Holding them closer

I guess I start with Thunderbird deciding that last week Wednesday was the perfect day to hang his leg in his haynet.

yes, this noble steed

When I came over for morning check just after 6am, he whinnied at me when I looked over the door into Lancey's stable, shouting MOM PLEASE HAAAAAALP. When I looked over at him, he was standing quietly in the back corner on three legs, his left front in his haynet, looking over his shoulder at me with big eyes.

My heart absolutely froze. How (or why) he decided that he needed to get his foot into his haynet, when his other haynet was still chock-full, I have no idea. I hurried to get him out, and bless his darling little soul, he just stood there for several minutes while I tried to get his giant foot out of the tiny hole he had somehow put it through. I was inwardly panicking. I have heard the horror stories about shattered knees and ruptured tendons from exactly this kind of injury. In fact I think I may have been outwardly panicking quite a bit as well, but Thunder obviously doesn't care about that and as soon as I freed him he just stretched out and took the longest pee ever. He hadn't touched his water in the other corner of his stable, and his bed was clean in the opposite corner, where he normally does his poos. He must have been stuck in that haynet for hours.

When my heart had slowed down and Thunder had gone over to his stable door to look around for his breakfast, I realized that he was walking on four legs with no obvious lameness and my brain finally registered that he was not actually crippled yet. I felt over both front legs for any trouble, and there was no swelling just yet, but the left fore was pretty hot over the back of the knee where it joins the cannon bone - where the check ligament sits. The SDFT seemed OK, and amazingly, his supporting leg hadn't even stocked up.

I sat down in the shavings right about then and offered up a prayer of thanks that Thunder is the most chill horse who has ever existed. If he had thrashed around or thrown himself on the ground or even twisted the haynet up so that it constricted his leg... It just doesn't bear thinking about.

Luckily, the physio was coming out to see another horse that same day, so I quickly called her and booked Thunder in for a check as well that afternoon.

To my eternal relief and gratitude, her findings were unremarkable. Thunder had absolutely no problems in his neck, shoulders, or upper back - he really couldn't have even pulled back against the haynet at all. His only problem was some stiffness in his left pectoral muscle, understandable considering he'd been stuck on three legs for hours, and a little tightness in his lower left back. He always has that when he gets bodywork done - it's just a combination of naturally being stiffer on that side, always being a little weaker in that left stifle, and me sitting too hard on my right hip. All things we're working on.

As for the leg itself, the news was much better than it might have been. He was 1/10 lame on the first trot up and practically sound after the session, and honestly I can't see the lameness at all, only the physio could with her more educated eye. There was some swelling over his left check ligament just below the knee. While there's only so much a physio can tell, she felt that scans would be unnecessary and that he likely just bruised the tendon sheath where the rope was pressing on it. Nothing major. He could have broken his leg if he'd panicked, but instead he just stood there like a very good boy. He really is the best horse ever.

the warmer weather is bringing out his allergies as well, boo

Still, the physio recommended at least 10 days completely off, maybe more depending on how he does. He can be glad that he's a very relaxed dude who spends most of his field time eating and sleeping or he might have ended up being confined in a smaller space. For now, though, he still goes out all day his friends, and gets his leg iced twice a day. The swelling has gone down quite a lot, but it's still a little puffy and hot... and we're on day 9 now. So I'm not sure yet how it's going to turn out.

I'm just so, so grateful that he doesn't seem to be experiencing any major pain, and that it doesn't seem to be a major injury even if it ends up taking a few weeks to recover. I will happily take a few weeks' recovery time over the possibility of months, years, or even completely losing him... it doesn't even bear thinking about.

When I mentioned that we had been thinking of SA Champs in mid-September, the physio seemed to think we miiight still be able to go... but I decided to just scratch the whole idea. As much as I want to be more competitive, and more bold in my competitive choices, I'm not going to bring my competitive plans into play when it comes to his soundness. I'm pretty sure he'll be rideable again by mid-September, but would he really be fit enough? Would it really be fair? Would I be tempted to push him just a little harder than I really think I should? I'm not even going to go there, thanks. So that's SA Champs off the table for us.

That did mean a little breathing room in the budget (briefly... see below) so I finally bought a pair of ice boots. I can't believe I went so long without them; I have them at the Friesians and they are one of the most wonderful inventions in the world.

Anyway, I'm definitely more careful about how we tie his haynet since, but mostly I'm just really grateful about how all this turned out. He could really have hurt himself, and I will happily ice his legs and rest him and deal with this comparatively minor boo-boo compared to what could have happened.

