Barokko's Diary

This it be right

2009-10-05T18:29:00.001+02:00

A beautiful tribute to the horses we've had to let go much too soon.

Goodbye

2009-08-05T05:07:00.004+02:00

Barokko was euthanized yesterday afternoon.

I spent some time with him alone in the pasture in the morning. M came a couple of hours before we were going to leave, and we brought him up to the barn, where we gave him the biggest bucketful of carrots, apples, and horse treats he'd ever seen in his life :)

We groomed him thoroughly while we reminisced about some of the many great experiences we'd had with him. I only had him for 2 1/2 years, and he was ill for a considerable amount of that time, but still I have so many good memories.

When the transporter came he was a bit sceptical as was his norm. Walked up close to the loading ramp, and then planted all 4 feet and 600 + kg in the ground and looked at M at the other end of the lead rope as if to say "Make me." He did this every single time we loaded him, he was never nervous or jumpy about it, went right up to the ramp, and then just settled in for a while. After a couple of minutes of chilling in front of the truck he decided the oh, OK why not, and walked calmly up.

Besides M and me, my husband and I. also came up to the clinic to say goodbye to him. We were there almost 2 hours before our appointment with the vet, which gave I. a chance to spend some time with him, and spoil him with treats. My husband also took a bunch of photos of him.

When the vet came, he started by running us through step by step what he was going to do, and what the effect would be on Barokko. I gave him one last apple, and while he was chewing on it he was given a sedative in the stall. Barokko was very sensitive to sedatives, and was always given pony-doses when he was sedated for exams ;) Within moments he was heavily sedated, and paid no attention whatsoever as the vet inserted a catheter in his jugular vein. We then lead him outside - very very slowly!

We lead him to a quiet corner at the back of the stable. I lead him out, but the vet didn't want me holding him during the actual euthanasia - at first I was a little taken aback by it, he was my horse, I wanted to be the one to hold him as it happened, but then I remembered my big belly and lack of mobility... So my husband took over the lead rope.

An overdose of barbituates was administered via the jugular catheter. Barokko fell within 15-20 seconds. He didn't fight the meds at all, and there was no doubt whatsoever that he was unconscious as he fell. He took only a couple more breaths. After about a minute the vet checked for a heartbeat, and found none. During the next minute or so there were a few muscle twitches, and then he was still.

The vet didn't want me close just yet, but let M go up to Barokko's head for a few minutes, before checking for a pulse one last time. When he had confirmed that it was over he gathered the syringes etc, and left us alone with Barokko.

It was over very quickly and smoothly, and at no point did it appear that Barokko was at all stressed or nervous, he went very peacefully.

Some people prefer not to be present at their horse's euthanasia, but I found great comfort in witnessing it. Now I know exactly how it happened, and my imagination doesn't need to fill in any blanks.

We stayed with him for a while, saying our final goodbyes, and were then able to leave with a sense of closure.

I still have many tears left to shed, but I feel at ease.

Goodbye Barokko.

2009-08-02T15:43:00.001+02:00

Tuesday Aug 4, at 15.30 :(

Good Morning

2009-07-25T10:35:00.002+02:00

Waiting...

2009-07-21T08:35:00.003+02:00

Vet yesterday. Had a long chat with the vet, and came to the expected conclusion that Barokko is no longer able to function as a riding horse at any level, and has no realistic chance of becoming able to do so in the future.

He has a permanent loss of use insurance which applies, so the vet has sent his documents to the insurance company's vet to be approved. Once they give the go-ahead he will be euthanized.

Barokko has touched my heart like no other horse and I will grieve for him for a long time, but I know that this is the right decision.

Next vet date is set...

2009-07-10T00:15:00.002+02:00

I'll be taking him to the clinic again next Mon, so there's just over a week to go. There will be no surprises, the only change is for the worse. It was a last ditch effort, the vet has nothing else left up her sleeve, and it didn't work. So we're basically going there to hear her say that it's over :(

Knowing where it's headed is incredibly painful, but at this point it's also somewhat of a relief just to get some kind of finality -but oh how I wish it could have been a diferent ending than the one we're getting.

Bright & Shiny!

2009-06-24T17:10:00.002+02:00

The past few days it's been hot and sunny, so today Barokko had his first bath since last summer. After a long, muddy winter and spring at pasture without a blanket there was lots of dust and grime to get rid of. But after an hour and a half his white spots were blindingly white, his black was once again black instead of greyish, his mane and tail soft and luxurious, his feathers silky. No more gunk around the eyes, nostrils, and, uhm, other parts that tend to collect gunk ;)

I. is out on a ride as I type, she made sure to plan her ride after his bath so she can enjoy the results of our effortsbefore he has a chance to find the dustiest spot in the pasture and roll in it :P

2009-06-17T14:39:00.002+02:00

Barokko's in his 5th out of the 8 weeks until the next vet check. He's been ridden 4 times a week, gradually increasing the amount of trotting. He's up to about 30 mins of trotting in total, but he's not doing it willingly, they have to keep at him almost constantly to complete the intervals. If he's very fresh (for ex if it's windy) or if they have another horse in front to pull him along then they can get him to trot and canter more willingly, but if he's calm and relaxed it's very hard.

It's been 3 weeks since I last saw him under saddle, so I had M ride him in the arena on Saturday. He's lways calm and unexitble in the arena so it's a good way to check how he's really feeling. In the woods he'll always feel like he's doing better because he's distracted by his surroundigs.

It wasn't good news. Absolutely no improvement, he almost seemed worse than he did 3 weeks ago. We had planned on her doing the first 2 trot intervals in the arena and then going out on trails, but he didn't even make it through the first interval. He had to be literally kicked forward to even get him trotting, he resisted every step of the way, and after about 90 seconds he just stopped, refused to trot any more :(

I can accept having to push him a bit beyond what he wants to do, but having to FORCE him to just trot around the arena, and to have him say NO after just 90 seconds... It's not fair to him, and I just won't do it anymore. I've told my riders to forget about set intervals, take him out into the woods, get as much trot and canter out of him as they can, but no more force.

This Post has Nothing to do with Barokko

2009-05-29T17:24:00.002+02:00

Just found a pic of M teaching her horse to climb trees and thought I'd share ;)

Pasture Buddies

2009-05-29T15:47:00.003+02:00

It was raining the other morning when I go to the pasture, and Barokko and the others were huddling under the trees -

The weather was better today, and one of he mares was enjoying a moment in the sun by the lake :)

Not Responding to the Meds...

2009-05-28T09:25:00.002+02:00

The vet called yesterday with the results of the BAL. Clean again, no infection. There was a very slightly elevated mast cell count which coud be indicative of an allergic or autoimmune reaction, but it wasn't present in any of the previous BAL samples, so it's not causative of his problems. Not much to do about it anyway as he didn't respond to Prednisolone, which would have been the treatment... She said she honestly didn't think it was significant.

She asked how he's been doing since he was at the clinic. He's been on the bronchdilator for 9 days now, and has shown no improvement. She says he should definitely have responded by now. Since he hasn't there's no reason to continue medicating him after the bottle I have is empty. She frankly admitted that she's out of ideas now, getting him fit is the only thing left to try, and he'll have to do it without the relief we had hoped he would get from the bronchodilator :(

We agreed to give him a total of 8 weeks fitness training, and then reevaluate. He'll just have to work through the discomfort he has, oh I hate doing this to him. And I can't even ride him myself :( I have two friends who ride him two days a week each, so he'll be worked 4 days a week. The first day, last Thurs, he was trotted 5*2 minutes, so 10 minutes total. By the end of week 4 he should be trotting a total of 30 minutes, still in short intervals. The following 4 weeks we'll have to push him a bit harder, with longer trot intervals, and adding in canter intervals.

Back From the Vet

2009-05-20T11:20:00.002+02:00

Took Barokko to the clinic yesterday. I brought M along to ride him in the work test. The test was to see how his pulse and respiration evolved when he was worked, and to provoke irritation so she could see him under pressure.

The work test was simple, first the vet listened to his heart and lungs, measured pulse and respiration at rest. She heard a slight "something" in his lungs, but it was very faint at rest. Then 10 mins of forward trot, listen and measure again, and another 10 minutes of forward trot. It was a really hard test for Barokko, already after the first 2 minutes he asked to please stop, and he had to be pushed, pushed, pushed the rest of the time to keep him in trot. He was sooooo tired at the end :(

His pulse and respiration rates were acceptable for a horse out of work, not alarming in themselves. But as he was worked he developed a clear squeaking sound in his lungs, a sign of constriction in the lower airways.

Immediately after the work test he was endoscoped. As expected, his upper airways looked fine, just slightly red from irrittion, but no mucous, and no anatomical abnormalities anywhere. She took a new BAL sample, to be absolutely sure there's no new infection - with long term irritation and constriction of the airways he's much more prone to catching infections than a healthy horse - but she agrees that the problems he has now asre not due to an infection, if he has contracted a new infection then it's secondary.

So if it's not a mechanical issue in the upper airways, it's not an auto-immune irritation, and it's not an active infection, we're left with the worst possible option left - physical damage of the lower airway tissues. My vet got a hold of a vet in the US who is an expert on pseudomonas, and what he had to tell her wasn't good news. Pseudomonas pneumonias are not only sneaky to discover and hard to get rid of, they also tend to leave a mess behind once they're finally eradicated. He said that if the lung capacity of horses who had had pseudomonas pneumonias had been tested before and after, he'd expect every single one of them to be diminished. It's not a question of did they leave any damage behind, but of how much.

The plan now is to bring him back into work while he receives a bronchodilator. He's to be worked 4-5 times/week for the next 2-3 months to increase his fitness level, before she can properly assess how damaged his lungs are. She still has a slim hope that by working him on a bronchodilator, and getting him back up to a good aerobic fitness level he'll be able to
overcome the effects of the damage the pseudomonas have wreaked and be able to function as a sports horse afterward, although he may need to be medicated to do so. However, the most probable outcome is that he will not ever be able to be ridden normally again :(

Confuddling the vet...

2009-05-11T12:04:00.002+02:00

I talked to the vet this morning, and she's at a bit of a loss at his lack of response to the Prednisolone treatment. I'm bringing him to the clinic to have him scoped after being ridden, she wants to double-tripple check that she hasn't missed a mechanical problem in his palate, larynx, or throat, but I don't think that's it, his symptoms aren't similar to any of the horses I've known with either a low palate or constricted larynx...

24/7!

2009-05-08T12:12:00.002+02:00

I've unfortunately developed preg.-related pelvic instability, which not only means I have been absolutely forbidden any kind riding at all until after the baby is born (bummer), but also radically limits my mobility in general. So to avoid having to lead him back and forth, mess with feed buckets etc, I decided to turn him out 24/7 a couple of weeks early. He's already been gradually adjusted to a full day's worth of grass, so no problem there, and he's made good friends with the little pinto pony, so he'll be alright. I did feel like a bit of a bad owner to turn him out full-time right in the middle of a rainy period, but the temps are OK, and there are trees along the fenceline for shelter, so intelectually I know he'll be just fine. He's still being weaned off Prednisolone, but now only needs meds every other morning, so I just bike down and feed that to him at the pasture. Luckily, biking is quite comfortable for me, much more so than walking, and the physiotherapist said as long as it doesn't hurt biking is fine, and actuly to try to bike a little bit each day to keep just some fitness. I'll also start some physiotherapy-led training in water, so I'm hoping I can retain some strength and fitness so it won't be too hard to come back to normal after the baby's born!

I contacted my vet re: Barokko's lack of progress on Prednisolone, he's actually gotten worse lately. She said it didn't sound too good, and asked me to send more detailed description of his symptoms, which I did yesterday afternoon. Today is a holiday, so she probably won't reply until Monday, I'll just have to wait and see what she decides we should do next.

New Friends

2009-05-05T22:45:00.003+02:00

Barokko met the two new ponies today. There's a grey and a chestnut/white pinto, both geldings. The grey was the dominant one, charging at Barokko with flying hooves as soon as he entered the pasture. After about 15 minutes of unrest they began settling down to graze, still keeping a close eye on one another. The pinto hovered around, very curious about Barokko, but not quite daring to defy the grey.

I left Barokko with them for about 7 hours, and when we went to bring him in he was standing by the gate with the pinto, enjoying a little scratching session. Barokko scratched the top of his back, while the little guy reached up to scratch Barokko's shoulder ;) Of course they got distracted from their grooming session when we came close, so had to settle for just a pic of them hanging out.

