Not horse related...

Happy New Year!  Yes, things are still moving along with Obe, and I believe the alfalfa pellets have made a significant difference in her attitude.  Oh, we still have "discussions" periodically, but nothing as revved-up and explosive as we had before.  I've also started playing around with clicker training, and I LOVE IT...but that's for another post.  You'll just have to wait and see how it's working...  :)

In other news, a new semester has started at school, and I'm teaching two sections of ENG 114, which is our Research & Professional Writing class.  Honestly, the "professional writing" part of it is kind of boring to me...business letters, memos, emails, etc.  But, I think I'm going to spice it up a bit this semester by making my class a business (maybe we'll own an animal rescue or something), and making all the correspondence we learn tie into the running of our business.

However, I LOVE the research part of the class.  This semester, I'm teaching the research paper first, so I'm diving into early with my students.  I hope this helps them in other classes.  Last time I taught this class, I did the research paper last, and I had so many students say, "I wish I'd had this information earlier! It would have helped in (fill in the blank) class!"  So, this semester, I'm doing the paper first...hopefully giving my students the tools they need for research papers in other classes.

Now, this also means that I'm doing research.  I write alongside my students; when I assign an essay, I also write one.  So, I do a research paper as they do theirs.  This way, I join in discussions and show them what I'm doing - it's incredibly valuable for them to see that I struggle with the process just as much as they do.  I think that opens their eyes to the fact that there IS NO SUCH THING as the perfect writer...that mythical creature that sits down at a computer and churns out perfect prose every single time. 

In my last ENG 114 paper, I researched George Price, an American scientist who gave his entire life up to pursuing the idea of a genetic basis of altruism.  His life (and his work...the questions he was asking) is fascinating.  This semester, I'm spurred into research by another person.  This time, it's Margaret Tobin Brown, better known in our culture as The Unsinkable Molly Brown.  Her life has been distorted in popular culture to an outrageous myth (that has NOTHING to do with who she truly was)...but the REALITY of who she was and what she did is much more interesting than the myth ever could be (especially if Brown is played by Debbie Reynolds...what a horrible choice)!  She was on the forefront of nearly EVERY influential, progressive movement of the early 20th Century - the suffrage movement, fitness, literacy, reforming the treatment of juvenile delinquents, miners' rights, immigrants' rights.  She was a powerful voice in all of those...oh, and she also just happened to have survived the sinking of the Titanic.  Her life is fascinating, and I'm interested in looking at her connections to all those political/social movements.  I'm also interested in asking questions about why our early renditions of her life resorted to such caricatures...were those early writers frightened off by Brown's strength and intelligence?  Were they unsure of how to present such a woman?  Are those qualities "scary" in women?  Good stuff...

I'll let you know what I come up with.  Right now, I'm devouring the biography of Brown, Molly Brown: Unraveling the Myth by Kristen Iversen (which was a major influence in the tours and information given at the Molly Brown House Museum in Denver, which Jim and I visited last month...which started this whole inquiry for me). 

I'll keep you updated...

Waiting....

So, Obe was started on the alfalfa pellets this past week.  She's had a few days on them (she started full time on them on Friday after a test run on Thursday morning to make sure she'd eat them!).  So now begins the waiting game.  I'm excited to get her off the grain completely and get her NSCs as low as possible to see how that affects her attitude and general well being.  If she drops any weight, I can always add beet pulp or a ration balancer or Cool Calories...there are many options other than grain.  Right now, she's getting right at a pound of alfalfa pellets and a cup (about half pound) of Empower Boost at every feeding.  In the morning, she gets her MSM SmartPak...and that's it! 

Let the waiting game begin! 

If only this weren't true...

Sadly...I can't tell you how many times I've heard or had this kind of conversation.  *sigh*

Not horse related....

This morning, as I was preparing to start my eleven o'clock class (ENG 111 - the basic composition course that every student has to take), one of my students turned to me and told me the most wonderful news.  She had scored very well (nearly perfect) on a writing assignment in another class - this assignment required her to do research, use citations, and develop her ideas in a highly organized fashion.  She smiled as she said, "The teacher told me that it was easy to read."  She knew I'd love that.  After all, it's something that I've repeated about a thousand times since the start of the semester - your writing is all about your audience.  How do you get your ideas, your knowledge, your experiences across to someone who doesn't live inside your head?  She obviously "got it."  And she knew that that statement was a fantastic compliment to her writing. 

