Some fun - Eventing Bingo bad backstories

Emma is having a fun sounding contest over on her page.  Eventing bingo!  How fun is this going to be!  As I am looking through her mock cards, I am cringing bc I have had so many of these happen and I really don't want them again.  I thought it may be fun to share some of my flub.  Yes?  No?  Eh, let's go with yes.  The good part? Several I have NOT yet done.  The big one, fall off?  I have yet to fall off at a show, jumping/dressage/otherwise.  Score!!  The rest?  Well.....

Your horse was "that" horse in warmup:
This is reserved for App.  We went to a dressage show in OH, one of the "big" shows we went to.  It may even have been rated, I don't remember, but it was a multi ring, non-schooling show type of show.  We got there, I was tacking up at my trailer and I slipped the halter over App's head as I prepared to put the bridle on.  He stepped back/to the side as he went to grab some hay and suddenly his halter randomly slipped off his neck and head.  I reached for the reins as he looked at me, I swear he winked, ducked his head to slip the reins and took OFF.  Ran all over the (very extensive) grounds, disrupted the warmup ring, someone's dressage test, it took over 5 mins for people to catch him.  After that, the show secretary gave us a stall at no charge to contain him (not really needed at that point, but didn't pass it up) and  yes the judge recognized him (I mean, how many spotted dressage horses are there at any given show) as the loose horse of the day.  To top it off?  We got "inattentive" several times as App just did not want to play in the ring that day.

So many penalties but not, somehow, eliminated:
Long time readers got to read about this one as it happened, Mia's first ever horse trial.  She gave us 3 refusals going xc.  Yeah.... how I got her clear over the rest of the course and THEN over stadium, I have no idea.  That was not an enjoyable day haha!  We had a score of like 90 or something HA!

No brakes/WAY too fast:
This is also a throwback to App, I think it was the first derby with App in Michigan.  The instructor at the time suggested a waterford bit bc App was so heavy and strong going xc, it would stop him from pulling.  Great!  Something new to try over our slow twist snaffle!  I rode in the waterford the week prior the show, including a small run over xc type stuff at our farm with no issues.  We went to the show and had no pulling whatsoever!  But also no brakes whatsoever.  I ended up dragging him to a halt in front of the farm owner and TD and a ton of spectators so we could try to walk/trot down a big ass hill so he didn't kill us as the grass was still wet.  We also went faster than every other single horse at that show, including training level, and WE were the reason they implemented minimum times for their derbies.  So.....you are welcome y'all?

Got a 4 on movement:
Not only did I get that (at 2 different shows), I even beat it with a 3!  This is reserved for TWH and his pacing, back when our canter/trot transition was not strong and he paced instead of trotting for his last transition/turn up the center line.  Yeah....they really don't like when you pace if you are not riding in a gaited class!

Jumped a fence with no stirrups:
Oh geez, that is reserved for TWH.  We were at a horse trial and were 2 jumps from the finish.  We jumped out of the water and cantering along, TWH had one of his random spooks and I lost my stirrup about 3 strides from the jump.  Thankfully we practiced no stirrup jumping regularly but not something I wanted to do in a competition!  We finished without issue and I know we placed, so it was good in the end but talk about an Oh Crap moment!

Competed in heavy rain/mud EVERYWHERE:
OMG do you remember Mia's show?  That was the coldest and wettest I have ever been in my life.  It was our first 1st place finish though!  It was in the high 30's/low 40's, windy and poured rain down all day and yet they still held all 3 phases.  I wore my raincoat for all phases and even posted video of the dressage test to show the rain.  It was also the show in which I really decided I had to focus on position bc I rode soooooo poorly in stadium, pics are on the blog somewhere.  Then Mia could not be stopped for the first 3 XC fences (another nominee for no brakes/too fast?) and over half of the competitors dropped out after dressage.  We ended up driving the trailer to the road and load the horses on the road bc people were getting stuck left and right and tractors were pulling people out.  I had to literally wash everything that was touched.  Inside and out of the entire trailer, there was either 3 or 4 loads of horse laundry, inside and out of the entire truck, it took forever to recover from that show.

Missed a jump on XC:
Wow that was also TWH.  We jumped the BN fence instead of the N fence, as they were literally side by side.  I yelled out to the jump judge I jumped the wrong one and jumped the correct fence, but she still eliminated me for jumping the fence twice.  I had to chat with the TD after scoring was posted (and I found out I had been eliminated) to explain and thankfully they accepted my excuse and removed the elimination.  That is one mistake I hope to NEVER do again!

And yes, I did find even more on her list that had stories, haha!!  Hopefully these won't happen again, once is enough in my lifetime for sure!  Is anyone else participating in Bingo?  Does anyone else have stories about how bad things can get, even if they are kind of funny later?

One step closer

Geez this is coming fast.  The closing date has been moved up from April 4th to March 24th.  Yikes?!  I leave with the horses in a week (!!!!!!!!),on the 25th, to become PA residents, and we come back on the 27th to pack the house and we are no longer MI residents as of the 29th.  WOW!  TWH leaves tomorrow, for the first time since 2007 I won't see him reguarly.  Awww :(  I am going to miss that fuzz face.  I spent 5 hours cleaning/organizing/packing the barn yesterday and got it 90% done.  Got all of K's stuff back to her, plus 3 armloads of stuff I didn't feel like bringing lol.  And after all of that packing, I was happy to find all of the stuff is all fitting in the horse trailer!  Woohoo!  Tack ho isn't that bad, HA!

Smart horse mom is smart, I am having all work done with the horses before I leave so I don't have to scramble to find anyone.  I had had the vet out for vaccinations/coggins last weekend.  Unfortunately Appy has been NQR/lame on his left front so I had Dr A look at him.  We blocked out his whole hoof and lower leg with no improvement.  He is coming back out tomorrow to block his knee and shoulder and see what we find.  Ugh, at least it is no bony changes in his hoof?  Trying to find the plus side in this scenario but all I see is dollar signs floating out of the checkbook.  Bye bye dollars!

I had the dentist out on Wednesday and got everyone done.  TWH and Appy were really good, minor sharp points and very well behaved.  I LOVE watching TWH's reactions while he gets done, for having blue eyes, they can be super expressive.  The horror in them is very amusing, ha!  Mia had some pretty sharp points in her far back molars, the dentist got them all taken care of but Mia was not very behaved.  She had her head up as high as possible and was getting very pissy about it the process.  I have never had the horses sedated for floats and haven't needed to, though I will likely give her a shot of Ace the next time her teeth are done.  She didn't kick/rear/try to bite, but she was extremely unhappy and was starting to body bump people.  Not okay Mare!

The farrier was out today and everyone got their toes done.  No issues popped up and everyone was behaved.  Now everyone has their teeth, toes and vaccines done and I am not going to have to scramble to have it done in PA.  Phew that is a relief.  Now it is focusing in getting down to the nitty gritty in packing and getting EVERYTHING packed and gone.  It's getting real folks, getting real.  Hopefully I have time for some quick updates but it is possible I may become MIA until April.

Mia's first Novice show

Sunday I woke up nice and early and man did my shoulder hurt.  I took a couple of Aleve and went about my day.  Mia stayed clean overnight so a rewash was not needed, TWH was not as nice and K had to give him another bath.  I love TWH but I don't miss that part!  Nor the 30 minutes of brushing out his tail!  Mia's mane by her head was pretty crazy so I got ready to braid it.  As I started the third braid, I noticed that 3/4 of her mane was 100% flat, straight and beautiful so I scrapped the braiding and just banded the crazy section.  Lazyness wins.

We got wrapped up and Mia decided, again, that she didn't want to load.  She got several hard jerks on her nose as she kept backing up before she decided that she can go forward.  After the third request to load she jumped on and we went on our way.  I was riding first and quickly got up to the warm up ring in case Mia decided to lose her marbles again.  It was amazing, however, she warmed up like she was at home!  I kept her speed down to an almost crawl until I was 100% sure she wasn't going to pull any stupid antic and she then stepped right up into a nice forward trot.  She listened to all of my seat aids and wasn't being an ass at all.  YAY MARE!!  I kept trying to get better bend but she wasn't giving it willingly and I wasn't about to start a fight with her, in no time I was called into the ring.

