Trouble With The Ps and Qs

The last Kodak Playful Camcorder having expired after one day--found it later laying in driveway--I just bought a used model for 30 bucks.  Since they're going for $125 new on Amazon currently, this seems quite the deal, if the thing works. A 32gb Scan Disk pro memory card in the mail from Amazon and the RR stable should have some new vids soon of our recent exploits.

We'd been training in the morning making blogging difficult.  I'd like to have reported significant progress on our .4 mile track.  The progress has been that Mr. Farmer has re-mowed the whole field including the track portion helping to remove the doubts our good rider Mr. Nob had with the footing.

#17 has been disappointing although at least he's getting around there now without significant fright or protest. Nob's strategy (to avoid getting thrown) has been to go with the flow instead of forcing the issues.  Problems have involved the little details--getting the fellow on the inside lead into a sharp turn, much breathing difficulty and throat clearing trying to get the fellow into a gallop, head ducking due to flies, bucking when unhappy, etc. etc.  Since we're trying to preserve our rider--who was injured once again in early June--we tip toe through, and so, to date yet to get significant galloping.  Believing we're on the cusp of that.  Last eve going 4 times around we barely got much gallop.

#148 Looked at him the other day and swore he's popped up some more.  The measuring stick on uneven ground showed 17' 1.5" were before it was at 17'1".  Mr. Nob said he looked at this dude the other day just prior to mounting and thought was "I'm unable to believe I am getting on this big MF." Huge huge horse.  making progress with his trotting, going about 1/2 the course.  Nob reports the smoothest trot he's experienced.

Both horses continue to do riderless work--every other day, in our big field.  #17 frequently does two a days--one tack, one riderless--when we deem his tack work insufficient conditioning.

Mon. Misc.

#148--perfect gentleman on Sun and coaxed a few steps of trot.
#17 Mon. started with two serious spooks to put damper on proceedings.  Less progress than hoped, and we're still at galloping about half the course.  Hoping 3/4 by end of week. Horse goes 3 times around about 1.5 miles.

Sat. Misc.

More difficult to find time for posts when we train morning and also in the evening.  I'll try to do a little more now as it seems we are making progress with our horses, and lots happening of interest to write about.

More equipment:

Smoke still coming out of ears for spending $250.00 on this:

Of the very wide range of choices for all sports body armor--dirt biking, mountain biking, skiing, motocross, etc. etc. the POC VPD 2.0 vest is the only one boasting 1621-2 level protective padding that is the highest level of motorcycle standards.  The new rubbery VPD material advertised as state of the art, light, soft, molds to body, hardens and spreads force on impact.
How can one go wrong with this product?

For horses, several problems.  #1 the vest fails to cover crucial body parts.  The vest is without "any" padding for ribs, clavicle, back of shoulder all of which seem to me to be no brainer type areas that any protective vest would cover.  This was known, of course, before purchase, and so I had the idea of an under layer using the Nike Pro Combat padded shirt that does cover these body parts.

Which raises problem #2 with this vest--it's heavy.  Good grief is it heavy.  Advertising that padding is light is downright false.  The chief culprit in the vest is this back pad:

the green pad on the left.  You see the VDP logo.  This pad alone weighs at least three pounds, and so the 3.2 lbs for the vest advertised on Amazon is wrong.  The pad is very thick--almost an inch.

On the plus side Mr. Nob wore the vest tonight on #148 and reports that he indeed felt a higher level of protection.  The back pad is so effective I'd think falling on one's back even from a 17'1" horse would feel like landing on a pillow.  Unfortunately, for this vest, that's better were one would fall for the rest of it is crap.

Our main problem with it is weight which prevents adding padding to it when the horse goes at speed for our rider will be too heavy, even for the big horse.  There are vests that cover everything with lighter pads, such as this:

The Troy Lee 7855 Upper Body Armor that has pads everywhere, except, the lower back.

