CANTER Mid Atlantics Kid Klondike

Ever since Klondike arrived, we’ve all marvelled at his seemingly bombproof nature.  Deer in the forest?  No big deal.  Flapping sheets of plastic? Not worth worrying about.  Jumps, mud, cars, other vehicles, the horse-eating tipped over garbage cans ALL the other horses spook at?  All of these things were barely worth the flick of an ear.  Klondike was the perfect example of the most steadfast kind of horse there is.

But yesterday, I finally found something he’s not so sure about.  Some may not understand why this fills me with glee, but it’s nice to find at least one normal hairy-eyeball equine response… Klondike is so good about most stuff that I can’t help but sometimes regard him as abnormal or super-horselike.  With this little chink in his bomproof armor, I’m reminded that he is at heart a pretty normal dude.

So what’s the chink?  Flyspray.  Now, I’m sure he’s been flysprayed before, and hasn’t had a problem with it- but this may have been the first official flyspraying of the year, and sometimes they forget that they were fine with the flyspray a few months ago- I know my horse does (not just flyspray, but blankets/sheets are always new and terrifying, even when he was totally used to them only a few months before). 

Of course, I should mention here that Klondike’s response to stuff he’s not sure about is to tense up, widen his eyes, and try to stare the offending thing down.  Like he’s saying to that plastic spray bottle, “dude, I’m way bigger than you, and can crush you!”  As the spray actually hits his body, he has the typical “ack, what is that??!?!?” sort of response.  None of this is actually bad- he doesn’t freak out, or anything, and I think most horses seem to have that response to spray bottles at some point.

So I finally got my chance to actually get Klondike used to something.  My first chance to give reassuring pats and tell him he was such a good booooiee  for putting up with something a little frightening.  I started by spraying said bottle in the air in front of him.  The sound put him on edge but it was no real problem.  Then I moved to the lower legs, and moved up.  I stopped when I got to a part of his body he was clearly uncomfortable with, and then went back to somewhere he’d already had sprayed.  That’s the way I approach a lot of things- spray, clipping, hosing- I like to retreat back to where the horse is comfortable and never take him too far out of his comfort zone. 

After a very brief ride, I brought out the bottle again, and got most of his body.  He seemed a little upset but never moved, and he was appropriately rewarded for his tolerance of this ghastly procedure.  I am sure that over the next few days, he’ll be as bored with flyspray as he is with everything else, because he’s smart like that.

So I went out to visit Klon in the field yesterday (Deirdre has dibs on weekend riding, and he may be sold, so I figured I’d just love on him a little bit).

Giving him a once over, I realized that he’s changed.  A lot.  There is muscle and fat over his shoulderblades, muscle on his neck, and he is… shiny.  Really shiny, actually.  Which in part can be attributed to spring shedding, but I also like to think the Ultimate Finish had something to do with it, too.  And not only that, but his feet are very different too- his front feet are actually in “front foot” formed shoes, after only one shoeing cycle.  The flares on his hind feet are drastically reduced, and his soles are developing some depth and shape.

To contrast, here’s how he looked the first day I hopped on him.  Weedy and moth-eaten might be the best description.  I know it’s hard to compare the two photographs, since in one he;s tacked up, and in the other he’s grazing, but looking at him in person it’s a pretty amazing transformation.  He has a glow about him now, and appears much more balanced and powerful.  His movement is more fluid, and he’s got a bit of confidence. 

It’s just sort of amazing to me how only a short time of consistency and good grooming (heh) can make such a huge difference.  It’s not like he looked bad when he came here, but now he’s starting to look downright… stunning :)  If I hadn’t seen the “in between” I’d almost think it was a different horse.

Hmm, it’s been a while since we’ve added anything to Klondike’s blog, and that is largely because we took a trip to Rolex.  While we were gone, Deirdre was going to take Kloninator to his Fisher Price My First Horse Show.  Unfortunately, Klondike showed his super psychic horse powers by promptly throwing a shoe as soon as he sensed anything was out of the ordinary.  He now has been repaired, and will be re-shown to the lovely woman who came to try him last week. 

