Arthritis, musings about supplements

            I'm not sure if I've mentioned it here before, but Talana has some arthritis in her rear joints. It's been there for years; as long as I've known her, in fact. Talana is a sturdy girl, but there are some things I won't ask her to do. We won't be jumping, or racing around barrels, or doing the levade. Which is all fine and dandy with me; I'm actually not too interested in doing any of that right now! But what I am interested in is Talana's comfort. So although she's been hanging out in the pasture with her arthritis for years and moving well enough to canter about when the other horses chased her (and to occasionally jump over things of her own choice), I thought I'd look into ways to help her out.
            The first things I think of when I know an animal is having joint problems are glucosamine and chondroitin. This is what helped Dandy, my elderly dog, for the last year and a half of her life. They are also helping Alice, my current elderly dog.
           Dandy:

            Alice:

            One of the problems with glucosamine is that it's pretty expensive. And, if you think it's expensive for the amount you need to feed a dog, think about how much you need to give an 800 pound horse! So I started searching around to see if I could get it for less than an arm and a leg, or if there is something else that helps horses.
            From what I've been able to gather, glucosamine and chondroitin are basically the building blocks of cartilage and connective tissues. Part of the reason you need to feed so much of it to have an effect is that these are huge molecules that are difficult for the horse's gut to absorb and use, so a lot of what you feed just passes right through. There is another component to joint health, which is MSM (methylsulfonylmethane - don't ask me how to pronounce it). This stuff is supposed to help the body put the building blocks together. Some horses seem to respond just as well to supplementation with MSM as to glucosamine, chondroitin, and MSM together. Particularly those who already have issues, like Talana. Another key benefit is that it's less expensive.
           Now, I'm not knocking glucosamine and chondroitin. But if I can help Talana feel her best with less cost, you betcha I will. So we are trying MSM for her, and if we aren't seeing convincing improvements after a couple months, I'll look into glucosamine and chondroitin supplements, too.
            The good news is that it's been three days with this supplement, and Talana seems to be moving more smoothly in the mornings. She usually seems a tad slow to get started at the beginning of the day, but this morning she seemed to be moving more like she does later in the day, like she's already had her morning stretches or something. Of course, it's been a grand total of three days. I may just be imagining things. But I'm hoping that in a few weeks I'll continue to see improvement.
            Supplements aren't the only options for a horse with arthritis. It also helps to get them moving around - not too much, like I said, no jumping - but walking and trotting for a bit every day is supposed to help get things loosened up and moving more comfortably. And I would say that this is true for Talana. She moves better on the days I ride than the days I'm at work until dinner. I can tell because when she is sore, she won't do a proper turn on the forehand. She'll yield, yes, but she won't cross her legs. Instead she does an odd hop-step, moving one first and then the other without crossing them. But after we've walked around for a bit, if I ask for that movement she does it correctly. She can also sidepass better after exercise, like when she doesn't want the dog to get any closer to her and steps sideways.
            Generally, Talana seems to be doing well. She's growing in her winter coat already, in response to the chillier weather. She looks good, and her mane and tail seem to be continuing the trend of growing in shiny. She's feeling pretty spunky lately; when I had her grazing on a lead line she decided that Alice was sitting on a tasty patch of grass and chomped her on the ear.  Boy did Alice get a surprise! No harm done, Alice's ear was just a tad slobbery. It must have been a very soft nip. But Alice barked and Talana jumped back, too. Now they keep a skeptical eye on each other. Also, I'm policing them a bit more carefully, because that's pretty rude and I won't let Talana go around grabbing dogs. I am a little glad that she feels good enough to stake out a claim to her grass, though.
            And I'll leave you with a picture of her, even though it's not the most recent. Here she is from late August, finally giving in and trying the mint in the backyard.

