Playing With Ponies

 

During Tumbleweed’s recovery from colic, I had an epiphany’ish moment, and it was this: I care about him too much to write about him in a way that minimizes the heart of his story and our journey together. 

I decided that I would either close up the blog or only post more rarely and allow his story to breathe and take shape. I settled on a weekly reflection. 

Every Monday I will try to post a thought or two. 

My thought for this Monday is regarding a Warwick Schiller webinar I attended this weekend on horses and separation anxiety. 

It was really good and informative, and he began it this way:

“Separation anxiety is anxiety and anxiety isn’t anything someone wants to have. Your perspective when you’re working on this stuff will have a huge effect on the outcome. So when I’m doing this work with horses, I’m NOT trying to fix the problem. The horse doesn’t have a problem. The horse does not feel safe, and they need to be helped. The intention behind any action can change the action. If you do something for a certain reason, it comes across one way, and if you do something for another reason, it comes across another way.”

From that beginning framework he shared his ideas on how to help a horse through separation anxiety, the most common form of it being a horse who is left behind by a buddy. 

——-

For the last couple of weeks, we have taken an approach to separation that is much more subtle and slow. 

If Epona is working, I ride Tweed off and away, then back, then away. 

If we’re on the trail, we practice leading and following. Epona might drop pretty far behind, get much further ahead, or we might ride them side-by-side. So far Tumbleweed has done exceptionally well, as has Epona, who seems made for trail riding. 

It’s so fun to have both of our “babies” on the trail together now. It feels different, like we’re not “working” anymore, but instead, we’re playing—playing with our sweet ponies. 

A Deeper Connection

 

It has been over two weeks since my last post.

Two weeks ago, Sunday, Tumbleweed came in from pasture with a gas colic. That set off three days of fear as I waited and prayed his system would return to normal. Hourly checks. Watered down food and mashes with as much as salt as he would tolerate (per doctor’s orders). And time.

He recovered quickly, but the vet told me it takes about three days for their systems to return to normal, and that proved to be true.

We got back to work slowly and have had several wonderful trail rides. Not surprisingly, the time together bonded us more deeply. He has done his best rides since his colic.

I took him off chasteberry during that waiting period, and I probably won’t put him back on. He’s doing too well to need it.

More time in saddle, and out in the big world meeting people (and donkeys) has made Tweed a budding lead trail horse.

Epona is starting on the trails, and he enjoys leading her. He seems to be taking care of her, in his own way, by being more mature.

I’ve decided that Tumbleweed’s desire to take care of his mares is natural and noble. Here he is with his five girls. 

And here he is after he settled from Epona riding away from him. He didn’t like it, at first, but became resigned and cocked a leg. (What more could I ask for? Good boy!!)

And that’s how we have handled buddy sour lately, the natural way. Give them jobs and let the natural process unfold. 

Our training is largely finished with Tumbleweed, but the new plan is to use him to bring Epona along on the trails. (My daughter riding Epona above).

We will keep doing what we’ve been doing, lots and lots of trail exposure and longer and longer rides. I’ve found the longer the ride, the better he does. 

His fitness level is just off the charts this year with all the early work he got. Katie said that he has finally matured into his body. 

For example, he knows how to use his body up and down hills. Last year he was still a bit goofy in his body, and that led to some insecurity on his part (and mine.). But that is gone. I feel like I have a horse underneath me now. A horse who can lead out and go wherever we need to go.

One of my rides was with a friend’s horse who I rode with last year and had issues. What a difference. He didn’t pay any attention to what that mare was doing or how far she fell behind. It was just me and him, and he went wherever I pointed. He was still a bit looky, but a good kind of looky, the kind that lessens with exposure. The kind that listens to me for reassurance.

Maybe it took a colic to get us to this partnership. Maybe those hourly barn checks bonded us in a deeper way. If so, I guess I’m thankful for it. 

I will leave off with a few images of our spring. 

