Disections and Discoveries

This has been an incredible week in many ways!

On Friday, after updating my last blog post, i took Paris to Gabi for a trim. His hoof wall has grown down more connected and he has a little more oncavity in his sole, indicating that improvement is occuring, he just needs more time. So he is staying in the boots - no surprise there! but Gabi has given me some useful tips to keep the boots from causing any problems like thrush or sores.

 I then went and got Touria and played with her, Elvira filmed me. It was such a difference from the first time i played with her - we did all seven games and the circle game had slack in the line and she was maintaining gait! i asked her for sideways and she offered trot so i said "good idea, sideways in trot!" and she did it! i watched the video with the others so i could get feed back and see where i can improve. it seems that, atleast when i'm filmed, i do not give enough rewards! funny because i always have the feeling i am rewarding too much! i also realised i do too many circles, my neutral needs to be clearer and i need to hold the rope more lightly when i'm in neutral.  that way when she goes out to the end of the rope i can allow it to drift and close the hand more slowly to keep the connection without jerking on her head.

On Saturday I went for a trail ride with Elvira. She was riding Thomas' horse, Bertie, and ponying Indy for the first time so we kept the trail ride at a walk and did lots of halt back up transitions. when we where half way around the forest i felt so good, i hadn't used the reins at all so i halted (with my seat) moved my weight so Paris turned his head in lateral flexion and I undid the halter and slid it off! we carried on walking through the forest, halting, backing up, we crossed a road, went around some feilds and walked back along the road, past traffic (one car passed us - that counts as traffic here!) back through the forest track to the arena. i was so happy that i asked Elvira to take a photo. Paris was so relaxed and not at all bothered about what we had acheived.

On Sunday we went for another trail ride, again Elvira was ponying Indy from Bertie. Anna came with us riding bareback with one rein on Kalhua who has a lot of issues with being ridden. she has been working on doing freindly game to build his confidence with having someone on his zone 3 and it has been going well in the round pen so she thought she would join us for a quiet walk on the trail. unfortunately he got very emotional and was sweating and starting to panick so Anna made the Savvy decision to get off and take him back. Paris was again going well so I slipped the halter off and we carried on bridleless again. this time, when we went around the fields i asked for some quiet trotting and he was great! he came back to walk from my seat and we had a relaxing uneventful trailride.

On Monday we discussed our goals for the week and I said that i want to introduce canter. i want him to be calm in the canter and to come back to trot from my seat. i knew i would have to ride with a bridle again because his canter very easily tips into his gallop when we are out. Gabi decided to join us as she thought Paris' energy and fast pace would be a good influence on her left brain introvert. it certainly was! when we reached the big fields Paris lead the way with two laps of a fast endurance trot, really big ground covering strides that he never does in the arena. once he was maintaining the rythm we went into canter. my plan was to sit the canter, whatever he gave me, not ask for more or less but sit it and stay cool until he was able to think and steady up. Before we had began the ride i had taken him into the arena to push his buttons and he had leapt into a full gallop online for countless laps, on both reins! so when i asked for canter he again leapt forward, just as eager to go despite the heat and having already galloped untold laps. we went five laps around the big Scout Field before Paris asked to slow to a trot! we gave them a lap in walk to catch their breath and changed rein. again i asked for canter and this time he took off so fast i was caught by surprise and left behind the movement. i quickly got back into it and we flew down the field so fast i could not really steer him and he cut a massive corner and overtook the other horses who had decided to avoid racing us by only doing half of the field. after four laps we had a steady but ground covering canter. he was soaked with sweat and brething hard but full of life and sparkle. he had done what he had not done for a long time, what he was bred to do. he walked home beautifully and i put him in the arena to roll and relieve himself of the itchy sweat. i came out with his dinner and he still had the energy to nicker and trot over to me! i just couldn't help but marvel at his power - he was capable of all this and he wasn't even fit!

Tuesday i wanted to give Paris a rest from the canter trail ride and was itching to do some real play with him in the arena. he was just as energetic on the circles and i started asking for changes of direction. i made a game of it that if he missed the oppertunity to change direction i "closed the door" behind him, meaning i would tag the ground behind him as he passed behind me. in no time at all he leapt in the air and did a flying change to change direction! i stopped and let him get his breath and we left the arena. we headed for the round pen and i let him be at liberty. i asked for some stick to me but he was still so energetic that he could not hold himself back and he shot forward, i encouraged him to go out faster and then repeated the change of direction signal... and he did it! he gave me the most amazing change of direction at liberty! it was a simple change but it was correct! we played together with stick to me and i'm sure he was having as much fun as i was! i couldn't resist and i stood on a barrel - he sidepassed over to me and i popped on with just a neckstring around his neck. we did walk halt backups and a lovely figure eight around the barrels. i hugged him and slid off and sat on a barrel. Anna was taking lots of cool photgraphs and i especially love the one where whilst i was sitting next to him he got down and rolled and as he was about to get back up he really looked at me. it was such a magic moment caught on camera!

