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which_chick) wrote2023-05-08 09:30 pm
which_chick) wrote2023-05-08 09:30 pm
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Nice spin on the Bird this evening.
I took Bird out for a spin this evening after work. Normally he has Mondays off (because it's anime night) but last week was a flipping wash. All week it was cold and rainy. Saturday was beautiful. I went over with every intention of riding my horse.
On Saturday, I tied Bird at the hitching post and groomed him. He nibbled at the small amount, maybe a cup, of the leftover half-dried-out beet pulp pellets that Elklin had left in the trough. I went to tack up. He choked. This is a thing horses do. They take too big of a bite or something and they can't swallow it all the way. So the food bolus is stuck in their throat. This is called "choke". Horses can't really gag or cough or vomit up food. So, a bad swallow has to work its way down the throat via peristalisys or whatever or, failing that, you have to call the vet.
Choke is scary and can be dangerous. If the blockage is high enough up, your horse can aspirate fluids into the lungs and fuck themselves up for realsies. However, if it's lower in the throat, it is less immediately dangerous. Many times, mild choke will work itself out without too much issue. Odds are better if what the horse is choking on is a pelleted feed. (These feeds are basically pre-chewed and will soften with saliva and eventually be swallowable. But, while the horse is working it out, they kind of make a retch posture (which is muscles-rigid and terrifying looking) and they seem... unhappy.
It took about forty minutes for the choke episode to work its way out. It started about halfway down Bird's neck (you can feel the throat/neck and generally locate the mass of unswallowed bolus) and did work itself out without vet intervention, but it was not a fun forty minutes. Nerve-wracking stuff, choke. On the plus side you can tell INSTANTLY when Bird is done with the choke. Ears come forward. His face relaxes. (I know people think horse faces can't look stressed but let me tell you the difference between Hurting & Upset Bird and Feeling OK Now Bird is night and day.) Later, you notice he's not doing the Choke Posture anymore and his sweaty chest is drying off, but I could see it in his face right away.
This is the second time in his life that he has choked. The previous time was like six years ago. He doesn't make a habit of it, but it is kind of stressful when it happens.
Anyway, following the choke thing I hand walked him and let him eat like two nibbles of grass and then we did another lap of the driveway and two more nibbles of grass and another lap and so forth. I did a lot of walking, not a lot of riding.
Sunday it rained and I did not go riding.
But today (Monday) was nice. And so I snuck a ride in before anime night (Trigun Stampede, which is a reboot of Trigun, which was... twenty-odd years ago. It came out in like 2000. Trigun Stampede is, btw, lovely.) and damn was I glad that I did.
We're working on fitness and stuff for DLB who is coming May 19th or whatever. I am not ever 100% prepared for DLB and sometimes I feel like I am not bringing her sufficient progress on the directives. (Squares bore the fuck out of me. Shoulder-in on a circle Do Be A Mystery.) However, I am muddling forward and if I am bringing shit to the table at least it's DIFFERENT SHIT THAN LAST TIME.
Of late, I've been working about six million canter transitions (walk-to-canter, canter-to-trot) with the intent that they stay... quiet, soft, non-rushy, kinda-connected, prompt, etc. Moar Kwalidy. Nicer.
Walk to canter, turns out that was a me problem and not a Birb problem. Rider error. Hey, rider, horse does not go canter by you violently throwing your shoulders forward. That's not the cue for canter. It is, in fact, actively impeding the canter departure. Also, you suck.
Bird KNOWS THE DRILL. He's willing to Do The Thing if you put him in a reasonable fucking walk (one which he can canter from, and that's a thing you learn by doing, innit? A good walk. A walk that is active, with engaged abs and good energy that isn't all strung out and shit. A lively and attentive walk. Look, just go generate the walk that you think you need and ask for a canter. Did you GET a canter? Good job! That's the walk you need. Didn't get a canter? Try again, with a better walk first. Find the walk you need. Learn how to make that walk happen, learn what that walk feels like, learn what you gotta do to get that walk.) and just... ask for canter. Quietly.
And yeah, it turns out that if I assemble the "walk we can canter from" and then sit quietly in my happy place and ask for canter using only my lower legs and my inside hip and NOT MY UPPER BODY, we just... float from walk into canter, all at once. Nicely. Lead of choice. Immediately. Floaty. Controlled. With lift. Happy to be here, yes ma'am. I mean, it was nice enough before but now it's a whole new level of nice. (I was trying for quieter, softer, better walk-to-canters. Experimenting. Maybe it's me? It was me.)
Well, shit. I mean, they were so prompt and soft and light and nice. But also wow, I am a fucking idiot and have to really be mindful of this very ingrained bad habit so that I don't do it anymore and can have the Much Improved canter departures.
There isn't a canter-walk that I can find. We're not there yet. However, concerted effort has produced a VERY NICE canter-to-trot that stays connected and round and pretty and soft. There is NOT ANY ugly at all. It's nice all through. It's not automatic, there has to be some gathering up and some handholding and stuff, but given a reasonable and consistent amount of support, Birb can do EVERY SINGLE canter-to-trot transition so that it's nice. All of them.