Mia was very steady through the whole test.  I was smiling the majority of the ride because while it wasn't a perfect test, she was riding very well and there wasn't much I would have changed!  We walked back to the trailer and had a quick lunch before getting ready for cross country.  Mia was nice and forward and warmed up very well.  I had a nice chat with some friends who were volunteering and off we went.  Mia was a little squirrely over the first 2 jumps and, of course, knocked a rail down on one of the stadium jumps.  Boo!  After that, I started really slowing her down and then kicking her over the jumps and she rode much better.  She really likes going cross country.  We walked down a big hill and trotted a bit to eat up some time and was able to successfully clear the last 3 stadium fences without knocking them over plus coming in at only 20 seconds shy of optimum.  Yay!

The results were finally posted and we went from 6th to 8th after the rail.  If she had been clear, she would have gotten 5th!  It is certainly something to aim for, perfection, and I am quite excited for her possibilities.  K did very well on TWH, he is such a good horse.  He went double clear as well and ended up 3rd in their division!!  She is so happy with him and loves his attitude so much, he is doing really good at showing her the ropes of eventing.  Hopefully the rest of the show season keeps up like this!

PS.  If you can't tell, this was written over a period of time.  The first was right after the show, the rest was a week later.  I am SO, SO busy I have almost no time to do anything that isn't work, ride, pack.  Never fear though, I have another update to post in a couple of days

Some very big news

With things starting to actually warm up, mud season arrived.  With some strong winds over the past few days and no rain, things are finally drying up a little!  Most of the snow we have is just piles and in the shade, the majority of things are snow-free.  YAY!  I even was looking through my flower bed yesterday and saw little tiny green things starting to appear.  Houston, I think we found spring!  

Mia is doing really well under saddle still, lots of boring things that aren't fun to talk about.  Yay, she was soft, yay she stayed in contact, yay she was pushing from behind, yay she seemed to lift her back.  Wash, rinse, repeat, it comes across as quite boring.  M comes back from being gone mid-April so I still have a month to work on dressage and fitness.  Dressage is coming along quite well and I am excited to have her see my progress.  Fitness is not coming along well, however, and I have a lot of work to catch up on.  I did some two point this week at the walk and next week I am going to do some serious training again to get myself back up to par.  K and I are going to a clinic in April and are taking both a dressage and cross country lesson in it so I need to have my two point up to par by then so I don't look like a fool.  

The yearly vet visit was this past weekend and everything went well (and was less expensive than expected, yay!).  I did a lameness eval on both App and TWH and they both passed.  App still has arthritis in his hocks (obviously) but it isn't bad enough for him to need his hocks done again.  He is moving quite soundly for a 22 year old and even more work should make things better.  Now just need more time to get the more work in.  Ha!  TWH is sound as well with no residual suspensory issues after a year of going Novice.  Awesome!!  He was very slightly short in his right hind and Dr A is pretty sure that it is due to mud and his stifle being a little loose.  There is no fill or heat in his stifle, hocks or fetlocks however and he is pretty certain that once we get back to full fitness, the stifle will tighten up and things will be a-ok again.  Poles and jumping will help as well, which is good because that is the plan!

I do have some news, however.  Some really big news.  LogDog Acres is officially closing down.  We are selling our dream property and moving to northeastern PA and I will be going back to a boarding situation.  SO got a really good job offer (obviously, or we wouldn't be moving lol) and starts on Monday.  He will be going through training for 2 months and then will be scouting out the area for horse-friendly areas.  He is going to be in a field position so it is actually pretty flexible as to where we live, which is nice, so if anyone has any suggestions let me know.  I have looked up almost a dozen eventing barns that hold shows and wrote their towns down and hope to be fairly centrally located to several of them.  I won't be moving until the middle to the end of the year.  My expectation is to finish out the show season here in MI to go for points with Mia and hopefully win the Novice division this time.  After the show season is over, we will relocate and hopefully be moved by the end of the year.

With a very heavy heart, I am also selling TWH to K.  She completely adores him and she used the lameness eval as a pre-purchase of sorts so she knew what she would be looking at long-term.  She has been riding him for 6 months and he hasn't taken a lame step in the entire time which is very helpful.  She is going to show him all season and wants to eventually move up to Novice with him after a few years.  Both Dr A and I explained very clearly that Novice is as high as he could ever go and she is ok with that.  She is ok taking on a 12 year old horse that has slight arthritis.  She knows that eventually his hocks will need done and that I give him a monthly shot of Pentosan to help keep hock injections at bay.  Given all that, she agreed to buy him so he will remain the star of someones life and that makes me very happy.

On one hand, I am thrilled that he will have a great home with someone to dote on him daily, that makes him her priority and has no problem paying whatever may be needed to keep him happy and comfortable.  On the other hand, he and I have gone through a lot and he is very important to me.  I helped him sort through his emotional baggage that almost had him put down and he came out of it a very happy, sane horse that will try his heart out for anyone who asks.  Am I going to miss him dearly?  Yes.  She is going to post plenty of pictures and updates so I can watch from afar.  Yes.  He also has a buyback clause in his purchase agreement and she said she has no problem offering him back when she is done with him, if she ever is.  She is going to keep him here and will show with me until I am ready to leave. At that time I will help her find a good boarding barn and help get her set up on her own.  :*(

So this is my news, my life is getting flipped upside down and shaken out.  I have a  LOT of stuff I will be selling.  We won't be moving to another horse farm (unless something weird and strange happens) so the majority of my "stuff" is going to be liquidated.  I have already sold some stuff and I will be selling a lot more.  I am giving a whole tote of stuff to K so she has stuff for TWH from the start.  He will have his blanket, fly mask, some show sheets, a sleezy, a cooler, tail bags, tack hook, wraps, all kind of things.  So if anyone needs something in particular, let me know.  My blog is about to change from a training blog to a training and moving one, I hope you don't mind the journey!

300th post!!!!! A look back at my journey

It is hard to believe I have been doing this for 300 posts.  Three hundred!!  I have 29 followers and have semi-regular comments on most of my posts.  How awesome is that!  I figured in celebration of my 300^th post I would do a recap of my time in blog world.  This is very link heavy :)  Once upon a time, a lady moved to Michigan with her 2 horses and it all began….

In January 2011 I got a donkey to rehab because I wanted a companion for the horses and I felt sorry for her.  I gave her until August and if she wasn’t better I was going to let her go to be pain free. February 2011 I found a riding buddy in RB1 and also decided to give up on showing dressage shows with TWH and focus on eventing.  Stupid politics.  In April TWH and I went XC schooling for the first time and it was a success, in May TWH jumped 3’6” for the first time ever and figured out that refusing isn't an option.  It also made me realize just how hard 3'6" is for TWH.   Appy went XC in super wet conditions and TWH went to our first hunter/jumper show and we won ribbons!  In June TWH had our first ever real eventing show and placed 2^nd!!  He was going to become an eventer and it made me so happy.

We celebrated the donkey's 6 month anniversary and her successful rehab.  In July I met RB3 and in August TWH went to our second ever hunter/jumper show and won ribbons again.  September came around and App and I went to our last eventing show though I didn't know it at the time.  I wish we could go again, maybe at a lower level.  Someday.  

TWH went to his second eventing show and we got our first ever 3 and 4 in dressage (for pacing) but still placed in the ribbons because TWH is a rockstar in jumping.  In October I got my first blogger award and also determined what kind of bedding I really did NOT like.  In November I posted some videos of the App jumping and then I determined the bedding I really DID like.  And still love.

  

February 2012 I met RB4 and she has been an awesome friend ever since, she is my right hand gal at shows and I love it.  Come March my awesome vet alerts me to App’s declining vision and I started training a horse for RB3.  We also get chickens (of which, only 2 are left L) and our farm becomes a real farm now that there are chickens.  In April I pick up a new boarder/training horse and things start going badly, a precursor for the rest of the year.  I tear my calf muscle in May which causes App’s last eventing show  (though I didn't know it at the time) to be done with someone else but he still placed first cause he is awesome.