Rewards

            I've been thinking about how to give Talana rewards when she does things I like, and, conversely, to provide consequences for behavior I don't like. This way, it becomes easy for her to do the right thing, and hard to do the wrong thing.
            There's always the example of verbal praise for good behavior, and verbal scolding for undesirable behavior. We humans are pretty good at that. We are such verbal creatures. How many of our animals learn the word, "No!"? And, "Good boy!"? But that's not really enough. The momentary pleasant sound of a happy human is often paltry when compared to the joy of racing away across the grass, or when compared to the deep fear of That Thing Over There That I'm Pretty Sure is Going to Eat Me. So as I get to know my animals, I like to learn what it is that they like, and dislike. What is my dog's favorite treat? What is his least favorite thing to do/what is hard for him to do? What is a neutral thing that he doesn't care about? What toys does he prefer?
            I have been learning these things about Talana. Some are obvious: She loves apples and carrots. Grain is pretty great, too. She doesn't like it when I make her think too hard, but a bit of a puzzle can be fun, especially when she gets the right answer. But more specifically, what things make this horse tick?
            Talana doesn't like groundwork very much. She'll do various things if you ask, but she's always worried about The Evil Circle Game. Letting her know that she can stop is a reward when I am on the ground. "Ok, good job, stand still a moment," is a good way to let things sink in when she's just done the correct thing. Or even, "Ok, good job, slow down some," will let her settle a bit and think things over. When I push her, she's worried. When I let the pressure evaporate, she feels safer. Sometimes I want her to think a bit harder, so that is when I move her feet. Sometimes I want her to relax, so I might move her feet just enough to make her worry about how much work she's going to have to do, and then release the pressure and let her halt. "Whew!" She says, "That was a close one, I almost had to do real work there! I'm so glad I get to stand now."
            She's very different under saddle. Talana likes to move. She wants to go see what's over there; she wants to trot up this hill; she wants to canter around just for fun. She likes moving her body, and she seems to like taking me along. Talana has gone on a number of endurance rides, and I think she must like being a trail horse. What is the point of just standing around now that I'm sitting up there? We're all ready to go - let's go. This means that asking her to halt too much makes her frustrated. "Why aren't we going already? What now, silly human?" So when I want to remind her that I am the one calling the shots, I sometimes ask her to halt. But I don't make her stand around for a long time; if she halted nicely I ask her to Walk On, because that is her reward for stopping so well. Doing this a number of times as we're just riding around helps her remember that it's not such a pain to stop, because she gets to go again pretty soon. It helps her keep from being fidgety while we're halted for me to do my stretches.
            The other thing she really likes is when I dismount. That is a huge reward for her. Sometimes when she does something really well, I praise her lavishly while asking for a halt, and then hop off while still praising her. I rub her shoulder and face and let her stand for a bit without me sitting on her. It seemed kind of funny to me when I first thought of trying it. "Isn't it wrong to get off the horse when you're supposed to be riding around?" But I tell you what, when I hop right back on after doing that, she does such a good job with whatever that thing was, again and again. It's such a big statement to her when I get down. Even if both of us want to keep working, giving her such a big break like that seems to really get her attention. "Hey, I did something good! Whatever that was, it worked!" And then when I get back on, I can ask for that same thing and she is delighted to do it just right, many times. This is part of why I insist that she stand perfectly still, no fidgeting, with her ears on me, when I dismount. I want to reward her for being extremely stable at that critical moment. And lifting my weight off of her back is a big reward.
            I'm not saying I hop up and hop down all the time while we're working. It's kind of inconvenient. But for important things, I'm happy to do it. For instance, Talana is kind of afraid of the river. It runs down past the bottom of the meadow, and whenever she comes around the trees and gets a good look at it, her eyes bug out. All that water! Yikes! She doesn't like to walk toward it when we are riding. So, I walk her toward it at the end of our ride. We go down about as far as I think she can handle, and then when she's doing a good job walking forward without resisting, it's time for us to halt. I go ahead and take the saddle off right there, so that she's thinking about how nice it is to have the girth loosened (while looking at the water), how nice it is to get the saddle taken off (while looking at the water), how nice it is to get petted and stand there in the pleasant breeze (while looking at the water). Before long, looking at the water will seem like a nice thing to do, too, because of these associations.
            I think of these things as tools in my training tool box. The more I work with Talana, the more I can develop finesse in my communication with her using these tools and others I find. I know that I can tell her when she's doing something I like, and make it feel good to her to do that thing. That makes both of us happy.

