You know, just a total tangent but a comment about when a (natural) tail gets stuck between the hind legs and it kind of jostles around back and forth between two hocks… I had always noticed this with horses who were sore behind and one day I asked my vet if he saw a correlation. He confirmed my suspicion that it is a symptom of hock soreness and sometimes SI soreness in the horse. They’ll carry their tail differently because they’re protecting their back and it results in the tail ending up between their legs at the trot.
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Those are trot poles. Cavaletti are raised 
</ knowitall >
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Can I ask: after the mare is inspected, does the owner have to pay an annual fee to keep her in the mare book? It seems like for Old/ISR they do?
@beowulf that’s so interesting! But now that you describe it I can totally see that. “Holding” the back end means the tail isn’t elevated and swing, so hangs and is at the mercy of the movement of the legs.
Obviously, someone who knows what they’re looking at can see if the horse is a “leg mover” or a nice big back swinger, tail aside, but that’s a great visual to look at for those who might not be able to see that yet
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Makes sense why you see it so much in the Quarter Horses then. People always mention tails getting stuck between their legs and I personally have never seen that with any of my horses or any of my fake tails, so I think you’re onto something.
A lot of them use a lot of (heavy) tail, sometimes for the sole purpose of making the tail as still as possible
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From tonight’s sit and lift sesh. Obviously my position needs some work, no need to mention lol. Shayney about killed us the first couple times through but then got the hang of it. It was quite a short ride, 30 minutes in total including me getting off once to adjust the spacing a little bit.
Thoughts?
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Looks great. I don’t think your position is bad at all. Cavaletti, I feel, is a bit of a curve for both horse and rider. Rider is learning to adapt to the impulsion and larger movement, horse is learning to adapt to the cavaletti by pushing and increasing upward thrust versus forward and over. Horse is having to increase muscle control in new areas of the body to maintain that posture. Tension will decrease when she develops that muscle control. I think function over cavaletti is more important initially for the rider - can you get off the horses back, out of their mouth and out of the way? Great, then perfect the seat. You’re naturally riding her larger movement by opening up the hips which is bringing the knee a bit more forward. As she progresses, you can increase difficult by decreasing the width towards the inner circle even more and start to decrease speed. This will be great for extensions within gaits as she becomes more adaptable in her paces. Great work.
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Ditto Warmblood1! Especially moving into at least a half seat, if not a full 2-pt, to give her more freedom to lift her back and really push up into the saddle
I’d also encourage you to look up and across the poles, looking down only with your eyes. That will help keep you from leaning your upper body too forward.
These raised cavaletti will be so good for her! And yes keep rides with this work shorter, for now, as this is using muscle fibers in different ways, engaging more smaller muscles more, and she could easily get sore.
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Thanks all! I’ll incorporate these as often as I can, amongst our other things. I’m hoping to get her out on the trails this weekend, we both need a break from the sandbox.
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Well, she got yesterday off. I get there today, set up for Free Jump Friday, and she’s acting weird during warmup.
Long story short, she’s got that lymphatic inflammation (or whatever the heck it was) under her left jaw again and her face is quite painful. Obviously no Free Jump Friday, and now we will be going on SMZs and hot packs.
At least right now, there’s no way she can wear a bridle or tolerate anything on her face really, so it’s time out on our prep.
So sorry to hear this has returned 
Sending jingles for a quick recovery…poor girl!
Much improved today, maybe this one will resolve sooner? I can only hope.
Yesterday her entire face was sore and she was drooling. Today it’s concentrated under the jaw.
Nice read, nice mare, thanks for journaling.
Couple of thoughts. First, have you reached out to a Pro handler yet? Does the inspection provide access to them or are they free lance Pros? Might not be a good idea to just assume you can hire one when you get there, no idea how that works at inspections or if you need to book one in advance to be sure.
On a body clip shortly before going…NO. Not unless you know the undercoat left is not an…unfortunate…color that will take 6-8 weeks to fill in back to that beautiful classic bay, Some chestnuts clip out pukey yellowish and bays can be a mousey slate color and drab. Recently Clipped coats don’t shine up either. Her rich bay color is a plus and shes not going to look like a yak in 5 weeks. If you want to clip for winter convenience, do it after the inspection, pretty sure they won’t care about a little seasonal coat growth in a rich colored, shiny coat on a quality mare.
Good luck and keep writing.
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You hire the handler via the farm. I’ve already paid for mine on the entry. I hope to be able to talk to them the day before, but I don’t know how that works. I guess I assumed they’re experienced, since it’s through the host farm, but I did not ask.
Shayney doesn’t turn mousey when clipped. Here’s her clip from last winter, and the design I put on her bum. You had to get the right light to even see it!
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What a pretty girl! I hope her facial swelling resolves quickly!
My mare is going to an AHS inspection soon too. Originally, the plan was that she would go back to work after this year’s (non-Hanoverian) foal was weaned and I had thought about looking into the MPT for her, but since I ended up breeding her again, she didn’t go back to work yet. Very interested to hear more about your experience as you go along though for the future! I had hoped to go watch this year but the two closes host sites aren’t holding the MPT this year and the next closest one is about 6 hours away.
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I’ve seen folks clip foals then sponge them with henna.
Not only seen that but done it. Messy. Still doesn’t really shine. Some use various oils but, again, messy plus dust sticks. Cant really play catchup with the coat, thats a continuing project. OPs mare doesn’t need any tricks.
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Very pretty design!
Thanks! I gave my boyfriend the choice of 3 designs - of course he picked the most complicated one. I don’t know what it looks like, but it’s supposed to be a peacock feather.
