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Showing posts with label body condition photo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label body condition photo. Show all posts
October 21, 2020
April 27, 2018
Pretty Much the First Day of Spring
Connor and I had a terrible, horrible, no good very bad lesson on Tuesday. We found out at the very end of the lesson it was due to an adjustment I made to his bridle that he did NOT like - once I figured it out and put it back he was back to his old self.
One way or another - after his regularly scheduled off day on Wednesday I figured I owed him one on Thursday. We hit the green, green grass in a t-shirt and summer tights and enjoyed the first really warm springlike day I think we've had so far:
We also went out to the big field behind the barn and trotted and cantered. He was SO relaxed. Normally he's antsy and pacey and nervous when we're out there.
He also killed it on Equisense metrics - 15.5 is his highest ever canter elevation score by quite a bit.
Afterward, I stripped his tack and took him out to groom him while he grazed on the lawn - something I'm sure he appreciated since his grazing muzzle got put back on this week!
Finally, I got totally sidetracked staring at his practically iridescent coat in the sun. This is nothing but nutrition - he hasn't had a bath in a month and he's been pretty neglected for the last 10 days.
Happy Friday!
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| We wandered the farm. |
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| We did two hill climbs on the really long steep hill in the turnout pasture. |
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| Tough to properly photograph, but this is a legit incline for Indiana and I'm thankful to have it for strength training. |
We also went out to the big field behind the barn and trotted and cantered. He was SO relaxed. Normally he's antsy and pacey and nervous when we're out there.
He also killed it on Equisense metrics - 15.5 is his highest ever canter elevation score by quite a bit.
Afterward, I stripped his tack and took him out to groom him while he grazed on the lawn - something I'm sure he appreciated since his grazing muzzle got put back on this week!
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| Astute readers will realize that is not Connor's halter on his head. It's a long story involving his grazing muzzle, TOTD taking a month and counting to get a purchase to me, and me not wanting to walk to my trailer to get a spare out :D |
Finally, I got totally sidetracked staring at his practically iridescent coat in the sun. This is nothing but nutrition - he hasn't had a bath in a month and he's been pretty neglected for the last 10 days.
Happy Friday!
June 22, 2017
Fatty Fat Fat
We've been at the new barn just over a month now, and somebody is...
...fat.
This is his first time on pasture in almost five years, so I've been watching for it, and it's not unexpected. As a first step, I cut his feed back as far as I can, even though I know the feed isn't what's making him fat. He's now getting a handful of Essential K ration balancer morning and night. The barn owners just laugh, they've never seen a horse get this little feed before.
But I know he's happy being able to graze again, I'm worried for their white vinyl fencing if they drylot him (...#ponyyoga tends to be hard on fencing when the grass is greener on the other side) and I want to let the BO's keep their normal turnout routine, so there's only one compromise:
He's worn a grazing muzzle before, briefly in September of 2012, when one person told me he was fat and I believed them despite not really believing it myself. Trust your gut, people!
He's crafty, but he's not persistent, so while he'll try to get the muzzle off for a while, if it puts up a fight he'll (probably) leave it alone.
My biggest concern with the grazing muzzle is the auto-waterers that are situated so that 2-3 pastures can share a single one. The BOs swear they've had a horse with a grazing muzzle not have a problem with them, and I made sure this one fits. Still, I'm going to leave a bucket out there for a while just in case.
...fat.
This is his first time on pasture in almost five years, so I've been watching for it, and it's not unexpected. As a first step, I cut his feed back as far as I can, even though I know the feed isn't what's making him fat. He's now getting a handful of Essential K ration balancer morning and night. The barn owners just laugh, they've never seen a horse get this little feed before.
But I know he's happy being able to graze again, I'm worried for their white vinyl fencing if they drylot him (...#ponyyoga tends to be hard on fencing when the grass is greener on the other side) and I want to let the BO's keep their normal turnout routine, so there's only one compromise:
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| It's the pony version of this emoji: :-| |
He's worn a grazing muzzle before, briefly in September of 2012, when one person told me he was fat and I believed them despite not really believing it myself. Trust your gut, people!
