Important Lesson

If you open the truck's back window and drive on the interstate with hay in the back, hay will blow into the front of the truck through the magic of air flow physics.

Willig's first solo trail ride!

Willig was having a rare lazy day yesterday, so after a little lunge work, we did some of the ground exercises, then some "thinking" riding (swerving through cones, ground poles at extended walk distance), and then I took him on a trail ride.
He balked as soon as he realized where we were going, so I got off, led him over the bridge and across the field to the hill, where I got back on him (amazing thing #1!), and then he was a little skittish about walking again, but once we started going, he did ok. Not great, after a little bit he started doing that antsy trot, but I'd say "and walk" (his lunge command), and he'd do it (amazing thing #2!).
He was a little nervous about going back over the bridge by himself, but he did it, and so then I just brushed him off and put him away.
I read/heard (can't remember) somewhere that it takes a horse about a year to trust you. Of course, that depends on the horse's personality and what you're doing with him (i.e. if you're untrustworthy, it probably isn't going to happen at any point). But I like to tell myself that Willig is young, hasn't been around a huge variety of people or experiences, and he is really showing some effort to do the weird stuff I ask him to. That, more than anything, is our biggest learning opportunity right now.
Last night I watched the first DVD (of 4) in the first set (of 3) of Clinton Anderson. I'll probably watch them all before I try any of it. I'm just not sure I'm coordinated enough to successfully do what he's doing with the horses - it seems like an awful lot going on at once.

