#zeepony

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I was gonna make a post about Zee but then we lost power for too many hours and I just realized I have to give less than a week's notice (like three days?) to my barn owner that Zee is gonna move away I've never given notice before bc I was horse raised by assholes Fuck

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You know what's weird? A horse changing bit preference. What do I mean by this, you're wondering. Well in my limited observation of Zee, my horse, I know for most of his ridden "career" he has gone in a simple double jointed egg butt with a lozenge link (instead of a french link?) and has gone well and listened to it well and we haven't had any issues. Recently though something was going on and I repeatedly found blood on the joint of one of the rings but none on his face. (I rinsed the bit off every time so I know it was fresh) While Zee has thrown his head during the rides I find blood, I didn't think much of it because he's thrown his head a lot throughout his ridden life and there wasn't an issue in the past. This bit also has a lot of mobility, for example it can fold completely in on itself like a single jointed bit in both directions. Because I'm obsessive I ended up getting a different bit purely for handling Zee on the ground in "in-hand" classes. This has a similar mouth piece as the egg butt, but has "hunter" D rings instead. (Not to she confused with "racing" d rings) Because of the near constant unwillingness to give to the bit and repeated finding of blood I decided to switch to the other bit I have. Keeping in mind the last time I rode Zee in this bit he refused to listen and constantly tossed his head (during a class at a show) which pushed me to buying a second bridle specifically for the bit that was specifically for not riding in. Something to notice about the bits though is the the points of the joint connecting the cheek rings to the mouth piece is wider apart on the D ring than on the egg butt. What I recently found out about the D ring as well was that this mouth piece had less movement in that it could fold perfectly in half going backwards but was closer to a mullen mouth going forwards or the way it will sit in a horses mouth. I didn't realize this when I first got the bits, but they aren't very similar at all due to these slight differences. When I went to school and free leased Zee to BF's niece I didn't think much of what she would be doing with him because she already had a horse to ride (in barrels) and figured he would be used on days the other horse was on rest and they would walk and jog around the ring. Now I have no idea what they actually did with him, but I know they used a western saddle on him. It could be that Zee learned what a shanked curb bit was for the first time last year with a semi incompetent trainer and a 9 year old girl. While this is less than ideal it could be that the stiffer bit was something Zee didn't know he wanted in a mouth piece. This could have led to the unimpressed feelings toward his wiggly eggbutt and more wanting the rigidity of the D-ring. Idk but he's much happier going in this different bit he used to hate these days than the bit he used to love so there's my piece on that

[brodudepants]

Interesting fact time!!: when a horse is "short striding" or has their foot in the air for less time than another foot (bilaterally) the foot they have in the air longer is typically the injured foot/leg Got to see the Zee man today. Phone died agin 🙄 so no pictures but he was very adorably following me around the arena after his roll so we did that for a bit before I decided to longe him. There was potential of getting his feet done so I wanted him a little more tired than meandering around today. After some extensive trot work both with and without the side reins (still really loose..made them a bit looser today and was happy with his neck position and back muscling) I started to notice his left hind leg wasn't over reaching like normal/the right leg. I felt down the front of the left before choosing to be done and removed his bridle/headstall then tried to walk him in circles to see if it was all the time or just to the left. I'm still not sure but I tried flexing his hind legs some and noticed the right wouldn't reach as far forward or as far up as the left (it was stiff going up but he jerked away and kicked out going forward). He could stretch it back comfortably though so no concerns over him beating up me or bf when we shoe him. Bf thinks possible suspensory issue but I didn't think to feel his fetlock(sesamoids) so right now I don't have any idea what's happening. Interesting to note though he was being kind of stringhalt-ish on his left leg a few weeks back so it could be related..but that leg was stretching much better today that that day..who knows

[brodudepants]

Blahhh I've interacted with so many people that I can't stand having to see people at the barn rn but I really wanted to see my horse :,(

[brodudepants]