I get bronchitis and still help sell the horse I had in training for RB3 because breathing is just a minor detail.  In June I have my first fall in Michigan but I don't call it a REAL fall and I am done with the training horse after he re-tore ligaments in my knee which forces me to fire my first customer, which almost severs my friendship with RB4.  I enjoyed my last ride before I went in for surgery and had to wait until August to finally get back in the saddle.  In September I started teaching the donkey to drive which quickly progressed to teaching her to drag poles.  Cause I wanted my ass to pull my ass around in a cart!!

2013 started well with TWH working with COWS and he didn't freak out!  I finally had the dentist out for the first time since late 2010 (cause I am a bad horse mom) but there wasn't any serious problems because of the delay.  March gave me my second jumping session since surgery and in April I shared that I had to rehome the donkey (who is still doing very well!) which was/is sad but then I went to ROLEX and had a great time!!

In May TWH and I had our first show of the year and it was a success as was our second show in June.  TWh and I went to our first ever clinic in July and we also finished the HUGE project of fencing in our property as pasture.   September started off amazingly with a great show and TWH and I started to go Novice level.  That success was immediately tempered with the realization that TWH was hurt and that App was also lame.  2 broken horses in a 2 horse home is not a good balance.  We went to the equine hospital for ultrasounds and that realization was enough for me to realize TWH wouldn't make it through the higher levels.  They say everything happens for a reason, if TWH hadn't been hurt and App hadn't been going blind, I wouldn't have considered Mia.  

Thankfully come October things started going better.  I started Mia from the ground back up and in November started cantering.  December had the Blogger gift exchange hosted by Tracy and I got TWH’s most favorite treat in the mail, he really appreciated it!  

2014 though, 2014 was a whirlwind of activity.  As Mia jumped for the first time, I realized I may have a superstar on my hands and I finally had sound horses again.  In February I had my first bareback ride on Mia which was nerve wracking and finally got the courage to canter outside of an arena (big girl panties!).  It shouldn't have been that hard but I really think I was scarred from the 2nd training horse more than I realized.  Thankfully all better now.

Mia had her first ever cross country schooling and I sprained my finger (which still hasn’t recovered almost a year later) and then went to her first ever clinic where we met our current trainer M.  TWH’s season opener show was in the Novice division and we started rocking the season.  The second show in June went just as well and we were moving up in points.  

Mia’s first ever judged trail ride was in July and I learned she does NOT like bridges but her first real show was in August and she was awesome with a 2^nd place in both classes.  TWH dealt with my stupidity in dressage and again placed at the Novice level in spite of it and ended the season sound.  September had Mia’s eventing debut at the Beginner Novice level and October had results that were good for her experience level and we learned a LOT.  TWH got a new leaseee K and showed in the 18" division.

November had me ordering my first ever new vehicle and it is S-E-X-Y.  We also found out TWH and I won reserve champion in our division for year end awards.  YAY!!  I finally participated in No Stirrup November and was pleased with the results, going to have to keep doing that and not slack off.  SO and I ended 2014 huge and I went on the best vacation ever.  

2015 has been good so far.  I started taking lessons from an actual dressage instructor and am seeing really good changes and Mia and I actually jumped up to 3’9”.  How you ask?  Amazingly enough, if you refuse to look at the jump AT ALL, you can’t see  how big they are!  Who knew, right?  K is riding TWH several times a week and he is looking and acting great. 

Our plans for 2015 so far is to go to a clinic in April and our first show is the first and second weekend of May.  Thanks for joining me on this journey, it has been fun!  I hope that you decide to stick with me even though I don't post a lot of pictures and I don't post a whole lot.  Here is to the next 300 posts!!

New Year, New Goals, New Updates

What a vacation.  SO and I went to Vegas for Christmas and had a wonderful time.  We went to the Grand Canyon, Death Valley and had a private meet and greet with Penn and Teller.  I caught some ebolswinedeath flucough thanks to some guy on the way down to Vegas and spent the last 2 days in Vegas in misery but refused to slow down or go to a doc because, come on, VEGAS!  I don't have time to be sick in Vegas!  It has been over a week and a half since this nagging, painful cough showed up and it is JUST NOW going away.  I finally stopped chugging Robatussin on Sunday and I can breathe now at least.

When I got back from vacation last Tuesday, I had a lesson scheduled for Friday.  It was to be the last one before M went to  Ocala for the winter (Jealous!!!!!!) so my lessons are to be put on hold for a few months.  I rested on Wednesday because, come on, my body gave me no other option.  I finally rode Thursday night and just could not do it.  Anytime I picked up a trot, and even at a walk, and took in a semi-deep breath I would double over coughing terribly. It was horrible and I cut our ride down to about 15 mins at mostly a walk.  I called M and told her the news and offered to have her give Mia a training ride instead of my lesson.  She was actually happy to cancel because things were getting crazy in her preparation to go to Ocala and not giving a lesson would free up her time considerably.  As such, I had no last lesson :(

Saturday I rode around the block with K and it confirmed that I made the right choice in cancelling the lesson.  By Sunday I could take normal breaths without coughing my lungs up.  Progress!  I rode last night and it was the last ride until at least Sunday as my basic requirement for riding isn't being met.  That requirement?  It needs to be at least 10 degrees outside.  The HIGH for the next 2 days?  A whopping 9 degrees.  Then 14 degrees.  Yeah, basic requirements are not being met.  Sunday is looking promising though, it should get all the way up to 21!  *le sigh* winter problems.  The horses are all snug in blankets and are parked in front of hay nets in the arena, they seem warm enough anyway.

Riding Mia is becoming more and more interesting since I started these lessons.  I am working really hard at taking the information I learned from my three lessons and applying them to my riding instead of falling back into old habits.  Things I have learned?
1.  Stop blocking with my right hand.
2.  Stop staying behind the motion in the trot
3.  Stretch myself down and also up as we prep and then go through a turn
4.  Stop pulling/riding backwards
5.  Allow Mia to stretch down and forward in all gaits as long as she stays consistent and soft
6.  Stop blocking with my right (everything)
7.  Stop pulling with my right hand
8.  Longer stirrups are a must
9.  Work on the trot and eventually the canter will come
10. Stop blocking with my right (everything)!!!
My right everything is too blocked.  Apparently I pull backwards with my right hand, block with my right arm, am too stiff in my right hip/leg and even look too much to the right.  Damn being a strong right kind of person.  My last 2 rides have been really good though, despite face hurting cold, in that Mia is starting to almost immediately stretch forward and down into the contact.  When, of course, I don't grab her and pull backwards.  Her walk has already improved, typically she has to warm up before she relaxes her walk and now she has a nice swinging walk almost immediately.  Yay!  At this rate, I would expect her to start giving it to me right away if I keep this up because apparently it was me and not her.  Go figure lol

We have plenty of homework to work on while M enjoys the weather of FL, she is supposed to come back up in a month or so to give a couple of lessons so she said she would let me know and I could trailer to her place.  So that is good.  Hopefully she will see changes by the next visit.

My goals for this year?  Fix my problems with my right side so I can ride better.  Get Mia finally consistent in the bridle once and for all.  Get Mia over lots of stadium jumps, preferably over some small courses either at home, away or both.  Get Mia ready to go *gasp* Novice level, I don't think she needs to stay at Beginner Novice this year since she drags me to the XC jumps and it is the stadium jumps she has issues with.  I am going to refer to M (or her daughter B who is also a very accomplished eventer) but she seemed to agree when I talked to her about it. I want K to successfully show TWH in the starter level and I will give her lessons to help get her there.  Ideally, I want App to get back into full time work which shouldn't be too hard since I now have a full time rider for TWH.  Will I achieve my goals?  I think so, I hope so.  Here is to 2015, let's make it better than 2013 lol!  Maybe even better than 2014!!