Tying Up a Pickle

Saturday turned out to be quite the adventure. Mercury and his partial lessee, Sam, went with me and Willig out to Janis' to ride in her indoor arena and go on a trail ride. I wanted to give the truck and trailer a whirl, and I mostly wanted to see how Willig behaved in a new environment. It turned out to be more of an adventure than I hoped for, but in some ways, better (actually) than I expected.
From the earlier posts, you can see how high the truck is - it's still up in the air (pun intended) whether all F-250's of that year and model came like that or if it was done by the prior owner. Regardless, we thought that by dropping the hitch to the bottom, it would be level enough for the trailer. Well, no foreshadowing here, we (the royal we) thought wrong. Even though it looked level at the barn, it turns out it was just enough not level to cause trouble. (That, however, is foreshadowing.)
Despite the fact that I've been to Janis' a few times, and always gotten there without a hitch, somehow I made two wrong turns hauling the big ass trailer. And I think part of the later excitement came from the fact that when I backed the truck up to hitch it up, I backed it within one inch of being exactly in the right place. I used up all my truck/trailer karma backing up. In the future, I'd rather spend 20 minutes inching back and forth to get the ball and hitch lined up. And then Willig and Mercury loaded right in (once we were all set up) like it was no big deal and we trailer every weekend.
As we got to Janis' - about 30 minutes away - she has a gravel driveway, and we pulled off the highway, started up the driveway, and got stuck. Every time I took my foot off the gas, the trailer would pull us back down the driveway - back towards the highway. And it wasn't that steep of a hill.
I tried putting it in 4x4 high, 4x4 low, 2nd gear, 1st gear, overdrive on, overdrive off, getting out and looking and kicking rocks around, and finally, my old stand-by, I called my dad. He suggested the same thing, didn't think that backing onto the highway and gunning it would help, and after about the third time I smelled rubber, I started backing, very slowly and carefully, back down to try to back onto the shoulder so I could get back on the Highway (it is two lane with shoulders, but the other side is what I would call a cliff, but might be a "drop" into some salt water). In the meantime, my dad was looking up Janis' number because despite the fact that I had a map with her home and cell numbers, I somehow didn't put it in the truck or trailer (even though I totally remember putting it with the trailer registration in the envelope that went in the trailer).
So my dad got Janis' number, I called her, and while she and Michael came down, I managed to wedge the truck and trailer blocking the entire driveway/road, with the trailer tires about a foot from going in a ditch.
Michael, who is a trailer driving pro, got in the truck, drove it up the driveway, and drove it up to their house.
We spent some time up there trying to figure out what went wrong. He thinks that I got too dug in on the hill, and that it needed the acceleration on the flat, but that you also needed to keep going, slowly but gently, and it did spin for him too. The best he could guess is that the hitch was too high, so the front of the trailer was lifted a little, which kept the back tires from gripping. So I need to get a new drop hitch that drops it about 4 more inches. (Patti, fortunately, has one (and a wagon for Ode!), so when I drop him off next week, we'll see if it's longer than mine. She said they're about $300 new!)
Also, the things I was calling sway bars aren't. They're some sort of special hitch thing.
Willig came off the trailer pouring wet. I lunged him (he got drier while being lunged!) tacked him up, lunged him again, and then rode him in Janis' super awesome, spacious, wonderful and delightful indoor arena. Sam rode Mercury, who wasn't sweaty, and was just as calm and sweet and reliable as he always is. Janis got one of her mares, who she lunged and then rode.
Then we decided to go on a short trail ride (because Mercury's feet are still sensitive after the shoes coming off two weeks ago). Well, Janis has great trails, we saw a bald eagle nest with a bird in it, and it was fun and Willig was well behaved, but at the turn around point, Mercury started gimping really badly.
Sam eventually had to get off because Mercury was picking up his left hind foot and then swinging it WAY up (almost touching his belly) before stomping it down on the ground again. She walked him back, and towards the end, Janis' mare and Willig decided they hated each other's guts, so Janis went on ahead, and then Willig realized he was with ol' lion bait Mercury, and he started acting up (trotting sideways - little rears and leaps in the air), because apparently he'd rather be with an arch-enemy than with a gimpy-brother.
We hosed off Mercury, gave him a Vitrolin bath, and put him in the stall (he was, by the end, really sweaty on his belly and butt, and when I gently stretched that leg, the muscle would quiver). We went down and had some cool drinks, but when we went back up to the barn, Mercury was still lame. He was also dehydrated, so we tried to get him to drink (he refused - but he did train Janis to keep molasses in her hand so he could lick it out), and we decided to go ahead and trailer home.
I was trying to adjust the trailer brakes for the descent down that gravelly hill, and the adjuster broke off in my hand, and then the brakes locked on. So Michael had to climb under the dash and unplug it, and then I had to drive the trailer home, and down the hill of doom, with no trailer brakes. Sam and I both got very, very quiet on that section, and we went down it at approximately 2 mph, because had the trailer started to push us - not only would we have gone across the two lane highway, but as you recall above, down a drop into the ocean. And I figured if I drove my lessee into the ocean, Mercury's lease would probably end.
We made it. We cheered and pumped our fists.
We got back to the barn without any more excitement, and Mercury walked off the trailer like he's never been lame a day in his life. Willig came off pouring sweat, so he either hates my driving or is not used to being trailered. He was good though. (By the way - at Janis', they both loaded right back up - despite the harrowing adventure on the hill.)
And aside from the rearing and jumping and trotting sideways, he did much, much better than I expected him to. (The high point of the day.)
I looked in all my vet books, and unfortunately, I'm totally at a loss what is going on with Mercury. I'm going to have the farrier put shoes back on next week when he's there to do Willig, and I think Willig is going to need a special shoe too.
Willig has a sandcrack in his right front hoof, and I've been ignoring it, but I asked Janis and Michael, and they said it could be a serious thing, so I looked it up in the vet books. You just put on a shoe with toe clips and hope it doesn't get worse and wait for it to grow out. It's caused my concussion, which is kind of weird since he doesn't work on anything hard. Maybe it is from his pawing?
Mercury is more of a mystery. The more I read, the more horrible things I thought it could be, so I had to quit reading. I think the most likely is either a bruised sole or a pulled muscle. However, we thought he might be tying up, and there's also like 5 other terrible problems, most of them rare, that it could be. So I tried the solutions for the sole and muscle - I put that purple spray on all four feet (but my sprayer broke after the first two, so I ended up putting the end of the scissors in it and spraying more my hands, which will probably also be purple for the next week) for the sole solution. Then I gave him some table salt, liniment, a massage, bute for two days, and a day in the stall for the pulled muscle. I turned him out for about an hour, and he walked fine out and in, but I thought to be safe he should stay in. He's going to get salt all week with his other supplements.
I also went and bought electrolytes for both of them if we have more hot days, or for Willig in the trailer and the sweat he lost.
I'm also going to get apple juice for the trailer so that Mercury will drink strange water.
I'm not planning on hauling again until the end of June (to Janis' again) which gives me time to spend the money I already wanted to spend but didn't have for the truck cap on a new brake box in the truck, and if Patti's hitch doesn't work, a new hitch.
I heard Sam saying she had a "good time." I wish I was still 15 so that the adventure could be called a "good time." It was nice to have her along with sweet, reliable Mercury, who I wish we could get functioning. I was hoping that with just a beginner lessee and not competing he would start being a consistent horse.