Taking it easy

2009-05-04T09:10:00.002+02:00

Hasn't been much going on recently, Barokko unfortunately isn't making any progress, his status is exactly as it was before we began treatment... He has to be completely weaned off the Prednisolone before we can consider any other treatment, so until May 20th there's really not much of anything to do. I ride him lightly (walk and a little trot) a few times a week, just to give him - and me - something to do, but I have to admit that it's hard to stay motivated right now :(

On a positive note, the weather's turned into full-blown spring, and Barokko's enjoying spending most of his days on the big grass pasture. The horses that will be spending the summer there on 24/7 pasture are beginning to arrive, the first 2 are moving in today, a couple of teeny little ponies. I'll be taking Barokko over to meet them tomorrow where I'll be able to keep an eye on them :)

Plodding along - and baby news!

2009-04-18T22:56:00.003+02:00

Barokko felt so bad Tues that I decided just to let him chill for a few days before trying again. I rode him briefly today, and he was much more energetic, very willing and eager - but still very very bothered in his airways. So progress in how he feels, but not yet in the state of his airways. Past the halfway mark on the high dosis treatment, as I don't know what to expect I can't judge if it's going well or not... The first 2 weeks - April 6-April 22 - are the actual treatment period, the following 4 weeks are really just to wean him gradually off the Prednisolone, so after the 22nd I'll have a chat with the vet to give her an update on how he's doing.

The good news is that in the moments where he during our ride where he was doing OK were absolutely fantastic! (and inevitably followed by a coughing spell, poor guy).

And now for the second part of the title - I'm pregnant :D I'm still comfortable riding, although I've cut down on how much and which horses. Sitting trot is OK some days, but not others, so that'll probably be no-go pretty soon. But other than that - oh yeah, and going up steep hills my belly hits the cantle - I can ride normally. I don't jump anymore, and only trail ride with company, but that's not due to physical reasons. Obviously, at some point in the future (hopefully a long way away still, but who knows) I won't feel good in the saddle anymore, I'm just hoping Barokko will be up and running for a bit before that happens ;)

I'm due in mid September. My plans for Barokko is to put him on 24-7 pasture once he's done with the meds at the end of May, and let him stay there through August. That'll get the barn work down to a minimum which I'm sure I'll appreciate (and my husband will, too, he's the one doing all of the mucking and heavy lifting right now ;) ). I don't want to just give him a bunch of time off now, he's been off so much because of his illness that once he's back in business I'd like to keep him that way, so in September and October I'll put him in full training with my trainer. I'll look for a half lease who can help keep him in shape up to my due date and when he's back from the trainer's in November. I have no way of knowing beforehand how quickly I can get back in the saddle, how much time I'll have for riding etc, so it'll be really good to have a helping hand. I'd posted an ad online and gotten several interesting responses, so as soon as he's OK I'll contact them again and see if one of them is a good match.

2009-04-15T13:38:00.002+02:00

He's almost through the first week of treatment. It's taking its toll on him, he's not a happy pony right now, lots of coughing and very irritated airways :( I hope it'll turn around soon.

At least it's spring, the weather's nice and warm but not hot, and he's on grass pasture approx 5 hours/day along with 2 other horses from the barn. Anytime one of us three owners come out to get them from the regular turnout all three horses come galopping and neighing to the gate - methinks they like their grass ;)

No infection

2009-04-09T17:55:00.002+02:00

There's no infection, the BAL samples were clean, what a relief!

Today we started him on meds. Prednisolone (glucocorticosteroid) for 6 weeks supplemented with Equimucin (acetylcysteine) for the first 2 weeks. He's to be kept in light work while in treatment, he's just not supposed to be pushed to the point where he starts breathing hard. So it'll be walk and some trot. I'll use the time to keep him supple, obediant to the aids, further work on lateral movements, and I also plan to introduce him to the double bridle.

During the past couple of weeks I've begun getting him used to grass before the fructane really kicks in, and will move him onto 24-7 pasture once as he's done with his meds at the end of May. It's important that he gets the Prednisolone in the mornings because of the interaction with his natural hormone levels, so until the treatment's over it's most practical to let him stay stabled at night.

Getting Worse :(

2009-04-05T19:40:00.002+02:00

Barokko's been getting worse this week, the past few days he hasn't been up to even light trot work. I'm waiting impatiently for the vet to call with the results of the BAL samples. I'm hoping we can get him started on meds very soon, it's very worrying to see him deteriorate again so quickly :(

The waiting game - again...

2009-04-02T09:55:00.003+02:00

Baokko still has a tendency to cough in the beginning of a ride, and sometimes struggles to clear his airways in canter. As long as he's been improving so well I haven't given it that much thought, obviously a pneumonia is going to leave some tracks. But looking through his journal, I realized that his airway status hasn't actually improved the past 3-4 weeks or so, where up until then it had been steady improvement. So I gave the vet a call, and her response wasn't positive. She didn't want him coughing at all, at this point he should have been completely symptom-free :(

So off to the clinic on Monday. She scoped him, and his upper airways were clean. Then she took a BAL sample, which looked clean, but she sent it off for testing just to be sure that he doesn't have a new infektion going on. She doesn't expect there to be, which leaves us with chronic irritation.

If/when the BAL results come back clean, she's going to start him up on an intensive treatment with prednisolone, a glucocorticosteroid often used to treat astma in horses. Hopefully, he'll respond well to the treatment, and both his lungs and his immune system will get a well-deserved break. Only time will tell whether that break will be enough to let him get back to normal after the treatment is finished.

So another week or so, and then it's medication time again...

2009-03-23T14:08:00.002+01:00

I went to the arena again on Wed, this time we rode in the small arena as there was a jumping lesson in the large arena. The small arena has one short side which is very scary, there's a walkway behind the arena wall that the horse can just peak over, behind that there are large plate glass windows so you can see everything going on outside, and an open door wafting lots of spooky sounds in. We've ridden in the small arena 4-5 times, and each time we have to start out with a couple of spooks and spins in that end. Once he gets to work and concentrates he's OK, still tenses up a bit, but will work past it.

He had Thursday off, then we rode dressage at home in the outdoor on Friday. He worked quite well, but didn't have the same energy as he's had recently.

Saturday M took him out on a trail ride, lots of cantering and a few hills. He was fresh and forward, and just a little bit looky. He hasn't been out on trails alone much lately, which always makes him a little more spooky ;)

Yesterday, I decided to jump him. Started out with some trot work over a cross rail and a cavaletti, then on to an upright. He did 80cm easily, but again tired a little quicker than I thought he should. It looks like it's time to increase his energy intake! So his new daily diet (besides hay) consists of: 1 kg Icelandic Power, 750 g Gras Mixand a spoonful of garlic flakes. On riding days he'll additionally get 250 g Speedi-Beet and a dl of oil. I'll see if that's enough of an increase to start with, he's a pretty easy keeper so I don't want to just jack up his feed and risk him getting fat again, he's only just about gotten rid of the flab he accrued while he was out of work ;)

Lots of Room, aaaaah

2009-03-17T18:08:00.003+01:00

Went up to the indoor yesterday, and was lucky enough to have the large arena all to myself :D I decided to push him a little more than I've done until now, as his general fitness level is getting to be good enough for actual work now. He was a little resistant in the initial trot work, but relatively quickly settled down and worked very constructively. I did a bit of sitting trot which also went well, I've sat a few steps at a time, but this was the first time I really worked him in sitting trot. When we got to the canter he - as per the norm - slowed after about 2 circles, and was about to fall back to trot. I've pretty much limited cantering in the arena to 2 circles' worth at a time, but wanted him to give me a little more yesterday, so when he slowed down I got on his case a bit, and then shot him down the long side at a good clip. "Oooh, I can go fast? OK!!!" and off we went - I looove riding in a 20*60m arena ;)

20 mins walk to the arena, 30 mins of good work, and then 20 mins walk back home. He was tired, but not exhausted, which I was pleased with.

First Jump

2009-03-10T22:16:00.003+01:00

M rode Barokko in the outdoor on Monday. They warmed up playing mikado - a game I have my students play, riding patterns over and around poles scattered all over the arena. They played in walk and trot, and in trot Barokko really perked up, pricked his ears toward the next pole and really looked like he was enjoying it. I decided to let them do some more pole work, and set up a line of trot poles for them, which Barokko flew over expertly, beautiful rhythm and swinging over the back.

He was energetic and seemed to be having a lot of fun with the poles, so I decided to set up a teeny little jump with a trot pole leading in, just to see how he'd take it. He hasn't jumped in AGES, so I was expecting maybe a little hesitation or over-jumping, but no. He knew exactly what he was doing, adjusted the approach perfectly, cleared the jump nicely without any hype, and landed in a relaxed canter. I gave him a little more height (75cm) to bring out some more bascule, and he slipped over smooth as silk :) I had them go over a few times each wat, and then I did a little bending work with him at the walk before finishing off with a big hug and a carrot. Good Boy :D

Today I worked him in-hand. I've been training M and her horse in-hand the past 6 months or so, so after I'd warmed him up I let her try to work with him a bit as he's much more experienced with the work than her own horse. Barokko was initially very confused as to what she wanted him to do, as she wasn't quite sharp enough with her signals, which lead to him trying out some interesting new lateral movements :P It was really fun to see him as an in-hand "schoolmaster", it reminded me of the feeling the first time I got to ride my instructor's horse when I was still riding lesson horses, he kept running around sideways with me because I inadvertantly pressed a bunch of buttons I didn't even know existed, and that's exactly what was happening with M and Barokko today ;)

Happy Horse

2009-03-01T13:23:00.002+01:00

One of the other boarders asked if we wanted to go out on a short quiet trail ride. Sure! Off we went, the horses were fresh and happy, but both very well-behaved. Barokko was nicely energetic, and we cantered several times and did a quite a lot of trotting. We chatted and were enjoying ourselves, and by the time we got back we realized we had been out for an hour and 45 mins! So much for a short ride ;) Barokko was tired of course, this was the longest ride by far in many months, but he wasn't exhausted by any means. I'm so glad he likes to run and play in turn out, it's making his rehab so much faster and smoother than I had expected!

2009-02-25T10:51:00.002+01:00

Barokko is steadily improving, being worked 3-5 days a week. The weather hasn't been particularly cooperative lately, sometimes making it very difficult to ride, but we're getting enough work in to keep make progress. I'm so looking forward to spring!

This past weekend M took care of him. Sat she took him out on a short trail ride in the snow, and Sun she rode up to the indoor. She hasn't ridden him in the arena in AGES and she was amazed by the change in him :)

Last night I didn't have the energy to go up to the indoor, so I just rode in the outdoor for about 20 mins, mostly walk (the outdoor is half mud and half ice right now *sigh*). I did a lot of flexions and lateral movements with him, and he responded well, he's slowly regaining suppleness after having become quite stiff during his illness.

Going up Hills

2009-02-15T18:50:00.005+01:00

We went for a trail ride with J on his bike. A one hour loop, mostly walk but with a long trot stretch in the middle of the ride (1.5-2 km). We trotted up 2 hills, which he handled really well, he didn't tire significantly. At one point J rode a bit ahead on his bike to get up short but steep a hill and Barokko broke into canter to follow him up. He's showing much more initiative when we ride, but is generally less looky, jumpy, and tense, great combination :)

2009-02-13T09:18:00.002+01:00

We went to the indoor yesterday. It was the first time going up there alone, so I decided to lead him. I needn't have worried, tho, he was perfectly well-behaved. We met several challenging obstacles on the way (including a guy with a chain saw felling a tree right next to the path as we went by!), but he didn't hop, skip, or jump even once, he just walked calmly, flicking his ears curiously at all the goings on. He's become much more relaxed when we're out and about since he's been put back into work, I think he really needed the mental stimulation.

At the arena he did really well, I rode for about 30 mins total, with a lot of trotting. He felt strong, so I decided to try our a canter, and it was great :) Sharp transitions, correct leads, and a wonderfully big, energetic canter. I only cantered two circles, one on each lead, but it was so fun to feel how powerful he was in those first steps. I'm so impressed by how quickly he's improving!

In the dark and wind and snow...

2009-02-11T08:55:00.002+01:00

Uphill both ways in my bare feet. Wait, wrong story ;)

Yesterday I didn't have a chance to ride Barokko before work, and by the time I got back it was dark. It was quite windy, with hard gusts every now and then making it hard to breathe if you were facing right into the wind. Oh, and it was actually snowing, too ;) But the ground in the arena wasn't frozen and we've just gotten 3 flood lights installed, so I decided to ride out there instead of trecking up to the indoor (with a 15 min walk each way we'd be getting cold anyway).

