Gettin' Shimmy With It

 Yep, patting myself on the back for that "punny" title, extra points for a Will Smith reference (not linking to the video because there's some booty shaking and I do try to keep some decorum about the place...*snort*)

Yes, it's true, we're mostly self employed and generally have the luxury of creating our own schedules, so I had some time this morning to play with the shimming set up on my Specialized Eurolight saddle. My focus has been on Desire this season of course and Blaze has been doing some low trail mileage, nothing much. When I rode him with N at the lake last Friday I could tell my shim set up for him on the Eurolight was a No Go. At 15 yrs old he has a pronounced wither followed by a dip in behind the shoulder and a slight sway to his back, so needless to say fitting a saddle to him is not the simplest.


This is sweaty post-ride, you can see his pronounced wither and then "dip n sway" effect behind the shoulder..can't tell in this how narrow his wither really is though, oy vey

 I could feel on last Friday's ride that there wasn't enough support at the dip and sway, so that I was sort of sitting "down" in the middle of his back, if you know what I mean. It gave me a weird chair seat and I was more butt sore after those 6 miles than after the 90 miles on Desire the weekend before! And no doubt not a comfortable set up for him in the long run, either.


So this morning I broke out the shim pile and scissors and went to it. I ended up with wedge shims at the front and rear and the long flat supporting shims running down the middle of the saddle on each side to help with the "sway" area. 

Okay new to taking saddle pics clearly, but you can see the wedge shim at the front right and the long flat shims running down the length. There are wedge shims at the back, too.

Blaze is very patient fortunately, aside from perking up and looking cute for treats every time I come and go from the cross ties he generally just hangs out and falls asleep in the cross tie stall (unlike the Great Tap Dancing White Wonder). I had the saddle on and off his back probably 10 times screwing with things and then rigged him all up and headed down to the arena for a warm up lunge.

Blaze tends to dog me on rides from home--as in, walks out at 1 mph and is constantly looking behind him like hmm, maybe we should turn and go back?--so I decided to start with Arena Torture (how he views it) so maybe heading out on the trail would be a Good Thing.

Warming up in the arena, the footing is NICE and fluffy since I rototilled it, but kinda deep,a good workout to slowly increase time spent working in that footing as a change from the rock hard ground everywhere else..

He still dogged me heading out, oh yes, he was meandering along the dirt road above the house so slowly (and ignoring my cues) that I broke off a twig for a crop to snap him out of it! This little guy can trot and canter out, tears through LDs no problem, but to ride his walk you would think he was an old, possibly ill, farm plug. I've been having trouble really wanting to *ride* him when I can blast around on Desire without that frustration, but I've also been whining to myself mentally about making sure Blaze has a job/isn't ignored. 
Cool, quiet day in the neighborhood

With this intermittent lameness/hoof issue with Desire in the last week or two I've decided re: Blaze: Suck it Up and Ride Him. As in, it is my dearest hope and intent that Desire will be 100% reliably sound and good to go for more 50s this season, but if for whatever reason she isn't, I might as well have my little LD horse ready  to go so we aren't totally out of going to rides, and then he is also kept busy (and my guilt is under control!). His slow walk drives me crazy, so when it's time to walk I'll just dismount and spend some time walking/jogging next to him like I did today. He is a perfect jogging partner as he doesn't rush (or step on you) like the White Wonder.


Emerging from under their shade tree when they heard us coming back down the road...

Wait, isn't that supposed to be my yearling filly, not a giant horse???

With a much better saddle fit and the Power Strapped, taped, size 1 Easyboot Gloves staying on his fronts at speed and over terrain remarkably well (he rocks the bare hinds even in LDs), Blaze is Back In Business, whether he likes it or not ;-)

Oh thank god she stopped fussing over me and just let me ROLL

I always wish our Lab mix, Tady, was a horse because he would be a HECK of an endurance mount. Here he is lobbying to come to the next ride: "Look, I'll help mark trail!"  