No Stirrup November

True, I may not be posting much (or riding much thanks to the weather and my schedule) but I am doing No Stirrup November.  I even rode Mia for the second time bareback, my first time actually doing something other than walking around.  She was pretty good, definitely not as easy to ride as TWH or App bareback though as she is inconsistent and wiggly but she is MUCH more comfortable with her tiny bounce trot hehe.  It is SO much easier to sit her trot than it is either of the boys trot, that makes it very easy to ride bareback in the trot :)

I rode a quick w/t/c bareback and it is very obvious that I needed No Stirrup November, my balance is not where it is supposed to be.  While I didn't try to fall off, really fall off anyway, I wasn't as secure in my seat as I should be.  I stick like glue still but the balance is just not as great.  The trot is good and even the canter is pretty good but the canter to trot transition is a little unbalanced and sharp turns leave me off-center.  I think I am just not adequately preparing and maybe muscle memory is rusty.  Nothing to really report though, Mia was behaving quite well and letting me work on myself without being too much of a sassy redhead.

Last weekend I rode Mia out on the road and ponied the App, the goal was to just trot forward and try to get her to stop shying at things while we are out and we were mildly successful.  K came with us on TWH and she laughed when Mia body bumped App because she shied away from a big stick on the side of the road.  SMH.  The horse lives in a pasture that is 1/2 wooded in an old growth forest.  Of course she would shy from a stick. At the last third of the ride, K and TWH cantered on ahead with Mia, App and I trotting behind.  Mia picked up a slow canter and so I allowed it and we were going along quite well for about 10 strides.  Then App decided it was time to take off and Mia didn't listen to my seat to stop so I could deal with him.  So here I am riding a horse who isn't stopping trying to hold onto another horse that is trying like hell to break free and gallop off because he is being an asshole.  It took almost an eighth of a mile to stop the two horses and I went off on App.  The asshole knows better and if it hadn't been for the fact that I had been holding the rope in both hands with Mia's reins, he would have successfully gotten free.  Grrr!!!!  I was ponying him in a rope halter (as it is more effective than a nylon halter) but now and thinking I need to have a damn chain over his nose if we go out again.  Stupid horse.  At least I felt better that he was tired when he got back from all of the trotting we did, he deserved to be tired.  Stupid horse.

Last night I rode Mia again while K rode TWH and it certainly went better than my last rides.  K was using the bareback pad so I rode in the (cold, COLD!) saddle and we had a pretty good dressage ride (sans stirrups).  I worked on sitting Mia on her butt so we could do some small circles and changes of direction.  Mia is doing much better of not dropping her left shoulder when we do a figure 8 and her transitions are nice and crisp.  Her right lead canter is still her harder one, she is often dropping her inside shoulder, giraffing her neck or going as fast as she can but we were successfully able to get a full circle of a good canter on 2 different occasions.  Yay!  Hopefully at the beginning of December I will take a lesson and get someone else's opinion and help me develop a road map of where to go from here.  Let No Stirrup November continue!

Shoulders up, go straight

K is having a really good time with TWH, I am really happy that the lease situation seems to be working out so well with her.  It gives TWH a job and someone to love on him daily which is exactly what he wants.  So happy!  She has even ridden him bareback and loves my bareback pad.  She agreed he feels like a big ol couch!  Fluffy and comfy.

I have been working Mia on some basic dressage again, I am really trying to get her to keep her shoulders where I put them and keep her off of my legs.  When doing figure 8's, or even when making circles, she has a hard time going from the right to the left without dropping her shoulder and leaning to the inside.  That is something to work on so it has been hour homework for the past 2 rides.  She is getting there, during our last ride she was finally able to  make 2 full figure 8's without dropping her shoulder.  Yay!

I also rode Mia on a 3 hour trail ride with RB3, someone I haven't been hanging out with for a while.  It was a pretty good ride and visit, maybe we can start riding together occasionally again, we will see.  Mia was really good for the trail ride but it was funny how much RB3 laughed at us as Mia showed her green-ness.  Spooking at birds, spooking at rocks, spooking at sticks, the absolute inability to go in a straight line.  The sudden, veer that goes directly into the horse RB3 is riding because Mia shied away from something. Ah, green horses.  She even did really well at the bridges, we went over 2 of bridges twice and while she was very hesitant I was able to get her to go up to them without having someone else go first.  Yay!  She even held it together as we went under the interstate overpass even though someone else had to go first lol.

This upcoming week will involve no riding as I will be out of town on business, I am going to really need some horse time by the time I get back!

Last show of the year!

Our last show of the year was this past weekend and man was this past weekend busy.  It was literally nonstop action from Friday at 6p until Sunday at 730p.  Friday night I had to go to a Halloween party and we didn't get home until 1130p.   Had to get up at 8a to get stuff packed up and ready for the show as K and I were hauling 1.5 hours away to school at the show grounds and we wouldn't have time to get ready by the time we returned.  Thanks to some frantic laundry being washed this past week, everything was clean and ready to go!

At noon we hauled out and went xc schooling.  Mia was super looky at everything and kept randomly stopping but jumped the xc jumps with ease.  The map was super confusing and it took a good 20 minutes before we figured out the start box was not the normal start box but instead a pile of hay bales.  Uhh, ok!  The first 4 jumps were stadium fences and Mia was convinced they were not okay.  I had to seriously kick her just to get her to walk up to them before she would even consider jumping them.  Oh mare!  After the first 4 jumps we went to xc fences which she was SO much better for, she didn't even look at xc fences but stadium fences she gives eyeballs to?  Weird mare.  Mia even was great for the water, no balking or much hesitation at all, go Mia!  She handled the baby ditch very well, the road crossing required a canter/trot/walk/stop/kick to get her to go over (smh) and a green flowerbox she literally climbed over from a standstill as she wasn't sure if she really wanted to jump it.  She jumped the rock pile without concern as well as the log to the down bank, yay!  The last 3 jumps were stadium jumps, however, and by golly they had high suspicion value and she knocked one of the poles over as she tried hard to not go over the fences.  Why are you so silly mare??  XC jumps should be spooky, not stadium jumps!

TWH was awesome and K had an absolute blast schooling him, we got back home at 5p and gave the horses a quick bath (Actually warm enough for it!!!!!!) before throwing them in a sleezy and blanket and kicking them out for the night.  4a was early but up I hopped and started Sunday in the dark.  The horses may have tried hard but they were still clean so no 2nd baths were required.  We hauled out at 615a and got to the show a little later than I hoped.  I got Mia all tacked up and over to the dressage ring in plenty of time but she was super looky.  Duper looky.  And stiff.  And inattentive.  And head tossy.  Very green horse like.  I worked at suppling her the best I could in the crowd I had around me and after some figure 8's she at least was moving fairly decently.

I was the second to go so in we went.  Our test started well, she was forward and straight (and earned a 7!) and it went downhill from there.  Mia was looky, tense, didn't want contact and was pulling on the bridle.  Ah mare.

She considered not giving me the first canter transition but a good poke with the spur got her into it.  She wasn't super bent and was very much on the forehand but it was adequate.  Our free walk was decent and the rest of the test was okay.  Nothing special, but not too bad.  

This got a 5 for a free walk.  She was consistent, I thought it deserved higher!

The judge disagreed and hated it.  She commented that my hands were way too low for dressage (trying to fight a mare here lady!) and I got almost exclusive 5's.  Blech, it put is in 12th place.

We rushed back and got TWH ready for K, she was SUPER tense.  It was her first show outside, first show with jumps, first show being hauled out, first on lots of things and she was freezing up.  I coached her through and she finally was relaxing enough to get decent transitions.  She went into the ring, however, and just froze up.  Poor girl was so nervous she wasn't giving consistent queues.  TWH cantered a few times in her trot circle and up the center line to a halt.  They liked what they saw, however, and didn't put her last at least.

We rushed back to the trailer to get Mia ready for XC and she seemed a little more calm (finally, geez!).  I was SO glad we had jumped the course the day before, she was very behind my leg for the 3 stadium jumps and she put an extra stride in jumps 3 to 4 as she couldn't go straight but we made it over.

She jumped the XC jumps REALLY well, not backing off of any of them.  She had a momentary pause at the water but cantered in, yay mare!

