I think we've gotten the whole "feed the horse too much grain" thing figured out. For the last week and a half, Obe's gotten the correct amount of feed, and she's also been fed the correct number of supplement cups (I've kept count). The gas and pooping while riding have stopped...she has NEVER been one to poop while I'm riding her, so that was another sign of her gastric distress last week.
However, even with all that "fixed," she's still a bit crazy. I rode her in the outdoor yesterday, and we were alone for most of the time. I walked forever...and she stretched beautifully, taking big, swingy strides and giving both sides of her jaw in flexion and counter-flexion. I did a thousand and one trot transitions - six or seven strides of trot, back to walk, six or seven strides of trot, back to walk. I wanted to warm her up slowly, and I wanted to make the ride as positive as possible given how sketchy our rides have been over the past week and a half. After being out for about 30 minutes, she started her "I'm suddenly scared to go in one area of the arena" act. We were trotting happily along for a brief distance when she suddenly put on the brakes, her ears went forward HARD, and she started backing up. For the rest of the ride, I could hardly get her ears to flip back to me. Ugh....
Maybe I'm doing too much concentrating on her ears. However, when I read the book by Yvonne Barteau, she mentioned ALWAYS being able to "get an ear" as a requirement for the work she does with horses. Mary Wanless also mentions it in one of her books...how "getting an ear" is important to know what the horse is focusing on. I HARDLY ever am able to "keep" Obe's ears for one circuit of the arena. She is always focused on the barn...whether we're in the indoor or the outdoor, anytime we're pointing that direction, her ears are hard forward. She still moves off my leg, she'll still flex/counterflex (usually), and do what I ask...but she's ignoring me otherwise. If another horse is being brought down to the barn, she focuses on that. If the neighbor is in his garden, she focuses on that. If imaginary creatures begin crawling along the edges of the arena fence, she focuses on those. I don't know if this is an issue that I should continue to worry about or if I should just let it go and accept that that's how she is. I've gone through both mindsets over the past couple of years, and neither one seems to work all that well.
Or, maybe we're just in a phase...we seem to go in and out of various phases over the course of a year. We'll have phases were every ride feels like we're really working and moving up. Then, we'll have phases where every ride feels like a fight...spookiness, random bucking, flipping out about being alone in the arena. I really hope this is just a phase.
In related news...I'm hoping to take her completely off grain soon. I'm hoping to put her on alfalfa pellets and Empower so that the total NSCs are as low as possible and I can see how much of these antics are related to grain. Fingers crossed....
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