We're Back!

Whisper started back to work today. Granted it was just walking and slow trotting on a lunge line and some desensitizing exercises but I think he’s happy to get back to it. Toward the end of his convalescence (which went very well) he was beginning to get more and more flightly and fidgety. Even though he was handled every day - mainly to give him drugs and hose down his belly but it counts. This may sound ridiculous but I think he needs something more to think about than when the hay will come. Maybe he is just exceptionally imaginative for a horse. We have accomplished a couple of things in the past 2 weeks. Whisper will now go into the wash rack without too much trouble. It’s not his favorite place to be but he knows water won’t hurt him.

He has a clean, silky, flowing
tail – the dreadlocks are gone – and isn’t that a nice looking butt.





We’ll do some more groundwork tomorrow to get him back into the swing of things and Monday I’ll contact his trainer. He should be fit to ride in a couple of weeks. Fingers crossed….

Whisper Goes to the Doctor

With horses one thing you can count on is that there will always be something happening. About a month ago I noticed that Whisper had an odd lump on his belly. The stable vet happened to be visiting and I had him take a look at it. He diagnosed it as a melanoma – quite typical in gray horses – and advised watching it for changes. Well a week or so ago it began growing and looking rather nasty so, back to the vet who determined it was a sarcoid and advised immediate removal. For more information on sarcoids: http://www.gaitedhorses.net/Articles/EquineSarcoid.htm

It was removed last Thursday. Whisper spent one night in the barn then rejoined his pasture buddies much to his delight. He is officially on ‘no work.’ Our quality time consists of me giving him antibiotics and hosing down his belly. The good to come out of this is that he is losing his fear of the washrack and I’m slowly getting his tail clean.

One funny instance to relate. When I have to work my mother takes over medicating and hosing. Friday she put Whisper in the washrack,and looped his lead thru the bars in the window. She left him there and went to find the hose nozzle which typically had migrated to the bottom of whatever receptacle she was searching. By the time she found it and returned, Whisper had apparently gotten tired of waiting and ambled off. True to form he was moseying down the lane to his pasture. He was waiting at the gate, regaling his buddies with tales of his adventures when she caught up with him. The two of them returned to the washrack. It appears we don’t have to worry about him taking off over the rimrock. His pasture is his happy place. Thus far the few times he has gotten loose that’s where he’s headed.

I’ll continue to post when there’s anything worth relating but until he’s recovered there probably won’t be much. Doc and Spice are taking good care of him, keeping him entertained until he can return to the arena and his training.

Always More to Learn

Whisper has been a real gentleman lately. He’s getting better at his gait cues and we’ve been working diligently on ‘whoa.’ This has been difficult to do which is why it got put off when it shouldn’t have. Whisper has an ongoing fear of a lunge whip (or any article of that type). To him it means move away. We’ve worked on rubbing him with the whip and dragging the string over his back and neck and around his legs. As soon as he realizes that’s what we’re working on he will stand still and tolerate it. I don’t think he really relaxes but he stands calmly. We’ve been working on whoa using a version of Clinton Anderson’s sending exercise. I send him off to the right or left then when his tail passes me pull the lead towards me and step toward his tail while bringing the lunge whip to the ground and saying ‘whoa.’ In theory this encourages him to swing his hindquarters away from me and stop. It works pretty well except when I pick up the whip to rub him with it (good boy) he takes that as a signal to move off again. So we go round and round until suddenly he has a light bulb moment. I say ‘whoa’ and he stops. Don’t need any steps towards tail or whip to the ground. Simply tell him what he’s supposed to do and he does it. OK, it’s not really that easy and it only works well going one direction but it was so obvious when he got it you could hear him thinking ‘duh.’

After my less than successful attempt to maneuver Whisper from the saddle I’ve been working on ways to cue him for turns from the ground. I don’t want to try ground driving as I’ve never done that and don’t want to confuse him. So, he’s been wearing his bridle whenever we work and at the end I attach the reins and work on a few simple things. First he flexes (touches his side with his nose) then he gives to the bit while I pull lightly down on the reins (kind of a seesaw motion). We’ve been working on this for some time and he does it so well that he thinks that any bit pressure means to drop his head. While that’s not wrong it’s not quite what I want right now. After a bit of confusion he discovered if I pulled his head toward me while poking about where the stirrup would hang he should move his hindquarters away. It didn’t take long and the slightest touch on the rein would have him moving away. After working both sides we called it a day. I am very pleased with his quick intelligence and increasing lightness. He is incredibly responsive.

Have Patience or Never Make Assumptions

It doesn’t take much of an imagination to realize that gravity is going to work against two objects going different directions and that they are probably going to part company sooner rather than later. Yep I goofed. I got on Whisper when all the signs said it was a bad idea. And, yep. The signs were right. He bolted and I bailed. The dirt/sand/various organic materials in the arena are surprisingly soft.

I really can’t say exactly what happened. When I was grooming him I noticed his back seemed tender. But how could his back be sore? It’s not like he works that hard or carries much of anything around. I ignored it. It was a brisk windy day and the kids were racing around their pastures. Ignored that too. Proceeded to groundwork, then some jumping. He was a little excited and I dropped the lunge line at one point. Whisper exited the arena and headed for his pasture. I was happy he didn’t go far and calmly collected him. Did the usual drill – flapped the stirrup leathers, pulled on the stirrups, lined him up at the wall and leaned across the saddle. Nothing indicated his head was in a different place from the day before and I assumed…. So, I hopped on. As soon as my butt hit the saddle Whisper moved his – quickly and to the right. We made one large semi-circle ,missed the jump, then came to the parting of our ways. Whisper headed for his pasture and I went kerthud in a sort of sideways not quite belly flop. When the dust settled – literally – I hobbled over to Whisper who was telling his pasture buddies about his adventure and he stuck his nose out to say hi. Can’t beat a horse for understatement.

So, we’re back to groundwork and leaning on the saddle and such. He was very calm and well behaved today, responding well to gait cues including slowing to a walk. . He was a little nervous about lining up at the wall – he’d move his hindquarters away when I moved towards the saddle. So I just scratched his neck and he settled down after a bit and let me move back farther. I think I need to work a little more on his ‘whoa’ skills and hopefully that will translate when he’s under saddle. To that end I hope to have the person doing his first ‘real’ ride on him soon.