways. We followed the road and hopped onto a blocked off bridge the BO had pointed out (safe for crossing but closed for vehicles). April didn't mind at all and we enjoyed the scenery.

The cows... Oh boy, the cows. I said two weeks ago that April saw a cow for the first time and was fine (it was way out in a field, though). After we crossed the bridge today, we came across a whole pen of cows. I got the picture below seconds before April had a meltdown. She spun and stubbornly marched straight back the way we came. It took some fighting to get her to turn back around, and quite a bit more to get her to pass them even at quite a distance.

The en-cow-nter really pushed her over the edge and she was on full alert for the rest of the ride, as you can tell by her ears in the subsequent photos versus the first two. We came across another stable and she was on the brink of a meltdown from a distance, thinking the other horses were more cows.

Most of her anxiety manifested as intense trotting with interspersed spooking. At one point, she spooked hard at equipment leaning on a distant building and flung herself sideways and backwards across the adjacent road - she got her butt handed to her for that because she is NOT allowed to put a single hoof on a road without my permission. We are both incredibly lucky the last bit of traffic had passed just a second before she pulled that stunt.

On the last stretch, she became fixated on getting home and tried to muscle her way past my aids. She wanted to gallop so I made her walk. She compromised at a jig.

All that being said, she did have her good moments. We had a nice balanced trot up some big open hills and at points rode on the buckle when not on full alert.

I really wish we had access to wooded trails rather than spending every ride on roads and skirting crop fields. Grrr.


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## Aprilswissmiss

Some afterthought notes.

Today's ride was 8.6 miles long and took a little under two hours. As you can probably tell by the trail tracker's map, I am not fantastic at navigating new places and we crossed through the same places multiple times before I got oriented.

I think I mentioned this in a previous post. A while ago we were deceived by a small wet area that looked like just a puddle with grass implying it was shallow and solid underneath. When April stepped into it, her front end plummeted into the water to the point of dunking her head in. Today we came across another patch exactly like that, photo below. I was suspicious so I got off and tested around to find the narrowest area with the most solid ground on either side. I found a spot only six inches wide and crossed easy enough. Sure enough, when April stepped across behind me, she placed one of her hind legs in the water and soaked up to her hock before pulling herself out. Those "puddles" are incredibly deceptive!

After we got back, she was still hyped up. I figured if she had enough energy to fight me home, she could burn it off in the arena for a while. She was very cooperative and we had a pleasant arena ride for a change.

Afterwards, we sat in the arena and just hung out together. We were still enough that the neighborhood fox walked right through with us standing there.


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## Aprilswissmiss

April was much more manageable on today's ride. We did come across some more cows in a different place and she tried bolting, but they all noticed her and slowly ambled away. At that point she reasoned moving forward was safe.

We went back to that abandoned stable and got some pictures. It's hard to tell but the foundation and concrete-fenced yard were about five feet below the ground we were standing on. The nearby remnants of a paddock are now overgrown by trees. It makes me wonder what it looked like to whoever led the last horse out and left that gate open decades ago.

We came across a recently harvested soybean field. It was the perfect opportunity to let April gallop a few laps and blow off some steam. The flattened soybean stems offered fantastic footing - has give but you don't sink in, not slippery. I have gotten into the habit of posting her canter/gallop when she will be doing it for a while as it takes less effort than sitting, feels more secure than holding a half-seat in case she spooks, and helps regulate her speed a bit while keeping us flowing together.

We rode 6.8 miles in an hour and a half.


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## Aprilswissmiss

A funny note from today's ride. At one point, we entered a field and I spotted a lady walking her dog at the opposite end. Not a big field but we had some good distance between us. April doesn't mind dogs at all, and her dog spotted us a good while before the lady did and the dog did not mind us. But as soon as the lady saw us, she practically leapt on top of her dog and yelled, with a thick accent, "SHTOP! SHTOP! SHTOP! GIVE US A CHANCE TO MOVE OUT YE WAY!" So April and I stood patiently while she dragged her dog quite a ways and behind some farm equipment, then yelled "OKAY, YEES GOOD NOW!" Although I absolutely appreciate the effort made to restrain her dogs, it seemed excessive and I found the whole situation humorous. I don't know if she was afraid of her dog hurting April or vice versa, but I got a good laugh at it.


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## Aprilswissmiss

I showed up today to the bossy lead mare chasing the others back and forth around the pastures. It took a few attempts to catch them for lunch. April was sweating and breathing harder than after a typical 10 mile trot in similar weather (only about 60 degrees). She made a puddle of sweat under herself in just a few minutes of being tied and was quite expressive about her level of exhaustion! I reasoned she had definitely earned her workout for the day and I wasn't going to add to that.

Bossy lead mare was in a huge mood and tried to swing her butt towards me while I was fly spraying her. Both my hands were occupied with fly spray bottles at the moment so that's exactly what she got smacked with. I broke it in the process, then gave myself a headache from the fumes while fixing it.


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## Aprilswissmiss

Yesterday April was taking a nap in the pasture when I arrived. It's the first time I've seen her on the ground for a reason other than rolling. I hung out next to her for about ten minutes before she decided to get up.

I jumped on bareback so we could take a stroll around the pasture. Without any reins, she will usually just wander aimlessly and graze and it's a nice way for us to spend some time relaxing. This time, she went over to the back fence when she spotted the neighbor. He came over to say hi. After about ten minutes of talking, he went back inside and April and I were just hanging out when something or another (maybe the electric fence? a passing truck? who knows) spooked her enough to send her flying sideways and consequently, my butt to the ground. It was not so much the lack of a saddle but more the fact that I had my guard down to about 0 that made me slide right off. I couldn't be mad since she came back to me. Surprisingly, despite landing strangely and doing a kind of backwards somersault through the grass, I wasn't sore at all and still am not. Good to know I can still bounce, last time I didn't!

We had a nice pasture ride that started out a bit rocky. We spent the first half working on being a bit less frantic, as she always tends to be after a week without riding. She eventually settled in to a very nice trot and I am happy to say, it was one of the first times I consistently felt her doing what I was thinking before I consciously translated them to aides - one of the best feelings in my opinion. She felt so much more collected from the hind than earlier in the ride and was making beautiful tight figure 8s at a collected trot off of seat and legs and loopy reins. Super proud of her!

At the end of the day, I made friends with a sweet little monarch I found in the pasture while picking poop.


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## Aprilswissmiss

Everything was gross and wet yesterday after the recent rain. Trails would have been too muddy so we stuck to riding at home in the pasture.

The BO gave me a double-jointed eggbutt she found in the depths of her tack shed so I figured we'd give it a try. It fit very well, surprisingly. As with every ride, we started out the conversation about why we can't gallop around full-speed, especially through the slippery wet grass. I often buy into the "okay, we don't have to walk, but trotting is fine" mentality because April is always ready to start marching around the second I'm on (she knows I expect her to stand while mounting until I give the OK, though). This time, I wanted to see if I could instill some patience and relaxation in her before we started working in the hopes it would take her down a notch for the rest of the ride. I wanted to get in her head _before_ she was too amped up to listen.

To be expected, she fussed and jigged for a good while. After lots of circling and rewarding relaxation, she got the memo and walked on a loose rein. When I asked her to pick up the trot, it only took her a minute to fall into a nice balanced trot - a lot faster than usual! Bingo! I got even more of the nice loopy-reined collected trot than last week.

With the pasture too wet to do anything more than a steady trot, we headed into the arena to do a bit more. She very nicely continued her loopy-reined trot, crossing diagonals beautifully and turning off of seat and leg. I asked for the canter and she offered a couple laps of balanced and relaxed canter. Perfect!

Despite offering the most pleasurable canter I've ever gotten from her, it was enough to amp her back up once I got down to the walk. I did the same as before, letting her know rushing is _not_ what I want, and we _will_ walk until she figures that out.

She caught on quickly and I added another challenge. She typically interprets direct rein contact as "faster!!" and so I did the same thing as before, except I'd pick up very light contact when she was already relaxed, work her down from her fussy jig, then release when she had a few quiet steps. This worked very well and I hope this starts the foundation of fixing the hole in her training so that we can be safer in dangerous situations when I need her to slow down _now_ and not fight her down from a gallop.

I don't know if I just didn't notice her clanking on the bit or if she wasn't doing it like she did in the full cheek, but either way, I'll try her in this bit next time too so we can work more on light contact.

Today was too rainy to ride. April was using Jess's head as rain cover when they had their heads sticking out of the barn.


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## knightrider

That is one CUTE picture!


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## Aprilswissmiss

Thanks @knightrider! April and Jess appreciate it :smile:

Yesterday's ride was decent, another pasture ride. April was a bit faster to figure out how to travel quietly without fighting for speed. That is, until she spotted a plastic bag up in a tree branch. She does not mind plastic bags but the sight of some strange white blob in the dead branches got her worked up. I am very grateful she has never been inclined to buck when spooked but I definitely got my seat glue tested with the occasional spins and mini bolts. At one point, the saddle started slipping sideways (I forgot to tighten up the girth one last hole, oops ). Thankfully my round-welsh-pony riding days kept me on.