Let's NOT "look" at the water, let's just go in

The rest of the XC jumps went perfectly.  She approached them all very well, she jumped them all very well and acted all grown up.   Getting TO the jumps was another matter, at one point I yelled at her "Just Go Straight Drunk Mare!!!".  She came to a walk going through one field as she had to go through a gate and she just Could Not Do It.  She shied pretty hard at a patch of yellowed grass where a jump used to live.  She was changing direction in her canter stride at almost every stride.  Some points in the ride had me looking like a bad barrel racer.  Ugh, green horses!

Just Can't Even.  I am sure I looked like this.

We finally went down the bank and went (kicked/trotted) over to the road to the last 3 stadium jumps.  They were on a bending line and she made it to the first one but I don't think I set her up nice enough for the 2nd one as she knocked the rail down.  Ugh!!  I just can't go double clear on you, can I mare?  The last fence was clear and we walked back to the trailer.

Yay water!

We got TWH ready for XC and, no surprise, he absolutely rocked the course.  K was a bundle of nerves but TWH didn't care and went over everything without even a glance.  He is such a good horse.

We finished up the day all ribbons, Mia got 8th out of 17 and TWH got 5th of 12.  Better than half the field for each of us, I would consider that a success!  Mia's homework is to get her OUT and get her cantering forward in as straight as a line as possible.  This girl needs a lot more exposure.

Riding success!

So who rode horses over the weekend?  Who made sure ALL horses were ridden over the weekend?  That would be me!  After the lapses I have been having, getting a leasee who is required to ride with me present for the first 30 days has rebooted my riding schedule and I have successfully ridden every day since Wednesday.  Yay me!  It is good timing too, as Mia's show is this upcoming weekend and I am not even close to stressing about it.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were dressage rides, Mia is doing SO much better than even at our last show.  As I was talking to RB4 I said I think that Mia plateaued around early summer where she "got it" but decided she didn't really want to do the work so she wasn't.  That was the timeframe that I finally broke down and put the draw reins on her to force her to submit, accept contact and cooperate better.  Once we got over that hump, things have been getting steadily better and I haven't used draw reins in months!  Mia is MUCH more consistent in the contact, especially at the trot and canter, she is MUCH more balanced in the canter and she isn't regularly fighting me.  Yay!

Saturday K and I went for K's first ride outside, we first rode around the pasture and then around the short loop.  TWH was, of course, awesome and Mia is doing better.  She is still very looky and spooked pretty hard at an empty trailer that rattled by us but I think TWH's calmness helped her and she quieted down quickly.  We rode most of the loop at a trot and I even cantered Mia a little and she was awesome.  She didn't try to run off, she kept the speed I asked and did well in her transitions.  My girl is growing up!  K was very impressed with TWH and loved that she still had as much control in the hackamore than she did with a bit, she had never ridden with a hackamore and was slightly nervous.  She said she is really falling for TWH, she talks about him nonstop apparently.  I am glad she is working out so well, TWH  really isn't ready for retirement and I think he will do well with her.

Before K left on Saturday K said she wanted to jump on Sunday, no problem.  Except I have 1 jumping saddle and am NOT ready to jump Mia bareback so we can't jump together.  I got up early and had RB4 come over and I jumped Mia.  We started out small and Mia is rocking jumps.  She is picking up her canter (with correct leads) effortlessly now and is starting to listen to my cues as we approach jumps.  In no time we bumped the jump up to a 2'6" oxer and Mia was doing good.  At one point Mia came at it and she wouldn't make the distance at a 3 stride.  I applied leg and Mia responded, she opened her stride and got it in 2.  That was amazing, it was the very first time she has responded to my request to change her striding before a jump!!

We bumped the oxer up to 3 foot, the second time she has ever gone that high under saddle.  The first time she jumped at that height had mixed success, she had a hard time not knocking poles down.  This time she brought the fence down a single time when we messed up the striding and couldn't get out of it but there was no refusal (YAY!) and once RB4 put it back up Mia went over it like it was a 2'6" jump.  It is amazing how small she makes the jumps feel, love!

Later in the day K came out to jump TWH so I hopped on my App to give him a workout.  I grabbed the dressage whip but apparently it wasn't needed.  App was very good and did really nice shoulders in/haunches in, 10m circles, serpentines and balanced canters without fighting.  It was so cool to ride him and not fight with him, I miss that.  App has so many talents that hasn't been used in a long while, if I keep this up maybe I can get him worked regularly again.  I even put him over the 18" crossrail and while he was way overjumping it, he still jumped and cleared it and seemed to enjoy it.

K jumped TWH and fell in love all over again.  She repeatedly missed her stride but the biggest jump was a little 2'3" vertical and TWH had absolutely no problem figuring out how to get over it no mater where he was placed.  He is SUCH a good horse :)  I will have her jump probably once more before the Saturday and on Saturday both K and I are going cross country schooling in preparation for our show on Sunday.

Such a long update, I haven't had this much to talk about and also time to write about it in a long time!  I am hoping for pics on Saturday, stay tuned.  Speaking of updates, have you seen achieve1dream's 5 year anniversary contest?  It is the 5 year anniversary of her getting Chrome and she is doing a giveaway.  Hoping to win the Eventing license plate!!  http://rdxhorses.blogspot.com/2014/10/five-year-anniversary-first-ever.html

Getting ready, more quick updates

So preparations for Mia's next show are not going as well as I would like, I have an alarmingly laid back attitude towards it.  Yikes?!?!  The show is a week and a half away and last night I just did some basic fitness and I rode her once 5 days prior in dressage?  I am putting my big girl cap on though and am planning on riding every day until the show.  SO is out of town this weekend which makes it much easier as well as I don't have him trying to lure me away with fun or work things to do.

Mia's dressage ride went pretty well, she is SO much more consistent in the bridle now!  We are working on trying to get true bend in the trot and it is much better.  I would really like to take a lesson before the show but I don't think it will happen, oh well.  Tonight I will ride her in dressage again and really buckle down to get things accomplished.

I had a really, really fun trip last weekend where I went to the Ohio Quarter Horse Congress and also visited all of my friends I left behind when I moved.  I really, really miss my network of people and I had the warm fuzzies when I thought about the sheer number of individual people that wanted me to visit them and made time out of their day for me to do so.  Awwww :)  I even went to a hunter pace, a friend brought a TB/Arab cross for me to ride.  Despite never having seen the horse before, his resfusal to stand still for mounting and his pulling dirty stops for the first 20 mins of the ride, I actually had a really, REALLY good time.  After he determined I was not going to just fall off and I WAS going to force him over the jumps, the gelding jumped everything and we had a fabulous ride.  It was a lot closer to a cross country ride versus a trail ride and it was awesome.  LOVED IT!!  It put me in such a good mood, added to the fact I was actually on vacation, I was floating on cloud 9 for the whole trip.

The last piece of news I have is a biggie, I may have found a leasee for TWH!  I have really been at an impasse with him as I really don't want to sell him but as I show Mia next year, I really don't have a use for him.  He isn't quiet enough for lessons as he takes his confidence from his riders.  He isn't talented enough to move up through eventing due to his gaitedness.  I have been actively trying to find a leasee for him for a few months (remember, I even asked my readers!) and haven't had any real interest.  It is odd because where I used to live, finding someone to lease was super easy!  Anyway, I had placed as on Facebook, DreamHorse and Craigslist and I got a random email from Craigslist from a well spoken gal inquiring about TWH.  We emailed back and forth, had a quick phone call, she came out and fell in love with TWH.  I mean, everyone always does, but it was good she did too haha.