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| Not fat. |
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| Fat. But also muscles! (But mostly fat.) |
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| Also the reviews said this design could be improved by the addition of one more strap on the front, because the horse can basically pull it down and get it off otherwise, so I proactively added duct tape. Again, he's not persistent, the grazing muzzle just needs to stand its ground for a few minutes. |
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| (pre-duct tape, I tried a zip tie and didn't like it.) |
March 29, 2013
New Body Condition Photos
My lesson was canceled tonight, and as I headed out to the barn to ride I suddenly realized that I just wanted to brush and love on my little guy. After I had brushed him, I took some new body condition photos:
We're about a month away from his 7th birthday and he's finally filling out and looking like an adult pony. Cobs take so long to grow up, but it's worth the wait.
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| Dat topline. |
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| This is part of the reason grooming looked like a better idea than riding... |
And some additional photos from last night:
December 28, 2012
2012 Year-in-Review, January-June
It came and went without much fanfare here on the blog, but as of last month, I've officially had Connor for a year. My 2011 year in review was full of several names - Dillon, Mac, Adagio, Connor - but in 2012, it was just Connor. Because this was such a important year - not only did I own my own pony for the first time, but I also made some dramatic changes in my riding and riding philosophies - I'm going to break this down into two posts. It helps me so much to go back and look at the posts from this year. This is why we blog!
January
February
In February, Connor finally got his barn name (mostly to avoid everyone calling him Teddy), and I rode in my first clinic, with Nancy K. I realized that I was letting all his energy out the front by not capturing it in my hands, and started to change some long-held fundamental beliefs I had about riding as a result of working with a green horse for the first time. To that effect, Solo and Encore's mom put up a life-changing quote on her blog that blew my mind, and I felt the beginnings of changes in the way he carried himself.
March
I didn't realize it then, but I started to figure out the relationship between straight/light/connected and the inside leg to outside rein. Connor and I soaked up the sun in a record-breakingly warm March, and I pushed him through freakouts with each new thing I introduced, including canter and turns on the forehand. I realized I was holding too much in the reins during a terrible lesson, which was followed by a really encouraging jumping lesson.
April
I learned how to ride a stop and aaaaalmost fell off (still haven't!) as Connor figured out the jumping game, and then how to get out of it. Our Dressage was progressing really really really well, and my mom took the photos to prove it while my trainer said we were ready for more advanced Dressage work. I rode Connor's sire in the Hoosier Horse Fair Stallion Demo and loved it, and Connor and I had a horrible hack out that made me question him as a cross-country mount. As the grass came in, I struggled with thinking he looked good and listening to others about his weight the entire month.
May
I announced that my husband had lost his job in March, effectively ending our show season. Connor played hard-to-get on his sixth birthday, and lessons were missed for that and other reasons. When I had one again, I first noticed that he was leaning heavily on my left rein, a problem we would fight all summer as we lost that great Dressage work we had in April - mainly my fault. Connor developed a dry cough, which the owner of his full brother helped me diagnose as a maybe hereditary white clover allergy, and he was drylotted. I took Connor XC for the first time, and had a life-changing experience riding in a two-day Cathy Jones-Forsberg clinic.
June
In June, we started working on walk-canter transitions. In fact, let's be honest, we started working on the canter in general for real, now that he was ready for it. Nancy K came to teach lessons and she ASKED TO RIDE CONNOR OMG. He hit 14hh (cheers all around!) and we did an IDS schooling show with Austen and Guinness and took home a couple of very generous scores in Intro A and B. We also met some of our blog friends for the first time! Finally, the Midwest baked under 100 degree temperatures for weeks at a time, and lessons were few and far between as a result.
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| January 2012 |
I realized I was one-sided, and got depressed as I realized just how much that and my other flaws were affecting my green pony. It was warm enough to ride in the outdoor in January, and Connor was a basket case, spooking at his own shadow on the little barn. I struggled with whether to pull his mane or not.
