progress and problems

I have been here for over six weeks now.

last week i used my sleeping morning to watch Pete Ramey hoof care DVDs and then went to assess Paris' feet. Paris is very footy on the stones here and it has been getting worse and, when i looked at his feet, his soles, particularly in the front beneath the coffin bone, are very thin. his front feet are the worse so I put Keratex hoof hardener on him and booted him up. we went to the indoor arena and had a play session with Marie-Claire in attendance. she helped me with an excercise for a straight back up. I have realised that my efforts to improve my yo-yo keep failing because i have not been addressing the straightness issue first. distance and speed will only come when he is going back straight. i have started to play with a couple of barrels that he has to get his nose behind before he can rest.

on Sunday we all worked really hard to get our morning jobs done in time to go for the long ride to the restaurant. I cycled down to Paris who was near the gate and lead him from my bike back up to the arena. i suddenly thought he was not moving like normal, his head seemed to be moving to much but i was cycling beside him and couldn't look at him properly. at the arena i circled him and my fears were confirmed. he was lame.

Sanne came and looked at him with me, we agreed he seemed to be lame in the left fore and it was either an absess in the foot or something in the fetlock. Sanne was going on the ride so we agreed to look him over when she got back. I saw Gabi and told her Paris was lame and she told me to bring him in to the stable and she would look at his feet. we assessed him with and without boots and then with an assortment of pads. we changed his boots and found that a pair of Old Macs was the best fit for him. i was feeling quite emotional but we were all going for lunch so I put Paris in the stable and decided to cut a new pair of pads for him before when i got back.

lunch was amazing. we went to the lakeside restaurant again and the riders had arrived just before us. we had a beautiful salad starter (i had goat cheese in filo pastry with tomato), duck cooked with peach slices and I had a strawberry icecream sundae for desert. it was a beautiful afternoon and we ate outside and i was soon caught up in the high spirits of everyone else and we had a lot of fun. finally, fat and full, we headed back to de Plessis. As soon as we arrived i checked on Paris and dug out the pads and boots to make a new template, took a knife and cut out the new pads (which fit perfectly!). Paris was walking so much more comfortably in the boots. I was about to put him back in the pasture when i saw Anna with Kalhua and Joke with Rox. since he would have none of his buddies for company and i was so tired i decided to spend un demanding time with him and let him graze whilst i slept in the sun on the grass by the arena. I got my polypad as a pillow and laid down and had a couple of minutes of peace with Paris munching nearby when Elvira plopped down beside me. i moved over to share the pillow and we allowed our horses to graze nearby. then Joke asked us to hokd Rox a moment, the Sanne got back from her ride (she had made a great breakthrough and was very excited) and asked us to hold Tasja. it was impssible to sleep now we had so many horses to keep an eye on. eventually we gave up and took turns to watch the horses graze and eat their evening feeds whilst we completed the evening tasks.

On Monday we zoomed through our morning tasks. Joke had her progress report (which we are supposed to have every 6 weeks) and we cooked lunch. Joanna, a girl from France, turned up and Joke, Gabi, Thomas and Marie-Claire ended up being twenty minutes late for lunch because the progress report had over ran. Marie-Claire asked me to give Joanna (Jo France) a lesson on the seven games as she has done no Parelli before! i was excited and proud to be asked and gave Jo a tour of de Plessis before we collected Bertie. i touht her the first four of the seven games and was very impressed with how quickly she picked it up. i asked her if she wanted to learn more or absorb what we had covered. she wanted o absorb so i put on some music and allowed her to play with the first four games and got the video camera and recorded a short video of her playing so she could see her progress at the end of the three weeks.

I then went and collected Paris and took him into the arena to play. Marie-Claire had discussed our goals with us and had said cavalettis would be good for Paris but when i sent him over them he was so lame i stopped immediately. i played a little with backing through the barrels and then i played with putting the ball on his back and having it move whilst on him.  i was gutted.