The real disaster struck on Tuesday. Magic seemed OK when I checked on him around 6am, but there was a bit of hay left in their haynets, which isn't really that normal. Skye was eating the tops off some old dry (known and not poisonous) weeds at the time (like... why, ole lady? you can barely chew hay) so I thought perhaps she'd just been nibbling weeds instead of eating hay, but it wasn't that much left over that it worried me. He was napping in his usual place, and there were nice normal fresh poos everywhere, so I went about my day. He ate his breakfast and his temperature was normal.

When the guys went to feed Skye her lunch, though, Magic was just standing around again and their morning haynets were almost untouched (the old girl really doesn't eat much hay because she chews so slowly). Definitely a warning bell. I checked him out and he had gut sounds all round but they were a little reduced in the right upper quadrant. His heart rate and mucus membranes were pretty normal, but he did have a fever of 39.5. I was pretty confused then because he had no colic signs at all, and I know this dude well - I know when he's colicking. Still, I wasn't happy. If it had been any other horse, I would have given him a bit of flunixin and waited it out for the afternoon, but it wasn't. It was Magic, so at 3pm, I called the vet. He passed a little bit of normal-looking poo and nibbled some grass while we waited.

he was grazing and then this look came into his eyes and I knew 💔

I really didn't think he had colic until 4pm, just before the vet arrived, when he started to look at his flanks a bit. His heart rate spiked to the 50s then, and when the vet arrived ten minutes later, he was shivering, his heart rate was in the 60s, and he was panting with pain. She took one look at him, uttered an F-bomb, and told me to load and go. This was absolutely the right decision and such an important part of why I have established relationships with numerous vets in the area - they know him and they know he means business when he's colicking. She gave him some flunixin to keep him comfortable and a bit of Buscopan, and we put him on the horsebox and took him straight to hospital.

My poor beloved man was busy recovering from an awful stomach flu of his own at that point, so my mom and dad dropped everything to help me take the old boy to the vet. Thank you 💜

He's been there ever since. He has an impaction, likely in the sternal flexure, and while it doesn't seem as bad this time as it did last time, it's been three days with no real difference. At this point, everything possible is being done for him (thank God, earnestly, for insurance), but it could go either way. If the impaction finally shifts, then he'll be OK. Sometimes it can take a while - he's been in hospital for 4-5 days before with the same thing - and sometimes they don't shift medically, and he's not a surgical candidate.

He obviously has the whole vet hospital wrapped right around his little finger. He may have been a bit of a nightmare to ride, but Magic has always been the best patient in the entire world. Even though he wasn't in any pain by the time we arrived at the hospital, he submitted so happily to getting his catheter, a rectal, a tube, having his tummy scanned, all without sedation - he just played right along. The vets love him to bits and one of them confided in me that she had given him a nice long ear scratch, which he truly loves.

I haven't been to see him, partly because it is so hard for me to get away during the week, but also because I know I will be a wreck. Emotionally, of course I want to go and see him; but I know that having a weepy, stressed human clinging to him is not what he needs right now. He is so sensitive to my emotions, and right now he is surrounded by dedicated professionals doing their best for him, and that's the vibe he needs. He doesn't need a stressed-out, heartbroken mama crying into his mane. He's done that enough for me. I can cry into Lancey's mane for a bit until he gets better, God willing. I'll just be here holding the others a little bit closer. It's a privilege to have them with us, a privilege that we so often take for granted until it's too late.

All that to say, he is in Abba's Hands, just where he belongs. We have done everything humanly possible for him; now it's up to God. And whatever He wills, whatever He chooses, I trust that. I trust Him.

God is good.

Riding the Mielie Fields with Erin

After the last of three really good dressage rides on Lancey last week, I took a kiddo out for a little walk ride with her new thoroughbred. The mare is absolutely lovely but hasn't seen our trails before, so I decided to walk with Lancey in tow, just in case I needed to make a grab for a bridle. Lancey, of course, would be excellent moral support.

I led him part of the way, but when it became obvious that I wouldn't need to be wrangling any thoroughbreds on this day, I realized that I really needn't walk the whole way home. I was still in my helmet after our ride so I popped on in a halter and we walked home. The thoroughbred did end up giving one spook right up Lancey's bum, but obviously, he didn't care at all.

It's so incredible how this horse has just transformed my riding confidence when it comes to going out. A year ago I was still celebrating the ability to go on a 10-minute walk ride alone, and there I was riding him bareback in a halter with a horse who didn't know our trails at all. He's just amazing 💜

Thunder, too, is amazing, even though the poor guy is currently still in get-off-my-leg boot camp, but he outrides are definitely not his forte. He was really nice on trails as a young horse, and then I made the mistake of using him in the riding school and he bolted once with a teenager who was not even remotely helpful and since then he has never been the same. Every two or three months I'll feel sorry for him being stuck in the arena and try to take him on a long ride, and I always regret it. We spent Friday afternoon skittering sideways through the soya bean fields while I hung on for dear life, not helped by the fact that the dogs found a porcupine and brought it to bay. For the record, African porcupines are not at all the tree-climbing creatures of the Northern Hemisphere; in fact, their quills are significantly longer and larger, and they're pretty vicious. This one was rattling its quills furiously, much to poor Thunder's consternation.

please mom take me back to my sandbox

We'll go back to tiny little hacks and slowly build him up again, if he starts to enjoy them at some point. I already have a lovely trail horse and it's not like I'll ever sell him, so if he never gets to like riding out, he doesn't have to do it. He's already a unicorn in the sandbox; he doesn't have to be a unicorn everywhere.

