My last blog post was very depressing, so I apologize for not updating since then. It will most likely be a doozy of a post and image-heavy, as it’s been a month since my last post.

DJ and I spent a week or so playing with the TRT Method before his departure on his summer adventure. There was some major success in playing with parts, and others, not so much. Weirdly enough, asking my horse to walk behind me a solid 5 feet was a huge confidence booster for her, but it doesn’t always stick. One night while watching me work, A made the comment that we both have trouble staying away from each other and out of each other’s space. I agreed wholeheartedly.

Forever suffering momma’s girl disease, it’s terminal.

Dee got very little work leading up to and after DJ left on his summer adventure, which I think was the “in” I needed.

To be fully truthful, Dearest Reader, I think DJ and I both were trying to crush as much as we could into the month of June, and it was too much for Dee. I want to say it’s not a failure on either of our parts, because I don’t think it was. Sometimes Dee needs that constant work. I think about last October, and I worked with her daily in some capacity for three weeks straight in the indoor just to keep her brain cell from exploding, and it was successful. So in a way, we did what had worked before. I didn’t realize that I was setting an incredibly high expectation of her without giving her room to breathe, on a very short timeline.

As of right now, my goal is to get a relaxed horse. Which is hard, as I keep picking on my own performance like the goal is perfection, but we are getting there.

Since the beginning of July, the round pen has become our best friend. I’m happy to report we’re pretty much back to full work in there. There were some snaffus at the start (cough Deona spooking, falling on her face, and stepping on her own heel), but I am happy to report she is quite relaxed in there, which, again, is the main goal.

I almost want to complain she’s lollygagging in the round pen, and too slow, but then I remember we spent the entire month of June begging her to slow down, and I bite my tongue.

I’ve also dabbled with some ground driving; more success has been found closer to the barn than farther away. I discovered she is not a huge fan of chickens the other day when I decided to ground drive to the cones field, and thought cutting through the trails would be more beneficial than starting a fight to walk past the pond. Again, I did not factor in having to walk past the chickens, but I don’t blame her for being fearful of birds that are related to dinosaurs.

I also chose to swap her to my single-jointed butterfly bit when it comes to long lining. Katie has been harping on me that Dee may prefer something with a little curb action for months, and again, she was right. Dee still blows through my aids in the jointed half cheek, and the Mullen half cheek is just too heavy or too straight for her. She still does a weird head jerk when we use it, so I just decided to nix it entirely, and this was my next option. The nice thing is I can loosen the curb, and then it acts more like a baucher if I don’t need the lightness with the curb. She seems quite pleased in it. I’d like to trial a mullen at some point, but again, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

A minor side note on bits: I’m debating trying to purchase a few baucher bits to try for riding, but at the moment that jointed half cheek is doing ok so I won’t mess with it. Katie tells me I can use the butterfly for riding, but I don’t know if I’m that brave. I still have my Agador’s Baucher I could play with, but I’m unsure if that’s worth testing again due to the last time I used it, Dee expressed her distaste loudly.

The other huge benefit to my long lining has been A and her insistence that I ride or drive her horses.

I’ve jumped on M a few times this month, which has been an absolute blast. It’s given me some confidence in the canter that I’ve been lacking for years, and she’s a quiet, solid horse. Well, I say solid and quiet; she reminds me a TON of Dee in terms of sometimes spooking at distractions, and they both find the giant rock out on the trails to be petrifying. The good news is her spooks are nowhere near the speed and velocity of Dee’s or L’s, so I find them fun.

Driving B has been the most time I have in the carriage, as he’s also A’s current favorite to drive. (He is also quickly becoming my favorite as well.) I find him helpful in the sense that I’m not constantly asking him to get off the forehand like M, and it forces me to be soft, as too harsh of a contact gets him all balled up and behind my hand. It also keeps me well aware of my rein length and managing where my hands and body need to be. He is also incredibly adjustable, going from teeny tiny trot to an easy 11mph trot down the trails (yes, we measured). He is who I end up driving the most through the obstacles if A has me schooling any of them.