Barokko was such a good boy, he didn't jump even once, despite the very interesting conditions ;) We trotted quite a lot, this time I did some longer trot intervals than I've done the other rides, and while he tired he kept going, and didn't balk at my pressing him forward. When we didn't have wind-in-the-face issues he was very stable on the bit, I'm truly amazed at the change in him. Still stiff to bend, but I could feel a slight improvement since I began riding again. It'll come, but it'll just take some time.

This morning I woke up to a goodly layer of snow, and was ready to jump out of bed for an early morning ride, hoping to beat the thaw, but it was already too late :( So It's a day off for Barokko today, when the snow compacts like this I don't want to risk anything. Hopefully it'll either freeze or thaw completely soon. It's still snowing right now, so maybe my best bet is to hope for colder temps, so we can get some good snow rides!

Besides being terribly beautiful and impractical, snow is also great when you have an unblanketed horse - rolling in the snow cleans his woolies much better than I'm able to with grooming :D

He's a Brand New Horse!

2009-02-03T10:24:00.003+01:00

It's really real, he's OK :D
It's like getting a new horse, he's completely changed. He's energetic and forward, he really truly feels like a happy horse!

I rode up to the indoor at HRK this morning. We trotted and trotted :) After a few rounds he'd tire, I'd give him a walk break, and then we trotted some more. Beatiful, flowing trot, I'm soooooo happy, I honestly never thought I'd feel him like this again! He's a bit stiff, especially to the left - the pneumonia was worst in the right lung, and I think he tensed up more in the muscles along the right side, making it hard to stretch them to bend left.

He was fairly stable on the bit, he worked well over the back more often than not. There were times he tensed up a bit, esp on the left rein, but he was generally relaxed.

I asked the vet about how I should proceed with him from here on out, she said to give him 4 more weeks of light work under saddle and on the longe, walk and trot FDO, bending work to get him loosened up and supple, but without any real pressure. Gradually add in short canter intervals. After the 4 weeks I can begin training him more normally, W-T-C, gradually begin jumping, hill work, etc.

Oh, and I think I better get out the dressage saddle again, we didn't really fit in with the crowd at HRK this morning :P They were all on their body clipped, sleek and fit dressage machines, in their dressage saddles with white pads and wraps - and Barokko in his winter woolies, impossible to get clean, long loose mane, no noseband, in a Wintec jumping saddle with a lambskin-covered breastcollar, blue and yellow pad, and me wearing both helmet and safety vest! ;)

We Trotted!

2009-01-29T13:16:00.002+01:00

As planned, I rode Barokko today. In the beginning of the walk he cleared his airways a lot, and coughed a few times, but was more forward than last time I rode him. I did some bending work with him, transitions between walk, halt and rein back, and a little shoulder-in and haunches-in.
Then I tried a transition to trot. Good transition, but a very unenergetic trot. Initially I thought oh no, it's just like it was before, he'll fall back to walk within a few steps, but then he kept going! He trotted a full 20 m circle before I brought him back down to walk. Then I tried again, and same thing, not a lot of power, but it was trot, and he kept going until I said stop. We trotted 6-8 little trot sets, without resistance. It was the flattest, dullest, most boring trot in the world, and yet totally, amazingly fantastic :D

I'm beginning to believe now that we've gotten past the worst of it, and that it'll be forward from here. It's a loooong road back, but it looks like at least now we've gotten started!

Progress on the Longe

2009-01-28T13:19:00.003+01:00

I've been longing Barokko the past few days, and he's been progressively better and better - maybe, maybe, maybe we've broken through, I hope I hope!

Today, he trotted like I can't remember seeing him move in over a year, he was loose over the back, softly seeking FDO, a consistant hoof's overstride (he otherwise hasn't even tracked up in ages unless he was head up and hot as a firecracker). He seemed very energetic, and gave me good, sharp transitions.

Tomorrow I'm going to try riding him, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll be able to feel just a little improvement under saddle, too!

4 More Weeks

2009-01-26T12:35:00.002+01:00

I haven't been quite satisfied with how Barokko's been doing in these past weeks since he finished treatment. He's slowly becoming more fit, he can go on a 1 hour trail ride (walk and a little trot), without becoming exhausted (he'll be tired, but I don't feel like I need to get off and carry him like I did in the beginning;-). He no longer hyperventilates, even after exercize, which is a big difference.

But he's still very unwilling to go forward unless he's either being pulled along by another horse, or he's high as a kite (for ex alone in the woods). In calm circumstances he will walk very slowly no matter what I do, and when I ask for tror he'll willingly transition, but after 3-4 steps fall back to walk. I've tried getting after him with the whip once, I just wanted to be completely sure that I wasn't being too soft on him because I'm worried, and he's just taking advantage of that. Well, he got pretty mad about the whip, and did run off, but as soon as I then stopped using it and rode properly again he went flat :(

I talked to the vet, and although she said it wasn't good news, she also said sometimes pneumonias take a long long time to clear up, even though all of the bacteria are gone. He's been in light work for 4 weeks, and she said to continue 4 more weeks. If he gets any worse I'm to call right away, as that could indicate a new infection. If there's no change she'll take a look at him after the 4 weeks, as it could be a sign that there's permanent damage to the lungs. If there's improvement, great, then he apparently just needed more time.

Our arena has finally thawed, so I've been able to longe him the past few days. He's seemed a bit more energetic, yesterday he even gave me a small buck and popped into canter - only for a few strides, but still, taking the initiative to canter at all is definitely a new development! So I'm keeping my figners crossed.

Spanish Walk

2009-01-21T10:10:00.003+01:00

I've begun project spanish walk with Barokko. Did the first lesson last night, introducing him to the concept of "hey, she has treats!" and then on to "hmm, I think have to do something to get those treats," followed by "oh, doing stufff without being told to doesn't get me treats."

This is what we're working toward, although I think we'll do it without the silly costume :P

I tickled him with the whip on the leg at the same time as lifting up on the inside snaffle rein (in the finished spanish walk under saddle the lifted rein will be the only aid). Praise and a treat when he lifted the leg. Initially I rewarded any lift, and once he understood that concept I waited to praise until he held the leg in the air for a bit, rather than just plonking it down again right away. I didn't reward if he moved around, I wanted to make it clear that I wanted the lift, not movement. Then when the jambette is good I'll add in forward movement.

Barokko is VERY motivated by food, and with about 20 small treats I got him to lift and hold his leg up for about a second and a half, by rein aid alone. Pretty good for the first lesson :)

Bouncy Boy

2009-01-18T15:57:00.002+01:00

Barokko was very bouncy today. I lead him out on a walk - well, when I say walk I mean I walked, he trotted when he was being good, and jumped around all over when he wasn't ;) Luckily, he never gets strong on the rein when I lead him, even when he's being silly. He was very obedient to my stop signal, he'd stand completely still when I told him to, but walking calmly was beyond his capabilities today.

I cleaned out his tail and re-braided his mane - when I undid his braids, a big chunk of mane fell out, yanked out by the root :( But he's got so much mane I couldn't even see where it had been pulled out from, there are certain advantages to having Friesian genes :P

Exciting Encounters ;)

2009-01-12T16:07:00.003+01:00

The weather right now is really messing with the footing, freezing, then just warm enough to get everything soaking wet and then freezing again, sigh. Yesterday was one of the freezing days. I tried to do some ridden walk work first in the arena then in the flattest area of the pasture, but it was just to hard and bumpy, Barokko took teeny tiny steps and couldn't relax. So instead, we walked out to the woods with another boarder.

There's a lake just at the start of the woods, and yesterday there were kids skating on it, playing hockey = some very wierd noises echoing through the ice every time they hit it with their sticks. Both horses got themselves pretty worked up about it, but we made it past with only a little dancing.

Then we had an exciting encounter with a Daschound and its owner - it came running up from behind, yelping like mad. Barokko's not normally scared of dogs, but he really didn't like having it running around right behind his hind legs! The owner came running out of the woods screaming at the dog (not making my job of getting Barokko to relax any easier), and then he decided that throwing a glove at the dog would be a good way of distracting it - well, that might have worked, except he hit Barokko instead of the dog >:( BUCK! and a HUGE flying leap forward, but he didn't run off. I was able to stop and turn him right after the initial shock reaction. I gave him a good pat, and as soon as the dog had been leashed we walked on.

No further encounters until we had to pass the lake again on our way home. They both tensed up as we got close to it, and when we turned the corner - away from the scary sounds and toward home, bad combo - they got themselves worked up, Barokko would have set off at a galop if I had let him, while T was bucking in place, and unseated his rider (she was riding without a saddle). Luckily, she caught his reins so he didn't run off, but he jumped around the rest of the way home, completely uninspired by Barokko, who had now calmed down and was just mosying contentedly homeward.

I was very pleased with my horse after that ride, good boy :)

In-hand in the Cold

2009-01-06T22:50:00.001+01:00

In-hand in the cold, originally uploaded by eudiaptumus.

The ground is frozen solid, and unfortunately there's quite a bit of ice in the arena, so it's not good for longing or riding right now.

I got the book "Twisted Truths of Modern Dressage" by Philippe Karl and the DVD "Classical versus Classique" with Philippe Karl and Christoph Hess for Christmas, and have re-watched my PK DVD's (again). I've begun working with PK's bit flexions in-hand in halt and walk while the arena is no-go, as it doesn't take much space, and I can do it even in the pasture or the stable ;)

I've done a bit of this work before, but this past year has been very confused trainingwise with my injury and Barokko's illness, and we haven't really gotten into a rhythm of doing it regularly. I've done a lot of cavesson training with Branderup inspired trainer, but I've forgotten the bit work. But now is as good a time as any to get back to it :)

While Barokko works really well on the cavesson, he has a tendency to hang heavily on the bit, so my focus is to get him to relax his mouth, and lift his head instead of bearing down on my hand. You can actually see in the picture that he's on the way to pulling down on the bit when I was trying to bend his neck away from me.

This evening I trained with him in the stable aisle, the third day in a row of these exercises. He was much more relaxed today than the previous days, playing with the bit, and bending his neck more freely (because of the relaxation). He seemed very comfortable with the bit, and even after we had finished continued to play softly with it while I cleaned his hooves and got him ready for bed.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T18:13:00.002+01:00

Welcome to 2009!

The past ten days I've put Barokko very slowly back to work, riding or longing one or two days, then one day off, walk work with short trot intervals. He tires quickly, and is hard to motivate for trotting under saddle. On the longe he's more willing to go forward as long as I keep the intervals short, he's even popped into canter a few times on his own. When we ride with another horse he'll happily follow in trot (again, as long as the intervals are short), so I use that to get him trotting a bit.

We've got a very long way to go, but now we've started the journey :)

First Ride

2008-12-21T17:23:00.003+01:00

Went out on our first ride in forever yesterday morning. I started in the arena, then one of the Icelandic riders asked if I wanted to come along for a little ride in the woods. Barokko was a good boy, only got really silly once - the Icelandic pony got a bit worked up (we were on a path where she was usually allowed to canter, so pretty miffed about having to walk instead), and just then a couple of bikes came racing up from behind, and off Barokko went (so the pony got a little gallop after all, trying to keep up) ;)

Good news was that he wasn't overly tired or winded afterward. He cleared his throat once, but other than that I didn't notice anything alarming about his breathing, fingers crossed that it'll stay that way.

This morning I longed him for about 10 minutes in walk and trot, and he gave me some beautiful work through his topline in the trot work, I was very impressed and happy :)

Green Light = GO! :D

2008-12-19T23:04:00.002+01:00

Got a call from the vet this afternoon with the results from the lab - his BAL samples were completely sterile, that means HE'S OK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He beat those pesky little pseudomonas' butts, yipee :D

She said to start walking him and a little bit of trotting during the next 4 weeks, and if no problems arise in that time I can consider him completely cured. It'll take several months to get him into full training, but by summer he should be back in business ;)

Good News

2008-12-15T13:31:00.002+01:00

Went to the vet this morning. She listened and listened and listened to his lungs, and couldn't hear a thing :D The BAL samples came out looking much more clear than the last two times. So I'm tentatively very hopeful, it looks like he may have gotten through! We need to wait for the lab to report back on the samples, it should take about a week until we get the results back, but I may be able to start him up again (slowly, slowly) during the Christmas break :D

Pasture Puff

2008-12-05T09:13:00.002+01:00

Barokko finished his meds in the weekend, and is now just chillin' in pasture with his buddies ;)

He's finally moved to his permanent stall - we've been moving him around to keep him in a window stall even though he didn't have one of his own, but now he does, and he's settled in well. It's a smallish stall, but it has a nice big window, only a half wall between him and his neighbor, which means lots of social contact, perfect for Barokko :D

I'm going to start working him carefully in-hand a few times a week, just at a walk to get him used to doing something again without putting pressure on his airways until we're sure that the infection is gone. I'm going to work with him today for the first time in ages, it'll be interesting to see what he's like.