Since I don’t have much to say about SuperKid, having only seen him for about a half hour last night while he got his pedicure (and by the way, his feet look MUCH more normal- he is now wearing actual front-patterned shoes in front, and his hind flares are greatly reduced), I figured I’d say a few things about our trip to Rolex.

Firstly, some thank-yous.  In honor of the retirement of Winsome Adante, one of the greatest eventers of all time, SmartPak has made a fantastic donation of supplements to CANTER midatlantic, which is greatly appreciated and has us all very, very excited.  They even announced this during “Dan’s” official retirement ceremony in the main ring at the Kentucky Horse Park, right before the show jumping on Sunday.  What an awesome company- I’ve sung their praises before, due to excellent products and customer service, but this is seriously fantastic. What a great company!

Also deserving of mention?  The lovely Magic Cushion man.  Allie stumbled onto this product a while ago and has decided it is the very best thing around for packing abscessed or sore feet.  Since they were selling it at Rolex, she figured on picking up a tub, seeing as many of the CANTER horses have been experiencing hoof issues lately and it would be a good thing to have on hand.  Upon hearing who the product would be used for, CANTER was gifted a large tub of Magic Cushion- a very, very kind gesture for which we are very grateful.  And so, I have to give them a shout out, and say if anyone hasn’t used this stuff yet, it’s totally worth having in the barn.  And it even comes in “single serving” pods with the perfect amount to pack one hoof. 

As for the event itself, one of the really cool things about going to Rolex is that it is a showcase of what washed-up ex-racehorses are really capable of.  Almost every horse in the event is a thoroughbred, several of them origiunally purchased for obscenely low prices, to boot. 

To the left, “Neville Bardos,” a flashy little horse who tied for ninth place after all three phases.  Fancy and flashy, right?  This here beauty was purchased for a whopping $800 after a not so great racing career.

His other horse, “Ying Yang Yo,” from what I hear, has a similar story.   Both are now some of the best top level competitors in the sport of eventing. 

To the right, is “Brandenburg’s Joshua,” not only an ex-racing thoroughbred, but one originally found on the backside of Charles Town racetrack, the track where CANTER does the majority of horse listings.  Joshua came in fourth at Rolex. 

So… the main point here is that you can find really, really good things in interesting places.  Seeing these horses go made me wonder how many horses that find themselves on CANTER listings might be capable of the same sort of success, given the opportunity.  Hopefully, we will have these kinds of success stories to share about horses that went through CANTER’s hands- several “graduates” are certainly working on it, anyway.  Till next time…

No, this isn’t about me falling on my butt, in case anybody was wondering.  No, this entry is about “the other side” of what CANTER does, lest anyone think it’s all playing “my pretty pony” and enjoying sunset trail rides.  As anyone who frequently browses the website knows, we provide free internet classifieds for trainers at the track, so they can market their horses direct to the public.  Which is a win-win-win situation, really, for the horses, the track trainers, and the people trying to find that diamond in the rough.

Before I started actually going to the backside of the track at Charles Town, I wasn’t really sure what to expect- I had heard lots of stories about shady goings-ons at racetracks, and that there were lots of people who didn’t “care” about their horses, and pretty much expected to be overwhelmed and out of place.  But after my very first visit, I found I loved the place. 

You’d be hard pressed to find friendlier people anywhere, for the most part (though some might argue that it has something to do with being cute girls in a predominantly male environment).  Everyone says hello and good morning- everyone.  It’s almost sort of disconcerting, you’ll hear, “hello ladies, good morning!” coming from stalls that appeared empty (ok, so that can make you a little bit jumpy), riders walking by on their way to and from the track stop to say hello, trainers with things to do and places to be will smile broadly and give you some updates on their favorites. 

If you’re used to the hustle and bustle of the outside world, where everyone is on a mission, and too absorbed in their little electronic gadgets to actually TALK to other people, this can be a little weird at first. 

Then we get around to actually taking listings, which can be a little bit of a roller coaster of an experience.  One trainer might say the horse needs to go as soon as possible, to the first person with a trailer, which always makes me a little nervous and sad.  Another trainer might talk for what seems like hours about his favorite horse, and how he wants him to go to a good home, and how he has to have six peppermints every day. 