On Tuesday it was young youngster day. the Osteopath was coming on wednesday so Marie-Claire asked us not to do too much with the youngsters. i played with Riva and Tauria with some gentle walk figure eights, asking them to follow a feel. Riva is so light now and Tauria is improving but still noticably heavier than Riva. I asked Riva for sideways along the fence and she kept thinking forward and lifting her leg as if to hook them on the bottom rail of the arena. finally she offered me two steps of sideways and i quit our session there. I had planned to do squeeze games with Tauria but she did the squeeze on the rail perfectly so i asked her to squeeze over the pedastal. she was very left brained, trying to squeez between me and the pedestal and then offer touch it. finally she walked across it (with three feet on it at one point) stepped off and turned and faced. i ended the session there for her too. Riva's mudfever has not been getting any better so i began a new treatment by soaking it with camomile tea to help get rid of the scabs and sooth the sore before putting Honeyheal cream on. i am now only cleaning it when it gets scabby as i do not want to keep aggravating the mudfever. Marie-Claire gave us a session on how to use the redlight phototonic therapy torches and i did Riva's standard points and then the "dragon" around her shoulder wound.

On Wednesday i spent time with the osteopath. she was correcting Salvia's hips, Riva's pelvis was tight and tilted back and Tauria was is good shape. all three needed three days rest and then a week of straight lines.

Sanne performed a vet check on Paris, we trotted him up on soft and hard surfaces, circled him and did flexion tests. he showed positive for pain in his left front fetlock. I am now bringing him in daily for minimum thre hour break from the hoof boots, cleaning his feet and massaging a relaxant rub into is fetlock. he is getting a herbal tea twice a day as well as painkillers and is being rested for a week after which i will bring him back with straight lines (in hand trail rides). i am using the red light on his standard points and also for the "navicular points" as they basically generate healing and health in the foot. Gabi, Sanne and I agree that Paris has two issues, his fetlock and his thin soles so i am trying to do all i can for both issues. he is getting very bored and cheeky at the moment. he seems to be in good spirits despite his funny way of moving.

Whilst we were checking Paris a trailer arrived. Joanna from England, who I have spoken  to by email, had arrived with her mare, Olivia. She comes from West London, where as I come from the South East and our accents are very different. it is funny hearing a fellow Brit, i realised how much my English had deteriorated into "European English"!

Thursday I played porcupine and friendly games with Riva and Tauria in the Paddock Paradise and took Riva and Paris in for their "treatments".

Friday I worked with Elvira as the other girls had their sleeping mornings. it was really hot so in the afternoon we decided to go to the lake with the horses. Riva has mudfever so i thought it was not a good idea to take her and Paris wears hoof boots and i did not want them soaked and full of pond silt so i decided to introduce Touria to the water. Bless her she was outside of her comfort zone and for a while she stood on the bank and kept looking back in the direction of "home". i went into the water and ignored her and let her natural couriosity take over. she got two feet in the water and was playing with it and touched a rock that was sticking out of the water with her nose. it was a calm stress free introduction to the water.

Saturday was my sleeping morning and i actually used it to catch up on sleep. most nights we watch Glee together (Sanne downloaded series one and two) and we have been a bit sleep deprived! so after a nice lay in i went on the computer whilst Elvira wrote a letter and then we headed to my car to go to town. unfortunately my car wouldn't start - the battery had gone flat where it had not been used for some time. Elvira tried to help me jump start the car and we had to push it up a hill first to get room to push it for the jump start. after pushing it for over 100m without success we headed for lunch leaving my car in the middle of the road (Plessis property so virtually no traffic and i was afraid we would roll it in a ditch if we tried pushing it to the side). At lunch Joke agreed to use her car to give my car a boost and I was happy I had brought a set of jump cables with me! so finally Elvira and I hit the road. my car was a bit low on petrol and needed a good drive to fully charge it so after posting Elvira's letter we decided to find a petrol station. the one in our village was closed so we went to Ecuille where we got lost trying to find the "intermarche". i spotted a (rather good looking) guy and told Elvira to ask him for directions (even though i was closer to him) she asked "ou est la intermarche?" and he looked and us and said "Anglais?" we nodded - i'm not sure what gave us away, our terrible french accents or the fact that my steering wheel was on the wrong side and i had a UK numberplate on virtually the only non-renault car in all of france! he then kindly gave us directions in English and i couldn't help but melt a bit at his french accent. we followed his directions which indeed took us to the intermarche but the cash booth for the petrol pump was closed and only payment by card was possible. very cleverly i have left my bank card in England! so we decided to drive home and come back next week.

