Howie the asshole

Pardon my french in advance, I am a little ticked off at the moment.

Howie and I had a bad day on Thursday. It was our first serious ride since his stone bruise and it had been raining like crazy the days prior so he was full of piss and vinegar and possibly more piss. The arena area is up by the road and that has never cause problems before, bikers, motorcyclists, runners and cars all pass quite often and he has never been fazed by it. Well, never as in before Thursday. Any time someone would pass he freaked out, tried to bolt, buck, rear or any other poor horsey behavior. I stayed on for every single one, but the last time he threw me majorly off balance and I smacked my face into his neck. I did a very sloppy emergency dismount and fell down in the process, freaking him out more. I am a walking bruise right now. Everything is pain. But I am pissed off more than anything. Howie has never been such a fucktard before. We had quite the discussion afterwards, and on Friday he was a very good boy, but I am still at a loss as to why he was such a douchebag. And I can't ride him hard for a while because I am so sore and anything faster than a walk makes me want to die.

Injury count:
Imprint of teeth in lower lip, along with Bubba style swelling
Massive bruise on wrist, thigh, back, boob, knee
Jammed finger
Torn something in shoulder
Big headache

So I guess lunging it is for the next week or so. God dammit.

Bah, I need to update

The saddle, its AHMAZEINGGG
Like seriously, the improvement I have noticed already with it is just stellar. Howie moves much more freely and is more willing to go forward. He was starting to get into hard workouts but then stupid thing got a stone bruise. Before that happened though, we had a great routine going. I rode him every day of the week and had easy days tuesday, thursday, sunday, and hard days every other day.
Easy days go as so- Walking up and down the driveway a couple times until sufficiently warmed up, trotting 20 m circles and working on bending and engaging with the hind. Some poles at the trot.

Hard days start with walk and trot up and down the driveway, then trot work over poles and then canter work over poles. Then we go into the pasture and do wind sprints up and down a line. We then go in the ditch which makes him lift his legs more than usual, we go up and down the ditch and splash around in the water for a bit and then go into the lower part of the pasture and canter circles then cool down.

Here are some pics of the new saddle

Lots of news

Sorry for my crappy bloggin skills and my lack of updating.

Update #1: Saddle Issues
So the saddle fitter came out on Saturday, it was quite the ordeal. I had talked with her on the phone for quite a bit about what I was looking for (dressage saddle, cheap, wiiiiide tree) and had to repeatedly emphasize what a tank Howie is. My fitter has been in the business for about 30 years and has come across lots of big draft mixes, so she said she was sure she could find something. When she arrived at my place I had Howie all ready to go and she took one look at him and said "you really weren't kidding when you said you needed a wide tree." She then proceeded to measure him, did all the tracings and stuff and I showed her what I was currently riding in. Apparently its sinful. It is a standard wide tree close contact jumping saddle and supposedly does not fit him at all. So no saddle riding until the new one comes, just bareback

After taking tracings of his back my fitter told me that Howie is the widest horse she has ever fitted. No joke, she has never seen a horse with as broad of a back as the H pone. No wonder my hips kill after long rides. She brought 8 extra wide saddles and none fit. She showed me the tracings of his back and explained where a narrow, medium, wide and extra wide tree would be, Howie was a good 2 inches wider than an extra wide horse on either side. So we talked about options. Looks like I have to get a custom fitted saddle and the easiest and cheapest route is this.

Wintec saddles have an exchangable gullet system. Its nice, but Wintec is a synthetic brand so not as high quality as some other saddles. My fitter will take an extra wide gullet, heat it in the forge and make it wider and put it into the higher end Wintec dressage saddle model. Not as expensive as expected, but still, quite the ordeal so I will be waiting for a few weeks before I can saddle up Howie. He is gonna gain some more poundage. Lesigh.

Update #2: Fitness stuffs
Until I got the news that I was forbidden to ride in a saddle, everything was going very well. Under saddle we had worked out most of our issues, thank you dressage whip, and we were starting over fences. He was doing great, even went up a hole on either side with the girth!! I also turn him loose every morning in the arena and let him thunder around like the crazy beast he is. The better fitness means a more lively Howie which is phenomenal.
And now for some pics

Awardyward

Wheeee! I am engulfed by the blogger scene!

I have an award. *Dances in circles*Thank you Beckz! http://horsebeckz.blogspot.com/

1o honest things, here we gooooo:

1. I enjoy watching crappy MTV shows such as "Paris Hilton's My New BFF"

2. I own a Snuggie, Shamwow and lust after many other TV wonders

3. I cannot stand art museums

4. Lifting weights is like an antidepressant for me

5. I am bad at coming up with things on the spot, hence the stupid, weak truths you see here

6. I ride in a mixture of jumping, pleasure and dressage tack. And look pretty much pathetic.

7. I have a fear of jumping anything higher than 18" on a horse. Yet I can go off a 3o ft kicker on my skis with no problem

8. I have never ridden in an honest to god horse show

9. I love my job even if I bitch about it all the time

10. I make noises when I drive. I also narrate it. "And backing up, look out for that pole Daphne" Haha

The rules are: Link back to the blog that gave you the award.
Post 10 honest things about you
Pass the award on to 10 other bloggers.

I will attempt to pass it on to at least 5 bloggers. Lets see how this works

http://icantellyourpurseisfake.blogspot.com/

http://rehabinganurbantransplant.blogspot.com/

http://trueantihero.blogspot.com/

http://dontbitethedog.blogspot.com/

http://skeetercomesback.blogspot.com/

Glamtastic!

Howie had a glamour shoot of sorts. I groomed him, slapped his new booties on and took pictures of him being pretty. His muscling has come so far and his tum tum doesn't stick out so far on the sides when you view him from the front. Yay!!!

Howie the jumper

Finally, pics from our freejumping adventures. Silly fatty really enjoys it, and I took the camera out today. He hangs his knees like none other, but I am also using a really small jump (I am currently building some nice standards, but just use little logs or buckets right now lol) so he could be sloppy cause of that. He is still losing poundage, but getting hay now. The grass in the pasture isn't as lush and nice because its hot as balls and the rain has stopped coming so frequently. But fatty only gets a little bit of hay, so its ok I guess. He got his feet trimmed on Wednesday and for the first time in like forever he had no flare!! He also got a new bridle (gift from a secret santa thing on the Free Speech Horse Forum) which fits him wonderfully.
And now for pics :]

Update

Things are going pretty smoothly, nothing crazy exciting to report. I keep getting the feeling like he really isn't improving much and then I look at pictures from several months ago and take it back. He looks so much better in comparison. He is working hard, summer=boredom so I have been riding and lunging him a whole lot more than usual. I can only do so much on his back as we have had thunderstorms EVERY DAY for the past month or so and the ground is slick, so no jumping and higher speed work at the moment. Just walk, trot and a bit of canter. He is sweating more and holds up for longer workouts. We have done a little bit of hill work too and some trot poles. Trot poles and Howie are not the best combo, he is not very good at them but it is improving.
And for your enjoyment I have some videos of the fat man moving, shows off his lovely lumbering trot and whatnot. Haha.
I have no idea how to post them in blogger, so I will just link them
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EVnm4xkWww
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVsiu90GAa0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lldMZ_-o9AQ