Occasionally we run into a trainer who has sold a horse, and if they’ve gotten updates- watch out.  Every horse that people get off the track to retrain as a jumper?  Is going to the Olympics.  As an aside to anyone with an off track horse, the majority of trainers seem to love updates, but any little accomplishment you might mention is very likely to get much bigger in the telling on the backside.  Crossrails become 5′ fences, and successful trail riding can become 100 mile endurance racing really fast.

One of our favorite things to do on track visits is to stop up at the track itself, and watch a little of the morning workouts.  This serves two purposes- first, it alerts trainers who aren’t in the barns that we’re there, so we often get a lot of leads and a list of barns to visit.  Second… we just like to watch.  Really, there are very few things that get my heart beating so hard as a Thoroughbred racehorse does- even a not-so-fast one at Charles Town. 

On Saturday, standing near the rail, was a trainer who has listed horses with us before (and sold them successfully, she informed us with a grin).  A couple of horses worked by, and made me stop midsentence as I watched them, their feet pounding and breathing hard.  They sounded like trains, or some sort of otherwordly machines, it’s sort of hard to describe the sound.  I said that I would like, just once or twice, to try that out and really feel what it’s like to go all out- I’ve been close, but not quite.  The trainer turned and gave a knowing smile… “there’s no drug in the WORLD that will give you that rush…”

After a brief discussion of exactly how it feels to ride a fast horse, we turned back to scope out a few more barns.  Along the way, we saw some “old friends” (like a horse who was listed once, but the trainer seems intent on keeping- and overfeeding), and also had a few sobering moments (one horse who needed to be gone ASAP as she was injured turned out to already be gone).  As much as I love going, it’s not all sunshine and roses, and sometimes we find out things we’d rather not have heard.  But at the same time it still has an odd feeling of home.  And I’ve decided too that any place where you can find a goat dressed in pink kids’ clothes is a place that on most levels is fundamentally good.

(as a brief kloninator update- someone may be coming to take a look at him tonight- keep your fingers crossed!)

Over the course of the last week, I’ve done a bit of ringwork with Klondike.  To be totally honest here, while he’s probably one of the most fun horses I’ve ever sat on, ringwork is not his favorite.  It’s just… what’s the point of staying on the rail? Or of going endlessly in circles?  And more importantly, what’s the point of going on contact and stuff, when we could be on a loose rein, enjoying the fresh air and sightings of all sorts of interesting wildlife in the woods? 

I can’t say I disagree that much, but I know that horses need to know certain things if they’re to be successful in life.  Things like going in straight lines, and moving forward into contact.  So we worked on those things a little bit.  Over the course of a few rides, we accomplished some really good stuff.  I took Jess’s advice, and threw in some canter work pretty early, since that’s the gait he’s most comfortable and relaxed in. 

Cantering early definitely seems to make a difference, when we move back to trot, he’s much more loosened up and happy to take a little contact.  In fact, we had several moments that can almost be described as “almost round” where he “gave” to the bit contact a little- bringing his nose in instead of giraffing about.  While this is definitely preferable and a sign of progress, maintaining the “forward” through this is somewhat difficult.  He tries really hard, but it seems to be a new trick for his body, so all the pieces are not together yet.   I would also love for him to consider stretching forward and down from the base of the neck, but he’s not quite there yet either, though I suspect it will take only a few more rides.

The straightness/inline issue we are tackling not by working on straight lines, but by doing a lot of circles.  As he improves his body control on the arc of the circle, his general straightness and “staying between the legs” improves as well.  On the circle, it just seems like there’s more room for me to control his body parts.  If I could scientifically explain that, I would, but I lack the skills of communication.  In any case, the “motorcycling” through turns and circles is now drastically reduced, and in the course of our work the other day, we had a bit of an epiphany, which I will sum up in the following conversation (me in red, kloninator in blue):

“arg, horse, you’re tipping and popping your shoulder, and none of your feet are on the same track!”

“Well lady, let me give you a hint.  Maybe if YOU straighten out, I can do this better.”