When she started getting tired, though, she got sloppy and heavy. Since I switched jobs/the cold and rain has made trails hard to use, we have not been going out for long trots like we used to in the summer. She has lost a tad bit of condition and I can tell because she gets tired and sloppy a bit earlier than she used to. It also shows in how her saddle that fit perfect is now just ever so slightly too wide (I made another thread about this recently). I've been using a dish towel between the saddle and pad to help pad it up and that has been working great. I ordered a half pad last week but they ran out of that size just after I ordered it so I've got to try again through another site. I would go to the local tack shop but their prices are two to three times higher than online.

I figured I can try to better maintain her condition by fake "trail riding" in the pasture. Instead of riding in the pasture like there's an invisible arena in the middle, we can ride the perimeter in laps. Less effort put into circles and transitions and more effort put into just hacking out on a loose rein.

I could almost hear April's sigh of relief as the tone of the ride was different when I got on. She was much happier and relaxed going straight along the fence as opposed to "arena" work. She didn't fight me for speed a single time, how awesome! We rode the equivalent of about five miles according to my trail tracker app and about four of those were trotting. She wasn't puffing hard or dragging her feet by the end, but it didn't take any convincing to get her to walk.

This weekend was quite a bit warmer than it has been (mid 70s) and probably contributed to her having a lower exercise tolerance, considering she is already starting to grow in her winter coat. However, it was the perfect opportunity to hose her off for probably the last time of the year.


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## Aprilswissmiss

On Saturday, the BO asked me if I could ride her horse Misty. The most she gets ridden is once every few months when I convince the BO to go for a trail ride with me, and recently with the cooler weather she's been galloping around flinging up mud while the other three graze. It's made her impossible to catch because she thinks it's a game (the only thing that ever happens to her when she's caught is she gets fed).

I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone and ponied April off of Misty. I've never ponied April before and it took her a while to figure out that the point of it all was not to get in front of the ridden horse and cut them off. Once she figured out to fall behind, it was a very nice ride. Misty has a lot smoother gaits than April!

Yesterday, we had another "trail" pasture ride. I've noticed my trail tracker app shows a different distance before and after the ride is concluded. For example, right before I finished it said 7.3 miles, then the final report said 5.5. What the heck, that's a big difference! Well, seems like I'm going to be looking for a different app. I like seeing how far I've ridden before I end the ride so that I can increase our ride lengths appropriately when I'm not riding on real trails.


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## Aprilswissmiss

Last week, I ended up riding on Thursday instead of Saturday. I had a family-related thing on Saturday and luckily had Thursday off for once. Well, not exactly lucky - I had the day off because our head vet was exposed to a covid + person, and the techs had some hours cut with less going on.

We went out into the pasture and we were immediately slipping all over the place. The top inch of dirt had turned into slick mud with the ground solid beneath that, making some of the worst footing possible. We rode in the arena instead. April was so pleasant that we stopped after only half an hour to end on a great note and reward her for her hard work.

Sunday we started in the arena for fear of mud, then went out in the pasture and found the footing had regained its stability so we continued our ride for a while out there. I feel like the changes I've made to my own riding have made a strikingly positive change in April as well. I don't know if it's her odd breed combination or just her personality, but she's been tough to really find her sweet spot compared to all the other horses I've ridden, even the green ones. Not that I think there was anything particularly bad or wrong before, but it seems we've both reached a new level of understanding and cooperation. In the arena, we got some amazing gaits, the canter being even more consistently balanced and relaxed than before with her not dropping her shoulder or rushing after the first lap. In the pasture, she offered a fantastic hacking trot that was steady and relaxed but still covered ground.

Photos are from Sunday - I balanced my phone on the fence to get some video. The video wasn't particularly eventful, so I got a few screenshots instead of posting the whole thing. My equitation is clearly off but I'd rather do what's comfiest for her than what looks the nicest.


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## carshon

I like your thought on do what is comfy for both of you and not push yourself to be the "picture" perfect rider. I have found that having bad hips my riding position has changed drastically - I look like I put my legs so far forward but that is the only way I can ride comfortably. My mare is a TWH and a lot of gaited horse riders ride with their legs really far forward thinking it helps with the gait. Once I have my second hip replacement I hope to get back to riding normally but we will change positions and work with what we have. 

I am sorry to hear about the head vet - hopefully no transmission happened. We are seeing a lot more positivity in our rural area. My daughter just came home from college and a student on her floor tested positive the last day of school and a person on the floor below hers also tested positive.
'
How is the vet school applications going? Heard anything yet?


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## Aprilswissmiss

carshon said:


> I am sorry to hear about the head vet - hopefully no transmission happened. We are seeing a lot more positivity in our rural area. My daughter just came home from college and a student on her floor tested positive the last day of school and a person on the floor below hers also tested positive.
> '
> How is the vet school applications going? Heard anything yet?


Thankfully, it was the vet's family member who was exposed and her exposure happened after his most recent shift, so we're confident no exposure to the staff occurred. There are a number of animal hospitals around here who are completely shutting down for a few weeks because they have one or more positives among their staff and the rest were exposed. One of the absolutely massive emergency/specialty hospitals seems to be going down hard with most of their staff positive. Unfortunately, one of their staff members happens to work at my previous job as well, and now a few people at my previous job has been considered exposed too. Thankfully, my current hospital has no positives and no exposures!

My boyfriend and I have yet to hear back from any vet schools. One of my friends has been offered interviews from multiple, but he applied to international schools (none of which I applied to) and his last name starts with A so I suspect they're going in alphabetical order. How about your daughter?


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## carshon

My daughter has had 1 interview and has 2 more scheduled - but 1 of those is Ross. Not her first choice but one she put on her list as we know someone who went there and spoke highly of it. Our last name starts with E so it could be that they are going alphabetically. And she (my daughter) has said some schools are either not doing interviews or waiting until after the first of the year. Iowa and Mississippi come to mind.


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## Aprilswissmiss

carshon said:


> My daughter has had 1 interview and has 2 more scheduled - but 1 of those is Ross. Not her first choice but one she put on her list as we know someone who went there and spoke highly of it. Our last name starts with E so it could be that they are going alphabetically. And she (my daughter) has said some schools are either not doing interviews or waiting until after the first of the year. Iowa and Mississippi come to mind.


Which places offered her interviews besides Ross? I know quite a few people who applied to the same schools as me who haven't heard anything at all, so perhaps we just applied to some particularly slow-responding schools. At least a couple of my schools aren't doing interviews at all and are instead using the CASPer test for personality assessment.

When VMCAS said you'd be able to add to your experiences after submission, I imagined they would leave the online web page open so you could go in and do so. It seems the site has been closed for a while now. I guess the only way to do so would be manually contacting every school. I wonder if it would be beneficial for me to notify them of my employment change. Basically the same exact job, just a different employer.

Edited to add: I just checked the most recent update email from each school and almost every single one of them said they would start sending out interview notifications in mid December. Guess I just applied to slow schools!


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## carshon

Kansas is one that she heard from - nothing from Michigan but I think they use the CASPer - and I know she is waiting to hear from a couple that don't interview until after the first of the year.


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## NavigatorsMom

Aprilswissmiss said:


> I really wish we had access to wooded trails rather than spending every ride on roads and skirting crop fields. Grrr.


Catching up on your journal and I know this is an older post but just have to say, I FEEL YOU on wishing for woodland trails. Around here my only option (outside of trailering out, which is not an option for me as I don't have a trailer) is road shoulders. They are pretty rural, but we haven't been out on them in months due to some negative experiences. I picked my barn for it's turnout opportunities and the care Nav gets (which is most important), but I so wish we had access to nice trails. I definitely empathize with you. 

Hope you hear back from the vet schools soon! 🤞


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## Aprilswissmiss

@NavigatorsMom, It's frustrating, isn't it?! We have "trails" (like, two mile's worth, with only a quarter mile of that being wooded, and another quarter mile being flooded for 90% of the year) but I have to cross multiple roads to access them. That was manageable until the corn started growing in. We figured out how to ride in between the rows, but then the bushes in the following stretch started getting overgrown to the point that they would rake down my back even when I laid flat on April's neck. The undergrowth was all burrs and thorns, too (what a good horse for trooping through those). Then the corn got higher than my head. With roads, cornfields, low bushes, burrs, and thorns to face just to reach a mile or two of non-wooded trail, even with the track we found, it stopped being worth it.

My BO did show me some new trails that one time but three quarters of the ride was road riding. And not even road shoulder riding - straight road riding with no room to step off when a car comes. There are some nice park trails we could trailer to close around here but it's the BO's trailer and she's never been motivated enough to go even though she mentions it occasionally. I just hope when/if I move next summer, I can find a place that is still great, affordable, _and _trail rider friendly.