That is the kind of moment that makes me want to keep doing this forever.  I love it when students recognize the impact of what we talk about in composition - when they see how the concepts translate from one context to another - when they engage in active transfer (a buzzword in the education world) from one class to the next.  Seeing students make connections is what makes my day.  Isn't that really what so much of our lives are about?  Connection?  Connection to one another...connection between that beautiful image in a poem to the way we feel about our spouses...connection from that discussion in anatomy to the lecture in graphic design...connection between that truth in one area to the truth in another.  When a student, thoughtful and wrestling with ideas, starts a sentence with, "It's kind of like..." I just want to go ahead and say "Yes" before I ever hear what that student is connecting to.  It doesn't matter, really, in the end - what matters is the fact that a connection was made - a tiny thread that links one idea to another.  Eventually, more threads emerge, and the student begins to weave a tapestry of knowledge that decorates the space inside her head.  I think that is quite possibly the  most beautiful creation in the world.   

Fingers crossed

Just a quick note...

Keeping my fingers crossed this week.  Michele is going to ask the barn owners to supply alfalfa pellets for her mare and for Obe.  That way, I can take her (Obe...not Michele) completely off grain.  I'm excited to try that, hoping that maybe it will help with the random spookiness (which ONLY happens when I ask her to work) and general distractedness, especially when we're alone in the arena. 

So, hopefully soon...these....

Will be going into these....

Cycles...phases...whatever

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....

Sundae for breakfast....and dinner...and breakfast again

The poor Obester.  Last week, I'm sure she thought she hit the jack pot when the new guy started feeding.  I'm not sure how many feedings she had gotten before I caught the mistake...but he was feeding her three times MORE grain than she's supposed to get.  She only gets a little more than a handful, mostly to get her to eat her supplements and to have a few extra calories.  She was getting nearly a quart from the new guy.  Needless to say, her belly was upset for the whole week...and she chose to express it in "creative" ways.  I'll let her explain...

So, I've heard that humans sometimes get these treats called sundaes.  They're rich and tasty and huge...and they taste amazing at first.  But, if you eat too much, you get a tummy ache.  Well, I think I understand about sundaes now.

See, the new guy fed by himself a few times last week.  When he first came to my stall to dump in my feed, I couldn't believe my eyes.  Seriously, he dumped in a mountain of grain.  I had to swallow REALLY hard to keep from gasping in amazement.  I didn't want him to know that I wasn't supposed to get that much!  Oh, man...it was so good!  I ate and ate and ate some more...it was like the grain just kept coming!  I could hardly taste the two powders Mom puts in my food (one is for my joints and one is called magnesium...I don't know what it does).  I just KNEW I'd never get a meal like this again, so I took my time and enjoyed every bite! 

I almost whinnied with delight when I saw the new guy feeding the next day.  I couldn't WAIT to get my mountain of grain.  I was dancing in place and shoving my nose out the feed access in the bars of my stall.  He dumped the grain, and it was like a sundae all over again...man, it was so good! 

Then, Mom came out to ride. 

I don't know...once we started working and I started moving around, that sundae didn't agree with my stomach so much.  I hate to admit this, but I was so gassy.  Seriously, I'm a lady, and I know that ladies don't typically make those sorts of noises, but I just couldn't help it!  Trotting and cantering just shook it out of me.  Then came the cramps.  Oh, boy, the cramps.  I finally had had enough, and I needed to make Mom stop.  So, as we were cantering along one long side of the arena (in this stupid move she calls "counter flexing"...it's hard), I bolted and bucked as hard as I could.  I ALMOST got her off my back, but she managed to stay on...I'm not sure how.  Anyway, after that, she was MAD.  She made me keep working, but I was hurting so bad I didn't want to relax my belly and my back, so I held them tight the whole time.  That was NOT a good ride. 

Maybe sundaes aren't a good idea.  But, man, are they good!  *sigh*  Mom eventually found out about the sundaes and she put a stop to it with a permanent marker.  She marked a BIG LINE all the way around my feed bucket to show how much grain I get.  It's a pitiful amount, really.  Oh well...it's better, I guess.  It took nearly a week for all the cramps and farts to go away. 

So, that's Obe's story.  Yes, she almost got me off with her massive bucking, and yes...I was angry.  But, once I found out about the over feeding, I felt sorry for the poor girl.  She's been back on her normal amounts for a week now, and last night she was much better for me.  I'm hoping to take her off grain completely soon...just feed the Empower (rice bran) and alfalfa pellets for extra calcium and calories.  If I do that, I will do all the measuring and have her meals pre-packaged for her.  I don't want to risk having this kind of thing happen again.  I've got too much to do this winter!  We have shows to go to next year and Bronze Medal scores to get!  ;)