“What?  You mean… if I stop collapsing to one side, and keep my outside rein actually OUT, and my hands wide and directive… then it’s easier for you?”

“Regular rocket scientist you are.  Now give me a cookie.”

In other words, “duh.”  As usual, the real discovery here is that it’s not really such a matter of training the horse, as it is riding right, which allows the horse to figure out what you want and gives him the very best chance of success.  I think I learned that in my third riding lesson when I was eight, but sometimes I’m slow to catch on.

There’s not much left to say about the joy that is ring work- as his body gets stronger and more flexible (yay carrot stretches!), he’s getting better and better.  In the last two rides he picked up both leads every time, the first time I asked.  He’s also very quick to pick up on when you’re pleased with him, so our rides involve lots of pats and “good boooiiieees!” He seems to understand that when I sound excited, he’s done something fantastic.

After fun ringwork the other day, I decided a nice quick walk in the woods would be relaxing, since that’s where SuperKid is the happiest.  What I hadn’t counted on was how quick he was to pick up the routine- I have a habit of getting off near the barn door.  So after learning how to stand and move so that I could open the gate from horseback, he pretty much thought we were done.  Which led to conversation number two (again, me in red, klon in blue):

“la la la, time for a nice walk!”

“huh? this is the barn door.  The barn door, lady!  It’s carrot stretch and rubdown time, what the heck are you thinking?”

“er… was thinking we’d go for a walk?”

“but.  this is the barn door.  We’re supposed to go in there.”

<interjecting- this is where he started backing up and being a little stubborn.  I turned him a few times, so that his feet were at least going where I wanted, when I remembered Allie’s words of wisdom about keeping them occupied, and tried something different.>

“Ok, well you don’t want to go up the driveway, but… HEY WHAT’S THIS?  IS THIS A GRASSY HILL?  Don’t you just want to see what’s up there?  What’s up there Klon, huh?  huh?  You know you want to see!”

“oh hey, haven’t been up here before, what’s all this?  cool! let’s go up here!”

In other words, while I could have forced the issue of walking straight up the driveway, I distracted him completely by turning left and pointing him at a little grassy bank thing.  Which was interesting, and got his attention.  When we came back down again, he was firmly in “let’s go for a walk” mode, and we had a lovely, leisurely loop through the woods (where we also worked on stretching down from the base of the neck while walking up hill- trail rides are great for “stealth training”)  Our little ride ended with a spectacular sunset- the farm where he’s living now has a gorgeous, red sunset almost every night.  I got off in the upper ring, having learned my lesson about routine. 

Falling for a horse is a funny thing, not that much different from falling for a person, really.  There’s lots of romantic stories about “love at first sight,” but that’s not how it is for most of us.  For every heart-pounding story of seeing big dark eyes from across the barn and just “knowing,” there are hundreds of us who experience something else, something more like “eh, he’s ok,” until suddenly you realize you are hopelessly smitten. 

That’s how it seems to have happened for me with Klondike.  Sometime over the last few days, I’ve gone from, “he’s so adorable, someone is going to love him!” to “wow, I really love him.”  With something like shock, I realized that when he goes (which will probably be soon, I don’t see how anyone could try him and not take him home), I’m going to be sad.  More than sad, even, upset- and I feel very sniffly thinking about it.  Previously I had felt only excitement- there’s something about seeing a good person find a good horse that makes everyone feel good, right? 

I can pinpoint the exact moment that my feelings towards the orange beast changed, too.  Monday I was moping about the barn, having gotten my own horse checked out by vet #3 for his lameness issues.  I had been planning on just brushing Klondike, because he’d worked hard all weekend and I figured he could use a rest.  But it was a nice day, nicer than what had been predicted, and maybe since I was sort of bummed out and flustered, Allie suggested a trail ride.   On a day like that, once I thought about it, a little mosey could be just what I needed.

So off we went.  The air was cool, but not too cool.  Everywhere you looked, there was bright green grass, so lush it almost looked fake.  Flowering trees were in full bloom, and everwhere else there was that pale green dusting of new tree buds about to burst.  That alone put me in a better mood- when things are growing and so full of life all around me, it just feels like everything is right in the world.  Or at least, like most things are.

