It has been a busy month with the start of spring semester but here is an update of how things are going. Winter in Georgia is definitely my least favorite season; the large amounts of rain that are typical in winter result in even larger amounts of mud. The mud has the obvious disadvantages of really dirty horses and poor footing but it has also resulted in an ongoing war against thrush. Treatment for Cal consists of White Lightning soaks but I have some work to do with Eclipse before I want to attempt attaching a saber tooth bag to his feet. The news is not all bad however and as much as I hate to admit it, winter does have some benefits. The lack of sugar and slower hoof growth has allowed Marian and I to make some headway on their toe cracks. Cal had one on his left hind when I purchased him (over six years ago) and Eclipse had one on his right front when I rescued him (approximately five months ago). Both cracks have improved dramatically over the past several months and I am optimistic that they will grow out completely in the near future.
Despite my crazy schedule and the winter weather, I managed to have my first ride on Eclipse a few weeks ago. Since he is still skeptical of plastic bags, I decided to do the friendly game with it to boost his confidence. Recently, I have incorporated clicker training into the usual desensitization techniques and have seen amazing results. In addition to using basic approach and retreat, I now have Eclipse target the plastic bag and as a result his general opinion of it has completely changed. After the desensitization we did some circling. Eclipse is much more left brain and is even trying to stop behind me now (typical LBI!); this is quite a difference from our first experience where he ran around like a bat out of hell.
When I got Eclipse, he was very RBE in humansville and although he had become much more left brain online, he still showed some RBE tendencies the first few times under saddle. On our first two rides, Eclipse started off very tense but after a few minutes at the passenger lesson, he did a lot of blowing and stretching. I have now ridden Eclipse half a dozen times or so and with each ride I am seeing a more confident horse. He is getting more comfortable with saddling and seems to really enjoy the Myler comfort snaffle. The horse that "needed" to be held for mounting is now doing a wonderful job of standing on his own. Also we recently did our first trail ride and he was an absolute star. There was some slight hesitation at a mud/water crossing but when I gave him the time he needed, he would do anything I asked for (including some jumps!). I am absolutely thrilled with his progress and can't wait to see what his full potential is.