I'm reminiscing on when my friend and I would go riding up a local mountain on her Connemara ponies bareback. The main trail entrance was practically on her property. No roads, no crop fields, no bogs, no thorns, no burrs... Just two little kids on two tough ponies!


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## Aprilswissmiss

April is growing in her winter coat fast and is starting to look scruffy!

Yesterday and today were just more arena rides. We did try once to trek past the mud in the pasture yesterday - you can see how that went with all the mud splatter April kicked up onto herself! The pasture still looks like grass right now, but is very slick and opens up when you trot on it.

At this point, it feels like we've mastered a nice, balanced trot in the arena and I have no more issues with her constantly fighting to rush. We're still working on a balanced canter but she seems to be getting better at it with every ride and is able to hold it for longer each time. Now we just need to work on trot/canter and canter/trot transitions. For now, they're still sloppy and take some convincing. It would be nice to eventually teach walk/canter transitions but that would just give her more reason to randomly jump out of the walk when I don't ask.


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## Aprilswissmiss

Accidental double-post!


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## Aprilswissmiss

Last week was quite eventful. I started it out by totaling my car on Monday morning. I was driving to work in a thunder storm and someone quite a ways ahead of me slammed on their brakes to let someone else turn onto the road. I slammed mine too but started hydroplaning down the hill despite the distance I gave myself and rear-ended the person in front of me. Grrr. I slowed down enough to leave just a small paint scratch on their car but not enough to keep my car from accordion-folding. Those darn tires - I had them scheduled to be replaced this month! They started to feel slippery in the rain recently and I guess that was no overestimation. Interestingly, the check engine light came on five minutes before the wreck as if saying "It's my time to die, you should move on." It was very likely to fail inspection later this month. All good things (2002 Civics included) come to an end eventually. What a good car.

Well, I get to buy myself a "new" car for Christmas. 🙃😔

Anyway - Saturday had on and off rain and made a gross mess even out of the stone dust arena. We didn't ride. The BO closed off the back pasture this past week, leaving the sacrifice pasture open to the horses. April made her boredom known by picking up and twirling around a stick she found. They have access to sheltered bales of different types of hay at all times so I feel confident she was just goofing off! I let her play with it safely before I took it away, such a goober. I felt bad confiscating her toy, but I don't trust her not to eat it. I can't say it would necessarily be detrimental but I'd rather not risk it.

Sunday was much nicer weather. Again, she made her boredom known, this time by leaping sideways from absolutely nothing at the beginning of our ride. I let her know her chosen energy outlet and seat glue tests were not appreciated and she quickly settled down. Once her mind was channeled in the right direction, she was absolutely phenomenal. Hands down best arena ride we've ever had. Have I said that too many times recently? Just keeps getting better and better! She went so round and low and stretchy at the trot that I felt like she could go win in the hunter ring. It was the first time she consistently reached for light contact AND held it there (so glad I've found a bit she really likes even more than the hackamore) and it felt like the perfect off of the legs and into the hands ride. I wanted to get off and set up my phone to film it but I was giggling with joy too much to let the feeling go. I didn't ever think she would ride like that. Her turns on a dime at the trot with seemingly nothing but my mind make her galloping fights seem like a distant memory. I hope we can both later translate this mentality to trail riding once trails are open again.


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## carshon

I am glad you were not hurt in the accident. Rest in Peace Civic.


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## carshon

@Aprilswissmiss my daughter heard from Ross and Kansas State - she has on interview with both. I was not sure if either of those were schools you applied to. She has yet to hear from a couple of others.


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## Aprilswissmiss

carshon said:


> @Aprilswissmiss my daughter heard from Ross and Kansas State - she has on interview with both. I was not sure if either of those were schools you applied to. She has yet to hear from a couple of others.


I applied to Cornell, Tufts, VMCVM, Purdue, Ohio, and Michigan. So far waitlisted at VMCVM and I'm not surprised since I haven't taken med terminology yet. Tufts just sent out an email asking everyone to send in their financial aid information but specifically stated they won't be sending out admissions results until after the financial aid deadline, which just seems like a very silly waste of time for both the school and the students.


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## Aprilswissmiss

I've been away for a bit and just got back! Riding on Saturday two weeks ago was uneventful, I don't remember much from it. Saturday night my boyfriend and I drove up to Maine to visit my family. With covid, we almost decided not to go, but since I'm still a Maine resident, I have to register any car I buy in Maine. We got tested going up and coming back and my family got tested as well before we got there.

I'm very happy to say I brought home an '07 Civic. It feels amazing to finally own a car that doesn't sound like a dying camel when I accelerate or rattle and jolt when I shift. (That being said, I still stand by my statement 100% that my previous two cars were fantabulous death-defying inspection-passing machines)

We got home Sunday night a week later so I didn't ride that weekend.

Today I finally got back out to the stable after two weeks. April got her annual vaccines this morning and she was very excited to see the vet. It's probably what she wished for for Christmas - a visit from the old jolly doctor who gives out peppermints and might as well be Santa himself in April's eyes. She managed to scrape up a leg right before I left for Maine. I swear she always gets herself hurt in winter right when I visit for Maine. Looking at it today, it's healing up very nicely (only bleeding in the spot where I picked off a scab) and the vet was very happy with the way it looked.

I used vaccines as an excuse to not ride in the awful wind chill today. The temperature was in the 20s which is not a bad temperature at all but the wind chill brought it down significantly. I was thinking about going for a leisurely ride down the walking path, but the combination of going off property, not being ridden in 2 weeks, and the horribly cold weather would likely have turned April into a fire breathing dragon anyway.

Vet school status: interview offer with Purdue, waitlisted at VM, declined from Michigan and Ohio. Fingers crossed those rejections don't foreshadow the other schools' responses. Although I definitely anticipated some rejections, I'm kind of surprised that I was so quick to be booted by two schools. I was of the understanding that a 3.85 GPA and heavy vet experience (thousands of hours spread across small, large, equine, and shelter, with a sprinkling of zoo, exotics, and public health) was quite competitive. If I don't get accepted anywhere this year I definitely have to do some deep digging into where my application went wrong. Cornell is supposed to get back early January, Tufts has made it clear some people won't be hearing back until February or beyond.

Merry belated Christmas!


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## whisperbaby22

Good luck with getting accepted. I, too, am surprised about the swift rejections.


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## carshon

My daughter got her rejection email from Michigan as well. She has interviewed with Lincoln Memorial, Ross, and has a January interview with Kansas. Iowa is not doing interviews. She has a plan B in case she does not get accepted this cycle. Fingers crossed for you both! The waiting is horrible!


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## Aprilswissmiss

Thanks @whisperbaby22 and @carshon! For me, the waiting was bearable (I actually felt like I forgot about it for a while) until I got my first response. Since then, I've been antsy to hear back from the rest.

Yesterday was beautiful. Only a tad warmer, but the lack of wind made a huge difference.

April left her buddies behind to watch me bring down hay. When I got to the pasture, she chomped down on the top bale and pulled the whole thing up and out of the wheelbarrow and rudely tossed it on the ground. She found the situation very entertaining even when it tumbled between her legs.

The corn was finally harvested which means we have easy access to the few trails around again. I knew April was likely to be fresh after months of no trails and two weeks of no riding at all, but I couldn't pass up the beautiful weather and open trails. She was already snorting and on high alert when I tied her to tack up and danced around before I got on (she knows better than to walk off _while _I'm getting on, though).

She walked off the property just fine, though, and minus giving some lit-up Christmas yard decorations a big look, she was relatively polite on the sidewalk and crossing the roads. She didn't even glance at the semi that passed us. We took it easy and enjoyed ourselves. I was proud of how careful she was picking her way over the mud and minimal ice without slipping. I wasn't about to make her wade through the cold streams, so our accessible trails were very limited. We basically just walked for half an hour or so with a couple leisurely trots where the footing was decent. She sped up her walking pace when we turned for home but was very respectful.


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## Aprilswissmiss

We got a lot of rain at the end of last week, ugh. Everything was disgustingly wet and slippery on Saturday, so we stuck to arena riding. I wasn't surprised that April was pretty hyped up after some time off and didn't fall back into the routine as quickly as she was before I left. Regardless, we still ended on a good note after she got some yayas out.

Everything was either soaking wet and slick or icy on Sunday since it snowed and froze and then rained and froze again overnight. Just not good riding conditions, especially when the forecast was threatening more rain any second. Even the arena was bleh. Skipped out on the riding that day, unfortunately. I have to remind myself that the only reason I ride is because I enjoy it, and if I'm not going to have fun riding on a miserable day, I don't have much of a reason to push myself through it. If it was in the spring or summer and I wanted to work on getting her in shape, it would be a different story.

ACCEPTED to Cornell!! Even more exciting, my boyfriend was also accepted! Interestingly, all five of our mutual schools have given us the exact same responses. As of right now, it's looking like we'll both end up at Cornell. It's my boyfriend's top choice and I would love to be a part of their shelter med program.


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## carshon

How absolutely exciting for you both! Cornell is a great school. All of your hard work has paid off!!!!!