Lancey, it would appear, is a unicorn no matter where you take him at this point. This was evidenced on Sunday, when my bestbestbestbestbest friend, Erin, came over. After overeating ourselves hopelessly (this man of mine can cook, y'all) we rode Ladybug (more on that later) and then headed off for the best kind of conversation you can have: one punctuated by the steady thump of hoofbeats, and filled with fresh air and warm African sunshine.

I smelled trouble from the second my butt hit the saddle. Thunder had pushed me a little bit on Friday's ride, never shoving my nerves beyond about a 3 out of 5, but they did go up to a 3 and stayed there for about half an hour - much longer than I'd normally maintain that level of nervous just because we were outside instead of in an arena. Clearly, it had its effects. I was mostly OK, but jumpy about silly things and dreading the thought of having a nice canter rather than looking forward to it.

Thankfully, Lancey really doesn't care how nervous I am. He'd had a good week of work and seemed delighted to be on the trails; he instantly flowed into his Arabian power-walk, and he was eating up the ground effortlessly on a loose rein, not looking at a thing. Erin was riding one of my trusted school ponies, the handsome Flash, who was being angelic - barring having to jog every few minutes to keep up with Lancey.

We took the direct route to the gate to our kindly neighbor's farm. In the spirit of anonymity, I've renamed it Magic Oak Tree Farm in blogland, and Lancey seemed to know he was on familiar territory. We rode right along the first
winter grazing field and then found ourselves faced with a choice: north, towards the game camp and the magic oak tree; continuing west, towards the tar road; or south, deeper into the mielie fields.

I could already see that the game were up in the northern part of their camp by the road, so we wouldn't be able to see them if we took the north route to the bottom of the poplar woods. There are horses in the western field and at least one stallion - while Lancey doesn't care, I'm a little concerned about the stallion climbing over the fence. So we swung south instead into unchartered territory and continued on through the mielie fields.

This proved to be a perfect choice. There was nothing for the horses to spook at and no distractions at all from a much-needed catch-up between best friends. I quickly forgot I'd ever felt nervous at all, and Lancey swung along on a loopy rein with Flash right beside him. The sunshine was wonderful. It's hard to think of anything more relaxing, and I think I'm finally starting to get the whole "relaxing outride" idea at last.

At one point a little winter whirlwind grabbed a whole bunch of the dry, fallen mielie leaves and swirled them around Lancey's legs as we crossed one of the fields. My scary, spooky Arab didn't seem to notice. When the whirlwind had passed, I finally had gotten my nerve back, and we had a long trot all the way to the fallow fields on the southern side of the farm.

After turning for home, I realized that actually, I really, really wanted to have a canter. It would be good for my nerves, and it would just simply be fun! But especially with a school pony in tow, I didn't really want to canter heading towards home, so we took a detour to the east and through a tall gate.

This was where Lancey had his compulsory Arab Moment. The fence corner was completely covered in some kind of huge, green bush, which was obviously alive with birds. Lancey didn't actually jump, but he did put up his tail and give some wonderful snorts. Flash - who is definitely the more sheep-like type of school pony - had to grumpily go first, and even then Lancey barely deigned to tiptoe by. He was a bit bug-eyed for a few moments even after passing the bush, but after a little bit of lateral work back and forth on the trail, he realized that he was OK and relaxed completely. I think this is why I trust this horse so much: it's not that he's never spooky, it's just that he never, ever spins, jumps, or bolts when spooked. He just snorts and stares, and I can deal with that.

So even after all that, once we'd walked a little way and both taken a deep breath, I squeezed him into a little canter and we were off. He didn't put a foot wrong, as usual; he was a little forward, and clearly having fun, but I could half-halt him from my seat and if I dropped the rein a little then he just stretched down. As we reached the top of the hill I had to squeeze him a couple of times to keep him going, and when I asked him to walk, he plodded down into it like a good little boy.

With my nerve officially restored, we walked the rest of the way home almost on the buckle, the two little geldings just swinging along as happy as could be. We were out for about two hours and I'd guess we covered around 10km, but I really should get an app to track our rides sometime.

