Can we have an adult re-rider support group?

[TarheelJD]

So, once again on the plane. I feel like I live on them these days. This is my second trip this week (Monday - Wednesday in Florida and meetings in Boston tomorrow). The matter I am working on is going to keep me swamped for the next few months Maybe I’ll be able to get some schooling in by the summer, and do a few fall shows. But given my lack of time, I don’t think there will be any spring shows for me.

Hopefuly my trainer can make some good progress on my horse while I am too busy to get in the way. But she has her hands full at the moment dealing with insurance adjusters and repairs from the tornado.

And we’re still dealing with the nodular sarcoids on his shoulder and by his girth area. He’s been getting treated every 3 weeks since January, and they haven’t gotten much better, but at least they aren’t worse. They don’t seem to be bothering him now, but I worry they will one day if we can’t get them to go away.

It has been a challenging 2012 so far.

Anyway - funny story for everyone. On Saturday I was getting dressed to go to the barn, and one of my Crowne Pro zippers got stuck when it was only about 2 inches from being zipped all the way up. Well, even with my husband’s help, I could not get it to go up or down. Then, as DH was trying once again to get it to go down the tab of the zipper broke off. We tried pliers, no luck! So, I am basically stuck in my boot! I went to the barn and rode, then went to Dover and told them they had to get me out of the boot! Kind of hard to go to a dinner party in barn clothes that smell like horse because I can’t get my boot off - not to mention, I have to shower and sleep at some point!

The lady at Dover had quite a time getting the zipper down, but she eventually got me out of the boot - thank God!

We were an hour late for the dinner party - thankfully the hostess rides, so she totally understood.

But really, who has to go to a tack store to get them out of their clothes - UGH!

Someone made a comment earlier about Tipperary vests not meeting safety standards? Really? I bought one at WEG, and was told they met standards, and I’ve worn it at eventing competitions (in the pre-amoebas - ha!). Now I am really going to regret spending all that money if it doesn’t meet the required standards. I find it pretty comfortable. I will sometime forget I have it on.

OTTB - hope you are ignoring the idiot people who tried to make you feel like coming off was your fault. That is just stupid. Even Olympic riders come off - it’s part of the gig we all signed up for. And your apprehensions are totally normal. After I broke my collar bone, I listened to Jane Savoie’s Freedom from Fear CDs. I thought they really helped, and I think I might listen to them agan, because all this time out of the saddle, and being out of shape from traveling and eating poorly on the road, has shaken my confidence a little. I think you responed really well to Saturday’s incident.

Dewey - so sorry about the kitty.

bumknees and spacytracy - hope you are both mending.

pony - so glad your horse is improving!

Well, everyone, thanks for all the posts about your exploits. You make me feel connected while I am so busy and pulled away from my horse so much these days.

Here’s hoping for some good riding this weekend for everyone – I may be able to make it out to my barn on Sunday.

[HazelG]

Tarheel that’s a great story, I laughed out loud (I’m sure there’s some kind of abbreviation for that but I don’t know it). I had a similar experience at a show last summer. Boot zipper broke the day before my first class. No time to get it fixed, in a city I was unfamiliar with. Nothing to do but buy another pair, never mind showing in unbroken in boots. None in my size except the ridiculously expensive ones. What else could I do? Figured VISA and pay them off. Nope, only took cash or cheque. Wrote the cheque, what choice did I have? Put on the new boots before my class, and the Zipper. Broke. Halfway. Up. My. Calf!!! I COULD NOT get the thing up OR down!! Groom couldn’t either. My trainer was texting frantic “where the f are you you’re missing your class” messages, and I couldn’t get in or out of the boot!! Groom finally got it off, put on the old boots and prayed, and got to the ring within seconds of missing the class. Wish the story had a happy ending, I rode really badly and I think I came last. Worst part is I now have a pair of ridiculously expensive boots that I don’t like (I did get the zippers replaced) and saw the ones I’ve been wising for in a tack store the next day for 15% off. Ya win some ya lose some I guess…

Hope you get to the barn soon

[stolen_virtue]

OTTB-can you get someone to trail ride your horse for a bit before you take him ? I am not brave and believe in having professionals do the heavy lifting for me.

We have rain forcast for Sat. Sun & Mon. It will be a long weekend without a ride this week. We have had a dry year so i am trying not to complain…but no riding this weekend sucks.

I will enjoy reading about everyone’s rides this weekend, while I watch Animal Planet and Kung Foo Panda with my kids…I am anxious to watch “R” rated movies again.