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## egrogan

Woohoo! Congrats on your acceptance at Cornell, as well as to your boyfriend! My husband and I both got our PhDs at the same time, though in different fields, and the process of narrowing down where to apply and then waiting for acceptances was definitely nerve-wracking. I'm still grateful all these years later we were both able to be in the same place and fully funded. Really happy for you and thrilled to know the world will one more much needed thoughtful, compassionate vet a few short years from now! 🎉


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## Old Growth

Wow, that is so exciting for both of you. I watched a show a few years back that followed a group veterinary students at Cornell and their studies and training. It was very interesting. 👏


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## Aprilswissmiss

Thanks all! Welcome (back?) to the forum, @Old Growth!

Overnight, the ground froze just enough to be solid but not too much to be icy or rock-hard. It was fantastic winter weather to go for a trail ride. We took a not very often traveled "trail" (really just a cleared path along a chain link fence) to connect the short primary trail to the back of a distant neighbor's farm down the road without taking the road. April was on the lookout for their demon cows, but thankfully, we didn't see any in the field.

We passed the cow processing plant. I was surprised that April didn't react to the literal truckloads of scrap meat and bones that was laid out on the pavement (yuck!). No wonder so many vultures live around here.

In the field after that, someone had set up some geese decoys that April was not exactly trusting of from a distance, but then she made friends with them... At least with the ones that weren't knocked over.

On our way back, the processing plant had started tractor-shoveling the scraps away. April was doing fantastic up until then, but that was just too much for her to handle and she threw a spooking fit. I only let her continue on once she was willing to do so walking and not bolting. She marched the whole way home and I had to remind her a few times that she wasn't allowed to move up without me asking.

Overall, quite a great ride minus the one spooking fit. According to a Google Maps estimate, the ride was about 3.8 miles.


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## Aprilswissmiss

Another great riding day! We hit the trails again. It's been a while since it's rained heavily so the stream had lowered enough for us to cross reasonably. We did the one mile track and wandered around the trail that loops off of it. April had some looky moments but no spooks. She was pretty hyped up and took some effort to keep her trotting instead of galloping. On our way back, I dropped the reins and let her walk home while I checked some texts on my phone. Instead, she found it more interesting to wander aimlessly back and forth through a corn field, so I eventually had to firmly guide her back onto the trail home.

I forgot to take trail pictures. When we got home, we finally got to try out her new cooler from Christmas since it's the first time she's gotten sweaty on a ride since I got it. I was silly and got it without measuring her (took a wild guess) and it fits surprisingly well!

5.4 miles; Total 2021 distance: 9.2 miles


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## Aprilswissmiss

Yesterday, I was too exhausted to ride - I was pet sitting the night before and one of the dogs, epileptic, started seizing and I was up until 3 am dealing with that situation/bringing her to the ER.

Today was muddy and windy, but I wasn't about to skip riding again. We had a fantastic ride in the arena. She started out very looky at the things blowing in the wind, but settled down nicely. I've noticed she's picked up on my mostly-unintentional-until-recently verbal cues and actually responds much better to them than non-verbal - for some reason, she is less over-reactive and more accurate in her response. It seems to give her a level of confidence that she doesn't have when I apply leg or rein - "Do you want me to step over or move up?? Do you want me to collect or slow down??"

"Okay!" gives her permission to move up a gait, "Aaand ___" asks to move down a gait, and "Easyyy" asks to slow down but stay in the same gait. It seems silly because I've always been taught that horses should respond without any verbal cues since they're not allowed in the show ring. But screw it - we're not showing, and she responds better! It crossed my mind previously but wasn't the real center of my focus until today. I noticed when I asked for a trot-to-canter transition with aids, it could take her a whole arena side of exaggerated trot to finally pick it up, whereas a simple "Okay!" got her moved up in the same stride. "Aaand walk" gets an immediate trot to walk transition whereas picking up the reins just seems to be asking for a fight.

We continue to learn more about each other every day.


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## Aprilswissmiss

I had the motivation to go for a trail ride on Saturday despite the cold... Until the wind started blowing so hard that poop was being blown out of my manure fork. We opted for an arena ride instead. April was a bit jumpy, but overall did really well especially considering the weather. At one point, a plastic bag came out of nowhere and blew across the arena ground right in front of us and she eyed it up but kept on trotting.

Sunday, I decided to change it up a bit and go through the suburb and down the walking trail. We mostly walked and trotted in a few places when it was reasonable to do so. There were quite a few people out and about, many with dogs. April loves dogs, but for some reason, a little fluffy white dog really sketched her out bad. She stood stock still the second she spotted it coming from hundreds of feet away, snorting and shaking and ready to bolt any moment. The dog didn't care about her one bit. I tried to decompress her, but she was completely uninterested in me. She was at least brave enough to let the dog pass us and then walked on, pretty frazzled. Later down the path, we came across someone walking multiple large hounds. They were barking and lunging for us, but interestingly April was completely unfazed by them and walked right by.

2.6 miles; Total 2021 distance: 11.8 miles

I've got an interview with Tufts tomorrow. I plan to attend Cornell, but there is never any harm in keeping my options open until I receive financial aid packages, assuming I even get accepted to Tufts.


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## carshon

Aren't horses crazy, what you think will set them off doesn't and vice versa! I think it's great you are leaving your options open. My daughter is still waiting to hear if she is accepted to any vet school. Her interviews are over (she got 3 interviews of the 5 she applied to) 1 rejection letter and 1 school that said they were not doing interviews. The waiting is the hardest part by far. Congratulations on your Cornell acceptance! You should be so proud!


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## Aprilswissmiss

@carshon I am waiting to hear back from Tufts and Purdue after my interviews with them, both said they would be getting back mid February. I am over the moon with my Cornell acceptance and it still hasn't really hit me yet... More like just slowly seeping in. It sounds like your daughter is bound to get into one of the three she got interviews from since she's gotten that far with multiple schools!

Today was one of the coldest days we've had so far this winter. Somewhere between 10 and 15 degrees. That being said, there wasn't any wind and the sun was out, so it felt great! We went to hit the trails. After we picked our way through the cut corn fields, we started off with a steady but peppy trot down the trail until we reached the stream. I could ride that kind of trot all day - it felt amazing. I only had to check her speed once around a corner downhill and she came right back down when I asked.

Right after we crossed the stream, we heard three somewhat close by gun shots, followed by a herd of deer crossing our path a few hundred feet ahead. I don't think those deer were being shot at, and I don't even think it's hunting season (and given the proximity to neighborhoods people shouldn't even be hunting in this area), but I wasn't going to take that risk so we unfortunately turned around and headed back home. A little while after turning around, we heard a fourth gun shot. April was wigged out but attentive and walked home on a loose rein.

Despite the abrupt ending, the ride we did have was pleasant and I hope we can keep that trend going.

2.1 miles; Total 2021 distance: 13.9 miles


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## Aprilswissmiss

PA finally got some snow today! I would have ridden in it but I was more concerned about getting home safe before too much accumulated. I fed the horses and did stable chores then headed out.


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## Aprilswissmiss

Last weekend was uneventful - the snow on the ground was incredibly dense and slippery, no good footing anywhere, so no ride. Sunday, we got even more snow overnight and throughout the day, and plows weren't even touching it yet so the BO told me to stay home and she'd take care of the chores. 

Yesterday and today was more of the same, snow still too dense and slippery. I got my boyfriend to come along and see April since it's been a while (and he even helped with barn chores!). Chiseling frozen poop off of the ground with my SO, what else could I ask for on valentine's day?


















Last time I rode April in deep snow was five years ago and she bunny-hopped through it like this, and I've never dared to try it again:


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## whisperbaby22

I've been on a horse that bunny hopped through water about that high - quite a ride!


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## Aprilswissmiss

More of the same this weekend - we got more snow during the week. Nothing exciting, no riding. The footing everywhere has been a foot of heavy melting snow with mud underneath. Yuck.

But the warm weekend made for good sun naps!


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## AbbySmith

As you probably saw by the amount of 'likes' you've gotten from me, I read your whole journal, and LOVED it!! So good! I was right there wth you and I could feel the pain as the rescue took 'your' horse away from you. And I grinned so hard when I read that you were able to get her back!
The two of you have been through so much together, and have progressed tremendously!! Good for you!
I can't wait to read about more of your adventures with April!


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## Aprilswissmiss

AbbySmith said:


> As you probably saw by the amount of 'likes' you've gotten from me, I read your whole journal, and LOVED it!! So good! I was right there wth you and I could feel the pain as the rescue took 'your' horse away from you. And I grinned so hard when I read that you were able to get her back!
> The two of you have been through so much together, and have progressed tremendously!! Good for you!
> I can't wait to read about more of your adventures with April!


Thank you!


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## Aprilswissmiss

It seems we never got a ride in throughout February. Not a bad thing to take a break when the ground is all snow or mud or ice.

Last weekend was more of the same. On Sunday, we had some fun in the arena just goofing off.