Horses Will Be Horses...

2008-11-28T12:20:00.003+01:00

Everything's been going pretty well with giving him the meds, keeping the catheter clean, and entertaining him sufficiently to avoid him banging down the stall wall. Two days ago he had rubbed the catheter during the night, pulling out one of the stitches. The cateter was still in place, so the vet just put in a new stitch when he came by anyway to check on him and give me the rest of the meds I needed.
Last night I was the one evening I couldn't make it to the barn myself, so one of the other boarders had offered to clean the catheter and check on him. When she gets to the barn, the entire catheter is lying in the bedding >:( Bad pony!

I hurried home to check on him, cleaned it up and removed the remains of the stitches. He was a little swollen around where the stitches had been pulled out, but otherwise it looked OK.

This morning I had the vet out, and we decided he might as well just come out and inject the meds directly into the vein the last 3 days rather than placing a new catheter. Looking at the positive side of things, without the catheter he can be turned out with the other horses again, making him happier and my job a lot easier ;)

2 more days of meds, and then 2 weeks until the next BAL samples, then 1 more week until the results come back, hopefully squeaky clean!

First Snow!

2008-11-23T13:17:00.003+01:00

We got first snow :D Barokko's not allowed turn out because of the risk of the catheter getting dirty or pulled on, so I spent the morning in the summer pasture with him, giving him a couple of hours to graze and hang out within eyesight of the other horses. I quickly realized that keeping the lead rope away from his feet was a bit of a hassle, and came up with sticking the rope in the velcro meant for attaching a neck cover. That kept the rope off the ground:

We went for a walk on the now icy roads yesterday, and his concave shoes have really great grip! Good thing, too, because he decided it would be a good idea to start trotting downhill in a particularly slippery spot, silly horse - but he didn't slip :) So it looks like he won't be needing studs this year, cool.

2008-11-21T21:52:00.003+01:00

Today, Barokko started his second course of meds, 10 days of IV antibiotics through a catheter in the jugular vein:

Unfortunately, the catheter means no turn out for the duration :( I'll take him for a walk while the others get turned out in the morning, and then again mid-day before I go to work, and once more in the evening.

2008-11-16T16:53:00.002+01:00

During this past year, Barokko has filled out a lot. That unfortunately means that he can no longer fit his turnout rugs!
I covet a set of Rambo XL rugs for him (lightweight, middle weight, heavy weight), but his vet bills proclude me from spending money on much of anything else right now :/

Instead I made a pair of extentions for the front straps. Nylon straps with a bucke in one end, and a D-ring in the other, covered in a red fluffy thingy so they won't rub:

Not perfect, but at least it's wide enough to move in, graze in, and roll in comfortably :D

Not there yet...

2008-11-11T12:29:00.004+01:00

Took Barokko to the clinic today. He loaded and hauled like a pro both ways, good boy :)

Bad news, still lots of gunk in his lungs :( She took new BAL samples that will be sent out to confirm that it's still pseudomonas and not a new secondary infection. When the results get back in about a week, he'll start a new round of antibiotics. If it's still pseudomonas he'll have to have the medication administered intravenously = vet visits ten days in a row. I'll handwalk him every now and then to give him a change of scenery, but no riding, he's too affected by the infection, so he'll get a few more weeks of kicking it as a pasture puff.

Here he is at the clinic, waiting for the sedatives to kick in:

Getting Better :)

2008-11-06T09:26:00.003+01:00

I longed Barokko yesterday to see how he looked, and it was like seeing a brand new horse!!! He was forward and energetic, and even in canter I just said canter and off he went, with no signs of stopping until I told him to transition. He wasn't back to normal by a long shot, still hyperventilating and clearing his airways, but much much better than he's been in weeks and weeks. When I turned him out afterward he kicked up his heels and ran off in a series of bucks, bringing tears to my eyes, he hasn't shown that much joi de vivre in AGES :D

He's not out of the woods yet, if even a few colonies of pseudomonas survived the treatment they'll be multiplying like crazy right now, and with a good chance of having acquired resistance to the antibiotics he received, but regardless of what happens further on I'm just so thrilled to see him feeling good again now, acting like the young, fresh, silly horse he is.

Tuesday he's going back to the vet clinic for new BAL samples, and about a week after that I'll have the results. Until then I'm keeping him on probiotics to ensure his digestion stays healthy, and lots of green tea just in case it has an effect on any lingering bugs. Luckily, he loves the tea - he gets it soaked in his beet pulp, in both his water buckets, plus a few handfuls in his feed, just for good measure ;)

Little update

2008-10-29T23:56:00.002+01:00

I've started Barokko on probiotics, the meds were wrecking havok with his digestive system, but he seems back to normal now.

Since he started treatment I've hand-walked him rather than riding, but today I decided to ride him (still just walk), to see how he felt. He didn't feel very good at all :( After about 20 minutes he felt so off that I ended up hopping off and leading him the rest of the way home.

Meds routine!

2008-10-27T10:46:00.005+01:00

Barokko's on oral meds, 50ml/day of "Baytrix Mixtur," which is seriously foul-tasting. For the first couple of doses we tried to distract him with apples and beet pulp, but he was still clearly bothered by the taste for a while afterward.

Then I remembered that he has a Horslyx respiratory lick which he loves, with a strong menthol, eucalyptus, and aniseed flavor. We tried giving him a few licks before giving him the meds, and then letting him lick again afterward, which worked a charm! He doesn't exactly like getting the meds, but it's much less of an issue with the lick. We're on day 5 of 10, so it's a relief to have found a routine that works :)

Peat Moss Bedding

2008-10-27T10:03:00.003+01:00

This weekend we bedded Barokko's stall with peat moss. I've never worked with a peat moss stall before, so I'm really curious to see how it'll work out.

So far the only draw back I've noticed is the color - peat moss is dark brown, making it difficult to find the manure when cleaning the stall. Luckily, Barokko does his business mostly in one corner, so it's not spread out too much. Because the peat moss doesn't smell like much of anything in itself, the manure smell is more noticable than in a straw or shavings stall - but there's no ammonia smell, so all in all preferable IMO!

There's much less waste than even a shavings stall, when on shavings I'd usually remove one small wheelbarrow of waste every day, on peat moss I took out less than a third of a barrow-full! Of course it's a new bed, so there wasn't any soaked bedding yet, but there's no way I'll end up removing nearly as much as I did with shavings.

The peat moss is also much more stable than shavings, leaving a very level bed even after he's been in all night, in contrast to the hills-and-valleys landscape in his shavings stall every morning.

So far I'm very positive, I bought enough to try it out for a couple of months, and after that I'll decide whether to continue or go back to shavings.

Bad News

2008-10-24T09:19:00.002+02:00

I was initially relieved that Barokko had pneumonia rather than allergies/astma, but now I'm not quite sure that what he has is preferable... His bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) samples came back positive for these guys:

They're pseudomonas, an opportunistic genus of bacteria. Their main claim to fame: drug resistance. Not only do they have an intrinsic resistance, they're also terrific at developing acquired resistance. I'm so very grateful that the vet didn't just give him a broad spectrum antibiotic as soon as she diagnosed pneumonia, and that my earlier vet never realized that he had pneumonia - a regular course of broad spectrum antibiotics wouldn't stand a chance against these guys, and would only have pressured tham toward greater multi-resistance. The fact that he's never received antibiotics might just be the one thing that'll give him a fighting chance!

He just started a 10 day course of very agressive antibiotics. Even if he initially improves with the antibiotics, if they aren't been erradicated completely they'll just come back with a vengeance, so after 10 days off medication he's going back to the clinic for new BAL samples. They'll take about a week to grow out, so we're looking at another 4 weeks of uncertainty.

Diagnosis

2008-10-14T00:16:00.002+02:00

Pneumonia!!! He's got pneumonia... The vet took a bronchoalveolar lavage (fluid squirted into the lungs through the endoscope, and retreived again), which will be analyzed to determine which organism(s) is to blame. The results should be back early next week, and then we'll begin agressive specific treatment. The prognosis is generally good, but she didn't want to say too much before she knows exactly what we're dealing with. So for the next week I just have to keep him happy and comfortable and in very light work.

Hindsight...

2008-10-09T23:37:00.003+02:00

I was looking back through Barokko's journal, trying to get a timeline for when he started showing symptoms of his respiratory issues. Made me realize how long it's actually been since his training has been really on track :(

In Sept-Oct last year, Barokko was showing really good progress. I was getting a better handle of keeping him steady on the bit, we were working on things like counter canter, leg yields in trot, turns on the haunches, lengthenings in trot and canter, and beginning collection work. The way our training was going I expected to debut him at 2nd level at a November show.

In late October he began feeling a bit not-quite-right. At first I thought it was a problem in his front legs, he'd had a bit of swelling in both after a day where some ponies broke into the gelding pasture and they spent all day racing up and down the hills, but I later found out that the swelling was incidental, the NQR'ness I had felt was due to a saddle fit problem. Vet located the problem, told me to try to ride bareback, and if he felt OK then ride him without the saddle until the inflamation had settled and of course to get a new saddle. I rode him bareback for 2 weeks, and got some swesome work out of him in that period. Those 2 weeks in November last year were actually the last really good dressage rides I've had on him...

After the 2 weeks were up, he felt good in his movement and didn't show any pain in his back. We hadn't been on trails much in those two weeks, so the first few ride with a saddle were out in the woods, to let him stretch his legs a bit. After we'd gotten that out of our systems, I was eager to try out the new dressage saddle. Tried to ride him in the arena, but he resisted my forward aids, and again felt NQR, sigh... I checked his back, I tried riding him bareback, tried him in the jumping saddle, but looked like it wasn't a saddle problem this time, now it was something new. He had a bit of a cough, but I didn't think a cough could lead to this kind of reaction...
I called the vet, who suspected a systemic infection. He took a blood sample, and the day after came back with a diagnosis: he had had a mild case of tying up!

The next weeks were spent mostly walking, trying to get him recouperated after having tied up. I adjusted his diet to an EPSM-type diet, made sure to keep a quarter sheet on him for warm-up/cool-down, was very strict about loooong walks before and after exertion, got him out of the stall for turn out or walks several times daily, really did everything in my power to help him get better.
A few weeks later he was doing better, I began slowly adding some interval work to get his endurance back up, began jumping a little again both in the arena and on trails etc.

But alas, already in early Feb, once again he showed a lot of resistance when I asked him to go forward, pinned ears and all. Vet diagnosed a minor infection of the airways, gave him a course of expectorant and told me to keep him in moderate work, as he needed to get the mucous loosened up to get rid of it. After the meds he did get better, and we were able to get back to training. He still didn't go forward nearly as willingly as he did pre-tying up, and training-wise we were almost back to square one.

In late Feb, a bright, sunny, brisk morning, he let me in on his secret dream of being a bucking bronc horse :/ Spiked me head-first into the dirt, resulting in a concussion and neck trauma. A combination of pain and confidence issues meant that I didn't ride much in the next 4-5 months. In March I moved him to a new barn, and got a new trainer who helped me work with Barokko in-hand, which was new for me. I used the in-hand training to keep him supple and to build his topline despite not riding him.
When I did ride him it wasn't really good. Some things were developing positively through the in-hand work I was doing, for example he's gotten really good at lateral movements, but he was very unwilling under saddle, dull to the leg aids and resistant when asked to go forward. But I thought maybe it was to be expected to some degree? He was on 24/7 pasture April-mid August (= fat and lazy?), not ridden in dressage in ages (= dull to the aids?), out of shape from irregular riding (= quickly tires, so that's why he doesn't want to go forward?), and 6 years old (= teenager with attitude?), PLUS I was out of shape from not riding - maybe it was naïve of me to expect anything better???

During the summer he was ridden more often on trails to get him back into shape, and I began riding him more often myself, also, as I regained confidence on him after having practiced on other horses in the meantime ;) When I worked him on the longe I could see that his gaits were good, the residual stiffness after the tying up was completely gone, he was fluid and smooth in his movement, and his topline nicely developed from the in-hand training.
But he's still not rideable in dressage. He does not want to close in the throatlatch and he does not want to be pushed more forward than what he offers himself. He'll give me some very nice transitions, but when asked to keep a good trot or canter he'll resist strongly, tense up, and if pushed too hard he'll pin his ears, swish his tail, and maybe even throw in a buck for good measure - he is not a happy athlete...