I told her I am looking for a long term lease and that she is able to show him if that what she wants to do.  I showed her TWH's basic movements and we went over a 2'6" jump before I had her ride.  It took her a few tries to get the trot and then a few more tries to get the canter but then was able to get his gaits without an issue. She then went over an 18" crossrail and said she loved his jump, he rocks back onto his haunches and is super round.  He doesn't run at the jump or run away afterwards and she was very happy.  So I sent her the lease agreement and she starts tonight actually!  She was a good rider with really quiet hands and seemed to know her way around.  I am requiring her to ride when I am there for the first 30 days so that we can work out any questions and she can get to know TWH before being "on her own".  She is also interested in coming to my show on the 26th with TWH and showing the greenie division, how cool!  Her name is K and I am excited to see how she works out :)

Bit of a lull so some quick updates

Things went from crazy busy before the Mia's show to insane.  I had to travel out of town for a wedding, we had to move half of our wood for the winter, change insurance companies thanks to yet another huge increase (now THAT will suck the life out of you) and general life getting in the way.  My intention was to show TWH at the last show of the season on Oct 4/5.  I was kind of excited about it too, it was at the same venue as the first show of the year and it was the last show we could earn points at and is possibly the last time I will be showing TWH in eventing (unless some magic pocketbook opens up and dumps some cash on me, I also take sponsors lol!).  Best laid plans, however, did not pull through.  I simply don't have the funds to go and even if I did, I haven't been riding him enough.  With 2 weeks before the show and I haven't ridden him more than a few times since Mia's show, it just wouldn't really be fair.  *insert sad face*

It is pretty disappointing but I am in a lull anyway so it is par for the course.  Interestingly enough, it seems that a lot of my blogger friends are experiencing the same so I don't feel *quite* as bad.  Hopefully I can snap the heck out of it.  Add to it that my blog has dropped in page hits to half of their paltry number, it is a little disappointing.  I was super excited to see I now have 25 followers (HEY ALL!!!) but I didn't even get 20 hits on my last post about Mia's show.  I guess I didn't realize how awesome it was to know that people actually read my crappy writing and how much it helped spur me forward.  Alas, it will get better soon, I have to ride before deathwinter 2014 comes along and I can't ride becase it won't get above 10 degrees.  I blog just to track my progress, not for anyone else (that's just a bonus), so I shouldn't care if anyone reads it.

I did ride Mia last, I hadn't ridden her in about a week and surprisingly enough she did not throw a marefit about it and rode quite nicely!  She has a very big tendency to be very consistent with consistent work but time off requires a good hard reminder that she should listen, this time I didn't get that attitude!  A bit heavy in the bridle, a little lax in her trot/canter transitions but overall it was quite nice.  I just bebopped around to get some saddle time in, I wasn't working on anything hard but was quite impressed with the mare's willingness.  I hope it sticks around!  We finished the ride with some basics, moving the quarters, sidepassing and backing.  She was quite happy to ignore my leg when asking to move her haunches but a quick tap with the whip reminded her that ignoring isn't the best option.  We finished on a good note and she got some carrots to help soothe her ego.

The App is doing really well, after he had his hocks injected (April? May? I can't keep track) he started moving really well.  Giving him an IV injection of polyglycan once a month and giving him Smartsox plus MSM daily has made him a very sound and happy old man!  He has lost a bit of weight as summer goes away, just like he has for the past 5 years, so he is now getting an alfalfa cube mush twice a day plus he is being left in overnight so he can be parked in front of a hay bag.  He is gaining what he lost pretty quickly, thankfully, and I am glad I noticed it at the beginning of Sept instead of now because the cooler it is, the harder it is to get the weight on.  Once it is on, however, we have to practically chisel it off, go figure!

I am seriously looking for people who would want to lease TWH next year to event with.  If you are in the MI region, aren't afraid of a crazy internet blogger and want a horse that will event straight out of the box, send me your email and, if you are serious, I may come out of hiding and meet someone!

TWH kicks butt

Pissed.  I was so pissed at myself for ruining the dressage ride, why, why, why!?!  TWH absolutely cannot have a rider check out, you have to be there for him and he will be there for you and I failed him.  I mumbled and grumbled until it was time to get ready for stadium, I think RB4 wanted to smack me lol.  Maybe I could still pull a decent placing, I mean I heard a lot of people were having issues and several had been eliminated.  Maybe they had been ahead of me?  

Looking like a pro going XC!

The announcer said it was time to walk the Novice course and that jackets were also waived.  Wahoo!  I HATE wearing the jacket when it is hot and it was getting steamy!  I started riding over when someone reminded me that even with jackets waived, you have to wear a white shirt.  Damn it!  There was no way I was wearing my skin tight dressage shirt, back to the trailer I went and put the damn coat on.  No worries, I just needed to sweat off a few more pounds anyway.  

Good pic to show the height we were jumping.  BIG!

The course walk was uneventful, nothing was particularly difficult except jump 4, it was literally jumping up a decent hill on a max height/width oxer.  Note to self, LOTS of leg at jump four!!  5 was a bending 4 stride and nothing else was of a concern so we settled in for our wait.  5 riders out I warmed up and had to wake TWH up as he was snoozing.  The first jump he knocked over before I gave him a good boot and made him pick up speed at which point he started jumping nicely.

We went into the ring without knowing the optimum time so that added pressure was gone, if I don't know what I have to hit, I don't have to worry about timing ourselves.  Just gotta go fast!  

Look, no grabbing poor TWH's face!

Jump one rode very well in fact!  A recently discovered "trick" I have learned is to not look at the pole at all.  Apparently I can't actually function like a normal person and will micromanage if I think the striding is even a little off.  This makes me jump ahead or behind, all while grabbing onto TWH's face and looking like a fool who needs to go back to crossrails.  By not looking at the fence at all, AT ALL, TWH is finding his spot and and is jumping much, much better.  Rider fault, who would have thought.  Ha!  Jump 2 and 3 were unremarkable though I really put on the afterburners up to fence 4.

Fence 4.  On a hill, max height, max width.  

TWH made fence 4 seem super easy, no reason I should have even cared!  Aside from my stirrup being "home" instead of at the ball of my foot, it made for an awesome picture.  Fence 5, 6 and 7 were easy

Ugh, equitation fail

Fence 8a rode nicely but apparently I blanked out at 8b (or something) b/c TWH met it wrong and we had a quite awkward jump that had me out of the saddle but I stayed on and shouted at him to GO as we sailed over nine to the finish.  I was so happy with TWH, not only was he double clear, he also jumped one of the best stadium rides ever.  YAY!!  My little gaited man is all grown up into an eventing horse.  I watched the rest of the class and rail after rail was falling, sitting there waiting I started to get my hopes up.  Maybe?

They finally called the riders back into the ring and they CALLED OUR NUMBER!  I was so excited, out of a class of 17 I was in the ribbons!  I didn't have to wait long before I was called, despite a horrible dressage score TWH jumped double clear in both XC and stadium and we took home 6th place ribbon.  While obviously I would have liked to have gotten higher, the fact that I went from 13th to 6th on jumping alone shows how much of a awesome horse TWH is.  And now that we seem to have stadium figured out, we actually look like we know what we are doing which is even better!  HA!

TWH got lots of treats and attention before being kicked out in a pasture for a week for his R&R.  Mia's first eventing show is Sept 7th and possibly Sept 21st, let's see what we can get done!

No love from dressage judges

The time finally came, time for our Horse Trial!  Saturday was a combination of relaxing and hectic, while I wasn't super duper busy, my time was fully occupied and I wasn't able to do what I really wanted which was walk the cross country course.  As we went out to dinner with a group of people, my stomach started doing twists.  What if they had changed the cross country course from the prior weekend?   I had walked the course last weekend and knew it but surely they did, they changed the course from last weekend and I won't know where my fences are!  I stressed about it all night and debated about calling RB4 to see if she would come over an hour earlier so we could get there in time for me to walk the course but SO kept telling me it would be fine. Even if they HAD moved the course, I knew the property inside and out so stop stressing!

Sunday morning didn't go much better, I was super stressed and aiming to be there an hour before my ride time wasn't working out like I wanted.  TWH needs so little warmup I had figured I would reduce my time at the show.  I got TWH bathed and wrapped as RB4 showed up, I shared my stress and she scolded me for not calling her and having her come over earlier.  We got to the show and the show secretary made my day by saying the course was identical to the prior weekend.  PHEW!!!!!!!!!!