The snow in the arena finally melted this week and we got a ride in yesterday! It was nice enough out to go for a trail ride but I didn't feel like riding on the road was the safest option after not riding in a month. Overall, it was a good start-up ride. She had one moment where she crow hopped into the canter when I didn't ask for it, but one correction was all it took and she was quite reasonable for the rest.


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## egrogan

Great set of pictures! Love the apple snowman. And I'm very jealous of your bare ground. We're hoping for some melting here this week.


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## Aprilswissmiss

I'm late posting this, but we rode again Sunday - beautiful weather! Nothing too exciting, just worked on walk/trot to get back into the swing of things. She did great!


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## Aprilswissmiss

Saturday was too beautiful and warm to pass up a trail riding opportunity. April started off a bit amped up, but she managed the traffic during road-crossing just fine and calmed down after we started through the fields. She offered a really nice relaxed trot for a good portion of the trail, until some lady started yelling to recall her loose dog (April didn't care about the dog, just the yelling) and made her bolt. That amped her up all over again, so we had a few speed disagreements for a while.

While we were turning back, there was a spot on top of a hill where to one side we could see over fields for a decent distance. About a mile away, a guy on a bike caught her attention, and after he disappeared behind a hill, April just couldn't let it go. It didn't matter how many times I turned her around, made her move her feet, and gave her things to do, the second I let go of her face it would snap right back to where she saw the bike.

We walked the rest of the way home to avoid more speed disagreements. She spent the entire rest of the ride completely fixated. She looked around expectantly when we crossed the road she spotted the bike on, and then continued to look over her shoulder after we crossed.


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## Aprilswissmiss

April's just barely starting to shed out her winter coat, which means the next few weeks will turn me into a sasquatch! Sunday was another nice day but incredibly windy, so we stuck to the arena. We had a fantastic ride where we focused on maintaining light contact (something she used to strongly resent, but has been doing great with as you can see in the photo two posts up) and leg sometimes meaning sideways, not forward.

We did a lot at the walk to begin with, practicing those aids to keep her straight on the long sides and using corners properly without falling in. It made a remarkable difference both in her head state and physical state - when we moved up to the trot, she was consistent in maintaining her rhythm and balance (minus a few moments where she dropped her shoulder around a turn), and even for a few laps of canter as well. I wouldn't quite call it collection, but for her, consistently holding an average paced trot and canter, especially without waving her head in the air like a giraffe, is leaps and bounds ahead of where she was when I adopted her. I'm very proud of her - progress although maybe slow is definitely progress!

No pony photos from that day, so I've got a barn cat photo instead!


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## Aprilswissmiss

More arena riding on Saturday. April was uncharacteristically antsy while tacking up and hyper-focused on looking toward where her buddies last wandered off to. I figured this was some of her old herd bound behavior showing up again for whatever reason, but when her fixation on the back of the property didn't cease as we walked to the arena and passed the other horses, I finally noticed a herd 10 or 15 does out in the far back pasture. April settled a bit as we approached, but she was still a bit amped and distracted for the ride.

We worked on a lot of the same as the last ride. She was better about listening to leg and using corners properly, but it took some time to get her down to an average speed and she would occasionally fixate on the deer (which stayed a few hundred feet away for the duration of the ride).

Afterwards, I brought April out back to "meet" the deer just for exposure's sake. They allowed us to get surprisingly close, less than 30 feet away at one point, and April actually didn't care one bit as we got closer. She was happy to graze and chill with the deer.


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## Aprilswissmiss

Sunday was absolutely gorgeous at 60 degrees and sunny! Perfect trail riding weather. We had a great ride with almost no speed disagreements. She is still quite fluffy and was a little bit of a sweaty mess by the time we got home.


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## Aprilswissmiss

Keeping up with trail miles:

3/13: 4.6 miles
3/21: 5.5 miles

Total 2021 distance: 21.9 miles


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## Aprilswissmiss

I'm quite a ways behind! I've lost track of a lot of things so I'll post a few pictures from our recent rides and update mileage. I also have some videos that I might end up posting later if I get the chance.

We went on a trail ride a few weekends ago and unfortunately my phone died, so no pics - 6.4 miles.

Next trail ride, we went a little bit off the trail to explore and found some old abandoned buildings. If anyone knows what's in the first pic, I'd love to know!










































Additional 5.5 miles.


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## Aprilswissmiss

This past Saturday, I set a ground pole in the arena for something new to do. We w/t/c over it both directions, which April took to well. I set up a crossrail, and April took her "new job" more seriously than I anticipated! In the past, she's been reluctant about approaching jumps, but it seems she's changed her mind. We might make this a more frequent activity if she continues to enjoy it.

After our arena ride, we went for a walk through the suburbs and down the walking trail.
"Trail" miles: 3.3.
Total 2021 distance: 37.1 miles


































And a silly picture from Sunday when it was too rainy to ride. She thinks she's got the hay racks all figured out.


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## Aprilswissmiss

A couple somewhat unrelated side notes:

In good news: It seems we've got a small, relaxed stable near Ithaca lined up! The BO is willing to hold a stall for me until we move. The horses have outdoor access 24/7 except in the winter when they stall overnight, which is perfect. They're right up against a state forest: easy and beautiful trail access! They also have an indoor, which we will probably only use a bit in the winter because indoors are very spooky to April. Right now they have 8 boarders and it seems they go out on group trail rides frequently. They're only a tad bit more expensive than our current facility.

In some not so good news: My boyfriend's dad (who we live with) and sister (who visited home from college last week) have tested covid positive. The family's carelessness yet again has us placed under 2 week quarantine. Ugh.


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## whisperbaby22

Sorry about that - but that photo of April at the rack is great!


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## Aprilswissmiss

whisperbaby22 said:


> Sorry about that - but that photo of April at the rack is great!


Thanks! She's just trotting, though sometimes when she gets at her top trotting speed under saddle, I could definitely mistake her for a gaited horse.


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## whisperbaby22

Oh, I meant the hay rack!


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## Aprilswissmiss

whisperbaby22 said:


> Oh, I meant the hay rack!


That makes more sense, not sure why I didn't think of that.  Her other trick is getting her head over the top and pulling a flake out to throw on the ground.


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## whisperbaby22

Maybe it's just the photo, but it does look like she has a look in her eye saying "ha- got this"!


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## Aprilswissmiss

Just checking in to say all is good and we're still out here riding as usual. I've been too busy to take the time to track miles and post about my rides. The horses were recently turned out onto the big grassy pastures for the summer and all that sugar has gone straight to April's head 😬 We went on a trail ride the day after they were turned out, and she spent the whole trip huffing and spooking. She even got me off on a trail ride for the first time ever - she spooked at a passing bicycle then almost stepped on a dead vulture which only escalated her panic. Thankfully I landed on my feet and did not lose hold of her.

Since then, we've been mostly doing arena and pasture riding with all her shenanigans she's been pulling. I plan to go back out on the trails soon now that the rising heat is slowing her down.


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## Aprilswissmiss

Summer flew by, oops! We just moved to New York yesterday and April is settling in nicely. We've upgraded to a stable with an indoor and 30+ acres of pasture. Lots to look forward to, both with vet school and with April.


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## whisperbaby22

That looks great.


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## carshon

Congratulations! The arena will be great this winter. We move my daughter this Friday to K-State vet school. Can't wait to see pictures or your new trails!


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## Aprilswissmiss

A quick update -

April is adjusting very well! We've had a few rides in the indoor and a lunge in the outdoor when they had the hay elevator running inside. The indoor is just slightly too small for April to comfortably canter with her big stride so it's been a lot of walk/trot neck reining practice. It's been raining like crazy up here, no trail opportunities yet.

She lost her leather halter in the pasture within the first week, haven't found it yet, BO has been looking.

The staff adore her and tell me how sweet she is every chance they get. She's such an attention mooch, lol. With the exception being that she isn't great about finding her stall. The BO closes the front doors and opens the back, lets all the horses find their own stalls, closes them in and feeds - she said "April just explores, follows a buddy, follows ME... She's successfully found her stall on her own only three times out of the past 30 turn-ins."  

And yes, she is definitely fat... She barely gets a handful of ration balancer every day, so the only thing I can do is exercise her more. Easier said than done as a vet student! She'd have a grazing muzzle off and lost in the 30 acres of pasture alongside her halter in a heartbeat.


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## Aprilswissmiss

We finally got the chance to hit the trails for the first time earlier this week. Some spots were incredibly muddy from all the rain - the mud marks on April's legs once we got back were over a foot high! Not all of them are well-maintained or marked either, so we had to guess where the trail was a few times. The positives were that April walked right off the property no problem and the woods (not suburbs! Yay!) were very pretty. After 45 minutes or so, I couldn't quite figure out if the trail went further or if it ever got less muddy, so we turned around. Hopefully this isn't the full extent of our usable trail system.