During the past few weeks I began noticing he was again coughing a little, and that he easily became winded when riding or longing. I decided to get the vet to check him out. He saw Barokko on the longe, and pointed out that a lot of Barokko's mannerisms that I've gradually become accustomed to, actually are symptoms of respiratory problems. Unwillingness to go forward in a generally energetic horse, pushing his nose down and out (like a parody of FDO) in trot and canter, exagerated rounding of the back in canter, unwillingness to stay in canter despite a perfect, sharp, obediant transition... All of these things have been "normal" for Barokko for months, I've just been blaming myself for not being able to ride him well enough, or not keeping him in good enough shape.

I also became more consciously aware of his breathing patterns, he hyperventilates after very little exertion, and the breathing rate remains elevated for an abnormally long time after exertion. He doesn't cough very often, but he regularly prrrr's to clear his airways. Recently, he's also begun tossing his head a bit, as though his nose tickles (I tried out a muzzle net this morning, and he did toss his head less than he has done the past few days, so maybe it helps that particular symptom a bit, I think I'll continue to use it). Also, his exhalation is sometimes noisier than normal.

When the vet was at the barn, he said he thought it was hypersensitivity/allergy, and to get Barokko moved to a stall with more fresh air, and less dust. I moved him across the aisle to a window stall that same day, and within a couple of days I noticed some improvement. A few days later we had gotten a new stall ready for him, in the far end of the barn, away from the hay loft and grooming areas, the cleanest stall possible in the barn. He's been in the new stall for almost 2 weeks now, but he hasn't improved since the initial improvement from a non-window stall to the first window stall...

I ran into the vet Tuesday, and had a chat with him about Barokko. He basically said if he's not better now, he might not be able to get better without a complete change of environment. I don't have a car, so I'm limited in how far away I can move him, and in the area where I'd realistically be able to have him boarded, there aren't any alternatives that can offer a better environment than the one he has right now... We talked about the possibility of medicinal treatment, but he kind of hummed and hawed, and finally said OK, try a cortisone treatment, and we'll see what happens, but even if it works it's not a treatment he can be maintained on due to the side-effects. He said there might be some other medications that could help, but he seemed very unwilling to suggest any other way of treating him than moving him to a new environment - not that he had any suggestions as to where I could find a better environment for him.

I'm calling a different vet (highly recommended specialist in respiratory problems) tomorrow to get a second opinion, I want him checked out more thoroughly so I know exactly what I'm dealing with, what the treatment options, are and what the prognosis is for him.

Mounted Orienteering

2008-10-05T20:51:00.002+02:00

Once or twice a year, AG arranges a group ride for all of the "big" horses and Icelandics together - today was the first time since I moved Barokko here. Today's ride was a mounted orienteering in Rude Forest. 5 teams of 3/4 horses & riders, one big horse on each team and the rest were Icelandics. Each team had prepared a station, and had a designated starting point. The teams rode from each of the starting points at 11 AM, and continued around the route, bringing home the last station they visited, so there was no clean-up afterward.

At our station, the teams were each given a small bag of rubber bands, and had to present a minimum of 3 braids (on horses and/or riders) to complete the station objective :P

When I woke up this morning it was stormy, rainy weather, cold and wet wet wet, to the extent that I wasn't sure we'd go through with the ride. Barokko had the day off yesterday because I was visiting my parents, so I was planning on riding out regardless, but riding in lousy weather is always a bit more fun if you have company ;) Luckily, only one person bailed out, so we completed the orienteering.

Because of the weather, we agreed to just pick up the objectives at each station, and complete them back at the barn. The ride took just over 2 hours, and I was LOVING my Musto jacket and Ariat boots by then - my chaps had soaked right through so my legs were drenched, but my upper body and feet were toasty and dry :)

I actually always end up having a blast when I ride out in rain like that. It's really hard to motivate myself out of the door, but once I'm out there and as wet as I'm going to get it becomes something of an adventure, and I end up feeling pretty heroic about the whole thing :D

Long day at the barn

2008-09-28T12:41:00.002+02:00

Spent about 8 hours at the barn yesterday getting Barokko's new stall in order :/ We "just" had to clean a very dirty stall (floor to ceiling), remove a broken waterer, fix the hinges on both doors, get rid of a bunch of old junk, put up a new manger, etc etc etc... M came to ride him in the evening, and when they came back we had just put in fresh shavings and filled his hay net - phew, completely busted!

Now he's got probably the best circumstances I'm able to offer him, and we'll just have to wait and see how he progresses, and then report back to the vet. Fingers crossed!

Is Your Horse a Rock Star?

2008-09-26T11:03:00.005+02:00

According to the Horse Personality Quiz ( http://www.horsepersonality.com/quiz.html ), Barokko is definitely NOT a Rock Star. The quiz assesses 8 personality traits:
Dominant or Submissive: How much control do they need in their world?
Energetic or Lazy: How much effort do they put in? How do they express themselves? How much energy do they carry?
Curious or Afraid: How do they approach life and learning?
Friendly or Aloof: How are they motivated? How do they fit in socially?

Barokko is a combination of Submissive, Lazy, Afraid/Curious, and Friendly. The Afraid/Curious trait could go either way, I had a really hard time answering the questions for that trait. My conclusion is that Barokko has been SLAF, but is becoming SLCF as he matures.

SLAF - The Wall Flower (Baby- Barokko)

Wrap these sweet, kind, gentle horses up and keep them safe. They are not very brave and tend to internalize their worries. They want to please and will try very hard for you, but they can be pushed too fast very easily. They make few demands of you and are quite content to perform the same tasks repeatedly as long as you are pleased with them and the jobs are not to strenuous. Quiet enough for the beginner once they understand what is expected of them.

SLCF - The Steady Eddy (Grown-up Barokko)

If you are a novice or amateur, this is the horse for you. They are quiet and predictable, loving and engaging, willing to learn new things, willing to hang out with you and do nothing. This is not your big ego, career-oriented horse. They are happy to just be. Consistent and loyal, all you need to do is enjoy!

How do your horses' personalities score?

Birthday Ride

2008-09-25T10:22:00.002+02:00

Yesterday was my birthday, so the weather was of course perfect :D I love summer, but when fall throws those crisp, sunny days I love them just as much!

So what better way to celebrate your birthday than to start the day with a trail ride! Barokko and I rode out alone, and had a ride where I was thoroughly reminded of what an awesome horse he is. But his breathing wasn't good at all, it's gotten markedly worse these past few days :( He was very energetic and eager, wanted to go-go-go, but every time he trotted or cantered he began having problems almost right away, and very soon had to go back to a walk. So we mostly walked, but every now and then he'd ask for more, and I'd let him for as long as he was comfortable. We popped over a few little jumps in our way (well, he saw them, and pulled toward them so they ended up in our way :P ), which he flew over like a pro, and moseyed around in the undergrowth. We walked the entire last 30 mins, but still his breathing rate was noticeably elevated when I turned him out even after I'd untacked and brushed him over. So it was a great ride, and yet it was heartrending to feel his frustration at wanting to but just not being able.

Oh please please please let him get over this...

Little moments

2008-09-23T23:56:00.005+02:00

Last night, I went to the barn at 10 PM to feed the horses. I gave Barokko a huge hug, and M suggested I hop on while she took care of the feed buckets. Uh, OK, why not ;)
She gave me a leg up, and I spent the next 10 minutes or so on my horse - in his stall, no helmet, no equipment, no demands, no pressure, just me and Barokko being me and Barokko. I gave him a good scritching in all of his favorite places, and he stood there sighing and yawning, enjoying every second of it :) He wanted to return the favor, but couldn't really reach me, so he just gave my left boot a thorough muzzle-nuzzle :P

One of those little moments I'm sure I'll remember and cherish many years from now.

The vet stopped by today...

2008-09-23T23:02:00.002+02:00

...with good news and bad news.

Good news - his teeth are all grown out and are spick & span perfect, they didn't even need to be floated

Minor bad news - he's a leetle overweight right now, that's what good quality hay gets you ;)

Less minor bad news - he's been diagnosed with hypersensitive airways/allergies :( The past few weeks he's seemed more and more irritated in his airways, sometimes coughing. No mucus, no fever or other signs of infection, so I've given it a little time to see if it passed by itself. Didn't.

He's already on shavings, our hay is very good quality, we only sweep the aisle and drop down straw/hay from the hay loft when the horses are out, but it's not enough, he has to move to a stall with better air circulation, sooner rather than later.

At least the timing is pretty good, two boarders are moving out October 1st, so there's a little more leeway with stalls right now than there ordinarily would be (existing boarders can chose which stalls they want before new boarders come in). I've been able to secure a stall for him in the opposite end of the barn, far away from the indoor grooming area and the trap door to the hay loft (the two main dust-producers). It's a large, airy stall with a Dutch door, so he'll have more room and lots of fresh air. It's cooler in that end, but not draughty. The stall hasn't been used lately and needs a little fixing up before he can move in, which we're planning to do in the weekend and then move him. For now I've moved him to a temporarily empty stall with a window he can stick his head out of. It's in the same area his old new stall is in, so probably not good enough for him to stay in, but at least it's better with the window until he can move permanently.

There are 2 stalls facing each other in the end he'll be moving to. The other one needs more thorough renovation, but it's supposed to be ready for a new boarder by November 1st. Unfortunately, he'll be pretty isolated down there until then, as the feed room lies between that section and the rest of the stalls, but at least he can stick his head over the door and see the others, and of course he'll be turned out with them during the day. The vet made it very clear not to wait before moving him, so he'll just have to deal...

Back again

2008-09-23T22:39:00.002+02:00

We were in Rome all of last week, so no horses for me - toward the end of the week my horsey withdrawal symptoms were so bad I just HAD to pet a pony, so I went up to say hi to a carriage horse standing in front of the Colloseum, and naturally it tried to bite me - how rude :/

Barokko got lots of hugs and scratches when I got back ;D

During the week one of the other boarders looked after him. She trains with the same trainer, and knows what we've been working on, so she tried to train the same things with him. She trained him in-hand a couple of times and rode him once, so it was a light week for him :)

M took care of him in the weekends. On Sunday she rode to HRK and jumped him in their outdoor jumping arena. He's never been in the jumping arena before, and was very tense initially, spooking a couple of times at silly nothings. She started out by riding him over ground poles scattered around the arena until he calmed down and she was able to keep a steady rhythm over and between the poles. After a few small warm-up cross rails they jumped a course of 5 60-80cm jumps twice. He was cool with most of the jumps, but there was one with scary wavy planks that he really didn't like - until they put a regular round pole above the top wavy plank, then he jumped it without hesitating :P Silly pony...

Going Sideways

2008-09-11T11:35:00.002+02:00

I've worked on lateral movements quite a lot, both in-hand and under saddle. I've mostly done them along the fence on the long side to give him a barrier, and he's gotten really good at them - resulting in him offering all sorts of sideways stuff when we go down the long side - woops :P

So today we practiced going STRAIGHT along the fence, and did the lateral stuff in other areas of the arena. I've recently introduced him to half pass in walk, which he did awesomely today on both reins. One teeny tiny step closer to the canter zig-zag, woohoo :D

Can I Come In?

2008-09-08T22:41:00.001+02:00

Can I Come In?, originally uploaded by eudiaptumus.

I hang out at Barokko's home all the time, but he's never been to mine - until now!

M was going on a trail ride, and we were chatting while she groomed and tacked up. He was ready for the ride before we were ready to stop talking, so we decided to go home and get my bike, so I could come along with them.

A 10 minute walk and a world away he drew quite a crowd of the neighborhood kids as he came clippety-cloppeting down the street, stopping at no. 31 and ringing the doorbell - well, OK he didn't ring the doorbell, I did, but either way it brought out DH and his camera :P

I hopped on my bike, and we retreated out of suburbia and headed back to the trails. Barokko was energetic and eager, making sure that I got plenty of exercize trying to keep up :D It's fun to ride alongside him every now and then, and see the development in his musculature and movement. He's such a cool horse :)

Un-blue...

2008-09-08T11:33:00.003+02:00

Barokko was turned out alone Thurs-Sat to keep him from running around too much. Friday evening the swelling was almost gone, and he trotted out sound. I found a very small area of localized heat on the inside of the cannon bone, well away from joints and tendons. I concluded he probably just knocked himself, and his off-ness must have been a result of the swelling rather than the injury itself. It's still swollen in the mornings, but a little less each day. As long as he stays sound and the swelling continues going down I'll start working him lightly. I'm taking a break from riding anyway because my neck has been pretty painful lately, so it'll be longe and in-hand work - I'm glad I've learned how to work him constructively from the ground so he doesn't lose training just because I'm NQR!