This crabapple tree we planted two years ago stopped us in our tracks everyday while it bloomed. We could also see it from our front windows. 

What a gift. 

A last bleeding heart. 

Summer snowflake 

Kwanzan Cherry. 

Summer snowflake 

Apple tree blossoms

Blue vinca

Backing Off on Buddy Work

 

We did more of that buddy sour work today and tried out some new ideas. It didn’t make much of a difference. The fact remains: Tweed doesn’t like his girls leaving him. 

He can leave them, work fine in the arena away from them, and work fine away from them when they’re either tied, working, or confined in the round pen. Also, when they’re out of sight long enough, he seems to forget them. 

It’s just that walking away business. 

Katie asked me, afterward, how much I want to work on that, and I said I think I’m done. 

And by that, I mean done obsessing about it and devoting whole lessons. 

I’ll continue to work on it myself, as part of a bigger picture. For example, walking away from each other on trail rides, then back together. Or, here at home. But I think I’d rather have Katie continue trail work and exposure. 

I think he just needs to mature and get used to horses having “jobs.” Maybe when he sees his mares working, too, he will see that it’s the human’s responsibility to direct their movement, not his. 

I am still curious about the chasteberry. We have a couple weeks to go to see if that makes any difference. 

In the meantime, it is really fun to ride Tweed while Katie rides Epona. I rode him away from her a lot, and he did great. At one point, I let her ride Epona away from him, and when he even thought about getting emotional, I put him around trees and did circles and figure 8’s through them. It was enough to keep his mind on me. So, I’m thinking LOTS more of that. 

Epona is like watching a baby do “first” things. She’s so scared, but then does it and is so proud of herself. She really trusts Tumbleweed and likes to follow him through things. If she sees him do something, she will 8/10 do it, too. That’s already coming in handy for her training.

Tumbleweed has always liked to lead on the trail, and it makes sense, considering how he doesn’t like being left. So, he is really enjoying being the head horse with Epona. They did so well together that we will probably introduce her to a little trail ride next time. 

Here’s when I let them get ahead of us and even on the other side of the trailer where he couldn’t see her.

The video stops when I needed both hands to circle him away in trees, but he did well and only got to a 5 on a 1-10 emotional scale.

Teresa was sharing about the different levels of emotional stress in horses and how it is wise to avoid working them in that highly charged state. I think both Katie and I were on the same page that it’s probably best for Tweed to do this work in smaller steps. 

My Non-Horsey Post

Who, me?

It’s raining today, so I thought it would be a good time to do a non-horsey photo dump post. Except for the photo above where Leah is acting as “bait” for Tweed’s training as I rode her bareback around the park. 

The 2021 babies: Pilot, Epona, and Lucy 

We’ve had a schedule change around here and after next week, when Pilot’s dad will be gone all week for work, I will have most Mondays-Saturdays free to ride Tweed during the day. At least until Pilot gets out of school for summer break. But even then, it will be much better than my old schedule of no days off. 

Phlox growing wild on our property. 

My husband is scheduled to have knee replacement surgery May 1st. It will certainly slow him down for awhile, and probably me, too, but hopefully not for too long. 

Killdeer mating and nesting in our pastures. 

The general rule of thumb is not to plant before Mother’s Day, or near that time. We are excited to get the overwintered plants that survived out of the garage, but it’s too early. 

In the meantime, some of the perennials, like this blue vinca, have taken off. 

Daffodils. 

Our flowering plums. 

Flowers for the tea, store bought

We hosted a tea for special guest last Sunday. My mom brought up her Royal Albert tea set for me to use, and then she gave it to me to keep forever. 

She also shared her recipes for scones and cucumber sandwiches. 

Scone, clotted cream, and strawberry preserves 

They were yummy. We had lots of leftovers. I’ve really got to stop eating those leftovers!

Oops, another horse photo. A little mutual grooming. 

