The Time I Thought Goose Was Old and Broken But Instead He's Just a Furry Yak

I think I'm on a permanent loop of getting Goose in shape enough to do fun things only for my schedule to shift so he ends up getting a couple weeks off. This results in him losing all fitness. I love his draft cross greatness, but jeez, keeping muscle and stamina on him are dang near impossible. 

The trifecta of his dad-bod physique (which we love since he's basically an adorable overgrown Shetland pony), his perpetual lack of forward motion, and his fuzzy winter yak coat means that sometimes he acts like a roast Goose and I go into a minor panic that my nearly 17 year old horse is breaking down and needs major maintenance and possible retirement. I know it will shock you to read this, but sometimes I overthink things just a wee bit, but I digress. 

Who you callin' dad bod? I prefer snack enthusiast.

In the month of November I actually managed to squeeze in a few fun adventures! 2020 be damned, I'm determined to have fun (safely and around people I trust while still keeping to appropriate protocol) and enjoy my horse. It's finally the time of year where satan has closed up his southern portal to hell and we can enjoy many sunny days in the 60's and 70's and nights start getting colder. I'm also currently sitting in my kitchen shivering after a morning walk with the dogs in 27 degree weather - it does actually get cold down here sometimes. 

Adventure Goose

After my trip to Leatherwood in October, I managed to squeeze quite a bit of riding into my schedule. With the time change, it's a bit of a push to convince myself to go out after work. I love my barn and my pony but good grief dragging myself out there in the dark and chill to flat in the jump field where we have lights and where Goose does NOT flat well is just not really attractive. I have managed to go out a few times a week after work however, and I never regret going. Especially now that I found my nifty headlamp I bought five years ago and only just put batteries in. Seriously, go get yourself a headlamp; you won't regret it. 

I love [head]lamp

One Sunday, Amanda trailered Queen Z in with a barn friend and her mare. We set up some fun little jumps, played horse swap, and while Amanda and her friend both got a turn on the Goose, I took a spin on a fancy little hunter mare who I totally adored. And then fell off of after I totally botched a cross rail and couldn't stick her round jump or her disappearing neck on landing. Y'all, there's a reason I don't ride hunters. This mare is DELIGHTFUL and this one was 100% on me but I'll hang on to my giant-shouldered Goober whose lovely jump is fairly flat, thankyouverymuch. All in all I was due for a tumble, and popped back up just fine with very minimal bruising of body or ego. Serious question though: If you land on your butt, is it possible to bruise a rib? Everything else was fine but I had some pretty decent pain in my right ribs for a few weeks after, and it's still a little tender. 

A few weekends after that, Amanda invited us over to play at her farm, a gorgeous dressage and H/J facility with a covered arena and large outdoor jump ring. Goose hadn't been off property in awhile, but was a good doobie and hopped right on the trailer, ready to head to his girlfriend's house. 

Goose and Zena, true love

Aside from this being a gorgeous facility, masks are required in the barn which I fully appreciate considering the "inside" component of the barn. I tacked Goose up at the trailer to make everyone's lives easier, and luckily it was a pretty quiet Sunday. Amanda and I headed to the covered so she could get in her ride on Zena and I could let Goose suss out how he felt about a real arena again. This horse notoriously despises indoors, covereds, or anything with walls or fence, really. He's not the kind to go full-out wild, he's the kind to suck back and absolutely refuse any form of forward movement while also feeling like he's about to detonate like a bomb. SUPER fun to ride the oversized giant explosive Shetland, lemme tell ya. 

I ended up being really pleased with how he held it together for a horse with a historical hatred of covered arenas. I never quite achieved the elusive "forward", but we walked, trotted, and cantered with minimal side-eyeing and no actual sideways spooks. He never fully relaxed, but hey I'll take it. After about 20 minutes in the covered, we took a mini trail ride up the driveway before heading over to the outdoor arena to wait for a jump lesson to be done so I could pop over a few things. 

Like I already said, Goose really doesn't like ANY arena, indoor or outdoor, which is why my farm's lack of arena isn't the biggest deal to us as long as the ground is rideable for most of the year (which it usually is). In the outdoor, it felt like I was pushing a 1400lb boulder up a hill. He would NOT move. He was putzing around in the worst way, and this horse LOVES to jump. I popped a little flower box at the end of the arena and he trotted over it, high stepping like a kids pony. Which, fine, fair enough it was not even 18 inches but seriously, dude? It was all I could do to get him to canter. I should also mention that while he wasn't super fit at this time, he was certainly fit enough for the very little I was asking him to do this day. He had mostly walked in the covered, had a few days off that week so definitely wasn't over worked, but I just couldn't get him to move and it felt like he was utterly exhausted. I did end up doing a little course of 2' jumps which he was perfectly reasonable for, but I called it quits after that because he just didn't feel right. Not lame, not stiff, just so severely "blah". All in all we had a wonderful day and it was so fun to ride with Amanda at her gorgeous barn, but then I went home and the worry set in. 

Plz stahp worryin' bout this fuzzy yak, mom

You see, Goose is a big, solid dude. He's been coddled pretty much his whole life and I've always been really careful of what I ask him to do and how much he does based on the footing or ground, his fitness, and how he's feeling. We're going for longevity and happiness here; we long ago accepted that the Olympics might just be out of reach for us. That being said, he bowed a tendon years ago, and broke a splint the year we moved to NC, neither of which bother him at all but that knowledge is always in my mind that I need to protect him. Because he's so big and getting a little older, I also wonder about his joints and ligaments. He's never had injections or maintenance so it's not out of the question he might need an eval and some lubed-up hocks or stifles (or whatever my vet may recommend). I wasn't ready to pull the trigger and make that call yet, especially with a light winter in front of us, but the wheels started turning in my head that he may need maintenance or to be retired. 