Saturday, he moved to a different stall. It's bigger than the old one, and he's much less messy in the new stall :) Speaking of messy, there's a handful of hens that wander around at the barn. They poo all over the aisles and make a mess out of the bedding if the stall doors are open.So before leaving this morning, I went theough the barn to close all the stall doors, and in one of the other horses' stall a hen had made a little nest in the straw, and didn't want to leave when I clucked at her. I went in to shoo her out, and when she got up and fluttered out I could see that she had been sitting on an egg!! The dumb bird had cracked it, tho, otherwise I would have brought it home for breakfast :D

Blue!

2008-09-04T13:05:00.001+02:00

Blue leg, originally uploaded by eudiaptumus.

When I took Barokko out of the stall this morning, his left hind was swollen :(

Warmish to the touch, but no pulse, couldn't find any cuts or punctures that could have led to infection. The swelling started just below the hock and went all the way down to the fetlock, along the back of the leg. After many bouts of dew poisoning + 2 seperate cuts on that leg that needed cleaning and treatment, he's gotten a bit bratty about letting me handle that leg, so it's hard to determine whether he's sore to the touch or not.

Walked out sound on it, but a little off in trot. Considering how wimpy he usually is with pain I was surprised he wasn't 3-legged lame ;)

I hosed his leg, and hand walked him for about 15 minutes. The swelling went down a bit, so I walked him another 15 minutes, and then put on a cooling wrap, and turned him out alone in a small enclosure so he won't run around on it.

New Setting

2008-08-30T11:55:00.002+02:00

I finally got permission to ride at HRK's facilities - although they haven't billed me yet :P They have 2 indoor arenas (20*60 and 20*40), a longing rotunde, 3 outdoor dressage arenas and 2 outdoor jumping arenas - a little fancier than the non-standard size, poorly lit, sloping dirt arena we have at AG ;)

I rode up there last weekend, but their outdoor show had been moved inside because of rain, so I wasn't able to ride in the indoor. I went out to the outdoor arena the show was supposed to have been at, it was marked out with letters and judges booths, and took the opportunity to desensitize him a bit to riding in an unfamiliar arena. He was quite tense, and I wasn't able to get much work out of him, but I rode him around in walk and trot until he relaxed, gave him a good at and then rode home again.

I tried again Thursday morning. There were a handful of other riders in the large arenas, seemed to be the bereiters and bereiter students training their dressage horses, and awful lot of piaff-passage-pirouettes-flying changes etc being trained - and there I was on my long-haired, feathered pinto, just trying to get him to relax and stretch FDO :P

He was more tense than at home of course, but still very rideable, didn't shy at anything. It probably helped that there were other horses there. He did catch a glimpse of himself in the mirror at one point, where he stopped, stared, and whinnied - I guess he's missed being able to see himself LOL

I was able to ride much more focussed in the indoor than at home, no footing issues to consider, mirrors to check my position and check his straightness etc, plus being the worst rider in the arena was a big motivational factor :D It'll be really good to have the facilities available through the fall/winter months, I'll probably ride there 2-3 times a week. It takes about 20 mins to walk there from the barn, so that's a good warm-up.

Picture overload :)

2008-08-17T22:48:00.002+02:00

"Oh, hi mom, you're here to bring me in and groom me? Hang on a sec while I roll first - and check out my totally cool hairdo!" :P

I love the cute little white spot on his chin!

Messily eating beet pulp while I groomed:

Close up of one of his braids against his "black" coat:

Shoulders back and look up! Working on bending to the left (the harder side):

and to the right (easier to acheive bend while stretching FDO):

Notice his feathers - last time I clipped them was in mid-Febuary, and they're still not completely re-grown yet!

A little spook - it wasn't quite as scary as my facial expression makes it look like ;)

Working on shoulder-in:

and haunches-in, a little more tense. Usually, he's more relaxed in HI than SI, but not today:

Truck = Horse

2008-08-17T22:43:00.004+02:00

The other day a truck came into the yard while I was grooming Barokko. He tensed up quite a bit, which I thought was wierd, he's usually very relaxed about cars & traffic. He kept trying to turn and look at the truck, which was tricky, as he was tied with his head in the other direction. When it parked, and opened the back doors, he lifted his head up high and belted out a welcoming whinny - apparently he was expecting there to be a horse in there :) Truck in the barn yard = horse transporter.

2008-08-15T22:44:00.002+02:00

Went on a long trail ride this evening with one of the other boarders. We weren't planning on anything special, just rode out and enjoyed a beautiful evening, ended up being out for 2 1/4 hours, stepping into the yard in the bright pink light of sunset :)

I've brought him in from the big pasture, he's back in the regular herd, turned out about 8 hours daily instead of 24-7, plus I've upped his oil to give him more accessible energy, and it seems like a good decision, his canter today felt strong and powerful, and his trot big and bouncy :)

He got chased through the fence again today :( Luckily, he came through it OK, one shallow cut on the right thigh, and welts on both fores and across the hindquarters. We'll split up the herd during the weekend, and try to put Barokko and the alpha (who chased him) together again on Monday when we're both there to keep an eye on them.

A little jump

2008-08-10T22:58:00.001+02:00

A little jump, originally uploaded by somebear.

HOT!

2008-07-30T15:17:00.002+02:00

Poor pony's melting away in temps around 30ºC...

Saturday I worked him in-hand just before dark, finishing with some ridden walk work.

Sunday we went for a trail ride with DH on his bike. We had a nice morning ride to Jægersborg Hegn, and on the way back we went over the very scary bridge over the freeway - except it wasn't scary anymore, he just plodded along on a long rein without taking notice of the traffic, even when a very noisy motorbike passed underneath. Good boy! :D

Monday I brought him in from pasture, hosed him down, fed him beetpulp and supplements soaked in lots of water, groomed him, considered tacking him up, looked deep into his very sleepy eyes, hosed him down again (he was already dry) and lead him back to pasture ;)

Tuesday I dusted off my bike and rode along with M. We went to Egekrogen and explorerated, it's a small area but with lots of cool little paths. We even found a little log they popped over a few times. M rides him on a loose rein on trails whenever possible, and it was really neat to see how differently he moves now compared to a few months ago. Most of the time in all gaits he stratches forward and out, with no tension in the lower neck muscles, and his trot has regained a lot of quality.

We had a lesson this morning. I warmed him up on the longe, and then started with some lateral movements in-hand before mounting. I practiced bending him, shoulder-in, and haunches-in. This was the first time we tried ridden haunches-in in a lesson, and our trainer was very impressed by him :)

I talked with my trainer about how he's progressing. I've never trained a horse in the Academic Dressage system before, so have nothing to compare him to, and comparing him to horses trained in a more modern dressage system is kind of apples and oranges. The goals might be the same, but the path sure isn't ;) Anyway, she told me there's no reason to worry, he's progressing very well, and she's absolutely convinced that he'll be well above average when he's "done," so to just keep at it, and not get impatient!!

We discussed what the best training program would be for him, and what I'll do is to continue to combine in-hand work (all gaits) with ridden dressage (just walk for now, more focus on bending and lateral work), supplementing with trail rides (all gaits) on a loose rein (focus on transitions between all gaits, hill work, and a little jumping).

Hard at Work

2008-07-25T13:49:00.002+02:00

Barokko's taking the day off today, after a tough week.

Tuesday M went on a long trail ride with him. They rode to EGE where they met J, and then they rode together in Rude Skov. They got lost, and ended up being out for about 3 hours! Mostly at the walk, but that didn't keep them from having an exciting ride, the horse J was riding is pretty hot, and not used to going on trails ;)

Wed I worked him in-hand. After warming him up I gave J a leg up, and she sat on him while I continued working him from the ground. He's been very resistant when I've tried to ride him in the arena beyond a walk, and I haven't been able to figure out why, so in the spirit of experimentation we decided to try in-hand work with a passenger, and see what happened. What happened was that he tried really hard to do what I asked, but he couldn't for very long at a time. He's OK with having a rider on him, he's OK with working correctly over the back, but both things at the same time is apparently physically very hard for him. It was really good for me to see it from the outside, I was beginning to think he might just not LIKE dressage :/ I think he likes it fine, but it's just really hard for him.
I've already stepped up the amount of riding I do, and I'll make sure to do a lot of hill work with him when we're out and about. Dressage-wise we'll continue from the ground and when I ride I'll focus mostly on getting all the signals in place at the walk. Trot & canter will come when he's ready.

Yesterday, J had another horse to ride, again a hot youngster without trail experience, so Barokko and I rode up to EGE to be her steady-eddie companions. We had another long ride, including getting lost :P Barokko was a star, perfectly behaved, and we had a lot of fun :D It was a hot day, and he was very tired on the way home. I got off and led him the last km or so which he seemed to apprechiate. Back at AG I gave him a bath, a tub of water, and a big handful of lucerne with electrolytes.

Playing With Poles :)

2008-07-20T21:43:00.003+02:00

DH helped Barokko and me have some fun with poles this morning. He laid out 3 poles for us in the arena, and I started out just walking over them while warming up (worked from the ground today). I gradually let him go further out on the longe line, until I could long him over each of the poles so he crossed them in exactly the place and angle I indicated :) With a little practice we were able to do the same thing in trot also.

DH gathered the poles in a fan, and I longed him over in walk and trot, I love watching the way horses stretch and swing over the back when they go correctly over a line of poles :D

The few times I've tried longing over poles or cavaletti haven't been too successful, he's gotten really stressed. I wanted to keep it easy and fun for him, so in the canter I just put him over a single pole.

I finished up by practicing figure-8's in walk.

2008-07-15T10:12:00.002+02:00

Barokko and I were both lazy dogs on Friday, I was going to work him in hand, but neither of us could really be bothered to do much of anything. I did about 10 minutes of bit acceptance exercizes, then closed off the arena, took off his bridle and then we just puttered around a bit. Horsemanship freaks would just about die for the connection Barokko and I have together on the ground, he is so absolutely trusting of me after all of the in hand and longe work, he's completely in-tune to my body language and follows my every little cue to stop, go, turn, back up, go past scary things like the horse-eating hay bales behind the fence at A... ;)

Saturday he got the day off after a long week, and then Sunday I tacked him up for some dressage. I tried to work him the same way I'd do from the ground. Started with lots and lots of walk work, stretching him FDO, working on alternating the amount of bend, keeping him stable on the outside rein. He tenses up easier under saddle than in hand, and this slow and quiet work in the beginning really helps to get him relaxed. Then I began doing walk-trot-walk transitions, just a few steps of trot at a time, focussing on the sharpness of the transitions. Once they were quick off a light aid I asked for longer periods of trot, asking for FDO in the trot, which he soon began to give me fairly stably. Then I started the canter the same way, first many brief transitions, and then on to asking for a steady connection. I got it, I also got a nice stretch FDO in the canter, and then I got a buck >:( Just one, but it shattered my relaxed contentment. I kicked him forward, cantered another circle, took him into trot, cooled him down on a few big figure-8's, and then I had to get off, my whole body was shaking like crazy.

It was a really good ride, the only times he was unstable on the bit was when he tensed up either because of scary things outside the arena, or if what I was asking for was a little difficult for him. I felt like all the imperfections in the ride were things I could correct with some more riding, unlike previously where I saw no rhyme or reason in his connection issues. So now I just need to get my confidence back so I don't have a nervous breakdown every time he throws in a buck - I don't mind other horses bucking with me, but when Barokko does it... *sigh*

2008-07-10T12:02:00.002+02:00

M's back :) She's been busy with school so hasn't ridden Barokko regularly the past couple of months, but she's back now, and will be riding him Tueday evenings. Barokko hasn't been ridden alone on trails for a long time, so he's very tense and looky when they ride out. She's found a good route into Jægersborg Hegn, and will be riding the same route until he settles down with it, and then they'll start exploring more. This Tuesday their ride was quite exciting, they got caught in a thunderstorm when they were almost an hour away from the barn, and met all sorts of scary things (including a bunch of teenage guys hanging out in an empty drain pipe!). He spun around a few times, and bolted once (a group of roller skiers snuck up on him on the other side of a hedge, and all of a sudden popped into view with a mighty clatter of sticks and swish of little wheels), but all in all handled it very well.

