I haven't been able to walk into the barn this week without people telling me what a change they've seen in Aeres already. "She is SO much calmer!" the BM said when she saw me last night.
"Ulcer meds, man," I said. I started her on generic Wal-Mart brand esomeprazole last Thursday, and by Saturday, there was a softness to her eye that hadn't been there before. The edge visibly started to come off her generally anxious demeanor.
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| Awwww look, she's starting to develop a cookie face... |
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| ...for no reason whatsoever, why do you ask? |
By Sunday, when Mary rode her for the first time, she was stunned at the difference in her personality since she had last seen her the previous Wednesday. She's still the same reactive-but-not-stupid mare, but the general low-grade anxiety is gone. At least on the ground. Under saddle, anxiety will be a work in progress for a long time to come, I think.
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| Mary making her look good while me and baby Annie watch in the background |
I started working on both her underdeveloped butt muscles and on her brain by taking her into the front pasture for hill work on Monday evening. Almost entirely at the walk.
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| Horses are back on day turnout, so after 5pm we can play on this big hill in one of the turnouts. It also gave me a nice, safe contained space to see how she'd react "out in the open." |
I gave her 10 or so minutes on flat ground at the walk to warm up, and it was then that I finally felt her voluntarily slow her warp-speed anxiety walk. It became more of a panther-like stroll, and it was the first time I felt her relax under saddle, even a little.
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| Turning around to sniff my foot and ask why we stopped |
Our first time up the hill, she tried to ping pong back and forth to make it easier on herself, and after I quickly shut that down and told her to go straight up the hill, she thought it was less fun:
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| lol, feelings |
But she still clearly enjoyed it much more than being in the arena, and was an absolute star, even when cars and motorcycles zipped past, and the neighbor's English Mastiff came straight up to the fence and barked its head off at her. Curious to see how she'd handle that, I let her turn toward it, and she just stared at it with her ears up and without moving a single muscle. This...this I like!
Hopefully we can get out to some real trail rides soon, I think she'd be great at it.
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