Lancey had broken a tiny bit of sweat when we got home, but he was super cheerful and happy, and I didn't even feel any stiffness or tiredness in our dressage ride the next day.

He also, obviously, turned himself into a mud monster the moment I'd hosed him off a bit.

It was an absolutely perfect ride on the best little white Arabian ever, and in the company of one of the best, smartest, kindest people I've ever known.

God is just so good 💜

A Lesson for Lancelot

 You know when you have one of those lessons that just changes your whole perception of how great your horse really is? That was yesterday for me.

Thunder is back in work (and he's being AMAZING!), but I didn't feel like he was fit enough for a real lesson. Coach comes over to the Friesians every second week, and I lesson on a couple of Friesians and then usually the beloved brings one of my horses over. Usually I ride Thunder, but it's actually been a year and a half since Coach J set eyes on Lancelot, so it was a no-brainer to load him up and take him over to the Friesian farm.

Lancey was not great to load, which surprised me a little until I remembered that the last time this little guy was in a horsebox was actually in February 2020. Sorry, bro! I also started to panic a little bit when I realized how long ago our last lesson really was. Last time I rode him was at Coach's place before I even had the Friesian job, and he was... pretty interesting. I think we maybe did one 20m circle where he wasn't hollow.

At home, I honestly haven't actually schooled him as much as I would like. I've really enjoyed having a good trail horse again, and also, sometimes I just don't have the mental energy to school two horses, and Thunder is the priority right now. Still, we get into the arena once a week or so, and we've gradually been putting on the Elementary and EM movements. He can do a little walk-to-canter and a simple change and a shoulder-in and a few weeks ago we started touching on a bit of travers, renvers, and half-pass. He is really nice off the leg, especially laterally, and the gaits feel solid, but that hollowing thing he does - ugh. I spent so much time focusing on just getting the connection, then getting it solid, then making it so that I can change things within it without completely losing it.

Honestly, when we walked into the Friesian arena yesterday, I was pretty sure that it was going to be one of those lessons where you find yourself on a 20m circle doing the same thing over and over and over as Coach tries to fill in the training holes. I really didn't think we would do more than a working trot.

I was pleasantly surprised, though, with how good Lancey has been. He does have a lot of show miles that he acquired with his previous owner, but he really hasn't been to many places with me, and the Friesian farm can be pretty spooky. Baboons on the hill, turkeys and chickens all over the place, construction noises everywhere, a busy road nearby - he's not used to any of that. But he was totally fine. At one point he was hanging out with a bunch of the turkeys in his paddock.

He did come into the arena a little snorty and tail-flaggy, but that's just the Arab in him. It doesn't mean a thing. Coach did ask when he'd been gelded, though, so clearly he was putting on a bit of a show, LOL.

He had one spook while we were walking around, and then settled completely as we worked, barring one of his little fits where he thinks he's a very scary bucking bronco. I don't think there was a single actual buck in there, just a lot of putting his head down and swishing his tail. It's just excitement.

We trotted around for a bit and to my surprise Coach didn't put us on the dreaded 20m circle at any point. Instead, he grunted at our adequacy and then asked us to do a little lengthening. These are kind of Lancey's party trick with his flashy little forefeet, and as soon as Coach saw that, he started to crack down on us a little. Lancey has a really great trot in him - but I need to ask for that level of engagement in the collected work as well, not just in the medium work. I especially need to keep him floating and forward in the lateral work, particularly in the leg-yields.

To help with this, Coach had us do one of his pet exercises - transitions from medium to collected/working and back again in rapid succession down a long side: medium out of the corner, transitioning to working or collected trot for a few steps over the middle letter, and then medium back to the next corner. 

This sounds pretty simple, but honestly, I find it really, really hard. Getting that medium and then bringing it back quickly enough, and with enough power and connection and balance, to get another medium - it feels super hard. For some reason I have trouble using a strong seat aid to make the downward transitions together with using my leg to keep the engagement from behind. This is definitely homework, on both him and Thunder (and the Friesians, too).

all the pets for the goodest boy

Another new position quirk I need to work on is this thing with my hands being too high all of a sudden. I always used to have low, turned-out hands with straight elbows, and now apparently my hands are floating around near my belly button for some reason? Honestly I have no idea. But shorter reins are the order of the day.

Then we moved on to the lateral work, and the medium-collected-medium transitions had really helped here to get him both forward and engaged. Lancey historically has had a lot of trouble falling down on the forehand (part of his nose-flipping habit) and we had to work really hard to keep his chest up. He can feel pretty deceptive in the mediums at times, since he can do a toe flick and feel powerful even when he's on the forehand, but Coach had me think about riding his ears upwards instead of downwards and that helped a lot.