Edit: This zippered boot thing is crazy-I have pull ons and never want to buy zippered boots, they all break ! What a great plan, develop a product that is certain to require you to replace it within 18 months.

[Pancakes]

Dreamin - Hope you have a better ride next time. It’s hard to get past a psychological sticking point, both for you and your horse. It sounds like you did the right thing. Just breathe, and visualize the scenario you’d like.

HazelG – That is CRAZY about your boot! That story made me glad I have the old fashioned pull-ons. I hate them sometimes and hate getting them on/off, but I know that I won’t have a malfunction at least. You definitely made me think twice about getting a pair of zip-ups, no matter how convenient they seem…

So, tomorrow is my show! Dash is in heat, which is why she was royally frustrating last week and early this week. She was distracted, wouldn’t pick up her right lead, and would start going backwards/sideways when we asked her to do certain things. She also was super stiff to the right. We gave her some Mare Magic and bute, rubbed her flanks/back with liniment, and it seemed to work! We did a little course yesterday and it went fabulously, complete with flying lead changes (which she doesn’t really know yet)!
I’m SO excited about the show tomorrow. We’re doing just a few little classes (low hunters, modified eq) and hope to get around clear with a course we’re both proud of. A ribbon would be nice but I know my eq isn’t fabulous, and this it the mare’s first show, so we’re just hoping for a good turnout.

This is the new horse. He needs a name! We need something kinda classy. He’s a 10 yr old registered Paint.
No Name

[spacytracy]

Oh Pancakes! New horse is SO cute!!! Wow! I’m no good at naming horses so I can’t contribute!

Tarheel, I can’t believe that about your boot. That stinks. I need new boots and I want zips for convenience sake (I am not very strong and pulling boots on and off sounds torturous) but most of them never last!

pony - so glad your boy was good and had a successful first turnout!

[PaintedHunter]

Pancakes, what a cute horse! What’s the personality like?

He looks sweet and gentle. And cloudy! On Cloud Nine? Chance of Rain (or Rein), and call him Chance for Barn name?

[Pancakes]

[QUOTE=PaintedHunter;6198287]
Pancakes, what a cute horse! What’s the personality like?

He looks sweet and gentle. And cloudy! On Cloud Nine? Chance of Rain (or Rein), and call him Chance for Barn name?[/QUOTE]

He IS sweet and gentle. He was a novice kid’s horse. He’s super mellow and is very kind. He will ground tie (i.e. stay if you leave him alone) or follow you around if you ask. He’s a very good boy. Those are great suggestions! I will pass them onto my trainer.

[Hinderella]

Pancakes, what a nice looking new horse! I’m no good with names, but he is beautiful. He looks like a Breyer horse, standing there all pretty and clean. Up here in CT, the horses all still look like wooly mammoths, although my pony may get clipped this weekend. The weather’s supposed to be in the high 70’s and that’s really warm to be working with a winter “coat” on.

I had to laugh at the boot zipper stories, because the zipper broke on my boot two days ago. I was in the middle of my lesson when one of the girls pointed out that my zipper was broken. Nothing to do then, so I finished my lesson. Played with the zipper for a while, but couldn’t get it to budge. All the way home I was thinking “how do I get out of these, do I cut the zipper?”. Finally it dawned on me that I could get out of them the same way I would if they never had a zipper…with a boot jack and a good hard pull! So the boots are off, but I can’t find anyone around here who can replace the zipper. And it happens one week before I go to VA for hunting ;( Oh well, they’re actually my schooling & hacking boots, I have my good dress boots for hunting, and thy’ll have to be my everyday boots too.

On a better note, the pony & I had a terrific lesson, despite the broken zipper. I’ve done very little jumping all winter, and when I rode last Saturday I wimped out a bit on two jumps in a row because the pony gets excited and quick. So of course this lesson was all about…two jumps in a row. Then three. Then four…then five! I finally relaxed enough to just enjoy and feel the ride, to let the pony have fun without getting out of control (well maybe once) and we had a blast!

Maybe I should ride in broken boots more often.

[PaintedHunter]

pancakes, i also noticed in your other thread that it looks like he has just one black hoof. I think a name coming from that woulc be cute too. Like Solo for a barn name

[Dewey]

OTTB, please be careful!

Great story about the boots, Tarheel. Sometimes I’m glad I have pull-ons!

Pancakes, the new horse is really cute. I saw your other thread but didn’t contribute as I saw people gave lots of good suggestions. I would stay away from Partly Cloudy, though–she was a grand prix jumper from the 80s or 90s–did the Hickstead Derby with Katie Prudent one year and made the jump-off with a clean round.