Time to talk chasteberry. Or chaste tree. Or monk’s pepper. 

Apparently, it comes from this tree that is native to the Mediterranean and western/Central Asia. It helps regulate menstrual cycles, pms, and the sexual desires of monks. 

In horses, it balances hormones, calms geldings / mares, and even helps manage symptoms of Pituitary Pars Intermedia Dysfunction (PPID or Cushing’s). It helps regulate the pituitary gland, aiding in shedding, reducing cresty necks, and improving overall metabolic function. 

Everyone I know who has used it, and that list is growing, says it worked. But, so far, all those people used it for mares and not geldings. At any rate, they say it takes at least 3 weeks before you can see a change and we are at about 10 days. 

I purchased two different types of chasteberry, one for humans and one specifically pelleted for equines. (Photos above) I don’t think there’s any difference, except in price. Tumbleweed has tolerated eating both, but I started him slowly to make sure he didn’t have an adverse reaction.  

It will be interesting to see if it changes him at all. We are doing so much training work on buddy issues that it might be hard to decipher what helped and how much. 

One of my friends said her horse built up a tolerance to it, so she would discontinue it for awhile and then start again. 

Looks like I’ve worked this post right back to horses, so I lied about it being non-horsey. 

I started this post out with Leah, and she is my old trail horse that I raised from a 2 year old and trained myself. She is from Quincy Dan lines and a super sweetie. She’s 21 this year. We put her on Equioxx a few weeks ago and it has made a huge difference and improvement in her arthritis. 

I’m taking her with Tweed to the park most days and working on her walk and whoa, besides being bait for his buddy issues. I have really enjoyed riding her again. 

I will usually work Tweed around her and rest him away. But Katie was working him away as I worked with her elsewhere. That made Tweed get upset when I’d leave the area and he couldn’t see her anymore. It also seemed to be setting Katie and Tweed against each other—in his mind. 

Sooooo, I’m going to help them out next time she rides by keeping her in the arena during his warmup. She’s going to let him make the choice to go to her, then do all his warmup work around her, and rest him way far away, like I do. He needs to see that as the undesirable place. 

He rode out on the trail alone very well Monday with Katie. They went on a great adventure along the river. Turns out, he’s more of “it’s okay to leave them, but not be left” kind of guy. 

Epona and Tumbleweed, Off to School

Watching Epona’s session from Tweed’s back.

Yesterday was the first day of Epona’s training, so she accompanied us to the park and went first. It gave me time to work with, then ride, Tumbleweed. 

Epona looks so small here. The photo was taken from atop Tweed looking down. 

Epona did great for her first time, but she needs lots and lots of exposure. All the new horses, and things to see, hear, and smell, had her very distracted. No surprise there. She’s just a young horse who needs adventures and trail miles. 

It was the first time my daughter had met Katie, and she was impressed with her. They have almost exactly the same riding/working with horses styles. Since my daughter works full time and is a mama when she’s off, there isn’t enough time to bring Epona along on her own. She sent Epona off for 90 days training the last couple of years, but it’s time to do the trails here now, and Katie, like with me and Tweed, will supplement her work and keep things going. 

The big question was how would Tumbleweed do with Epona there, and well, he did great. Quite a bit better than when Leah came. There was a small hiccup when he got back to the equestrian park. Epona saw him at a distance and started to whinny out. That got him emotional and wanting to rush back. 

Poor Tweed. It’s like the goofy kid in class who gets the other, studious kid, laughing, and then when the teacher looks, it’s the hard-working kid who gets in trouble. 

Off to the arena they went. Tweed was not happy and began swinging his head around at the gate, but he went back to work for just a little bit and ended on a good note. 

When he finally got back to the trailer, he wanted nothing to do with Epona and wouldn’t even look at her. 

Back home, I put them in their stalls for their supplements, but when I went out later to release them, Epona came out, but Tweed refused and wanted to stay in. 

It appears he is developing an independence.