We went a new way, that I’d never been before, and found ourselves in a lovely field full of little dips and rises, with lots of room for moving out.  Without really saying much, we found ourselves trotting along, and then Allie asked if we wanted to canter (like I can resist that when it comes to his canter?) We rolled along up the hill, spring breeze in our faces, when Allie gave us some direction- turn right at the top.  Without even really thinking about it, I squeezed the right rein- didn’t pull, just gave him a “hey, we have to steer a little up here” sort of noodge.

And that’s when it happened- he flicked an ear back, and as if reading my mind, cocked his head to look to the right, to see where we were going.  And when he saw the break in the trees, he just went, like he needed no further direction or encouragement, understanding completely what I wanted to do and where we were going.  Strange that such a simple, tiny little moment can cause your heart to swell, but maybe it’s because at that moment, we weren’t two separate creatures- for just a tiny, fleeting second, we shared some thoughts and intent, and apparently that’s all it really takes to fall in love.

Some more actual training updates and stuff later… it’s just been a weird week, and suddenly realizing exactly how attached I’m getting to this horse, and how hard it will be when it’s time for him to move on, has made me a little (gee, a little?) sentimental. :)  Till later…

Saturday, Klondike had his first ever public appearance, going to Frying Pan Park for an introduction to outings and baby cross country stuff.  Have to say, for a first time out, he cotinued to show what a very smart and capable boy he his.

He started his trip by loading into the trailer with no fuss at all.  He almost seemed to wonder what the fuss was, since he gots lots of scratches and pats and “good boy!!!”s after getting on.  More concerned with the hay bag than anything else, he seemed to regard the trailer as simply another opportunity to be spoiled with food. 

Once at Frying Pan, he unloaded equally well, stood tied to the trailer, and tacked up perfectly quietly.  He got to take a good look around at all sorts of new and exciting things- sheep, tractors pulling wagons full of visitors to the park, small children, and even a horse pulling a cart.  He did seem a bit concerned about the cart, as if he was maybe wondering if it was chasing the cute little horse, but he kept his worries to himself and stood perfectly still.

After exploring a little bit, and having a bit of a balk at the water jump (we were just trying to walk in- but I think these things are initially a little confusing.  Klondike is perfectly happy crossing running water and streams, but this thing was totally new- not a stream, not a puddle, and you can’t really see the bottom), Allie decided to go grab her horse out of the trailer, as she could provide a lead for the two newbies (Klondike was not the only little chestnut CANTER horse present, cute as pie Indy  (see his listing on the CANTER-owned page) joined us, to show off how fancy he has become).

While waiting for our more experienced trail partner, I hacked him around the front field a little bit, and then decided to point him at the Playskool My First Log jump, conveniently located near the trailers so he was in sight of all his good friends.  Have to say, this little guy is really smart about jumping.  He took a little look, judged the size, and jumped very well without overjumping, like so many greenbeans do.  He went both directions very easily and happily, when I made a crucial mistake.

What I probably should have done at that point was kept him busy, but I decided to reward him for being so stellar by taking a little break and walking around, which is when he realized he was kind of by himself, which was the first thing he’d found worrisome so far that day.  His solution was to go back to the trailer and find his friend, and when I thought that was not necessary, he got a little upset with me.  Which is when I made another mistake.  I have this tendency, when a horse is being slightly unpredictable or nervous, to go defensive- not quite into fetal position, but almost as useless.  I know this doesn’t work, and is in fact the exact opposite of what works, but it’s hard to resist.  The brain is a funny thing, choosing instinct over logic sometimes. 

Somehow we got over the little “wahhhh! I’m alone and don’t want to be!!!!” episode, and kept going.  Fortunately his friend soon joined us, and it was back for a water schooling session.  Klondike watched Indy go in, but was still pretty hesitant about the whole thing, wanting to back up and pretty much tuning me out (that fetal position thing? It’s a killer!).  He eventually ended up more or less getting pulled into the water (thank you, bombproof buddy horse!), at which point, he realized the water was pretty awesome, and super fun to splash around in.

