Oh, Louie. He is turning out to be quite an interesting pony.
After struggling with neurological problems in his back and hind end and then suffering with a massive abscess, Louie was finally declared sound December 3rd. I got the okay to start putting weight on my leg on December 12th but wasn't allowed to ride until I had been walking unassisted for 2 weeks (lol I didn't ride that night... shhh... it was just Pancho... I swear). But alas, it was time to put the Louie to work.
I had this magical plan when I bought him that I would give him 2-4 weeks off and then start him and we would work all winter and be ready to do cross rails at the first show of the season. HA. That clearly wasn't what happened. With him being crippled for the first 2 months I owned him and me being crippled the next 3 months... almost half a year has gone by and I am just now getting to work.
For Christmas I was given a Pessoa Lunging System by my sister and I started Louie on a lunging routine to start to get him in shape while I practiced walking and gained strength. I've never been one to use tools but, frankly, I had no idea how to gauge how much of my riding ability was lost with my accident (see first post) and I was worried about confusing him with one of my legs being completely gone. I Lunged louie for the first few weeks in just a halter to get him used to my vocal cues.
Let me tell you, this horse is really smart. He picked up on my vocals by the second day of lunging. The funniest thing is that he understands my cues but when we get to cantering he chooses to ignore them, but we're working on that. Also he came with the idea that "good boy" means 'I'm done and I can just stop doing whatever I'm doing and come look for a cookie' - so we've also been working on that.
I finally introduced him to the Pessoa. The first day we just walked with the system super loose. He was fantastic. I could tell he was confused but he was looking to me for guidance which was great! Day two we tried trotting.
His sassy pants got a bit smaller and he started to understand what the system was asking him to do and I ended up with this:
Once he figures out what is being asked with the connection he looks really nice. It definitely gives me confidence and excitement.
Finally, one day we were working on mounting (because hell no am I having a horse who is a jerk when you're trying to get on) and I got a moment of bravery. Not a whole lot of bravery, lets not get excited, but enough that I wanted to be led around at a walk. I didn't have reins and I forgot how frightening it is to not have them even though I used to ride Pancho bridle-less at least once a week.
It's difficult to admit, but, I was terrified of riding him. I wasn't even comfortable walking on my own and the thought of getting on him scared me half to death. So my second ride I had complete control of him but I did keep someone of the end of a lunge line just in case he blew up. He's a pretty cool kid but especially the first few months I had him he had at least 3 explosions every 10 minutes so that was a hard pass on the trust thing.
However, I trusted him enough on my third ride to go solo.
Most of our ride looked like I had mistakenly bought a giraffe and my body was made of jello.
But to be fair, my body (especially leg ^^) was way more stable than I expected it to be. I really thought I would get on and have 0% control over my leg when in reality I have a nice 20% so I'll take that as a win. It's probably all thanks to Shelly kicking my butt once a week and designing workouts for me (thanks!!).
Every now and again we would have a nice moment though! Usually when I was scratching his crest because that's his favorite.
My next ride was nice but I had learned a few important things about Louie. He has no steering and no brakes. Super! I switched him from an eggbutt snaffle with copper lozenge to a full cheek french link snaffle. This helped immensely with the turning and gate sour problems we were having but any brakes we did have were thrown out the window. This was also our first day going over a pole on the ground. To be fair, we had a really nice and undramatic introduction to going over the pole and the two barrels that were placed in the arena. We also had a nice walk trot ride for the most part. He did spook a few times (which is way scarier when you have a bum leg) (also his spooks are like hop 6ft in the air and somehow end up on the other side of the arena) but my neck strap saved my butt.
Everything was going well so we went over the trot pole and I asked for a canter and Louie lost his brain. I mean, I guess he was just doing what he was taught to do his whole life but it scared the crap outta me!
My first thought was to do a pulley rein or pull his face into a wall but logically thinking my leg wouldn't be able to handle that kind of blunt force and I would be on the ground faster than I could say broken femur. I decided it was best to just sit up and let him run until he was done since I could trust my leg to keep me on at least (also neck strap).
Not my favorite first time cantering a horse but I didn't die!
This actually helped me gain a little confidence back in my riding ability. It helped me see that I still know how to assess stressful situations to handle them in the safest and most logical way. Also helped me see that I can still stay on when a horse does freak which was a huge concern brewing in the back of my brain for the last 4 months.
He stopped running after around 5 minutes and we continued our workout like nothing happened, which I was super proud of him for. Over all it was a very successful ride and I was so happy.
Unfortunately, Louie colicked really bad a few days ago (more on that in my next blog post so stay tuned) and has now earned some time off.
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