Last week was sort of frustrating.  When I called Shannon to ride on Sunday she told me that she and her husband had to finish a job, and since they run their own business I understood, small businesses depend on their reputations.  Good ones get the job done.  Then Debbie called me Tuesday to tell me I could not have my lesson because they were going to give all their horses their spring shots Wednesday morning.  Well, the small Dy’on blinkers I had ordered came quickly and I was really eager to try them on Tercel, but, of course, spring shots come first.  (FYI the Dy’on blinders are 5 ¼ inches long, project upward ¾ “, the cheek strap is ¾” wide, and are fastened on the bridle with velcroed straps on top and bottom.)  Thursday I got to meet my new neurologist (my old one retired) who proceeded to infer that he did not really believe that I had MS and that he did not really believe in the one drug me and my former neurologists found that controls my MS.  Super bummer!   I have to have ANOTHER MRI (boing, boing, boing, thud, thud, clang.)  The threat of losing the one medicine that controls my MS really shook me up (my hand tremors increase three-fold and my walking got worse,) and I desperately needed to ride on Friday morning.

My son noted that Mia was sort of stiff when he brought her in.  I went over Mia with the slicker brush to her great approval, usually she does not enjoy the slicker brush that much but on Friday she was really getting into it, giving small snorts of approval when I got to the really itchy spots.  Then my son cleaned her hooves with no problems and I moved to rasp her toes.  First hoof--fine.  Then I went to pick up her left hind and she did her usual back and forth small kicks, but when I went to hold her hoof there was a sudden flurry of stronger, bigger kicking, at the end going out a little bit toward me.  So I went and rasped her hooves on the right side with no problems.  I went back to her left hind but she got a little more emphatic that on that particular day she did NOT want me to hold up and rasp her left hind hoof.  OH NO!  I got my son to walk Mia around a little while I concentrated on her left hind and I saw no sign of lameness.  Debbie was grading the ring so I went to Sam, Debbie’s daughter, who told me that on Thursday the two oldest mares in the pasture, Mia and Lily, had decided to come and get their feed at a full gallop.  She was not surprised that Mia was stiffer than usual.  I asked if it would be alright if I rode and just walked Mia around, and Sam said that Mia definitely needed to walk around some and to go ahead and ride.

Since I did not get to try my new Dy’on blinkers on Tercel I decided to try them on Mia.  She is a super sensitive, old, creaky, and opinionated mare who never hesitates to tell me when something irritates her, and I figured she would give me good practice with Tercel’s possible objections to the blinkers.  So I put them on the Micklem bridle, my son finished grooming Mia and we tacked up.  Luckily Debbie had finished grading the main ring so I got to ride on clean ground, no hoof prints, the sunken path next to the arena’s fence was gone, and I could easily judge our circles (they have improved greatly.)  Mia was not too sure about Debbie and the tractor roaring around the second ring at first but then she decided that all that commotion was a minor irritation.  As we wended our way around the jumps she did not get worried that the jumps had been moved, that the flower boxes were in unusual positions, and that the jump rails were pointed in unusual directions, things that would have absolutely terrified her when I started riding her years ago.  The only time that she seemed to react differently with the blinkers was when three loudly honking Canadian Geese flew in from behind Mia to land in the neighboring pond.  She wanted to do her freeze but I kept on using my legs and we completed our turn.  This was the ONLY “bad” reaction Mia had to the blinkers.  She was also much more reluctant to back up, I didn’t not blame her since she couldn’t see back with the blinkers on.  I quit asking her to back up after two steps since it was so obvious that the only reason she consented to back up at all was that she trusted me--somewhat. 

With the Dy’on blinkers on Mia could not see my hands (unless I put them waaaay out to the side).  I could not see the corner of her inside eye during turns, in fact I could not see her eyes at all.  After our warm up of meandering around the jumps I started contact, really concentrating on my hands.  She accepted contact fine, reaching out to the bit calmly, and I kept contact until I was afraid that my concentration on my hands would lapse.  I was getting tired by then! 

Debbie finished working on the other ring, came out and turned off the tractor.  Since Mia had not given much indication of lameness I dared a short duration sitting trot so I could get Debbie’s attention before she disappeared into the barn (no head bob, yeah!).  I showed Debbie my new blinkers and offered to put them on Tercel’s bitless bridle so he could get used to them before I got back up on him again.  Desperate to find any time to ride Tercel, Debbie has started to ride him during her lessons with her more advanced students (for beginners Debbie stays on the ground!)  She has one saddle in the stable that does fit Tercel, an Abetta synthetic Western saddle with a horn.  Debbie does NOT like the horn which is why she likes using my EZ-Fit treeless to work on Tercel, but when I am not there she now uses the Abetta, at least Tercel seems to like it even if it does have a horn. 

Why is she riding him when she teaches?  One of the old timey cures for a spooky horse is WORK.  Work that goes on for at least a few hours (I am not talking about fast work here, I am talking about slow, steady work), work that takes the rider’s attention away from micro-managing the horse, and work that gives the horse a few hours of movement that has a purpose.  The old-timers called it the “wet saddle blanket” cure.  The horse may start off super-reactive, but after the first hour of mostly slow and unexciting work the horse figures out that maybe, just maybe, he should stop wasting his energy by spooking.  I cannot do this, I am really tired after 30 minutes of riding and there is no way I could stay up on a horse for hours (if I could I’d volunteer, but I can’t.)  It also teaches Tercel to accept other horses in the ring, in front of him, in back of him, and passing him at all gaits.  Debbie is a very good teacher and a very good rider so she is quite capable of handling Tercel and teaching her class at the same time.

After standing around for a few minutes Mia decided she was THROUGH.  I gently disagreed.  So we just walked around, she gave me good turns with me just using my seat and legs, and I only used my hands when she did NOT want to turn away from the gate.  She also objected to my contact, not very vigorously but just enough to tell me that she thought our ride should be OVER.  All through the rest of my ride Mia was going “the gate is THERE!” as if I had forgotten that most important area of the riding ring.  The ride made me better, my tremors decreased and I when I dismounted I was able to walk back to the barn without staggering.  Thank you Mia!!!!!

Hopefully I’ll get to ride Tercel next week.  I hope that the Dy’on blinkers will be enough to stop most of the spooks caused by things behind Tercel.  I they don’t I will have to try a racing hood with blinkers next.

Have a great ride!

Jackie Cochran