It carried over into the lateral work. He lost some power in the leg-yield, but actually it turns out that if I ask for more power, he like... obeys and gives me more power. I genuinely still have it in my head that Lancey is a barely-Novice horse when honestly he has almost all the Elementary-Medium moves. The trouble with that is that I ride him like a Novice horse, not expecting enough, even though it's there if I just ask for it. Well, yesterday, I asked - and he delivered!

something approaching straightness? what sorcery is this?

We moved on to the shoulder-in next, and although it was slightly harder work to keep the little guy going, he was much better for that than for the leg-yield. Shoulder-in has always been a huge struggle for me, so I was really delighted when I saw the video and it actually doesn't look back at all.

A continual challenge for me on this horse has been that he feels hollow to me when he's actually perfect. I think it's the difference in his conformation compared to the Friesians that does it, but things are going a lot better now that I think about riding him a little bit hollow to get him to the right spot.

We did a few more medium-to-collected trots on the other rein, and then Coach seemed actually pretty content with his trot, albeit giving us lots of homework to do. I really expected him to pick our lateral work apart, but he didn't. It was fine! It just wasn't forward and powerful enough, until I asked for it to be.

here again I had trouble keeping him uphill in the medium, but dang his butt muscles are awesome

We moved on to the canter work next in a rather startling manner when we were contentedly trotting along and Coach was all like, "OK, now walk only three steps and then immediately canter." I was somewhat discombobulated by this request but Lancey just did it like it wasn't even hard.

The canter work has been the hardest for us - I am generally better at riding the trot than the canter (aren't we all?) - so here I was really expecting Coach to get on our case about something. Instead, he watched us go around for a little bit and then had us go straight into the lateral work in canter.

Let me backtrack a little here and say that this little guy - and his relatives that I've known - has a really, really super canter just by nature. When he's not strong or forward, he gets on his forehand pretty easily (what else is new?), but his canter has always been really balanced. It made him a very nice little jumper for his previous owner and it makes him a very pleasant little dressage horse for me, and it also makes cantering across the fields epic in every way.

However, the hollowness issues we've always had have always been WAY worse in the canter than any other gait. In fact, about a year ago, I couldn't actually canter a single 20m circle in a connection. His previous owner accidentally taught him exactly how to lock his underneck and go 100% hollow - like, ears up my nostrils kind of hollow. Being an Arab, this isn't exactly hard for him, either, so it was quite the mission to get him to stay connected in canter.

Still, it's naturally his best gait, and so once we had that out of the way, the tricks came pretty easy. Hence, when Coach asked for the shoulder-out in canter, we had actually done it before (maybe twice lol).

And you guys. It was incredible. He just popped his bum in and carried on in a lovely little rhythm without even throwing his head. We did that for a bit, and then Coach asked for a leg-yield track to centerline, so we did that,

and when we hit the centerline around X he yelled, "OK, now do a flying change."

I was like, "a flying what now?"

"A change," bellowed Coach.

Lancey has never done a change in his life, but we were running out of centerline by that point, so I put my right leg on and gave him a couple of incredulous spur pokes and what do you know? He popped out a clean flying change and cantered off as though nothing had happened.

Naturally, I fell on his neck and petted him in surprise and awe, and then Coach yelled at me for dropping the connection.

We immediately got back to work on the other rein. Lancey - like almost every other horse I ride - is slower off my right leg. I'm sure it has something to do with my struggles to sit evenly on my left seatbone, but I also tend to feel guilty about not sitting straight and then not reinforce my right leg properly. Anyway, we did the shoulder-out well enough and then again came across the diagonal in a leg-yield towards the centerline.

It was here that Lancey hollowed for the first time in the entire lesson. This is the harder way for him, and he protested by popping his nose up for two or three strides. I actually got him back down again almost instantly with a spur touch from behind and a small take-and-give of my ring finger on the inside rein (which Coach would normally view as a cardinal sin, but it is seriously the only way to get Lancey out of a proper nose-flip) and he went on his merry way with nothing but a sassy tail.

I've been so hung up about these nose-flips that I kind of expected Coach to get on our case about it, but he didn't at all. Actually, I think it's time to accept that we're over the nose-flipping thing. Sure, it's still going to be his go-to resistance when we do hard things, but it's not actually an issue anymore.

It still gave me a bit of a wobble, though, because when I asked him to change on the centerline he hesitated a bit and then changed behind and I didn't follow through. Coach was highly unamused with this, but we went back and did it again with more meaning this time and Lancey did a beautiful effortless clean change. I would have expected him to be the kind of horse to buck through his first few changes but he didn't.