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| February 2012 |
In February, Connor finally got his barn name (mostly to avoid everyone calling him Teddy), and I rode in my first clinic, with Nancy K. I realized that I was letting all his energy out the front by not capturing it in my hands, and started to change some long-held fundamental beliefs I had about riding as a result of working with a green horse for the first time. To that effect, Solo and Encore's mom put up a life-changing quote on her blog that blew my mind, and I felt the beginnings of changes in the way he carried himself.
 |
| March 2012 |
March
I didn't realize it then, but I started to figure out the relationship between straight/light/connected and the inside leg to outside rein. Connor and I soaked up the sun in a record-breakingly warm March, and I pushed him through freakouts with each new thing I introduced, including canter and turns on the forehand. I realized I was holding too much in the reins during a terrible lesson, which was followed by a really encouraging jumping lesson.
 |
| April 2012 |
I learned how to ride a stop and aaaaalmost fell off (still haven't!) as Connor figured out the jumping game, and then how to get out of it. Our Dressage was progressing really really really well, and my mom took the photos to prove it while my trainer said we were ready for more advanced Dressage work. I rode Connor's sire in the Hoosier Horse Fair Stallion Demo and loved it, and Connor and I had a horrible hack out that made me question him as a cross-country mount. As the grass came in, I struggled with thinking he looked good and listening to others about his weight the entire month.
May
I announced that my husband had lost his job in March, effectively ending our show season. Connor played hard-to-get on his sixth birthday, and lessons were missed for that and other reasons. When I had one again, I first noticed that he was leaning heavily on my left rein, a problem we would fight all summer as we lost that great Dressage work we had in April - mainly my fault. Connor developed a dry cough, which the owner of his full brother helped me diagnose as a maybe hereditary white clover allergy, and he was drylotted. I took Connor XC for the first time, and had a life-changing experience riding in a two-day Cathy Jones-Forsberg clinic.
 |
| June 2012 |
June
In June, we started working on walk-canter transitions. In fact, let's be honest, we started working on the canter in general for real, now that he was ready for it. Nancy K came to teach lessons and she ASKED TO RIDE CONNOR OMG. He hit 14hh (cheers all around!) and we did an IDS schooling show with Austen and Guinness and took home a couple of very generous scores in Intro A and B. We also met some of our blog friends for the first time! Finally, the Midwest baked under 100 degree temperatures for weeks at a time, and lessons were few and far between as a result.
August 19, 2012
August Body Condition Photos
How's this for a comparison shot? What a HUGE difference! I'm not sure that I realized it was this dramatic.
His neck angle is about the same in both of these shots, and of course he has like two inches more hair in the February one (Not exaggerating), but my goodness! I can't believe how much tighter his abdominal muscles are, how his back muscles are flat from the withers to the hip instead of dippy. Even my distinctly non-horsey husband recognized the muscle development in his neck and shoulder when I showed him these two photos.
I'm probably a little over-excited about this because I've never affected this kind of change in a horse before. Going forward, now that we're focusing on the canter, I'd like to see more development of the hind end muscles and gaskins. That will come.
So cool!
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| August 2012 |
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| February 2012 |
His neck angle is about the same in both of these shots, and of course he has like two inches more hair in the February one (Not exaggerating), but my goodness! I can't believe how much tighter his abdominal muscles are, how his back muscles are flat from the withers to the hip instead of dippy. Even my distinctly non-horsey husband recognized the muscle development in his neck and shoulder when I showed him these two photos.
I'm probably a little over-excited about this because I've never affected this kind of change in a horse before. Going forward, now that we're focusing on the canter, I'd like to see more development of the hind end muscles and gaskins. That will come.
So cool!
June 12, 2012
June Body Condition Photo
It's time for a body condition photo.
He's standing on a slight hill here, with his head cocked toward the camera, but I'm positioned to where you should be able to get your best view of his condition out of all the monthly body condition photos I've taken.