After only about five more minutes in the water jump, Klondike had mastered walking in, walking out, and then going both in and out off the small drop/bank on the other side.  He also threw in several good splashes for measure.  I wasn’t sure what he’d do going down the bank- my experience there is that horses new to this (granted, I’ve only ridden a couple that were new to it, heh), sometimes take a gigantic flying leap, but Klondike is smarter than your average bear, and having been in the water already, figured that he could easily and quietly lower himself down with about as much fuss as he showed hopping in the trailer.

From then on, Klon showed he was a hacking/XC machine- we enjoyed several nice trots and a little canter where the footing allowed, and practiced several more drops.  Again, each time I was prepared for the flying leap, it never came, and he was quiet and easy as pie.  He even mastered the ditch- it wasn’t a big one, but it was filled with water, which again had me anticipating the flying leap.  And again, he could not have cared less.  Walking to the ditch, he simply put a foot down in it and walked through.  Trotting, he just took a big step and barely raised his body off the ground (he’s all about efficiency).

I’m thinking SuperKid is just eerily smart when it comes to obstacles- he judges them and decides exactly what to do from a distance, and seems to always be right about things.  He’s honest as can be- even with Fetal Monkey Girl up there he was happy to give everything a try.  And when he does something right, he knows it- holding his head high and nodding a bit because he’s so proud of himself. 

By the end of the ride, he was even moving into contact much more happily than usual :)  And afterwards, he acted like it was old hat to go walking through hordes of children to get hosed off at the wash racks.  Traffic, dogs, strange animals, and miniature people? No problem. 

As a side note, I feel bound to remind everyone that when the weather gets nice, it’s a good idea to use sunscreen. I sort of forgot that, and I have the worst glove lines I’ve seen in a long time. 

So, here’s the little video clip from our Tuesday ride (when I was gushing about his great canter).

Now doesn’t that look great?  Don’t you just want to climb on and try it out for yourself?  Of course you do… *grin*

In any case, I didn’t ride Klon yesterday due to being allergic to springtime in Maryland (trust me, even if you’ve never had allergies before in your life, you WILL get them if you move to MD.)  Without sufficient drugs to make me more comfortable, I opted to just have a nice easy ride on my own horse and enjoy a saunter through the woods.  But SuperKid and I do have a fun week ahead- his other person is going on vacation… which means I get to play My Pretty Pony to my heart’s content.

Klondike is cute.  I’ve said it before, but he’s just really adorable.  Yesterday when I went out to get him, he actually came running in, and came straight to me.  Talk about your warm fuzzies- while my brain tells me this is a sign he is spoiled rotten and knows he’s going to get food, it feels nice anyway, and I like to think he’s just really enjoying attention and work and learning.

Yesterday was my first ride on Klondike since he had his chiro/acupunture session, and he felt pretty darn good.  The “teen driver” feeling is going away a little bit, it was easier to keep him in a nice forward trot that was more consistent.  He was still quite wiggly, wanting to drift in off the rail (particularly to the right), but he’s getting better about accepting leg as a “move over” cue, so we were able to negotiate a busy ring without too much difficulty (though Klon would like to say that he’s not entirely sure that little grey fuzzy thing everyone was cooing over was actually an equine, he seemed convinced that the pony was some sort of alien).

He still doesn’t really enjoy the idea of contact at the trot.  He spent most of this time practicing his giraffe impression, sucking me into letting the reins slip through my fingers, and being generally disorganized (it probably doesn’t help that I am generally disorganized to begin with, I suppose).  I think at this point, I have to be a little more consistent with my hands, for us to progress there- I need to work on relaxing the arms and keeping a following contact at all times, so he learns to… well, to deal with it (that and he needs his teeth done, which will be happening soon as well). 

