Aj and Sterling Soda Testing, Summer '11
Throughout the crunch that was finals this spring and repeated set backs of my film sets, I thought about my 'foster child.'As many of you know I'm a bit of a sap for the skinny cribber, Sterling. He proved to be my inspiration through the (many) sleepless nights and frenzied scribbles to meet deadlines. I day dreamed about him in times of crisis like fat girls have food dreams. I plotted his schooling for the summer and my goals for him (cantering a perfect circle consistently!) and with the help of the other girls I was confident he would be ready to show successfully next season. I was crestfallen to say the least when I came back from vacation to find Sterling was under the 'broken pony' list. The prognosis was either a stiff stifle, or a small hoof abscess. Or both. Either way the best thing for him was rest. For the summer.
I was a little devastated.
Although he shamelessly responded to his new nickname "Broken Butt" quite well, he much preferred his new butt and stifle massages that came with my appearance. Now not only has he learned that he can scratch his head all over me when its itchy (I let him do it when he was having a little colic and he was convinced he was dying...now I insist he can only do it when no one is looking) he also became quite fond of turning his butt to me once I walk in his stall. I get a gold star for teaching ground manners... not : )
The first week was the hardest I think, for both of us. It made me feel supremely guilty inside when i would zip up and down the drive fetching horses for lesson kids. If he saw me walking by his pasture he would neigh at me like 'um, aren't you gonna come get me? I have a lot of stuff I need to work on!' I'd put my head down and pretend to be invisible. I decided to chronicle my journey through my mostly riderless summer with my chum, to share with everyone that life out of the saddle is not all that boring.
1) The first week was groom-a-poolza. Sterling was bathed, rinsed, shampooed, conditioned, trimmed, brushed and hand grazed six days out of the week. By sunday it occurred to me I could brush him bald, and as much as the attention getting might please him, I decided to look for alternative things we could that was constructive to our time.
2) The following week I established a goal. That was to make my friend the dressage whip and Sterling, the nervous thoroughbred, friends. This goal was relatively met. I entered his stalled randomly and placated him with carrots if I could tap him with the crop. He's a smart young chap and he liked this game of tapping his legs with the crop, lifting his leg, and getting a treat. Eventually I'm thinking I can justify buying that bejeweled black and white dressage whip at tag-a-long tack. (it's so garish, I love it!) Cannot wait to ride with a dressage whip in the future and play 'blast-off' every five strides : ) Wheeee
3) At one point I just missed seeing him move. With Aj's permission I took him into the arena to let him stretch his legs. He essentially walked from K to F selecting the various hay from the subsequent stacks. At one point he felt inspired to 'lunge' around me at a few circles at the trot, I felt quite honored. It was beautiful and he was floating and his coat was shining : D .... and then he cantered off lame. Ugh.
4) Still a bit stiff a few weeks later I opened a new career before Sterling: soda connoisseur. Since he is always in my business now that he has that cribbing collar, and I'm frankly going against everything I've ever believed.. but I decided to share a few coca-colas with Sterling during his initial pitiful days of downtime. You know.. like finish off the bottom of the cup for me buddy, thanks. What we have discovered thus far is: Coca-cola and Dr. Pepper are fantastic, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, and black coffee, not so much. If you're holding a solo cup across the aisle and Sterling is halfway out of his stall stretching out his neck with a crazy look on his face twitching his lips... just ignore him. He'll be fine.
5) Fear of the clippers/ hair cutting of any sort: Stay tuned! No respectable stoner is clean shaven, he argues.
6) Got one or two rides in with some trotting and a few circles. Was still stiff but no severe lameness. Felt good to be reunited : ) Felt great to watch him behave somewhat in a lesson.
7) Cleaned my tack! Whenever you're bored is a great time to clean tack, boots, and wash your pads and polos!
8) Taking nature walks. We've walked up and down the driveway a few times, we're about to begin walking up and down the golfcart path up to Beverly's house as part of his stifle strengthening. He could also do with a walk down to the creek, I'd love to see his brain wrap around the concept of running water. But basically walks over hills.
9) We have also walked Into A and Intro B dressage tests in the arena. Not particularly fascinating but I'm counting on him to memorize it better than me.
10) Practice that grooming stuff! Now that I'm working as a show groom i need to re-learn that stuff from 4-H, like braiding and polo wrapping legs. It's a good idea for everyone to practice this stuff, especially if you have a sleepy patient buddy like me : ) I know he will be thrilled to let me do his hair.
Feel free to suggest what you and your horse do on rainy days or down time. There really is lots to do! All the same I'll be happy when Sterling is fit, muscly, and showin' the kids what he's made of.
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