when we got back i decided to have a drink in the house. as i tried to pull my left boot off (the ones i bought on the fast track) it got stuck. it had done this a couple of times and usually i would ask Elvira to help me and she would manage to pull me across the floor without the boot moving and then i would ask Sanne to help and she would just tug the boot straight off. Unfortunately Sanne was with her boyfriend and Elvira's arms were worn out from pushing my car all morning so i asked Joke to help me. I clung to the wall and she pulled my boot and with each tug my hip smashed into the wall and my leg got a little longer but the boot stayed on. Joke gave up and i tried again on my own to pry the boot off, after an hour i was getting desperate. i put one of my trainers on the other foot and carried the left one and decided to cycle to where Sanne was staying with her boyfriend and ask them for help. as i went past the main house Marie-Claire saw me. i explained that i was stuck in my boot and she nodded and said we just wondered if odd footwear was an English thing! i could hear Sanne talking to Jasper, her boyfriend, but was worried that i might be disturbing them at a bad moment so i thought i'd try using a ladel to unhook the torn lining that was catching my heel. it didn't work and at one point i ended up with my hand wedged in my boot and i couldn't do anything! with brute force i pulled my hand out but my foot was still firmly wedged in the boot. i finally headed up to Sanne's room and knocked on the door. Elvira joined me and i told Sanne i was stuck in my boot. at first she thought i was winding her up but when Elvira confirmed that i had been trying to get the boot off for over an hour Sanne tried her usual technique. even that would not work. she called Jasper over and i lay on the ground and wedged my free foot against a wall as Jasper pulled with all his strength. i marvelled at how my leg remained attached to my body. by this point the fits of laughter were heavily peppered with moans of desperation. Thomas came out of his room, concerned that we had chosen to have a noisey party outside his office. he soon realised that i had a problem and started offering his ideas. we had contemplated using horses to drag the boot off, the deisel mule, even the heavy duty manitoo (JCB type machine) to lift me free of my boot! in the end, after over an hour and a half of effort, there was nothing left but to cut my precious boots and free my (longer and thinner) leg. Thomas comforted me with a cup of tea and slice of apple crumble "troast". they say bad things come in threes, those were mine - car battery, petrol and boot!

.... two more weeks have passed before i updated my blog

Paris is still not 100% but the week's rest seemed to help him and i have started hacking him out at a walk to keep him on straight lines. i used the time he was resting to address his displaced behaviour with haltering and now using the trail rides to improve my walk, halt, backup transitions - this is going really well! Paris is sometimes responding to just my seat! i think another couple of weeks of this and we'll be able to ride out bridleless! Elvira is going away for 4 days (she has been trail riding with me) so I plan to keep her pony excersised by leading her whilst i ride Paris on the trailrides.

