The last 2 days I've ridden Legacy and I've managed to do more than just sit on her or walk her around in circles on the spot. Yesterday was just your average schooling session in the arena with my mum on Cloudy. I started out the session by trying out some starting suggestions I got over on facebook through the equestrian bloggers group and she was just doing the usual of stopping and throwing her head when she doesn't want to work. 

After feeling inspired from the comments over there I seen a whip on the side of the school and decided to give it another try. I never typically use whips on her as she must've had somewhat of a bad experience with them in the past as whenever you give her a tap on the bum to back up the leg she will try to kick your leg as to say 'get off'. So knowing that I decided to just show her the whip, and it actually worked. I didn't have to hit her with in once, she knew it was there. Each time I felt she was going to slow down I would just show her the whip and she go back to working. There was a few head throws in the beginning but when she got into a rhythm she would work nicely. Even at the end of the session I asked her for a little canter on each rein, which we both have to work on very much as more as ground work before ridden but it was nice to have a little canter on her which we haven't been able to do for about the last 6 months.

In today's lesson she tried to start off a little slow but there was no stopping and no head throwing as usual. In the lesson today we worked on a big 20m circle then smaller ones at certain parts of the bigger circle. This was so we could help Legacy become more supple from her left side on the right rein and so she doesn't flick her back end out on the left rein. As she flicks her back end out on the right rein she's not sure what to do with her back legs as she's turning corners within the circle, she's kicking herself with her back legs which results in her stumbling and then having to correct herself. This now means that she has to wear boots on her back legs. This isn't too much of a major problem as I've gotten her used to having boots on her back legs, she can just try to swipe her legs at times to try and get them off, once the first velcro is done she's fine. This is just something I've got to watch with her. 

Didn't manage to get any pictures from the lesson so I've added these in to break it all up.

Meet Cloudy...

In September 2015 my mum bought her own horse called Cloudy, he is an American Paint X Thoroughbred. He's 18 this year and is an ex eventer. He hasn't been out eventing for a while now as we've had him a year and a half and his past owner had him a couple of years. Since retiring from eventing he has just been a happy hacker with his past owner and pretty much my mum. She takes him in the school on occasions and a bit more often throughout the summer when the roads are busy.

We're not sure on any of his eventing history, but we've seen some pictures his past owner had of him doing it. For the age of him he is still very much active and if you compared him to the way Legacy works you make think their ages were the other way around. He is ridden most days as my mum works in the mornings she gets the afternoons to ride so he is quite fit. There's a popular quick hacking route that the yard do, typically it takes 20 minutes there and back, it takes Cloudy 10 minutes he has such a big stride and is forward going he leaves everyone behind.

Myself and him have such a love hate relationship, he is definitely a one person horse. Lets just say we more tolerate each other. In the beginning we got along well. There were moments where he would misbehave for me but we got over that. There was a time he gave me a black eye, I've written about it in my Naf hedgy treats review. We were doing great riding together and I was even getting back into jumping on him, as he was such a confidence booster when it comes to jumping. If you aren't 100% sure on what you're doing he's great, he does it all for you. Until one day just before christmas the year we got him I was jumping him and he took off and bunny hopped until I was off, I went straight into the puddle. I was ready to finish jumping for the day after that but I got back onto to trot a 20 circle to keep my confidence on him and he did the same again but also jumping over the pole on the floor. Which was unexpected for me. Turns out when we got the back man out after that his withers was out of place and the jumping and work was causing him pain. Since that day I've lost my confidence on him and haven't ridden him without being on the lunge since. As it was even when not in pain he did like to play up for me a little anyway. My aim this year along with getting Legacy working well is to get back on Cloudy and to get back schooling him and listening to me, and maybe we'll leave the jumping as an aim for next year.

Feeding for time of year & Behavior

This time of year can be tricky when it comes to feeding, as your horses will either be coming out of winter well or needing to be fed up. In recent years and this one for sure there isn't grass always readily available to put these horses onto to gain the needed weight, so that's where people start or continue feeding conditioning feed. That can be fine depending on the horses temperament, how much they are worked, if they are on any grass and how much condition they need.

The fresh spring grass that is coming through is full of sugar, there is less sugar in the grass at night but it's still there (tip if you have a laminitic prone horse that has to come in for some time, put them out at night). If you have a horse that can be easily fizzed up through sugar & starch you will be best putting them on a low starch feed. This can be a fibre based feed with mainly chaff, fibre cubes, or a complete fibre feed. Complete fibre feeds are good as they are typically aimed at laminitic horses meaning they will have low or hardly any sugar, but there are also condition fibre feeds out there such as Dengie Healthy tummy or Spillers conditioning fibre. These 2 I've heard have great results on ex racehorses & the Healthy tummy on ulcer prone horses. I've used both of these for Legacy but as a 'chaff' rather than a complete feed as with the size of her she would be going through the bags too fast.
Cubes are also lower in starch than mixes although they are created with the same high ingredients as the mixes. Cubes also cost less to make which means they cost less to buy off the shelf which is always a handy added bonus. When a feed has high starch the blood sugar levels are always changing which can cause the horse to become fizzy at times but when they are on a high fibre low starch feed the blood sugar levels are maintained, meaning you will have a happy horse.

Some horses can be really sensitive when it comes to feeding sugars & starch while others can have it all and still be laid back (these are rare to come across). 

Here are some ingredients in feeds which your horse may be/or react to:

- Molasses (Pure sugar)

- Barley

- Oats

- Beet (through either Sugar Beet or Speedi Beet) 

Allen & Pages Calm & Condition is good as it's molasses & Barley free but some horses can react to the barley replacer that they use. This is something to keep in mind if you ever use this product. If you are feeding a few of the above list and have a fizzy horse my best suggestion is to try and cut some of them out so you can pin point which one is causing any trouble for you.

Not all horses express their excess energy through being fizzy they can become bargy and boulchy to handle. This is where it's important to sort out their feed as they can learn this behavior if not corrected and if left before changing feed they may carry on like this after the feed has been changed. 

I had a scenario with Legacy the first winter I had her, she was in need of a little extra fat on her so she was on a good amount of conditioning mix and she was behaving as normal as she had since I'd had her and she'd been living out August- December. I then moved yards and be became stabled and had ad lib hay in the field & 2 haynets in the stable at night to get her filled up, along with her usual amount of feed but now in 2 meals instead of one ( can anyone see where this is going? haha) anyway the weight started to come on her and when I was riding her in the school she would like to blot off, and at this point she had not been re-mouthed and hated turned corners in any speed above walk. I just through she needed more schooling and it was the racer part of her that wanted to go in an open space in a straight line, I mean she would go from bolting off in a fast canter to dead stop in seconds she hated the corners so much. In the end it got to the day before new years eve last year and she took off, I tried to stop her and she was having none of it, she was up vertically in the air then down to buck and I think this repeated about 3 times before I flew off in the rear. This was my first fall off her and my first fall ever so atleast it was an eventful one. I had to go to A&E with a bad headache as I could still feel the rim of my hat on my head hours later, and I was completely fine and didn't even end up with a bruise. But I learnt the hard way about feeding too much starch  and feeding mixes to a sensitive horse. She's completely fine with sugars but I have to watch the starch. 

Have you had any experiences like this? Did you find this blog post handy? If you'd like more like this let me know.

Chart taken from the Allen & Page website.