Yesterday afternoon, I had a lesson. Barokko was tired from the previous day's adventure, and it was hot and muggy and there were tons of bugs >:/ After a few minutes I put his fly mask over the cavesson and doused him in fly spray, which helped a bit. I loosened him up on the longe in walk, he stretches FDO like a pro now. Our trainer noted that the muscles on the underside of his neck have become markedly smaller - and that he looks good after losing some weight ;)

I did some haunches-in with him in-hand, he understands the excersize pretty solidly now, so she told me to begin varying the angle, sometimes steeper, sometimes more shallow, to ensure that I can place him exactly how I want him. Also, she had me alternately lengthen and shorten his frame.

We tried shoulder-in also, but he was so distracted by bugs and two other horses in the arena that we couldn't really get it together. So instead we put reins on the cavesson and she gave me a leg up. For the first time I was able to easily bend him in the cavesson, and I got a pretty stable connection on the rein. We worked on ensuring he was connected on the outside rein, not hanging on the inside, and also on getting him to follow the connection into FDO.

She had me vary the pressure I put on my seatbones, lifting them up from his back as I asked him to stretch, and weighting them more when I asked him to come back up. Eventually, this shift in the seatbones should become the primary signal I'll use to indicate stretch vs collect.

Bit Training

2008-07-07T21:10:00.002+02:00

I watched Phillipe Karl's 1st DVD again last night, refreshed the section on teaching the horse to "give the mouth" from the ground - mobilizing and relaxing the jaw, encouraging light chewing & swallowing, bending through an upward action on the inside rein, and lowering/stretching by a steady support on the outside rein. Initially, he just ignored waht I was doing with the bit, but after a while he realized there was actually a point to it, and began to show more interest and cooperation. I ended up being able to walk with him on the bit in inside and outside bend on both reins, and shoulder-in on both reins.

I'm feeling really hopeful about being able to work through his problems with bit acceptance with the help of this bit, I just wish I had found it sooner! I had never imagined that there could be SUCH a big difference between snaffle bits. Sure maybe a horse might prefer one bit to another in a direct comparison, but in Barokko's case he said "NO!!" to both thick and thin, unjointed, single and double-jointed, loose ring, eggbutt, and Boucher snaffles - and "oh, OK then, lets give it a shot" to the Myler. I'm glad I kept trying :)

Fly Mask

2008-07-06T19:57:00.001+02:00

The new fly mask, originally uploaded by somebear.

FLIES! Hate them!
Barokko's been really bugged the past few days, so we got him a fly mask. Last one left at the store, so I had to take what I could get = boring black - I had been hoping for something like bright pink :P

Transitions

2008-07-06T17:11:00.004+02:00

Another trail ride today. I rode a lot of transitions, and during the ride he became markedly more sensitive both upward and downward. His canter transitions were obediant, but he quickly ran out of gas. We met a tiny jump on the trail, and as soon as Barokko spotted it he pricked his ears and upped the tempo, so I popped him over. He judged it perfectly, not a hint of over-jump, and continued in smooth steady canter after the jump, good boy.

Trail ride!

2008-07-05T18:05:00.004+02:00

Haven't trail ridden Barokko in AGES, but today I put on the jumping saddle and off we went, with DH on his bike along for the ride :) A beautiful, HOT, summer morning ride. We rode up to EGE, hosed down Barokko to cool him off, and then rode home again.

He was wearing his new bit (Myler Comfort Snaffle Wide Barrel Loose Ring) and he didn't protest against it a single time. Keeping my fingers crossed that I've finally found a snaffle he doesn't hate!

That's the good news. Bad news is that everything else sucks ;) He hasn't been ridden much since May. I still have confidence issues (namely a lack thereof) when riding Barokko, so I made a decision to ride a lot on other horses and the focus on the in-hand work with Barokko until I felt like getting back on. I think it was a good decision, I've gotten a lot of good, fun, challenging rides in on other horses, and when I rode Barokko out today I could really feel a huge difference, I felt much more secure.

All of his buttons need major re-tuning. He was a good boy, very looky but not tense. But he more or less ignored all of my aids. Legs, seat, reins, everything, no finess in the signals whatsoever. He wasn't doing anything wrong, it was just as though every aid I gave had to go through a wall of cotton wool before reaching him ;)

I'm going to be riding more now, I'm off work for 3 weeks starting next week, and I'll be spending my vacation on re-awakening him to ridden commands (from the ground he's super obediant, quick off my signals etc, it's not because he doesn't want to listen to me in general).

Dog eats Horse (well, sorta)

2008-07-03T08:08:00.002+02:00

I have full time work this week, boy that's a drag ;) Especially because it makes it really hard to plan things like the farrier! M said she'd come up for it any day except Tuesday, and when does the farrier say he's coming? Tuesday of course... Luckily, DH was able to work from home, so he took a couple of hours off in the morning to go get Barokko from pastureand hold him while he was shod.

He brought home some of the hoof trimmings for the dog, which kind of conjured up a wierd feeling - my dog wolfing down something that was once part of my horse :P

I finally got a Myler bit to try on him, it's a loose ring wide barrel snaffle. Odin wears this same bit, and I really liked the feel of riding with it, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Barokko will agree. It's just for trail riding right now, but I want him to be as comfortable as possible, and I'd like to be able to ride dressage with a snaffle eventually so we can show, too.

He went on a long trail ride yesterday with M, so today he'll get the day off, the only time I'd be able to ride him would be in the heat of the afternoon, so even if he wasn't tired from yesterday I doubt I'd get much of anything out of it anyway. I'm looking forward to trying the bit tomorrow!

Wow! Good Boy!

2008-06-28T18:37:00.003+02:00

Barokko was very very good today!

He had the day off yesterday, today I worked him on the longe. He was very stable on the "bit" in walk and trot, and pretty good in canter also. His transitions were spot on in all gaits, so I practiced trot-halt-trot and walk-canter-walk, which both went really well.

I worked on changing the rein through the middle of the circle without stopping, and we ended up with ca 8m figure-8's (in walk), fluid and flowing with good bend :D

The grass is a little less potent, and he's lost a little weight, he's beginning to look like a horse again, rather than a spotted hippo :P

2008-06-22T20:30:00.002+02:00

Barokko was well-integrated in the herd today, phew :)

I worked him in-hand again today, he was more relaxed and attentive than Friday where I last worked with him. It gave me a better feel for the development he's been through while I've been gone. At the end of the session I got on and walked him bareback, it felt really good to be back on him, he's super comfortable without a saddle ;)

We have a lesson tomorrow morning, where I'll ride for the first time (until now we've only worked in-hand in lessons), I'm really looking forward to it :D

Cleanup time!

2008-06-19T23:13:00.002+02:00

I had planned to ride a little this morning, but when I got to the pasture, Barokko was standing by himself, covered in sweat marks, and caked in dust. Seems the alpha gelding had been chasing him away from the herd, and Barokko looked exhausted, dragging his feet as I lead him back to the barn.

I decided not to ride since he was so busted. I fed him, gave him a bath, washed his tail, and braided his mane. He livened up while he was getting his spa treatment, and had a sqeaky clean spring in his step on the way back to the pasture ;) The alpha still wouldn't let him into the herd, so he hung out by himself, but I'm sure he'll be allowed back into the group soon.

He's home :)

2008-06-18T23:34:00.002+02:00

Drove up to my trainer's place this morning to pick up Barokko. He was just finishing up his breakfast when I got there, but perked his ears when he saw me, and kept turning his head toward me as trainer & I stood talking, so it looked like he remembered me ;)

She worked him in-hand every day he was there, and some days she also rode. She worked him in a cavesson both in-hand and under saddle. She said the biggest issue she had with him was keeping him relaxed and focussed on the job at hand. As soon as he was "in the zone" he was great to work with, a fast learner, physically supple and sensitive... but if he got tense, everything went out the window - yup, I know that feeling ;)

Under saddle her focus was on teaching him to accept contact and rein aids on the cavesson, weight aids, shoulder-in and haunches-out. She was very surprised and impressed by how sensitive he was to the weight aids, but that's also been a top priority for me since day 1! He apparently accepted the cavesson really well, so I'm looking forward to trying it again :)

Barokko for sale???

2008-06-16T03:05:00.002+02:00

I was woken up at 5 AM this morning by my phone ringing. I directed it to voicemail and went back to sleep, but then it rang again, same number. Annoyed, I again sent it to voicemail. Third time the number called I picked it up, and the conversation went something like this:

**********
Growwwwl, who is it?!

"Is this Susan?"

yeah, what

"I just wanted to let you kow that I've just bought your horse on xyz.dk for 12.000 DKr."

uhmmmm, you what?

"Your horse is for sale on xyz.dk"

OK just a second, I'm the the US, it's 5 AM, I'm not quite awake yet, I think I must have misunderstood what you just said. Lets start over.

"Oh, sorry to wake you, I just called to let you know that someone has put up a sales ad for your horse on xyz.dk. She has a bunch of pictures of you riding Barokko, and says he's her horse and that he's for sale. She priced him at 25.000 DKr, but then dropped it to 12.000 when I started inquiring about him. Her information about him didn't really add up tho, so I got suspicious, and asked around about the horse in the forum, and one of the other users found your webpage where she had taken the pictures from. She figured out who you were, and then I found your phonenumber in the directory."
**********

That woke me up! She mailed me links to the ad and the forum discussion, as well as a copy of their private message discussions. I quickly established that the person in question is a very bad scammer, seems to live in the other end of the country and doesn't actually know where Barokko is. As soon as I felt certain that Barokko wasn't actually in any danger of being stolen I relaxed, and was able to just feel a little outraged on Barokko's behalf at her setting the price so low - if someone's going to sell my horse, they should at least get a good price for him (12.000DKr = 2500 US$) :D

I contacted the moderators at the site, and they froze her account. I'm going to call the police Monday. As nothing was actually stolen (except for 10-15 copyrighted pictures) and her scam attempt was so grossly amateurish that she was found out within one day of posting the ad, I'm guessing there won't really be any possiblity of sanctions against her, but I'd love for her to get a visit/call from a cop to give her a good scare, and alert her parents to what she's up to on the web (she says she's 16 in her profile, and all of her past threads etc all point toward her being a teenager).

What a way to start the day :/

Updates

2008-06-15T03:56:00.002+02:00

I've gotten two short updates from my trainer.

The first few days he was a little insecure in the arena, so had been a bit tense to work with, but as soon as he settled in properly she reported him to be both nice and easy :D Her next message said that he was progressing well, and that she had increased his grass time because he had seemed hungry - hard to imagine Barokko hungry, I know, but that's what she said ;)

Vacation is great, and I've had a blast riding my friend's PSG schoolmaster, a lot of fun playing with a trained horse :D But I miss Barokko, and I'm looking forward to getting a full report on what he's been up to, and to get back to work with him again :)

He's off!

2008-06-01T19:47:00.002+02:00

Cleaned him up, braided him, packed up all his stuff, and he was ready to go. Lead to the truck, let him get a good hard look at it, a little pat on the butt and up he went. He stood quietly the whole ride, except for a few whinnies ;)

When I unloaded him I lead him directly to his paddock. He walked right in, sniffed hello with his neighbors on both sides, and then tasted the local grass. He'll be turned out in a big grass pasture during the day, and in the paddock at night.

I just got a text from my trainer, she said he had been calm and relaxed all afternoon, and he had already become good friends with a mini gelding ;) I'm glad he's so easy-going, he always settles in quickly when I take him to new places, that's one less thing to worry about.

There won't be much news here for the next couple of weeks, while Barokko will be working hard and I won't :D

Perfect morning

2008-05-27T11:05:00.002+02:00

I had the morning free today, got up early and went out to the barn. Sunny, light breeze, and the whole world smelled brand new and squeaky clean after yesterday's rain :)

Barokko was drinking at the lake when I got to the pasture - I was hoping to catch him sleeping ;)

I groomed him while he ate his breakfast, and undid his maintenance braids - I wanted to check if the hair had gotten wet inside the wraps (it hadn't).

I put in a quick French braid to keep the mane out of the way and then tacked up. I put on the dressage saddle for the first time in several weeks, and the cavesson with reins in the side rings.

I started out by warming him up in-hand, and then hopped on. Riding with the cavesson was really wierd, the sensation at the other end of the reins is completely different from a bit. I spent some time just trying out his reactions, and pretty quickly he relaxed and stretched FDO into my hand. For the first time ever I felt like Barokko had a long neck! :-O

Interestingly, he didn't invert a single time, didn't toss his head once. I wasn't able to keep him "on the bit" 100% of the time, but his evasions were much smaller than usual. I hope the arena has dried up enough tomorrow that I can try trotting/cantering (too slippery today).

After the ride I re-braided his mane, and lead him back to the pasture.