[HazelG]

Good luck tomorrow Pancakes! Have fun and let us know how it turns out!

[CVPeg]

@bumknees;6193851

I dont know enough about c anderson, pp et al to make any comments one way or another other than I will not touch a pp traind horse ever again s have been trampled by enough of them to last a life time ( yes more than 3).

Bumknees - interesting that you’ve mentioned that - am just trying to clarify all the NH stuff while they try to get me to consider a (supposedly) PP trainer, and several horses in this barn are bad actors…more so than I’ve seen elsewhere…

[QUOTE=dreaminOTTB;6195720]
So, I got on my horse for the second time since my fall on Saturday. We attempted to go on trail with a couple of other boarders. Maybe I was too nervous, I don’t know, but he started prancing and jigging. I told the others I was turning back (we weren’t that far from home, maybe 200-300 yards). I turned him back and made it a few feet before he bolted. I managed to turn him and get him stopped (and didn’t fall off!), but was so shaken that when I got off, I couldn’t help but cry, I was so frustrated and just, well, scared.

In the end, I think I did at least the semi-right thing. I walked him back and took him to our indoor and did several minutes of straight walk-halt-back transitions to get him listening. I untacked him and then let him graze for a minute or two before hand-walking him all the way back down the trail at least 100 yards or so past his “melt-down” spot. I don’t know if that helped, but it was the best I could think of.

Here’s hoping the next ride goes better.[/QUOTE]

dreaminOTTB, am so sorry about this - and a little apprehensive because I’m about to give it another try tomorrow morning! I was out on the dirt road last time I was bucked off, but he has had little turn out, we were alone, and he just headed right back to his friends at the barn. We’ll see how B behaves as we leave, and I plan on also dismounting sooner than later if any signs of attitude. Or not at all depending on how he’s behaving in the morning when I work him indoors. See, this is the conspiracy I believe is going on…:eek:

And thank you for your comments about NH, etc. Had a phone chat with a well known retired jockey in recent months on a whole ‘nuther topic, and he mentioned Clinton Anderson when we started discussing working with OTTBs. Melanie Smith Taylor mentions Buck Brannaman. I’m a bit skeptical about the “pushy” thing, that is immediately apparent in PP. After others’ suggestions that B has to be put in his place, I’ve found that trying to push this horse around really only gets you into more battles - whether it be on the ground, or in the saddle. So much easier to choose them, and ignore the little nudges. I’m doing a lot of longeing, just W/T, to work on communication. Know the Zenyatta stomp? He does that at the walk when asked to do something on the longe. :lol: But I feel so much of him is his trying to engage you. Never had a horse like this, albeit it’s been a while. Really endearing on the ground. Am even considering clicker training just for something fun to do to engage his mind. Wish I could do lots of big courses, but he has some limitations that will prevent that - otherwise I think he’d be a blast!

Pancakes - what a cutie! For some reason “Magnet & Steel” came into my head…? Good luck tomorrow!

TarheelJD, and Hazel - those stories are a riot. Don’t know why you couldn’t just wear them under your dinner wear? One of my life’s saddest moments was after my son was born, and trying to pull on my 3yo custom Derdau boots, and no longer being able to wear them! Why don’t they tell young women of child bearing age, “you know, your feet get bigger when you have children!”:sadsmile:

[PaintedHunter]

Update on my boy: vet came out, flexed him, lunged him. Decided to take x-rays, and he apparently reallllly needed a hock injection on his left side, and went ahead and did the right as well. Fluid SQUIRTED out of him after the needle came out - he apparently had a lot of fluid build-up in there, and it was not good quality. Poor baby’s definitely been hurting! We also sent blood off for his PSSM test. Hopefully between all of this, he’s going to start to feel better and go back to being a quasi-peanut-roller like he used to be.

[Opus1]

[QUOTE=Pancakes;6198223]
This is the new horse. He needs a name! We need something kinda classy. He’s a 10 yr old registered Paint.
No Name[/QUOTE]

Sgt. Pepper.

[spacytracy]

Hey all! Just wanted to share that I RODE today!! All went well, and I feel great!

[Dewey]

Yaaaaaaay!!

[morganmerle]

Hey! I’ve been reading pages of posts trying to catch up. It must be the weather… my mare has been a brat. It’s been decided she will be going out to a trainer very soon. On the meantime, just tonight the husband gave the ok for me to lease a beginner-safe horse. I need the confidence boost and my daughter is excited to have a horse at home to ride. Win-win. I’ll post details if it all works out.