Alas I didn't have as much time as I wanted, however, the dressage rings were running a little ahead and I was behind.  Never again will I only leave an hour of time between arriving and showing!  I decided not to braid and instead got tacked up and hustled to the warm up.  TWH was doing pretty well overall, he was giving me pretty consistent transitions (yay!) and was fairly relaxed despite my uptight riding.  The more I tried to relax with breathing, the worse I was getting.  Great, BAD RIDER!!!!  Be all stressed when you have a horse that needs a calm, confident rider, this can't possibly go wrong?  We finally up next and the surprisingly test started out pretty good!  He was a bit more behind my leg than we had been in warmup but he was consistent.  Our free walk wasn't as good as we had been practicing but was decent.  Our first canter circle, however, something happened.  I still don't know what happened as the video doesn't show it but TWH spooked at something.  His head went WAY up and his back end went WAY down and he almost took off before getting back together and a stride later he was pretty composed.  RB4 says it was over in almost a blink of an eye, the entire episode had the time span of 2 canter strides.

The down side?  The test went downhill from there.  TWH was quite upset over whatever it was and didn't give me a good canter/trot transition.  He was tight and nervous over the diagonal and hesitant to pick up the opposite canter lead, it took almost 3 trot strides before he picked it up!  That isn't a lot for a lot of people, but it is a lot for TWH as he always picks it right up.  Immediately.  Our last canter/trot transition wasn't good either, he gaited for 2-3 steps before trotting up the centerline.  Damn.

We walked back to the trailer, I had only 60 minutes before cross country.  We sat him in front of the hay bag while I looked at the video and kicked myself ruining the ride for him.  Stupid stressed rider didn't help him in the test.  Bad, bad rider.  We got him ready for cross country and I was finally not stressed, dressage is our hardest part of eventing!!  We warmed up and he did great, before we knew it we were on course.  Fence 1, 2 and 3 were easy fences (even though 3 was awfully big haha!).  4 required a trip up a BIG ass hill to a set of barrels at the top and you can't really see the landing side.  It had given a ton of refusals at the previous show held there and apparently quite a few refusals at this show.  TWH sucked behind my leg but a good strong leg urged him forward and over we went :)  We went DOWN the BIG ass hill to immediately go up another BIG ASS hill and went to 5.  6 went better than expected, it was a ditch and TWH didn't come to a COMPLETE stop (although it was damn close lol) and the 3 stride after the ditch rode well.  Damn ditches.  7, 8a and b, 9 and 10 were all easy but by this time we were getting tired.  Should have gotten 2 point up to 6 mins, bad rider!  11 was a the bottom of a big hill and then a U turn to go up a small hill to bop up a bank.  12 was into water and 13 was a jump out of water, easy peasy.  14 was funny b/c TWH approached it like he was drunk, he was locked onto the beginner novice fence and I had to keep putting and repointing him to the novice jump!  Finally 15 came and went and we were double clear in cross country.  Yahoo!

We wandered back to the trailer and settled in for a 2.5 hour wait for stadium, time to recharge and get the dressage score!  Walking up to the scoring trailer I shook my head.  Damn it, we were 13th out of 17 with a dressage score of 44.  44!  That is our worst score yet!  Damn it, my bad riding done screwed us up and this judge did NOT seem to like TWH.  The best I could hope for is people to have issues with jumping.

Getting ready

These last 2 weeks have been super, duper busy.  Both weekend days since Mia's show have been stuffed full of stuff that doesn't involve riding my own horse and week nights have not been much better.  The only option? Getting up and riding at 615a.  Very unfun to ride your horse AS the sun is coming up, and riding alone, since it is the only option for one to actually be able to ride.  But as a result TWH has been ridden 5 days a week since Mia's show and I think we are ready for our show on Sunday!

Our first few rides back worked only on transitions.  The month (plus?) that TWH didn't have me riding him as I got Mia ready did no favors with his non-gaited-ness.  His trot was fine but his walk/trot transition was sluggish and had several sluggish steps before he picked up the trot.  His canter was fine but his canter/trot transition had several pacing steps in there.  His trot/walk transition was loose and sloppy, yeah we had a lot to fine tune.  Thankfully a few rides tightened his responses right back up and he is doing quite well.  He still isn't as snappy into the trot from a relaxed walk as I would like, I have to really get his attention before I can get a good, clean trot transition, but it should be more than sufficient.  His canter/trot transition is back to where it needs to be as well has his trot/walk transition.  Something that seems to have helped is to significantly increase the tempo, getting more speed is working for him so that is what I am going to ask for.  Yay us!  Tonight I am riding dressage again and am going to actually attempt the test, something I haven't yet done as I have been working on the individual pieces instead.

Jumping is going very well!  We had a couple of small jump schools outside where I worked more on me than him.  I really, really want to stop jumping ahead/being left behind and I really, really want to stop the practice of grabbing the reins over the fence.  I NEED to fix myself and if H isn't doing it in my lessons, well damn it I am going to figure it out somehow.  And I need pictures to prove it, but OMG I think I may have fixed it???  When cantering up to a jump, one should look at the jump until you can't see it between the ears and then look at your next fence.  That is all fine and dandy except my brain refuses to do that.  I have a tendency to look at the jump AT. ALL. TIMES.  Because, you know, it might disappear.  I tried not looking at the jump at all, whatsoever, and guess what happened?  I started jumping better.  Doh.

I jumped inside this week thanks to the 5+ inches of rain we got, everything is nice and saturated which makes for iffy footing when you are riding in a pasture.  On the plus side, however, some improvements to my arena worked and my arena had so minimal flooding that I would consider it a non-issue.  YAY!!!!!!!!!  On Tuesday I set up 2 jumps and threw a tarp over each so they appeared to be solid jumps and started off at 2'3", TWH didn't care.  2'6", TWH didn't care.  2'9", TWH didn't care.  Finally at 3' TWH sank behind my leg as we came up to the jump but I gave a good kick and TWH touched it.  Good Boy!  It was very apparent during that schooling that NOT looking at the jump whatsoever is really working for me, even at the 3' jump it felt like TWH was giving me an extended canter stride instead of trying like hell to get over.  This AM I jumped again, this time with an oxer and a vertical.  The vertical started at 2'3" before jumping straight up to 3' (jumping the 2'6" oxer in between) and while TWH knocked the pole down the first time over 3', he then cleared each of the subsequent 4 times.  He feels SO much better with my not looking at the jump, apparently I have been the problem all along!  I am really, really looking forward to pictures of our stadium course.  If not looking at the jump will fix the problems at home, can we actually pull in a stadium round that looks decent?!?!?!

We are now up to par on conditioning, I feel confident we can do our course.  We are up to 5 minutes of cantering/two point and I will be adding the 6th minute tomorrow morning.  I have been doing conditioning on our (dirt) road this week thanks to the rain and it is actually working out quite well for us.  It doesn't have the hills that I want to have like my pasture does but it does have a decent surface to go on with definite markers so I can tell how far I have gone.  One more minute and we are show ready!  I don't know if I will have pictures of our show on Sunday as SO isn't planning on coming and RB4 hates to take pictures but hopefully we will get some from the official photographer if not.  Updates to come after our show!

My horses are awesome

Today I had a mini heart attack.  This morning started out normal, I got up, wasted some time on the internet, read a couple of blogs and got ready to start the day.  I brought the horses in, Sinatra was at one gate, App and Mia were at the other so I opened both gates and brought the horses in to give them grain.

Not exact replica of pasture, nor to size, but close enough for the story

When they were done, I kicked them outside and went in the house at 8a like I always do.  I went to work and worked until 1p when I stopped for lunch.  I went to the kitchen sink and washed my hands, as I did I looked for the horses and noticed something odd.  The left gate was open.  Wide open.  Oh crap!

As I ran outside I realized I had opened both gates that morning but I only shut the right gate as I turned the horses out through the right gate.  CRAP!  As I went outside, praying the horses hadn't gone too far and that I could hopefully find them within the hour I had for lunch, I saw the App and company standing by the horse trailer munching on some longer grass I hadn't mowed over the weekend.  PHEW!

