Poor widdle abused pony
Oct. 25th, 2005 12:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
joflasherSaturday, I had my dressage lesson. It was great. We actually worked on canter transitions instead of just doing one or two in each direction so she doesn't forget the cue. We've been fighting with Tisa's canter since last summer. Basically, my (non)graceful pony looses her balance while running and, to fix things, speeds up or switch leads in the back end ... which makes her more unbalanced. Repeat. Sure, I can try rebalancing her with hand and seat but it only works for a few strides before she falls forward again. So we've been doing lots of strengthening and agility work. Trotting poles, transitions on the lunge, veritible MILES of trotting under saddle. Its finally starting to pull together. On a 20 meter circle, she almost never looses the hind lead anymore and we're beginning to see the start of a really cute little controlled canter that is a dream to sit.
Like I said, though, we normally don't do a lot of actual canter work. Saturday was quite a work out for my girl. Sunday, the farrier came up nice and early, ~8 AM. So Tisa's on the cross ties, farrier has her front hoof up on his lap filing away and I see her start trembling. Trembling escalates to full body quivering. Now I've seen this before, once when she majorly wretched her back out to the point where she couldn't stand to be touched and once after she lacerated her front leg. Uh oh.
On top of that, she's looking utterly dejected ... head down, eyes half closed, barely even whickered when I came in (farrier had her on the crossties when I showed up). Pitiful, really. Once the farrier was done with that foot, I started poking and prodding. Touched a spot midway down her spine and she dropped ~ 4 inches. Damn. Farrier laughs and says she's faking and just wants breakfast. Said the trembling started when the barn owner started feeding. Me, I say she's hurting. Farrier finishes all four hooves, I pay the man and put her in her stall (with breakfast) while I go hunt out the Bute. Get back with pain killer and decide to poke and prod one last time. Nothing. Nada. She doesn't even pick her her head from the hay pile. I grab a front hoof and hold it up ... for almost a full 3 minutes. My muscles are trembling by that point. Still nothing. I poke and prod and rub and jab. Not a single reaction besides the standard "what ARE you doing?" look. I try again later that evening. Still nothing.
*sigh*
So somewhere my pony has picked up the horse equivalent of the kicked puppy sympathy plea. The little faker.
Also, I finally got around to sticking (measuring) her. Just a little over 15 hands. I guess she's not REALLY a pony ....
Like I said, though, we normally don't do a lot of actual canter work. Saturday was quite a work out for my girl. Sunday, the farrier came up nice and early, ~8 AM. So Tisa's on the cross ties, farrier has her front hoof up on his lap filing away and I see her start trembling. Trembling escalates to full body quivering. Now I've seen this before, once when she majorly wretched her back out to the point where she couldn't stand to be touched and once after she lacerated her front leg. Uh oh.
On top of that, she's looking utterly dejected ... head down, eyes half closed, barely even whickered when I came in (farrier had her on the crossties when I showed up). Pitiful, really. Once the farrier was done with that foot, I started poking and prodding. Touched a spot midway down her spine and she dropped ~ 4 inches. Damn. Farrier laughs and says she's faking and just wants breakfast. Said the trembling started when the barn owner started feeding. Me, I say she's hurting. Farrier finishes all four hooves, I pay the man and put her in her stall (with breakfast) while I go hunt out the Bute. Get back with pain killer and decide to poke and prod one last time. Nothing. Nada. She doesn't even pick her her head from the hay pile. I grab a front hoof and hold it up ... for almost a full 3 minutes. My muscles are trembling by that point. Still nothing. I poke and prod and rub and jab. Not a single reaction besides the standard "what ARE you doing?" look. I try again later that evening. Still nothing.
*sigh*
So somewhere my pony has picked up the horse equivalent of the kicked puppy sympathy plea. The little faker.
Also, I finally got around to sticking (measuring) her. Just a little over 15 hands. I guess she's not REALLY a pony ....
Your Fae Butterfly!
Date: 2005-10-27 06:13 pm (UTC)If theere is any problem with that, you can contact me at
msbutterfli_2000@yahoo.com
or www.xanga.com/msbutterfli
Take care,
Kimberly
Re: Your Fae Butterfly!
Date: 2005-10-28 02:06 pm (UTC)Thank you for asking.