So, what are these companies thinking with their armor that partially covers crucial body parts?  Gross incompetence comes to mind.

And there's this wonderful product:

Our #148 suffered a scrape on his front left knee 10 days ago that became infected--knee grossly swollen.  This sort of thing generally subsides in a few days but this swelling/infection still lingers.  I've found a combo of cranberries, garlic and Reishi mushrooms causes all my tooth infections to subside, although some of them come back. How many times have I called the dentist for an emergency mouth swelling, taken the combo and cancelled the appointment.  Multiple occasions.

Hoping to save the $45 on anti-biotics from the vet, #148 got a does of Cran Max this morning.  8 hours later the knee swelling was down by at least 1/3.

Training:
#17 has been successfully negotiating our course at the walk-trot-gallop.  Plan is for full gallops around some time in coming week.
#148--our intelligent fast learner horse has been anything but.  #148 still has trouble with basic commands and rider aides, although we have been without the gross misbehavior of late June, early July.  We decided the misbehavior was primarily caused because the horse had yet to ready to leave his buds at any distance.  #148 has been only walking under tack, although I believe were ready to begin the trot this next cycle.  Will try a trot with him in the morn.

Both horses have continued their every three day riderless work.  #17 is scheduled to stop this, likely this week.

More Equipment-Protective Gear

 

The "body armor" pictured above, along an aging Tipperary Vest and several items of Nike Pro Combat shirts and shorts lay in an expensive heap in our tack area waiting each session for selection by our good rider.Q tends to be-what body parts to cover today, because, frustratingly, none of this armor covers everything.

Riding a 17'1 inch horse over a hardened mud flat, as we do daily, will concentrate one's mind on the concept of body protection. When one inevitably goes down it would be nice to have those shoulders, hips, elbows and knees covered.

Regrettably our search for adequate coverage and protective pattern has been an expensive mess with nothing seemingly available that provides complete protection.  Those $600 equine air bag vests that inflate on ground contact have nothing for the shoulders or elbow, and the idea of protecting hips, knees or e.g. face--nose---has yet to enter our world.

And so we took a look around.  Motorcycle dirt bike racing e.g., and so enter into the RR arsenal the Dainese motorcycle shorts pictured above middle.  They have the hard hip pads for our good rider's weak left hip.  $100 worth of shorts.  And they arrive with the hip pads covering everything "except" the important point of the hip.  The top of the pad just reaches this area (in contrast to the POC shorts on the right were the pad covers the whole hip).

The array of "body armor" choices these days in sports such as snow boarding, skiing, even roller blading is mind boggling.  The best I saw pictured was the $250.00 POC VPD 2.0 Vest above that has just arrived.  Notice the chest, shoulder, and elbow padding of the new state of the art VPD material--a rubbery substance that is light, molds to one's body, and hardens on impact and completely spreads the force of the fall.  Is this the jacket those equine steeple chasers that fall constantly should be wearing?  Continue next post.

Training:  Morning rains this week moved us back to night.  I've handled this poorly and allowed one monsoon to screw up our schedule.  We've gone backward with the tack work this week, and I'm unable to report yet the commencement of serious training.  Still working with the horses every day.  It's raining as this is being typed.

Equipment

2 inches rain 7/7. Off 7/8 and back at it with #17 on 7/9.  #148 sustained swollen knee due to infected scrape--off couple of days.  Very swollen at the moment.  Typical #148.  Miracle he survives to racing.

We're going 4 to 5 hrs./day here with two horses, and 10 to 15 min. of that is actually on the horse.  Lot's else, of course, and so this post to memorialize a few concerns.

We're going through--despite cool weather just as last year--the most virulent fly season in my memory.  The most energetic animal on the planet?  The fly.  Watch one for a couple of minutes.

I gave up on the fly sprays about 10 years ago and began using the cheap Bronco Spray for shoeing that works for about 10 min. The flies this year are so numerous and aggressive that the weak stuff is failing to work and seriously interfering with tack work.  And so, I took another look.  Has there been progress with these sprays?