We did one or two simple changes - which were really good, Lancey's canter-to-walk is pretty amazing thanks to that packaged little canter he has - and then did another of Coach's pet exercises. On a 20m circle in canter, I worked on bringing his quarters to the inside. This is a great exercise for collection, connection, lateral response off the leg (and thus flying changes), balance, and ultimately I assume it'll be a big part of preparation for the pirouettes. Lancey and I honestly haven't done a lot of this one, and Coach declared that this would be our homework in the canter: 20m circles with quarters in, and using those to improve the flying changes, like I've done in the past with Thunder and the Friesians.

5 seconds after being yelled at to shorten my reins and hey, what do you know, my hands are better!

After the lesson I cooled Lancey off and then stopped him to ask Coach, "So... is he ready for a Novice test?"

Coach was highly unamused by that question. "He's ready for EM!" he burst out, and then followed a lecture that I thoroughly deserved. "You can sit on the horse and do things," said Coach, succinct and direct as ever, "so do things."

What he was getting at, and what a lot of people have been getting at lately, is that I need to stop worrying over: a) not riding well enough, b) the horse not having the movement, and c) messing up the horse by going too fast. In fact I need to get over my many hang-ups (although my riding nerves are a whole 'nother story) and just. ride. the. horse. To stop stressing over not being experienced enough for this job, or this level, or whatever, and just do it as well as I can.

I have a tendency to ride conservatively, not just in competition, but also at home. I would rather quibble over a movement I find easy than actually get on with things and do difficult movements, which is what I need to start doing. Sure, especially on a horse like Thunder who is at the utmost edge of my abilities, I'm probably going to do the difficult movements badly for a little while - but I'll never learn to do them if I don't do them.

Even in easier movements, I also need to start asking for more from both the horses and myself, to expect better quality work from us both. And I need to quit feeling guilty because I don't school as much as I would like to. Clearly, even if I don't school Lancey as often as I should, he's been making massive progress.

Something Coach said that really stuck with me was "Ride every single horse like it's a Grand Prix horse." Regardless of whether the horse/owner/rider has the aspiration/money/drive/talent to actually do GP, I need to ride every single horse - even a four-year-old - as if it's going to be a GP horse. It's a mentality that has taken my coach a very long way on at least one very unlikely horse. And isn't that a much more positive way of thinking? To be determined that every horse is good enough for the big leagues, and train it like it is? One would at the very least end up with a much higher-quality mid-level horse, and perhaps he would surprise you and go GP anyway.

Lancey certainly surprised me yesterday, and there were a lot of things Coach said that I've been mulling over. I know that I often go into the show ring (especially) with the mentality of "don't mess anything up". Sort of the same way that I approach a horse's training thinking "I hope he makes EM". Instead, I should be going down the centerline thinking "let's rock this thing", and I should be approaching each horse with "we're going to go GP someday".

Of course there's a time and place to ride conservatively. A young horse freaking out at his first show doesn't need more pressure than necessary on him. In general, Coach also places a lot of emphasis on being very slow, low-pressure and correct on a very young horse (in his four-year-old year). Even then, however, there's no reason not to be thinking of GP. He may not be doing a good working trot yet, but the lateral work in walk can be developed early since it's so low-impact. You could do half-passes and walk pirouettes on a three-year-old on the ground if you introduced it incrementally enough.

I've actually been looking into getting some sports psychology or mental skills coaching to straighten out my head, but dang, I could buy a lot of much-needed horse stuff with that kind of money. So I suppose, as usual, it's between me and God to sort out my issues.

One thing I do know: I am SO grateful for this incredible little white Arabian in my life! 💜 Yesterday was an absolute blast, and I can't wait to trot down centreline (not at Novice, lol) on my cutest little dance partner. Reviewing the videos (thank you Friesian owner 💜), I was actually totally blown away by what I saw. I haven't seen ridden video of him in more than a year, and I don't have mirrors at home, so I had absolutely no idea how fantastic he was looking.

I kind of didn't recognize my own horse. Whose fancy lil white Arab is this? It doesn't look like mine!

Thunder updates soon - it's so good to be back on board the big guy. For now, this will be a Lancelot appreciation post. Good boy, Lancey!

God is good 💜

Still With Us

 Yesterday was a day of absolutely wonderful news 💜

don't judge my scanner pictures, I have no idea what I'm even looking at right now

At Standerton Show in September 2019, Arwen and I competed against the absolutely divine Wilgerus Dakota and his rider. Dakota had many in-hand and ridden championships under his belt at that point, and so did the dragonbeast; it was a pretty neck-in-neck competition. He was impeccably behaved and inexpressibly beautiful, and as always, I had to admire his classiness and his wonderful, elastic movement - a rare characteristic in the older type of Nooitgedachter. Even though he's only about 14.3hh, he moves like a dressage horse.

