If there's one thing my wife sullenly likes about my craft habit, it's that if I can make it myself rather than buy a brand product, I will try to do that.
With that said... here's my DIY equiband.
I really liked the idea of the equiband for its resistance work and general proprioception cues it could give and definitely thought that Gwyn would benefit from having one.
The price tag? For some large clips, elastic, resistance bands and a saddle pad though? Yikes.
I know I have some saddle pads that I can play around with and I didn't need to go out and invent the wheel and make a pad from scratch. Equiband doesn't sell 'replacement parts' to someone who isn't already confirmed as a customer of the original product, probably precisely because of people like me.
Gray and Lavender smartpak saddle pad that I looked at and was concerned for my sewing machine.
However, a UK seller on ebay has this glorious item. It's called a BungeeBand, and it's of the "Just add saddle pad" variety! And for a much easier to stomach cost. I would have totally DIY'd it but finding extra long resistance bands were difficult and I didn't want to spend THAT much time sourcing things and coordinating the clips and elastic.
It also wasn't clean so I laid it on a towel on my bed while positioning the pieces.
Ford loves things that smell like the barn. And he loves cuddling.
Sir, you are not helping right now.
However, my sewing machine is not heavy duty, and adding the extras onto the saddle pad I chose plus accessories were making me nervous with the thickness and my needle life. But I know I have other pads.
BNWT Letitia baby pad that's MUCH thinner. Ahhhh, now I'm not as concerned for my sewing machine.
I pinned everything in place as identically as I could. Sewing things onto pads is best done with a square/rectangle with a cross for extra strength and security.
I had some leftover nylon webbing that I didn't use for a halloween costume for Kaylee. Make sure you flame the ends with a lighter to seal the nylon so it doesn't fray.
This is how I attached it because it's meant to just be used with a surcingle or maybe on top of another pad if I use it with a saddle.
If I were making a saddle pad for longevity, I'd fold the webbing over and sew through both layers as demonstrated above.
Ta-Da, completed!
I tried it out on Gwyn on Sunday. The weather was WILD. Like cold front coming in violently with hail, rain, snow, freezing rain and WIND. Gwyn was a kite. I was going to ride... but didn't feel really pulled to ride. So we played with lunging. Gwyn was really good. She offered me some really nice, balanced canter on her good side and I made sure to praise a correct canter transition and lead on her bad side.
I took the elastics off and also had her do some trot poles and jumps. I really enjoyed myself, especially with not needing to worry about my safety with a horse who was definitely feeling good in the chilly, windy weather.
It worked really well! I'll work her up to adding more resistance with the bands and I like that even on my giant booty of a mare, I had adjustability. I probably would have preferred to make this with a larger saddle pad and maybe the belly band could be angled forward a smidge. But that's what seam rippers are for.
More subdued after getting to run wild in the arena prior to grooming
"Mom... y u do dis?"
WTF is this weather!?
She worked hard so now she tries to elicit sympathy and cookies
I did stick her rain sheet on as a condolence prize before sending her back to her lunch hay.
I decided to lunge before feeding last night as the arena had dried some more and the footing seemed decent in one half of it. Gwyn totally took down those standards when she decided to take the poles. Clotheslined them with the lunge line and just kept going. Sometimes she has no fear. Sometimes.
Both she and Saffron just tore around in glee. I think they were delighted to have footing that wasn't super muddy or slippery. I did get some nice work in the end in the side reins on the loosest setting. Gwyn was wearing her side pull as well.
I do need to get the chiropractor out again for an adjustment. She's still bunny hopping with the hind legs in the canter or just totally on the wrong lead behind. But she has no problems reaching under in that giant trot of hers. At the very least I'm going to make sure we do cavaletti and hill climbs to try and get her using her back appropriately since I think that's what will help in her canter.
Anyone have other suggestions? I'd love exercises both in hand and under saddle to use.
This has been a constant and several trainers now who have seen it seem to think she's lame but her lameness eval and xrays from last year say otherwise. I think it's a muscle weakness issue.
