Wed & Thursday ~The Time has Come!

Well it's been an eventful few days....as of yesterday morning when I pulled Lindsay out of the stall to tack up and ride I noticed a huge swelling just behind her left elbow....RIGHT were the Cinch Must Go!!! Ahhhhhh.... and it was even more sensitive than it looks...when you would touch it she just winced like it was pins and needles... Oh my lordy, what to do what to do....

We went ahead and checked in to Will Rogers that morning. Got her settled in her stall. She was an angel, unloaded in the parking lot perfectly..walked into the big loud barn and waited quietly in line like an angel for the MHF to read her brand and get her number painted on her.... She was a bit wiggly for the guy to paint the number...she is so much better about strangers, but not so much if they start to do something to her, but she held her own. After she settled in for a bit I figured I'd try to put the saddle on her easy and leave the cinch loose, we had to figure out how we were going to get through this. well, i sat the saddle on and lightly cinched her up... she BLEW! Went straight up like a hyper-reactive baby that's never been cinched!.. Well...as all of you know this was NOT her, Totally out of character!..She had to of hurt so badly... She did settle and might would have pushed through the pain, but we were not doing that. So once she stopped for a moment I pulled the saddle off, I was Not about to ask her to work through that...she has given me to much for me to do that to her.

Well, at that point all I knew were two things... I was NOT asking her to do anything that made her be in pain...and we WERE NOT DRAWING OUT of this deal...so how to make both of those things happen???? I decided I'd try her bareback... I sat on her bareback in the stall a couple months back, but have not been on her bareback much. When I went to crawl up yesterday she was pretty tense at first... She has so many "buttons" and "cues" along her sides with my leg laid across her bareback she just felt everything...it was like an over load, she just was doing her best to figure out what I wanted...to back, to spin, to lope off???... I just stayed quite and reminded myself of how quickly she learns things if I explain them correctly. I just sat on her and gradually started to move around, letting her know that she did not have to jump off my leg at any movement...surprisingly, after only 15 minutes or so it seemed she was catching on and had relaxed into this new riding style. So we took off to the Show Arena.

You wind down this long deep tunnel to go from the stalls to the arena. This facility is practically in the city, so the barns are connected by tunnels to the arenas. She walked past the huge fans in the aisle ways and psst the stalls filled with other Mustangs and people and down the ramp to the arena. The arena has banners all along the rail to advertise sponsors and had quite a few Mustangs working and folks in the stand watching. Well, she was an angel...took everything like a Pro! They pulled some trail type obstacles out for us to work and she did everything I asked...Honestly after I'd been on her for a bit I started to like riding her bareback more than with a saddle. I am able to communicate with her so much more clearly. I can totally see why Stacy Westfall does her bridle-less demo bareback...yes it looks good and I'm sure that's part of it, but I bet she prefers it... at this point I started to feel better, because I figured I could do the whole deal bareback if need be, I asked management and they said it would be ok, but she the judges would Not be giving me "Extra credit" for it...which of course was not my motive, but I guess other competitors may have assumed so....

The only issue that arrised with the bareback option was we Had to drag a log in the trail course! Well, there was no way I could drag that thing without the saddle horn... It would snatch me right off her if I tried to hold it! The only other option was a neck rope, but lordy I've been explaining to her for weeks that the neck rope means whoa! The last thing I wanted to do was teach her to push on it ...argh, back to square one.

Well, I failed to mention I did call the vet that am and they were coming to see her, just took a long time for them to arrive. (In the meantime I spoke with Dr. Marcy and she was a huge help!)..They finally rolled in at 4 pm. They gave her some medication for it...and notified show management so all is well there...then it was wait and see. Well, I am no good at waiting...on anything!...but I did. I also borrowed a fleece girth cover from a new Mustang friend. At around 9 pm the swelling did seem better, it was still sore, but majorly improved. I figured I could give it another shot...I cinched her real slow and stretched her front legs really good to try and pull any bunched up skin out from under there.. I hand walked her and trotted her...and she seemed fine! ..So aboard I climbed.

Well after spending all day telling her to be less reactive, I had to ask her to be more reactive again seeing as we had layers of saddle pad and leather between us again... It's a good thing she is so brilliant...she figured it out. She I think we are back on track..when I checked on her this am it seemed like it hardly hurt at all...and where she is still a bit sensitive is far up in the crease of her elbow, I think I can keep the cinch off of that.

We had a meeting yesterday and met the judges. They are filming some sort of tv series this weekend..I don't know details yet, but will keep everyone posted. There are camera guys all over!

Trail is first tomorrow, the pattern consists of a gate, elevated trot overs, drag log, serpentine, halt in box, back through L type deal, lope of from halt...We walk through w/ judges at 7:30 then it starts at 8 am..we are the 55th horse up.

I was a bit frazzled yesterday with the cinch deal, but the more I do with this mare the more she proves to me just how truly spectacular she is!... Onward and forward we go...