Overall, I'm so happy with how he looks right now. He's been on two flakes of hay per day on a drylot for the past month, and this is what happens. Have I mentioned recently that I love the Welsh Cob breed, and you should too? Cheapest grocery and farrier bills ever.
I'd like to see more development of the driving muscles from the hind end, and of course the topline is in perpetual development, but both look better than they have in the past. As we start jumping more and doing more work on the hills in the fields, his hind end muscles will develop. He's also hanging on to that overdeveloped muscle on the underside of his neck, which I hope will disappear with time and good riding.
Looking at this, I'm wondering if he's hit 14hh. Hmmm...
Overall, I'm so happy with how he looks right now. He's been on two flakes of hay per day on a drylot for the past month, and this is what happens. Have I mentioned recently that I love the Welsh Cob breed, and you should too? Cheapest grocery and farrier bills ever.
I'd like to see more development of the driving muscles from the hind end, and of course the topline is in perpetual development, but both look better than they have in the past. As we start jumping more and doing more work on the hills in the fields, his hind end muscles will develop. He's also hanging on to that overdeveloped muscle on the underside of his neck, which I hope will disappear with time and good riding.
Looking at this, I'm wondering if he's hit 14hh. Hmmm...
April 21, 2012
April Body Condition Photo
First of all, thank you, thank you, thank you to all of the awesome commenters on my last post. You all made me feel so much better, and I'll be doing a follow-up to that post very soon.
As you all know, I've been wrestling with Connor's weight going into spring. For a while, I was very concerned about it, but several things have changed my mind:
1. Talking to a woman through CoTH who competes her Welsh Cob in training level eventing, and soon to be prelim level. about how her Cob gets fit/fat, and how they are essentially a little draft breed.
2. Talking to his breeder about essentially the same thing.
3. Realizing that he's not as high on the body condition score as I thought he was.
4. He's now spending almost zero time stalled and he's not eating hay, and we've still got a little wiggle room to adjust his feed, which he only gets once a day.
So, I'm holding off on the grazing muzzle, at least for now. I think we've got this under control. For proof, here's April's body condition photo:
I'm seeing a few changes in him these days: he's developing muscle on the upper side of his neck, and the overdeveloped muscle on the underside of his neck has shrunk considerably. As he goes into that magical sixth year for Cobs, he's also getting bigger in places like his chest and rib cage. He turns six in just a couple of weeks!
I took enough photos of him today to fill an entire photo album. Here's a sampling:
As you all know, I've been wrestling with Connor's weight going into spring. For a while, I was very concerned about it, but several things have changed my mind:
1. Talking to a woman through CoTH who competes her Welsh Cob in training level eventing, and soon to be prelim level. about how her Cob gets fit/fat, and how they are essentially a little draft breed.
2. Talking to his breeder about essentially the same thing.
3. Realizing that he's not as high on the body condition score as I thought he was.
4. He's now spending almost zero time stalled and he's not eating hay, and we've still got a little wiggle room to adjust his feed, which he only gets once a day.
So, I'm holding off on the grazing muzzle, at least for now. I think we've got this under control. For proof, here's April's body condition photo:
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| Someday maybe I won't be the only person at the barn, and I'll get someone to take it for me so I can set him up properly. |
I took enough photos of him today to fill an entire photo album. Here's a sampling:
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| This is what it looks like to ride Connor. |
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| And this is what a Connor spook looks like. Note the ear position. |
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| Yeah, grass stains in his mane. All over his mane, in fact. Ugh. |
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| Our sweet new microfiber saddle pad, a gift from my mom to her "Grand Pony," as she called him last weekend. Also, I have a serious love affair with that saddle. |
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| Check out my skin dapples! |
March 22, 2012
March Body Condition Photo
I need more time to process today's lesson before I write, but here, have a March body condition photo in the meantime! He's still horrifyingly hairy (I am seriously thinking about body clipping...it's that bad.), so I took this one wet.
Good looking guy, eh? It actually looks like he has proportional legs when the three inch long hairs on his belly are out of the picture.
Teaser: we jumped for the first time since December, and he did awesome!
Teaser: we jumped for the first time since December, and he did awesome!
