Motivated

   I've had a couple of great days with Finn. On Saturday I rode him for about an hour and a half and he was still ready to go-go-go! A far cry from six months ago when I needed a crop, spurs, and a whole lot of leg. On Sunday Michelle rode him and he still had energy to spare. She worked on lots of flat work, lots of over bending and getting him off her leg and more supple and less racing forward. She also set up a crossrail on a 20m circle with 9ft placing poles on either side and jumped that, focusing on the quality of the trot coming into the jump. I think the jump on the circle helped to keep his back up and keep him in the outside rein. He ended up trotting in really nicely with made his jump better, and his canter after the jump way softer. Finn got, and deserved, Monday off.
    Today I was up at 4am to go into work super early. Luckily my schedule is extremely flexible...then I was up at the barn by 8:00, and on Finn at 9:00. Finn spent most of the day in yesterday due to bad weather, and I made barn manager keep him in this AM because I knew I'd be there shortly after she would have turned him out. I decided to put him on the lunge line and was afraid I didn't have much of a brain to deal with. He was a complete maniac on the lunge, bucking, rearing, squealing, coming into the circle, hollering at his buddies outside. Luckily there wasn't anyone else riding in the indoor!! I tacked him up as he pranced and pawed on the crossties, hopped on, and he was an ANGEL. I think I'm starting to realize that his sometimes negative ground behavior pretty much never transfers to how he acts under saddle. He very rarely acts poorly on the ground, but sometimes he gets so distracted that he just completely forgets I'm there. It only ever happens if he hasn't been turned out yet. I'm actually thinking that I'll keep him on 24/7 turnout this summer, as a few other of the geldings in his paddock are out all night. I think he'd really appreciate that, as long as the bugs aren't too bad! He also started day 1 of his 21 days of omeprezole today. I was able to distract him with a carrot, hide the syringe in my pocket, shoot the meds in his mouth, and give him the carrot. It all happened so quick he didn't know what hit him. I didn't realize that the liquid is a bright blue, which has stained his lips a lovely shade.
    After a quick ride, the chiro showed up. When I first met the chiro about 5 or so months ago I really didn't take to her. She is a little rough around the edges, and called my horse parrot mouthed (he is slightly...), and that she wasn't sure if there was anything she could do to help him because she didn't have her Jesus shoes on at the time. Yikes. After a very long adjustment, which helped, she said she didn't know if he would ever be quite right. This was after his paddock injury, recently after we had moved, and I was in a very fragile state about my horse and his capabilities. I vowed never to use her again... Well, 12 weeks later I did end up using her again after Finn started picking up the wrong canter lead. She said he looked so much better, and two days after the adjustment, he was cantering just fine. I am STILL skeptical about chiropractors, but I do think she is helping him. Today, she said he looked fantastic and felt like a completely different horse. She said he was out in his C6 and C7 vertebrae (I think), and after a couple of loud pops, he breathed a big sigh of relief, and rested his head on her shoulder. My husband thinks the chiro is pretty much witchcraft, and I'm just not sure.
    Tomorrow afternoon is Finn's lameness eval and radiographs. Because I have the best farrier ever, he's also driving up in case the vet suggests we do anything different with his shoeing, or if she wants his shoes pulled for radiographs. He's been moving so well lately, but I definitely want to make sure there's nothing going on his hocks/stifles so that he's very comfortable as the work continues to increase, and I can stop being paranoid.
   Finn will get tomorrow off, then I'll be up there Thursday-Saturday, riding depending on possible injections, and then Michelle will be riding him on Sunday. I think hubby and I pretty much have our schedules figured out so that I will be able to make it up to the barn more than twice a week, it will just mean a few early mornings on my part. Not an issue to me, as long as I get to see this cute face:

Life, riding, trainer updates

Well, I haven't been riding much. I think I've ridden 3 times in the past two weeks or so, and seen Finn probably about 5 times. I have a whole bunch of excuses...
First, hubby crashed his car coming home from work a week and a half ago. Thank god he was totally fine, but the car was totaled. We thought it could be repaired, as it was just the front end, but the insurance adjustor said it was nearly $13,000 worth of damage. We bought this car last April and ever since we bought it it's been nothing but bad luck. I've never gotten a flat tire in my life, two days after owning it, I got one. We also got another flat tire, and a cracked windshield in under a year of ownership. Neither of us ever liked the car, so in some ways it was a relief that the doomed car was gone. We financed it, and after all was said and done we pretty much broke even on it and luckily didn't owe any money on it or a deductible. In fact we're receiving a WHOPPING $68 check. Rather than financing another car right now hubby and I have decided we're going to try and get by with one car. We work at the same place, and work opposite schedules, so it's not difficult to pass car and baby back and forth. It is, however, difficult to get to the barn often! Good news is, we're going to save up and get a truck and trailer...which I am so excited about! And, today, after all this stress, hubby's parents told us that they will pay for the three of us to come down to Florida to visit them for a week at the end of March. I'm pretty sure hubby almost cried. We need a vacation THAT much.
    We were also hit with a monster storm last weekend making it even more difficult to get to the barn. It sure was a lot easier plowing the driveway with only one car in it though.
     The few times I've ridden Finn all we've done is work on the basics. I've also decided to stop using the barn trainer for lessons and training rides. Every time I've had her do a training ride all she's basically done with him is trot him in circles for half an hour...barely any canter work or anything else. When she rides him I also have to tack him up, warm him up, cool him down when she hops off, and then untack him. If I wanted an exercise rider I'd pay one of the barn kids $10 to do so! Our lessons also haven't been progressing. I talked to Amanda, as she also takes lessons with former trainer, and she felt the exact same way and has also stopped riding with her. I love the barn trainer and think she's a wonderful person, and accomplished rider, but I'd rather save my money if we continue to not progress.
    One of the other girls at the barn, Michelle, who is an amazing rider/eventer/jumper and trained her young warmblood agreed to hop on Finn one day. After watching her ride and seeing how well my horse took to her, and then having her give me a little mini lesson on Finn, she's agreed to help me out with him. She's been riding him 2-3 times a week and JUMPING him which I'm so excited about. The other night he did his first grid. She's also been working a lot on strengthening his canter. I also don't have to be up there when she rides him, so he's still getting that exercise when I can't be there, and then when I can get up there he's not a hot, uneducated mess. I also get full updates and videos from Michelle after her rides. I'm very happy with my decision and think Finn will really start to progress from working with her. I noticed after I rode him the other day how responsive he was to my aids, and his canter was so much more relaxed! Yay!
     Finn will be getting a chiro adjustment this upcoming Tuesday. Then, on Wednesday afternoon I scheduled a full lameness evaluation and possible radiographs of his hocks and stifles. I've decided to use a very well known sports medicine vet that works with a lot of top sport horses in the area and is supposedly very good at pinpointing any issues. Finn is not lame, but I've always been a little paranoid that there's a little something going on and that he's not quite right. Not sure if it's a bit of arthritis in his hocks, a stifle, or SI issue. I want to get radiographs done and know if there's something we need to treat, especially now that he's really in work.
    Finn's been super girthy and crabby on the crossties so I ordered him a month's supply of omeprazole from www.horseprerace.com. I was a little concerned about ordering off market medicine, but I know a lot of people who have had no issues ordering from them, so I really hope it helps with his girthyness/grumpiness!
   I'll be headed up the barn tomorrow morning and hope to do a few crossrails with Finn and work more on his canter.

Here's a video of my munchkin doing his first grid!