The BO had two new horses come in this week - one was a rescue she bought from a gaited horse flipper, the other she is holding for the flipper for a week - not sure exactly why. Both are gorgeous and sweet spotted saddle horses. The first is a 17 y/o bay pinto gelding, considerably emaciated from his previous situation, and the second is a 7 y/o palomino pinto gelding in great shape.

Today she showed me the 7 y/o and said "This one was dropped off yesterday, he hasn't been ridden in 3 years, and he's for sale. You wanna ride him?" and naturally my answer was "How soon?" Despite this being my first gaited horse experience, he went right around and walked/gaited/cantered both directions. Super gentle guy who doesn't really get what people are all about but opened up to me by the time I put him away. If I wasn't in vet school with one horse already, I might have considered him.


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## Aprilswissmiss

Quick update -
Getting in three light arena rides a week wasn't cutting it (has never cut it) for getting April to her ideal weight, so I took advantage of my new resources! I reached out to my vet school class for horse people with experience and comfort riding hot horses. I got almost a dozen responses and four came out to ride in the past week and a half. Two of them rode her beautifully, probably even better than I do. The other two might have overplayed their experience level and got repeatedly bounced out of the saddle at April's rough trot 😂

One of the experienced two is planning on riding her 2-3x a week for me and has already followed through with three rides. She adores April and brings her to her full potential - makes sense given her history training Arabians. Photo below, from the first ten minutes of the first ride.


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## Aprilswissmiss

Another quick update -
Having a couple other people ride April to fill the gaps is working out great. It makes me feel a lot less guilty on the days I choose not to go to the stable, which in turn helps me focus on my studies while also getting to enjoy rides on a calmer, more in shape horse on the two or three days a week I do get to go.

We went for our second trail ride two days ago with the barn owner and two other riders. They showed me detours to get around the mud patches and a parallel trail to the one I initially went down that accesses a bunch more trail branches I wasn't able to find the first time. Now that I've been shown much better routes, I'm eager to go back out and explore, but unfortunately hunting season is starting and the hunters use the same trails that we ride on. I need to figure out if I want to buy a bunch of orange gear or just hold out on trail riding for a while.

And of course, a fuzzy video screenshot -


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## Aprilswissmiss

I'm happy to say April's healthily dropped about 30 pounds in the past 2 months! Lately the temperature's been in the 50s and 60s but the grass is still lush, which means she's had a lot of energy but thankfully a good amount of rides to burn it.

A friend of mine, a former grand prix rider whose mare passed during colic surgery a few years ago and hasn't owned a horse since, dared me to do a version of chase me Charlie alone. April is definitely not much of a jumper given her fear of colored poles and general lack of coordination, but I figured I'd give it a go. I do realize this is a great way to get ourselves hurt and wasn't the greatest idea to do with a horse that's refused ground poles before, lol. We started with a ground pole and raised it a hole each time she cleared it - and I couldn't believe it, but she willingly cleared three feet! At that point, going any higher seemed like a recipe for disaster even more than it already was, so I ended the day on a good note.

On other life happenings - my boyfriend and I are both surviving vet school. We've got one exam left in our anatomy course in two weeks, then another month or so of smaller classes before winter break. Working with cows, which is new to me, has been a blast. We happened upon a post for a blind/deaf double dapple longhaired Dachshund that's gone unadopted at a nearby SPCA for months. Given my soft spot for special needs animals and Nick's soft spot for Dachshunds, it's very hard not to send in an application. I have too much of a "life is short, get the dog" mentality (it worked with getting April!) but Nick doesn't, so he's hesitant, but if we get through this semester and he's still up for adoption, I might have to have a chat with him again


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## knightrider

Nice form over that jump!


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## Aprilswissmiss

knightrider said:


> Nice form over that jump!


Thanks! I haven't ridden with a trainer in four years and I haven't jumped over 2 feet since high school, so I'm just happy I stuck the landing 😂


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## whisperbaby22

Yea you both look great!


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## Aprilswissmiss

Wow, I didn't realize I haven't updated this thread in over eight months 😳

A lot has happened, so I'll give a (hopefully) quick summary. April started coughing in the winter, which went away as soon as I threatened to call the vet. Once spring came around though, she still had an elevated resting respiratory rate so I put her on MSM hoping it might alleviate any inflammation from possible sub-clinical equine asthma. It worked like a charm. Meanwhile, the barn owner asked me to start working a hot Quarab mare, Mya, whose owner never visited. Our personalities meshed very well (she's very much like April) and once April was ready for full work again, an experienced rider friend of mine started working Mya. She loved her too, and we were brainstorming about bringing April and Mya to an endurance ride in the fall. Mya's owner approved, but then she must have decided she wanted in on the fun because she moved Mya to a closer stable to start riding her herself. So, our endurance ride plans went out the window. I'm still trying to figure out if it would be reasonable for me to bring April on my own, assuming I can find someone to trailer.

The barn owner had a big barn/tack sale today and I treated myself to quite a few things - a bridle, a brand new memory foam half pad, a gel seat saver, a pair of trail hoof boots, and a surcingle, all for $100! We tested out all of the items (except the surcingle) on a long trail/road ride and I am thrilled with everything. The seat saver is so much comfier than my old one, the memory foam half pad made her sweat pattern finally 100% uniform (I was messing with her old half pad shims as she gained condition and had gotten it to about 98% uniform), and the hoof boots didn't budge through mud and let her sail right over rocky trails that were previously quite ouchy.

Unrelated to April, but I've been schooling one of the BO's new horses in exchange for free board until she sells him. He's a wide, muscular thoroughbred whose previous unsuitable owner completely deadened his face and let him develop some nasty habits. On my first ride, he'd turn his head sideways and try to wrench the reins out of my hands, and otherwise would completely evade the bit and sidestep instead of turning. He would throw a little hissy fit if I asked him to move up a gait. I've got about five rides on him now and he's entirely stopped evading the bit and goes right around the arena and gladly picks up all his gaits. Still have more work to do on softening his face. I took him for a trail ride alongside another boarder today and he was a total gentleman walking off the property, led and followed without a fuss.

A pic of April from a month or so ago. She's been a super star this summer.


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## whisperbaby22

She looks terrific.


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## Aprilswissmiss

We're getting into that part of summer where April is getting into shape beyond my capacity to exercise her. It's fun, in a way, because I can get on her and seemingly ride forever, but GOSH is she a handful sometimes.

Recently, I've had to get on her in the arena to school for maybe 20 minutes before hitting the trails because otherwise she'll turn into a kite the second we leave the property. The first 10 minutes of "schooling" are just to turn down her busy brain - lots of circles and bending while she springs forward and snorts in her fight to go go go. The next 10 minutes, assuming I've successfully brought her down a couple notches, are for practicing collection and softness, which she's been surprisingly good at recently. We've been getting better at finding and holding the sweet spot between "RUUNNNNN" and "I'm bored now, let's do something else."

Then once we hit the trails, she tends to be fantastic for the first half. Slow smooth trot (comparatively speaking) on a loose rein heading down the road (on dirt/grass to the side), but still very alert. The occasional spook. Every ride's path is different - we've been finding new trails EVERY time we go out because there are so many options in the state forest! But we typically stick to the 3-4 miles of road going away, explore trails for 1/2-2 hours, then 3-4 miles of road heading back. The trail time has been cut back recently because the deer flies are awful no matter what time of the day we go and no matter how much fly spray I apply to her ears and face.

By the time we finish up with trails, the combo of heading home, horse-eating mailboxes, and the irritation of deer flies turns her back into a kite. I usually force her to walk for about a mile while she snorts and spooks and jigs. Once she pulls herself together, I let her move up into a trot - fast is okay, but she still needs to listen. She's gotten a bit better about the listening part on our way home and yesterday even slowed down enough that I loosened the reins, at which point she offered collection and a frame without me asking! Once we get within a 5 minute walk of the stable, I let/make (depending on her attitude that day) her walk. Per ride, we've been doing in total about 8 miles of road plus 20 minutes of initial arena work plus extra trail time mid-way and she's pulsed down below 60 by the time I jump off and untack. Then of course she gallops around the pasture after I hose her down.

I've also been trying to change up our riding routine and add in new things for her to "think" about so she can exercise her brain as much as her body. We do our long road/trail rides as described above about once a week and do schooling and/or fun activities in between. Sometimes it's dressage-esque collection practice, sometimes it's pole work, sometimes it's ground driving with our new surcingle, sometimes we free lunge, and sometimes after arena work we go for a quick 2 mile walking trail ride without the road conditioning. She tends to be much more relaxed (though not necessarily slower) on the trails than on the road, but none of the trails are great for going faster than a walk with how overgrown they are so roads are necessary for conditioning.

She's still sweet and perfect as ever on the ground and occasionally totes around friends who either just want to walk or are up to the challenge of riding a fire-breathing dragon.