Speaking of confidence, I am slowly getting over my fear of being thrown. Last lesson had me trotting bareback! On purpose! LOL And I am finally starting to relax. It’s a great feeling. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s lesson.

What’s the deal with boots? My synthetic leather paddock boots have fallen apart (although not at the zipper!). The toe cap of my right boot came completely loose. I have black duct tape wrapped around it until I can replace them with real leather boots.

[dreaminOTTB]

Wow - gone for a day and so much to reply to!

Dewey - believe me, I’m doing my best to be safe. Have you been chatting with people up here? It’s why I dismounted as soon as I could when trouble brewed and did our schooling from the ground. Thankfully, he had a great day today (even though all my work was from the lunge).

Pancakes - congrats on the new horse! I like Opus’s suggestion of Sgt. Pepper. Always a Beatles fan myself.

Stolen Virtue - I do plan to have someone else help with the trail issue. After the behavior earlier this week, I immediately hand-walked him past the area where we had the problems. I think the next step is to have someone more experienced ride him on the trail, though I may see about having him led as well so that there is a person on the ground as well in the saddle. Not sure. I want to discuss it with my trainer on Tuesday.

Spacey - Congrats!

CVPeg - Please let me know how it goes! I’m wishing you the best of luck! Also, if you have questions about C. Anderson methods, let me know. I use a little with my OTTB, Toby (he responds to a mixture of things), but spent a lot of time taking lessons at and volunteering at a barn where that was the primary training method. I’m of the belief that not every method is perfect or will work with every horse, but everything is worth a try.

My update: I got to ride my former lease horse tonight. His owners still let me school him every so often and I asked if it was okay if I hopped on since he is such a “confidence builder” for me. He’s pretty lazy, but moves nicely and I trust that he’s not going to do anything silly (I don’t think he has the energy/will to do it). In terms of skill, he still needs work (likes to counter-bend, halts take quite a few strides through the walk, etc.), but it’s all things that are well within my ability to work on with him. We had a fabulous ride tonight and I felt so much better about everything. I was so glad to have that nice ride!

[Pancakes]

Dreamin, it’s always nice to have a confidence-builder for you. Sometimes you need a really good ride to get the motivation and psychological toughness to come back after a bad incident. Ask me how I know, lol.

Janimerle - congrats on the green light to lease!

Welcome back in the saddle, SpacyTracy!

PaintedHunter - Ouch! I’m sure your boy is glad to have that pressure relieved though, and the source of the problems brought to light.

Thanks for the name suggestions, everyone! I’m passing them all along and we will find one soon enough You’re all so helpful!

We took the new horse and Dash to the show today…it was just a local schooling show but it’s pretty well attended. We got ribbons in all of our classes! Granted they were 4th-5th-6th ones but hey. Some politics were involved and we were showing against all big fancy warmbloods. It was us an the QH and the paint! Dash did SO well though. I am so proud of her. We almost got a top 2 placing in the Hunter Hack but I came off the wrong lead down the line. Given the problems we’d had before that with jumping/stopping/finding distances and confidence, I wasn’t sure she’d jump it at all! But she did, and she jumped BIG over it. I was so proud of the pony! We did great in our flat classes too. The new guy was also awesome. We’re so happy for a first show for Dash, and a first one with us with the new guy.

All of this is even more of cause for celebrating the little victories because I had a really crappy fall from the new guy yesterday. We jumped a little line, and he was confused about where to go. I chose one direction, he chose another…and I hit the fence. HARD. I was winded at first and had pain in my left hip and chest… Last night I had a giant bruise on my ass and realized that I’d probably cracked or broken a few ribs. It HURTS to breathe in deeply and I can’t use my left arm for much of anything. Forget lifting anything, twisting, or sleeping on my left side. I can also feel things “moving” around depending on how I turn/breathe. Oddly enough, it feels ok to ride and even jump. But I am in a LOT of pain…

So, considering the rib issue, and the fall I had the day before the show, I’ll take the small victories! Next show is in 2 weeks

Has anyone ever broken/cracked a rib before? I know there isn’t much to be done which is why I haven’t gone to the Dr yet, but any tips/suggestions/confirmation that yes, that’s what I did?

[dreaminOTTB]

Pancakes - congrats on the show, but MAN, you are lucky you weren’t hurt worse! Have you seen a doctor/ER? Not that they can do a lot about broken ribs, but if you have another fall, that can be dangerous!

Sorry, now I worry about everyone else after my own hard falls. It’s going to take me awhile to get over this nervousness … Be careful!