Wednesday was a whole new kind of awsome! after lunch we gathered in the stables where a table had been set up in the grooing area. on the table was a selection of tools and Thomas walked in with the lover leg of a horse. first we analysed th hoof from the outside and predicted what we would see inside! it was so cool to know that we would soon have confirmation of whether we were right or wrong! then Thomas got a knife and cut into the white line of the hoof. it was really hard to do showing how strong the connective fibres between the hoof wall and the sole really are. as he got through a little blood seeped out. next he fixed the leg to the table with a vice and used nippers to peel the hoof wall from the hoof. the hoof wall is so elastic that we could see how it functions to hold everything together. we all took turns to pull the hoof wall a little to really feel the tensile strength before Thomas managed to remove it entirely and place wood inside it to stop it shrinking. The sole easily came away from the foot revealing how it fitted into the laminae and upper hoof like a jigsaw peice. the internal structure of the frog was so fascinating to see and we cut into the digital cushion and looked at the hardened cartilidge fibres and the soft fatty tissue that formed it. the lateral cartilages were surprisingly hard in comparison. by this point Thomas was overcome by the smell of the leg. Gabi was standing back and Elvira was sitting down as the smell had caused her to feel a bit nauseous. Thomas was beginning to peel the skin off and i was hovering over his shoulder like a kid at christmas, fascinated as the first layer of tendons began to be revealed. Thomas asked if i wanted to take over and i jumped at the chance. i used the standing knife to seperate the skin from the tendons and peeled it off completely. i then cut through the tendon sheafs and explored the leg, following the tendons and working out how they worked. as i detatched each layer a new wonder was revealed. i was surprised by how it appeared that only one tendon had a real role in lifting the heal but a large fanning network of tendons worked together to lift the toe - it was really hard to pull the tendons to simulate the correct movement of a heal first landing and really made me realise how a small injury could influence the movement of the horse and development of the hoof structures.  i then cut away the tendond to revel the bones and cartilidge underneath. the deep digital flexor tendon ran all the way into the digital cushion, forming a unction over the navicular bone. i found it curious that the groove on the navicular seemed to form the starting point for the shape that later turns into the frog! the bones revealed arthritis with corresponding yellow colouring on the cartilidge. it was so cool to feel the various stages of calcification on the bones. the hoof had a crack all the way from the coronet to the ground. Gabi said they had tried everything to heal the crack so she wanted to see if it was caused by permanent internal damage. when the hoof wall was removed it revealed that the laminae corresponding with the crack had formed a hard scar like column. after the disection we boiled the leg for two days to remove all of the soft tissue from the bones. as the only person with a stomach for it, i was asked to scrape the bones clean. as i cleaned the coffin bone i suddenly saw a groove in it exactly where the crack in the hoof wall had been! the top of the bone had a spur of bone, caused by either a birth defect or permanent damage. the spur pushed into the coronet causing the laminae and horn to always grow with a flaw. it was so cool getting to see how everything worked. i was starting to have ideas and make realisations about things and marvelled at the amazingness that is the horse!

after the disection i had a shower and got changed before i got Paris for our canter trail ride. this time we took a gps with us to measure how fast we went. we rode a similar ride to before and found we had cantered almost 10 km! Paris hit a top speed of 41 km per hour! we got back late so i fed Paris on the lawn and went to do the evening tasks but it was dark by the time we were finished and i could not find him! i cycled in the dark trying to see as much as i could, trying to hear him but the night was full of the sounds of animals rustling in the trees. Anna and Elvira came to help me. Anna went for the mule whilst me and Elvira explored the small forest by the pond. unfortunately with only the light of my little torch the small but overgrown forest soon had us disorientated, the brambles grabbed our clothes and the roots tripped us up. finally we pushed our way out onto the road and saw the head lights of the mule come toward us. Anna picked us up and we drove around by the saddle horses where we saw Paris standing by the gate. The saddle horses were excited by the strange horses and galloping around their field and Paris was racing up and down the fence trying to follow them. he had a pinick on and ran past us at first. i got out of the mule and whislted at him he turned to me and ran over. i grabbed his rope and he skitted about as i started out for home. he soon calmed a little and i got im back to his pasture.

Yesterday I woke up and my back hurt so much i couldn't sit up. i had to roll out of bed and i asked if i could work buckets as i would not be able to do kakka force quickly. i took pain killers and massaged muscle rub into my back. i decided not to play with horses so i fetched Sesame, the hairiest of the youngsters. he had a mop of dreadlocks in his mane and tail, so bad that a couple of locks in his mane had knotted up together completely. he is also nervous about the shower so i had my work cut out. Sesame is inately LBE and he showed that although he was skeptical he was also curious about the shower. i decided to use reverse phychology and walked in and straight back out of the shower. i did this several times and showed him that the door was always open and he was not going to be forced to stay in the shower. next i had the water running and i repeated the walking in and out until he was offering to stand in the shower. when he did i gave him a carrot and lead him out of the shower. i tied him in the grooming area and went and got the shampoos. i then lead him into the shower and played with the hose. i gave him a carrot everytime he touched the hose and soon he was trying to touch it even as i hosed his mane. i lead him out of the shower and massaged shampoo into his mane and then lead him in to rinse it off. i was stunned at how quickly he got over his skepticism but then i thought about it and it was not a surprise. dignity is the most important thing for a left brained horse and he did not want to be forced. as soon as i showed him i would not force him but had an interesting game to play he was happy to be showered. after i had finished brushing his mane and tail i showed him to Gabi. she told me it was the first actual shower he'd had because before he had only had his feet washed and it had been rather task oriented which he had not enjoyed.

today we went for another canter ride, i played with Paris, Touria and Riva. tomorrow Thomas and Gabi have a big surprise planned for us...