Weekend Mare-a-thon

Yes, you read right, it was a mare-a-thon this weekend. 8 rides on 3 mares over 3 days! I like mares, a lot. A mare doesnt give you what you want without a negotiation first. I like that. I like that you can have a discussion with them, they make you work for it. Mares are unpredictable from minute to minute in a ride. It keeps things fun. I spent my weekend schooling greenie beans Irish, trained but tough Capri and of course my own mare Miss P. 3 totally different experiences.

Irish and I have been having some talks about what it means to move off of the leg. She is relatively responsive off of my right leg but off the left leg, totally different story. We went back to baby square ONE on the ground of moving away from the aids (using a dressage whip tapping her behind around). I dont know if it is a training thing with her, or just a me and her thing, but we werent communicating the same language off that left leg one bit. It took some time but eventually I got her moving better off of that left leg (with a little confirmation from trainer Lisa that I was proceeding correctly in my corrections, this after all is not MY four year old)... I think much like I had to do with Pongo, I need to start the sessions in hand moving her off the aids (whip) on both sides to remind her what we're talking about undersaddle. More to come on how that goes!
A fun pic Irish's mom sent me last weekend of them cross country schooling a couple of weeks ago!


Capri is a wonderful 14(?) year old warmblood mare. Kinda reminds me of a mini-Miss P. She is gorgeous, bay and little bitty (15.2!). I'd never really ridden her before, but her owner offered her up to me for the weekend and I gladly agreed to help! We had two great dressage schools. Although I will say I will NEVER agree to a left handed arm wrestling match with her owner because she's got to have the strongest deltoids known to man. That mare can give you a run for your money on the left! However, we worked through her stiffness pretty seamlessly IMO. It appeared that the mare wanted to get in a hanging/tug of war kind of match, and girlfriend is STRONG! Instead of playing the game I worked to bend and release using the inside (left rein) every couple of strides encouraging her to soften through her next while pushing her little booty forward forward forward. I tried not to give her anything to hang on to. Alexis always says that it take two to engage in a pulling match. Much like it's hard to pat your head and rub your tummy, as a horse sometimes it's hard to pull like crazy and motor freely forward. Net net, great rides both days, she's a really fun horse!
Capri and her mom Kristin...

Finally, Miss P...ahhhh...the saga continues. I walked her undersaddle for 20 minutes in the early AM on Saturday relatively uneventfully. Sunday I attempted to handwalk and graze her but she became demon possessed and once again it was all I could do to get her back to her stall without getting one of us injured...ugh. Sunday, after a great ride on Irish and Capri, I pulled Miss P out of her stall to find that her LEFT (non injured) leg had a big puffy, hot area of swelling. No no no! I had moved her to a new stall with some new neighbors on Saturday but there was no evidence that they'd been fighting or anything, I spent hours watching them all 3 days and everyone got along swimmingly (with the exception of Miss P acting like a complete floosy and 'winking' at the boys on either side of her). So, what I'm trying to say is that I have no clue what the heck happened to her. We're going to ultrasound the leg on Thursday ($cha-ching$ again!) and see what's up. I've been icing, wrapping, buting and while it's not as swollen as it was when I found her on Sunday, she's clearly sensitive on it and it's warm still.

So how do I feel about all this. I am ok. Not that I slept well last night (I woke up at 2am and wound up pacifying myself by watching the Olympics for an hour). Here's the deal. If this tendon is somehow busted up too, then I need to know what additional rehab she needs to go out and live in a pasture and be a broodmare or pasture companion. I cannot take on any more of my time or money rehabbing a horse with tendon damage in both front legs. I'm tapped out from this mare's medical expenses and I just need to move on with Pongo and find her a wonderful home. She's gorgeous, well bred and sweet, someone somewhere will want to love her as much as I do. Until I know for sure what the deal is, I'm not devoting any more time or energy stressing over it. Dissappointed doesnt begin to describe how I would end up feeling if that's the diagnosis, but just having resolution to the whole ordeal would be a good thing regardless of the outcome. I'm ready to move on and not be so consumed by horse injury and illness (and trust me I realize it comes with the sport!).