A couple times, I attempted to add leg to try to get a little more walk, or a little more trot.  To a point, he gets this, but I may have goosed him a little, because he broke into a trot or canter (respectively).  The first canter was sort of sewing-machine-ish… probably because I hadn’t actually asked for the canter and he was just reacting to more leg than he usually gets.  Whenever this happened, I let him go for a few strides- I really want to avoid confusing him too much, and want to reward the forward reaction to leg.  I mean, forward is always good- it’s a nice basic response to have (forward is usually the answer for most stuff that goes wrong, it seems- spooky horse? forward. nervous horse? forward. horse that wants to buck/rear/be a pain? forward).  So for the moment, if he breaks into a trot while I’m trying to get a better quality walk, that’s OK.  If I was a more brilliant rider, I might try for more subtlety now, since Klondike is clearly quite smart.  But I’m not.  So happy/pleasant moving forward from leg, for now, is fine with me.  We have plenty of time for more subtle stuff, after all.

Once we got to working at the canter things improved drastically.  This horse just has an AWESOME canter.  It’s comfortable, easy to sit, and after the initial “whee! I’m cantering!” thing, is just wonderfully relaxed and easy.  He makes my own horse feel like a Mac Truck. We worked a little bit on a circle, and the worst thing I can say about it is that he likes to suck back and try to stop when he’s near the gate.  Adding strong leg at key points in the circle helps, though his response is to give a stride or two of a more “leaping” canter (which amused me greatly, to be honest). 

After the canter, we came back to doing trot work, and lo and behold, he actually started reaching down and out a little bit, into the bit, instead of giraffing.  Unfortunately we did not get video documentation of this, but it felt like a big victory.  He might have just been tired, but it felt nice, and when he started stretching, I made sure to make a big fuss over him and how awesome he was.  He’s funny, when you really make a big deal over him, he sort of arches his neck and looks all proud of himself. 

If Klondike looks a little concerned in that photo, it’s because he was a little confused about what the heck was going on.  Last night was his first session with chiropractor and acupuncturist Dr. Liz (who we are told is updating her website soon).  Because he’s getting back into work and building (or re-building) muscle, as well as having some issues from his long ago racehorse training, it seems like a good idea to get some therapeutic work like this done. 

Even with lots of time off after race training, a horse’s body can still show the effects of that work.  After all, if they come off the track a little wonky or stiff, it will effect how they move all the time- so certain stiffnesses or problems can remain, and new problems can form as the horse compensates with other parts of his body.  Bodywork (gee, sounds like we’re tinkering with engines here!) can only help in getting him more even and moving better and better.

All that said, poor Klondike didn’t seem entirely convinced that this session was in his best interest.  While parts of it were probably relaxing, other things? Not so much.  Dr. Liz concentrated much of her attention on his rear end.  Because the bones in the pelvic area aren’t fully mature until the horse is five or so, and racehorses do a substantial amount of work before that age, it seems pretty typical to find that TB’s are a little “out” there.  After doing some basic chiropractic work, she applied some acupuncture needles to key spots in his back and butt.  SuperKid did not appear to mind this too much, until, moments later, Dr. Liz asked him to pick up a front foot.

The motion must have caused some sort of zingy feeling in his rear end, because it was as if sleepy-Klondike had suddenly been stung by a horde of killer bees.  OK, maybe not that bad… but- you know that lovely video of the mare Blue Hors Matiné doing her Freestyle? You know her beautiful, expressive piaffe?  Well, Klondike basically started doing that- but only with his back end.  He kept his front feet mostly planted, very politely, but was doing a lovely dance with the back feet, convinced something was trying to get him (but thankfully he seemed concerned about our safety as well- it’s nice to know that even if cattle-prodded, he’s looking out for our well-being).  After he finally calmed down (”but people, there are NEEDLES in my BUTT!!!“) Dr. Liz removed the needles and went on to work a little bit on other body parts.

A little pushing and adjusting later, Klondike appeared to be feeling very good.  He let loose a huge series of yawns, and seemed to be more and more happy as the rest of the session went on.  By the end of the session, he was definitely improved.  Dr. Liz tested his back sensitivity both before and after, and while he showed a big response before she started, he barely flinched afterwards.  Though he’s getting today off to recover and stretch out, we’re pretty excited to see how he feels under saddle over the weekend. 

It’s also great to see his body changing- we’ll have to take some pictures to document this process, but even after a very short time here, he has already packed on some weight.  Not just weight, but muscle- his shoulders are not nearly as bony as they were, and his neck is not so scrawny either.  In another month, he is going to look (and go!) like a rock star.