I saw a facebook post about what happens when you try to take a panoramic of a horse and rider and the results were obviously hilarious and it sent me looking for my own example. Google photos helpfully tried to stitch together a series of photos I took while lunging Gwyn.
So here it is, from one of my favorite places I've boarded (25 acres, huge fields, trails, access to more trails, and access to the Snohomish River, just had to deal with occasional flooding, now it's an A level H/J place, I had to leave when it got sold to them)
Emma has a Brontosaurus with Charlie. I have Sleipnir minus two legs.
Because I know that sometimes there can be many reasons for a behavioral issue under saddle, I really wanted to also rule out my saddle fit as a cause. It's been quite a while since I last had the fit checked and I'm certain Gwyn had changed shape in that time. I contacted a local-ish saddle fitter a couple days ago and fortune had it that she could fit me in early this morning before another appointment she had further out. It worked out perfectly!
She spent time checking the current fit and determined that while the saddle was well balanced on Gwyn's back, her gullet size was too narrow. She showed me on the wither tracings how my current gullet was not quite right (MW from thorowgood) and how the wide would be better, especially after the wool flocking was rebalanced. If I was in the market for a new saddle, she recommended that we move to a hoop tree instead of a V tree. That is good information to file away!
In general she said the wool was in good shape, so that's good! Once the saddle was back together we went into the arena to test it out and see how it felt for both of us.
Gwyn has doubts about this whole thing...
I immediately felt balanced and not tipped around weirdly, so that was good. And Gwyn immediately moved off in the biggest, swinging walk I have ever felt on her. It was AMAZING. We tried a canter under saddle but with not having ridden in over two weeks and her feeling REALLY good she was a bit too light and was crow hopping happily everywhere. But willingly picking up the canter when cued and not turning to bite at my foot.
So I guess there's that to know. Saddle fit should be checked if she starts exhibiting that behavior. She's such a good mare, I feel terrible that I didn't put two and two together before. But I've got it fixed now and that's what matters.
This is the face of someone who, despite being covered in poison ivy rash, is actually finally feeling better! I had a cooling scarf on my head and another one wrapped around my neck to keep my zipper on my sun shirt from irritating my chest.
So after the fitter left I went back up to the arena and lunged Gwyn, letting her get the wiggles out and she was SO bouncy on the lunge line and moving very uphill. I think it felt good being able to really move her shoulder.
She was sproingy, lol.
We had a great ride in the arena and I decided to go on a brief trail ride to see what the farm fields were like. Last year they were planted with soybeans, but this year it's corn. I didn't particular feel like fighting a wiggly, feeling good horse in a straight line through corn, especially since I really don't want to damage the crops at all (and there isn't a good field edge to stick to). So I got onto the road as soon as possible and headed out to the main street. From there I decided to just see how Gwyn did on the road.
We haven't road ridden here in Michigan because there is definitely some baggage left over from both our pasts. However, Gwyn was feeling good and I was pretty sure I could at least finish the block and get home. And if really necessary I could get off and walk.
Corn
Well, we got spooked by a motorcyclist and she went sideways down a steep bank and refused to turn around to get back to the more quiet road. But she did the bank drop really well! I was impressed. Good mare practicing for cross country! So then I figured since it was early ish on a Sunday that traffic wouldn't be too bad and we could make it. Like I just took it chunks at a time. We had one more incident at the main cross roads when a large box truck just really did not slow down early enough but there was enough space I could be off the road and steer her around to get her back under control.
We had a lookie incident when she saw the horses across the street from daycare and they came running over but I could let her stand in daycare's lawn and watch them and just breath a moment. When I saw another motorcyclist I turned her to face them and she did just fine. At a calm point we crossed the road and went over to the high school and walked around there. I wanted to see if getting to the fields on that side was possible and it seems not, because of a wire fence. Balls. We turned around and headed home.
She got a nice cold bath and I turned on the fans in the stalls. And I stayed relatively not hot, despite the rash I've got. My outfit seemed to work. I'm excited to use these cooling towels for endurance rides. I think they'll work really well for me.