2008-05-25T12:01:00.003+02:00

I couldn't help laughing when I saw him like this yesterday, showing off his big belly :D

Luckily, I still have some of Coco's old girths, the shortest of them fits Barokko perfectly now ;)

We had a lesson today, working in-hand again we looked at cantering a bit, also shoulder-in and travers. He was very stable in the top line today. He seemed more comfortable working in the morning, most days the past week I've worked him in the afternoon where it's been warmer. I'll be more aware of putting his training early or late, see if that helps a bit on his forward button.

He doesn't cope too well with the heat, which I understand is a common problem for full Friesians, too. Big volume to surface area ratio (esp right now!!) + mostly black + lots of hair... I've made it a habit to cool his legs and neck with water before and after rides when temps get up around 25C+, which seems to help him a bit.

I had a chat with my trainer about his contact issues, turns out one of her own horses doesn't work on a snaffle bit, she's never been able to get him to accept it. She trained him in a cavesson until he was ready to be put in a curb, which he works well with, and she switches between the two. I'm going to try riding him in the cavesson when we do dressage (I'll keep the bit in his mouth for trail rides for now, but not ask him for contact unless he offers it himself), it'll be interesting to see how that works out, he's working very well in the cavesson in-hand.

She offered to take him in for full training when we're on summer vacation, which I've decided to do :) We went to see her barn today, he'll be outside 24/7, on grass during the day and a not-really grass paddock at night with lots of hay, and she'll work with him daily. I'm really looking forward to getting her impression of him after the 2 weeks :D

New Shoes and a Good Ride

2008-05-21T12:56:00.003+02:00

The farrier came out this morning. This time Barokko was less worried about the smoke and noise, so he was able to hot set all 4 shoes. Hopefully, that'll help them stay on ;) And I just want to say, I LOVE my new farrier, it's not easy to find one that's technically good, a good horseman, friendly, smart, and last but in no way least - PUNCTUAL!! :D

After his pedicure I hopped on for a ride in the arena. We're both really out of shape and out of the dressage mind set, but I'm ready to get us back to work now, and today was the first serious attempt at a dressage ride since we moved to AG. It worked out pretty well, I just wanted to loosen him up a bit, get him more accepting of the bit again, and check that the buttons are still in place. His forward button needed a bit more pressure than normal, but it improved a bit throughout the ride. An interesting development is that he got mad if I used the whip! I just tapped him once, and he pinned his ears and threatened to buck. Hmmm...

He felt good physically, only issue was that he coughed a few times in the start of the ride. I sure hope his bouts with coughing through the winter haven't become more permanent. At least now he's on 24/7 pasture there's no problem with dust etc. I think I might put him on shavings when he comes in again in the fall...

Anyway, it felt good to really ride him again, rather than just puttering around. I'm already looking forward to riding again tomorrow :D

A Quiet Week

2008-05-20T08:51:00.002+02:00

Not much going on the past week, some in-hand work, but no riding because of his sore back. Thursday he no longer seemed sore, so after working him I walked him without a saddle to cool down, it was really nice to be on him bareback again, it's been waaay too long since I've done that. He wasn't bothered by me riding, and wasn't sore afterward.

Saterday I rode a 1.5 hour trail ride with two of the other boarders, lots of walk, some trot and one little canter, so nice and easy. Barokko was very good, no sillyness at all, just a steady-eddie kind of ride, just what I needed from him :D

Monday he had his first taste of rain, a couple of very wet spring showers during the afternoon, but he didn't shrink or anything, and was only slightly damp on one side when we went to get him about an hour after the rain let up. So I guess he's waterproof ;)

He has lost a shoe, though, right hind. Today is 6 weeks since he was shod, and the farrier is coming tomorrow. His hind sheos have felt a teeny-tiny bit not quite tight but not quite loose the past few days, but the fronts are rock solid - maybe that's due to the fronts being hot set while the hinds were cold set? If he's more calm about the smoke and noise he'll get the hinds hot set this time, too.

M jumped him yesterday. We worked with a pole - vertical - pole on the diagonal and then a pole - canter stride - oxer on the long side. The strides didn't always work out as I had planned, but he showed some good problem solving skills, and jumped safe and clear even when he had to adjust.

Progress In-Hand

2008-05-12T08:11:00.004+02:00

Had a good in-hand lesson yesterday, trainer was quite impressed by his progress which is always nice to hear ;)

We worked on getting him to relax forward-down-out, shoulder-in, and haunches-in. Practiced shifting my position and my grip on the longe to be able to make more flowing transitions between the exercises. Worked on giving more effective half-halts through the cavesson.

Found a sore/tense spot on his back, on the right side behind the saddle area. It doesn't seem riding related due to placement (and the fact that I don't ride very much :P ), but he has also been running around a lot more than usual these past few days, plus a new herd etc, so most likely it's a wrong step or overexertion (he was also really tired). He wasn't affected by it when I worked him in-hand, so I'll keep working with him, just stay off his back until it's gone.

Trainer will be coming out to work with him while we're on vacation which is awesome, I'd hate to lose 2 weeks of training now.

He Survived the Night!

2008-05-10T09:11:00.002+02:00

:D

When I went to see him this morning, he and D (one of the geldings from outside) were grazing together at the top of the pasture and he had no particular inclination to come down to the gate when he saw me, so I went for a little walk ;) He was still damp on one side from lying in the dew-laden grass, so he hadn't been up for long.

I had brought his breakfast in a bucket, but after a few mouthfuls he realized he wasn't really all that hungry. D was, though, and the two of them ended up sharing Barokko's breakfast, most of the time trying to put both their muzzles into the bucket at the same time - maybe I need to get a bigger bucket :P

The Great Outdoors

2008-05-09T23:11:00.004+02:00

I jumped him today, for the first time in ages. It was so much fun, he was eager and confident, super focussed on the task at hand :D

M had set up a gymnastic line for us, a trot pole into a bounce line consisting of 4 poles raised to ca 50 cm in one end (alternating left and right), and a 60cm vertical at the end. He's always tense in the A end of the arena, and I had a hard time getting him out to the rail there, but the line was along the long side between K & E, so I had to get him out there in order to set him up properly. The first approach was a bit messy, but as soon as I got him lined up he pulled toward the jump, judged the distances perfectly, and flew over in a steady rhythm.

The arena at AG isn't completely level, it slopes a bit downward toward C, so we were jumping downhill, which added to the sensation of him stretching his strides to reach the next jump ;)

We also did a combination, 2 uprights with one stride between them. I unfortunately misjudged his take-off in out first try, and knocked him in the mouth in the landing :( He was a little hesitant in the next few tries, but then we got properly through it a couple times after that.

Barokko's very willing with jumps, he's ready to give anything a go if you point him at it, it doesn't even occur to him to second guess the rider - if you point him at something it must be because it's OK, so off we go!

While M packed away the jumps I fed him dinner, and then we lead him over to the grass pasture. He was a little edgy when he realized we were going off property, alone, after dark, but as soon as I turned him loose he relaxed, and got down to business - eating! ;) He's spending his first night outdoors tonight, and barring any problems I plan on leaving him there 24/7 for the forseeable future.

New Friends

2008-05-08T12:34:00.002+02:00

Barokko's ready for 24-7 pasture, I just need to be ready, too - wow, I can't even begin to imagine how parents feel the first time they send their kid off to summer camp ;)

Anyway, I've announced publicly that he'll go out Monday at the latest, I'm guessing he'd like to give me a good kick in the butt and just let him go :P

They'll be 7 horses together throughout the summer, 5 geldings and 2 mares. 2 of the geldings and one of the mares "moved in" today, the last two will be coming in a few weeks. This morning Barokko and his buddy T met their 3 new companions. One of the geldings is very careful and shy, Barokko wanted to be friends with him. The other is more forward, and he wanted to be friends with the mare, but T wouldn't let him ;) I watched them for the first hour they were together, and I think they'll be a good herd together. The pasture is plenty big with lots of grass, a big lake for water, trees for shade along one fence line + just across the street from the barn, so super easy when I want to ride. Also if we get a period of rain (which we will) I can bring him in at night.

I'm going to bring him in once daily regardless of whether I'm riding or not - for grooming, handling, getting away from buddies, and feeding (Suregrow, electrolytes, garlic, + oil for energy as necessary).

Dandelion Delight

2008-05-04T20:56:00.003+02:00

Lousy pic from my cell phone, just wanted to show the pretty dandelions all over Barokko's pasture!

Not visible on the pic is the fact that his muzzle and front legs are bright yellow from grazing in them :)

Barokko's been testing limits a lot lately, being kind of a brat both on the ground and under saddle - teenage horses, gotta love 'em ;) I decided to set up a makeshift round pen and give him a little join up session. I used jump standards and poles to make the pen, and let him in. The poles were at a height of 110 cm, which I figured would be plenty high - well, it wasn't! First time I drove him away from me he went right over to the perimiter and jumped out, easy as nothing, and effortless and graceful free jump :P

I set the poles up to 130 cm and tried again ;) It took all of about 3 seconds before he lowered his head and started chewing. The first 2 times I invited him to join up he quickly got distracted, but after I'd sent him away the third time he became 100% focussed on me, following me around, paying close attention to my every move.

After a thorough grooming I turned him out for the day. When I went to get him in the afternoon, he stopped grazing the moment he spotted me. He came over to me and followed me around the pasture, again giving me his complete attention.

Barokko's not a dominant horse at all, he's friendly and sociable, easy to handle, and it's only because I've been lulled into complacency by his puppy dog nature that we've developed any kind of respect issues. My bad :/

Hippity Hop

2008-04-28T22:57:00.002+02:00

I gave M a jumping lesson on Barokko today. We worked on some low gymnastic series. It was really fun seeing how he bascules over the jumps, even the little ones :)

He's been a bit of a goof recently, very looky and spooky on trails, and I've come to the conclusion that the schedule he's been on is too undemanding. I've worked him in-hand a lot which is challenging for him, but still mostly in walk, so he doesn't burn up excess energy through it. He does sometimes play in turn-out, but he's been spending more and more time in the grass pasture, where he mostly concentrates on grazing rather than running around ;) So there's more work in store for Mr Pony!

M rode him in his new Mullen Mouth eggbutt, and shared my feeling that it's a better bit for him than the others I've tried, so we'll stick with this one for now.

Grasping at straw :P

2008-04-23T23:42:00.002+02:00

When I got to the barn this morning, Barokko had eaten a lot of his straw bedding. I guess he was trying to tell me he wasn't happy about not having been in the grass pasture the past few days... So we remedied that, turned him out with T for four hours today ;)

We plan to put them on 24/7 pasture in 2 weeks if the weather complies, taking a little extra time to get them up to full days of grass before then.

I got a Mullen Mought Eggbutt bit for him, tried it out Tuesday. He seemed marginally more comfortable in it than the double-jointed loose ring, so I'll try using it for our trail rides. I am going to stick to my plan of doing dressage work in-hand in a cavesson and leaving riding (and bits) for trail rides.

Speaking of trail rides, I went on a fun one on Sunday. I rode out alone about halfway to EGE, where we met up with 2 friends, and then rode on as a little group. When I left AG, T stood at the top of the hill in the pasture, and whinnied until we were out of sight - didn't exactly make Barokko more inclined to leave :/ Then we met a group of fishermen and their dogs and fishing gear, and he just said "Bugger this for a lark", and tried to spin-and-bolt. He succeeded in the spin 5 or 6 times, but not the bolt ;) And as soon as I got him past them he behaved marvelously the rest of the ride, indicating that it had nothing really to do with the "scary fishermen" and everything to do with his bestest buddy back home.

Pony's getting FAT!

2008-04-15T22:27:00.004+02:00

Barokko's up to 3 hours of grass pr day, which = one big belly! I've taken off his rug now the weather seems to have stabilized itself above freezing, so he can really show off his grass gut :P

I'm having to re-evaluate my riding plans, as my recovery is going slow slow slow... I am riding regularly now, almost daily, but I need to put in some of my riding hours at work rather than on Barokko. I can't handle two rides in a day yet, and some days I need to stay out of the saddle entirely. :/

Instead of having a guilty conscience because I can't ride him every day, I've decided to plan for it. So for now his week will have 3 days of riding and in-hand work 3/4 days. I'll allow myself to give him up to two (not consecutive) days off if I need them. The physically most comfortable gait for me to ride in right now is canter in a light forward seat, so most of my riding will be on trails. His dressage training will be primarily in-hand for now.

I'm going to cut down his feed a bit to account for increasing amounts of grass and the planned lighter work load.

Barokko's New Shoes

2008-04-13T18:51:00.001+02:00

Got photos taken of his new shoes today, so now I have a before and after comparison, cool.