Arwen put in a really great test that day, however, and she ended up being the champion - with Dakota as a very close reserve. His owner suggested that perhaps we needed to bring these two champions together. Dakota was very much on board with this suggestion right at that very moment, being reined in only by his impeccable manners. I wanted one more competitive season for Arwen (which turned out to be the 2020 season, lol whoops), and so we made arrangements for Arwen to meet her handsome beau in the 2020/21 season.

In mid-January 2021, after an unbelievable hassle because her royal dragonness simply WOULD NOT show her heats to the mini teaser stallion and also wanted to absolutely murder the real stallion, I finally caved and gave her some Lutalyse to bring her onto heat. Arwen has never had irregular cycles, but she's an undemonstrative mare (surprisingly), and she was not even remotely enamoured with poor little Sputnik despite his best efforts to romance her. I even teased her with one of the bossier geldings - the only one who could elicit a response from Faith - and she ignored him flatly. As for Dakota himself, who was already on the farm to cover Faith and René, her only response to him was flat-out aggression. Teasing with him proved to be as difficult as it was dangerous, not because of the angelic stallion but because of my psycho dragon mare who just wasn't having it. She wanted to jump on her hindlegs and fight him like another stallion.

Don't let the cute-kid-pony look fool you. She crazy

The Lutalyse worked great. I gave her a little flunixin with it to mitigate any side effects, and she was a little sweaty for an hour or so afterwards, but otherwise fine. Three days later, she came into absolutely roaring heat. She stood in the corner of her field positively screaming for the stallion.

OK, then. I took her over to his field, she pushed me out of the way and presented herself with gusto. From that moment on, she was as sweet as pie with him. His owners have stabled him at my place for the whole summer to avoid moving him during the AHS season, and she's been his faithful little wife and companion ever since. We get it, girl. Hormones gonna hormone.

totally in love

The great thing about being able to do live covers in the field, as opposed to AI or covering in hand, is the fertility rate. Nothing beats natural covers out in the field. All three my mares conceived immediately, and were confirmed in foal by scan shortly thereafter. I tried to get a picture of tiny BabyDragon, a mere speck floating around on the screen, but of course Arwen decided that she was done standing still right at that moment.

The first three months of her pregnancy went without a hitch. She was friends with Dakota, who respected her sassy personality and quick hind hooves, and I was coming up with names for BabyDragon. Then, I had five biliaries at my yard in six days, after a very quiet season. We have awful biliary (piroplasmosis) in our region and normally it's pretty easy to handle, but when Arwen's temperature was up at evening check in mid-April, I was horrified. Not only does high fever cause abortion in mares - and at 89 days, Arwen was still in the most fragile part of her pregnancy - but none of the drugs we have for treating biliary have been researched in pregnant mares.

We didn't have a choice, of course. Working with my vet, I treated her as conservatively as I could, which proved to be nearly impossible. Arwen's fever was uncontrollable except with NSAIDs, and as soon as they wore off, it would spike massively again: 40.0, 40.5, 41. Biliary normally has a biphasic fever that gives us a little breathing room every 12 hours or so, but hers just stayed jammed through the roof except under the influence of the same drugs that were also a risk to BabyDragon.

On the third day, my vet and I had both had enough. Longsuffering Non-Horsy Man and I loaded her into the horsebox (transport stress being yet another risk for abortion or resorption of BabyDragon) and drove her an hour and a half north to the veterinary hospital.

When she stepped out of the horsebox, Arwen was already feeling better. Her fever had come down without intervention this time, but the vets were still quite concerned about her. They asked to keep her overnight and run a set of bloods, which I was entirely on board with. Anything the dragon needs, it gets - and I wanted to give BabyDragon a fighting chance. Even though the stress of overnighting in hospital was yet another risk to BabyDragon, it was better than being stuck at home without the top supportive care that Arwen could receive in hospital if she took a turn for the worse. I went home without my dragon and did the last thing I could: I prayed. My dear friends, online and in person, rallied around Arwen, her baby, and I.

The next morning, the news was very good. Arwen had been dehydrated, but she'd quickly remedied that by, you know, DRINKING WATER like a NORMAL HORSE and not requiring ENDLESS IV FLUIDS (looking at you, Magic). Her blood smear showed that the biliary parasites were gone and she was responding great to treatment. By the evening, the vets were happy to send her home. She had made a great recovery, but they cautioned me that between the fever, the stress and the medications, she had a 50/50 chance of aborting or resorbing BabyDragon.

Three very long weeks followed as I waited. The effects of it all could take a few weeks to affect BabyDragon, and I wanted to be sure that we were out of the danger period before I had her scanned. Finally, yesterday, my lovely repro vet came out and gave me the best news ever.

Blogosphere, meet BabyDragon... or possibly just some of BabyDragon's amniotic fluid, tbh I still don't know what I'm looking at, but the vet says there's a foal in there!