I almost feel I can get sucked into micromanaging with M to get her forward and off the forehand, so having B to just make small adjustments and not need to make big corrections is great. But M is steady in the sense I can do pretty much anything with her, so it’s a great balance in the carriage. A and I spend most of our drives coaching each other, which we both have a blast with; me giving her confidence and her pushing me out of my comfort zone.

Riding finally has made a reappearance. I did climb aboard for my annual July 12th photo, and did an easy WTC both ways. Riding M on such a loose rein (leverage western bit) has made me more aware of my contact with the bit, and I’m taking advantage of the round pen time to work on my confidence riding without grabbing at Dee’s face.

If I want a horse that doesn’t require micromanagement, a lot of it will be working without me touching her to help her find that balance through her own speed management. It’s hard when said horse has a giant stride and feels like you cover ground in 3 seconds. I know a lot of it will be just letting her find her own speed to figure out her balance with me and without my help, and letting the round pen turn us is great for that.

I spent very little time in the indoor at the beginning of the month, partially out of fear of being over-horsed, and also to find confidence elsewhere. We had done a few sessions of just hanging out and munching in there, and I made the change when I chose to turn her out for grass; she is turned out exclusively in the paddock beside the indoor.

It wasn’t until after I did that first turnout by the indoor that I started finding success. The time before that, we had an all-out fight over the left side of the arena, with both of us leaving frustrated and flustered. A few days later, I dragged her in there after a good round pen session, just to get video to show people the behaviors I was seeing when asking her to work in the ring.

Of course, because I put the video camera up, she didn’t even show a single one of those bolting freezing behaviors we had in June. Dee actually almost ran into the wall because she was so busy looking out that left side, and didn’t even care about it. The right side, aka the driveway side, is now the evil side. I haven’t tested going past B for pure, “don’t F- it up” factor, but B is farther than I had a week before.

I have gotten a few more sessions in there in the lines since that first initial success, all equally successful. One day I just worked on the quiet walk that DJ and I had discussed. Another, she started out a little tense, but we were able to get a good walk trot out of the session. One evening I spent time letting her graze all around the driveway side, and I was glad to see she willingly let me drag her all around the pond and the areas I could safely bring her.

Dee has also been on SmartCalm Ultra now for a month, and I am wondering if that is contributing to the success we’ve been having. I ended up pulling her off the MadBarn Visceral+, which I’m now questioning as the straw that added to her tension, and possibly because one of the ingredients was setting her off. We made the switch from UlcerEraser to Visceral+ for better gut health, but it’s plausible it’s the reason she got worse. I won’t complain; it was hard to get her to eat, and I don’t think she loved the taste.

Another thing coming up is that Dee is scheduled for a gastroscope to check for ulcers. I had tossed the idea around most of June if that has been our problem, or part of it at least. I think I mentioned DJ wasn’t convinced ulcers was a factor, but with how sensitive and reactive she has historically been, I can’t rule it out without a scope. I would rather sink the cost for a scope to know exactly how to treat it and know I did it right than try to band-aid it. Plus, she hates UlcerGard, so I’m not wasting that money until I know, or if I can get the newer prescription brand that tastes like apples.

A detail I’ve also noticed is our successful days in the indoor often correlate with overcast weather and the arena lights being on. (Excluding the day I timed our session poorly with a thunderstorm) Which is why she’s not only scheduled for a gastric scope, but the Donut will get her eyeballs checked as well. If I’m paying for the farm call, we might as well. I don’t know if we will find anything, but vision problems fit a lot of puzzle holes in this horse’s behavior. It doesn’t mean it’s the answer, but it is a plausible enough reason to check her eyes.

The other plausible and incredibly likely answer is that she is just SUPER herd-bound. And it fits, she’s never been truly “alone”, and it always chases us in some way. I have some new reading to play around with that and see where that leads us, but it’s a thread to pull. While DJ is away, I’m hoping to make some progress with the other two instructors/trainers who visit on a regular basis, one a western horsemanship style and the other a dressage style, but that will all wait until the scope and we find out what we are dealing with medically.