I just got pictures from Florida showing Cisco’s arrival!
Cisco just traveled 1300 miles in a trailer. Tony Vaught made a special trip to get him. Cisco had gone into laminitis danger with his weight gain on the high sugar grass in Missouri. Horses get a version of sugar diabetes by eating too much sugar which is rampart in Central Missouri grass. This is called insulin resistance in horses. Horrible pain called laminitis can result which heats up the bones in their foot to the temperature of a 400 degree oven and causes the hoof bones to rotate. It can be very painful at the worst of it. Many horses have died or caused their human to put them out of their misery. Our location got the rain that others in the midwest didn’t. The rain causes grass to fill with sugar. Laminitis plus EPM nervous system disorder is too much.
Cisco will live on Bermuda hay in Florida. Bermuda is very very low in sugar. There are people who grow Bermuda hay in central Missouri, but they are hard to find. Cisco will eat zero grass. There are no grassy pastures at the stable. Tony and Jenny will check his condition and figure out getting him healed as the weight loss happens. Cisco arrived in Florida with his midwest fall/winter coat .He will be itchy until the 90 degree heat makes him shed his winter hair.
Thank you to Tony and Jenny for taking him. They are gifted healers, horse developers with a big heart. Friends and trainer since mid 90’s when I started my journey with Sage and Velvet. (Cisco is related to Velvet also).
Since Fall has started in Missouri, I can exercise outside. I’ve started walking. I took Emma and Sulley over to the lake on the turf farm. I thought maybe I could walk around the lake. This is the farthest I’ve ever taken Emma outside the home property. Oh no, she ran far away from me and disappeared. Both her and Sulley were gone. I yelled and yelled. EMMA EMMA EMMA sixteen to twenty times. By the time I walk back home and get the car, she will be on highway 7 headed for Harrisonville. Yes, that happened two weeks ago.
But, Emma appeared. She heard me. She started coming to me. sigh sigh sigh. Her GSD trot covers a lot of ground in a short time and there she was beside me. I was on the opposite side of the lake headed towards home. Emma stopped every 2 minutes to smell the delicious grass. Ahead I spotted a large goose “herd”. They are migrating. I’d say there were about 50 geese. Oh Joy! Won’t Emma have fun chasing the geese. I walked toward them. Emma kept stopping. I yelled at her, “Emma come on! You have an adventure ahead.” Emma non verbally told me that the grass smell was way more fun. The grass contained a lot of goose droppings. She had never smelled so much goose stuff before in her life! We got closer. I decided to use my scarf as a leash. Emma and I fought over the scarf. I won, but the geese were getting leery now and walking away from us. I let the scarf loose and started whispering to Emma. I didn’t want the geese to hear. Emma ignored me. We got closer to the geese. Surely she would see the geese now. Nope. The geese finally decided we were a threat and flew up and away. Emma paid absolutely no attention to the flapping geese wings. Oh wait, there are more geese over to our left. I crept towards them. Emma ignored them. The geese flew away. Thus ended our adventure walk for the day. I did so want to see her chase the geese. sigh…
Now it is time to head for the stable to play with Fancy. She is forlorn without Cisco. I feed her while grooming her. We load up the saddle and head for the arena. We played the “Touch It” game. I point to something and focus on it as I “send” Fancy to it. It is a cone. She goes to the cone and chews it. Good Girl! I point to the mirror and send her to it. She admires herself. We do that with more cones. She’s getting the idea. The “Touch It” game is fun and builds confidence in the horse along with having fun.
Our new game is a matching slow walk. Our front legs must match. My right leg and her right leg must in unison. I set the very slow speed. Occasionally I stop with one leg in front and so must she. I pick up the front leg and walk it backward. Her front leg must match. I have a lot of fun with this game. She’s getting the idea. This makes us a pair. We are building a relationship where I am 51% and she is 49%.
Our next game is the circle around me at the speed I want. We are having trouble with the walk to the first fast gait and maintaining the gait. She gets it and I ask for the canter. I canter and she canters. Mostly I canter in place while she canters around me. She loves to canter. She will pick up this game fast. We then practice on transitions down, up and stop. It’s difficult. This is the first time I’ve played this concise of a circle game with the precise transition gaits. It’s fun for me. She has to pay 100% attention to me or the game changes suddenly.
Fancy is ready to ride. I missed the Dave Ellis clinic as Fancy had a sore back, possible sore stifle and possible sore mouth. We will find out what is going on with her physically on Monday.
The first group lesson, Dave had the riders use their halter and lead rope to ride. I thought, OH boy! If I had been there, Fancy and I would have done that. Today I rode Fancy in her halter with the lead rope. I did use the carrot stick too for guidance. I ask for direction changes with my body, then the lead rope. If those are ignored, the stick comes to her nose and persuades her to go where I’m focused on.
Well, that was about as much fun as it could get! I would have lived through that part of the Dave Ellis group lesson. We did the four barrel clover leaf pattern. We tried to speed up, but had the same negative reaction when I asked her to move faster. Ears pinned, head up with a non verbal NO. Erin came in to ride a training horse, so we followed, did a 360 and caught up with the horse…or tried to catch up.
Finally, I thought we had done enough. We side passed to a “bridge”. I swung off and did an amazing dismount. Usually, I free both legs and drop off the horse, but for some reason today, one leg stayed in the stirrup and my other leg swung down to the bridge. I have never successfully dismounted like that. I never thought my legs would be that flexible.
What a great time I had today. Fancy came home with me and is with her herd at home. The lead mare lets Fancy stay with the herd, but limits the distance to about two horse lengths. She is close to being a member of the herd, but not quite accepted yet. Fancy will get to enjoy a lot of grass and being with a herd. Monday is her vet appointment to find out what her body and mouth are doing.
Playing with Fancy brought drops of joy into my life. I thought about how much fun I had without being depressed at Cisco’s EPM lameness. My joy turned into teardrops of joy. There was mist behind the the joy drops. I miss Cisco.
Now I’m wondering if I can FACETIME Cisco. Should I request Jenny to hold a computer up to his head so I can chat with him. Uh, I don’t think he would communicate with me. never mind. Horse women are crazy and we love it that way!