Despite it all, by amazing grace, Arwen held on to her foal. She is completely fine and in great shape, and BabyDragon looks just fine on the scan. And this time I had the good sense to have the groom feed Arwen copious amounts of treats so that I could get my first pictures of BabyDragon!

Arwen is a very civilised mare to foal down - she waxes 48 hours in advance, unlike Skye, who NEVER WAXED, WHY?? - and she usually goes for 345 days. If she does the same with this one, she'll be due on Christmas Eve. We're getting a baby dragon for Christmas!

I am really, really excited to meet BabyDragon. Not just because, you know, BEBE HORSE, but because this is the result of a breeding that I'm really confident in. Dakota is not a big stallion but he's very correct and has attributes that will improve on Arwen: his perfect shoulder angle, athleticism, and wonderful elasticity. Arwen brings her stronger neck and bigger bone to the table. They both have absolutely perfect feet and legs. If we win the gamble that breeding always is, this should turn out to be a very correct hony in the region of 14.3-15 hands, with good legs, a good brain, and elastic movement.

Either way, I'm so happy and grateful after all the drama that Arwen and BabyDragon are both super healthy and well. The great vets of Heidelberg Animal Hospital and Witbos Animal Clinic went to such great lengths to make sure my girl would be OK, and I so appreciate that, as well as all the love and prayers from everyone.

Most of all, I stand awed once again by the wonderful way in which God loves. He breathes galaxies into life, controls storms, bids the waves of the sea - He is so mighty, shown in Psalm 104 below. But the God Who builds mountains and placed the sun in the sky is the same God Who hears our prayers about tiny things, things as small as an unborn horse.

If Arwen had lost BabyDragon, God would still be good, but today, I'm grateful to praise Him for this very good news!

Bonus pic: a Friesian fetus, Nita (Tsjerk 328) x Kalvin fan Stal Bellefleur. Nita is quite a bit further along than Arwen and we could see her baba very clearly! Apparently this is the little one's head. You can kind of make out the eye socket.

Psalm 104

1 Praise the Lord, my soul.

Lord my God, you are very great;
    you are clothed with splendor and majesty.

2 The Lord wraps himself in light as with a garment;
    he stretches out the heavens like a tent
3     and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters.
He makes the clouds his chariot
    and rides on the wings of the wind.
4 He makes winds his messengers,[a]
    flames of fire his servants.

5 He set the earth on its foundations;
    it can never be moved.
6 You covered it with the watery depths as with a garment;
    the waters stood above the mountains.
7 But at your rebuke the waters fled,
    at the sound of your thunder they took to flight;
8 they flowed over the mountains,
    they went down into the valleys,
    to the place you assigned for them.
9 You set a boundary they cannot cross;
    never again will they cover the earth.

10 He makes springs pour water into the ravines;
    it flows between the mountains.
11 They give water to all the beasts of the field;
    the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
12 The birds of the sky nest by the waters;
    they sing among the branches.
13 He waters the mountains from his upper chambers;
    the land is satisfied by the fruit of his work.
14 He makes grass grow for the cattle,
    and plants for people to cultivate—
    bringing forth food from the earth:
15 wine that gladdens human hearts,
    oil to make their faces shine,
    and bread that sustains their hearts.
16 The trees of the Lord are well watered,
    the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
17 There the birds make their nests;
    the stork has its home in the junipers.
18 The high mountains belong to the wild goats;
    the crags are a refuge for the hyrax.

19 He made the moon to mark the seasons,
    and the sun knows when to go down.
20 You bring darkness, it becomes night,
    and all the beasts of the forest prowl.
21 The lions roar for their prey
    and seek their food from God.
22 The sun rises, and they steal away;
    they return and lie down in their dens.
23 Then people go out to their work,
    to their labor until evening.

24 How many are your works, Lord!
    In wisdom you made them all;
    the earth is full of your creatures.
25 There is the sea, vast and spacious,
    teeming with creatures beyond number—
    living things both large and small.
26 There the ships go to and fro,
    and Leviathan, which you formed to frolic there.

27 All creatures look to you
    to give them their food at the proper time.
28 When you give it to them,
    they gather it up;
when you open your hand,
    they are satisfied with good things.
29 When you hide your face,
    they are terrified;
when you take away their breath,
    they die and return to the dust.
30 When you send your Spirit,
    they are created,
    and you renew the face of the ground.

31 May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
    may the Lord rejoice in his works—
32 he who looks at the earth, and it trembles,
    who touches the mountains, and they smoke.

33 I will sing to the Lord all my life;
    I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
34 May my meditation be pleasing to him,
    as I rejoice in the Lord.
35 But may sinners vanish from the earth
    and the wicked be no more.

Praise the Lord, my soul.

Praise the Lord.[b]