In Which I Have a Good Ride, and Then Am Mind Boggled

Really though. Is there anything as disorienting/frustrating/panic-inducing than an "issue" with your horse? Okay yeah, there's plenty, but you know what I mean.

 I met J and her Mustang Sedona at Lake Oroville today for her first ride on the lake trails since moving away a few years ago. She is the first person who ever showed me the lake trails and my oldest friend since starting my new life in the area, so it was good to be back on those trails with her again.

I rode Desire, as she has been chilling in her pasture for the last week, has been trotting out sound, and I wanted to see what, if any issue there still might be. I did one last trot out/on the circle this morning to make sure she really looked good to go, and she did. I put the Gloves on with tape on all 4, (2 wraps on the hind, 3 on the right front, 4 on the left front as it has the dish..oy vey) and--they stayed on! Through terrain and some trotting and powering up a short hill or two. We walked through a little muck but they never got submerged.

I tried some Easycare size Medium ankle boots borrowed from N and there were only 2 short episodes of Kicky Leg and she didn't goose step with them on at first either. Overall seemed capable of (mostly) ignoring them. So, ankle boots over splint boots it is.

Are we friends? Let's see..

So anyhoo. Desire and Sedona decided they were friends and moved out quite well together, Sedona is quite a bit shorter but she has a big walk and a nice endurance-y trot, she is quite an athletic little thing. Desire felt strong and good and we walked up over the ridge to the visitor center and wound back down the other side. When we got to the flat forested trails we did some nice working trots, and all felt good. We got off and walked for a bit, Sedona was getting tired and we decided to hook a right at the next fork and head back towards the trailers.

Arab Obstacles:

Following Sedona butt:

Trail obstacles are fun:

What in the Sam Hell is that ruckus?!  Just children.

We climbed the long hill back to the visitor center at a walk and the horses both tanked up at the troughs. After we went to pick up a trot on the good footing before the descent--THERE, there it was, that faint little Off in the Front Left feeling again. I stopped her, asked J to watch, she saw it, and yeahhhh, great, frustration/panic all came flooding back. She was chipper and sound as a dime at the walk, and I dismounted and walked with her down the hill back to the trailers. I trotted her a few experimental steps and again she was significantly lamer than she had been a few minutes before, just like Hat Creek Day 2.

Back at the trailer I pulled off all of her boots while she dove into her hay net. What hadn't caught my eye in the morning putting the boots on now suddenly lept out at me in her left front. On the left side of her left front hoof there was a big sort of *lump* of old/false sole, which stuck out almost 1/4" off the flat of her sole, where on the other side it looked like the sole had shed out. This whole lameness/barefoot hoof madness stuff is still new to me, so I might be totally crazy here, but does going distance on a big old lump of old sole in half your hoof a sore horse make? My trimmer left a lot of sole before the gluing on a week and a half ago, for the most padding she said, and all that junk hasn't been trimmed out yet...btw Desire didn't rest that front leg at all either, in fact she was standing on it (and the 2 others, of course) and resting a hind back at the trailer, and overall was just so NOT behaving like a lame/injured horse...

I decided to chip away at that chunk of sole a little with my hoof knife when I got home, just to see if some big ole bruise or answer would spring out at me...well turns out a freshly sharpened hoof knife is freshly sharp indeed. I cut a big ole chunk out of the top edge of my thumb and the blood about put a stop to my hoof care attempt. I did get the thickest end of it pared down so it wasn't so raised, and my trimmer will be out Wednesday to take a real look at things and trim the rest of the herd.

Okay, scientific Paint editing time...pre hoof knife fun...So see the ridge circled in blue, the arrows are pointing at the really raised part of it, which in reality was almost 1/4" higher than anything else in the hoof..

Oh, by the way, when I trotted her out barefoot back to her pasture? She was sound.

Catch of the Day

Redheads Also Fish...