Touria has been doing fantastic - finally we are getting circles at a trot with slack in the line more often then not! her canter departures are getting less volatile too! we had a hickup when she got really heavy and i lost all steering with her and had no chance of a direct rein. i realised that i was going a little too fast, using a little too much pressure for her. she is so sensitive and easily offended, especially by steady pressure (porcupine game). i have started using the savvy string as a rope to play close range zone one procupine game as it helps me to be lighter and in turn so is she. her porcupine has improved to the point that i can lead her whilst cycling and i was very proud of myself when i cycled to the arena leading both Touria and Riva from my bike - after the massive knock in my confidence with cycling due to the accident 9 years ago, i am over the moon to even be brave enough to try leading a horse whilst cycling, let alone two! two days ago we went on the "little youngster trail ride" - Touria was doing great with the porcupine game online but it did not seem to translate to the freestyle. i attempted to be leadfile which ended up with a detour through very thick bushes. as we trotted along the edge of the fields Elvira's youngster, Sahel, popped into a canter. Salvia, being ridden by Sanne copied him and then so did Touria. all three happily cantered behind Gabi and Quimrahil who were setting a good paced trot. Gabi was thrilled that the youngsters were so happy to canter with riders and so we did a couple more canters. today i really put all my new learned tactics for lightness, steering, and being the ambassador of yes in to action and Touria had steering! we had enough steering to be lead file and trot in front for most of the trail ride! we also had another long canter. Touria was in the rear at this point and the others cantered off but Touria was happy to follow at a trot, i had to ask her for canter and she gave it to me! even then she was not worried about catching up with the others and set a lovely steady canter.  i am so happy with her progress, she is so different already from when i first played with her!

Riva has been doing really well, we finally seem to share an understanding about cantering for more than one lap! i have been using Marie-Claire's "yes, and..." strategy - if she broke gait or direction on the circle i would say oh yes lets do that and do some thing tricky like sideways, fast yoyo, squeeze between these tight cones oh how about just a circle? it's amazing how now she doesn't seem to thing breaking gait and direction are such great ideas! i was so excited by how this was all going that on Thursday I was set to play the game again. her trot seemed a little odd and she was reluctant to canter and i realised she was in physical discomfort - i asked marie-claire for her opinion and she agreed i should stop the excercise. Rivas front right fetlock has heat in it and she is now, two days later, obviously lame on it. i have clipped it and clayed it and also experimented with some new treatment for her very stubborn mud fever. i certainly am learning alot about horse care here! Riva seems to take a long time to heal anything so i have spoken to Gabi who is going to look into giving Riva more nutritional support for her immune system.  luckily i has already decided to start preparing Riva for accepting the bit. i have begun a program of putting mollasses on the bit for Paris to lick off (not wearing bridle yet). with Riva, i am seeking for her to accept my hand in her mouth first. once i can hold her tongue i will introduce her to the molassed bit too. i also played with the big ball and she was so good she seemed oblivious to anything i did with it! i still struggle with handling such a large ball, i can barely pick it up to bounce it her!

Today i was Gabi's assistant, which meant i got a morning lesson with one of my priject horses. i chose Riva so Gabi to check her leg. at lunch Marie-Claire said she would be giving a lesson at 3pm. since Paris cannot go in the arena yet, Riva had worked and was not fit, and Touria would already be doing the youngster trail ride, i had no horse for the lesson! Gabi suggested i play with Sesame as he had not done anything for a while and was always asking to be haltered. Sesame is 5 years old, and was Joke's project horse. he is 16.2 hh with a massive heavy head and a main like a rustafarian! he looks slow and lazy but quickly showed me that he is capable of great speed and power. i ended the session when he was emotionally and mentally collected enough to beable to physically manage a nice canter departure from a phase one on both leads.

i have also had my progress report. I was very happy with the nice things Marie-Claire, Gabi and Thomas saud about me. they liked my attitude and how i played with the youngsters. my focus point was to develope my emotional fitness by having more selfconfidence and not putting myself at a disadvantage for the sake of avoiding conflicts. i have since made a real effort to be open about my feelings and if i am not happy about something. it is surpisingly tricky and i realise how much i really shut down in normal life! It was also discussed that i could have the oppertunity to stay longer. i would love to stay longer because i am learning so much in ways i never expected. playing with young horses, especially young leftbrained horses really is an amazing learning experience. i do need to be home in March 2012 for my sister's hen party and to work and earn money to go to italy for my sister's wedding. i am also planning to re-take the fast track next year so that i can hopefully qualify for an externship.

loads more has happened and i just can't remember everything now! i keep getting sidetracked whenever i plan to update my blog but i intend to be stricter so i do not leave gaps!