Indeed there has.  After some research, this product:

Bite Free is so strong it lasts 3 or 4 days (longer on our cows), the main worry being whether an insecticide this strong has detrimental effects on body organs.  We're without choice, and Bite Free is making the Summer easier for our horses.

7/9--#17--had high hopes for a productive session since the other horses were grazing in Lion's corner.  Not to be.  Horse is having trouble breathing at the gallop due to material in his throat.  I'd forgotten need to hose the mouth before workouts.  We need a mouth washing syringe, if I can find one on the net.

#148 off due to knee swelling.

Thoughts on rider safety, next post.

#17

Update training of #17.  After the early June rider injury #17 was started on our new track.  The route goes straight up the middle of the photo to the rise, then veers to the right to the tree line, straight up the tree line all the way to the left and then back.

The horse was taken a little farther into this each day at the walk-trot--gallop.  The walk parts were done past the suspected lion hide outs, and we finally got the horse all the way around on firecracker day, July 4.  Repeat on July 5 morning.  July 5 eve #17 also did riderless work with #148.  July 6 rest, and next three days we'll reduce walk and trot and increase gallop.

#148 has been walked under tack each day and done considerable riderless work.  Misbehavior under tack of a few days ago has been avoided so far.  The daily excitement around here involves whether this horse behaves today and whether we can make any progress with him.  Difficult horse, to date.

#148 Report

Conversation overhead between Mr. Nob, our rider, and #148 Tee Pee Minister:

Nob:  What's got into you all the sudden?

#148:  What do you mean by that?

Nob:  Since Thurs. you've been a total AH.

#148.  True, although I've always been a bit of a stinker when you get on.

Nob:  True.  However, your behavior has suddenly worsened. You are out of control.  What's going on?

#148 You are taking me away from my buds.

Nob:  I've always taken you away from them.  What's different now?

#148  Flies.

Nob (quizzically):  what do you mean, flies?

#148  I need to be next to my buddies so I can rub off the flies.  You keep taking me away.

Nob  (light bulb goes off in head):  I see.  Now, do you see this stick.

#148:  I see it and feel it.

Nob:  If you feel it a little more, will that change your behavior.

#148  Possibly.

After last Thursday's training report #148 became downright dangerous under tack.  Progress is described below.  As of Tues 7/1 problem on the way to solution, hopefully.  We decided 3/4 of #148's misbehavior was fly distress, and the other 25% is that this smart horse has a mind of his own..  I've never seen this many flies this aggressive.  They swarm around the horses.  They swarm around my truck.  They keep swarming right around the horses despite the insecticides.

Fri 6/27:
#148 Problems of day before worsen. Nob worked with the horse for an hour.  Initially close to out of control--refusal, beginning stages of head down,  bucking,  threatening rearing, backing up, the whole arsenal.  By end the horse was starting to pay attention to stick although only willing to go 10-20 yds away from buds.  Stopped at that point.

Sat. 6/28
#148 More of the same. Went about 30 min.due to time constraint. Horse threatens serious stuff with rider on board.  Nob got off and let the horse have it.  Slight improvement and ended same as day before with some limited attention to aids.

#148 Sun 6/29  Repeat of Fri. 6/27.  Horse totally out of control initially.  Ends with walking near other horses with some attention to stick.

#148 Mon. 6/29.  Spent a rough 45 min with the horse just bellying in the paddock with other horses present.  Horse continues to be out of control even at the belly.  Several ground thumpings. Finished when horse finally did something right.

#148 Tues. 6/30:  Training moved to evening due to mud.  Strategy after yesterday's discipline was total calmness. We settled down the horse till he was almost asleep at the mounting stand.  Lot's of "good boy", and Nob mounted.  First three steps were backward, but thereafter the horse was a perfect gentleman.  Obeyed all aids in walking 20 min. around paddock, discipline unnecessary.

#17 report next post.