It was just a really nice, productive ride where lots of things went well.
On Saturday, I tied Bird at the hitching post and groomed him. He nibbled at the small amount, maybe a cup, of the leftover half-dried-out beet pulp pellets that Elklin had left in the trough. I went to tack up. He choked. This is a thing horses do. They take too big of a bite or something and they can't swallow it all the way. So the food bolus is stuck in their throat. This is called "choke". Horses can't really gag or cough or vomit up food. So, a bad swallow has to work its way down the throat via peristalisys or whatever or, failing that, you have to call the vet.
Choke is scary and can be dangerous. If the blockage is high enough up, your horse can aspirate fluids into the lungs and fuck themselves up for realsies. However, if it's lower in the throat, it is less immediately dangerous. Many times, mild choke will work itself out without too much issue. Odds are better if what the horse is choking on is a pelleted feed. (These feeds are basically pre-chewed and will soften with saliva and eventually be swallowable. But, while the horse is working it out, they kind of make a retch posture (which is muscles-rigid and terrifying looking) and they seem... unhappy.
It took about forty minutes for the choke episode to work its way out. It started about halfway down Bird's neck (you can feel the throat/neck and generally locate the mass of unswallowed bolus) and did work itself out without vet intervention, but it was not a fun forty minutes. Nerve-wracking stuff, choke. On the plus side you can tell INSTANTLY when Bird is done with the choke. Ears come forward. His face relaxes. (I know people think horse faces can't look stressed but let me tell you the difference between Hurting & Upset Bird and Feeling OK Now Bird is night and day.) Later, you notice he's not doing the Choke Posture anymore and his sweaty chest is drying off, but I could see it in his face right away.
This is the second time in his life that he has choked. The previous time was like six years ago. He doesn't make a habit of it, but it is kind of stressful when it happens.
Anyway, following the choke thing I hand walked him and let him eat like two nibbles of grass and then we did another lap of the driveway and two more nibbles of grass and another lap and so forth. I did a lot of walking, not a lot of riding.
Sunday it rained and I did not go riding.
But today (Monday) was nice. And so I snuck a ride in before anime night (Trigun Stampede, which is a reboot of Trigun, which was... twenty-odd years ago. It came out in like 2000. Trigun Stampede is, btw, lovely.) and damn was I glad that I did.
We're working on fitness and stuff for DLB who is coming May 19th or whatever. I am not ever 100% prepared for DLB and sometimes I feel like I am not bringing her sufficient progress on the directives. (Squares bore the fuck out of me. Shoulder-in on a circle Do Be A Mystery.) However, I am muddling forward and if I am bringing shit to the table at least it's DIFFERENT SHIT THAN LAST TIME.
Of late, I've been working about six million canter transitions (walk-to-canter, canter-to-trot) with the intent that they stay... quiet, soft, non-rushy, kinda-connected, prompt, etc. Moar Kwalidy. Nicer.
Walk to canter, turns out that was a me problem and not a Birb problem. Rider error. Hey, rider, horse does not go canter by you violently throwing your shoulders forward. That's not the cue for canter. It is, in fact, actively impeding the canter departure. Also, you suck.
Bird KNOWS THE DRILL. He's willing to Do The Thing if you put him in a reasonable fucking walk (one which he can canter from, and that's a thing you learn by doing, innit? A good walk. A walk that is active, with engaged abs and good energy that isn't all strung out and shit. A lively and attentive walk. Look, just go generate the walk that you think you need and ask for a canter. Did you GET a canter? Good job! That's the walk you need. Didn't get a canter? Try again, with a better walk first. Find the walk you need. Learn how to make that walk happen, learn what that walk feels like, learn what you gotta do to get that walk.) and just... ask for canter. Quietly.
And yeah, it turns out that if I assemble the "walk we can canter from" and then sit quietly in my happy place and ask for canter using only my lower legs and my inside hip and NOT MY UPPER BODY, we just... float from walk into canter, all at once. Nicely. Lead of choice. Immediately. Floaty. Controlled. With lift. Happy to be here, yes ma'am. I mean, it was nice enough before but now it's a whole new level of nice. (I was trying for quieter, softer, better walk-to-canters. Experimenting. Maybe it's me? It was me.)
Well, shit. I mean, they were so prompt and soft and light and nice. But also wow, I am a fucking idiot and have to really be mindful of this very ingrained bad habit so that I don't do it anymore and can have the Much Improved canter departures.
There isn't a canter-walk that I can find. We're not there yet. However, concerted effort has produced a VERY NICE canter-to-trot that stays connected and round and pretty and soft. There is NOT ANY ugly at all. It's nice all through. It's not automatic, there has to be some gathering up and some handholding and stuff, but given a reasonable and consistent amount of support, Birb can do EVERY SINGLE canter-to-trot transition so that it's nice. All of them.
It was just a really nice, productive ride where lots of things went well.