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## Aprilswissmiss

Non-April update:

Zack, the TB I've been schooling, has been doing fantastic and the BO listed him for sale. He's continued going around w/t/c both directions like a gentleman, has done some practice over poles, and yesterday popped a few crossrails with no fuss. We cleaned him up and took some pics and crossrail videos. If anyone wants a super quiet, sane, and friendly TB in central NY for 3k, let me know


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## Aprilswissmiss

A second non-April post:

Today, I went to visit and ride at Sand Meadow Farm, an Icelandic breeding farm a little less than two hours away from me.

I learned more about the breed in three hours of riding their beautiful and talented mare, Kolfinna, and talking to the breeder than I have from months of internet research. There is so much value in talking to quality experienced breeders and trainers in their infinite wisdom. We discussed the breed standards for conformation, temperament, and gaits, and as the breeder learned more about me and my background, discussed what the ideal Icelandic would look like for me in the future.

The ride was phenomenal. He puts new people on Kolfinna for their first ride because she prefers the trot and makes you work for the tolt, and he likes people to learn how to ask for it to improve as riders. She certainly made me work for it! This little pony-sized horse took up all of my leg and the strength of my entire body to collect her enough for the occasional tolt. She was easily a hand and change shorter than April but felt much, much sturdier. All that being said, every single gait was smooth as butter, even the trot. I've ridden a handful of gaited horses with the BO over the past year, but the Icelandic felt dramatically different from all gaited and non-gaited horses I've ever sat on. And to top it off - we flew up steep, rocky, washed-out trails at a hand gallop that would have had April faceplanting at a trot.

He explained that one of many assessments of Icelandic horses is their "spirit," describing their energy level and excitability, ranked from 1 to 10. I was amazed to hear that Kolfinna, as dead quiet and perfect as she was with more woah than go, was rated a 7.5, which tells me a lot about the quality of these animals' temperaments from a thousand+ years of selective breeding for behavior. (I also got this impression from his gorgeous stallion, who was turned out with a couple mares and their foals, sprawled out in a deep sleep when I arrived.) He said that in the US with abundant leisure riders, there is a large preference for horses 7.5 and under. Anything over 7.5 tends to be less desirable and thus cheaper, which is a good thing for someone like me who would appreciate something closer to an 8.5 or 9.

Another advantage for me is that, of course, larger Icelandics are preferred by the average adult, and with my small stature at 5'2", I could easily get away with a 12 hand Icy (they are surprisingly WIDE and STURDY!) that most others would never buy. This was all to reassure me that if I stay in the Icy loop after I graduate, I shouldn't have a problem snagging a good deal on something that an older rider imported as a yearling before realizing it is too small and spicy for them. I was also flattered when he told me with his impression from my riding that he would confidently sell me a young horse to back myself - a great way to have a deeper bond with an animal and knock off a dollar sign too.

And, don't let April hear this, but the spook-free butter-smooth ride was incredibly refreshing compared to her jackhammer trot and "grab mane and pray" moments.

I could talk about this experience for hours. I think I'm hooked!


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## whisperbaby22

I would love to get one of those horses, there aren't many of them out here.


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## Aprilswissmiss

This is probably going to be a rambling post for me to jot my thoughts down. I've been contemplating the different activities April and I do together and what is fun for her, what is fun for me, what is good for her physically, and what is good for her mentally. She has a great can-do attitude but her spiciness and limited attention span limit what is enjoyable or doable.

She is particularly good at ground driving and likes to go long, low, and round. It's also one of the few activities that she can do with focus and without getting spicy. But I can tell it's pretty boring for her. Good for her physically to develop topline and good for her brain to relax, but not really fun. I mostly pull out the surcingle when I have non-horsey friends visiting because it's a great activity for someone new to get involved in without feeling intimidated. And I occasionally use it just to change up our routine and get her relaxed, but it's nothing I see the need to do repetitively.

Arena riding has been getting better with time. By better, I just mean less of a frantic fight for speed and more of a willingness to focus and collect. It's good for her physically to develop topline, and good for her mentally to remember how to focus, but it's not particularly fun for either of us. I enjoy hitting that sweet spot when she stops thinking "go" but hasn't yet lost focus - she is very supple and responsive in that sweet spot - but it's a lot of effort to get her to that point. She also thinks it's quite boring.

Road riding definitely has its good and bad moments. It's the best place for us to get in a lot of trotting distance, but she spooks at _everything _on the road or side of the road. Cans, pavement paint, heck even the fallen branches and colorful flowers have taken a liking to horse meat apparently. She fixates on things because going straight on an open road is simply much too boring, so she must find her own excitement. Good for her physically to develop stamina, but very bad for her mentally. It's not particularly exciting to me either.

Trail riding, especially when technical, seems to be a favorite for both of us. The dense forest growth seems to stimulate April's brain enough that I don't need to keep her occupied myself. She rarely, if ever, spooks or fixates. Even deer jumping on and off the trail up ahead don't give her pause. She LOVES technical trails - challenging terrain with a lot of ups, downs, swerving narrow paths, puddles, logs, etc keeps her brain and body perpetually entertained. Her mind is present and she pays much more attention to her feet. On flat, open trails, her brain goes so far off in lala land that she trips over the smallest stones. On technical trails, she never makes a bad step. Of course, though, our trails are so dense that we really can't do more than walk on them.

A few weeks ago, we came upon a section of trail that went steeply downhill and was covered in mud and stones. I couldn't believe how she handled it - without hesitation, she collected herself at the edge, sat on her butt, seamlessly slid down the muddy hill, then stood back up at the bottom all in one smooth motion and walked on like nothing ever happened. We weave in and out of the trees and between puddles as if we're one creature - I never have to gather the reins, the smallest movement of my hand to one side or the other over her withers gets her to pivot in either direction. This experience - moving together as one - is the same feeling I've gotten on only one other horse, the mare I used to compete with over fences. Entirely different discipline, same feeling of unity.

With how much we both enjoy these technical trails, I'm contemplating how much time and effort we realistically need or want to spend conditioning for strength and stamina versus doing what we love. Would I be failing her in some way if I let her lose a bit of condition for the sake of our mutual enjoyment? Should we continue pursuing endurance as a goal? Is walking-only technical trail riding enough enrichment and activity for her? I don't have good answers yet.

Arabians... the border collies of the horse world with their endless need for physical and mental stimulation 😅 

Unrelated picture of my boyfriend taking April for a walk through the woods


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## carshon

As someone who exclusively trail rides a sensitive/responsive very forward horse I would say that you are not doing her a disservice at all. If you are not going to show or compete I don't understand the need for constant repetitive arena exercises or ground driving. She can and will learn to round her back when trail riding - she can and will learn to be engaged and in the moment when doing trail rides. My mare tends to get trippy and less aware of her feet when she is bored but a good trail keeps her engaged and ears forward happy. I live rurally with no arena and do not ride or school at home. Even if we can only go to the same trail multiple times per week we do and ride the trail from different directions or turn around and do the same section from the reverse etc. 

I see no reason to not engage in something she seems to enjoy


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## Aprilswissmiss

carshon said:


> As someone who exclusively trail rides a sensitive/responsive very forward horse I would say that you are not doing her a disservice at all. If you are not going to show or compete I don't understand the need for constant repetitive arena exercises or ground driving. She can and will learn to round her back when trail riding - she can and will learn to be engaged and in the moment when doing trail rides. My mare tends to get trippy and less aware of her feet when she is bored but a good trail keeps her engaged and ears forward happy. I live rurally with no arena and do not ride or school at home. Even if we can only go to the same trail multiple times per week we do and ride the trail from different directions or turn around and do the same section from the reverse etc.
> 
> I see no reason to not engage in something she seems to enjoy


Thanks for that, it helps to hear. It's always a bit difficult to distance myself from the competitive thoughts of always conditioning and always striving for improvement that I grew up with. A friend and I were thinking about joining a nearby endurance ride happening next month - the 15/16 mile Hector - but that idea went out the window as we realized she wouldn't be able to bring the horse she was planning on, and I don't want April's first ever experience trailering out to be alone and in the midst of a busy competition. We decided we would try to find a time to trailer off property for a day to make up for it or maybe even make our own 15 miler out of the roads around here just for fun. Then maybe in the spring we can see if there are other endurance rides in NY or PA if we feel ready then.

Most of our trails would also be trottable if they weren't so overgrown. I might try to buy or borrow loppers and clear at least some sections so it's not 100% walking. I think a bit of trotting trails would be a nice compromise and something that April would enjoy doing too.


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## egrogan

I wish you were in a slightly closer part of NY, as you'd be more than welcome to come over to Vermont to ride. We have so many competitive trail and endurance rides here from May-October! And a lot of the trails used in the rides are accessible any time. 

Like @carshon said, there's definitely "finesse" work to be done riding out on trails- changing speed and impulsion within gaits, bending, sidepassing, good manners around other horses in close quarters, etc. It's too bad the trails don't lend themselves to doing more than walking- but even good, active walking is great conditioning for strength and stamina, especially when it's hilly. Ot once the foliage starts to die back this fall, will you have a clearer path to move out a bit more? If you're able to trim back some of the worst of the branches, that sounds like a great start.

If she really _likes_ ground driving, is that an option on your trail to mix things up?