A few weekends later, Kalyn, Alyson and I trailered over to the barn where Kalyn works to have a fun mini-trail ride and arena playtime. Goose was an utter asshat. He was great to trailer and tie in the barn, but on the trail ride he was a total dick, explosive and just not himself. This is a Goose I'm familiar with, he just hasn't been like this in quite awhile. Our trail walk consisted of some sideways antics, head flailing, and muttered swear words. He wasn't scaring me he just really pissed me off. WHY CAN'T YOU WALK LIKE YOU'VE FREAKING DONE THIS BEFORE?! To be fair, all the horses on the farm were cantering around their fields trying to get a look at the newcomers, but seriously Goose rides in the field with the herd all the time who decide to randomly take off galloping and he doesn't so much as bat an eye. Act your damn age, sir (says the person panicking about him needing maintenance). 

We had a very well-meaning photographer that failed to zoom in at all. And I don't feel like editing it so deal. 

We rode in the arena when we finished our loop and our brain had mostly shifted back into place. He was still doing his pokey-yet-spooky shenanigan of refusing to go forward while still side eyeing everything, but we worked through it and I just let him be done early. He again just didn't feel right, way more backwards than is normal for him and I was starting to wonder if he was anemic or really just not feeling good in his joints. 

When I tell you I went home and crunched numbers and tried to figure out how I could possibly afford a plethora of unknown joint injections for my intermittently-ridden horse, I mean I went home and made a spreadsheet. Y'all, it's tight right now thanks to the unexpected car payment I picked up this summer, and things weren't looking good. I decided to just keep doing what he felt good for and reevaluate in the spring, all while trying to squirrel away some pennies. 

Two days after the trip to Kalyn's barn, I clipped the wooly mammoth for the second time this year. Oh, did I forget to mention that his original October clip may as well have not even happened because he was a total yak again? Another glorious side-affect of owning a draft cross: I'm gonna need a second mortgage one of these years to cover the cost of clipper blades. Luckily at this time of year with an actual chill in the air, I'm able to get away with an Irish clip. Which I did in the dark via headlamp. I'm a clipping champion.

When I tell you that a weight was (probably literally) lifted off this horse and he now feels like a million bucks, I mean this horse felt like a totally different ride as soon as I got on him after his clip. Don't get me wrong, he's still pokey and slow as they come, but it wasn't like pushing a boulder uphill anymore, it was normal Goose with a little extra something I'll now refer to as the nakey-sparkle. 

While my reality is that Goose IS almost 17, has never had maintenance and may need some in the future, my brain has once again settled and I'm no longer panicking that he's broken or in pain or not right. I'm pretty sure he was just a roast Goose and also genuinely hates arenas of any sort (#can'tbetamed) so that added to his sluggishness. I also recognize that if his "not rightness" comes back, I'll listen to that voice in my head and will have the appropriate evaluations made. For now, we're riding the nakey-sparkle train.

The past two weeks at home he has been totally fabulous and I'm completely smitten with my pony again. Last week with the long Thanksgiving weekend I was able to get in more saddle time than usual, and even built some fun jumpies for him. I popped him over a few things Friday and he was forward and wonderful. I LOVE doing gymnastics and grids with him, so while I didn't feel like building out too many things that day, I set up a bounce with raised cavalletis and then a three jump combination: big crossrail, one stride to a vertical, two strides to an oxer. We would trot the bounce on the short side, ride the landing canter and turn left up to the combination. I kept them a very reasonable height and distance so it'd be easy and he'd have to jump up a bit more (also it was going uphill, remember me trying to push that boulder uphill?) and put them up to do them once more before calling it quits. Sunday, I broke my rule about only jumping once a week and popped him over the same exercises. He had less oomph than Friday but was happy to be pointed at sticks and did everything perfectly the first time so we called it quits. He's now had a few days off and I'm sitting here trying to convince myself that I can definitely make it out to ride tonight (Wednesday).  

Though I usually pull his shoes for the winter, I decided to keep him shod through December and reevaluate come January. I'm hoping to sneak in a few more fun activities before I leave for NJ and he's actually fairly fit and going really well, so why change it if I don't need to? With a new team at work and hopefully fewer late nights at the office, aka my kitchen, and more nights and weekends at the barn, I'm crossing my fingers we can actually have a productive winter if the rain holds off. I reserve the right to define "productive" as riding twice a week, however, so we'll see how this pans out and if our nakey-sparkle stays with us.  

Speaking of sparkle, my NJ trainer, Kendra, and I have this running joke about "Sparkle, Bitch!" which is a story in itself. I got Goose this AMAZING bonnet from If The Bonnet Fits, she does totally custom work and it's worth every penny, this is my third one. The embroidery on the ears is my absolute favorite and genuinely reminds me to ride better - I love it. Kendra got a matching one for schooling.

I also need to eventually do an update on this gorgeous bridle I ended up buying him. I'm very impressed with the quality!

Update: I wrote this almost a week ago and because I hate blogger photos so much (no, I'm not over it) I've waited on publishing it. I DID in fact manage to ride several times last week though, so there's a small win!

How we feel about night riding.