Riding, standing nicely

            My stirrups arrived. Talana was a little less pleased about the saddle when she felt how much heavier it is with stirrups! She's a good girl, so all she did was make faces and try to walk away from it when I went to put it on the second time. But for her, that means "I don't think I want to stick around for this! See ya!"
            Handily, this provided another opportunity for us to work on ground tying, which is one of our ongoing projects. Talana is pretty good about standing, until she sees me coming with something she doesn't want. Which really means she needs some work on that. I can't have her trying to walk off while I'm doing stuff with her.
            I've been going at this a couple of different ways. One is to have a halter and lead shank on her, and drop the lead to the ground while I'm grooming and tacking her up. If she's moving around, I pick up the lead and back her a bit, then walk her forward to The Spot and have her stand again. She finds out that she can work hard without getting anywhere, or she can stand nicely. She's making good progress this way. The other thing I've been doing is to walk up to her without a halter and just start doing things with her while she's at liberty in her fence. I know she's not going to "get away" in there, so it's safe for me to go about things differently. Talana has come to recognize my grooming bucket. She likes it because it's got nice grooming tools in it that make her feel good, so she usually walks up to me when I bring it in. But at first when I brought in the saddle, she'd turn and walk away before I approached her. I know she has bad memories about being ridden, so my goal here is to teach her that she can trust me. Even when I'm holding the saddle.
            One of the ways I want her to learn to trust me is to learn that I'm consistent. If she walks away while I am picking out her feet and between hooves, I follow her with the pick. If she keeps walking away, I increase my energy and send her away at a trot until I see her paying attention to me. I don't worry about circles; I actually jog along nearby and we usually go in a straight-ish line. Usually in a moment I see her ear flick back to me. Then I bring my energy down to a walk and give her a chance to respond. Typically she'll also slow to a walk and lower her head a little. Then I turn away from her while inviting her to come with me, and we walk together for a few steps. When I'm ready, I come to a halt and ask her to Whoa. She stops, I go back to picking her feet. To backtrack a bit, if she doesn't slow to walk with me, I go back to jogging her around for a bit and try again when she looks more ready. Generally, this whole process takes about thirty seconds. Afterword, Talana refocuses on me and stands very well. Back to my point about consistency: I do the same thing if she's walking away from the saddle. I know her history with saddles. She thinks they aren't nearly as nice as a hoof pick. But I treat them as though they are the same. The saddle isn't any scarier, and she needs to know that I expect the same behavior in regards to the saddle as to the pick, even if she's not as emotionally comfortable with the saddle. With time, I'm hoping this will change her response to the saddle - Oh, it's this thing that gets put on me after grooming sometimes, rather than, Eek! Not the saddle, those make me feel weird! We've done this a few times now, and she's getting better and better about it. I can tell that she's already starting to understand. She can walk away, but I'm not going to stop tacking her up. It'll just take longer.
            The other important part of this process is that I make sure not to hurt her or frighten her. The last thing she needs is one more bad experience with the saddle! I move smoothly and confidently, and when I tighten the girth I try to do it without yanking or pinching. Then when I am riding, I make sure to give her a good experience as well. I don't ask her to do things that will make me off-balance enough to bounce on her back, or if I do I don't punish her for expressing discomfort. When she does what I ask her to do, I praise her and reward her for a job well done. When I need to correct her, I am firm but fair. A small thing doesn't need a big correction - not with Talana. She "hears" the subtlest movements I give her. No need to suddenly act like the world is ending, or to frighten her or give the idea that I'm a big angry monster on her back. "Nope, that's not what I asked for," is all I need to communicate.
            I find that Talana is responding well to this approach. She always seems disappointed when I walk away. She's not anxious to gallop away from me when I release her. I think she is discovering that it's all right to trust me, and that I won't do anything mean to her. She is starting to act more relaxed with the saddle. I am so proud of how well she stood for me to tack her up yesterday. I didn't put anything on her head at all until I'd tightened the girth most of the way, and when I walked away to get the bridle, she looked after me for a moment, then followed me. She still likes to stick her nose in the sidepull for me to make it easy to put on. The other day, she even acted like she expected a bit, lipping at the reins!
            On one hand, it seems like we haven't done much. "All" I'm doing is riding her around at the walk and sometimes trotting a little. We haven't been riding for long periods of time. But on the other hand, Talana is learning some important things. She is learning that she can trust me. She is learning what cues I use and how I expect her to respond to them. I am learning, too. I am learning how she moves, what things are rewards to her and what things are neutral or unpleasant to her. So, overall, I think we've made a lot of progress.

My beautiful mare

            I love watching her. She looks so happy and healthy. We've moved her from the backyard to the meadow now. The pictures below are in the meadow; the one above is in the backyard. The meadow is where she'll be until winter, and then I'll bring her back up where it's flatter. If she started sliding at the top of the meadow, she might just slide into the Benjamin River! Well, it's maybe not that steep, but I don't want her to have any problems on the ice down there where I can't see her.

            So we're doing rotational grazing with the meadow. We don't have access to the whole thing, which is quite large, but we do have access to a couple of acres of it. Since I want to take good care of this precious grass, Talana gets to be in this spot for 2 weeks, and then she'll get moved to a new spot so the grass can recover. Wherever it looks like it's needed, I'll also re-seed. Eyeballing the amount of space we have, I think it's just enough. Perhaps if things go well this year, the land owners will allow us to use more space next year. We are allowed to ride around/hang out in the rest of the meadow; I just have to scoop up anything she leaves behind.
            The land owners seem to like her. They always smile when they see us working out there, anyway! And they like to give her treats, so I showed them how the fence works and told them that they can give her one carrot a day broken into chunks so she thinks she's getting lots of carrots. Everyone seems to like that arrangement. I am glad that they like to check on her. It makes me feel good that she has so many people keeping an eye on her even when I'm not here.