I went to the barn and grabbed a hay bag for encouragement but no one walked over to me.  I set the bag down and walked over to the horses and to my delight, no one walked away or scattered, they were quite content to just snack on grass and were completely oblivious to my blunder.  I grabbed Mia by her fly mask and walked her back to the pasture before grabbing the boys and walking them back by their fly masks as well.  As I wanted to reward them for excellent behavior, I threw each of them a decent sized flake of hay so they wouldn't be so upset with the fact I cut their free time short.

I am SO happy my blunder didn't turn out worse.  They could have been GONE given they were outside for up to 5 hours and they didn't go anywhere.  I guess life must not be that bad here after all right?!?  Given the choice of freedom, they will gladly stick around.  I love my awesome horses.

Updates

So much has happened since our last show but things have been so busy I haven't had time to write them down.  So, as a result, here are some of the quick updates!  Mia had her 2nd ever trail ride and she did really well.  She required the bravery of the App to to first under an overpass and again to go over a bridge but she followed quite sanely and didn't lose her marbles.  Yay!  It is very obvious Mia is still super green, she probably walked 30% more than the App did because she couldn't walk a straight line to save herself.  To the left, to the right, to the left, to the middle, to the left, to the right, to the middle, to the right, she hasn't gotten it quite figured out yet but she did so well.  Very impressed!

Mia has had some pretty decent dressage days and things were looking really good for our first show on the 29th!  She still refuses to be 100% consistent in the contact but her tempo is 100% better than it was in January.  After giving me a couple of really bad rides containing canter transitions, she has now given me 2 rides with nice soft transitions that don't involve leaping, running or extreme leaning.  She still has a lot of problem keeping herself upright in the canter, she leans very heavily to the inside of the circles with a nice, low dropped shoulder but we are working on it.  I am tentatively planning on bringing her to a show on the 29th however she is currently lame on both front feet.  I think it is due to needing a trim (which is tonight), her toes were VERY long and then it all chipped off in a self trim during some road rides and I think she bruised her soles.  If she isn't sound by Friday I will not send my registration in, we will see.

TWH is doing really well, we went on a 2.5 hour trail ride last weekend and he was awesome.  We went through water that went up to his belly and over a bridge that ran over water.  We also got lost and ended up on a deer path for over 30 minutes in thick, brushy woods.  Despite being thwacked and assaulted by various limbs and leaves he was great, didn't balk or back down and went through heavy underbrush like a champ.  He is such a good horse!  His next show won't be until August so while I am riding some dressage with him, I am giving him some R&R.  No sense in beating him up any more than needed since I am not planning on riding at rated shows.

App is also doing quite well, back in September he had a huge abscess in his left front that took a month to blow out.  As it grew down, a nice 1.5 inch hole showed the history of it.  This past trim cycle started to show it's extreme weakness and finally during one of our trail rides, the one with Mia actually, the hoof self trimmed enough that the piece just broke off.  It is actually for the best because his hoof was starting to split from the stress of the crack, now it isn't splitting and is just really ugly.  Tonight the farrier should clean it up and he should be good to go.  I rode the App on the 3 mile loop last night and he did really well!  He can be bi-polar and is either really, really good or really, really bad lol.  RB4 came and didn't want to fight with anyone so I put her on TWH and I rode the App, her loss as the App decided to be really good!  We trotted and even cantered and the App just motored along.  He was a little strong in the canter, but nothing I wouldn't have expected anyway.  It was nice riding him again, with 3 horses I just don't have the time to ride him like I would prefer.

Nothing too big is going on for the next couple of weeks of the dressage show for Mia doesn't work out, just some really nice rest and relaxation as we get ready to enjoy summer.  I am looking forward to not going at 100% for a while!

TWH's second ever Novice horse trial Part 2

I watched the Training level riders before handing TWH over to RB4 to do a quick course walk during the break.  The course was big, at least double the size of our last stadium course, there wasn't any tight jumps here!  The only real question was jumps 3/4/5, after 3 there was a 90 degree turn to 4 which was a sharp 90 degree turn to 5ab which was set as a 3 stride.  Eh, nothing we haven't done before!

We watched horse after horse and almost everyone took a rail.  Several took 2-3 rails.  It was odd since it wasn't that technical of a course, but it started to make me feel better about my chances!  When our time came, we hopped in the arena and went around the course.  TWH still isn't meeting the fences where I would like him so we didn't have may "pretty" jumps but they were all solidly functional.  We went  very well through 3/4/5ab, went to 6 through a bending line to 7 and came to 8.  I set him up and he knocked a pole down.  I gave him a very aggressive kick as we made it to 9 and completed the course.  I have NO idea why the heck he took it down.  I set him up, I was off of his face, I stayed off of him over the jump, he was a little forward but not enough I would have expected a rail.  I still don't know why he took it down, I was a little disappointed.  My TWH always goes double clear when the chips are on the table.  This is the first time he has taken a rail down in stadium, I guess we need to work on stadium more!

We meandered down to the start of XC and stood around until we were next, I didn't want to get him too tired!  At fence one TWH needed a good solid kick to remind him that we were NOT going to jump these dang jumps at a standstill AGAIN and then he went pretty nicely into cruise control.  Jumps 2 and 3 sailed by, jump 4 he was sticky at but made it over.  5 was into a new water obstacle, he sucked behind my leg but went in (YAY!!!  Water doesn't seem to be an issue anymore) but he didn't have much impulsion over jump 6 which was a jump out of the water so I don't have a good picture of it.  At least he did it!  7 was easy, 8/9 was a bending 2 stride, 10 sailed by.  11 was a ditch, you know how much he "loves" ditches right?  Thankfully we had schooled it over Memorial day weekend so I didn't expect any issues.  We went right up to it before he came to a dead stop and leaped over it.  I totally wasn't expecting it and got left WAY behind, grabbed mane and clung to his neck, I came really close to coming off!  Damn horse and his damn ditches.  I think I fix the issue and it pops back up again!  At least I didn't hurt my finger again so at least I had that little win.  After getting myself back together I checked my time and was doing well so I kicked him back into a canter and went over 12.

At fence 13 I was on autopilot and a stride away from the jump I realized I was jumping the wrong jump.  O. M. G!!!!!!  We ended up jumping the beginner novice jump instead of the novice jump!!  I circled around the jump judge and said "We never presented at the fence, did I incur a refusal?"  "She said no so I jumped the novice fence and went to 14/15.  16 was a drop to a 2 stride, I had him trot down the drop and he was fine, 17 and 18 were easy peasy.  I was SO happy that I had been working on our conditioning, we made the course in 5:20 vs the optimum of 5:55 but he actually had some gas left in the tank and I wasn't ready to die.  WIN!

Walking back, I couldn't BELIEVE I jumped the wrong jump.  What a stupid mistake, I was pretty sure we could jump a lower level fence but wasn't 100% sure.  We made it back to the trailer and hung out for our results.  And hung out.  And waited.  And waited.  Finally 1.5 hours after cross country they posted the results for review, I excitedly went over to see where we were at.  After stadium we had moved up to 9th!!  But it showed we were eliminated during cross country!!  What??? NOO!!!!  I found the Technical Delegate and asked why, they said they had it marked down that I had jumped the novice jump twice.  I explained that I had jumped the BN jump and then the Novice jump so asked to appeal the decision.  It took forever before they came back and said they would award it to me, the jump judge said the story made sense with how my reaction was, the jump judge wasn't 100% certain which jump I had jumped first.  Yay!!  A half hour later they finally posted the results, after a paltry 11th place we moved up to 5th!!!  Not only that, if TWH HAD NOT pulled the rail in stadium?  We would have gotten 2nd.  SECOND!!

I am very proud of our accomplishment, I think this show was a pretty good test of what we learned at our last show and I think we passed.  Other than TWH's opps in stadium and my opps at fence 13, the entire show went very well.  I am very glad that TWH is willingly going into strange water without hesitation and am a little bummed that he still thinks he needs to stop before he goes over a ditch.  I am glad that our conditioning allowed us to finish cross country with a little gas in a tank for both of us.  Our next show may not be until August, however Mia may be going to her first show at the end of June.  Nothing like a little rest and relaxation!