Two in a Row!

Another great day with Willig. We had the absolute perfect environment: warm but not hot, cool breeze, sunny, empty barn ... and so I finally jumped him. I had taken him over a couple of cavelleti on their highest rotation, but never jump jumped him.
It was great! We did a cross rail, a teeny little vertical, and finally a cross rail with two strides to a teeny vertical. That one kind of freaked him out, so we cut in and did the vertical first, then came back and did the combo, and then did it again to make sure it was ok.
He is a great jumper! He is so smooth to ride. We just floated over the top of them.
So then he got an hour out in the pasture on grass as a reward.
I am giving the dogs a break from the heat inside, then I'm going to go ride my bike for a couple hours and enjoy the great weather.

Finally! A Willig Success Story!

Mr. Willig has had it pretty easy (too easy) the past couple weeks. First he had the abscess and his shoe off, then I had the back thing going on (still going, by the way), so I am supposed to "go easy" on my back. That means Willig has been getting a lot of lunging, and there have been a few incidents at work. My cut-off is 6 pm - if I can't get out the door to the barn at 6, I go home instead, even if it's a barn night, because otherwise I am getting home near 10 pm, and I feel too guilty leaving the dogs alone for 14 hours.
When I brought him in yesterday, he threw his typical fit in his stall "Oh no! I'm alone! I'm going to die! Someone come rescue me!" And I did my typical ignore him until he's quiet (I plan other things to meddle around doing), and then take him out.
The girl partially leasing Mercury was there, and I asked her if she could go on a trail ride. I wasn't sure what to expect. Well, I did expect some hyperness out of Willig. But he was really good on the lunge line, not as good being ridden, but he got tired pretty quick because most of the day was over 80, which is really high for us.
Then Mercury started off on the trail (wincing delicately with his bare feet whenever they even thought about touching a rock), and Willig followed him. And when I say followed, I mean Willig's nose was touching the top of Mercury's back. Bless Mercury's patient soul, he didn't kick or anything, but the only struggle, and I am so grateful for this, was keeping Willig off Mercury. He would be a tailgater for sure if he could drive. (The image of Willig driving a car makes me laugh out loud. What a maniac. Wait. I know a human driver who fits that image to a T.)
So we did the loop I hoped to do, and since Willig was being so cool about it, we added a second loop, but I had Willig lead this one. And poor Mercury had to struggle to keep up! Willig started getting a little anxious, but I did a slightly longer loop home, and then we were back!
We stopped to talk to the owner, and Willig proceeded to do some yoga in front of everyone (which is what he does when he's had to "think" during that day's ride - he crosses his front legs and stretches down - like a horsey downward dog).
I am really, really pleased with how he handled the novelty. And, one of the newer boarders had her horse outside the arena rearing and stuff while I was riding him, so all in all, he was a pretty cool cucumber.

The week in review

Twice I saw rainbows. The first time was the drive home, and the end of the rainbow actually touched the road. I saw the end of a rainbow! The other time was lunging Willig over a fence. Someone had set up a couple jumps, so I turned it into one to change his routine, and he did really well. I was all impressed, thinking he was jumping 3' easily, but it was just 2'6". He still had no problem with it.
After two weeks off (for the want of a shoe ...), his first and second days on the lunge line were kind of an adventure. If any of you read "Little Black Samba" where the tiger melts himself running around and around the tree - that's basically what I thought was going to happen. It didn't seem to be so much hyper energy as a challenge to who was the boss. The second day, I couldn't even see him on the end of the lunge line because the arena got so dusty. However, I appear to have come out on top, because on the lunge line he is now a model of respect. When I say "trot", he trots that second. Excellent, crisp transitions. He has, not, however, been doing so well in the cross-ties, and his whole "I'm afraid to be alone" thing has gotten worse.
Mercury, last week, did some fine, fine dressage moves. Turn on the haunches and forehand, half pass, and the half pass but going forward move (which I totally know the name of and am just blanking on). Then this week, he got an odd lameness that has no heat, no sensitivity, no swelling. I think it's because he's a little overdue for his shoeing (which will happen Thursday morning), and one shoe is getting loose and he's been kicking his own ankles. We'll see.

Trailer photos

This was the view on the way to pick up the trailer. Nice.

The truck back seat folds down and makes a flat area that is perfect for two big dogs and their dog beds!!

I have a crush on the truck

More photos of truck and trailer

I got a truck and trailer!

Here's the truck.