            (One more picture from the backyard.) I can confirm that Talana has dapples! They aren't always visible, but when the sun hits her side I can see them. They are on her rib cage and the top of her hindquarters. I think her mane and tail are growing in shinier, too. We also gave her another bath, and this time I washed her tail. It was still really dusty. Now it looks and feels better. I don't think she's been this clean for this long... maybe ever! I feel very satisfied with how I'm able to keep her. Next on the list is to get a farrier out to work over her feet. I suspect after that she'll feel even better.

More riding adventures

            For the last few days, my muscles have been sore and more tense. I've still been riding, but less trotting lately because I feel unbalanced again. I am certain that it's what my body is doing on a given day that allows me to sit correctly and comfortably. Days when I am tense - or anxious at all, even if I'm enjoying my time with Talana - I am just not able to balance when we are trotting. It's kind of frustrating, but this is what my body does. So I just work with what I've got on a given day.
            My bareback pad arrived. It is a Best Friends Comfort Plus. It is extra cushy on top. My poor seat bones don't have much padding on them because I am underweight, so I thought that would be helpful. It is! Talana is shaped very nicely for bareback riding. Her back is muscled and rounded, and her withers don't stick up like some horses' do. But I know that when we trot, I am poking her in the back, because I get sore, too. The only problem I've had so far is not a problem with the pad, but with me. My thighs don't want to relax completely. This is a general problem that I have, riding or not. And so, when there is anything at all between me and my horse's back, I have to concentrate and practice a lot to get my legs to drape around properly. At first, I was very unbalanced on the bareback pad because of that same cushy stuff that I want there! But I realized right away that it was me, not the equipment, and I've been practicing in the pad some more and it's going better now. It is nice and grippy on top, so some almost falls that I've had have not actually ended with me on the ground, but rather hanging on sort of sideways as Talana stops. Then I can grab her mane and swing myself back up again. The pad doesn't seem to slip, so that is good. I think both of us like the pad now that we are getting used to it.
            Talana seems to think that it is time we move on to cantering. She keeps offering to canter when we are trotting, and while she has what feels like a very nice canter, I'm not really ready. I don't want to be going that fast until I feel like I can give useful directions to her at the trot. I can hang on; cantering is easy that way. But steering is important, too... I guess Talana is less concerned about that, since she knows where we are going. Thankfully, I have a nice respectful horse, and I am able to remind her that we are not going to canter until I ask for it. Or trot, for that matter - she loves to move out to the faster gaits. When I feel her getting ready to trot prematurely, I gently squeeze my hands on the reins, just enough so that she can feel it. Usually she settles back into a walk right away, but if she trots anyway I turn her tightly one direction or the other and then we continue on at a walk. She seems to think it's a lot more work to turn than to trot forward, so now that she's learned that this is the consequence of trotting without permission, she's making the error less often. I like this method, because it doesn't hurt her in any way, it's easy for me to do while staying balanced, and it does seem to work well. She is responding nicely and doesn't even seem to get irritated about it; just takes the feedback and goes, "Oops, I guess I can't do that."
            I am still very happy with the bridle I made. Talana goes well in it. She is still happy to put her nose right in when I offer it to her. She also responds very well to cues with it, and I really can't say I miss having a bit in the least. I suspect Talana doesn't miss the bit, either. I am giving her softer cues in this sidepull than I ever did with a snaffle, and she's responding more quickly and with little to no objection. She has stopped pulling her head down when we trot. Now she only does that if we are walking in a direction she doesn't want to go in, and then I pull her head up and direct her a bit more firmly the way I want to go, and she shakes her head and we go.
            I also talked to my mother about saddles the other day. She suggested that I try using an extra, much thicker pad in addition to the thinner one that she gave me. The idea there is that it will be an extra layer of cushion between any bouncing or ill-fitting of the saddle and Talana's back. I figured it was worth a try at least, so I found some thick foam and gave it a try.
            Well, I'm still not convinced that the saddle fits Talana "properly," but if this is how Mom rode her way back when, I can see how that worked. The extra padding does appear to make Talana sufficiently comfortable with the saddle - we trotted, and then we cantered, and then we trotted some more, and Talana was not at all fussy about it. So I have decided that as long as she's not acting like it bothers her, this is how I will use her saddle. And I've gone ahead and ordered some stirrups so that I can ride around in it, because without stirrups I bounce and slide like crazy unless I hang onto the pommel with one hand and Talana's mane with the other. Oh, yeah, steering? Never mind about that. I need stirrups! They will arrive in about a week. I am looking forward to it, because then I will be able to hang on securely and do more interesting things.