Gel Shoes and Other Stuff

  I have not wrote in a little while! Man! I have found I just don't have the drive to write at the moment. So much has happened though! Isn't that how it always goes when you skip writing for a few days?
   The farrier came for Udex and put on really neat gel shoes! He only has shoes in his front feet since it isn't necessary to put them on the back. About two-ish months ago we had a different farrier trim Udex's hooves. Biggest mistake ever. He ended up cutting waaay to much out of the soles of his already flat hooves, resulting in a few abscesses and lameness for around a month. There was quiet a few little abscesses that popped on their own within a few days durning that time. However, there was this one really nasty abscess that took about four days to pop. It was in the heel of his hoof! Eventually, -after epson salt soaks-, it popped!! He was good to ride right then and there! He was turned out with his friends and the next day we started work like normal.
  When the farrier came again to re-shod him, he showed us something interesting! In Udex's abscess hoof he had grown two soles!! Instead of just one sole there was now two, messy and all over the place. It was interesting to see, and watch him get rid of! Lots of cutting and snipping! His hoof was over exposed, and probably would have bruised or abscessed if left without any special attention. The solution? Fill the hooves with gel!! I was really excited to see that process happen! "Too cool" was the only thing that went through my mind! Anyways, he put the shoes on Udex with a chicken wire mesh as well. After his shoes were on he brought his little "gel gun" and squirted lots of the liquid into the hoof until it touched the brim of the shoe. Then he wrapped the hoof and let it set for about fifteen minutes. He did this to both front hooves.
   After the wrapping came off, he had a nice, soft, squishy gel in the hooves!!!! If I was a horse, I would love to be walking on that! Mr. Rau is an incredible farrier!! He has a natural talent for the job, and is a horse person as well. Udex stood extremely calm for almost an hour.

  Besides new shoes, lessons have been going well. We are working a lot more in trot now, which is both exciting and challenging at the same time. Udex is a "rocking horse," and really skinny at that. That makes him super challenging to sit! The way he moves is rather choppy. He is a horse that you really can not sit without having the right muscles, practice, patience and drive. All my friends almost flop right off him in sitting trot, canter, and rising trot even. His walk is even enough to make you cringe. You can only feel it when your riding though. When watching him move he actually looks surprisingly smooth!
  I have been getting sitting trot down with him. My seat isn't anywhere near as good as it is with other horses, but it's enough to call it a working process. The other day we were leg yeilding in trot and it wasn't working as well as I'd like it to have. As my trainer was yelling at me I caught myself thinking "ughh. It's not my fault that this horse is impossible to sit!!!!" Then almost a second later I felt really terrible when I thought that it wasn't Udex's fault either. It wasn't his fault that someone put him through years and years of rollkur pain, causing him all this damage. He was born a perfect, healthy, talented foal. Someone did the damage to him, he had no say in what went on.
  I gave Udex and pat and told him he was a good boy. Not everyday can we ride and get the expected results. It takes time to get it right. I have a lesson today, hopefully it goes well!! Even if it doesn't go too smoothly, I'm still going to be proud... Because six months ago, my horse was not rideable, not sitable, a failure, a "cow" and a lot of other things according to a lot of people. Today he is one amazing dressage horse, happy as can be, super talented, and lots of other amazing things. (-: I really, really, really love and appreciate my horsey. He's really just so amazing, I don't know where I would be without him!

I wanted coffee, but I got ice tea instead.

   A friend once told me this...

"You treat your horse like you are eating at a restaurant for breakfast. You ask the waiter [your equine] for the coffee. He doesn't come right away with the coffee, so you wait patiently until it arrives. As soon as he brings the coffee to you, you say thank you and continue going on as you were before. Some days the waiter takes a little longer bringing you your coffee. You don't pester him though every two seconds "WHERE'S MY COFFEE!?" Instead you just wait and be patient." 

  Okay, so I hope I explained that as well as she explained it to me! Today while riding I asked for my coffee, but received ice tea instead. When that happens, you have to very kindly explain how you wanted coffee, not ice tea. However, after multiple tries you keep on receiving ice tea and the waiter is refusing to listen to you.. You do get a little frustrated. 

   Ah, so yes. Today I asked at least fifteen times for coffee from my horse, but he kept bringing on the ice tea. I was getting so annoyed. Some days it just gets to me. I think of only the problems my horse has and just start to focus on the negative. With every time he comes back with the ice tea, I just think more and more about what he isn't doing right, instead of what he is doing right. The head throwing, the stubbornness, the hot hotheadedness; the damage. It all just got me today. I couldn't help but feel so angry and humiliated as I was riding, and my trainer was shouting. 

  I repeatedly was asking for a simple leg yield, and every time he refused and would do total opposite of what I wanted. My trainer stood their, hands through her hair, on wits end yelling at me the simpleness of a leg yield. I can leg yield!!!! Today it just wasn't working. Ah! I felt so, so, so frustrated with both my horse and myself. No one likes to be yelled at by their dressage trainer... It just isn't fun! 

  So today my lesson was a majority of one stubborn horse, angry trainer, and frustrated rider.! 

  Towards the end of our unsuccessful lesson, I felt really terrible for being angry with my horse. It wasn't his fault at all. It finally hit me that maybe I was asking for coffee wrong, and speaking an entire different language. Perhaps my horse was just doing what he thought I was saying. After all, what if he had a really bad day, and I was expecting too much out of him. Not every ride can he be the exact horse I want him to be. So towards the end that's when I started to think how unfair I had been towards my poor Udex. 

I. Felt. Terrible.

  I gave the poor horse a very well deserved pat and decided to give his poor back a break and cool him down bareback. Those silent minutes walking around bareback really got me thinking. I felt so terrible for overlooking the fact poor Udex had been through so much. I can't understand why it was so hard for me to accept that today wasn't his (or my) day. I think that lately I had been taking too much good things for granted. Udex is recovering. I bought him knowing that it would be a long journey that is anything but easy. Thankfully during our bare back cool down I remembered that. I cuddled him for a bit and just thought about how it would feel to walk in his shoes.

  So I honestly think we had a day like this to humble me. It's something I really need to work at. From now on, I'm going to make sure I ask for coffee in the most polite, least confusing way. If I get ice tea, I'm going to think about what I originally ask for and see if there is another way to say I want coffee. If all else fails, then it's safe to say it's just a bad day, and I;m going to have to just make due with ice tea. Some days are just better then others. Today definitely wasn't one of them. But I'm okay with that. Actually, I'm thankful for it. Like I said, I'm just going to try to be more humble and straight forward.