Sunday, July 1, 2018
Not much to report here. The weather cooled off last weekend which was nice and we got a ton of work done clearing the back fence line, only for me to not realize that there was poison ivy EVERYWHERE.
It's all over my face and arms. I am lopsided, lumpy and above all, itchy in all the places. The doctor recommended that I stay cool and not overheat, and that advice came just as our heat returned. So yay. This lunging session occurred right before the poison ivy breakout. I had a couple spots on my wrist but didn't realize what it was yet.
I did get some new lunging equipment to try out, which is fantastic. I started out with a warm up walk on the hill, with no tension on the side reins. I know hill work will be great for her SI and wanted this to be as low impact as possible.
I found these side reins and I really like the idea of them. You create a 'V' and the contact point on their mouth slides so it's easier to reach into contact and more like hands. I also got a new lunging surcingle and lunge line because my old stuff was falling apart. I also snagged a surcingle pad but in retrospect it made what was already limited in size barely fit Gwyn. Oops.
The side reins I had to look up online how to attach because it was not intuitive. I figured I'd take photos so I could reference them for later.
After hill warmup I moved to the arena and added contact in the side reins. She was tripping a bit in here and on the hill but I think it was because her feet were in terrible shape. Good news, the farrier was out on Saturday and she now has shoes (and bell boots). I'm hoping she'll be moving better. And I'm hoping to get back to riding once this damn rash dies down. One more day of prednisone... These videos are after two doses of adequan. I still need to do this week's dose for her. Probably tomorrow.
That's all, not much to report except for a couple of product review videos I made for the hell of it but won't put in this post.
On Sunday I gave Gwyn her first dose of Adequan and then it was just so bloody hot (and my Mom was here) that I didn't do much with Gwyn, but I felt better by telling myself that I was giving Gwyn some time off after her chiro adjustment and letting the adequan start its work.
Last night I went out to lunge. I've got the creeping crud but the weather has been SO NICE that I made myself go. It'll be hot again soon. As per usual, despite feeling like I could fall over and sleep once I was actually out and grooming and lunging I perked up quite a bit. I just grabbed my surcingle (need a new one) and my side reins (also falling apart) and switched out the sidepull for a baucher on my biothane bridle.
Is that a more balanced canter I spy?!
Almost immediately I noticed a difference. Gwyn was offering the canter very willingly and was much steadier and more balanced than she's been. There was clear separation and push in her hind feet placement and no bunny hopping until she sassed me and got too rushed and off balance. I was so paranoid watching the quality of her gaits.
I also had two trot poles but I need to finesse the distance. They were set up and then my 5 year old decided that rearranging my arena was totally an activity she should do while I was otherwise occupied. Oh kids.
I didn't want to overwork her on the 20m circle so we did a little bit and then I took off the surcingle and side reins, reattached the regular reins and hopped on bareback to walk her and cool her out. I worked more on the lateral work, side pass, haunches in, shoulder in and she was great. I'm really loving how I can swing her body around right now. That dressage lesson was just wall breaking with whatever obstacle was in my head in how to achieve it.
"I smell your boot"
Good mare
After riding I hosed her off and fly sprayed her just in time for Eric to come out with Hazel. He wanted to finish moving the hay out of the trailer so that's what we did (because the weather was super conducive to moving bales of hay)
"Okay tiny human, this is how to walk into the trailer"
So hard to see because the bushes and fence are in the way, but we caught sight of a Doe and two fawns!
Once all the hay was gone, Saffron slowly made her way into the trailer to snatch up the leftovers. The last time she was on this trailer was when I brought her home and I just sat and watched her. I really want her to be able to load calmly and have good associations with the trailer so this was excellent! The one thing I read that I feel is really important about donkeys is that they remember. They've got an iron trap of a mind and if you've got a repeat bad association you're pretty much screwed with them ever thinking otherwise about a situation.
I also didn't want to leave them alone with the fence open like this. They are escape artists, these two!
Have a silly video of Saffron hanging out with me and Saffron.