The number of pictures yesterday makes up for none today right? I'm scared about what to do..I would have tried to get a corporate job by now but I know I won't be able to take off for my sisters wedding and like hell am I gonna miss that....but also its so hard to get work as a farrier right now, so much so that I'm seriously considering moving two states just to be in an area with a farrier deficit. Also considering selling Zee where people can work with him and not have so many emotions and adequate tack (I had a longe line, and it has been gone for so long, and it's not even the kind people I was around at the time preferred) I mean pet wise he's all I have left but I seriously have such a hard time riding him because he's everywhere and I'm everywhere and someone needs to have some form of focus? Like any other horse in its stall or otherwise takes him completely off track...most of the time the ones just stalled as fine like he gets over that, but today this buckskin he's next to was trotted through the barn area TWICE and Zee completely lost it, kicked at me and cantered as fast as the round pen would allow him and like I had to just stop paying attention to him for probably a minute for him to get back to the trot and even then his focus was else where and getting a head set was three minutes of unnecessary trotting and giraffing. Considering I probably do like maybe 45 min workouts this takes up a lot of time to regain focus and then regain form each time he does it. Today there was more than normal and no one was even annoyingly standing next to the ring with their horse, no one came close to us! I nearly lost it when my mom suggested I sell him, despite all the trouble we have I've been the only constant for him..I know that doesn't often matter for horses but...idk, I watched him be born, I broke him to ride all by myself, and shown him to ribbons with what shitty training I got into him. Technically he can jump 2'9 purely from my own stubbornness. He has collected beautifully for an arab with no help from anyone else (literally I wore him out one day and then he could do it how my coach wanted it but she put forth limited effort the whole time) this dink of a horse has gone to Scottsdale and all over california (except the north) at this point and just adapted to it. His first show he was nervous in his stall and then we tossed food and he was like "K, this is home now" and has done that with every show and move since. Unfortunately I can't afford board next month..or this month for that matter...its shitty for me to keep him when I can barely feed myself everyday. I just hate the idea of him ending up in a home where he's beaten for pulling his shit..beaten for anything I just hate it. He clips everywhere but the ears and face...that'll bother someone. He stands for the farrier..mostly and that might piss off someone, or worse hurt them, he's only threatened to pull back on the burns but I'm always there to talk him out of it. He trailers...but doesn't always get in right away, when his poll went out he suddenly stopped just jumping in, and though he's been chiropracticly fixed since then he still likes to have you make him get in (clicking from behind or shaking of a bucket up front and there's no issue, he really is just being a punk). He ties... but small things scare him, idk what to say I just haven't gotten him bomb proof or ready to accept the sound of crunching bushes while tied. He had a 9yrold riding him just fine (with a trainer) but he pulled a test, reared a little (initial story was barely anything, weeks later it WAS THE BIGGEST REAR EVER :P) and the trainer pulled the kid and encouraged her fear instead of telling her to ride forward a little before getting off (girl had two trainers, one that would have told her to just ride it out she's stronger than that, and one who typically teaches older ladies who get off when it's windy outside and stops a lesson if anything isn't dead perfect..guess which one she was with that day) and yeah, I wouldn't say Zee is a kids horse and normally wouldn't have agreed to him being used by the girl because he pulls punk moves like that but I was told she had a competent trainer who was hoping this girl could make it to 1d barrel races or congress or something implying she could handle the very small shit that could be pulled. I just...I can't think of someone who would invest in a half-ass broke 8 year old who is kids sized. I guess someone tried to sell their I'm guessing similarly broke 10 year old arab and since I haven't seen more ads I'm guessing someone picked it up...so there's some hope. In total my biggest fear is that he would get dumped in the desert or somehow deemed dangerous and be put down. That last part is extreme I know but people have done crazier things. Idk...I was scared to say about the future and that transferred to my horse making him a dip shit for everything but standing tied at the shoeing rack.

[brodudepants]

Okay so this is an extreme amount of pictures but I hope it gives a basic idea of what I've been doing with Zee. He was pretty distracted today but as you can see in the first two pictures he stretches without the side reins, and I have seen him (no pictures though) hold his head where the side reins put him when he isn't hooked up. Now I have him set on one of the loosest settings (not sure how doubling back the elastic would effect it but that's technically looser than this) and where it connects back to the surcingle is about where my hands would be. Obviously from the pictures he can bring his head up and avoid and he can also lower his head some and lean, the bottom picture you can see some slack and that's my goal for all of this. The question I have though, is there a different way I can set up his side reins so that he is less likely to get as tight? I noticed and kind of got it in the 5th picture but he's kind of tight in the throat latch when he's directly on the vertical, and since my goal is more in front of the vertical, which is a nice headset with his conformation, I'd like to figure out a better side rein configuration.

[brodudepants]

There are no indoor areas at the barn I'm at right now, at least as far as areas go. It has threatened to rain for a day and a half before pouring this evening while I was working the pony. I was going to let today just be a grooming day because of rain, but when it hadn't started yet and all my tack was already right there next to us I said why not? Anyways, the noodle head was very good, only spooked once after he had passed the area a bunch halfway through our workout, and realized a fake *scary thing* wouldn't allow him to stop any sooner so he got over it quickly. I'm trying to decide where the best place to attach side reins are to a surcingle...I know traditionally its to the side but when a rider is up the contact comes from above...the last time I tried attaching the side reins at the top rings, I was ridiculed because "it will teach him to stick his nose out and keep his head high" even though I was apparently supposed to forget being on the vertical and just keep his poll as the hugest point....mixed messages weren't fun from my last trainer and that's part of why I'm on my own for this one. Anyways, I think I've transitioned Zee to the point where high connecting side-reins don't mean llama neck and at this point he just goes in and out of vertical/self carriage where I would ideally have his head while we work. I try to get a bit of a warm up without connecting his head to anything before we do these mini trot workouts and he's been collecting himself (literally with no help from me bc all we do is free lunge) for a few strides at the trot portion and doing a lot of stretch at the walk. I'll try to get a picture of the set up I'm using tomorrow or the next day to see how absolutely wrong I am ;) and maybe someone can offer some words of advice? Getting work done with zee is gonna get increasingly harder as winter sets in and the snow starts happening...luckily it's not too bad where he's stabled so the main arena stays mostly clear of snow ....we'll see