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## Aprilswissmiss

egrogan said:


> I wish you were in a slightly closer part of NY, as you'd be more than welcome to come over to Vermont to ride. We have so many competitive trail and endurance rides here from May-October! And a lot of the trails used in the rides are accessible any time.
> 
> Like @carshon said, there's definitely "finesse" work to be done riding out on trails- changing speed and impulsion within gaits, bending, sidepassing, good manners around other horses in close quarters, etc. It's too bad the trails don't lend themselves to doing more than walking- but even good, active walking is great conditioning for strength and stamina, especially when it's hilly. Ot once the foliage starts to die back this fall, will you have a clearer path to move out a bit more? If you're able to trim back some of the worst of the branches, that sounds like a great start.
> 
> If she really _likes_ ground driving, is that an option on your trail to mix things up?


I wish we had more events like that in the finger lakes region! I haven't found anything besides Hector yet. It would also be great if I had a trailer 😅 I'm currently limited by the whims of my BO's desire to trailer somewhere, which unfortunately did not compel her to go anywhere this summer despite lots of chatting about it. I don't have connections with anyone else with a trailer in the area.

There are a handful of trails that have very dense tall weeds, some trails that have dense head-height tree branches, and some have both. The ones with just branches can be trimmed back to make a nice path as soon as I can get my hands on loppers. The ones with just weeds will probably make a half decent path once the weeds die and get trampled a bit.

Ground driving on the trail is a great idea to change things up on occasion! I'll have to think about how I could accomplish it. The trails that are immediately accessible from the stable are the ones with waist/chest-height weeds and would not make for good ground driving. The rest of the trails are a couple miles down the road, which is enough to make me nervous about April spooking and barging in front of a car - something I can prevent on her back much easier than on the ground. Taking the nearby trails may be a better option once the weeds die.


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## egrogan

Aprilswissmiss said:


> It would also be great if I had a trailer


Oh I totally understand! I finally got a trailer this summer, but haven't had one the past few years while I've been working towards endurance. I am fortunate to have lots of trails I can get to from home (and dirt roads that are safe in between). Hopefully some paths will clear out for you in the fall- I have a couple of trails on my own property that are exactly like what you're describing- I like taking my dog out walking there, but it's a bit dicey to ride on.


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## Aprilswissmiss

Today was very exciting - I got to trailer April for an off-property ride for the first time ever!

The BO finally found a good time to take us to a local state forest. She brought her paso, Pablo, and another boarder brought her Percheron/QH cross, Bo. Pablo has never been to this park but had lots of experience trailering in his previous home, and Bo has been to this park plenty of times.

April has a long history of taking 2+ hours to load onto trailers and she likes to back out quickly immediately after she eventually gets on, so I was a bit concerned about loading her alongside another horse in the stock trailer. Last time she loaded was when I brought her up to NY last year. That time, it only took her a couple minutes of stepping on and off before she hopped on and the butt bar was quickly placed to prevent her from flying back. She has gotten no loading practice since then.

Pablo happens to be the only horse in the entire herd that April bullies, so we didn't want to put her next to him. Pablo is so small he could almost get lost underneath Bo, so we didn't want to put them together either, which means we decided to squish April in next to Bo. Bo got on first, tied, and then April walked right on up next to him. She took a couple steps back before the BO started shutting the divider. She bumped into it with her butt, politely took a few steps forward again, and stood perfectly for the BO to latch the door, and I slid out the human door. Yes!!!! Pablo got the back half of the trailer to himself.

Once we got there, Pablo unloaded quite explosively, but April and Bo stepped off perfectly with no rush. April calmly scanned the parking lot, then acted like we were getting ready for any other ride and stood perfectly still for fly spray, bridling, and mounting (we saddled up before we trailered). Yes!!!!









Pablo led the way, very antsy and spooky, which is just who he is. He danced up to then launched his way between the trail head boulders. April followed behind on a looped rein, not a care in the world, totally ignoring Pablo's shenanigans. Yes!!! Bo, the slowest, took up the back.

We ran into two other riders on what appeared to be TWHs with off-leash GSDs following behind. We pulled our horses off to the side of the trail and let them pass. Pablo wanted absolutely nothing to do with standing still and danced around. April perked up at the sight of strange horses but stood very politely. Bo decided he wanted to follow the TWHs much more than he wanted to stick with us and took a lot of convincing to keep straight 😂 Once they passed, Pablo tried to bolt up the following hill, and the BO compromised by letting him sidepass his way up the entire hill instead.

April did not spook at a single thing or fight about speed the entire ride. We occasionally had to trot to keep up with Pablo and she was very respectful about starting and stopping when asked. Pablo constantly startled at everything - mushrooms, logs, boulders, and even fully capriole-style launched himself over a puddle - and April didn't feed off of any of his energy. She was on a looped rein the entire time and listened to neck reining and leg aids. Even steady eddy Bo startled at a couple things that she didn't care about. She seemed to love exploring a new trail system.










We rode for about two hours over six miles. After we got back to the parking lot, she loaded right up even better than when we left the barn. I couldn't be more proud of her today. It looks like she would do very well with an endurance career or camping in the far future if/when I can trailer more independently.


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## whisperbaby22

Yea, when I was able to get a rig it really made a difference. Nice trails!


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## Aprilswissmiss

I went on a group trail ride with two friends yesterday. We took April and borrowed two of the barn owner's horses.

I put one of my friends on April. She's ridden her in the arenas lots but hasn't ever taken her for a trail ride. I told her that you have to be careful with her go, because if she sees a tempting open trail, she will take every inch of rein you give. At the end, she said in response "She took inches I didn't give her to begin with!" 😂 They did very well together despite April's squirrelly moments and the handful of times she picked up a canter without being asked.

My other friend took the barn owner's appy/morgan mare and I took Zack, the thoroughbred she has up for sale. I haven't sat on him in a couple months because I anticipated he'd be sold by now and he didn't have any problems with his training the last few times I sat on him. Apparently he's given a few potential buyers a hard time on the trails since then. When I took him out today though, he was fabulous. He didn't take a single wrong step and he was a perfect steady Eddy the whole way, even when April was leaping around in front of him. Probably just a rider nerves issue with the other people.

There's something about seeing horses lined up in the aisle before a group ride that just makes my heart immensely happy 🥰


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## Aprilswissmiss

Wow, can't believe it's been two months since I've posted!

We got some snow the past few days and a very light dusting today. It was actually pretty warm out today (30s - warm by my standards) with no wind and that made for a lovely trail ride. I haven't been out to the stable in two weeks because of finals and a slew of other things, so April was very amped up. She was spooking and snorting before we even left the driveway and didn't stop until about 15 minutes in. She was cooperative enough for a few photos, though! Once we got to some wider trails, I gave her the opportunity to trot... and she took it as an opportunity to gallop. I let her go for a short distance before fighting to keep her at a trot for the rest of the time. She would have galloped the whole loop five times over if I let her. 

We moved to the indoor arena when we got back. We worked on relaxation with long and low walk/trot, transitions, and a bit of collecting. She feels like she's slowly been getting stronger over the months and is able to sustain collection for longer. There was another thread here that I saw recently where someone said their horse is not the type that takes to collection naturally, but can collect in short bursts and has slowly and steadily built up to maintaining it longer with each ride. That really clicked with me and put April into perspective - I've been stuck in this mindset that she doesn't want to collect because she'd rather be a giraffe to look at everything. When I stopped thinking that way and thought instead that she has difficulty collecting because it's physically hard for her to maintain it, and over time she may be able to build up to short sessions, I started inviting her to collect instead of demanding her to. It's already made a big difference in her willingness and relaxation. Even better, she learned pretty quickly that "if collection is getting hard, mom will let me stretch down" so now going long and low and stretchy is much more fun of a game to her than being a giraffe.

Practicing transitions is also helping her education and state of mind. She's never been good at down transitions, trot to walk especially. The second she decides to move down, she "thunks" and drops her whole body like a sack of potatoes. Part of this is my fault for asking for transitions before setting her up for them. I've needed to be a lot more mindful about myself to fix this problem - instead of posting up until the point that I ask, I sit a couple steps and then ask. It prepares _me _just as much as it prepares her, and also makes sure that_ I_ don't drop her so she's less likely to drop herself. I'm a bit surprised I had to figure this out myself and none of my trainers ever thought to mention it, because it seems like a very fundamental skill now that I have it.

All in all, I'm learning that I need to change how I ride if I ever want April to change how she moves. She's very unlike the hunter horses I primarily rode in my past. Instead of trying to shove the metaphorically square-shaped horse into the circle-shaped riding style, I have to change the shape of my riding style to accommodate for the shape of the horse. And yes... it's taken years to start finding these little break throughs and working out the kinks one by one. But I'm so happy that I'm finding things that work for her because it makes our rides so much more enjoyable for both of us, and it finally feels like she's making some educational progress in her arena riding.


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## DollyandAya

Beautiful photos! Very Christmasy.


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