February 18, 2012
February Body Condition Photo and Outdoor Ride
It's been a while, hasn't it? It's been a rough week at work and at the gym, and with my normal weekday riding lesson moved to Sunday due to an outside clinician, I haven't seen the pony in a week! But I fixed that today, with an outdoor ride. But first! It's time for our first monthly body condition photo!
He's coming out of winter very nicely, looking like a pony that has spent a good deal of time with his face buried in a round bale. I'd say he's about a six on a body condition score right now, and this is with getting a handful of Tribute Kalm N' EZ and a scoop of flaxseed once a day. Love these hardy breeds! Topline muscling is improving, and will continue to do so as he learns better how to carry himself.
Now for the blooper reel, aka all of the pictures I had to take in order to get the semi-decent one above. Why is it so easy to get pictures of this pony in which his head looks massive and his body looks tiny? More than any other horse I've owned, he's so good at making himself look awful in photos.
Today was our second ride in the outdoor. You may remember the first outdoor arena ride. He wasn't spooky today, but he had a quick walk going and was much more interested in turning his head to look at his pasturemates than anything else.
I decided to use that very fast, forward walk to my advantage by very dramatically asking for that walk plus more, to where he was almost breaking into a trot, and then very dramatically slowing the pace of my gliding seatbones to ask for a more compressed walk. It took once or twice, but those big, dramatic, flag-waving signals were exactly the stimulus he needed to focus on me, and to realize that the outdoor means work just like the indoor does. Subtlety would have been lost on his brain today.
So the lesson was primarily an elementary walk school, with lots of transitions within the gait, and down to the halt, and lots of figures. I asked for softening on the inside rein, and I focused on giving him a consistent, obvious "space" in which he was to work - this space did not allow for turning his head to look at his friends in their pasture, as he found out. When I had what I wanted everywhere except in the very far corner nearest his pasture, I asked for the trot, and was stunned to find that he gave me a steady, appropriate, non-rushing rhythm. It seemed that walk work really put him in the right frame of mind for work, even outside.
In the end, it's all about communication. He's like a kindergartener that doesn't understand the difference between playtime and work time. I'm the teacher trying to come up with the words to tell him that we can have class on the playground or on a field trip just the same as we do in the classroom. And we really do get a little closer with every outdoor ride.
Now for the blooper reel, aka all of the pictures I had to take in order to get the semi-decent one above. Why is it so easy to get pictures of this pony in which his head looks massive and his body looks tiny? More than any other horse I've owned, he's so good at making himself look awful in photos.
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| Massive head, tiny body, no feet. |
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| Distracted head-shaking pony (but a nice shot of his lovely shoulder angles). |
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| Is it just me? I think he looks like a hot dog with legs here. A cute hot dog, but a hot dog nonetheless. |
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| Well...this just didn't go well at all. |
I decided to use that very fast, forward walk to my advantage by very dramatically asking for that walk plus more, to where he was almost breaking into a trot, and then very dramatically slowing the pace of my gliding seatbones to ask for a more compressed walk. It took once or twice, but those big, dramatic, flag-waving signals were exactly the stimulus he needed to focus on me, and to realize that the outdoor means work just like the indoor does. Subtlety would have been lost on his brain today.
So the lesson was primarily an elementary walk school, with lots of transitions within the gait, and down to the halt, and lots of figures. I asked for softening on the inside rein, and I focused on giving him a consistent, obvious "space" in which he was to work - this space did not allow for turning his head to look at his friends in their pasture, as he found out. When I had what I wanted everywhere except in the very far corner nearest his pasture, I asked for the trot, and was stunned to find that he gave me a steady, appropriate, non-rushing rhythm. It seemed that walk work really put him in the right frame of mind for work, even outside.
In the end, it's all about communication. He's like a kindergartener that doesn't understand the difference between playtime and work time. I'm the teacher trying to come up with the words to tell him that we can have class on the playground or on a field trip just the same as we do in the classroom. And we really do get a little closer with every outdoor ride.
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